LOS ANGELES – Bobby Simmons scored a career-high 30 points and the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Seattle SuperSonics 114-84 to win their season opener for the first time in eight years.
The win also was the most lopsided in an opener in franchise history for the Clippers. Their previous most one-sided victory to start a season was a 133-112 win over Milwaukee in 1976, when the Clippers were the Buffalo Braves.
Elton Brand added 21 points, Corey Maggette 18 and Chris Wilcox 15 for Los Angeles, which opened the game with an 8-0 burst and stayed in front the rest of the way.
Rashard Lewis led Seattle with 24 points. Ray Allen and Vladimir Radmanovic added 20 points apiece for the Sonics, who were playing their first game of the season.
In a matchup of teams that finished under .500 last season, the Clippers shot 63 percent to 37 percent by the Sonics.
Simmons, starting in place of the injured Kerry Kittles, went 13 of 15 from the floor. Beginning his fourth NBA season, Simmons bettered his former career high of 24 points, set in the 2003-2004 season-closing loss to Seattle.
He was a second-round draft pick by the Sonics in 2001, the 42nd player taken, but was traded to Washington for the rights to Pedrag Drobnjak.
The Clippers’ Shaun Livingston, a 6-foot-7 rookie point guard taken out of high school with the fourth pick in the draft, played 16 minutes and had six points, five rebounds and three assists in his NBA debut.
He made all three of his shots, sinking a couple of long jumpers and a reverse layup.
Los Angeles, which lost 14 of the last 15 last season to finish at 28-54, ended a six-game losing streak at the hands of the Sonics.
The Sonics were coming off a 37-45 campaign, their worst since 1984-85.
Brand made seven of his eight shots in the first half, scored 15 points and Los Angeles was up 60-41 at halftime.
Los Angeles led 30-17 at the end of the first quarter, with Brand scoring 11 points.
The Clippers were 12-for-17 in the opening period while the Sonics went 7-for-23.
Seattle went the first 4:09 of the game without scoring, missing the first eight shots until Lewis hit a running jumper, was fouled and made the free throw.
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