Defense Is a Real Clipper Lowlight

On a night when the Atlanta Hawks retired Dominique Wilkins’ No. 21 jersey, the Clippers honored the former NBA scoring leader by playing as little defense as possible.

After losing at Minnesota the night before, the Clippers were a step slow the entire game and Atlanta punished them behind Lorenzen Wright’s 28 points to win going away, 108-88, Saturday night before 19,445 at Philips Arena, the Hawks’ first sellout of the season.

The Hawks, who entered the game shooting only 42.3%, torched the Clippers by making 52.3% of their shots. Atlanta also had 29 assists with only 11 turnovers; the Clippers had 16 assists and 22 turnovers, which led to 34 Hawk points.

“It was an emotional night for them and we didn’t come out with as much energy as we should,” Clipper center Sean Rooks said.

Added Lamar Odom: “We just didn’t play any defense nor do the little things it takes to win.”

What little energy the Clippers could muster was spent primarily chasing Atlanta’s Jason Terry, who has been tearing opponents apart since he was moved to shooting guard. Terry finished with only 18 points, making eight of 19 shots, but he had eight assists, many of them leading to baskets by Wright.

The Clippers’ game plan was to not allow Terry to have a big game, and he didn’t. However, shutting down other Hawk players such as Brevin Knight (14 points), Dion Glover (13), Matt Maloney (12) and Wright was a different story.

“I know their field-goal percentage was real good because they were hitting almost everything they shot up,” rookie Darius Miles said. “We were rotating right and they were hitting open jumpers. It’s funny, but the people we scouted and thought would not make shots, all hit their jumpers tonight.”

With this Clipper team, nothing is ever a given, and that held true Saturday.

Normally, Odom carries a heavy offensive load, but against the Hawks he never got going. He played 37 minutes and finished with 10 points on two-of-12 shooting. He turned the ball over five times to go with four assists.

“I thought Roshown [McLeod] did a terrific job initiating the coverage of Odom,” Atlanta Coach Lon Kruger said. “He’s such a good player, it takes a lot of help to slow him down.”

With each passing game, Odom seems to face tougher and more physical defenders. Every time he touches the ball in the Clippers’ halfcourt offense, Odom attracts two and sometimes three defenders.

And in the NBA, once something works, count on it being copied by everyone else.

The Clippers are well aware of how teams are starting to play Odom, which is why other players have to step up. Lately, center Michael Olowokandi has done his part and he got off to another strong start with six quick points against the Hawks. But he didn’t do much the rest of the game and finished with 10 points and four rebounds in 26 minutes.

“We just stopped getting the ball to him,” Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry said. “We have to try and keep getting it to Michael because he has been pretty successful.”

Another positive for the Clippers was the play of Earl Boykins, who had 15 points and five assists.

After the Clippers fell behind by 16 points early in the second half, Gentry put Boykins with starting point guard Jeff McInnis in the backcourt to help slow Terry, Knight and Maloney. The moved worked for a while. The Clippers were able to play more of an up-tempo game and cut Atlanta’s lead to eight with 7:35 remaining.

But again, their defense failed them.

“We were awful, and they beat us in every phase of the game,” Gentry said. “They outrebounded us [39-34]. They played with more intensity. We were just bad, that’s the only way you can put it. They deserved to win the game, because they played like they wanted to win.”

The Clippers have now lost two games in a row and eight of their last 11. The good feeling they had after defeating the Lakers earlier this month is now a distant memory. With another set of back-to-back games (at Indiana and Milwaukee on Monday and Tuesday) remaining on their current four-game trip, Gentry can only hope that his players develop that long-sought consistency.