Clippers Benched By Wizards in Latest Loss

The Clippers had an opportunity Monday night to do something the Lakers could not do this season--sweep the Washington Wizards.

But with rookie Lamar Odom out because of an injured right calf, the Clippers played more like a hurt team than an inspired one and lost to the Wizards, 105-93, before an announced crowd of 11,443 at Staples Center.

Veteran guard Mitch Richmond led Washington with 21 points and power forward Juwan Howard added 20 for the Wizards, who had six players score more than 11 points, outscored the Clipper bench, 61-24, and won their third consecutive game, avenging a nine-point November loss.

Tyrone Nesby had 20 points and eight rebounds for the Clippers (14-54), who have lost four in a row but maintain a slight edge over the Chicago Bulls (13-53) to avoid having the league’s worst record.

“The whole key to everything was not having Lamar,” interim Coach Jim Todd said about Odom, who is listed as day to day. “We’ve done a lot with him at the point in trying to create certain situations and matchups for us. . . . With him being a scratch at game time . . .that kind of deflated us.”

Whereas the Wizards had to play over their heads to end the Lakers’ 19-game winning streak last week, their reserves did most of the damage against the Clippers, who dropped to 5-36 since Dec. 26, 1999.

The Clippers got off to their customary fast start at home, taking a 23-15 lead late in the first quarter. With Odom out, swingmen Eric Piatkowski and Nesby did well early keeping the ball moving in the Clippers’ halfcourt offense.

After Washington removed starting point guard Rod Strickland and power forward Juwan Howard, the Wizards took over behind bench players Chris Whitney, Don Reid, Aaron Williams and Tracy Murray.

“We were playing hard and the flow was going our way,” said Murray, who finished with 15 points, including three three-point baskets.

“If things weren’t, we would have come out and sat. [Interim] Coach [Darrell] Walker is fair. . . . and that’s all you can ask for. We’re just trying to win ball games.”

The Clippers held a 31-28 lead early in the second quarter when Washington began to fastbreak at will. Getting all of their points from reserves, the Wizards ran off 17 in a row to take a commanding 45-31 lead.

“We had a nice lead early but then we gave up a couple of easy ones and they were right back into the game,” Todd said. “We dug too deep of a hole for ourselves,”

The rest of the first half, the Clippers played Washington even but they went into intermission on a downer after Murray and Williams combined for two key baskets in the final minute of the second quarter to give the Wizards a 55-39 lead.

Any hope for an early comeback to start the second half was crushed by the hot shooting of Richmond, who got into an offensive flow after a quiet first two quarters.

Richmond scored 11 of Washington’s first 15 points of the second half and the Clippers trailed by double figures for much of the third quarter before they rallied behind backups Jeff McInnis and Pete Chilcutt, two players who were not with the team at the start of the season.

The Clippers cut Washington’s lead to 78-70 at the start of the fourth quarter but couldn’t stop the Wizards’ balanced attack.

But the Clippers didn’t lose hope until power forward Maurice Taylor, who had 15 points and 11 rebounds, left the game with about five minutes remaining because of a right ankle sprain.