Players Endure Camp Fitch

If the Clippers don’t beat the Utah Jazz, it won’t be because they’re not prepared.

Coach Bill Fitch worked the team all day Monday.

It started with a morning meeting, the players watching video from 10 to noon. That was followed by brunch in the Clipper club. They ended the day with a 2 1/2-hour practice.

“We’re finally working from 9-5 like real human beings,” guard Brent Barry said.

“We did a lot of blister work today and cleared all their sweat glands,” Clipper Coach Bill Fitch said.

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Asked what he tells skeptics who say the Clippers can’t beat the Jazz, Fitch told a TV sportscaster: “You guys all have family shows.

“The same people probably said we couldn’t make the playoffs when [Stanley] Roberts and [Kevin] Duckworth got hurt. They can make fun of our being eighth and being in the playoffs, but it’s going to help us in the long run.

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Although Fitch has gotten much of the credit for rebuilding the Clippers, General Manager Elgin Baylor put the team together, making trades for Rodney Rogers, Brent Barry and Malik Sealy; drafting Loy Vaught, Lorenzen Wright, Terry Dehere, Lamond Murray and Eric Piatkowski; signing free-agent guard Darrick Martin; and finding Bo Outlaw in the CBA.

Baylor thinks the club could have had a winning record if it hadn’t lost Roberts and Duckworth.

“If our centers had stayed healthy, we would have had a winning season,” Baylor said. “But the No. 1 thing was making the playoffs.”