CLIPPERS' FIRST WIN NO WORK OF ART OLOWOKANDI'S 20 REBOUNDS, 19 POINTS HELP DEFEAT PISTONS CLIPPERS 74, DETROIT 72.

Byline: Joe Stevens Staff Writer

The boo birds feasted Sunday on the Clippers. They trailed by 14 points in the second half, and the best word to describe their play was ``ugly.''

In the victory column, however, all of the ugliness won't appear. What also won't appear is that Cliff Robinson was inches from keeping the Clippers winless.

The Clippers breathed a sigh of relief when Robinson missed a wide-open 3-point shot in the final seconds as they earned their first victory by defeating the Detroit Pistons 74-72 in front of 14,275 at Staples Center.

Amid all the ugliness, center Michael Olowokandi had 19 points and tied a career high with 20 rebounds in one of the best statistical performances of his career.

``We'll take the win, but there were a lot of boos,'' Clippers coach Alvin Gentry said. ``I wanted to boo us, too, with the way we were playing.''

Detroit (2-1) led 52-38 with 5:41 left in the third quarter, but the Clippers engineered a 20-3 run to lead 58-55 by the end of the quarter.

Gentry used a lineup of his three point guards - Andre Miller, Marko Jaric and Keyon Dooling - with Olowokandi and seldom-used Wang Zhizhi in that span to rally the Clippers (1-2).

Repeatedly beaten on man-to-man defense in the first half, Los Angeles used a zone defense for most of the second half.

``Did you see our man defense?'' Gentry said. ``We were just struggling. We went to the zone, and they had 30 possessions and scored on 10 of them. So it worked.''

The coach could not say the same thing about the final play, in which Robinson got the wide-open 3-pointer.

``There was a huge breakdown,'' Gentry said. ``We had two guys guarding Corliss Williamson in the corner. Our guys really have to start communicating out there.''

In the final minutes, both teams looked ugly on offense. Neither team scored a field goal in the final two minutes, and there was just one point scored - a free throw by Elton Brand with 1:27 left that gave the Clippers a 74-72 lead.

The basket that gave the Clippers the lead for good came with 2:33 left after Olowokandi made a steal and got the ball to Miller for a fast break. Miller found Corey Maggette for a reverse layup for a 73-72 lead.

Even though Olowokandi was the key man with his scoring and rebounding, he pointed to a different reason for the victory. In the final seven minutes, Detroit made just one field goal.

``Numbers are numbers, but if we win, in the end we won't be talking about numbers,'' Olowokandi said. ``We had an ugly start, but we're finally realizing the importance of defense.''

With Robinson and last season's Defensive Player of the Year, Ben Wallace (three points and 16 rebounds), the Pistons are regarded as one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. Behind their zone, the Clippers played to their level defensively in the second half. But on offense, maybe the Pistons played to the Clippers' level.

``We became undisciplined and took too many shots,'' Pistons coach Rick Carlisle said.

The Clippers won despite shooting just 31.9 percent. Nobody shot worse than Miller, who missed a handful of layups and was 1 for 12. He finished with 10 points and nine assists. Besides Miller and Olowokandi, the only other Clipper to score in double figures was Brand, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds.

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Photo:

Point guard Marko Jaric drives against Detroit's Ben Wallace during the Clippers' 74-72 victory at Staples Center, L.A.'s first of the season.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

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