Clippers Finally Make Themselves More at Home

In order for a team to be respected as a true force in the NBA, winning consistently at home is a must.

And the Clippers are starting to finally get that done in their second season at Staples Center.

With Lamar Odom registering his third triple double in his last five games, the Clippers made it four in a row and 10 out of 12 at home, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers, 104-97, Saturday night before 15,544.

The Clippers, 19-18 at home this season, didn’t exactly play one of their better games, but a win is a win, especially for a team that was 27-80 at home over the previous three seasons.

Odom had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Veteran guard Eric Piatkowski finished with a team-high 20 points and Corey Maggette added 18 in 23 minutes for the Clippers, who were able to complete a sweep over the Cavaliers for the first time in franchise history. The Clippers, who improved to 27-47, won by six points at Cleveland in February.

Point guard Andre Miller had 19 points and nine assists and former Clipper Lamond Murray had 18 points for the Cavaliers, who dropped to 26-47.

After losing by 10 points at Seattle the night before, the Clippers came out sluggish against the Cavaliers, who have lost 10 road games in a row. The Clippers struggled to find their offensive rhythm and allowed Cleveland to score easy baskets in the paint.

“As a young team, if we miss shots early, we have a tendency to start feeling sorry for ourselves and we lose our focus,” Coach Alvin Gentry said. “But when we are making shots, we seem to zero in and focus a lot more.

“We have to learn that if we are not shooting well, we have to focus more on our defense and try and come up with stops to get easy baskets in transition.”

In the second quarter, the Clippers did just that as their running game sparked a 12-4 run to close the half and give them a 50-42 lead at intermission. Reserves Corey Maggette and Quentin Richardson led the charge by combining for 18 points in the quarter.

In the second half, the Clippers turned to Jeff McInnis and Piatkowski, who teamed for 18 points in the third quarter and made key plays in the fourth. The Clippers led by as much as 12 points but weren’t able to put Cleveland away until the final seconds.

Before the season began, the Clippers said that if they played in the Eastern Conference, they would be playoff contenders. But with only one game remaining against teams from the East, that view has changed some.

“We played those teams in the East and we didn’t do too well against them,” Gentry said about the Clippers, who improved to 12-17 against Eastern Conference teams. “When you look at the quality teams, there are more in the West, but there are some very good teams in the East.

“The bottom line is, when you look at our record against the East, we didn’t play well against them. We got swept by Indiana, we got swept by Boston and we got swept by New Jersey. But I think we are playing much better right now than when we played against those teams.”

McInnis finished with 14 points and six assists and rookie Darius Miles added 11 points for the Clippers, who have four games remaining at Staples Center this season. Veteran Sean Rooks also had a solid game with 10 points and two key defensive rebounds down the stretch.