Odom Craft Work Is Put on Display

Let the good times roll.

It may have been only one game but for the Clippers, any time you can blow out an opponent, it’s more than simply a good win. Which explains why there were so many smiling faces in the team’s locker room after their easy 106-83 victory over the Golden State Warriors Wednesday night before an announced 10,130 at Staples Center.

“We’ve been playing hard and I’ve been happy with the effort the guys have been playing with, but all of those have kind of come as losses,” Coach Alvin Gentry said of the Clippers, who ended a five-game losing streak to improve to 5-11.

“But to play hard and have something tangible like a win is really good. It doesn’t matter who it is against. We’ll take a win against [Cal State] Northridge.”

With rookie Quentin Richardson starting at shooting guard for the first time, the Clippers enjoyed their largest margin of victory since they defeated the Utah Jazz by 26 points on March 27, 1999.

Richardson finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, but the catalyst for the Clippers was Lamar Odom, who recorded his first triple double of the season and fourth of his career. Odom had 16 points, tied a career-high with 12 assists and added 11 rebounds and three steals.

“Lamar plays great every night,” said Jeff McInnis, who had 18 points, eight assists and no turnovers. “He can dominate a game without shooting the ball one time and that’s always a good thing.”

Five players scored in double figures for the Clippers, who shot 51.9% from the field and had a season-high 26 assists. The Clippers surpassed their previous season best of 21 assists with 4:26 remaining in the third quarter.

“Everyone played totally unselfish,” Gentry said. “Moving the basketball and getting everyone involved is how we want to play.”

The Clippers played with confidence from the start.

Knowing they had defeated the Warriors in three of their four meetings last season, the Clippers ran their offense with efficiency throughout the first quarter. They made nine of their first 11 shots and had assists on seven of their baskets, not the type of ball movement normally associated with the Clippers.

But it wasn’t an illusion. It didn’t matter if it was Odom finding Derek Strong for a mid-range jump shot or McInnis passing underneath to Michael Olowokandi, the Clippers seemed to make the right play every time they had the ball.

Golden State, which trailed throughout, had a difficult time finding the basket against an aggressive Clipper defense. The Warriors made only eight of 21 shots in the first quarter and the Clippers used their own 65% shooting to take a 29-16 lead.

The Clippers, however, have had big leads before and ended up losing. They were determined not to have that happen Wednesday and they sustained their strong play in the second quarter.

Leading the charge was rookie Darius Miles, who came off the bench to score nine points in the quarter, and the Clippers extended their lead to 54-39 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Golden State tried to mount a comeback behind the shooting of Antawn Jamison, who finished with a game-high 24 points. The Warriors cut the Clippers’ lead, which stood at 20 points in the first half, to 63-53 midway through the period before Odom and McInnis got the Clippers back in the flow.

With those two combining for 14 points in the third quarter, the Clippers found themselves back up by 16 points when Strong knocked down a buzzer-beating jump shot, and they never looked back.

“This was a good win for us because we came out and played hard,” McInnis said. “Everything just worked out for us and we needed this.”