Clippers 99 Knicks 86
LOS ANGELES – Jeff Van Gundy kept the same starting lineup and the result was the same stink. With their defense still putrid, the athletic Clippers shredded the Knicks 99-86, at the Staples Center in an abominable loss that dropped them to 0-6 on the road and 4-7 overall.
The Clippers are playing without their best player in suspended Lamar Odom but the Knicks made all the others look like stars, particularly reserve second-year swingman Quentin Richardson, who scored 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting and killed them in the fourth quarter. Even little point guard Earl Boykins, at 5-5, stood tall against the clownish Knicks, who committed 18 turnovers.
With back-to-back losses to two of the league’s sorriest franchises the past 10 years in the Nets and Clippers, Van Gundy likely has no choice but to shake it up when the club faces the Warriors tomorrow in Oakland.
And to make matters worse, Kurt Thomas sprained his left ankle in the third quarter, was hobbling in tremendous pain in the locker room and is questionable for the rest of the three-game western trip. Which means they may be coming home for Thanksgiving at 4-9.
In his first call-to-arms speech, Latrell Sprewell said after the disgrace “The team spirit is down, until guys stop feeling sorry for themselves. We have to have a collective spirit to take us through times like this. It seems like we were down in the second quarter, coming to the bench, guys looking sad like the game is over and it’s so early. We need to get motivated somehow. If we all try to pick one another up somehow and have a better attitude, we’ll start turning it around.”
Van Gundy kept Mark Jackson in the starting lineup along with Houston, two of the Knicks’ worst defenders. Meanwhile, Charlie Ward, one of their most tenacious defenders, is out of the rotation but maybe not for long. The Knicks are allowing 98 points per game on the road.
“Terrible defense, just awful,” Van Gundy said of their D. “We’re very capable. We just don’t guard.”
Asked about lineup shakeups, Van Gundy said “We’ve got to find a way to put a lineup out there that has enough balance between offense and defense, a combination of guys.”
Jackson played an OK game on the offensive end (10 assists, nine points) but his defense remains deficient and he made the costly turnover that all but ended it. With L.A. up seven, Richardson intercepted a telegraphed pass from Jackson to Shandon Anderson. Richard broke in all alone and executed a slam-dunk competition-type jam that put the Clips up 78-69 with 7:11 left, bringing the Clippers’ fans out of their seats.
If it wasn’t over then, it was after Westchester’s Elton Brand, whom the Knicks coveted in June, outfought Clarence Weatherspoon and Thomas for an offensive rebound, laid it in and got fouled. Brand’s 3-point play lifted the Clips to a 85-75 lead as Spoon picked up his fifth foul, forcing Van Gundy to play Anderson at power forward in a small lineup with Sprewell and Houston. Van Gundy said it was out of “desperation” and has no plans of using the trio on a regular basis.
“The misperception is we are a great defensive team,” said Houston, who finished with 19 points. “Just because we have New York on our chests doesn’t mean we’re a good defensive team because we’re not. We don’t have the resolve. One or two things go bad, we slink and slouch over.”
