Clippers Enjoy a Night of Improv

The Clippers thought they had the Charlotte Bobcats beat. When the game nearly slipped away, they used pure instinct to pull it out.

Shaun Livingston made a soft layup with one second left to lift the Clippers to a 104-102 victory over the Bobcats on Tuesday night.

His basket came after Brevin Knight made a three-point basket to tie the score at 102-102 with seven seconds left. Rick Brunson then drove the length of the court and passed it off to Livingston, who was under the basket and softly tossed it in.

“It was an improvised play, we had no timeouts left and they seemed to be celebrating or something,” Livingston said. “Rick drove all the way down, and saw Emeka [Okafor] and passed it at the last second. It was a great play by him, I just finished it.”

Okafor said he never even knew what hit the Bobcats.

“I tried to put myself in position to block it and everything just happened so fast,” he said. “I looked up and saw this figure making a layup.”

The Clippers seemed to have this one in hand over the final two minutes, with Charlotte having to foul them every possession. But Knight made a pair of free throws, scored on a driving layup, then sank the tying three-pointer.

“We wanted no threes,” said Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy. “We would give up a layup or even free throws, but no threes. Then we backed up too far on defense and Brevin drilled it.”

The Clippers also earned consecutive road victories for only the second time this season.

“Part of winning down the stretch is having guys that can make plays,” Dunleavy said.

Knight angrily knocked over several chairs on Charlotte’s bench as he stormed off, frustrated as the Bobcats’ lost for the fifth time this season on the final shot of the game.

“At that point of the game it was a little chaotic,” Knight said of the game-winning shot. “I just wish we had been able to pick up our men.”

Corey Maggette scored 34 points to lead the Clippers and Elton Brand had 27 points and 10 rebounds. Livingston finished with 17 points.

Knight had 21 points and 13 assists to lead the Bobcats, who lost their fifth in a row. Okafor had 17 points and 10 rebounds for his 41st double-double.

Former Clipper Melvin Ely had nine points and five rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.

The game was tight throughout, with 14 ties and 18 lead changes.

Then Livingston had a pair of steals off bad Charlotte passes, and Brand put the Clippers on top with a basket with 1:15 to play that gave them a 95-94 lead.

After a Charlotte miss, Marko Jaric made his only basket of the night with 57 seconds remaining.

Charlotte began fouling from there and Maggette, who made 15 of 16 free throws, made four down the stretch. His pair of foul shots with 12 seconds left made it 102-99.