Clippers Miss Their Shot at Ruining Utah’s Start

The Clippers’ starters sure picked the wrong night to forget how to shoot.

Lamar Odom, Tyrone Nesby, Michael Olowokandi, Jeff McInnis and Darius Miles combined to make only eight of 40 field-goal attempts Wednesday night and their cold touch proved to be too much to overcome as the Utah Jazz remained undefeated with a 93-87 overtime victory before an announced crowd of 10,292 at Staples Center.

The Clippers had a chance to win in the final seconds of regulation, but Odom’s driving one-on-one effort missed.

In overtime, Utah relied on old faithful Karl Malone, who scored eight of his game-high 31 points, and John Stockton, who made a crushing three-pointer late in the extra period, to improve to 5-0. The Clippers, who dropped to 1-4, were led by Nesby, who scored 13 of his 19 points from the free throw line, and Corey Maggette, who scored 15 second-half points.

“I thought that we played a great defensive game. We hold them to 93 points in an overtime game and they shot 41%,” Coach Alvin Gentry said. “But we just never got into any kind of rhythm offensively. We couldn’t create anything nor could we make shots.”

Added Brian Skinner: “It was long hard fought battle. We’re becoming a good defensive team but our offensive execution needs work.”

For the second consecutive game, the Clippers started Odom at power forward in place of Skinner and opened with Miles at small forward and Nesby at shooting guard.

But unlike their tough loss to the Lakers on Sunday, where the small lineup created matchup problems, the Clippers didn’t have the same results against Utah. Olowokandi did not dominate Utah’s mediocre big men and both Odom and Miles struggled with their shooting and fouls most of the game.

Basically, the first half was a joke for the Clippers’ offense. Shots weren’t only missed, they were clanked. The biggest brickmaster for the Clippers had to be Olowokandi, who made his first field goal and then missed his next five with two of his attempts being rejected by Utah backup center Greg Ostertag, who will never be mistaken for Shaquille O’Neal.

The Clippers made only nine of 40 first-half field goals (22.5%) and if not for a stellar job at the free throw line, they would have been run out of Staples Center by the Jazz, which took a 41-34 lead into halftime.

After entering the game as the NBA’s worst free-throw shooting team, the Clippers stayed close to Utah because of their foul shooting. They made 14 of 14 from the line in the first half, with Nesby leading the way by making all seven of his attempts. Even Skinner, the team’s worst shooter from the line, made both of his attempts.

The Clippers started the second half with more energy than they had when they opened the game. But more spunk doesn’t mean a thing unless a team can knock down shots and the Clippers continued to struggle in this department in the third quarter until Gentry turned to Maggette.

After not playing against the Lakers two days before and sitting the entire first half against the Jazz, Maggette (playing on a sore left ankle) gave the Clippers a spark by making two open jumpers and then slamming home an alley-oop from Keyon Dooling.

Thanks to three-of-17 field goal shooting by the Jazz in the third quarter, the Clippers rallied to take a 59-58 lead into the final quarter when Dooling drove the lane for a two-hand dunk.

For most of the fourth quarter, the Clippers maintained their lead. But Utah refused to roll over. With Bryon Russell scoring five consecutive points, the Jazz cut the Clippers’ lead to 70-68 with 4:47 remaining in regulation. The teams exchanged baskets down the stretch and the Clippers were able to send the game into overtime on a rebound basket by Eric Piatkowski with 41 seconds left.

In overtime, it was all Malone, who scored most of his points from the perimeter.

“We kept our composure against them,” Gentry said. “The bottom line is when they needed him to, Karl Malone made all the big plays. That’s why the guy is a Hall of Fame player.”