LOS ANGELES -- Lamar Odom, who missed practice Tuesday, was
kept out of the Los Angeles Clippers' starting lineup and benched
for the first half of Wednesday night's game against Seattle.
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Odom, 21, overslept and missed a scheduled flight from Las Vegas
to Los Angeles. He was appearing with teammate Keyon Dooling at a
sporting goods trade show during the Clippers' five-day break
between games.
Dooling, a rookie guard, caught the one-hour flight and made it
back in time for the 11 a.m. practice.
Odom, named Clippers co-captain with Sean Rooks on Nov. 4, also
was kept out of the starting lineup on Dec. 6 for disciplinary
reasons.
Coach Alvin Gentry also fined Odom an unspecified amount.
"I missed my flight," Odom said of the latest incident. "I
mean, it was a bad day to do it when we had practice, but I made a
mistake."
Eric Piatkowski made his first start of the season in place of
Odom, who sat out the entire first half. He entered the game for
the first time with 7:35 remaining in the third quarter and quickly
assisted on a basket by Michael Olowokandi for a 67-63 lead.
Piatkowski finished the night with 30 points in a 114-110 overtime loss to the Sonics. Odom played 25 minutes and scored 16.
"I was wrong. I'm a man. I'm 21 years old, I'm the co-captain
on this team, and I can look anybody in the eye and let them know I
made a mistake. But I'm going to get past it. It's not the end of
the world. It's not going to faze me whatsoever. It's going to be
forgotten. We're not going to base our season around one mistake."
Odom, a second-year forward who entered the game averaging 17.2
points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocked shots, doesn't think this
latest episode will adversely affect his relationship with Gentry,
who is in his first season as Clippers coach.
"He has always been fair and always been on the up-and-up. This
is not going to affect our relationship in any way, shape or
form," Odom said. "We do have a good relationship, and everybody
in the Clipper lockerroom has a good relationship."
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