Clippers find new source of offense

Meet Shaun Livingston.

The Livingston who has been dominating all those practices but no NBA games surfaced Wednesday night, scoring six of his 14 points in the last 4 minutes 51 seconds, leading the Clippers to their sixth win in seven games, 110-98, over the Chicago Bulls at Staples Center.

The 21-year-old Livingston, who has been under increasing pressure since word got out that the team had refused to give him up for Allen Iverson, put the Clippers ahead, 98-94, ducking inside for a layup.

A moment later, Livingston tipped the ball away from Chicago’s Ben Gordon, went in on a breakaway but was hauled down by Kirk Hinrich, who was called for a flagrant foul.

Livingston got up and made two free throws. The Clippers then turned it into a four-point play with Elton Brand making a turnaround 12-foot shot, taking a 102-94 lead with 2:00 left.

“Shaun had a great preseason and he played some good minutes for us. He was averaging like 14 points as a starter,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said.

“Actually, I had a talk with him yesterday. I told him to be more aggressive, start going to the rim, dunking on people, do the things we know he can do.”

Said teammate Sam Cassell: “Shaun’s got it in him. It’s up to Shaun when to release it.”

The Clippers’ win sent them back into eighth place in the West, putting them above .500 for the first time since Dec. 9.

They now go on a seven-game East Coast trip, a crossroads for a team that started 3-14 on the road and is now only 6-14.

“We’ve won three in a row on the road,” Dunleavy said. “That helps. We’re starting to get some of it back but we’re not jumping on the bandwagon until we get it going pretty good.”

Not that this is necessarily an omen, but before the game, Dunleavy got word that the Clippers’ charter flight to the East Coast would have to land and refuel en route because of high headwinds.

The Bulls started the night on a three-game winning streak in the first game of a seven-game West Coast trip and a lot of bad history going, including an 0-5 record in the first Western swing in their annual November trip with Ringling Bros. in the United Center, known as their “circus trip.”

Of course, this was only their latest disaster. In the first seven seasons after Michael Jordan left the Bulls, they were 4-41 on circus trips and at one point lost 37 games in a row.

“We talk to our guys every single day about where we are,” Coach Scott Skiles said before the game. “We talked about it after the game on Saturday [a 100-97 win over Miami] and started talking about it Monday, that we’ve got nine games before the break. Eight of them are on the road and it’s important to play well.

“We’ve been a good road team. It hasn’t always been on the West Coast....This is a big stretch for us. We’re in the thick of things to lead our division and we need as many games as we can get out here.”

With Ben Wallace out, Skiles started Malik Allen at center. Asked why he was going away from rookie Tyrus Thomas, who had started the previous two games, Skiles noted, “Well, we weren’t playing Elton Brand and [Chris] Kaman in those two games. We’d like a little more experience out there tonight.”

With as much experience as Skiles could find, the Bulls still kicked the ball around in the first half, turning it over 10 times.

The Clippers grabbed a 31-23 lead after the first quarter with Cassell going for 14 points and four assists, making five of his seven shots.

The Clippers stretched the lead to 11 points early in the second quarter before the Bulls cut it back to five. Then Brand, who had two points to that point, scored 14 more in the last 2:56 of second quarter to help the Clippers take a 57-45 halftime lead.