Sam Cassell wears a Cheshire cat grin, practically begging opponents to wipe the court with it.
He is laughing a lot these days, as if to share a secret with his new Los Angeles Clippers teammates.
Always the punch line of every cheap basketball joke, depicted as self-inflicted losers overshadowed by the Lakers' mystique, the Clippers are, well winning. And they have a better record than the Lakers.
PHOTO: AFP
Disclaimer: It's early.
"It's not a joke," said Cassell, the soon-to-be 36-year-old point guard who was traded to the Clippers from Minnesota last summer. "If you don't take us seriously, we're going to walk out of your arena with a win. It's just that simple. It's just that simple."
On Thursday night in Atlanta, the Clippers improved to 5-1 with a 102-95 victory over the Hawks. (The Lakers, meanwhile, are 3-2.)
The Clippers are off to their best start since the 1985-1986 team opened 5-0. Of course, those Clippers lost 12 of their next 13 games and finished 32-50. Isn't it always that way?
Elton Brand and Corey Maggette, the formidable Duke duo, are trying to change that on the scoreboard (they combined for 51 points Wednesday). Cassell, who won two titles with the Rockets, is trying to change that with his no-excuses leadership.
"His biggest thing is," Maggette said of Cassell, "is that we can do something different. Teams are starting to understand we're not the same old Clippers.' "
Brand, the eloquent elder statesman who joined the Clippers in 2001, knows far too well about perceptions. "Sometimes, I used to make a joke how in restaurants in LA, the Lakers' valet was in the front and we had the valet out in the back," Brand said with a smile.
The second-class treatment has its reasons. Since Donald Sterling purchased the team in 1981, the Clippers have had one winning season -- 1991-1992, when Larry Brown took over as coach.
"That's why I don't feel slighted in any way," Brand said. "It was just because of the way the organization was not only perceived, but the way they did things. They didn't pay anybody until I got a contract. Before that, Eric Piatkowski was the longest-tenured Clipper. They had some talent, but they didn't keep that talent."
Brand, a 26-year-old power forward, re-signed in 2003 because the Clippers matched his maximum offer and because he said he believed that the team could turn around. Maggette signed, too.
"We still need to prove that we're still a top-notch organization," Brand said. "We're going towards that road. I don't have PlayStation in my locker, flat screens or DVDs in my locker."
What does he have? "I have a team picture," he said. "I'm all right. But compared to other teams that woo the free agents," he said, trailing off.
Cuttino Mobley, the sharp-shooting guard, did not mind the missing glitz when he signed a five-year deal with the Clippers over the summer for US$42 million. Instead, he saw Brand, Maggette and the promising but often-injured second-year point guard Shaun Livingston. He heard Cassell was joining the team.
"I wasn't going to come to some place where we were going to lose," Mobley said. "I knew we were going to be good. We got guys who can win, who have won. But talk to me at the All-Star break."
Mike Dunleavy has been on the other side of the Los Angeles divide, coaching the Lakers from 1990-1992, including a trip to the finals. He coached the Trail Blazers the last time they had a winning record.
Dunleavy took over the Clippers in 2003 after a 27-55 season. "I don't know about the stuff that went on before," he said. "All I know is that usually places I go, we play well."
Before accepting the job, Dunleavy wanted assurances that the notoriously stingy Sterling would pay to re-sign Brand and Maggette and seek other free agents and build the Clippers' first practice facility (it will be completed next year).
Dunleavy is in the last year of his contract, with a team option. Despite injuries last year, the team finished 37-45, a nine-game improvement from Dunleavy's first season and three games better than the Lakers.
Even if the city senses a new rivalry, he said, "the record that is most crucial to me is the one that gets us into the playoffs."
The backup center Chris Wilcox, the team's lottery pick in 2003, said Dunleavy had made a difference.
"Mike came in and changed the program around, that's why a lot of guys are willing to make the sacrifice to come over to the Clippers," he said.
Between Wilcox's white socks (tights?) that cover his legs and center Chris Kaman's neo-caveman look, the frontcourt is one big fashion faux pas.
No matter. The Clippers always seem to have drawn their own niche crowd -- Billy Crystal, Penny Marshall -- who appreciate the off-beat underdogs. Even that, Wilcox said, might be changing.
NBA ROUNDUP
Dwyane Wade scored 25 points and Jason Williams had eight of his 13 in the final quarter Thursday as the Miami Heat rallied from a late eight-point deficit to beat the Houston Rockets 88-84.
Wade added eight rebounds and seven assists for Miami, which also got 13 points and nine rebounds from Alonzo Mourning and 12 points from Gary Payton.
Yao Ming had 24 points and 14 rebounds for Houston, but scored only two points in the game's final 20:04. Derek Anderson scored 20 points, Stromile Swift had 12 and Juwan Howard 11 for the Rockets, who've dropped three of four to open the season and play their next four on the road.
The win gave Heat coach Stan Van Gundy a 3-2 lead in the sibling series against his brother, the Rockets' Jeff Van Gundy. Neither brother had his full complement of superstars: The Heat are still without Shaquille O'Neal (sprained right ankle) and the Rockets didn't have Tracy McGrady (strained back muscle).
Clippers 102, Hawks 95
At Atlanta, Elton Brand scored 23 points and Sam Cassell added 21 as Los Angeles beat winless Atlanta for its first 5-1 start in 20 years.
The Hawks, meanwhile, have lost their first five games for the first time since the 2000-2001 season, when they started 0-7.
The Clippers also beat the Hawks 92-77 Saturday in Los Angeles and have six straight wins in the series.
Corey Maggette added 17 points in only 25 minutes for the Clippers.
Joe Johnson led the Hawks with 24 points and set a season high with 10 rebounds.
Zaza Pachulia also had a double-double with 16 points, 13 rebounds and a team-leading six assists. Al Harrington added 14 points and rookie Marvin Williams had 12.
Pistons 111, Suns 104
At Phoenix, Richard Hamilton scored 11 points in the final 7 1/2 minutes and Chauncey Billups sank a game-clinching 3-pointer with 16 seconds to go to keep Detroit unbeaten.
Billups had 27 points and 11 assists for the Pistons, the league's lone team without a loss. At 5-0, they are off to their best start since they won their first eight en route to the NBA title in 1988-1989.
The Suns, 0-3 at home, led by 11 with 2:38 to go in the third quarter and eight to start the fourth, blowing a late lead at home for the second time this season.
They were up by 17 in their home opener against Dallas but lost in double overtime.
Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince scored 17 apiece and Rasheed Wallace 16 for Detroit. Ben Wallace had 15 points and 16 rebounds.
Leandro Barbosa scored 21 to lead seven Suns in double figures but didn't play the final 6:05. Steve Nash scored 18 with eight assists and six turnovers. Shawn Marion had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier