Maurice Taylor

Rookie forward Maurice Taylor, who sat out Tuesday night's loss to the Utah Jazz at Salt Lake City because of a knee injury, played only nine minutes in Wednesday night's loss to the Washington Wizards. Coach Bill Fitch had said Taylor, who woke up with tendinitis Tuesday morning after playing in Saturday's rookie All-Star game in New York, might be ready Wednesday. But Taylor made only one of two shots and had two points and one rebound in his brief appearance.

The Clippers have painfully learned to endure losing games. They have learned to suffer through losing players to injuries on the court. But when their misfortunes extend off the court, when they lose a player who is injured fixing a lamp, the Clippers know it is truly time for this season to end. For them, it will end Saturday. They hope it hasn't already ended for rookie forward Maurice Taylor. He was hurt Monday, slashing his right hand while working on a lamp.

Sacramento Kings forward Maurice Taylor was suspended five games by the NBA on Wednesday for violating terms of the anti-drug program, his third suspension for substance-abuse violations. Taylor sat out the first five games of the 2002-03 season, then served a six-game penalty during the 2003-04 season. * An Indianapolis judge ordered a Feb.

For nearly 15 minutes, Clipper forward Maurice Taylor thought his season had came to an end. After landing awkwardly and twisting his left knee in the fourth quarter of the Clippers' loss to the Chicago Bulls Saturday night, Taylor was worried he was going to need surgery. Fortunately, Taylor only suffered a hyperextended knee. He was able to walk after the game without assistance and he hopes to play again before the Clippers complete their trip.

I think I've figured out why many sportswriters have an easy time spending someone else's money [J.A. Adande advising the Clippers to sign Maurice Taylor for $71 million]. It must be because sportswriters make lots of money for doing nothing special, hence, they don't know the real value of money. What gives Adande or any other sportswriters their special insight? Nothing. Nothing but the time to watch and think about a subject that the rest of us consider only for a few minutes each day. Adande and David Falk should remember that Taylor does only one thing reasonably well--he scores.

Mr. Adande, before we go through an entire basketball season during which you explain to Times' readers how much you know about the game, it would be nice if you wrote a column acknowledging that your judgment is sometimes way off. Remember the column you wrote last season in which you said the Clippers would be fools if they didn't sign Maurice Taylor to a long-term, $14-million-a-year contract? Taylor can't rebound or play defense and even his scoring is mediocre. These attributes of his aren't new. He has played this way all through his short NBA career.

Normally when a Clipper player leaves as a free agent, I don't think much about it because it happens so often, but the loss of Maurice Taylor is truly monumental. Where else can the Clippers find a power forward who doesn't rebound, pass, defend or shoot a high percentage? For once, the Clippers' penny pinching has worked to their advantage by ridding them of perhaps the NBA's most overrated player. In this case, Mo was definitely less. ANDY GOODSTEIN Los Angeles If anyone thinks things have changed in Clipperland because of some shrewd draft-day moves on Elgin Baylor's part, think again.

Everyone ostracizes team owners for paying millions to players and thus being responsible for the out-of-control spiraling rise in player salaries. But when someone like the Clippers or the Montreal Expos refuses to pay guaranteed millions, everyone comes down on them because they are not "committed" to win. Rob Hamers Irvine While second-guessing the Clippers' management and owner Donald T. Sterling has become so popular on these pages, there is apparently good reason for the team to remain under the salary cap. I don't recall any departed players who went on to prove the team wrong, and that includes Ron Harper, Danny Manning and the forward who demanded $68 million for a long-term contract and whose name I cannot recall (Maurice Taylor?

Rather than risk tearing one of his Achilles' tendons, power forward Maurice Taylor did not dress against Phoenix on Tuesday night, missing his second game in a row. Taylor's injury is bilateral Achilles' tendinitis and he is listed as day to day. He has been playing with the injury since the Clippers played at Seattle on March 14. "Basically, I'm not going to rush it," said Taylor, the Clippers' leading scorer at 16 points a game.

For several weeks, Maurice Taylor has been hampered by pain in both of his Achilles' tendons and Sunday, he finally was kept from playing by the Clipper coaching and medical staff against Denver. "This has been ailing me over time . . . and I'm thinking it's more than what I originally thought it was," said Taylor, whose injury is listed as bi-lateral Achilles' tendinitis. "There's no way it should have been hurting this long . . . When I woke up today, they were real tight.