Clippers are out of it early in 97-79 loss to Heat

Reporting from Miami —  There would be no 44-point first quarter.

In the case of the Clippers, there wouldn’t even be a 44-point first half, not against the revenge-seeking Heat and not with long scoring droughts in Miami’s ultimate 97-79 victory on a sleepy Sunday.

Lulls, you say?

One could have left AmericanAirlines Arena, stood outside and done some good work toward a decent tan … and not missed a Clippers field goal in the fourth quarter

They went about 41/2 minutes without scoring and the Heat’s nine-point lead turned into an 18-point margin.

Game over.

It was the Clippers’ second loss in two games to open this marathon trek across North America, and, in fact, they have lost six consecutive road games since beating Sacramento on Dec. 27. The road has rarely been kind to them this season with only three victories in 20 games. The Clippers hardly looked like the team capable of beating Miami, which they did Jan. 12 when they put up 44 points in the first quarter.

Here, the Clippers (19-31) shot 32.5% from the field and committed 20 turnovers, seven by Baron Davis. Blake Griffin, who was seven for 17 from the field, had his 42nd double-double of the season — a team-leading 21 points and 16 rebounds. He missed six free throws and had several sizzling dunks. Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 28 points and eight assists.

“The guys battled, our bench was poor today,” Coach Vinny Del Negro said. “We didn’t get anything off the bench which really hurt us. We’re just not deep enough to go through those lulls.’

Griffin was also at the other end of a flagrant foul, at the hands of Eddie House, who sent him into the support stand of the basket in the fourth quarter.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt the guy, nothing like that,” said House, who had 15 points off the bench, outscoring the Clippers reserves by himself.

“I saw he was calling for the lob. There was no way I could get to him to wrap him up. I did lower my shoulder and got him a little bit, but I don’t think it was that much. The dude is way bigger.”

Once again, it was Davis coming to the defense of Griffin, showing his edge and getting a technical in the process. He even tried to talk to the officials before they reviewed the flagrant foul, via video replay, but a couple of security guards set pretty decent picks in front of him.

Davis was teased that he was becoming Griffin’s enforcer.

“Just doing whatever I can to stick up for my teammate. If I got a get a tech for it, then I am. I’m not gonna let stuff like that slide,” Davis said.

“I guess I am the enforcer — till Craig [Smith] gets back. Once Craig gets out there, they’re going to stop doing all that. I’m going to go to war for my teammates. My teammates are like my brothers.”

But are the Clippers in need of an enforcer?

“We need a lot of things in terms of enforcer. We need our guys to get healthy,” Del Negro said. “We need guys to come back in and that’ll give us more depth. That’ll take some minutes off guys who can play a little bit harder, and shaper and smarter.”

During the long video review of the flagrant foul, Miami’s LeBron James, who had a season-low 12 points, complained loudly that he had a Super Bowl party to attend. Maybe that’s why the game was played at noon, body clock being fixed at 9 a.m. PST for the sluggish Clippers.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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