Brand, Kaman Put In Double Duty in Win

A day that began on the wrong foot for the Clippers was quickly righted Friday night with dominating performances by Elton Brand and Chris Kaman in a 97-88 victory over the Bobcats.

After learning that forward Corey Maggette would be sidelined for another month because of his injured foot, forward Brand scored a season-high 38 points and had 20 rebounds, and center Kaman had 22 points and a career-high 22 rebounds to end the Clippers’ five-game road losing streak, including their last two games.

It was the first time in 35 years teammates enjoyed a 30-20 and 20-20 night in the same game. The last time was by the New York Knicks’ Willis Reed (37 points, 23 rebounds) and Dave DeBusschere (22 points, 20 rebounds) on Dec. 8, 1970.

“We just wanted to take advantage of the matchups because they were missing some ‘bigs,’ ” Brand said, adding that “No one feels sorry for us” with Quinton Ross and Zeljko Rebraca out. “We weren’t going to feel sorry for them. We were just going to pound it inside.

“It’s disappointing we’re going to miss Maggette for so long. So guys have to come in and step up, have big games in Corey’s absence.”

The Clippers (16-10) took full advantage inside as the Bobcats (8-19) were without injured Emeka Okafor, Sean May and center Jake Voskuhl.

Kaman cracked a few one-liners afterward.

“I was trying to get to 25 [rebounds] but Elton kept taking them all. So I was a little upset with him. We’re not on good terms right now,” said Kaman with a deadpan expression.

“Most importantly, we won the game. We’ve been in a little funk lately; I thought we played well today.... We played our game, they were short-handed and we went at them.”

Another big delight for Coach Mike Dunleavy, though, was putting seldom-used rookie Yaroslav Korolev on the court in the third quarter.

The 18-year-old Russian, who had appeared in five previous games for a total of 10 minutes, played almost 14 minutes Friday. His first NBA basket was a dunk. His second basket was a three-pointer. He finished with seven points -- the only Clipper points off the bench -- and a plethora of high-fives.

“He really paid the rent tonight,” Dunleavy said of Korolev. At halftime, “I told him, ‘I watch you every day and you shoot well and play good. I have confidence in you. Be ready; I’m going to you in the second half.’ ”

Korolev realized that Dunleavy was serious and waited for his call. He entered the game at the 6:51 mark of the third quarter. At 5:24, he raced through a hole in the Bobcat defense, got a pass from Kaman and threw it down to the shock of nearly everyone.

“I never thought my first [NBA] points would be a dunk,” Korolev said. “When I saw that hole I thought, ‘You must be kidding. I’m going there.’ ”

The Clippers had to believe it was going to be a good night when they took a 28-21 first-quarter lead. They had two chances to bury the Bobcats, building a 50-35 lead in the second quarter, and an 87-70 lead with 7:16 left in the fourth.

The Clippers shot 43.5% and made 22 of 22 free throws.

Considering the way things have gone for the Clippers this week, it was too much to expect a knockout punch. But a definitive decision was a welcome sight.

Brevin Knight had 21 points for Charlotte and Primoz Brezec added 20

“After two losses on the road in a row, you try and stop the bleeding,” Dunleavy said. “You had two teams that were banged up a little bit. They tried to go small on us and make us blink. We tried to stay big and make them blink. And our big guys did a great job.”