Clippers Falter Again in Stretch

Any way you look at it, it’s hard to consider the Clippers a good team, because good teams win games such as the one they lost Monday night to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Fresh off an impressive home victory over Indiana two days earlier, the Clippers had a golden opportunity to win their second in a row but instead folded down the stretch to lose, 111-106, to an unimpressive Cleveland team before 11,475 at Gund Arena.

In his first game against his former team, Clipper shooting guard Derek Anderson had a team-high 29 points, but he missed a fastbreak layup with 38 seconds remaining. Point guard Troy Hudson, who had six of his 14 points in the final two minutes, then missed a layup with seven seconds left and Cleveland took control of the game.

Guard Bob Sura gave the Cavaliers a four-point lead seconds after Anderson’s shot rolled off the rim when he made an open jumper while Anderson struggled to get back on defense, having re-injured his left ankle on his layup attempt over Mark Bryant.

With Cleveland ahead by three points, Sura sealed the victory when he rebounded Hudson’s miss and made two free throws with 6.4 seconds remaining to give the Cavaliers their third consecutive victory and eighth in a row over the Clippers.

Sura and former Clipper Lamond Murray led Cleveland with 20 points each and rookie Andre Miller came off the bench to score 18.

For Anderson, traded to the Clippers last summer along with Johnny Newman for Murray, it was a bittersweet return to the city where he began his NBA career three years ago.

“It was something that had to be done and I’m glad it’s over,” said Anderson,who scored 21 points in the second half and also had five assists and five rebounds in 43 minutes. “I had a good game but we lost and that’s the bottom line.”

The Clippers simply did not play well defensively in the paint and the Cavaliers broke them down with penetration all night. The Clippers’ starting front line of center Michael Olowokandi, power forward Maurice Taylor and small forward Lamar Odom combined for 16 fouls, with Odom fouling out for a league-leading eighth time this season.

“They were able to get deep, deep post on us,” Clipper Coach Chris Ford said of his team, which is 3-14 on the road.

“You have to make teams work for baskets. Giving up [81] points combined in the paint and in transition will not get it done. That’s an awful lot of points to overcome.”

It also did not help that Olowokandi and Taylor teamed to score only 11 points and made only five of 20 shots, while playing most of the game in foul trouble.

After putting together his best game as a pro with 24 points and 17 rebounds against the Pacers on Saturday, Olowokandi scored only five points and had only five rebounds to go with three turnovers in 28 minutes.

Taylor, who averaged 24.6 points in his previous six games, scored only six points on three-for-14 shooting and had six rebounds and four turnovers.

The Clippers started the game shooting poorly, missing 12 of their first 16 shots while falling behind by 12 points three minutes into the first quarter. They continued to miss easy shots the rest of the first half but they only trailed at halftime, 49-47, largely because of Odom, who had 20 points and three three-pointers in the first half.

“I am always confident with my shooting ability and they were open looks,” said Odom, who finished with 28 points.

“The only thing that probably kept us in the ballgame was my scoring.”

Anderson scored 13 points in the first six minutes of the third quarter, when the Clippers shot 73.7% in the period to take an 83-77 lead to start the fourth.

Cleveland, however, outscored the Clippers, 34-21, over the final 12 minutes and reminded Los Angeles once again that an NBA game is 48 minutes, not 24.