CLIPPERS DROP NO. 20; SONICS HELPED BY 23 TURNOVERS : SEATTLE 109, CLIPPERS 94.

Byline: Gary Washburn Daily News Staff Writer

That losing feeling is highly contagious in the Clippers locker room.

At this point, there is no hope. They lost their 20th game in 24 tries, a 109-94 decision to the Seattle SuperSonics on Tuesday at the Sports Arena, two days after fighting the Sonics until the final minute in Seattle.

On Sunday it was Keith Closs expressing anger about his playing time. After Tuesday's game it was Brent Barry with his face buried in a towel several minutes after the loss.

He finally got up and took a shower and walked away into the night without wanting to talk. Everybody is miffed. This was supposed to be a playoff-contending team. Now it's a shell of last year's blue-collar club that fought until the decision was final.

Tuesday, they melted after closing to within 53-51. Seattle made an 11-2 run to end the half and the Clippers cooperated in the second half by shooting 30 percent.

``Losing is affecting everybody,'' said Clippers guard Darrick Martin, whose 15-point performance was spoiled by a season-high eight turnovers. ``I can't even sleep at night.''

Barry's emotion was not caused by a Bill Fitch tirade. He led the Clippers with 21 points but was outplayed by Gary Payton in the rebounding and assist areas.

The third-year guard is taking advantage of his chance to start, but good games in defeat are becoming normal. The Clippers didn't suffer their 20th loss last year until Jan. 14, when they had 14 wins to offset it. Now as they deal with bitter reality of being nowhere close to a playoff contention, coach Bill Fitch has to figure out what to do next.

``We have a lot of young guys that know that it took a no-quit attitude to make the playoffs last year,'' Fitch said. ``Maybe we can take that next step of improvement but have more losses. That's very possible.''

The Clippers were frustrated by Seattle's physical defense. Rookie Maurice Taylor might have had too much fire as he was ejected with 7:03 left for yelling at Vin Baker after making a jump shot. The two had been jawing at each other since the first half.

``He was talking a lot,'' said Baker, who had a mild 14 points and four rebounds, ``and he's definitely too young to be talking that much trash in a game.''

But there's frustration throughout. Closs' postgame comments Sunday did not have the repercussions he expected. He criticized Fitch for playing him just eight minutes against the Sonics. He accused Fitch of ``playing with my head.''

The two met on Tuesday and Closs escaped the expected fine and suspension. Closs suited up on Tuesday and played three minutes and didn't score.

``Maybe I should have handled it differently,'' Closs said. ``I expressed myself the wrong way. Of course I expected to get fined. But he just told me he was disappointed. We talked and for now on I'm not going to worry about whether I'm starting or coming off the bench.''

Closs, in first season of a five-year $8.5 million contract, is averaging 4.7 points, 2.3 rebounds and one block in 11 minutes per contest.

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PHOTO KEITH CLOSS

The rookie criticized coach Bill Fitch about his lack of playing time. He did not get fined.