Carter and Friends Frustrate Clippers

Vince Carter leaped toward the rafters and Corey Maggette leaped toward the rafters. Carter went left, Maggette went left. Carter went right, Maggette went right. Carter went to the Toronto Raptors’ bench, Maggette went to the Clippers’ bench--but perhaps not without sneaking a peek over his shoulder to see if his mark had indeed taken a seat.

Everywhere Carter went, Maggette was sure to follow Friday at Staples Center.

In the end, Carter won the individual battle with Maggette and the Raptors took the game from the Clippers, 94-85, before a sellout crowd of 18,964. Carter had 29 points and Maggette had a career-best 28.

At the end, others decided the game for Carter and Maggette, who were probably too fatigued from chasing each other.

Morris Peterson’s three-point basket from the right wing with 4:09 left gave the Raptors the lead for good, 81-80. Chris Childs’ steal and layup moments later padded the lead to 83-80. Childs swished a backbreaking three-pointer for a 91-84 lead with 1:03 to play.

“My job was to go out and play hard and try to stop Vince from scoring 40 points on me,” Maggette said. “He cooled off in the second half, but Chris Childs and ‘Mo Pete’ heated them right back up again.”

The Clippers played their sixth game without forward Lamar Odom, who was suspended for a minimum of five games for violating the terms of the NBA’s antidrug policy. The Clippers are 4-2 without Odom and 4-5 overall, falling below the .500 mark after reaching it for the first time since Nov. 23, 1996, with a victory Wednesday over the Chicago Bulls.

“In the first half, we really didn’t do what we were supposed to do,” Maggette said. “[Carter] was hitting some impossible shots. But the key to the second half was Childs and Peterson hitting key shots and we kind of fell apart at the end.”

By halftime, Carter had 21 points in 21 minutes. Most of his points came on long-range jump shots, rather than on slashing drives to the basket.

Carter’s jumper looks a bit funny, what with his penchant for falling away even when free of defenders. He made eight of 14, including two of four from behind the three-point arc, in the half. Maggette later bellied up on Carter, doing a credible job in keeping him some distance from the basket.

Still, Carter hit a three-pointer to open the game. He then blocked Eric Piatkowski’s jumper, raced ahead and sank a jumper. Later, he made a layup and a free throw after Piatkowski had fouled him. His finger-roll basket off a drive gave him a 10-3 lead over the Clippers midway through the first quarter.

And it looked like he might get 40 points against Maggette--all in the first half.

“In the first quarter, the guy made everything he shot,” Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry said. “[Later,] we did a pretty good job of not letting him catch it and get a good look at the basket.”

Maggette led the Clippers with 16 points at the half, most coming on drives to the basket. His highlight-reel move was a thunderous dunk off a lob pass from Jeff McInnis only minutes into the game.

The Clippers would have been buried without Maggette. They began the game by missing 10 of their first 12 shots and, later, 12 of their first 18. By halftime, they were 14 of 43 (32.6%).

With Maggette leading them, the Clippers were in capable hands heading into the fourth quarter. By the end of three quarters, the teams were tied, 69-69.

The Clippers would lead several times in the fourth, the last time at 78-76 after Darius Miles dunked a lob pass from Boykins with 6:10 remaining.

Peterson and Childs seized the lead, and the game, back for the Raptors.

“It’s a tough loss because we were playing at home,” Gentry said, referring to the Clippers’ 4-2 record at Staples Center. “That team [Toronto] is a good team. They made the plays and you’ve got to give them credit. They made the shots and the plays that got them over the hump.”