Clippers Do What They Do

Celebrating their 25 seasons in Southern California, the Clippers wore retro uniforms from the 1978-79 season Thursday night.

Why they were celebrating, exactly, was anybody’s guess.

Since moving from upstate New York before the 1978-79 season, the former Buffalo Braves have lost more than 65% of their games.

Since moving from San Diego before the 1984-85 season, they’ve been even worse, losing nearly 67%. They’ve had two winning seasons. They’ve made the playoffs three times, losing each time in the opening round.

So, while hardly worth celebrating, their 102-96 loss to the New Jersey Nets in front of 13,620 at Staples Center at least seemed appropriate to the occasion, a fitting way to mark the Clippers’ first quarter-century.

In the first of two national-television appearances they’re scheduled to make this season, the Clippers ran their losing streak to five games.

With a TNT audience looking on, they made 38.4% of their shots. And, except for a brief period in the third quarter when the score was tied, they trailed through the last 2 1/2 quarters, the Nets taking control during a 22-2 second-quarter run that took them from an eight-point deficit to a 12-point lead.

“The second quarter, we didn’t do a very good job of moving the basketball,” Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “We held it too long, didn’t get good shots.”

Said his Net counterpart, Byron Scott: “We just turned it on on the defensive end. We didn’t give them any good looks.”

Kerry Kittles led the Nets with 22 points, making seven of 11 shots and seven of eight free throws. Jason Kidd made 11 of 14 free throws en route to 18 points and 10 assists and Jason Collins scored 14 points on six-for-eight shooting.

Corey Maggette scored 20 points for the Clippers, all in the second half, and Quentin Richardson, who played despite a tender left ankle that forced him out of Monday’s game, scored 17 despite missing 10 of 15 shots. Chris Wilcox had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Doug Overton and Chris Kaman each scored 12.

The Nets, two-time defending Eastern Conference champions, opened a five-game trip Tuesday night at Seattle, fell behind by 13 points and then outscored the SuperSonics by 32 in the second half of a 93-70 victory.

Kidd, who wasn’t even expected to play because of a sore left knee, chipped in with his third triple-double of the season.

“They have tremendous speed,” Dunleavy said of the Nets, whose starting five might be the league’s fastest, “so they’ve got great ability to get out in the open court and put some big numbers on you in a hurry.

”... You’ve got all these guys that can run, then you’ve got the premier guy that can deliver [in Kidd], so their ability to get easy baskets is a major concern.”

So is their athleticism, size and willingness to defend.

The Clippers, with their young athletes, like to run too. “But we’ve got to get better at understanding, ‘OK, we’ve pushed it, but it’s not open, so let’s pull it back out,’ ” Dunleavy said.

Not forced, it seemed, was their enthusiasm for the evening’s throwback theme. Backup forward Melvin Ely combed his air into a gravity-defying afro and, while driving to Staples Center, listened to a CD of ‘70s funk on his car stereo.

“We’re only doing this a couple of times,” he said of the Clippers, who will wear the retro uniforms three more times. “I might as well make the best of it.”

His teammates took the same attitude in building a 29-21 lead. But then the Nets scored 22 of the next 24 points, capped by a 14-0 run that gave them a 43-31 lead.