| Clippers Road Rage Continues Authored by Graham Flashner - February 12, 2005 - 3:48 am
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Furious when a non-foul call against Rick Brunson resulted in the Clippers losing a critical possession at Washington with 3.1 seconds left, Dunleavy snapped. He was hit with a rare double technical and ejected from the game, helping to clinch a 94-91 victory by the Wizards.
Dunleavy’s frustration was understandable. As they have for every single game of this trip, the Clippers battled down to the final seconds. And for the fourth straight game, they came up short. They were trailing 93-91 when Gilbert Arenas missed a jumper, and the rebound was batted out to Brunson. As he chased the ball to the sideline, he was apparently elbowed or pushed in the back by the Wizards’ Etan Thomas. A foul would’ve sent Brunson to the line with a chance to tie the game, but when the ball was ruled out of bounds off Brunson, Dunleavy went ballistic.
It was exactly the type of call that goes against a losing team down on its luck. A team that plays hard every night, but is somehow unable to get the job done when it counts the most.
At Washington, they were done in by Arenas, who scored 14 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, and by Antawn Jamison, whose clutch three-point shot broke a 90-90 tie. The teams combined for 33 turnovers and couldn’t shake each other all night. Ex-Wizard Bobby Simmons pumped in 24 points, and Brunson dished out 13 assists, but the Clippers looked tentative on their final possessions.
Friday night’s loss was painful, but the Wizards, destined to be the Number 4 or 5 seed in the East, at least have the makings of a playoff contender. Wednesday night’s loss in Boston, on the other hand, was galling. For the second time, the Clippers let a mediocre Celtics team wipe out a double-digit lead and pull out a victory.
The Clips played what may have been their most impressive first half of basketball, seizing a 60-42 lead and making 60% of their shots. Corey Maggette, returning to the lineup from a shoulder injury, scored 13 points in the second quarter alone. The Clippers ran their half-court offense with authority and pressured the Celtics all over the court. Boston fans booed their team as it left the court for halftime.
Shockingly, more than one Clipper later admitted that they thought they had the game won. You would think a team that has now lost 10 of its last 11 on the road (13 of 15 since November) would know better than to ease up, but the NBA season is a draining one, and athletes are easily lulled. And so it was that the Celtics stormed back, and the Clippers suddenly could not make a bucket. They shot 3-15 in the third quarter, 5-21 in the fourth, and managed 29 points in the entire second half. The Celtics, meanwhile, energized by Paul Pierce (25 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists) and a hustling, trapping defense, used a 16-0 fourth quarter run to surge ahead, and the Clippers never recovered.
The bad news for the Clippers is: this was the easy part of their nine-game trip, and it ends Sunday in Toronto. Next week, they’ll be tested in back-to-back games in Orlando and Miami. A loss in Toronto, and the Clips could conceivably be looking at a 1-7 trip heading into the All-Star Break. And Mike Dunleavy’s fuse will only get shorter.
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