SCRIMMAGE AT GALEN CENTER GIVES SEASON-TICKET HOLDERS A FIRST LOOK AT CLIPPERS

LOS ANGELES – There was hardly any louder ovation during Wednesday night’s open scrimmage than when Clippers head coach Doc Rivers was introduced and took the microphone at center court of USC’s Galen Center.

Rivers told a brief rendition of his fondest memory as a Clippers’ player (Game 4 of the 1992 Playoffs against the Jazz) and explained the necessity of his team sticking to a process.

Part of that process was Wednesday’s season-ticket holder event, where the Clippers conducted a working practice that concluded with the annual Blue-White scrimmage.

The White team, made up mostly of second unit players won, 25-23, after Darren Collison’s 3-point play with 14 seconds to go in the second of two eight-minute halves.

The Blue team consisted of Chris Paul, Willie Green, Jared Dudley, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, the same group that started in Portland two nights earlier. Ryan Hollins came off the bench. The White group was made up of Collison, Maalik Wayns, Jamal Crawford, Antawn Jamison and Byron Mullens with Brandon Davies and Lou Amundson in reserve.

“It’s good that the fans can see some of what we work on, but that’s a tough atmosphere for the players as far as concentration,” Rivers said after the scrimmage. “I actually like that, especially when we’re doing the drills before the scrimmage stuff, guys keeping their focus.

“When you count the actual days, there are not a lot of days you can give away before the first game. I still thought we got something out of that.”

Much like Rivers has said throughout camp, intra-squad scrimmages typically come down to the final few seconds. Hollins threw down a one-handed dunk in the lane to give Blue their first lead since early in the first half. But Collison, who was a blur throughout the night and led all scorers with eight points, squirmed around a trap by Hollins and Green and finished with a layup and the foul.

After the squads exchanged turnovers, Blue had a final chance with 3.7 seconds left. Griffin, who finished with six points and four rebounds, caught a direct inbounds pass at the elbow, faked a handoff to Paul and turned over his left shoulder for a driving dunk attempt. He missed it after a hard foul by Amundson, who rotated over to him.

Griffin missed both free throws, including the second one intentionally. Dudley snared the offensive rebound and flung up a desperation 2-pointer from the baseline that fell awry. The result was far from what mattered as much as Rivers orchestrating a final play to go to his superstar big man.

To an extent, that’s part of the process Rivers was referring to at the beginning, too. Putting together the pieces of an offense geared towards diverting an opposing defense’s attention with misdirection and movement.

“We’re really, in our skeleton offense, working on timing,” Rivers said. “And guys have to understand timing, and guys don’t get that yet. Multiple actions, a good defensive team is always going to take that first action away and what we always try to do is have multiple actions. So, the team’s aren’t sure which action we are actually looking for. That takes time, though.

“We just haven’t put a lot of stuff in yet. We’ve put in our transition stuff. We haven’t put in any focal point plays, like let’s go to Blake and the guys know exactly what play to go to, Chris and Jamal. I’m not that concerned about it, to be honest.”

NOTES

Reggie Bullock (knee), J.J. Redick (thigh) and Matt Barnes (calf) did not play… Wayns looked good playing next to Collison in the backcourt. He made a pair of 3-pointers in the early going… Assistant Coach Kevin Eastman was wore a wireless microphone during open practice session to explain drills to fans… Paul had six points, three rebounds and four assists… After Rivers spoke to the crowd, he gave the microphone to Bullock to introduce the roster. “I know for a fact that Ralph [Lawler] would do a much better job at this, but we figured since he’s been here for so long he needed a break,” Rivers quipped.

UNOFFICIAL STATS FROM SCRIMMAGE