<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">MEMPHIS, TENN. ? And finally, a Clippers road victory. They needed eight games to get their first ? and had to hold off the lowly Memphis Grizzlies in the fourth quarter Saturday night to make it happen ? but an 89-82 win in front of 14,509 at FedExForum was just what the Clippers needed. "I didn't think we would go winless on the road, but it was good to get one," said Coach Mike Dunleavy, whose team was the last in the league to win away from its home court. "As something builds, as far as a streak of some kind, it's just not a positive thing. It can sometimes weigh mentally on you as well." The Clippers' psyche was among many things that came under the microscope in their 0-7 start on the road. Dunleavy questioned the team's effort in Friday's embarrassing 29-point blowout loss at San Antonio. He challenged the Clippers to respond against the struggling Grizzlies, who are only 3-5 here and have the worst record in the NBA at 5-15. Memphis missed 13 free throws while shooting only 61.8% from the line compared with 82.1% for the Clippers, who made 23 of 28. It still wasn't easy for the Clippers, but they had to start somewhere. "It feels good to get that monkey off of our backs, especially after such a tough loss," said Elton Brand, who led all scorers with 26 points. "It has been building up, and we felt this was a team that we should beat. We were just about .500 on the road last season, so we have a long way to go to try to reach that mark again. But you have to get that first one." The Clippers set a franchise record with 20 road victories last season, finishing 20-21. The 1974-75 Buffalo Braves had 19 road victories. This season, however, the Clippers are still trying to find their rhythm as a visiting team. "When we execute like we did tonight, when we move the ball around and take good shots, it just makes the team better," Corey Maggette said. "It's about us moving the ball, hitting the shots when we're open and playing defense. We did those things and good things happened."</div> Source
