Strong Ending Sought With Intense Practices

The last two Clipper practices have not been typical for a team that has been out of the playoff hunt for weeks and has only 16 games remaining in the season.

But after lackluster efforts in losing consecutive games at Dallas and San Antonio, Coach Alvin Gentry wanted his team to regain the passion it played with for most of the season. So with Lamar Odom, who still has two games remaining in his five-game league suspension, back at practice, Gentry challenged his players in workouts this week at L.A. Southwest College.

“They’re the best consecutive practices we’ve had in a long time,” he said. “We were very disappointed in the last two games of our [0-3 Texas trip]. And it’s good having Lamar back. Obviously, he’s going to make practices a lot better.

“Every single drill we’ve done the last two days has been competitive. The winners step out and the losers run.”

Gentry had to be pleased with the results. Players banged and battled against one another as if they were back in training camp. Every push was answered with a harder push. Every rebound and loose ball was attacked with a sense of urgency.

“Coach wanted us to try and pick up the intensity so we can go through the rest of the season and get something out of it,” center Sean Rooks said. “We don’t want to relax [over the final month of the season]. The coaches have a bigger picture in mind. They just want us to go out there and compete and have competitive practices.”

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The Clippers will play Golden State tonight in a matchup featuring two of the teams with the worst records in the Western Conference. The last time the Clippers played the Warriors, Golden State won on a free throw by Bobby Sura after a foul by Corey Maggette with 0.7 seconds remaining.

The Clippers, however, have not been caught up in talk about Golden State this week. Instead, they worked on their own game.

“I’m worried about us more than anything,” Gentry said. “If we do what we’re supposed to do, we’ll be fine. That’s the one thing I learned from Larry Brown. Rather than spending a whole lot of time worrying about what [Golden State] is doing, we’ve got to worry about our team and what we’re doing right.”

TONIGHT

vs. Golden State, 7:30

Fox Sports Net 2

* Site--Staples Center.

* Radio--KXTA (1150).

* Records--Clippers 22-44, Warriors 16-49.

* Record vs. Warriors: 1-1.

* Update--The Clippers have lost three games in a row and were defeated by the Warriors in their final game before the All-Star break last month. The Warriors have lost their last eight games.

* Tickets--(800) 462-2849.