Clippers send Rockets way off orbit

Suddenly, a streak.

Never mind that it took 23 games for the Clippers to get to the lofty plateau of recording consecutive victories.

They ended the suspense in emphatic fashion, defeating Houston, 95-82, on Saturday night at Staples Center. It was a fitting bookend to Friday night’s double-overtime edge-of-the-seat thriller at Portland.

Plenty has happened this NBA season while Clippers fans waited patiently. There was a presidential election. The Lakers lost a game. Then a couple more.

And five coaches in the league lost their jobs before the Clippers won two straight games.

This development -- victories over teams with a combined 30 wins -- was so discombobulating that the in-house scoreboard went dark for a few minutes in the fourth quarter.

You couldn’t see it.

Or believe it.

The Clippers (6-17) and their coach, Mike Dunleavy, were so focused down the stretch, they didn’t even notice the missing scoreboard visual.

“I think my horizon was 7 foot 6,” said Dunleavy, joking.

That was a reference to Rockets center Yao Ming, who fairly terrorized the Clippers on Dec. 3 in Houston, scoring 24 points and taking 10 rebounds. Houston was without Ron Artest but did have Tracy McGrady back in the lineup Saturday night.

This time, it was the Clippers’ Zach Randolph grabbing hold of the game and refusing to let it go, scoring 30 points and getting 13 rebounds. In about 24 hours, he scored 68 points, 38 coming against his former team, Portland.

“We’ve been playing through him,” Dunleavy said. “He draws a lot of attention. He can open looks for other guys. We’ve scored a lot of points off the attention being paid him as well.”

Said Marcus Camby, who had 12 points, 13 rebounds and five blocked shots, of Randolph: “I was just telling them, as advertised. What did they say, 20 [points] and 10 [rebounds]? What, 40 and 10 last night. Thirty and 10 tonight.”

Close enough, but you get the idea of Randolph’s impact. He said almost the same thing as he did Friday, calling this win “a building block -- we’re trying to build.”

“There’s not a shot he cannot make,” Camby said.

Additionally, an aggressive-minded Al Thornton had 26 points, and all Clippers starters were in double figures. Houston lost Rafer Alston because of a hamstring injury late in the fourth quarter, and Yao (24 points, 13 rebounds) didn’t quite seem the same after leaving the game in the third quarter for a few minutes because of a contusion above his left eye after getting clipped by Camby’s arm.

Etc.

It looks as though there won’t be Part II to Darius Miles’ career with the Clippers.

The former Clipper signed a minimum non-guaranteed contract with the Grizzlies, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

This came a few days after the 27-year-old Miles worked out for the Clippers as he is attempting to come back from what had been thought to be career-ending knee surgery.

“Anybody in the position I’m in and has been through what I’ve been through the past two years, if he’s not hungry he shouldn’t waste anybody’s time. I’m hungry. I ain’t quitting. . . .

“I wouldn’t even waste the Grizzlies’ time if I felt like my career was over,” Miles told the newspaper.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com