For Entertainment, Go Clippers

The problem with pulling for Los Angeles--not the Lakers, not the Clippers, but the city--is it’s hard to figure out the right rooting interest.

We want the Lakers to play the Clippers in the first round of the playoffs. Oh baby, that would be fun. How great was it to see the players and the fans go back and forth in the Clippers’ 95-90 victory Wednesday night?

A playoff rematch would probably require a No. 1 seeding for the Lakers and a No. 8 seeding for the Clippers. So did we want the Lakers to win last night to go for the best record in the league? Or did we want the Clippers to claw toward a playoff berth?

Since the Clippers need to win in January just to think about the playoffs, and since they’re the only team in town playing that way right now, it’s not too hard to choose. The Lakers represent this city’s best chance for a championship and they can win one as the No. 2 or 3 seeded team. But the Clippers are the best entertainment until then.

Most in the crowd seemed to favor the Clippers in their designated home game, having no trouble picking sides. The fans roared during the Clippers’ third-quarter comeback and booed the ticky-tack fouls that sent Shaquille O’Neal to the free-throw line.

It was almost as if the referees took my ideas about officiating O’Neal to the extreme. They called little love taps and phantom fouls.

Before the game, I talked with O’Neal about his fight with Brad Miller. He said there’s a difference between a hard foul and a dirty play, and that Miller crossed the line.

He said he was sick of no-names trying to make a reputation against him. He pointed to his surgically repaired right thumb, the one damaged by a Matt Geiger hack in 1995, and said it’s already happened once before.

He said he warned Miller he was going to get punished if he kept pounding him, and he did. And O’Neal tried to avoid hitting him in the back of the head. Watch the tape of the incident (if you’re not already sick of it), and notice that O’Neal holds his fist while waiting for Miller to turn around. Miller turns briefly, O’Neal lets it fly, and Miller turns back around, the fist whizzing by the side of his head.

O’Neal’s coming along in his sheriff’s training. He demonstrated his frisking technique on an overwhelmed Stu Lantz before the game, and reminded us that 245 is the penal code for assault with a deadly weapon. And he’s fully aware that the soft area in the back of the skull is a “kill zone.” So he wasn’t aiming for it.

I have yet to talk to one NBA player, coach or broadcaster who blames Shaq for losing his cool. They know the game and they know human nature. They know why it happened.

Should he be responsible for his actions? Of course. I would have suspended him for five games, not three.

But if you’re going to foul O’Neal--and it’s tough to do so in a way that won’t give him a shot at a three-point play--there’s a responsible way to do it. Follow the example Sean Rooks set in the fourth quarter. He wrapped both arms around O’Neal in a big bear hug, held his arms down, then gave him a little pat on the side after the whistle to let him know it was nothing personal, strictly business. No need for all the “Street Fighter” moves of Miller and Charles Oakley in Chicago.

So the Clippers didn’t have to be afraid of any flying fists.

If I’m the Clippers, right now I’m worried about the Bobblehead Doll Jinx and what it could mean for Quentin Richardson. So far, no player has been around on the originally scheduled night for the giveaway of their likeness. Lamar Odom’s night was Nov. 10, but he was suspended for violating the league’s drug policy. Keyon Dooling’s was supposed to be Dec. 4, but he went on the injured list with a sprained right ankle on Nov. 15 and he still hasn’t made his way back to the court.

Richardson’s doll night is scheduled for Saturday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks. Burn them all. Now.

The jinx might not be through with Odom, who has a sprained ligament in his right wrist, which an MRI exam revealed Wednesday. The wrist will be placed in a cast today, and he’ll miss several more games.

His status probably won’t be known before the Feb. 21 trading deadline, so you should probably wrap up any talk of trading for the time being as well. Besides, he’s too cheap too trade for the next couple of seasons as well. At $3.6 million this season, it would be close to impossible to find a player of similar talent who makes similar money (within 15%), as would be necessary to accommodate the trade under the NBA’s salary cap rules.

That rules out such worthy and available players as Gary Payton ($12.9 million) and Jalen Rose ($10.9 million) without the Clippers having to throw in other players to make it work.

The Clippers say they’re not looking to trade Odom anyway.

For now, with Odom and Dooling out, Coach Alvin Gentry’s job actually gets easier. Fewer players to divide the minutes. Wednesday night, that meant more run for Corey Maggette, who lit up the Lakers for 23 of his 28 points in the second half.

OK, let’s see him shoot like that in the playoffs.

Please, let’s see him get the chance.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com.