Brunson Puts His Time to Good Use

In eight games since taking over from the injured Marko Jaric as the Clippers’ starting point guard, Rick Brunson has averaged nearly 38 minutes a game, almost quadruple his career average of 10.

His right ankle is sore, he has suffered leg cramps, and at times he fairly drags himself into timeouts. But he continues to produce.

A 32-year-old journeyman, signed mainly to be a practice player and mentor to rookies Shaun Livingston and Lionel Chalmers, Brunson has averaged 10.8 points and 7.7 assists as a starter and made 52.4% of his three-point shots.

“Things change in a hurry and I’m so happy that he’s the guy we tagged,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said Wednesday after Brunson contributed a career-high 14 assists in a 102-98 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. “He’s never had to do this before, but I knew in stretches he could be smart ... and could shoot the ball and make plays.... He’s been nothing short of terrific.”

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Though Bobby Simmons scored 22 points on 11-of-24 shooting Wednesday, a recent slump has dropped him out of the NBA’s top 10 in shooting percentage, a dip in accuracy that the Clippers have attributed in part to officials’ looking the other way while defenders rap Simmons’ right elbow.

“A lot of times they don’t want to hear it because they figure we’re crying for calls, but that’s not the case all the time,” Simmons said of the Clippers’ pleas to the referees. “Hopefully, Mike [Dunleavy] will just keep mentioning it to them and as the season goes on they’ll start catching it.”

In his last seven games, Simmons has shot 37.9%, his overall accuracy dipping below 50% for the first time this season.

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Judging by comments he made when he left, Darrick Martin didn’t think much of the Clippers of the late 1990s, calling them out publicly for penny-pinching, not treating players with respect, etc.

And now?

“I think these guys are really building something here,” Martin said Wednesday after signing a 10-day contract to rejoin the team. “

“You can just look in their eyes and their faces and see it.”

Showing that some feelings die harder, however, Martin said his fondest memory of his Clipper days was the night he scored 40 points against John Stockton and the Utah Jazz, a performance made all the sweeter, he said, because it was witnessed by his former UCLA coach, Jim Harrick.

As a senior, Martin was benched by Harrick in favor of freshman Tyus Edney.