CLIPPERS PLAY ROLE REVERSAL LAKERS EMBARRASSED BY STUNNING 23-POINT LOSS CLIPPERS 118, LAKERS 95.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

Embarrassment like this can't be quantified, not in final score or statistics or in the number of heads drooping to the floor in the Lakers locker room. And no explanations are sufficient when the most unlikely of scenarios presents itself like this:

The Lakers lose.

To the Clippers.

(Yes, those Clippers.)

By 23 points.

(No, that's not a misprint.)

And a streak of Lakers dominance that began when most of these Clippers were still learning to drive, fizzles in 48 hard-to-fathom minutes.

As the Clippers wrapped up a stunning 118-95 rout at Staples Center, one desperate Lakers fan just pointed at the seven championship banners. Jeff McInnis smiled and pointed at the opposite end, to the scoreboard.

``I don't know what to feel,'' said Lord of the Flies Lamar Odom, who led the way with 29 points. ``I'm kind of at a loss for words for what this win can do for us. . . . We all really know it's not just another game. So far it's the biggest game of the year for us.''

Perhaps the biggest in four years. The Lakers' 16-game winning streak over L.A.'s Other Team extended back to March of 1997, and only four Clippers were even in the NBA when it started.

Suddenly, the Clippers' weakness was their ally: Too young to compete with the elite teams? Perhaps, but also too young to know better.

So Odom carved up the Lakers with swift drives and dead-eye shooting, and six more precocious Clippers scored in double figures as they converted 56.1 percent of their field goals.

``I think we're more embarrassed rather than bothered,'' said Shaquille O'Neal. ``We're supposed to beat that team every time.''

The Clippers played with rare inspiration. They got more rebounds (47-33), more points in the paint (58-50), more second-chance points (16-9) and more points on the fast break (20-12). And they held the league's top offense to 43 percent shooting and 6 points below the Lakers' average.

``They got us good tonight, I'll tell you,'' said coach Phil Jackson. ``They outplayed us in nearly every aspect of the game.''

O'Neal's game-high 33 points were woefully insufficient, and his defense sagged when he once again got into early foul trouble. O'Neal fouled out for the third straight game. He only had six rebounds and didn't record a block.

Kobe Bryant scored 27 points but missed 14 of 24 shots and went 0 for 5 from 3-point range. The Lakers got some clutch shooting from Robert Horry (10 points) and Brian Shaw (15 points), who started for Ron Harper, but they never could stop the Clippers' parade in the paint.

When 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins is lobbing runners over O'Neal and when Cherokee Parks, whose name loosely translated is ``mediocre tattooed man,''is throwing down uncontested dunks, it's time to reevaluate the defense. That unlikely pair combined for 24 points off the bench.

On a dry-erase board in the Lakers locker room, Jackson had scrawled the stat of the night: 11 defensive stops in 45 Clipper second-half possessions.

``We did not play with an urgency, which is embarrassing,'' Rick Fox said. ``We didn't play with a high enough respect level for them. . . .You don't play `the Clippers,' you play the team that's out there on the floor, and regardless of what the uniforms say and what past history says. That's a team that doesn't believe in their past history.''

Early signs all pointed to an upset. O'Neal picked up two fouls in a 27-second span in the opening minutes of the game and struggled with his shot. He missed five of his first six field-goal attempts and four of his first five free throws as the Lakers fell behind.

The Clippers, shooting in the 60-percent range, built a 10-point lead by the start of the second quarter. The Lakers cut the lead to 3 points late in the half, but the Clippers fired back quickly and took a 54-47 lead into halftime.

The Lakers never got closer than 7 points in the second half. O'Neal insisted he is not impressed.

``Why should I be? They won a game, and?'' he said. ``I'm not impressed by that. They played great ball, we played awful ball. Usually, when we play awful ball against this team, we still can beat them. But they played great tonight. But I'm not impressed, no.''

BIG WIN

The Clippers ended a losing streak against the Lakers at 16 games with a 23-point blowout Sunday. It was the Clippers' third-biggest margin of victory over their crosstown rivals. Here's a look at the five biggest Clipper wins:

Margin Score Year

30 125-95 1992

26 124-98 1992

23 118-95 2001

22 108-86 1997

17 121-104 1990

CAPTION(S):

photo, 2 boxes

Photo: Cherokee Parks battles the Lakers' Kobe Bryant during the fourth quarter of the Clippers 118-95 rout.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Box: (1) BIG WIN (see text)

(2) GAME RECAP