Defending Odom Becomes Small Task for Opponents

Getting Lamar Odom more involved in the offense ranks high on Clipper interim Coach Jim Todd’s things-to-do list.

After an impressive start to his rookie season, Odom’s play has been up and down the last couple of weeks and he’s coming off a four-point, two-rebound effort in a 10-point loss to the Chicago Bulls on Sunday.

The Bulls followed a trend of putting a smaller but more physical player on Odom. In beating the Clippers on Saturday, Dallas had success in the second half with 6-foot-2 point guard Erick Strickland on Odom and the Bulls started the game with 6-1 Randy Brown on him.

“The strategy worked,” Chicago Coach Tim Floyd said. “Lamar never really got into the game. He likes to drive to the basket a lot. But Randy did a good job on him.”

Todd understands the problem.

“We have to get more touches for Lamar,” he said. “We don’t want to just come out and call people’s numbers all day long. We don’t want to run a certain play for an individual and everybody else just stands around. That is what we are trying to get away from.

“But at the same time, we want the leading scorers taking the most shots, getting the most points. Hopefully, your role players will fill in the rest of points along the way. Supporting cast has to be able to step up.”

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After losing his first two games since taking over for Chris Ford, Todd put the Clippers through a defensive practice Monday afternoon at Staples Center.

As soon as the players walked onto the court, they began sliding drills. Ninety minutes later, the Clippers were still working on defense.

“We really didn’t do anything offensively, except running some offense for the defense to work on,” Todd said. “I just wanted us to think defense. This is what everyone is talking about and I don’t think everyone is wrong. Defense is a problem for us.”

Todd said he does not have any immediate plans of scrapping his plan to use 12 men because of the poor conditioning of some players.

“I’m trying to get everyone in shape to run a little bit more but, unfortunately, sometimes you are only able to do it in games,” Todd said. “A lot of guys are banged up and hurt and not able to go full in order to be ready to play the next night.”

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Swingman Tyrone Nesby was excused from practice for personal reasons but is expected to rejoin the team today.