Frustrations Get Clearer

Clearly, the Clippers do not lack leadership and direction.

Lamar Odom walked into the Clipper locker room, grabbed his gear and left almost immediately after Saturday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks. The rest of the team took its cue from Odom, some showering quickly and others simply tossing aside their uniforms and throwing on their street clothes.

As a result, the locker room was empty mere moments after the Clippers 10th loss in the last 13 games. The Clippers didn’t mean to stiff reporters after the game by leaving before the doors were opened after the mandatory 10-minute cooling-off period. They simply followed Odom out of the door as quickly as possible.

“No offense to you guys,” Odom told reporters after Sunday’s practice at Los Angeles Southwest College.

“I thought it was kind of funny because I had showered and walked back into the locker room and everyone else was gone,” Eric Piatkowski said.

Both players pointed to the team’s collective frustration over losing another close game, the Clippers’ 18th this season when they had held a fourth-quarter lead, as the main reason for the early exits.

“Right now, our mental state is fragile,” Odom said. “I just got out of there. I had to take my family to the airport early [Sunday] morning and I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. I wanted to get out of there.”

Said Piatkowski: “It’s frustrating for some guys, including me, when we’re losing games and not playing much. It’s frustrating because we’re losing and guys think they could be out there getting an opportunity to help the team. I don’t think guys had a bad attitude on purpose.”

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Odom believed he had drawn a foul on the Clippers’ final possession Saturday, mainly because he said the Hawks were trying to foul him on purpose.

Atlanta had only three team fouls when Odom attempted the tying shot with seconds remaining.

Coach Alvin Gentry didn’t expect a call in that situation and wasn’t about to complain about it the next day.

“That’s just the way it is,” Gentry said. “It’s nothing negative against the refs. They just leave it up to the players to decide the game at that point.

“If the roles were reversed, I don’t think they would have made a call against us.”