Odom Has Surgery on Injured Wrist

Forward Lamar Odom underwent surgery on his right wrist Tuesday and will be sidelined for three months. Tony Daly, the Clippers’ team physician, performed the operation with wrist specialist Jerry Blatt.

Odom was injured when he fell on his wrist Dec. 16 against the Detroit Pistons. He played in the next three games but sat out three before returning to action Jan. 2. The pain eventually forced him to the injured list Jan. 24, and he spent the rest of the season there.

Early in his layoff, he sprained his right ankle after landing on a stray basketball while attempting a dunk.

Odom, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder in 2000-01 with averages of 17.2 and 7.8, played in 29 games this season. He averaged 13.1 points and 6.1 rebounds. Odom also had an eight-game drug suspension in November.

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The Clippers missed the playoffs after losing seven of their last nine games, falling from contention in the final two weeks of the regular season. It was their worst losing stretch this season.

“We had a bad spell at the wrong time,” point guard Jeff McInnis said. “We just came up short.”

The Clippers still hope to record a .500 or better record, however. They are 38-40, with home games Friday against Sacramento, Saturday against Minnesota and Tuesday against Memphis. They conclude the season April 17 against Golden State at Oakland.

The last Clipper team to finish with a .500 record was the 1992-93 team that was 41-41. The 1991-92 team that had a 45-37 record is the only other one to top the .500 mark since the franchise relocated from San Diego before the 1984-85 season.

“Obviously, that’s our next goal,” Coach Alvin Gentry said of a .500 record. “We don’t have to play under any pressure now.”

The Clippers were 31-51 last season, Gentry’s first as coach, and 15-67 in 1999-2000.

The last team to improve from 15 victories to 40 or more in only two seasons was the Houston Rockets in 1984-85.

Gentry’s prediction that it would take 45 victories or more to qualify for the playoffs in the West appears to be on target, although the Clippers’ late fade enabled Seattle and Utah to clinch postseason berths Monday with 44 and 42 victories, respectively.

Seventh-place Seattle has three games remaining and eighth-place Utah has four, so the prediction Gentry made several weeks ago could still prove to be accurate.