Clippers Finish Off Pistons to Finish Exhibition Season

Fans in this area adopted the Clippers, if only for Tuesday night, for two reasons.

Most notably, they were playing the Detroit Pistons, a dreaded rival of the real hometown favorite, the Boston Celtics.

Also, Charles Smith, the Clipper rookie from the University of Pittsburgh, grew up in Bridgeport, Conn., 90 minutes away. A group of 28 family and friends watched Smith make crucial late free throws that helped secure a 110-104 Clipper victory in front of 7,310 in the annual Hall of Fame exhibition game here.

Smith finished with a game-high 23 points, 6 of which came from the free-throw line in the final 2:12 as the Clippers won despite not making any field goals in the last 3:15.

“I’ve always been a good free-throw shooter in the clutch,” said Smith, who will start at forward along with Ken Norman when the Clippers open the regular National Basketball Assn. season Friday night at Philadelphia. “I hope I don’t jinx myself, but I had success like that in high school and college, too.”

Center Benoit Benjamin added 22 points and Norman scored 21 for the Clippers, who finished the exhibition schedule with a 5-2 record. Benjamin also blocked 6 shots.

The Pistons, who kept their starters out for most of the fourth quarter, got 21 points from Dennis Rodman off the bench. Detroit finished its exhibition season 6-3.

“I like the way the Clippers are playing,” Piston Coach Chuck Daly said. “They’ve got talented people. They’re much deeper, much better this year. They’re going to be good down the road.”

Clipper Notes

Team officials, forever optimistic that No. 1 pick Danny Manning would be signed before the start of the regular season, are no longer so certain. “I’m not as confident as I once was,” owner Donald Sterling said. “I was very surprised they turned down our last offer.” The Clippers proposed $10 million for 5 years, but Ron Grinker, Manning’s agent, balked for two reasons: the team wanted a fifth year added to the contract, as opposed to Grinker’s demand of only 4 seasons, and 30% of the payment would be deferred. Moreover, it appears that little effort has been made to settle the differences since Grinker and Manning left Los Angeles last Thursday after only a 12-hour stay. “There is no dialogue, no conversations and no meetings planned,” Grinker said Tuesday. The agent claims the pay-some-later plan would reduce Manning’s immediate income for 1988-89 from the announced $1.5 million to about $1.05 million, less than No. 2 pick Rik Smits of Indiana. The Clippers say Grinker jumped to conclusions that any of the deferments would come the first year. Why? They broke off talks before discussing it.