Clippers take old approach

Give them your tired, your poor....

All are welcome in Clipper Nation. Fresh from smiting the Warriors’ eight-man roster, the Clippers ran their winning streak over the less fortunate to two games, trouncing the lowly Memphis Grizzlies, 112-91, on Saturday in Staples Center behind Elton Brand’s season-high 34 points and Sam Cassell’s 21.

If the names sound familiar, Brand and Cassell were the Clippers’ 1-2 punch last season, combining to average 46 points.

This season, playing together intermittently -- Saturday was only Cassell’s 17th start -- they were averaging 35 before breaking out for Saturday’s 55.

Now with Shaun Livingston sitting out his second game because of a sprained ankle, the Clippers are back to last season’s starting lineup with no plans to change.

“Elton and Sam are really tremendous basketball players,” said Tony Barone, Memphis’ interim coach. “They find ways to tear you apart, no matter what you try to do on defense....

“We tried 10 different things and we were 0 for 10.

“Sam has such a high basketball IQ, he’ll pick you apart. Elton is automatic from 17 feet, so if you don’t pre-rotate and get over there, he’s open.

“So we tried that. We tried to go underneath [Brand’s screen] and force Sam back the other way. That didn’t work. Finally tried to blitz it -- double-team it. That didn’t work.”

The Grizzlies arrived with the league’s worst record, 10-30, but they were a heady 4-6 under Barone, the scouting director whom team President Jerry West put on the bench after firing Mike Fratello.

With Barone under orders to open up the offense, the Grizzlies, who were in the process of getting injured Pau Gasol back, have since averaged 112 points.

Then, of course, there’s their defense, which is giving up an average of 118 under Barone.

The Grizzlies stayed in Saturday’s game through the first quarter, which former Laker Chucky Atkins ended with a buzzer-beating three-point basket to give Memphis a 28-24 lead.

The Grizzlies were still ahead, 32-31, when the Clippers began going inside with a vengeance, attacking the Grizzlies with Cassell and Brand running their pet pick-and-roll, going into halftime on a 33-7 run to complete a 39-12 quarter.

The lead grew to 25 points in the third quarter. Memphis made a token run but never got closer than 12 points again.

The disappearance of the Clippers’ post game has been one of the mysteries of their disappointing start. If Brand was tired after playing for the U.S. team and Chris Kaman struggled after signing his $52-million contract extension, they also missed the 37-year-old Cassell, who was in and out of the lineup because of a sore foot.

“It was the first time I’d ever had it, so I didn’t know how to respond to it,” Cassell said of plantar fasciitis. “I had teammates who had it before, but I thought it can’t be that bad.

“It’s bad. It’s bad. It makes you miserable. You think you’re able to do something and one wrong cut here or one wrong cut there and you’re back at square one.

“I was putting myself in the lineup and playing three minutes, four minutes. [Coach Mike Dunleavy] just told me, ‘I want you to take as much time as you need, where you can play your 33 or 34 minutes a night so you help us get where we need to get.’ ”

The original plan was to start Livingston, a better defender, and bring Cassell off the bench. However, when Livingston ran pick-and-rolls with Brand, opponents sagged on Brand and made Livingston take jump shots.

Recently, Dunleavy tried starting Livingston and Cassell together. Because both are used to having the ball, that combination didn’t click either.

Now they’re going to try it the old way, as long as their aged point guard holds up.

“I’m cool,” Cassell said. “I made it this far.”

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mark.heisler@latimes.com

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KEYS TO THE GAME

* The Grizzlies couldn’t begin to defend the Clippers’ pick-and-roll, which helped Elton Brand get 34 points and Sam Cassell score 21.

* The Grizzlies, an open-court team, have to make three-point shots to spread the court, but they missed 15 of 20.

* The Clippers were more physical, with Brand often pushing Alexander Johnson and Lawrence Roberts out of the way, and had a 43-35 rebound edge.

-- MARK HEISLER