Team Can’t Take Advantage of Absences of Carter, Oakley

Circle Jan. 2 on the calendar because when the Toronto Raptors play the Clippers at Staples Center, it certainly will not be your ordinary NBA regular-season game.

Not after the Clippers self-destructed in the final minutes of regulation and then fell apart in overtime to lose, 104-95, to the Raptors Friday night at Air Canada Centre.

“We played ourselves into a loss,” said Lamar Odom, who had 17 points, nine rebounds, six blocked shots and five assists. “This was a game we had but we didn’t come through when we were supposed to. We gave them this one.”

With Vince Carter not in uniform because of a thigh injury, and Charles Oakley not in the arena because of a suspension for punching Clipper Jeff McInnis earlier in the day, the Raptors were primed for defeat.

But the Clippers, who dominated the first 43 minutes Friday, showed their inexperience down the stretch and their lack of composure cost them. Toronto erased a 91-82 deficit in the final 1:22 of regulation to send the game into overtime and then rode the play of point guard Mark Jackson to stretch its winning streak over the Clippers to four games.

Alvin Williams, who started in place of Carter, scored a rebound basket and a three-point basket with 1.9 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. But for the Clippers, Williams should never have had a chance to be a hero.

Leading, 93-90, with 11.4 seconds left in the fourth quarter, all the Clippers had to do was foul and force Toronto into shooting two free throws. But after Odom deflected the ball from Jackson out of bounds, Clipper rookie Quentin Richardson made a mental error.

Instead of fouling Williams, Richardson played him straight and the Raptor made him pay by knocking down his only three-pointer of the game.

“I was supposed to foul him as soon as he caught the ball,” said Richardson, who led the Clippers in scoring with 20 points in his second consecutive start as shooting guard.

“But after their first possession and they got the ball out of bounds again, it completely slipped my mind. I was thinking about just guarding him when I should have been fouling. It’s something I have to learn from.”

Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry was not disappointed in his team’s effort, or with Richardson’s late-game mistake.

“Quentin Richardson is going to be a very good player . . . he didn’t make the foul we wanted him to make but big deal,” Gentry said. “He also had 20 points and eight rebounds for us and we would have never been where we were if it hadn’t been for him.”

The Clippers still had a chance to win in regulation but Eric Piatkowksi’s desperation three-point attempt missed. In overtime, it was all Toronto, which held the Clippers without a field goal.

“It was an unbelievably devastating loss for us. It hurts but when you’re a young team, you experience things like that,” Gentry said of the Clippers, who dropped to 5-12 and still have five games to play on their current six-game trip. “I don’t think we got complacent. . . . We just didn’t make the plays. We made some young mistakes that we have to get better at.”

Jackson said the Clippers will improve . . . in time.

“The reason why we were able to keep our composure in a situation like this is because we’ve been through it. You can’t buy experience. We’ve been through wars and it’s something a lot of guys on this team know what to do in.”

If the Clippers really wanted to know why they lost, all they have to do is look at their free-throw shooting. The Clippers attempted 34 and made only 15. In the NBA, 47.1% from the line is not going to win games.

“That’s a factor, but if you miss 19 free throws in an overtime game, that goes to show you how well we played,” Gentry said. “All we have to do is step to the line and make our free throws. It leads up to there. It’s not at the end.”

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McInnis said it’s a matter of attitude with the Clippers, who are starting to realize that they do not just have potential but can win games now.

“We’re playing trying not to lose instead of playing to win games,” McInnis said. “We get the lead and then we do something not too wise. We may be up nine or 10 points and then someone goes and throws up a bad shot. Then we go to the line and consistently miss free throws. We work on them so much in practice, I can’t understand why we miss them in games. It’s frustrating.”

But if there is a silver lining with their poor shooting at the line, it’s how close they have played some of the better teams in the league.

“We have to try and look at our free throws as a bright spot,” Richardson said. “We are in a lot of games and right there ready to win without us shooting so well. Definitely, once we start shooting better from the line, we’ll have a better chance to win.”