At This Point in Time, Clippers Need a Bit More

If America’s going to discover the Clippers, the Clippers have to find some more points.

Look under the sofa cushions. Check the attic. Do a Google search.

On a night Elton Brand set a Clipper playoff scoring record with 40 points, Sam Cassell pitched in 28, Shaun Livingston even scored an eye-opening 10 and the Clippers scored more points than they have all season, it still wasn’t enough to beat the surging Phoenix Suns, who won their fourth consecutive playoff game -- and the first in this series by a score of 130-123.

The Clippers actually made one more field goal than the Suns. The difference was that 12 of Phoenix’s field goals were three-pointers. The Clippers made only four three-pointers.

Six Suns scored in double figures. Four Clippers reached double digits, but Cuttino Mobley (one for six from the field) was noticeably not among them.

So many other parts of the box score were in the Clippers’ favor. They shot a higher percentage (almost 60%) from the floor. They grabbed more rebounds. They blocked six shots.

Bu they gave up 48 points in the paint and 36 points from beyond the three-point arc.

“We had some defensive mistakes,” Brand said. “We do pride ourselves on defense. But they’re a great shooting team. That’s what they do.”

And sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it.

“When they’re shooting well like that ...” Mobley said. “Steve [Nash] came out [hot], Raja Bell was making spot-up shots, [Leandro] Barbosa is pushing it down the court and [Boris] Diaw is making his shots and play-making.... Tim Thomas had 14 minutes and 12 points. This team gets a lot of shots up quick.”

The Suns had consecutive possessions in the first half in which only three seconds ticked off the shot clock. That’s what makes it so hard to grab the game’s tempo away from them. It’s like housing the homeless. The solution’s simple (give them shelter); it’s the execution that’s difficult.

“Part of the learning process,” Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “See what we can do better.”

One thing they can do better: leave Brand on the floor in the fourth quarter. Dunleavy substituted Chris Kaman for him with 7:15 left and the Suns turned a two-point lead into a nine-point advantage before Brand returned two minutes later.

“You say, ‘Can I give him a minute?’ ” Dunleavy said. “I guess the answer is no.”

Brand can’t play any better than he did through the first three quarters. The Suns threw constant double-teams at him and he still made 10 of his first 13 shots -- “I thought he was trying to get them to change the MVP at halftime,” Nash said -- and scored 11 more points in the third.

But the Suns scored 37 points in the third and 37 more in the fourth.

The Clippers had 14 turnovers, bad but not horrific. But the Suns sliced down the margin for error down. Every player getting significant minutes was a threat. Even James Jones made four of five shots.

The Clippers still represented well. Just getting here and participating in such an exciting game should help their profile.

Commissioner David Stern, here to hand the MVP trophy to Nash, showed some Clipper love before the game.

“It’s great to see the Clippers, yes,” Stern said. “The long-suffering Clipper fans are rewarded.”

And I think we know Stern’s favorite Clipper.

“I’m from Westchester County, as is Elton Brand,” Stern said. “[He was] brought up on the same newspaper that I read. I get a kick out of seeing how well he’s doing.”

Still, even with a connection to the league’s highest office, the Clippers can’t get the prime exposure. They’re still playing off Broadway. In the playoffs the Clippers have yet to appear on a weekend afternoon network broadcast. Every game has started after 10:30 p.m. Eastern time.

So now we have two groups of Clipper fans: L.A. fans who can’t afford Laker tickets and East Coast insomniacs.

It’s a shame. The NBA should be showcasing Brand, who won the league’s sportsmanship award. Stern says he has tried in the past to get the Clippers more airtime. (The response: “David, go back to your office.”)

But for the first time Stern says his office can and should take control of the schedule instead of leaving it up to the broadcast partners. Addressing the injustice of forcing the San Antonio Spurs to open their second-round series against Dallas only 36 hours after finishing off the Sacramento Kings in the first round, Stern said: “I think that was a mistake. If we had it to do over again, we wouldn’t. We wouldn’t accede to the networks. We could lay it off on the network, but that’s our responsibility, and we have the ability to say no. And we should have.”

The Clippers participated in one of the more entertaining games of the playoffs, but they let it get away from them. They should be up to speed now. That’s good, because they need to squeeze out a few more points ... quickly.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande, go to latimes.com/adandeblog.