Dunleavy Says Improvement Is Evident

When the Clippers were 14-16 after a Jan. 4 victory over the Lakers, Coach Mike Dunleavy said he was disappointed they hadn’t won more.

They’re 13-25 since then, more losses than all but one other NBA team over the same 2 1/2-month stretch, but Dunleavy said before Wednesday night’s 106-103 loss to the Lakers that he was not unhappy with the season.

“I think we’ve progressed, if you look at games from the beginning of the [season] to the end of the [season],” he said. “I see the improvement.”

But as they got better, he said, the schedule got worse.

“When I looked at our schedule during the summer, when we got it, I felt like in the first 30 games we needed to be like 20-10 to really do something,” the coach said.

“And when E.B. [Elton Brand] broke his foot [an injury discovered only hours after the Clippers’ opening-night loss in Japan], it was kind of a bad time because that was the part of the schedule where we needed to win to kind of give us a little cushion. As you looked at [the schedule] later, it got a little ugly....

“I was counting on winning more [early in the season] because I thought we had the opportunity to win more if we had been healthy.”

While Brand was sidelined, the Clippers were 6-7.

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Brand has averaged nearly 20 points and more than 10 rebounds through 4 1/2 NBA seasons, but Dunleavy says he still isn’t treated like a star.

“I don’t think he gets the same calls as other guys that are stars in this league,” Dunleavy said. “People say there really isn’t any star treatment, but we all kind of know that there is a little bit, and for the most part it’s earned.”

Part of Brand’s problem could be the Clippers’ lowly standing, Dunleavy suggested. As they improve, “he starts getting Karl Malone calls.”

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Kobe Bryant scored 24 points in the fourth quarter Monday night against the Orlando Magic, matching a Laker record first set by Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor nearly 44 years ago.

En route to a club-record 71 points on Nov. 15, 1960, the Hall of Fame forward scored 24 points against the New York Knicks in one quarter.

But he doesn’t remember which quarter, or any other details about the game. “Once the games were over,” he said, “I forgot about them.”

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Chris Wilcox, sidelined because of a strained left Achilles’ tendon, probably won’t be able to play until next week, Dunleavy said....Point guard Marko Jaric, sidelined because of a deep bruise in his left foot, will be eligible to come off the injured list before Sunday’s game against the Golden State Warriors.