How nondescript are these sorrowful Clippers? After Allan Houston drained a 20-footer five minutes into last night’s game to give the Knicks a 19-2 lead, a Garden front-row fan yelled at the Clippers’ bench:
“Dunleavy, you should be embarrassed.”
Well, for the record, the Clippers’ head coach is Chris Ford, but it’s not an embarrassment to muff that. The Clippers’ ownership was so cheap, it waited until after the lockout ended before hiring its coach, Ford, in mid-January.
Ford’s club forgot to show up for the opening five minutes last night just as it forgot to show up for the 1999 season, in which it began 0-17, tying the NBA record for worst start.
The score was 14-0 before four minutes had expired as the league’s most generous defense (101.6 ppg) gave Larry Johnson, Houston, Charlie Ward and LJ again room to sink wide-open threes off the bat.
“We weren’t doubling down on anyone, we just weren’t playing defense,” Ford said after the Clippers’ 113-89 loss. “The guys came out not ready to play basketball. On LJ’s first shot, the guy (Rodney Rogers) just forgot to guard him.”
Ford replaced four of his starters after falling behind 19-2.
“You’d think coming into New York the guys who started would’ve come out with some fire,” Ford said. “They certainly came out as flat as can be.”
The 1-20 Clippers, who make the Nets look like the Jordan Bulls, somehow played hard enough to win a game last Thursday against Sacramento. Ford blames some of the losing on impending free agency for a group of his players. They seem more worried about their statistics than victories as they look ahead to exiting the NBA’s hellhole this summer.
It’s a cancer Ford is desperately trying to rip out from his locker room, where several players thought they’d be dealt at last week’s trading deadline. The Clippers, incredibly, stood pat.
“I’ve told the guys after the trading deadline it’s better they do well as a team because then individually it will look better,” Ford said. “In the end, they’re going to reap the individual benefits.”
Not last night. Selfishness? Witness Rogers, burdened by three fouls in the second quarter, pushing the Knicks’ Kurt Thomas in retaliation to pick up an easy fourth. Rogers is one of four free agents, along with Lorenzen Wright, Lamond Murray and Darrick Martin.
“It’s human nature,” Ford said. “With the number of free agents we have, sometimes the players are looking out for themselves.”
“When you get off to a start like we did, sometimes teams make changes,” Rogers said. Even classy center Michael Olowokandi, the top overall pick in the ’98 draft, has let the losing affect him. After the game, he blew up at a reporter who asked him how his rookie season was going, ending the heated exchange by saying “Get out of my face.”