Zone Is a Necessity, Not a Choice

It’s no secret. Whatever success the Clippers have had this season, a large share of the credit has to go to their zone defense.

It’s also no secret that Coach Alvin Gentry is no fan of the zone.

“I’m old school,” he said. “I like man-to-man. But I’m not dumb enough to not use it.”

When it came to man-to-man defense, one of its master practitioners was Dennis Johnson, who regularly stymied, stifled and sometimes completely stopped the offensive stars of his day while playing for the Phoenix Suns, Seattle SuperSonics and Boston Celtics.

So does Johnson, now a Clipper assistant coaching the zone, wish he could have used it?

“I don’t think I would have liked it,” he said. “I liked to play a guy straight up. If he beat me, he beat me. But he would have had a hell of a time trying to do it.”

Would the Celtics of the ‘80s, his era, have had the same success if they had been allowed to use a zone?

“We were too slow to use it,” Johnson said.

Good luck in convincing any of the Celtics’ opponents of the ‘80s of that opinion.

*

Maybe Clipper owner Donald Sterling should look into playing Sunday doubleheaders. Having won both of their Sunday games this season, the Clippers are 10-1 on Sundays over the last two seasons.

TONIGHT

at Portland, 7

Site -- The Rose Garden

Radio -- KXTA (1150)

Records -- Clippers 3-5, Trail Blazers 3-6

Record vs. Trail Blazers (2001-2002) -- 1-3.

Update -- The Clippers have spent many horrible nights on the road in their many seasons of ineptness. They have to look long and far to find cities that offer pleasant memories. They need not spend much time looking in Portland. The Clippers have won only 12 of 81 games in that city. They have lost six in a row there, their last victory in Portland coming in 1999. And they once lost a game in Portland by 48 points, a 121-73 defeat in 1994.