EL SEGUNDO - One year ago, the Los Angeles Clippers were the NBA's feel-good story, the historically downtrodden team finally flexing its muscles.
They were 30-21 at the All-Star break, bidding for not only a playoff spot but also home-court advantage in the first round. And they were creating a wave of interest and excitement that would carry them to the brink of the Western Conference finals.
How have things changed in a year? Well, people who pledged their allegiance to Clipper Nation don't seem to be turning in their passports yet. But the buzz of last spring has been replaced by grumbling about a team that should be better than it has been.
"We're not the Los Angeles Clippers of old," forward Cuttino Mobley said Monday. "But there's games where we play like it."
The Los Angeles Clippers come out of the All-Star break 25-28 and considered by many the biggest disappointment of the first half. The season resumes tonight at Staples Center against Phoenix, the first of a stretch of seven games -- six at home, the seventh at Seattle -- that will take them into early March and could indicate whether they are contenders or pretenders.
They enter tonight a half-game out of a playoff spot. Considering the inconsistency with which they've approached the first 53 games, they consider themselves fortunate.
"We know we haven't played to the level that we can play at," guard Shaun Livingston said. "But the ultimate goal is to make the playoffs. Right now I don't think there's any doubt in anybody's mind that we can make the playoffs.
"A lot of people are counting us out. We just have to know, ourselves, that it's an attainable goal, and once we get in we can do some damage."
What changed? Players surveyed after Monday's practice at an El Segundo health club all pointed to a lack of consistency as the main culprit, whether it be because of injuries, fatigue or a lack of concentration.
It hasn't only been a lack of consistency from game to game. It's been from half to half, quarter to quarter, sometimes even possession to possession.
"We're too up and down, almost like a different group of guys," Coach Mike Dunleavy said. "We put stretches of really good basketball together. Then we go through too many dry spells, or situations where we make mistakes, turn the ball over. That consistency level is what we've got to harness over the next 30 games.
"A lot of it is mental focus -- being more alert, not taking low-percentage chances. When you're on the bench, focus in before you get in the game. When you're in the game, value each possession of the ball. ... It comes down to tightening things up."
Forward Corey Maggette talked about playing to win rather than playing not to lose.
"We went through a stretch at the start of the season where we were winning games," he said. "Then we went through a stretch where we were losing games. We went through a stretch where we were up in the second half and lost games in the fourth quarter, games that we won last year.
"It has to do to confidence. When you're not making shots in the fourth quarter and the other team is, it gets you thinking."
The Los Angeles Clippers will start this critical post-All-Star stretch with Elton Brand back in the lineup, after back spasms sidelined him for the two games leading up to the break. But they'll be without Mobley, at least tonight, because of a pulled groin suffered last Wednesday against Atlanta.
They follow tonight's game against the Suns with four straight against sub-.500 teams: at home against Golden State and Charlotte and back-to-back games against the Sonics, Feb. 28 at Staples and the next night at Seattle.
If they've gotten to .500 by the end of that stretch -- which means beating up on the teams they should beat -- they'll have some momentum and confidence. And, just maybe, another exciting April and May could be something besides a pipedream.
If not, that chorus of "same old Los Angeles Clippers" is just going to get louder.
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