Players Get the Day Off After a Brutal Stretch

After four dreary losses in five nights, as brutal a stretch of basketball as the Clippers have suffered through during this lost season, Coach Alvin Gentry gave the team a day off Sunday.

What comes next is anyone’s guess, but the Clippers insist they will continue to fight the odds and the injuries that have derailed their once promising season.

“We know it’s been a big letdown, but we have to go out there and, at least for ourselves and our fans, just go out there and play hard,” reserve guard Quentin Richardson said the other day. “We can still win games. We are capable of beating teams, but we just need to do it.”

The Clippers certainly have talked a good game recently, sounding as if they are capable of shrugging off a stress fracture in leading scorer, rebounder and shot blocker Elton Brand’s left leg.

“It is definitely going to hurt us,” Richardson said. “It’s just stuff NBA teams have to go through. Sacramento won all those games without Peja [Stojakovic] and all those games without Chris Webber, so that’s just the makeup of the NBA.

“Sometimes guys just get hurt.”

*

TONIGHT

vs. New Orleans, 7:30

Fox Sports Net 2

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- XTRA (690/1150), KTNQ (1020, Spanish).

Records -- Clippers 19-39, Hornets 34-27.

Record vs. Hornets -- 1-0.

Update -- Brand’s status for the rest of the season has been termed “day to day.” He has been sidelined for three games because of a stress fracture he is believed to have suffered Dec. 16 and aggravated last week. The Clippers have lost five consecutive games and 14 of 17 and remain in last place in the Pacific Division. This is the Clippers’ last home game before departing for a season-high six-game trip that begins Wednesday against the Wizards at Washington. The Hornets have won six consecutive games, including a 97-92 victory Saturday over the Suns at Phoenix.