Livingston’s Season Starts With an Off-Key Effort

It wasn’t surprising that Shaun Livingston appeared out of sync Wednesday night in a 102-89 loss to the New Orleans Hornets.

The second-year point guard sat out the first 21 games because of a stress reaction in his lower back, so the Clippers didn’t expect much in his season debut.

Livingston acknowledged he was anxious in a five-point, four-rebound effort that reminded him of how much he had missed.

“It’s going to take me some time to get my timing and rhythm back,” Livingston said. “That won’t come overnight, but that wasn’t an excuse for how I played tonight.

“I was just too excited the first half. I was too lackadaisical at the start of the second half. I found my rhythm a little bit at the end, but by that time I had pretty much made some crucial mistakes.”

The 6-foot-7 Livingston, also sidelined 52 games in his rookie season because of knee and shoulder injuries, entered with 5:36 remaining in the first quarter.

He scored his first points of the season five seconds later on a layup. Livingston, however, also was called for his fourth foul in only 4:22 on the court. He finished with five in 20 minutes.

“We expected that, that’s why we left him out there a little bit,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “It’s going to take him some games to get him in the comfort zone, get him used to the contact, the referees and all that goes along with it.”