Clippers’ Frustrations Mount

The Clippers started slowly and tapered off during an 89-80 loss Wednesday to the Detroit Pistons at the Palace at Auburn Hills. They have tried it other ways, but their latest approach seemed to work as well as any manner in which they have lost games this season.

Perhaps the Clippers were lulled into thinking about the All-Star break, which begins today. There was no spark, no life and no way they were going to defeat the Pistons with a listless effort that ranked among their worst of the season.

Point guard Andre Miller certainly got a head start on his break, leaving the bench and turning his back on his teammates before the game ended.

Miller crossed the baseline and had turned the corner toward the runway that led to the locker room as teammate Quentin Richardson made a three-point basket at the opposite end of the floor with 1.2 seconds left in the Clippers’ fourth consecutive loss and seventh in their last eight games.

Coach Alvin Gentry benched his starters, including Miller, for the fourth quarter, turning the game over to Richardson, Keyon Dooling, Eric Piatkowski and rookies Melvin Ely and Chris Wilcox. With those five playing together and with passion, the Clippers cut a 27-point third-quarter deficit to nine by the final buzzer.

“Those are the guys who are going to get more and more time,” Gentry said. “I thought those guys played and competed until the end of the game. I don’t know what’s what, but we have to get guys on the floor who are going to compete.”

Gentry often has worried this season that his players would ignore the game plan in favor of personal agendas to pad their statistics in order to improve their chances at better deals in the free-agent market this summer.

“Well, I would say we have now,” Gentry said after the Clippers fell to 17-32. “Obviously, we’ve shown we can’t win with this group [of starters]. The only thing left is to try the other guys.”

At halftime, with the Clippers trailing, 56-32, Gentry said he gathered his players around him and said, “What do you guys want me to do? Yell and scream? At some point, it’s got to mean something to them. There has to be some pride involved.”

Pride has been in short supply lately.

First, Voshon Lenard scored 30 points against the Clippers on Sunday at Toronto. Next, Latrell Sprewell set an NBA record with nine-for-nine three-point shooting en route to a season-best 38 points Tuesday at New York.

Detroit played Wednesday without centers Ben Wallace, who left the team after the death of his mother Saturday at Selma, Ala., and Zeljko Rebraca (irregular heartbeat) and still won easily. Mehmet Okur, a 7-foot rookie from Turkey, started at center and scored 19 points, including 14 before halftime.

The Clippers were without Marko Jaric, who came down with flu-like symptoms Wednesday morning, depriving Gentry of his best backup to Miller.

Gentry hasn’t been pleased with Miller’s play lately, harping on his four turnovers in the first 6 1/2 minutes of Tuesday’s loss to the Knicks.

Last season’s league leader with an average of 10.9 assists while with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miller has slipped to eighth overall with an average of 7.1. He averaged a team-leading 16.5 points last season before an off-season trade brought him to L.A., but his average is down to 14.8 this season.

Miller on Wednesday had four points on two-for-eight shooting with five rebounds, four assists and three turnovers in 35 minutes. Elton Brand had 18 points and six rebounds in 32 minutes. Ely and Richardson led the second unit with 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Asked if there was something physically wrong with Miller, Gentry said, “As far as I know he’s OK.” Asked about Miller’s mental state in the wake of the death of his stepfather last month, Gentry said, “I don’t know. The guy doesn’t talk about it to me. I don’t know anything that’s going on with the guy.”