Scuffle Takes All the Fight Out of Clippers

The Clippers got it all wrong again on the road, starting with a scuffle among teammates in the lobby of their downtown hotel Tuesday after a morning workout at the Target Center.

Elton Brand and Obinna Ekezie got into an argument and things began to get physical when Corey Maggette interceded. Brand and Maggette were college teammates at Duke. Hotel guests and a reporter who covers the team witnessed the players fighting and arguing near a bank of elevators.

Matters were resolved by the time the Clippers took the court against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a game they would lose, 97-83, in front of a crowd of 18,101. But it was another in a string of embarrassing off-court incidents for one of the league’s rising teams.

In November, Lamar Odom was suspended for eight games for violating the NBA’s antidrug policy for the second time in eight months. He said he “chose to experiment with marijuana.”

Sources recently have told The Times that in March he skipped a counseling appointment and was suspended for five games. It had been reported that he used marijuana then too.

Several weeks later, Michael Olowokandi was arrested on suspicion of cohabitant abuse in the wake of a late-night altercation with a former girlfriend at his home. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office declined to press charges after the woman recanted her original story.

Brand was the only one of the three players available for comment Tuesday.

“We’re a family and sometimes we argue and fight about things,” he said. “It’s over. There’s nothing to be said. We’ve put it behind us.”

Coach Alvin Gentry was a bit more expansive.

“Sure, I’ll talk about it,” he said. “We don’t condone one bit violence or embarrassing the franchise in any way. I’m more disgusted with the people who were involved because they’re all quality people.”

Gentry went on to say it was “an isolated incident” and acknowledged that he asked the players not to comment. The Clippers are the NBA’s youngest team, with an average age of 24.8 years on opening night.

“It’s an unfortunate incident,” Gentry said. “The people will be dealt with accordingly. We’re not going to let it embarrass the other players or the franchise.”

The Clippers seemed to have put the fight behind them Tuesday night, taking a 26-25 lead after the first quarter. Minnesota then put the Clippers away with a 13-0 run late in the second quarter, taking a 60-40 lead by halftime.

Wally Szczerbiak scored 21 points and Kevin Garnett had 18 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists for the Midwest Division-leading Timberwolves, who won their ninth in a row.

Darius Miles had 18 points and 10 rebounds and Brand had 17 points and 13 rebounds for the Clippers, who finished their six-game trip with a 1-5 record and fell below .500 at 19-20. They are 3-13 on the road.

“We looked like a tired team,” said Odom, who had 11 points in 40 minutes.

That certainly was true in the pivotal second quarter, but the Clippers outscored the Timberwolves in every quarter but the second. The Clippers trailed by as many as 27 points, but made a late run to trim the deficit to 88-75 with less than three minutes to play.

“During that 13-0 run, they had nine layups,” Gentry said of the Timberwolves, who are 17-2 on their home court. “We turned the ball over on four of seven possessions. You’re not going to beat a good team if you turn the ball over and give them a chance to run down and make layups.”

About the only development Tuesday that cheered Gentry was Miles’ strongest game of the season.

Matched up against his boyhood idol, Garnett, Miles went to the basket with confidence on every possession and made eight of 13 shots. Miles, a 20-year-old forward, also kept Garnett on the perimeter for the most part, forcing him into taking jump shots rather than letting him slash to the basket.

Miles made the crowd gasp and cheer when he leaped high to snare what at first looked to be an errant lob pass from guard Jeff McInnis. Miles controlled the ball by tapping it from one hand to the other, then slamming it through the hoop.

The basket cut the Clippers’ deficit to 84-66 early in the fourth quarter and helped ignite their late charge.

“He made him take some shots he didn’t want,” Gentry said of Miles’ defensive play against Garnett, who had averaged more than 30 points in his last three games. “Darius attacked the rim and did some things that I’m really proud of.”