Is He Still a Clip Off the Old Block?

The Clipper blues, they never end?

Former Clipper Rodney Rogers left and became the NBA’s sixth man of the year, but it’s over. He was great against the Spurs, scoring 18 points a game, but he went into Game 3 of this series, averaging 7.5 and shooting 25%.

Of course, those first two games were in Los Angeles, near the Sports Arena.

“Any time he goes to L.A., there have to be bad memories for him,” said Jason Kidd, helpfully. “Remember, he has not been in this [Suns’] atmosphere for a while. He was stuck in jail while he was a Clipper.”

Rogers is out of jail now but having a problem with the Lakers’ Robert Horry. At 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, Rogers is a tough cover, because he can post up smaller players and take bigger ones outside and hit three-pointers over him.

However, Horry is quick enough to stay close to him outside, and tall enough, at 6-10, to contest his shots inside.

“It ain’t nothing they’re doing to me,” Roger said before Game 3. “It wasn’t being in Los Angeles. Those Clipper days are dead and gone. . . . Horry ain’t a pain to me. I’m getting decent looks. I’ve just just got to make shots.”

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Former Laker Corie Blount, who attended Monrovia High, says he has forsworn his roots, for the duration of this series, anyway.

“Right now, I don’t associate with L.A.,” said Blount, laughing. “This is the only time I don’t like L.A.”

Blount used to guard Shaquille O’Neal in practice. Not that it was any different than what is happening in this series.

“He dominated practice too,” Blount said. “We had bigger guys, Elden [Campbell] and Sean [Rooks]. If Elden wasn’t guarding him, my boy, Rooks--it just wasn’t working right. So I used to guard him.”