Pistons exploit Mobley absence

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- The Clippers are developing a disheartening defect here.

They travel to play the Detroit Pistons a player or two short and leave with one added loss.

The latest casualty was Cuttino Mobley, and the latest defeat a 103-79 drubbing from the Pistons on Friday at the Palace in the closing act of a still-successful trip.

The Clippers can take comfort in an impressive 2-1 road swing, an overall 4-1 record and the fact they were the last Western Conference team dealt a loss in the early season.

“Shoot, you go on the road and you want to split games on the road,” guard Brevin Knight said. “We came out on this trip and won two out of three. It was a good start for us.”

Mobley had sustained a strained right groin early against Indiana on Wednesday, a day after scoring 33 points versus Chicago, and will probably miss a week of action.

Of the Mobley loss, Coach Mike Dunleavy said before Friday’s game: “That’s a tough blow. Playing a team like this, Cat’s defensive ability to play either [Chauncey] Billups or [Richard] Hamilton or [Tayshaun] Prince and be able to still be on the floor offensively, that’s a hit for sure.”

Billups made five of his six three-point shots in the third quarter to finish with 23 points, and Nazr Mohammed came off the bench to score 15 points for the Pistons.

Last season against the Pistons, the Clippers were minus Elton Brand because of back spasms. The year before, they didn’t have Sam Cassell because of the same injury.

In 2005, the Clippers were without Corey Maggette, Chris Kaman and Quinton Ross because of an assortment of nagging injuries.

And so on and so forth.

“It seems like every year we come into this place that we got somebody not playing,” Dunleavy said.

The way the Pistons played Friday, the Clippers needed everyone they could get.

“I had some good looks,” Billups said. “They had some big guys running out on me, which gave me time to get good looks and knock down some shots.”

Kaman, playing in front of more than 130 family and friends in his hometown state, secured a game-high 25 points for the Clippers, who have dropped seven straight games at Detroit.

Maggette had 19 points, but the Clippers shot only 35% from the field and three of 13 from beyond the three-point arc.

“They played well, you have to tip your hat to them,” Knight said. “They were aggressive on both ends of the court.”

Detroit outscored the Clippers by a combined 27 points the first three quarters and outrebounded them 53-33 for the game.

“From the very beginning, they controlled the tempo of the game, the glass and they shot the ball really well,” Dunleavy said.

The Clippers trailed Detroit, 59-42, at halftime. Kaman scored 19 points on seven-for-eight shooting in the first half.

Kaman, who entered the game leading the league in rebounding with a 16.5-a-game average, grabbed only one in the first two quarters before finishing with seven.

It was the first game of the season he did not have a double-double. The Pistons simply didn’t leave many for him to get early on.

Detroit shot 75% in the first quarter, en route to finishing at 57% in the half.

Antonio McDyess, who had scored a total of only 27 points this season, scored all 14 of his points in the first half, making all seven of his shots before halftime.

Yet Knight didn’t lose sight of the positive. “You never want to end a trip this way, you want to end it playing as well as you can play,” he said. “We didn’t have anywhere near a good game for us, but it doesn’t take away from the success on this trip.”

--

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com