Clippers Go South Up North

Et tu, Canadians?

Now even bad teams, squads with little hope and fewer victories, but with a home date against the Clippers, are taking their pound of flesh and making it look easy.

Of course, “bad” is a relative term. The Clippers, last in the Pacific Division, certainly looked like a bad team after getting thumped late again during a 100-86 loss Sunday to the heretofore execrable Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre.

“We imploded again in the fourth quarter,” said Elton Brand, who led the Clippers with 17 points and 19 rebounds, but was powerless to keep them from squandering a 12-point lead in the first half and losing for the fifth time in six games.

“We have to play with confidence all the way through the game. We have to fight and be intense. I remember watching the Clipper teams of old and those guys gave up in certain situations. We’re not giving up. We are not giving up. Not this team.”

The Clippers are getting good at sounding defiant, determined to speak loudly about continuing to fight through to the end of what now looks like another lost season.

Their actions, however, speak otherwise.

For example, with the Clippers down, 68-67, in the closing seconds of the third quarter, and long after they had surrendered the last of a 12-point second-quarter lead, rookie forward Melvin Ely hacked Toronto’s Jerome Williams.

Williams made one free throw and missed the second, with Ely sprinting for the opposite end of the court and leaving Toronto’s Michael Bradley alone the lane.

Bradley stepped into the vacant space created by Ely’s hurried departure, gathered the rebound and flipped the ball into the hoop at the buzzer for a 71-67 lead.

Toronto never led by fewer than four points the rest of the way, building a lead that would swell to 97-89 after Vince Carter’s jump shot with 3:49 remaining in the Raptors’ 13th victory in 47 games.

Coach Alvin Gentry could live with Voshon Lenard’s 23-point second half, and 30 points by game’s end on nine-for-16 shooting in 33 minutes. Gentry could stomach the loss, the Clippers’ 30th in 47 games.

In a display of sportsmanship, he even motioned for the Raptors to attempt a three-point basket in the final seconds that enabled them to reach 100 points so the crowd of 17,862 could receive a free slice of pizza.

Rafer Alston’s three-pointer at the final buzzer did the trick, sending the fans and the Raptors home happy.

“We’ve got to play through this,” Gentry said. “We can’t stop coaching and they can’t stop playing. You never know what can happen.”

The Clippers trudged toward their bus, headed for a lengthy ride to the airport and a flight to New York, where they will face another poor team, the Knicks, on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

“We’re just messing up a good thing,” said Corey Maggette, who scored 19 points but, like the rest of the Clippers, had trouble staying with Lenard in the third and fourth quarters.

Then, referring to the widely-held belief that uncertainty over impending free agency has messed with their heads, Maggette said, “I’m out there playing ball -- just like, I hope, everybody else is.”

Lamar Odom put it this way: “We’re not finishing games, we’re not good at protecting leads. You’ve got to give yourself a chance. You can’t let that become your method of operation. It can become mental. We beat teams, but we don’t win the games.

“It can get frustrating. It can get mental.”

The Clippers have played the part of a frustrated team for weeks.

Sunday’s game looked like a good many recent games, with the Clippers pushing hard at the start, building a modest lead with crisp passes and strong work around the basket from Brand, who had 12 points and 14 rebounds by halftime.

At the end, when it was time to play their best, the Clippers’ shoulders sagged along with their momentum.

Lenard, a backup guard, frustrated the Clippers.

They blanketed Carter, who had 14 points in 28 minutes, but Lenard scored 11 points on four-for-four shooting in the third quarter and added 12 on three-for-five shooting in the fourth.