Clippers Get Win, White Gets Save, 118-113

Were it not for a few frantic and anxious minutes in the fourth quarter Thursday night, something that Rory White and others eventually eased, the Clippers would have been able to sit back and thoroughly enjoy a win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Just two weeks ago at Portland, the Trail Blazers ran up 156 points and beat the Clippers by an embarrassing 35-point margin. But the Clippers’ revenge came Thursday night as they rolled up an 18-point second-half lead before holding on for a slightly deceiving 118-113 victory in front of 6,035 fans at the Sports Arena.

“I was driving here tonight and it was raining, so I thought that Portland had brought its weather for the game,” Clipper Coach Don Chaney said. “I was hoping it wouldn’t be like that other game. . . . (But) tonight was almost the total opposite.”

Almost, except for a stretch late in the third quarter and early in the fourth when Portland used an effective full-court trap to virtually erase an 18-point Clipper lead and pull within three points (86-83) with 8:36 left.

But then White intervened, and the Trail Blazers were subdued. White found open lanes in Portland’s press and scored 12 of the Clippers’ 19 points in the subsequent three minutes to give the Clippers a 105-90 lead that they did not completely squander.

A late Trail Blazer scoring binge after the outcome had been all but decided prevented the Clippers from winning by a larger margin. But the victory, their 20th in 52 games and their second straight, was rewarding for the Clippers.

“We owed them one,” Kurt Nimphius said. “It was an emotional game for us. We let them back in, but we had enough poise to hold them off again.”

Portland’s trapping defense definitely caught Clipper guards off-guard. Many of the Clippers’ 23 turnovers came during that run in the late third and early fourth quarters. Eventually, though, White, Norm Nixon and other Clippers found the solution.

“We had gone over that trap in practice, but when they throw it at you in a game, you don’t react quite the way you should at the start,” Chaney said. “We threw passes we shouldn’t, passes that appeared to be open but were not.”

There was no doubt that White found open room. He converted three-point plays with 8:21 left, with 6:14 left and with 5:29 left. When it wasn’t White scoring, it was Nixon sinking jump shots from the perimeter, Nimphius scoring inside and Marques Johnson making important free throws.

Perhaps more important than revenge, this also turned out to be a night in which the Clippers received excellent performances from a number of players.

The 6-11 Nimphius, for instance, endured the pain of a sore foot to score 20 points and grab 11 rebounds at power forward, while rookie center Benoit Benjamin, despite suffering through a 4-for-14 shooting night, excelled in rebounding (12) and blocked shots (5) before fouling out with 10:05 left in the fourth quarter.

The pairing of Benjamin and Nimphius was the main reason the Clippers held a 52-38 rebounding advantage. That and Cedric Maxwell, who had 13 rebounds.

Norm Nixon scored 8 points in the fourth quarter and finished with 18 in what proved to be his second straight good game after slumping in recent weeks, and Marques Johnson had 24 points and 8 assists and turned in a strong second half that served as a stabilizing force against Portland’s press.

And, of course, there was White. He had lost his starting role two games ago, when Chaney decided to put Nimphius and Benjamin on the same front line, but coming off the bench did not stop White from breaking loose.

“When they pressed us, I observed the defense and saw that I could get open and go to the hoop,” White said. “That’s what I did.”

Clyde Drexler, a surprise non-starter for Portland, was one of the few Trail Blazers who successfully went to the basket against Clipper big men. He had 23 points.

Clipper Notes Derek Smith is back in town after a few weeks in Cincinnati with his personal physician to undergo rehabilitation of his injured left knee, but it probably will be another two weeks before he returns to the lineup. Smith was examined by Dr. Tony Daly, the Clipper physician, Thursday. “He’s doing better,” Daly said. “He’s got tendinitis that he had before the injury. It has flared up again during rehabilitation. He’s really recovered from the arthroscopic (surgery).” It has been 12 weeks since Smith had the surgery for torn cartilage.