Wright Script, Wrong Result for Clippers

Lorenzen Wright grew up Friday night but couldn’t quite get to 7 feet 3 and 292 pounds, the size of the man he was guarding, Arvydas Sabonis.

Nor could the Clippers quite reach the Portland Trail Blazers. In a game that someone had to win, Portland’s three-game losing streak came to a halt with a 102-98 victory at the Sports Arena and the Clippers’ four-game skid grew to five.

Wright, a 6-11, 225-pound power forward, starting at center in the absence of Brian Williams, Stanley Roberts and Kevin Duckworth, scored 16 points, the high point of his young career, as the Clippers took a 12-point lead in the first half, faded in the second, then came from six points behind to catch the Trail Blazers in the last 5:38.

But the Trail Blazers rebounded Brent Barry’s air ball and Kenny Anderson scored on a fastbreak layup with 27 seconds left, was fouled and made the free throw to put the Trail Blazers ahead to stay.

“We got caught on that Barry shot,” Coach Bill Fitch said. “Our guard made a bad decision. Terry [Dehere] should have been back.

“That’s the thing I’ll probably see when tossing and turning. I don’t know how many times we’ve said it: one guard up, one guard back. . . .

“First positive, the kid [Wright] had a hell of a game tonight. Against what he was going against, size-wise and otherwise.

“I just told him, if he plays the next 10 years’ service like that, when they go around the next 50 years, he’ll be one of the top 50.”

The Clippers started the night in worse shape (no pun intended) for centers, with Duckworth, who has a sore heel, joining Roberts (herniated disk) on the injured list and Dwayne Schintzius (sore ankle) limping onto the active roster to fill out the 12-man squad, if nothing else.

“He can play tonight,” Fitch said before the game. “That’s more than we knew about Duck.

“It’s tough. It’s tough. You’re going to see one tonight [Arvydas Sabonis]. Ask me after the game’s over tonight because this guy, even when we had centers, was tough.”

The Trail Blazers, however, had their own losing streak (three games) and their own problems-- three new starters, the loss of Rasheed Wallace because of a broken thumb, myriad incidents involving Isaiah Rider, a close game Thursday night in Salt Lake City in which they took the Jazz to the wire and lost.

“I like our moves,” Coach P.J. Carlesimo said before the game. “I like our team but we’re not as cohesive as we need to be.

“We’ve got to pick it up. We’re one under .500 now. It’s nice that we’re in fifth place in the West, but we don’t think that’s good.”

The Trail Blazers then went out and played a first half that made them look like they walked from Utah. They were flat, or flattened by Rodney Rogers, the 250-pound small forward who scored 15 points in the first quarter, posting up Gary Trent for eight points’ worth, and when Carlesimo tried Mitchell Butler on him, scoring seven more on the former Bruin.

The Clippers went out to a 12-point lead late in the second quarter, but the Trail Blazers crawled to within 52-45 by halftime.

The second half was a different matter. Kenny Anderson, who had missed his first seven shots, who was 2-for-10 from the floor by halftime, scored 13 points in the third quarter and the Trail Blazers caught the Clippers.

When Anderson, isolated on Barry, beat him for a driving layup in the final seconds of the period, Portland was up, 74-73.

The Clippers, however, rallied. With 1:27 left, Barry, who had eight points, three rebounds and two assists in 14 minutes, made a three-point basket, tying it, 95-95.

The Clippers got a stop and a chance to go ahead, but Lamond Murray missed a 20-foot shot. The Clippers got the ball back but Barry forced up another long shot that missed everything but Sabonis, who got it out to Anderson, who took it to the other end and scored.

The Trail Blazers did shoot free throws as if they knew how. They made their last seven and the Clipper predicament continues.