Clippers Conduct Clean Sweep

Be they ever so humble, the Clippers swept a homestand of longer than three games for the first time in 18 years, wrapping up a four-game Staples Center run Wednesday night with a 93-83 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

After dispatching the Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Hornets, they weren’t at their best against the Bucks, but the Bucks were worse and the Clippers won easily despite 39.5% shooting and 22 turnovers.

Two nights after they blew out the Hornets by 29 points, they led by 23 in the fourth quarter against the Bucks before petering out at the end.

And for their next trick ... the Texas three-step?

They’ll fly today to Houston, where Friday they’ll open a three-game trip against the Rockets, followed by games against the Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs, or, as Coach Mike Dunleavy described the trio, “the Texas Triangle.”

Having lost their last five outside Staples Center, they figure to have their hands full, but for the time being they could feel pretty good about themselves.

“You can’t ask for better than what we had: 4-0,” Dunleavy said. “And we did it in a pretty good way. Defensively, we did it tonight. We defended well, we controlled the boards and we made our free throws, which was the formula we talked about from the first day of training camp.

“We said, ‘The nights that you don’t shoot the ball well, if you do the other things you can still win.’ And this kind of proves the point.”

Five Clippers scored in double figures, led by reserve forward Bobby Simmons, who sparked a second-quarter run that put the Clippers ahead to stay. He made seven of 12 shots and scored a career-high 20 points in 29 minutes.

Corey Maggette, his participation in doubt until about an hour before the game because of a sprained right ankle that was soaking in ice afterward, had 17 points and eight rebounds. Elton Brand had 15 points and a season-high 16 rebounds and backup forward Chris Wilcox had 16 points and eight rebounds.

Former UCLA center Dan Gadzuric led the Bucks with 16 points.

As Wednesday dawned, the Clippers were among only two teams in the Western Conference with losing records, while the Bucks were one of 10 in the East, leaving them right in the thick of the playoff race, at least for now.

The improving Clippers, though, were hardly discouraged.

“We’re growing,” Dunleavy said before the game. “We’re getting better. There are going to be a lot of peaks and valleys for us, but I’ve liked the way our guys have responded.

“We’ve played some good games here at home. That’s kind of what we want to establish -- a reputation for being a good home-court team, a good defensive team on the home court.”

They’ve won six of seven in Staples Center, losing the other on a last-second shot by Kevin Garnett, even if few seem to have noticed. Monday’s rout of the Hornets drew only 11,961, Wednesday’s game only 13,794.

The coach even said he was worried about complacency.

The Bucks, playing their second game in two nights, had split the first two games of a West Coast trip, winning Tuesday night at Portland.

They looked worn out, missing 13 of their first 20 shots. But they led after the first quarter, 21-19, in part because the Clippers had eight turnovers in the opening 12 minutes.

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Predrag Drobnjak, the Clippers’ starting center through the season’s first month, has all but fallen out of the rotation in the last 1 1/2 weeks. He has played only 40 minutes over six games since rookie Chris Kaman replaced him in the starting lineup, four against the Bucks and none in Saturday’s victory over the Suns. “For us to really compete with some of these teams,” Dunleavy said, “we need to play a more mobile lineup. We’ve got some games coming up where we’ll get a chance to play him a little more against true power players.”