CLIP ON ODOM'S SHOULDER GONE FORWARD FINALLY BREAKS THROUGH AGAINST FORMER TEAM IN LAKERS' WIN LAKERS 100, CLIPPERS 83.

Byline: Ross Siler Staff Writer

The question might never be answered, but at least it could be put to rest Sunday night at Staples Center. Never again will Lamar Odom have to hear about why he can't seem to play well against the Clippers.

It took eight games, two ejections and one assertion by Phil Jackson, but Odom finally broke through against his former team with 23 points and 15 rebounds as the Lakers turned a close game in the fourth quarter into a 100-83 victory.

The Clippers wasn't the focus tonight,"Odom said. "It was the Lakers against a team we just needed to beat."

The Lakers (41-37) kept pace with Sacramento, which also won Sunday, in the race for the Western Conference's bottom two playoff spots and denied the Clippers a chance to win the season series between the cross-town teams for the first time since 1992-93.

The Clippers clinched their first playoff berth in nine years by virtue of a Dallas victory over New Orleans on Saturday. But they missed a chance to go 1 1/2 games up on Memphis for fifth in the standings and celebrate in front of a Lakers crowd.

There also was no rest for Kobe Bryant, who played 47:21 out of a possible 48 minutes on a sore calf and finished with a game-high 38 points.

But the story was Odom, who always said one thing about playing the Clippers while the box scores said otherwise.

Odom came into Sunday averaging 13.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists in seven games against the Clippers since coming to the Lakers. He was ejected from two games last season and left Jackson guessing after a game earlier this season.

After Odom finished with eight points on 3-of-12 shooting in the Lakers' Feb. 24 loss, Jackson came to the conclusion that there had to be some "tension"for the 6-foot-10 forward playing against the Clippers.

"I think the Clippers bring a whole different magnitude to every one of his games that he has against them,"Jackson said.

It might have been an issue of familiarity for Odom, who has known Clippers forward Elton Brand since he was 14 and played with Cuttino Mobley in college at Rhode Island.

Things were different from the very beginning in Sunday's game. Jackson matched Odom up against Brand on defense and started forward Luke Walton (13 points) instead of Brian Cook on Vladimir Radmanovic.

Brand had 32 points for the Clippers when they played the Lakers in February, a game in which he was defended by Chris Mihm during a crucial stretch. He finished with 24 Sunday and scored only nine in the second half.

"We have to learn exactly what it takes to win games," Brand said. "We definitely are disappointed that we didn't take the season series against the Lakers. . . . They are fighting for their playoff lives and they are playing like it."

Odom had four dunks among his nine baskets and made one especially sweet play in the third quarter, curling around Kwame Brown after throwing him an inbounds pass, taking a handoff, and throwing down a big dunk.

Bryant, meanwhile, said he couldn't even run when he reported to shootaround Sunday morning. He was kicked in the calf on the last play of Friday's loss to Phoenix and couldn't afford to get tight sitting on the bench.

He came out exactly once, for 39 seconds late in the third quarter, and still managed to knock down 14 of 27 shots in the game. Bryant had 15 points in the second quarter and 17 in the fourth quarter, making three 3- pointers as the Lakers pulled away.

"It's real tender to touch," Bryant said of the calf. "You can't even breathe on it."

There was no shortage of highlight film plays in the second quarter. Bryant used a cross-over dribble to shake Cassell and buried a 22-footer, then followed by posting up Mobley and making a turnaround jumper from an impossible angle on the baseline.

The teams split the battle of Los Angeles for the second consecutive season, with each team winning two of the four games.

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Photo:

The Lakers' Lamar Odom goes to the hoop as Clippers forward Vladimir Radmanovic defends in the first half.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer