Shots are not going in for Butler
There was the Phoenix Suns game Friday night in which Caron Butler made just four of 13 shots and the Minnesota Timberwolves game Tuesday night in which the Clippers small forward made one of 10 shots.
Over his last seven games, Butler has made 23 of 71 shots (32.3%) from the field. He has made two of 17 three-point attempts over that span.
Clearly, Butler has struggled in recent games.
“He’s getting pretty much the same looks,” Coach Vinny Del Negro said. “They’re just not going in right now. Obviously, we need his production.”
Still, Del Negro said he’s not worried about Butler, even though he has scored in double figures just twice in the last seven games.
Del Negro recognizes that defenses have been playing Butler differently ever since Chauncey Billupswas lost for the season because of a torn left Achilles’ tendon injury.
“When Chauncey was here, we had more spacing and he was such a threat,” Del Negro said. “Caron probably is getting a little more attention than he was before. But he’s had good looks. He had good looks night. He just wasn’t able to knock them down.” Clippers search for collective effort
Since Billups suffered his season-ending injury Feb. 6 at Orlando, the Clippers are 6-6.
Without Billups, Del Negro doesn’t want his team to depend so heavily on AllStars Chris Pauland Blake Griffin.
“It’s got to be a collective unit,” Del Negro said. “It just can’t be all Blake and all Chris. It’s got to be everyone. Everyone has got to pitch in. You win and lose as a team, and everylast one has got to do their part.”
It’s understood that the Clippers “never are going to replace a guy like Chauncey,” Del Negro said, but the coach sees Billups’ absence as no excuse for losing.
“We’ve just got to find a way,” Del Negro said. “We were pulling out a lot of close games earlier in the season, and we’ve been in a lot of games in the fourth quarter. We’ve got to find ways to pull some of these out on the defensive end.” Jordan under the weather
Del Negro said Deandre Jordan played just 16 minutes against the Suns because the Clippers center had a “little bit over 102 temperature” Friday night and threw up during a timeout.
Del Negro said Jordan started feeling sick at Sacramento on Thursday night.
Jordan is expected to play Sunday night against the Houston Rockets.
“He was kind of battling through it a little bit,” Del Negro said. Etc.
Del Negro canceled practice Saturday after back-to-back games in Sacramento on Thursday and in Phoenix on Friday. The Clippers are in the midst of a stretch in which they play four games in five nights. broderick.turner@latimes.com twitter.com/ba_turner