Another Lost Night for Clippers

This one was strictly for Ping-Pong balls.

The good news for the Clippers is that they won a few more balls in the NBA draft lottery Wednesday night. The bad news is that they lost yet again, to a team they had a reasonable expectation of beating, falling to another lottery club, the Golden State Warriors, 92-80, in front of an announced crowd of 8,477 in their season finale at the Sports Arena.

All the Warriors and Clippers had to gain Wednesday was better position in the upcoming lottery for the draft. That position is determined by the selection of numbered Ping-Pong balls, but it’s weighted in favor of the lower teams in the standings. The lower you go, the more balls you get. So, by remaining at 16 wins, the Clippers are still in contention for the league’s second worst record behind the Denver Nuggets.

They have remained in contention by falling into a losing streak that has reached nine games, including four in a row at home.

Could Coach Bill Fitch at least feel good about his team’s improved lottery position?

“It’s too soon after a game,” he said, as he looked in agony at the stat sheet, which included a 37.8% shooting percentage (31 of 82) from the floor for his team. “I’m just a poor loser.

“Looking at some of these shooting percentages, you would swear we never had a shooting drill. You’ve got to shoot more than 37% in this league.”

Among those who struggled Wednesday for the Clippers was center Ike Austin, who returned after missing three games because of a bruised right calf to connect on only six of 16 shots. Other Clippers who were badly off target were usually reliable Lamond Murray (five of 12), Pooh Richardson (one of five) and Maurice Taylor (five of 15).

Taylor at least had an excuse. He probably shouldn’t have even been in the game after cutting his hand on a lamp so badly Monday night that he required seven stitches.

It was the conclusion to a bad day for Taylor. The rookie was late to a morning shootaround for the first time all season, had a bad game that night against the Minnesota Timberwolves (two for eight from the floor for four points along with three rebounds in 19 minutes) and then suffered the hand injury.

“He should have stayed in bed,” Fitch said.

If Taylor had followed his doctor’s advice, he would have stayed on the bench Wednesday night. When he first came out to warm up, he shot left-handed.

But he wound up playing 22 minutes against the Warriors before fouling out and tied teammate Lorenzen Wright and the Warriors’ Erick Dampier for the game-high total in rebounds with nine.

“I couldn’t feel the ball,” he said. “Every time I clicked my hand to shoot the ball, it felt like the stitches were coming out.”

Fitch was impressed.

“We got some minutes out of him that I didn’t think we’d get,” Fitch said. “He shot like he had seven stitches in his hand, but he gutted it out.”

What impressed Fitch most was Taylor’s defense.

Taylor doesn’t know whether he’ll be back on the court tonight in Portland against the Trail Blazers. Gutting it out is one thing. But he has been warned by a doctor that the sweat which must inevitably get into the cut could cause an infection.

“I have to think about that,” he said.

While Taylor played solid defense, none of the Clippers were able to do much against Golden State guard Jim Jackson. He made 11 of 24 shots from the floor and had a game-high 27 points.

Rodney Rogers led the Clippers with 17 points. Teammate James Robinson had 16, including four three-pointers in seven attempts.