Clippers Go Flat Again, Lose to Suns

When it came time to win the game Friday night, the Clippers folded like a warm tortilla on a 90-degree day. They ran plays that went nowhere, they tightened their defense on the wrong Phoenix players, they watched as offensive rebounds landed in opponents’ hands, they clanked free throws.

The Clippers also committed 25 turnovers, giving away a victory that could have been theirs. Instead, they were left to mull a 98-92 loss to the Suns that moved L.A. one step closer to the end of a lost season.

The last-place Clippers were outscored, 21-13, in the game’s final 6:22, spurring winces and groans from the crowd of 17,875 at Staples Center as the outcome became clearer during another late collapse. Phoenix ended a three-game losing streak.

About all there was to cheer was a half-court field goal by Gary Evans, 46, of Riverside, who won a new SUV during a fourth-quarter promotion sponsored by an automobile company.

The rest was another dreary loss for the Clippers, their third this season to Phoenix and their 10th in the last 15 games.

And to think the Clippers led, 79-77, after Eric Piatkowski’s layup off a backdoor cut midway through the fourth quarter. The Suns went on a 12-4 run over the next four minutes, building an 89-83 lead.

Point guard Stephon Marbury led Phoenix with 19 points on five-for-11 shooting, adding 15 assists and five steals. Andre Miller, his Clipper counterpart, had eight points on two-for-nine shooting, 12 assists and four turnovers.

“It’s another home loss, another game we led going into the fourth quarter,” Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry said, referring to a 69-68 advantage his team could not protect. “We just make turnovers at the most inopportune time, and it puts too much pressure on us to get defensive stops.... I know when it happens. Late in games. Why do they happen? We’ve got to be better with the ball and value every possession down the stretch.”

The Clippers picked up their game at the start Friday. Of course, it’s difficult to imagine them playing a second consecutive game with the same awkwardness they displayed Wednesday in edging the equally inept Chicago Bulls, 77-75.

Against the Suns, the Clippers turned to veterans Sean Rooks and Cherokee Parks to replace starting center Michael Olowokandi, who was placed on the injured list earlier in the day because of a sprained left knee and will undergo exploratory arthroscopic surgery Monday.

Rooks sneaked behind the pressing Suns on the Clippers’ opening possession, accepting a long pass from the backcourt from Miller and dunking for the game’s first points. The Clippers were off and running, with the 33-year Rooks leading the charge. He would score eight of the team’s first 11 points.

Phoenix’s Scott Williams, who had been starting at center recently, did not play until late in the third quarter, making a jump shot that tied the score, 61-61, as the Suns erased an 11-point deficit. The Clippers had taken a 56-45 lead after Elton Brand’s field goal and free throw with 7:04 left in the quarter.

Brand would score only 12 points with 10 rebounds by game’s end, prompting Gentry to say: “They did a good job on Elton, double-teaming him in the post. We just turned the ball over at really tough times.”

The Clippers, and Miller in particular, seemed bent on forcing the ball into spots the Suns had well covered. Phoenix turned the Clippers’ 25 turnovers into 26 points. Gentry refused to pin all the blame on Miller.

“I don’t know if ‘disappointed’ is the right word,” Gentry said. “We’ve got to get a shot off every time down the floor. We’ve got to get into an offensive set every time down the floor, especially at the end of the game.”