‘Same Old Clippers’

The neighbors are puzzled. So are the brothers at the Chinese restaurant in the strip mall. The fellow across the aisle on the cross-country flight can’t figure them out. Neither can the customs officer on the other side of the border.

At the end of each conversation, people shake their heads, offering variations on a theme.

“So much talent,” they say of the Clippers, who begin what can only euphemistically be called the stretch drive tonight against the Phoenix Suns at America West Arena. “Such a waste. Such a shame.”

So what happened?

“Injuries and negotiations,” forward Lamar Odom said Monday after the Clippers’ first practice since the All-Star break. “That’s what I would say the title to our season has been. Injuries, and people are worried about contracts. Plus, bad play and inconsistency and you’ve got the Clippers for this season.”

At this point, pride is about all the Clippers have left to play for, and even that was questionable last week. During a four-game losing streak, and while dropping seven of their last eight before the break, the Clippers looked very much like a team that had packed it in.

After all, the Clippers are last in the Pacific Division with a 17-32 record, leading only the Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference standings. They were universally panned at the break as the season’s biggest disappointment, the consensus statement something to the effect of “Same old Clippers.”

“It was like a breath of fresh air last year,” power forward Elton Brand said, referring to his first season as a Clipper after the summer of 2001 trade that brought him to L.A. from the woebegone Chicago Bulls. “We were winning games. We were .500 at the All-Star break. I was an All-Star. There was great weather all the time. This season has been very disappointing.”

Injuries, uncertainty over pending free agency, lack of experience and a lack of leadership have indeed conspired to wreck whatever shot the Clippers had at taking the next logical step in Coach Alvin Gentry’s three-season plan to reach a winning record and a playoff berth.

The Clippers have the option to retain Gentry for a fourth season, but it now appears the only drama to 2002-03 will be when General Manager Elgin Baylor decides to fire Gentry. The high-water mark in Gentry’s tenure will probably be last season’s 39-43 record and ninth-place finish in the West.

Other roster changes could be made before the trade deadline Feb. 20.

Clearly, these players have been incapable of overcoming the adversity that has sent the team spiraling to the bottom of the Pacific. They appeared to lose their will during their four-game losing streak.

By then, Gentry had had enough and played the reserves for the fourth quarter of an 89-80 loss last Wednesday at Detroit.

“Obviously, the approach has got to be that we’ve got to look at the last 35 games or 34 games or what is it?” Gentry started to say Monday. When told the Clippers had 33 games remaining, he continued, “Thirty-three? That’s even better. We’ve got to look at it like it’s a whole new season. It’s been disappointing up to this point playing like we have.”

Asked if he were concerned that the Clippers would mail in the rest of the season, Gentry said, “I don’t think this team is like that. We haven’t played well, but we have played hard. We’ve just made poor decisions and haven’t made shots.”

Gentry would rather pin the Clippers’ lack of success on something more tangible than the prevailing theory that the team’s inability to sign Brand and center Michael Olowokandi to long-term contract extensions last season has messed with everyone’s heads. At least for public consumption, anyway.

Gentry also isn’t a fan of the theory that injuries to key players -- Brand, Odom, Olowokandi, Corey Maggette and Quentin Richardson -- have ruined the team’s chemistry.

“We have not made good decisions and we have not made shots,” he said when asked for his top reason for the team’s record and station in the standings. “And we haven’t made free throws in the last five minutes of games. I almost shudder to think what we’ve done at the foul line in the last five minutes of games this year.”

Brand has been the Clippers’ resident optimist, and he again sounded an upbeat note Monday. He has had another standout season, leading the team with averages of 18 points and 11.4 rebounds. He is not satisfied, however.

“We’ve got to set short-term goals now,” he said. “We’ve got to say, ‘Let’s win three out of our next four.’ We can’t say, ‘We go 32-1 and we’re in the playoffs.’ We owe it to our fans to put on a good show. They’re going through it like we’re going through it. They’re depressed too.”

When asked about what changes the future might bring, Brand said, “I’m not naive to believe there’s not going to be changes. I’ll make my decisions after the season is over. I’ll talk with my agent, David Falk, and we’ll make our decisions then.”

Asked the same question, Odom said, “With everything I’ve gone through, the [drug] suspensions and the injuries [that sidelined him for 11 months], this team has been loyal to me. I think we have to force the front office into keeping this team together by playing well. You watch all the young teams, they start young and they grow older together. It’s like a marriage. Until this team marries somebody, there’s going to be ups and downs.”