Clippers Don’t Quit, Get Win at Denver

Long since eliminated from the playoffs, the Clippers and Denver Nuggets both approached Saturday night’s game with a simple goal: Don’t quit on the season.

The Clippers followed through on that goal as Marko Jaric scored 17 points on seven-of-10 shooting and Andre Miller had 16 points in a 101-79 victory.

Corey Maggette added 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Lamar Odom had 13 points and 10 rebounds to help the Clippers end a losing streak at three games.

“The thing you worry about when you have so few games left is you don’t want the guys to quit on you,” Clipper Coach Dennis Johnson said.

Since taking over as interim coach on March 3, Johnson said his team has played hard in every game “except maybe two.”

The Clippers shot 46% from the field and outrebounded the Nuggets, 60-50.

The Nuggets lost their sixth in a row. Denver’s Jeff Trepagnier had 10 of his career-high 15 points in the final quarter.

The Clippers led by as many as 28 points in the first half, and the short-handed Nuggets got no closer than 15 after that.

Nugget center Marcus Camby sat out the second half after feeling ill, Juwan Howard played only five minutes of the second half after spraining his ankle and rookie Nene Hilario did not play because of a lower-back strain.