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Suns clobber Clippers 114-68, Robinson good for 21

Associated Press

PHOENIX-Clifford Robinson knows Karl Malone is injured and probably will miss the All-Star game. But he's not about to start campaigning for a spot.

Robinson bounced back from his All-Star snub to score 21 points as the Phoenix Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers 114-68 Wednesday night for their most lopsided win in nearly 11 years.

"At this point my thinking is I'm not playing, so we'll just go from there," said Robinson, who was 8-for-15 from the floor and added four assists.

The Suns' 46-point margin of victory matched the second-largest in franchise history and the largest since they beat Sacramento 140-85 on April 17, 1989 after having beaten San Antonio 137-91 two days earlier.

"This was the type of game we've been looking for," Robinson said. "We've had guys down by 20 before this year and we let them fight back. We did a really good job of keeping the hammer on them."

The Clippers have lost 11 straight road games and 16 of their last 18 overall. Los Angeles was without starting forward Lamar Odom, who did not dress because of flu-like symptoms.

Los Angeles, coming off a 107-76 home loss to Golden State, shot 29.5 percent from the floor and never led.

"The mandate from the bench was to penetrate first but we tried jumpers from the start," Clippers coach Chris Ford said. "Our game plan was to not settle for jump shots. How many jump shots did we throw up from the beginning of the game."

Tom Gugliotta scored 14 points, and Jason Kidd, Anfernee Hardaway and Randy Livingston had 12 each for the Suns, who have won nine straight against the Clippers.

Luc Longley was the only Suns starter to play in the fourth quarter.

Tyrone Nesby scored 17 and Eric Piatkowski added 10 for the Clippers, who are 3-21 on the road.

"We can argue all day off the court but when we get out there we've got to get after it and play," Nesby said.

Nesby converted a three-point play with 3:07 left in the first quarter to pull Los Angeles within 19-17. But the Suns outscored the Clippers 25-5 over the next 10:03 en route to a 58-32 halftime lead.