L.A.’s Clippers Leave ‘Em Laughing in Houston

HOUSTON — To state the obvious, the Clippers are the joke of the National Basketball Assn. As in:

Have you heard the one about the boy whose parents were getting a divorce? “I don’t want to live with my mother because she beats me,” he told the judge. “And I don’t want to live with my father because he beats me, too,” the boy said. “I want to live with the Clippers. They don’t beat anybody.”

Mostly, however, the joke’s on anybody who pays money to see this team play. Or wastes time watching it on television.

The Clippers, Los Angeles’ ranking pro sports comedy act--injury-depleted and not all that good at full strength, anyway--lost their sixth straight game, a 121-96 blowout to the Houston Rockets Tuesday night before a sellout crowd of 16,016 fans at the Summit.

The Clippers had beaten the Rockets here last month, 104-97, but that was either a freak of nature or a particularly effective full moon.

“I certainly don’t see anything that he (Clipper Coach Don Chaney) could do unless he had 10 wishes from the genie,” Houston Coach Bill Fitch said.

The Clippers have lost 18 of their last 19 games and, at 4-21, have the worst record in the National Basketball Assn.

“Self destruction,” said Clipper captain Cedric Maxwell, when asked to pinpoint the team’s main problem. “We slashed our own wrists. That’s been the story all year long. We kill ourselves. Somebody has a gun to our head and we tell the guy, I’ll pull it.”

The Rockets, who had gone from Western Conference champions to chumps in just six months, were struggling when the Clippers came to town.

Houston (10-15) had lost 4 straight games and 12 of its last 15 going into the contest, including a 56-point loss to Seattle.

But the Clippers were the perfect Christmas gift for the Rockets.

“I don’t think we’ve had control of a game like we had tonight,” Fitch said. “It’s good to get that monkey off our backs. It must have weighed about 205 pounds.”

Backup forward/center Jim Petersen, who has been in Fitch’s doghouse, came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points in 27 minutes. Petersen made 6 of 7 shots from the field and went 8 for 11 at the free-throw line. He also had 6 rebounds and 2 assists.

Petersen scored 13 points in the third period as the Rockets pulled away to take a 21-point lead into the fourth period.

“The Clippers started this whole thing back in November when they beat us,” Petersen said. “That was our first loss at home and this was the payback for that.”

Center Akeem Olajuwon, who missed seven games with a sprained right ankle suffered last month against the New York Knicks, looks healthy again.

Olajuwon, playing in his sixth game since returning to the lineup, had 20 points, 11 rebounds, 5 blocked shots and 4 assists in 31 minutes.

“This was the best I’ve felt since the injury,” Olajuwon said.

Akeem did a number on Clipper center Benoit Benjamin, who had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots in 30 minutes. Benjamin had only 4 points in the first half.

“I wasn’t getting the ball inside enough,” Benjamin said.

Point guard Robert Reid may have been the key to the Rocket win.

Reid, who underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee on Dec. 8, was activated Tuesday morning. And he had 9 points and 6 assists in 22 minutes.

“Every time he got back on the floor, he got better,” Fitch said of Reid. “He did the things that are going to help us win.”

Reid scored 7 points during a 19-6 Rocket blitz at the end of the first half that helped Houston turn a 50-49 lead with 4 1/2 minutes left in the second period into a 69-55 lead at halftime.

“The surgery did wonders for me,” Reid said. “It was really tough watching from the sidelines and knowing that I could be out there helping.

“I feel I was the missing link in the offense.”