Foul Play Does in Clippers

Pepsi Center, Staples Center, Rec Center. It doesn’t particularly matter where basketball teams play their games. Or at what level they’re competing. They must still make shots and smart plays at critical moments if they hope to win.

The Clippers didn’t do enough of either Friday, which helped to explain their 96-93 loss to the Denver Nuggets in front of 14,187 at the Pepsi Center.

This stuff should be obvious by now to the Clippers, who continue to make the least of their opportunities to win away from Staples Center. Friday’s loss was their fifth in as many games on the road and their seventh in a row in Denver.

Shooting bricks to start the game didn’t help.

Instead of jumping on the Nuggets, who had lost four in a row before Friday, the Clippers got jumped on. Making four of 23 shots (17.4%) in the first quarter will do that to a team. The Clippers were fortunate that the Nuggets made only eight of 25 (32%) in the first 12 minutes.

Remarkably, the Clippers trailed by only 24-14.

“We ended up playing well,” Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry would say at game’s end.

He was correct, but only to a certain extent. The Clippers played superbly for long stretches, but they also played miserably for significant portions of the game.

The Clippers built a 74-66 lead with 9:36 left, but gave it all back a little more than two minutes later--trailing by 78-76 after Avery Johnson’s layup for Denver. The Clippers kept it close late, only to falter in the closing seconds.

Eric Piatkowski was called for an offensive foul, trying to lean into Denver’s Raef LaFrentz to get off a shot that could have given the Clippers a 93-92 lead with 17.6 seconds left.

The call was debatable, but why Piatkowski felt the need to force his shot was not open to discussion. He had plenty of time after gaining possession after the Clippers rebounded their miss. The smart play in that scenario was to get the ball to point guard Jeff McInnis, call a timeout and set up a play for the go-ahead basket.

Instead, the Clippers were forced to foul Denver point guard Nick Van Exel, who made two free throws for a 94-91 Nugget lead. Lamar Odom’s three-point try was off the mark at the other end. LaFrentz made two more free throws for the Nuggets.

“When you’re on the road, you need to be up on a team by eight or 10 points, so stuff like that doesn’t happen,” Piatkowski said. “We shouldn’t have been in that situation. We were ahead and we should have been pulling away. Instead, it’s tight down the stretch and you don’t know what to expect.”

Asked about the pivotal charging call against him, Piatkowski said, “I looked up and I said, ‘Whoa.’ It was all I could say. I walked to the other end of the floor in disbelief.... At the end of a game, when a ref makes a call like that, he doesn’t even want to look at you.”

Referee Jim Clark made the call against Piatkowski, but moments earlier, he had whistled Odom for hacking Van Exel. The plays were similar, with each shooter leaning into the defender, but the defender initiating contact.

No question, Piatkowski, scoreless in 19 minutes, hoped Clark would send him to the line. Piatkowski, fearful of a fine for criticizing Clark, didn’t wish to speak further about the play. He was fined $5,000 by the league Nov. 20 for playing with his shorts too long.

Elton Brand spoke up, however.

“I think there was some inconsistency with the calls,” he said. “Nick Van Exel made the same move [and got the call from Clark]. ‘Pike’ didn’t even leave his feet. It can’t be a no-call. I guess they perceived it to be an offensive foul.”

Gentry, who was fined $7,500 for barking at referees after the Clippers’ loss Nov. 3 against the Golden State Warriors, didn’t want to get into the call. He did say, “We had opportunities to win. On the road, you play to have an opportunity to win down the stretch.”

The ending overshadowed another standout game for Clipper reserve guard Quentin Richardson, who matched his career best with 26 points. He made 10 of 16 shots, including four of four from behind the three-point arc. Richardson has made eight consecutive three-pointers, including four in a row in the fourth quarter Wednesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.