On Spur of Moment, Clippers Lose Again

The last time the Clippers defeated the San Antonio Spurs, George W. Bush had not even completed his first term as governor of Texas and was still better known as a baseball owner than politician.

The date was Dec. 4, 1997, and the Spurs have owned the Clippers ever since.

Before their ninth sellout crowd of the season, the Clippers suffered their 14th consecutive defeat against the Spurs on Saturday night, losing, 93-83, in front of 18,964 at Staples Center.

With Lamar Odom sidelined because of a bruised tailbone suffered against the Milwaukee Bucks the night before, the Clippers decided not to double-team the Spurs’ twin towers, Tim Duncan and David Robinson, and the Clippers paid the price.

“What we did really didn’t make any sense,” said Clipper center Michael Olowokandi, who had one point, one rebound and four fouls in 20 minutes. “We don’t have any Tim Duncans on our team and we were getting double-teamed, while he wasn’t getting double-teamed and he’s a league MVP [candidate].”

Duncan had another dominant game with 32 points, 18 rebounds, six assists and two blocked shots. He was at his best when the Spurs needed him the most, scoring their first 11 points of the fourth quarter after the Clippers had cut a 20-point deficit to nine.

“Right now we are not ready to play a team [like San Antonio],” Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry said. “To me, that’s not a negative, that’s just a fact. They have all veteran guys . . . and they have Tim Duncan.”

San Antonio made 48.6% of its shots and held the Clippers to 39.3% shooting. Robinson finished with 20 points and seven rebounds while former Clipper Derek Anderson added 13 points for the Spurs, who improved to 38-5 in games decided by 10 points or more.

Seldom-used reserve power forward Derek Strong led the Clippers with 17 points and six rebounds in 36 minutes. Corey Maggette, who started at small forward in place of Odom, finished with 15 points and a career-high 15 rebounds, and point guard Jeff McInnis added 15 points and five assists.

In dropping to 1-11 in games without Odom over the last two seasons, the Clippers never controlled the flow of the game. Power forward Cherokee Parks joined Odom on the sideline two minutes into the game after suffering an eye injury and the Clippers’ other big men found themselves in early foul trouble trying to slow down Duncan and Robinson inside.

“The [Clippers] are aggressive and physical on defense,” San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich said. “They didn’t want to give up [three-pointers] so they played us straight up and most teams don’t do that.”

The Clippers missed 10 of their first 11 shots and made only 20.8% in the first quarter, which ended with them trailing by 17 points. Things didn’t get too much better for the Clippers in the second quarter and they trailed by 13 at halftime.

In the second half, the Clippers hung tough behind Strong, who hadn’t played in 19 games, and McInnis and Maggette, who combined for 23 points in the second half.

“I was very surprised to get in because I had basically counted the season over with for me, as far as playing time is concerned,” said Strong, who has played in only 28 games. “I thought [Gentry] would have gone with Brian [Skinner] once [Parks] went down.”

As a franchise, the Clippers have gone through more than their share of changes since they last defeated the Spurs. In the 40 months that have passed since they defeated San Antonio, 100-96, at the Sports Arena, owner Donald Sterling has had four coaches and the team has used 37 players. And their 66-208 record is nothing to be proud of.

But even without Odom in the lineup, the Clippers battled San Antonio to the end on a night they increased their season attendance to 561,137, a franchise record.