Gentry Warns Team About Complacency

Down the stretch they come....

Where they’ll finish is anyone’s guess. With 14 games to play, the Clippers are entrenched in ninth place in the Western Conference standings, one position away from a playoff spot.

“Right now, it doesn’t matter how you play as long as you win,” Coach Alvin Gentry said. “We have to understand the significance of these games. We’re into the teens now [14 games remaining]. If we lose a game, we can’t say, ‘That’s OK, we’ll get them next week.’”

Gentry has said all along that qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 1996-97 was the Clippers’ top goal. But he also has said from the start of the season that he won’t be crushed if the team fails to advance to the postseason. The Clippers have won four more games than they did last season, when they topped their 1999-2000 total by 15 victories.

“As long as we play as hard as we have most of the year and as long as we play unselfishly, I’ll take whatever happens,” Gentry said earlier this week.

The Clippers’ degree of difficulty has eased this week, what with three games against sub-.500 teams in the Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns.

“We don’t have an easy game left on our schedule,” Gentry said. “I don’t care what Golden State’s record is. If we can’t play hard, we won’t win. Golden State beat the Lakers and San Antonio [earlier this season]. Any time you can run guys like Jason Richardson and some of their big guys out there, you’re going to have an opportunity to win. We don’t have the luxury of looking past anybody.”

For the record, the Warriors are last in the Pacific Division and 14th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference. They do lead the NBA in rebounding, however.

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The Clippers did not practice Wednesday but traveled early in the morning to Oakland and hosted a luncheon with the team’s sponsors at a local seafood restaurant.

TONIGHT

at Golden State, 7:30

Site--the Arena in Oakland.

Radio--KLAC (570).

Records--Clippers 35-33, Warriors 17-49.

Record vs. Warriors--1-1.

Update--The Clippers have won eight of 11 against the Warriors at Oakland. Golden State has lost seven in a row, including a 110-93 defeat Tuesday against the Seattle SuperSonics. The Warriors also have lost nine of 10 and 17 of 20 and have locked up last place in the Pacific for the second consecutive season.