NO ROAD SCHOLARS YOUNG CLIPPERS HAVE MUCH TO LEARN ABOUT PLAYING AWAY FROM HOME.Byline: Joe Stevens Staff Writer As they enjoy their best start since the 1992-93 season, the Clippers have turned into a dazzling team at home - and a dreadful one on the road. In fact, if the season ended today, only one team - the 1990-91 Sacramento Kings - would have posted a bigger win-loss, home-road discrepancy than the Clippers, who tonight ``host'' the Lakers at Staples Center This article has multiple issues: * Its neutrality is disputed. * It may contain original research or unverifiable claims. * It does not cite any references or sources. . The Clippers are 18-7 at home, 3-14 on the road and have been hovering around .500 overall the past few weeks. ``It's a lot mental,'' said Clippers coach Alvin Gentry Alvin Gentry is an American professional basketball coach, and college basketball player, who has led three different NBA teams. He served as an interim coach for the Miami Heat at the end of the 1995 season, and later coached the Detroit Pistons and the Los Angeles Clippers. . ``When you walk into an arena, I think you have to have a sense of toughness and a sense of confidence about you that's almost to the point of being cocky. ... You have to go into a place, a hostile environment See: operational environment. , know that it's just you against 20,000 people and to love to be in those situations.'' All season, Gentry has refused to use youth as an excuse for problems. But as the youngest team in the league with an average age of 24.8, it looks as if the young players simply aren't used to dealing with on-the-road problems. ``I don't think anything counts more in the NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= than experience,'' Gentry said. ``It's something that's almost imperative. Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (pronounced "shak-KEEL") (born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey), frequently referred to simply as Shaq, is an American professional basketball player, generally regarded as one of the most dominant in the National Basketball Association (NBA). couldn't win it in Orlando when they had all the young players. When they had him and Penny Hardaway Anfernee Deon "Penny" Hardaway (born July 18 1971, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American NBA basketball player specializing as a point guard and shooting guard. He is currently a member of the Miami Heat[1], who signed him August 9, 2007. , they got swept in the finals (in 1995). Other than being a quarterback in the NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga , I can't think of any place where experience is more important than in the NBA.'' Last season, NBA teams finished with a 711-478 .598 win percentage (711-478) and .402 on the road. ``In basketball, the crowd can alter you more than any other sport,'' shooting guard The Shooting guard (SG), also known as the two or off guard,[1] is one of five traditional positions on a basketball team. Players of the position are often shorter, leaner, and quicker than forwards. Quentin Richardson said. ``In football, you have huddles, and there's time between plays. In baseball, fans really can't deter a play. But in basketball, the fans are right there. They can affect momentum and things like that.'' The coaches have tried numerous tactics to coax their young players into better road success. Every so often, assistant coach Dennis Johnson, who won an NBA championship with the SuperSonics and two with the Celtics, has been known to pull a young player aside and deliver an impassioned speech. Like Johnson's Celtics of the 1980s, who loved marching into the Forum to face the Lakers, the Clippers must truly want to play in unfriendly places, like Utah's Delta Center, Seattle's Key Arena, Arco Arena in Sacramento and Portland's Rose Garden. Johnson's inspiring words supposedly can work wonders and put a glimmer of hope into the eyes of a young player who's having trouble on the road. Still the fact remains, as forward Darius Miles said, ``We run more at home and we be more exciting at home.'' Next week, the Clippers start a seven-game trip, longest of the season. ``I really truly feel that we can go out on this road trip and win every game. It's got to pop sooner or later because we have so much talent,'' Piatkowski said. ``It's not like we're going out there, looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. miracles, saying, 'I hope we can get one.' Every single night we play on the road I feel as though we're gonna win. It's interesting, though, because when we go out there, it feels like we're in quicksand quicksand State in which water-saturated sand loses its supporting capacity and acquires the characteristics of a liquid. Quicksand is usually found in a hollow at the mouth of a large river or along a flat stretch of stream or beach where pools of water become partly filled .'' CLIPPERS vs. LAKERS Tipoff: 7:30 p.m. at Staples Center. TV/Radio: Ch. 9, TNT TNT: see trinitrotoluene. TNT in full trinitrotoluene Pale yellow, solid organic compound made by adding nitrate (−NO2) groups to toluene. ; 570-AM, 1150-AM, 1020-AM (Spanish). Clippers (21-21) update: The Clippers jumped back to .500 Monday with a 102-89 victory against the visiting Denver Nuggets Nuggets can refer to several branches of interest:
Lakers (28-10) update: They're 2-0 against the Clippers this season and have won 17 of the last 18 meetings. The Lakers are 3-4 on the second night of back-to-back sets. - Howard Beck and Joe Stevens CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Corey Maggette, seen here tangling with Denver's Voshon Lenard, and the rest of the Clippers are .500 because they rarely win on the road. David Zalubowski/Associated Press Box: CLIPPERS vs. LAKERS (see text) |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion