Gentry Exercises Patience With Jaric

Alvin Gentry isn’t worried about Marko Jaric.

“He’s only shooting two or three shots a game and that’s not enough to be in a rhythm,” the Clipper coach said of Jaric, a reserve guard who was averaging 3.7 points on 14-for-51 shooting (27.5%) before Friday’s game.

“He’s feeling his way through things,” Gentry added. “He’s a hard worker. He wants to be a good player. We want him to be more aggressive offensively. He’s thinking pass first, which is good. There are certain situations where we swing him the ball and we want him to shoot it.”

Jaric, who turns 24 on Dec. 10, is a rookie in name only. He has played professionally in Europe since he was 18. He averaged 15.2 points in 33 games last season for his Italian club team. In September, he helped lead Yugoslavia to the gold medal at the World Championship in Indianapolis.

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Gentry isn’t pleased by the Clippers’ results so far, but he continues to express satisfaction with the team’s hustle. “The effort has been there in almost all the games,” he said. “We have to make smarter plays, smarter decisions. I know we have to find a way to close games out.... Hopefully, it’s a growing process and a lesson we learn.”

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Quentin Richardson wasn’t surprised to see his buddy Darius Miles put on the injured list recently by the Cleveland Cavaliers because of a sore knee. Richardson caught a Cavalier game on TV and knew something was up. “I still talk to him almost every day,” Richardson said of his former teammate and childhood friend. “I watched him on TV and saw that he wasn’t jumping. He had this weak little dunk and I said, ‘He’s hurt.’ ”

-- Elliott Teaford