Team Prepares for Five-Game Trip

The Clippers hit the road Saturday, skipping practice to fly to Memphis, Tenn., to begin a five-game exhibition trip that starts today against the transplanted Grizzlies.

The Clippers lost their opener Wednesday against the Seattle SuperSonics, which was no big deal to Coach Alvin Gentry.

“The games are important as long as we keep building,” Gentry said. “We’ve got to keep preparing ourselves for Oct. 30 [the team’s season opener against the Spurs at San Antonio]. We’ve got some things we need to work on. We’re not going to sacrifice working on those things just to win the games.”

Gentry plans to play point guard Earl Boykins and forward Derek Strong quite a bit today against the Grizzlies, who moved to Memphis from Vancouver during the off-season. Neither played against Seattle last week. Neither is expected to get loads of playing time during the regular season.

But Gentry is eager to see how they do in upcoming exhibition games. He also hopes to see how the battle among Corey Maggette, Eric Piatkowski and Quentin Richardson for the starting shooting guard plays out.

All Gentry would say was that “the players will decide playing time.”

In addition to facing Memphis on the trip, the Clippers play Tuesday at St. Louis against the Cleveland Cavaliers, face the Bulls on Wednesday at Chicago, play the Mavericks on Friday at Dallas and meet the Orlando Magic on Oct. 21 at Tampa, Fla.

The Clippers’ lone home exhibition is Oct. 23 against the Phoenix Suns.

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The Clippers said they sold more than 900 individual-game tickets on the first day they went on sale Oct. 6, a club record. Season-ticket sales have climbed to more than 12,000 and 10-game mini-plans have sold out.

The surge in sales is an unmistakable sign of the Clippers’ growing popularity, but center Lamar Odom doesn’t envision the team overtaking the two-time defending champion Lakers.

“We’ll always be the second team in town,” Odom said. “We’re well-liked. The response from the fans has been great. But we’ll take care of business on the court and the off-the-court stuff will take care of itself.”