Not exactly glory days for Clippers and their fans

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Bruce wasn’t far away from us, just down the road at the Sports Arena. There was no escaping it, not unless you quit looking at messages from excited fellow Times staffers and other friends. Since Bruce Springsteen was playing Wednesday night at the former home of the Clippers, I wondered whether he was thinking about them and their owner, Donald Sterling. (Come to think of it, Sterling might make a good subject for a future Springsteen song. The Boss meets The Boss).

Still, I doubt Bruce was weighing the odds of the Clippers’ getting Blake Griffin. Then again, he’s not exactly on the playlist in the Clippers’ locker room, and won’t be unless he sings a duet with Young Jeezy.

So it was truly brave counter-programming of Bruce to run up against the likes of the Clippers versus the Thunder on the final day of the NBA’s regular season.

So what did the Clippers offer up to those fans who were not Bruce fans, simply unlucky enough to get tickets to The Boss, or seemingly the only two Times sports reporters not at the concert?

Try a 41-point loss to a 23-win team. And the sight of a coach (Mike Dunleavy) getting tossed out of the game late in the third quarter.

“They were dunking the ball,” Clippers rookie guard Eric Gordon said. “It was almost like a video game. We weren’t playing them with the right frame of mind.... This is almost a disaster. As talented as this team is, we have one of the worst records in the league. There’s no way that should happen.”

Said Chris Kaman: “In my six years, I didn’t have a year that bad. The worst part about it is the guys we have on this team are far better than the team I had last year when we only had 23 wins.”

”...Everybody’s out there trying. It’s not like someone’s out there dogging it and not trying. We just can’t get it done. Our chemistry was the biggest thing and bringing all the new guys together at once. I don’t think everybody got all the information they were supposed to get. It made it difficult during the season with injuries and everything and we traded for some guys in the middle of the season.”

Kaman spoke about the off-season, which could be an active one filled with changes.

“I don’t know how many of these guys will be on this team next year,” he said. “We got some free agents. We got some transitions that are probably going to happen. They’re probably going to change something up. I don’t know what. I don’t have insight and it’s not my decision. I’m not in that position. Whatever team comes back next year, I’ll be sure they’ll be better than this year.

“There’s a lot of things that can go down with my teammates and myself, upstairs offices and the manager, coach, assistant general manager, president, all the people, owner. All the way down, they have a lot of decisions to make. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I can’t really give you a straightforward answer on that now. I just know coming back wherever I may be, whether it’s here or somewhere else, I’m excited to be a part of a team again.

“I hope I don’t end in this kind of way. It’s just not fun. No one is having a good time. Everybody is putting on these fake faces for the media and trying to talk to you guys as best we can.”

-- Lisa Dillman and Mark Medina

Left photo: Bruce Springsteen performs at the Sports Arena on Wednesday. Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times. Right photo: Donald Sterling applauds the Clippers’ 116-109 overtime victory over the Sacramento Kings on March 5, 2008. Credit: Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times