There’s No Shot for the Clippers

Maybe it was too much to ask for the Clippers to win two in a row.

After ending a 13-game losing streak in their previous game against Atlanta, the Clippers returned to their self-destructive ways Monday with a feeble effort in a 96-77 loss to the Houston Rockets before 12,940 at Staples Center.

The Clippers (12-46) set a franchise-record low by making only 26.8% of their field-goal attempts against the Rockets, with their starters shooting only 13 for 53. It got so bad for power forward Maurice Taylor, who was four for 17 from the floor, he was booed every time he touched the ball in the second half.

“It just shows how people are,” Taylor said of the fans. “It’s no sweat off my back. I was just having a bad game. In the three years I’ve been here, I think I’ve been the team’s most consistent player.”

Houston (22-35), which played without center Hakeem Olajuwon, sidelined by a virus, made 13 three-point baskets and improved to 3-0 against the Clippers this season.

Guard Cuttino Mobley scored 21 points off the bench to lead the Rockets’ reserves, who scored a combined 63 points. Houston, which shot only 37.8% from the floor, did not have a starter score more than eight points.

For small forward Tyrone Nesby, the Clippers’ 28th defeat in their last 31 games was nothing new. Just Clipper basketball at its worse.

“We’ve been struggling,” said Nesby, who made his 18th start of the season and had 12 points and three rebounds against Houston.

“But with any franchise. A team can become good if they keep their guys. I’m just going to be real. It’s tough [to lose like the Clippers have] and then say how we’re going to be in the future and we don’t know who is going to be here.”

It’s a relatively safe bet that Nesby will be around for a while, especially after being given a three-year, $8.9-million contract by the Clippers last summer.

As a former Continental Basketball Assn. player out of Nevada Las Vegas, Nesby not only made the Clippers as an undrafted free-agent rookie but ended last season as a starter at small forward.

Nesby then found out how high his stock was around the league when the San Antonio Spurs signed him to an offer sheet only to have the Clippers match it. Nesby often wonders about that when he looks at the NBA standings.

“I do think about it, I’m not going to lie,” said Nesby about playing for the defending league champions instead of the Clippers this season. “But I figure this is only going to make me a lot stronger. It’s going to make me appreciate when we do start to win.”

Last season, Nesby burst on the NBA scene by averaging 10.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.54 steals. He went from a camp hopeful to a main cog for the Clippers in the lockout-shortened season.

This season, however, Nesby has been up-and-down as he has had to adjust to a reserve role and a part-time starter. He entered Monday’s game, averaging 12 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.14 steals.

Yet he considers himself a much better player as a starter because he’s able to get into the flow of the game earlier. But against Houston, Nesby struggled along with the rest of his teammates as the Rockets held a 22-point lead at halftime.

“We have [strength and conditioning coach] Johnny Doyle keep track of our shots behind our bench,” interim Coach Jim Todd said. “We looked at the stats after the end of the first quarter, at the half and we were getting great shots from around the paint. . . . Unfortunately, we weren’t making them and they were getting way too many threes.”

In the second half, the Clippers closed within 10 points late in the third quarter but that was as close as they would get.

Their shooting didn’t help. Their field-goal percentage record broke their previous low of 29.3% against the Lakers on Feb. 26, 1999.

With only 24 games remaining, Nesby realizes this season is all but over.

“Most teams win championships when they have chemistry from being together,” Nesby said.