Clippers Get Past the Bucks

If the reconstituted Clippers are not the NBA’s most surprising success story so far this season, the revitalized Milwaukee Bucks might be.

Playoff outsiders last spring, the Bucks won the lottery, remade their roster around All-Star guard Michael Redd last summer and won four of their first five games before kicking off a four-game Western Conference swing Tuesday night.

Of course, that mattered not at all to the Clippers.

In the midst of their own resurgence, they have got their own destiny to worry about and their own, much longer playoff drought to end.

They torched the Bucks, 109-85, in Staples Center, bouncing back strongly from an unsavory loss Sunday at Philadelphia and sending the visitors off to Oakland still winless in the West since the final weeks of the 2003-04 season.

The Bucks, whose 7-31 record on the road last season included an 0-15 record against Western Conference opponents, haven’t won outside of Milwaukee against a Western Conference opponent since March 23, 2004, when they won at Sacramento, the streak now at 17 consecutive losses.

The Clippers, meanwhile, are 6-2 for the first time in franchise history and still tied with the San Antonio Spurs -- the three-time and defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs -- with the best record in the Western Conference.

“It feels good,” point guard Sam Cassell said. “We’re winning at a high level; we’ve got to continue to win.

“When we lose, we make the adjustments and move forward. We don’t complain when we lose, we don’t blame no one but ourselves when we lose. We get to practice the next day and make the adjustments and go from there.”

Cassell, who stayed late after practice Monday for extra shooting after making one of 10 in the Clippers’ 113-108 loss to the 76ers on Sunday, led the Clippers with 23 points and nine assists in 24 minutes, making nine of 12 shots.

“I wasn’t shooting the ball up to par,” he said, “so I just decided to get me some extra reps. It pays off, a little extra hard work, you know? I took some quality shots, shots I knew I was supposed to make, and I made them.”

Elton Brand had 20 points and 11 rebounds, reserve forward Corey Maggette scored 21 points and backup point guard Daniel Ewing scored 12.

Maggette, who said Monday, “I ain’t no sixth man,” scored 11 points in the second quarter and was back in the starting lineup to open the second half after starter Quinton Ross was sidelined because of back spasms.

Redd and T.J. Ford each scored 15 points, and former Clipper Bobby Simmons had 13 for the Bucks, who trailed by as many as 31 points and never led.

Andrew Bogut, the top pick in the draft in June, got into early foul trouble and had only two points and three rebounds in 14 minutes.

The Bucks, 30-52 and last in the Central Division last season, revamped their roster after winning the lottery in the spring.

They drafted the 7-foot Bogut, re-signed Redd to a max contract, added Simmons through free agency, traded for All-Star center Jamaal Magloire and welcomed back Ford, a lightning-quick point guard who sat out last season because of a career-threatening spinal cord bruise.

They averaged nearly 108 points through their first five games, second only to the Phoenix Suns, and made a league-high 45.2% of their three-point shots.

But they missed their first six shots against the Clippers, fell behind, 8-0, and never really recovered. Though they trimmed the deficit to 31-29 early in the second quarter, it was 55-46 at halftime and 85-63 at the end of three quarters.

The Clippers blew them away. The first-place Clippers.

“It’s nice,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said, “but it’s only eight games.”