LOS ANGELES — He's not going to have these kinds of games every night, but Caron Butler knows they're going to come. If teams don't account for him, he has the ability to make them pay.
Saturday night at Staples Center, Butler helped turn a game in the Los Angeles Clippers' favor by making big shots and playing tough defense. On a team of stars, he's the one guy who sometimes gets overlooked.
Consider that four of the Clippers' starters are listed on this year's all-star ballot. The only player who's missing? Butler.
"I don't have to be on no ballot," Butler said. "I know what my value is to this team."
He proved it in a 92-86 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, scoring a season-high 20 points, including 14 in the third quarter when the Clippers took control after falling behind in the first half.
Butler's shooting helped LA record its fourth victory of the season and third in a row. Last season, the Clippers didn't get their fourth win until their 11th game. This one came in their sixth game.
They've been doing it with show-stopping performances from players like forward Blake Griffin and guard Chris Paul, but occasionally they're going to need players like Butler, who was signed as a free agent on Dec. 9 after an injury-plagued 2010-11 season with the Dallas Mavericks.
"Caron is a lot of times going to lead this team in scoring because teams are setting themselves up to stop Blake and stop Chris and maybe myself," teammate Chauncey Billups said. "Caron is just going to have those quiet nights with 20, 19, 21. We look for him to do that. We need that out of him."
They needed it against the Bucks, who are 0-5 on the road this season but still staggered to a 40-38 lead at the half. The Clippers shot 43 percent in the first two quarters and were 0-of-9 from three-point range.
"It was a little bit of a sloppy first half for us in a lot of ways, especially offensively," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "I don't think we came out with great intensity on the defensive end. We were fortunate they missed some easy jump shots."
It's getting to be routine for the Clippers: ineffective defense and poor rebounding.
"We have so much room for improvement defensively," Del Negro said. "We're 4-2, so we can't get down on ourselves. We need to keep figuring things out and finding out each other's tendencies."
They didn't pull away until going on an 18-5 run after the game was tied 45-45. Butler scored on a dunk, then hit a jumper from 19 feet as the Clippers made 9 of their first 10 shots in the third period. Later, he dropped in a three-pointer to keep his team in front by 10.
"CB can score with the best of them," said Paul. "He can defend well, and he's a problem on the offensive end for a lot of guys as well."
Butler has a career 16.6 scoring average, but the Clippers aren't depending on him to deliver big points every night. And he knows that.
But as Billups said, a quiet 20 is sometimes good enough.
"Some nights it might be a quiet 20," Butler said. "Some nights it might be intangibles on defense, guarding a guy like Stephen Jackson (who was just 4 of 18 from the floor). It's just always doing the little things, (being) a utility guy, trying to be the glue guy that keep us together."
Last season with the Mavs, Butler missed the final 53 games and the entire postseason after suffering a ruptured right patellar tendon in a New Year's Day game against these same Bucks.
So if he's not on the all-star ballot, he said, it's because he didn't play much last season.
"This is a comeback year for me," he said. "I'm just taking everything in stride. Some days are better than others, but I'm feeling good from a health standpoint."
That's all the Clippers were hoping for. And they got it.
