A Chance to Build a Different Streak

There are contrasting ways to look at the Clippers, who will play a rare afternoon game today against the New Jersey Nets at Continental Airlines Arena.

An optimist would say the Clippers could begin a four-game winning streak today with upcoming games against struggling Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago.

A pessimist would say the team has lost its last four games, including the first on its current seven-game trip.

“We have little things killing us every game,” guard Eric Piatkowski said. “We just have to get it all together. I don’t know if it is just finding the right rotation of guys or just playing better together. We have four games left on this trip and they are all winnable games.”

The Clippers haven’t played bad during their losing streak, which includes one-point losses at Golden State and Miami, but they have been burned the last two games by Darrell Armstrong and Allen Iverson. Today they face another dominant scoring guard in New Jersey’s Stephon Marbury.

“He has Iverson-type quickness but he’s a much bigger player,” Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry said about Marbury, who is currently tied for ninth in the NBA in scoring at 24.4 points a game.

Gentry has done a good job getting his players prepared, but has been reluctant to make adjustments in close games.

“I don’t agree that we have to make adjustments [during games]. We have to play the right way and start off games playing that way,” Gentry said. “If we do that, then we can make adjustments. We didn’t start off playing the right way against Philadelphia, that’s why we fell behind.”

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Years from now, Clipper point guard Jeff McInnis may be an answer to a trivia question: Who was the last most valuable player of the Continental Basketball Assn.?

With the CBA no longer in existence, McInnis is the reigning MVP after winning the award last season while playing for the Quad City Thunder.

“I never thought of that before,” McInnis said. “I’m a little sentimental about the league going under. It is the league that helped me get where I wanted to go. I feel bad for guys who are looking for a chance like I got. It’s a bad thing for players like me who are overlooked.

“I hope another league emerges where [the NBA] is able to pull guys from. There are a lot of players who just need an opportunity. There was a lot of talented players in the CBA.”

TODAY

at New Jersey,

10 a.m. PST

* Site--Continental Airlines Arena.

* Radio--KXTA (1150).

* Records--Clippers 16-37, Nets 17-37.

* Record vs. Nets--0-1.

* Update--The Clippers lost to New Jersey, 86-85, at Staples Center in November. Stephon Marbury has scored more than 30 points in 15 games.