Clippers Don’t Pack It In Yet

For all of the Clippers’ well-documented woes on the road, it’s not as if Staples Center has been a safe haven either.

So they could take solace in a surprisingly easy 93-82 victory over the Utah Jazz on Friday before 15,675 at Staples, even as they prepare for a stretch of road games might not make them but certainly could break them.

Quentin Richardson led all scorers with 29 points as the Clippers won their second consecutive game and ended a nine-game home losing streak to the Jazz, beating them in Southern California for the first time since a March 27, 1999, victory at the Arrowhead Pond.

“These are definitely the games we need to get before we go out on that long voyage,” Richardson said, referring to a stretch in which the Clippers play 10 of their next 11 games before the All-Star break on the road, beginning tonight at Seattle.

Elton Brand scored 20 points and Corey Maggette had 17 for the Clippers (18-22), who improved to 14-11 at home. The Clippers built a 15-point advantage early in the fourth quarter and never trailed after taking the lead for the first time midway through the first quarter.

“I thought we played well at different spurts, different stretches of the game,” Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “It’s very fortunate we caught this team with injuries. This is a game we had to win with who they had missing.”

Utah was without standout forward Matt Harpring (right knee) and forward Andrei Kirilenko (right ankle) in addition to three players on the injured list. The Jazz (21-21) pulled to within 88-80 with 1:16 left after Raja Bell made a pull-up jumper, but the Clippers made their free throws down the stretch to seal the outcome.

Greg Ostertag and Carlos Arroyo had 16 points apiece and Bell added 14 for Utah, which shot only 38.4% from the field. Marko Jaric had 11 points for the Clippers, who shot 47.5% for the game.

The Jazz, which trailed by as many as nine points in the first quarter, missed two shots from point-blank range that could have tied the score just before the halftime buzzer. The Clippers led, 45-43, largely on the strength of 19 first-half points from Richardson, who scored 15 in the first quarter on six-of-seven shooting.

Richardson made three three-pointers over a span of 2:26 in the first quarter as the Clippers turned a six-point deficit into a nine-point lead while shooting a blistering 68.8% from the floor over the first 12 minutes.

“He came out on fire,” Bell said of Richardson. “I thought I was playing pretty good ‘D’ on him for the most part. I was staying low and moving my feet and pushing him off the block so he couldn’t get easy post-up baskets, but he hit some outside shots that really opened up the rest of his game.”

A slightly winded Richardson had only four points in the second quarter, making one of four shots, as the Clippers failed to maintain their torrid shooting pace.

The Clippers now play 14 of their next 16 games on the road, where their 4-11 record is among the worst in the league.

Dunleavy said his team must have some success on the trip to have any hope of staying in the playoff picture. The Clippers are in 11th place in the Western Conference standings, five games behind the eighth-place Memphis Grizzlies.

“Everybody’s seeing it as the trip to hell, but let’s go and come back where we’ve done something positive,” Dunleavy said before the game. “Let’s make people step up and take notice. Let’s win on this trip.

“Unless people start falling down at home, we’re going to have to win some games out there.... It could be very positive for us to go on a long road trip and come out of it in good shape. It becomes a catalyst for your season. That’s what we’re looking for.”