Overtime Doesn’t Pay for the Clippers Again

Jeff McInnis had been in this position before.

He stood at the free-throw line with a chance to give the Clippers a three-point lead over Sacramento with 20 seconds remaining in regulation.

But McInnis, an 81.8% shooter from the line, missed and the Kings made the Clippers pay. Sacramento’s Vlade Divac made two free throws to send the game into overtime and the Chris Webber-less Kings took advantage of a fatigued Clipper team, winning going away, 106-93, before a sellout crowd of 17,317 at Arco Arena.

The Kings scored the first 14 points of the overtime period.

McInnis’ miss tainted a career night. He finished with a personal-best 33 points on 14-of-24 shooting, but he will remember his missed opportunity at the line.

“I just wanted to relax and shoot the ball,” McInnis said. “The first one felt good and the second one felt good. I think I might have pulled back a little too soon.”

For McInnis, shooting key free throws late in a game is becoming old news. He missed crucial free throws in similar situations in losses at Toronto and Denver earlier in the season. But he made two clutch ones in the second overtime in a victory over Portland less than a week earlier.

“I am making this harder than it really is,” said McInnis, who made three of four from the line in the game. “I’m a great free-throw shooter. . . . Maybe I’m thinking too much when I’m up there.”

In losing their ninth of 11 overtime games this season, the Clippers again do not have anyone to blame but themselves. Even after McInnis’ missed free throw, the Clippers still had a two-point lead and a chance to close out the game by making a defensive stop on the Kings.

But instead of making Sacramento work, the Clippers put Divac on the line before the ball got near the basket. Center Michael Olowokandi was called for a grab.

On the play, Divac actually had a hold on Olowokandi but the foul-prone Clipper big man was the one called. After Divac tied the score at 89, the Clippers had one final chance to win in regulation, but Sean Rooks’ jump shot from the top of the key was off the mark.

So after a four-game winning streak, the Clippers have lost two in a row. Once the Kings got the Clippers into an extra period, the Clippers simply did not have the energy to keep up, having played seven games over the last 10 days.

“We were just awful in the overtime but we shouldn’t have even had to go there,” Coach Alvin Gentry said. “Sooner or later, we have to get the point where we close out games. It has happened time and time again.

“We have an opportunity to make a free throw or a play and we don’t do it. We play great defense and they shoot and miss, but we give them the ball back. It is things like that which are killing us. It is the difference between us having 27, 28 wins, instead of [having a 20-40 record].”

With Webber sitting out his eighth game in a row because of an ankle sprain, the Clippers blew a golden chance to pull an upset on the road.

“We were really fortunate to win this game,” Sacramento Coach Rich Adelman said. “We were really active and aggressive in overtime, but it took us what seemed like 48 minutes to get going. But you have to give the Clippers credit, they’ve been playing well.”

When the Kings defeated the Clippers by 12 points at Staples Center in January, Webber dominated play with 33 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. But this time Scot Pollard was in the lineup.

So instead of worrying about Webber controlling the paint, the Clippers put most of their attention on slowing down small forward Predrag Stojakovic, whom they limited to 15 points in their first meeting.

The Clippers started off well. They led by one point at halftime and played the Kings even throughout the third quarter and most of the fourth.

But once Lamar Odom got his offensive game going after a slow first half, the Clippers pulled ahead and had a chance to be in great position when McInnis went to the line. The rest, however, is history.