Clippers Have a Goal for the Rest of Season: Hit .500 Mark Again

If not making the bloated National Basketball Assn. playoffs is like not being included in the phone book, as some have snidely suggested, then the Clippers have had an unlisted number for some time.

During their six-year stay in San Diego, the Clippers were never able to get into the playoffs. The last three seasons, under Donald Sterling’s ownership, the Clippers have finished last in the Pacific Division.

The Clippers may have moved to Los Angeles this season, but they are once again in danger of not making the playoffs. With 32 games remaining in the regular season, the Clippers are 20-30 and in fifth place in the six-team Pacific Division. The top eight of the 12 Western Conference teams qualify, and the Clippers have the 10th-worst record.

When last seen in action almost a week ago, the Clippers appeared to be at their lowest point in a season with a lot more lows than highs. They lost seven of their eight games before the All-Star break.

During the break, the Clippers had plenty of time to study the situation.

“I’ve thought about it, and we know that we have a good enough team to make the playoffs,� guard Derek Smith said Monday. “That’s definitely the goal now, just make the playoffs.�

Clipper Coach Jim Lynam agreed. “At this stage, yes. But it’s impossible to predict what number of wins it will take to get there. But if we set goals, I feel we should set lofty ones. The goal should be to reach .500. I don’t feel that’s impossible.�

Impossible? No. Improbable? Probably.

To reach .500, the Clippers would have to win 21 of their remaining 32 games, quite a task for a team that has put together two seven-game losing streaks in the last five weeks.

A .500 record would almost assure the Clippers a spot in the playoffs. It also would make many of the preseason predictions by Clipper players and management personnel come true. But as it stands now, it seems the Clippers overestimated their talent.

Certainly, optimism was high when the Clippers made the late September trade that brought Marques Johnson, Junior Bridgeman and Harvey Catchings to Los Angeles for Terry Cummings, Craig Hodges and Ricky Pierce. They also had a healthy Bill Walton and James Donaldson at center, Norm Nixon and rising star Smith at guards and promising rookies in Michael Cage and Lancaster Gordon.

But no one figured that Johnson would miss 10 games with injuries ranging from a broken finger to a hamstring strain to a sprained ankle. No one figured that Gordon would be major disappointment and that Cage would be forced into a starting power forward role so early in his rookie year. Many also forgot that the Clippers still had a weak bench.

All those weaknesses have been exposed. With Johnson out of the lineup, Lynam has been forced to start Bridgeman at small forward, leaving the bench even more vulnerable. And with Walton out the last two weeks with a sore right ankle, Donaldson has been forced to play all 48 minutes at center.

Lynam said the loss of Walton has been the biggest setback this season.

“When Bill was healthy a month into the season, we went on a (winning) streak,� Lynam said. “Bill really helps our defensive rebounding. That’s what he does best and helps us fast-break and pick up the offensive tempo.�

Even when Walton is in the lineup, the Clippers’ offense has often been as monotonous as the dripping of water from a faucet. Several players have complained about Lynam’s set offense, which restricts a running game. Lynam has been saddled with much of the blame for the Clippers’ failings in the club’s first 50 games. Through it all, though, he has remained steadfastly optimistic.

“OK, so we’re 10 games under .500,� Lynam said. “We’ve come back before. We were six games under .500 back in December after we lost in San Antonio and we made it back to .500. So, why can’t we do it again.

“We look at this as sort of a starting over period for us. We can start from scratch, play a second season so to speak.�