Things Finally Get Technical for Gentry

After the Clippers picked up five technical fouls in their season-opening loss at Utah, Coach Alvin Gentry told his players to stop whining to officials because he would be the one to take the heat.

In the first quarter of Monday night’s loss to the Lakers, Gentry did just that. Following two questionable blocked shots by the Lakers that seemed to be goaltending, Gentry ripped into official Mike Mathis and picked up his first technical of the season.

“I’m not going to say anything about it because I’m not going to give my money to the NBA office,” Gentry said. “I just didn’t think that things were going our way but that wasn’t the reason why we lost. They are a great team. We played well in the first half but we have trouble scoring. We took good shots up to a point . . . But somehow we have to start making shots.”

The Clippers made only 38.5% of their field goals against the Lakers, the fourth consecutive game that they shot under 40% and the eighth time in 15 games this season.

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One player who had a rough second half with the game’s officiating was the Clippers’ Lamar Odom. He finished the first quarter without a foul and had only one at halftime. But in the third quarter, Odom was whistled for three fouls in seven minutes and was forced to the bench with the Clippers only down, 58-52.

“His fourth foul really hurt us because I thought he was getting on a roll . . . we went to him three straight times and he got baskets for us,” Gentry said.

When Odom did return to to start the fourth quarter, he didn’t stay on the floor long. He picked up a touch foul away from the ball and returned to the bench 12 seconds into the quarter with five fouls.

“When he goes out of the game, obviously we are not the same team,” Gentry said.

Odom finished with 16 points, five rebounds and five fouls in 35 minutes.