Odom’s Best Is Not Quite Good Enough for Clippers

The Clippers’ Lamar Odom and the New Jersey Nets’ Stephon Marbury may be friends off the court but the two New York City natives had an old fashion shootout against each other Sunday afternoon.

After a pretty quiet first half, Odom and Marbury hooked up in a can-you-top-this second half, exchanging one basket after another. But in the end, Marbury’s Nets earned an overtime victory because he got more help from his teammates.

Following a crucial missed free throw by the Clippers’ Eric Piatkowski, New Jersey forward Keith Van Horn sent the game into overtime with a last-second basket and then Marbury scored six of his 33 points in the extra period to give the Nets a 102-96 victory before 14,623 at Continental Airlines Arena.

Odom, who scored 23 points after halftime, finished with a career-high 34 points but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Clippers from dropping to 0-8 in overtime games this season.

Playing with many family and friends in attendance, Odom put on a show in the second half. After being limited to 11 points in the first half because of early foul trouble, Odom was unstoppable.

It didn’t matter if New Jersey assigned rookie Kenyon Martin or Van Horn to defend Odom because he played as if he was on a mission. And he was. He didn’t want to lose to Marbury.

“We had the game won, then Van Horn just hit a shot,” said Odom, who made 13 of a career-high 24 field goal attempts.

“I had 34 and we lost. It’s going to be a game I’m going to forget.”

That’s understandable because the Clippers completely owned the Nets early. With New Jersey not making its’ first field goal until 2:42 remained in the opening quarter, the Clippers led, 25-12, at the start of the second.

The Clippers stretched their lead to 43-23 and that’s when the Nets started to turn things around. By halftime, the Clippers only led, 49-37.

Following a fiery halftime speech from first-year Coach Byron Scott, New Jersey came out smoking in the third. The Clippers were outscored in the quarter, 36-20, as the Nets took a 73-69 lead behind Van Horn, who scored 10 of his 14 points in the third, and Marbury, who had 12.

To the Clippers’ credit, they didn’t fold after New Jersey made a run and they can thank Odom for that. He made six of eight field goals, including two of three three-pointers, in the fourth quarter.

Odom appeared to have given the Clippers the cushion they needed when he made a three-point basket to give them a 91-88 lead with 36.8 seconds remaining in regulation. But after the Nets’ Lucious Harris made two free throws with 12.2 seconds left, the Clippers failed to maintain their edge moments later when Piatkowski went to the free-throw line.

Piatkowski made the first but missed the second. Following a New Jersey timeout, Van Horn scored to force overtime.

Once in overtime, the Nets made sure Odom didn’t beat them. They placed at least two players on him every time he touched the ball and twice the Clippers had 24-second shot-clock violations.