| Lost Weekend Leaves Clippers Just About Out Authored by Graham Flashner - March 20, 2005 - 5:38 pm
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Back-to-back losses to the Denver Nuggets and Sacramento Kings all but assured the Clippers are finishing out of the running for the 11th straight season. 6 games out with 16 games remaining, they’d need a miracle the likes of which haven’t been seen in this town since “Shakespeare In Love” bested “Saving Private Ryan” for the Oscar in 1998.
The Kings loss—in overtime - was a heartbreaker in the best Clippers tradition. Playing before their fifth sellout crowd of the season, and looking for their first win against the Kings this season, the Clippers led by 12 points early in the fourth quarter. Then the Kings clamped down and Cuttino Mobley (24 points) ramped up. Over the next eight minutes, the Kings went on a 19-8 run and held the Clippers to one field goal, while Mobley, heating up like butter on a griddle, hit 5 of 7 shots, at one point hitting four three-pointers in a row.
Mobley’s heroics set the stage for a wildly entertaining last three minutes of regulation, in which the teams went back-and-forth at each other in schoolyard fashion: the lead changed hands 6 times in the final two minutes; and, at one point, both teams scored baskets on ten straight possessions.
The Clippers might’ve won had Corey Maggette not been afflicted with an obsessive need to draw a foul. Twice in the final two minutes, he forced up shots in the hope of drawing contact that either didn’t come or wasn’t called. After falling behind 101-98, Bobby Simmons hit an improbable double-clutch three-pointer from the left corner to tie the game with less than 20 seconds remaining. After a Sacramento miss, the Clippers, electing not to call time out, set up for the last shot, but Maggette’s running one-hander down the lane was blocked by Brian Skinner. Maggette sat stunned on the court, waiting for a foul call that, once again, did not come.
In overtime, the Clippers never led. Mike Bibby hit a lay-up and 15-footer to break a 105-105 tie, and the Clippers, despite Maggette's 28 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, were swept in the season series. One bright spot: the return of their point guard of the future, Shaun Livingston, who had 6 points and 3 assists in 27 minutes, his first game back after a 13-game absence.
The loss to the Kings came on the heels of one of the most disappointing Clipper efforts of the season on Friday night in Denver. Faced with a must win against the team holding the last playoff seed in the West, the Clippers were blown out, 115-96, in a game they were never in. A monster 20-point, 17-rebound game from Marcus Camby led the Nuggets to their 10th win in their last 11 games. Elton Brand had his consecutive-game streak of scoring in double figures snapped at 39. Maggette, who scored 22 points n the first half, slightly re-injured his ankle and only scored 4 points in the second half.
By that time, the eggs were cooling, the butter was getting cold… and the jello was jiggling, just not in the Clippers’ direction. |
