Nothing’s Fantastic for Losing Clippers

SACRAMENTO —  Whoever coined the slogan, “NBA action, it’s fantastic!” didn’t have a Clipper-Sacramento King game in mind.

The Clippers fell behind by 22 points at halftime and went on to lose their fourth consecutive game, 100-88, Monday night before a sellout crowd of 17,317 at Arco Arena.

Clipper Coach Bill Fitch unleashed a profanity-filled tirade during a timeout four minutes into the third quarter after his team fell behind by 24 points.

“If I holler once in a while, that’s to keep me from going back and getting another zipper,” said Fitch, who underwent an emergency triple bypass after suffering a heart attack last August. “I got the point across and the guys know that when we come back [from the holiday break], we’ll get this thing turned around.”

The Clippers cut the deficit to six points with two minutes left in the game on a jumper by Loy Vaught. But that was as close as they got.

Michael Smith made a layup and a free throw with 1:44 remaining and Mitch Richmond, who had 23 points, made a three-point shot with 1:10 remaining as the Kings held off the Clippers.

Clipper guard Malik Sealy, who had averaged a team-high 14.3 points, missed all five of his shots and failed to score in 12 minutes.

“It felt like the rim was closed,” Sealy said.

Vaught, who had averaged 15.4 points and 16.2 rebounds in his last five games, missed nine of 11 shots and had eight points and eight rebounds in 27 minutes in the first three quarters.

But Vaught had six points in the final quarter to spark the Clipper rally and finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Clipper forward Rodney Rogers, who averaged five points in the first two games of the trip after suffering a shoulder injury last Thursday against the Washington Bullets, had a team-high 20 points and seven rebounds.

“It’s still sore, but I’m just trying to play through it,” Rogers said. “I didn’t score a lot the last two games, but I had a lot of open shots and I just missed them. Tonight I felt a lot better.”

Rookie swingman Lorenzen Wright, held scoreless in Sunday night’s 97-91 loss at Golden State, started his fourth game in place of injured center Kevin Duckworth.

Wright--who worked with assistant coach Jim Brewer on his post moves before the game, practicing a jump hook and other shots--had 11 points and three rebounds.

“He’s playing out of position and against bigger people, but I thought he played pretty well,” Fitch said. “He made some good defensive plays.”

Fitch isn’t concerned that Wright, who averaged 16 points and 10.3 rebounds in two seasons at Memphis, has been inconsistent in his first NBA season.

“That [scoring] is going to come and go,” Fitch said. “Last night he didn’t have that many opportunities to score. He improved as the game went on defensively. He didn’t have a good first time on the floor and I got on his case a little bit and he ended up [creating a turnover].”

Guard Pooh Richardson, who had missed five consecutive games because of a sprained right ankle, tested it by playing five minutes in the second quarter, replacing Terry Dehere, who had trouble checking Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who had 20 points in 27 minutes as a reserve.

Swingman Bo Outlaw, the Clippers’ reserve center, played only 19 minutes after bruising his right hand.