Clippers Botch It at the End

This time, James Robinson was on the Sports Arena floor at the end.

This time, Robinson got the last shot.

No matter.

Different ending, same conclusion.

The Clippers, finding new ways to lose on a regular basis, lost their fifth in a row when they gave up six offensive rebounds in the closing minutes and saw Robinson’s shot at the buzzer clank off the front of the rim to give the Minnesota Timberwolves a 100-98 victory Friday night.

“We are playing as hard as we can considering the season we are having,” Clipper Coach Bill Fitch said, “but you’ve got to execute.”

Fitch had been criticized after Wednesday night’s loss to the New York Knicks for yanking Robinson, who was having a hot night, with 2:21 play and putting in guard Eric Piatkowski, who was having a rare off night on offense.

Friday night, there was no question Robinson would get a lot of minutes since Piatkowski was sidelined because of a strained abdominal muscle.

Nevertheless, in front of an announced crowd of 11,758, the Clippers again found their offense stuck in neutral as the final minutes of the game ticked off the scoreboard.

With 2:31 to play, they trailed the Timberwolves by only a single point, 99-98.

But, although the Clippers wound up outrebounding the Timberwolves, 44-30, including 14-12 on the offensive boards, it was Timberwolves who kept coming up with the ball in a crucial sequence that enabled the visitors to hang on to their slim lead.

Finally, Minnesota’s Stephon Marbury broke the scoring drought by making one of two free throws with 19.3 seconds left to give the Timberwolves a 100-98 lead.

With nine seconds left, Rodney Rogers went up for the potential tying basket. But, with his feet entangled with those of a defender, he couldn’t get set and the ball was swatted back in his face by Kevin Garnett with 6.3 seconds left.

The ball wound up in the hands of Robinson, who played 41 minutes Friday night, 18 more than he played Wednesday night. Isaac Austin was open at the end, but Robinson never saw him.

Instead he put up a shot from the top of the key that missed, meaning the Clippers had failed to score in the final two minutes for the second night in a row.

Lamond Murray was the Clippers’ leading scorer with 20 points in 29 minutes. Austin had a game-high 12 rebounds and Murray added 10.

Piatkowski, who was moved into the starting lineup after Brent Barry was traded Feb. 19, has been slowed by the abdominal injury for the last six or seven games. When it got worse in practice Thursday, Clipper officials felt it would be best to give Piatkowski Friday’s game off, and perhaps Sunday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks as well, to see if he can at least return to full strength before the season ends.

“It was not getting any better,” Fitch said. “It’s not a career-ending injury, but with [12] games left, we wanted to give him 72 hours to see if he improves, to see if we can get half the remaining games out of him, or none at all if the injury goes haywire.”

That wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for the Clippers, for whom everything has been going haywire lately.