Like Odom, Clippers Missing in the Fourth Quarter

The setup couldn’t have been better.

With team leader Lamar Odom home in Los Angeles sitting out the first of five games after being suspended for violating the league’s anti-drug program, the Clippers were in terrific position to win one for their main man.

They had the Houston Rockets on the ropes, holding a 12-point lead with 23 seconds remaining in the third quarter. And then, the Clipper disease, which has plagued them for much of the season, hit.

“We just blew it by missing shots,” Corey Maggette said after the Clippers made only four field goals the rest of the game and lost to Houston, 99-87, Thursday night before 11,582 at Compaq Center.

“Every time we missed, they scored. It didn’t help that they went to the free throw line so much in the fourth quarter.”

So, after playing three quarters with the same type of inspired basketball that helped them win their previous two games with Odom, the Clippers were outscored, 32-11, in the final quarter. It was Houston’s first victory in three games against the Clippers this season.

Without Odom to control the flow once the game got tight, the Clippers did not score their first field goal in the fourth quarter until 4:07 remained on a basket by Eric Piatkowski.

The Clippers failed to capitalize on a strong game from Maggette, who started in place of Odom at small forward and had 19 points and a team-high 12 rebounds.

“We definitely missed Lamar,” said Maggette, who made eight of 14 field goals and played a career-high 44 minutes. “He’s our star player and we really missed him. But we’re going to have to play without him for our next four games. He usually is the man who steps up in the fourth quarter with big shots and do the little things to help us win.”

Houston was able to capitalize by making 13 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter. Point guard Steve Francis finished with 22 points, 15 rebounds and eights assists for the Rockets. His backcourt mate, Cuttino Mobley, also had a big game with 22 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter and 14-for-14 foul shooting.

“This was one of those games that concern coaches,” said Houston Coach Rudy Tomjanovich, whose team is still in the playoff hunt with a 34-28 record. “I think that the Clippers have tremendous talent. They play hard and they play with emotion. . . . They were just knifing in and getting easy shots and when they missed, Maggette was falling from the ceiling and putting them back in.”

Last season, the Clippers were 0-6 without Odom in the lineup, but this is an entirely different Clipper team. They have had players step up off the bench all season, which is why the Clippers have the highest scoring bench in the league, outscoring opponents’ reserves by 12 points a game.

So the Rockets shouldn’t have been surprised when Maggette got off to a fast start. Playing under control, as he has since the All-Star break, Maggette led the Clippers with 11 points to help them take a 45-44 lead at halftime.

“It was a big factor not having Lamar all day, but once the game started, we knew we had to go out and do a certain job,” said point guard Jeff McInnis, who led the Clippers with 20 points. “We knew Lamar was back home watching us and we wanted to go out to perform for ourselves and for him.”

Behind some early scoring from former Clipper Maurice Taylor, who scored eight of his 21 points in the first five minutes, Houston took a 28-21 lead after one quarter. But in the second, the Rockets almost got run off the floor by the Clippers’ second unit, led by rookies Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson. At one point, the Clippers scored 12 in a row.

In the third quarter, the Clippers turned to center Michael Olowokandi, who scored eight of his 11 points in the quarter, and McInnis, who had 10 in the quarter, and they helped the Clippers to their big lead heading into the fourth.

But once the final quarter began, the Clippers couldn’t keep up their torrid shooting (53.2% over the first three quarters) and Houston caught them and then pulled away.

“I was proud of the way we played, but we just went through that stretch where we couldn’t score,” said Coach Alvin Gentry, whose team dropped to 8-25 on the road and 22-42 overall. “We had some good shots that we just couldn’t make.”

And a setup they couldn’t finish.