It’s a Grisly Effort for Clippers

With Maurice Taylor and Brian Skinner joining an already crowded injured list, the Clippers had only eight players available and most of them played as if they were sick Thursday night against the Vancouver Grizzlies.

The Clippers stumbled into the All-Star break with a dismal effort in a 112-90 defeat against the Grizzlies before 9,895 at Staples Center.

For rookie Lamar Odom, the break could not come fast enough. Against Vancouver, Odom played 35 minutes and had seven points, seven assists and seven rebounds.

“I don’t even know what to say, that’s how I feel,” Odom said. “Basketball is numbing me right now. . . . It’s more of a mixture of things right now. It’s making me real bitter. Hopefully, from here it can get better.

“As far as team-wise, I think we’ve experienced the worst. I am not talking as far as talent. . . . I’m hoping we played our worst and we’ve gotten it behind us.”

Odom’s frustration hit a high mark when he was removed from the game by Coach Jim Todd in the fourth quarter after he punched the basketball.

“I didn’t want him to do something he may be sorry for later,” Todd said. “He’s young and he’s getting frustrated. . . . He’s the new gun in town, but it is going to take a while before he gets the calls.

“We’re asking him to do a lot. He played all five positions for us tonight.”

The Clippers (11-38) have lost six games in a row and 20 of their last 22. Against Vancouver (14-34), nothing seemed to go right, with the lone bright spot being shooting guard Derek Anderson’s 29 points and five rebounds.

Vancouver shooting guard Michael Dickerson is a good young player, but the Clippers made him look like the next Michael Jordan.

Dickerson had a field day in scoring a career-high 40 points, making 17 of 27 shots. He drove baseline for layups. He finished fastbreaks with dunks. He made jump shots when open and basically did anything he wanted against the Clippers.

Dickerson’s point total fell one shy of Vancouver’s franchise record held by center Bryant Reeves.

The sad part for the Clippers is their weak performance came one night after leaving everything they had on the floor in a tough loss at Portland. Well, they apparently did give everything they had, based on their play against Vancouver.

Taylor did not play because of a sprained right hand and Skinner sat out because of nagging pain in his left ankle. Their absence left veteran Anthony Avent to make his first start of the season at power forward and he did not have one of his better games.

Avent, in his sixth season in the league, had three fouls less than five minutes into the game and sat on the bench the rest of the half. He finished with four points and five rebounds in 18 minutes.

As they did Wednesday at Portland, the Clippers got off to a strong start. They jumped out to an 11-2 lead before the Grizzlies knew what hit them.

But Vancouver, which missed six of its first seven shots, did not have to wait long before the Clippers’ offense fell back to earth.

The Grizzlies blitzed the Clippers with a 20-4 run and never looked back.

Vancouver led by 12 points at halftime and 15 after three quarters. The final 12 minutes was garbage time, Clipper-style.

Odom’s teammates have noticed a change in him lately.

“It’s something he has to go through,” Anderson said. “It’s a good thing the break is coming for [Odom] right now, but not for the team. We need to stop [losing] and get ourselves together. We need more time to practice and we don’t have a lot left. . . . [Todd] and the coaching staff is doing a great job teaching, and that’s the only way you are going to win in this league.”

Said Todd: “We only had eight guys out there tonight, and we were afraid of having a letdown. We started out fairly well but just ran out of gas.”