Clippers win this one over Lakers

Rookie Al Thornton had 24 points and the Clippers defeated the Lakers, 112-96, on Sunday in an exhibition at Staples Center.

Kobe Bryant had 10 points and seven turnovers in 16 minutes. He did not play in the second half.

Jordan Farmar led the Lakers with 19 points and five assists. Corey Maggette had 22 points for the Clippers.

Steve Nash had 20 points and eight assists to help lead Phoenix to a 98-88 victory over Charlotte in an earlier game at Staples Center.

The Bobcats learned beforehand they would probably lose forward Adam Morrison for the season after an MRI exam revealed a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Instead of a triangle, it might be a straight line.

Instead of slowly and methodically setting up the familiar sides of their geometric offense, the Lakers will try to rush the ball down court for several seconds of exploration and, possibly, exploitation.

Coach Phil Jackson isn’t abandoning the triangle offense. He’s just bending it a bit.

Derek Fisher will start at guard next to Bryant, but reserves Farmar, Javaris Crittenton and Sasha Vujacic will be asked to press the pace in reserve roles. Bryant also has been asked to move the ball more quickly as part of his new facilitator role.

Jackson is allowing seven seconds of relative freelancing before the Lakers must move into their triangle sets.

“We have three guys that I think really can push the ball well and have the speed to attack early in the offense,” he said. “We think we can extend the floor a little bit and have a first-strike type of team.”

NBA 101 and its learning curve is coming hard and fast for Thornton, and not just at practice.

With Tim Thomas missing his second straight exhibition because of personal reasons (he is expected to rejoin the team today), Thornton is playing more minutes at power forward.

Shortly before Saturday’s exhibition against Phoenix, Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy pulled Thornton aside.

The message?

More versatility equals more minutes.

“He played the majority of his minutes at power forward and he learned the plays right before the game,” Dunleavy said.

“I knew Tim wasn’t going to be here and I said, ‘Look, I’m not trying to mess you up at all and if it’s too heavy for you, no problems. But do you think you can run these plays?’”

“I gave him about five plays and asked if he could handle that and he did and he played pretty good. I was pretty pleased by that.”

Thornton was trailing only the Seattle SuperSonics’ Kevin Durant among rookie scorers entering Sunday’s game at a 17.6 per game clip. The number also leads all Clippers scorers.

The offense is there, but learning the defensive schemes, especially for two positions, may take a while.

“Coming in here, I knew I was going to be playing” small and power forward, Thornton said. “I’m still stressing on some of the rotations.”

Will undrafted free-agent guard Coby Karl make the Lakers? More will be known over the next week.

The Lakers have until next Monday to pare their roster to either 14 or 15 players.

Jackson is complimentary of Karl -- “He’s big, he’s strong, he’s feisty,” he said -- but he is also considering the possibility of keeping only 14 players.

“I’d rather have 14 because of the injuries we’ve had over the past couple years,” he said. “It seems to make the roster flexible and you’re not sitting there holding a contract you have to void. But we’ll discuss as we go along.”

--

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com