Clippers loses again

The Clippers' longest trip of the season hasn't gone well for them so far, and their hope for a big turnaround continued to fade Wednesday night in a 94-77 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in front of 20,129 at Quicken Loans Arena.

They've lost three in a row and are 1-3 on a seven-game, 12-day trip that continues Friday night against the Philadelphia 76ers.

And after winning the trip opener against Boston and moving two games above .500, the Clippers (24-25) again have a losing record and seem as confused as ever.

"To be a quality team in this league, you have to play a particular way every night," Sam Cassell said. "You have to play that same way all the time, not just some of the time, and sometimes I think we get confused about that. We have to understand what makes us successful."

It seemed they forgot Wednesday.

They thought they had finally rediscovered the formula that had helped to produce the best season in Clippers history last season, but they seemed to have misplaced it with a long road still ahead on the trip.

"We've wasted a lot of opportunities," Shaun Livingston said. "You can't keep doing that if you want to be a good team and get to where we want to be. We just can't keep doing this."

While Chris Kaman's long slump continued. In 28 minutes, Kaman was one for six from the field, scored six points and grabbed four rebounds. Sam Cassell (14 points on five-for-13 shooting) was the only other Clipper in double figures.

In fairness to the Clippers, they played without Brand for most of the third quarter and without Corey Maggette, who was out because of flu-like symptoms, for the whole game. Assessed his third and fourth fouls in an 11-second span, Brand went to the bench early in the quarter and returned in the fourth.

"We were short-handed trying to score the ball," Dunleavy said. Having Brand for more time in the third quarter would have helped, Sam Cassell said, but it wouldn't have solved everything.