Livingston steps up
The Shaun Livingston who has been dominating all those practices but no NBA games surfaced Wednesday night, scoring six of his 14 points in the last 4 minutes 51 seconds, leading the Clippers to their sixth win in seven games, 110-98, over the Chicago Bulls at Staples Center.
The 21-year-old Shaun Livingston, who has been under increasing pressure since word got out that the team had refused to give him up for Allen Iverson, put the Clippers ahead, 98-94, ducking inside for a layup.
A moment later, Shaun Livingston tipped the ball away from Chicago's Ben Gordon, went in on a breakaway but was hauled down by Kirk Hinrich, who was called for a flagrant foul.
"Shaun had a great preseason and he played some good minutes for us. He was averaging like 14 points as a starter," Coach Mike Dunleavy said.
"Actually, I had a talk with him yesterday. I told him to be more aggressive, start going to the rim, dunking on people, do the things we know he can do."
Said teammate Sam Cassell: "Shaun's got it in him. It's up to Shaun when to release it."
The Clippers' win sent them back into eighth place in the West, putting them above .500 for the first time since Dec. 9.
They now go on a seven-game East Coast trip, a crossroads for a team that started 3-14 on the road and is now only 6-14.
"We've won three in a row on the road," Dunleavy said. "That helps. We're starting to get some of it back but we're not jumping on the bandwagon until we get it going pretty good."
The Bulls started the night on a three-game winning streak in the first game of a seven-game West Coast trip and a lot of bad history going, including an 0-5 record in the first Western swing in their annual November trip with Ringling Bros. in the United Center, known as their "circus trip."
The Clippers grabbed a 31-23 lead after the first quarter with Cassell going for 14 points and four assists, making five of his seven shots.
The Clippers stretched the lead to 11 points early in the second quarter before the Bulls cut it back to five. Then Brand, who had two points to that point, scored 14 more in the last 2:56 of second quarter to help the Clippers take a 57-45 halftime lead.
