Clippers win it in style

The Clippers’ leading rebounder and scorer looked sharp in Friday’s season opener.

Unfavorably for the Clippers, Elton Brand looked dapper in a jacket instead of a jersey as he sat behind the bench, where the injured forward figures to spend much of the season.

On the plus side for the Clippers, their first regular-season taste of life without Brand went well, with center Chris Kaman leading an impressive team effort to brush aside concerns for an evening, resulting in a 120-114 victory over the Golden State Warriors at Staples Center.

Six Clippers scored in double figures and the team shot seven for 18 from three-point range.

Kaman, who will be looked upon to provide an effective low-post presence with Brand out, produced one of his best games. He scored a career-high 26 points, took 18 rebounds and received three stitches to the head.

“He should get hit in the head every night,� Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy deadpanned.

An elbow from Kelenna Azubuike found Kaman’s face early in the third quarter and he briefly left the game to get stitched up. “It just happens,� said Kaman, who made nine of 19 shots from the field. “He made a strong play. I was late and he caught me with an elbow.�

Kaman returned to the game, grabbing seemingly every rebound down the stretch.

“The last six minutes of the game, he must have had seven or eight rebounds,� Sam Cassell said. “He was huge. We need that. I told him, ‘We don’t have E.B. [Brand], if you’ve got to get 13, 14 a night, so be it.’ Once he understands that, he can get 13, 14 rebounds in a row.�

The Clippers went up by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter before holding off a late Warriors rally, with Cuttino Mobley (21 points) making two key right-side jumpers in the final 1 minute 15 seconds.

Tim Thomas (20), Corey Maggette (16), Ruben Patterson (11) and Cassell (10) also scored in double digits for the Clippers.

“We have a lot of versatility,� Dunleavy said. “There are a lot of opportunities for different people to do different things.�

When the Clippers last saw Golden State, the Warriors were leapfrogging them for last season’s final Western Conference playoff spot en route to becoming postseason darlings with their first-round upset of top-seeded Dallas.

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They couldn’t recapture that magic Friday, despite Azubuike’s game-high 33 points and Davis’ 22 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.

The Warriors were without suspended team captain Stephen Jackson. Of course, the Clippers were without Brand.

“They have one of the toughest blows you can have when your best player is out for the majority of the season,� Warriors Coach Don Nelson said. “They still play good, solid basketball.�

The Warriors were not out to offer solace. They forged a 61-61 tie at halftime after trailing by 16 points in the second quarter.

Brand, in a suit and black-and-white tie, watched it all transpire. He described starting the season while injured as “surreal.�

“That’s the downside,� he said. “The upside is getting healthy.�

So, the Clippers will look this season to replace the productivity of a franchise player who ruptured his left Achilles’ tendon. Shaun Livingston, the anointed point guard of the future, is also out indefinitely while recovering from a dislocated left knee.

Are they up to the task?

“We have to be,� Maggette said. “At the end of the day, we want to hold it down as much as possible and hopefully E.B. and Shaun will be back this year.�

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