Heat Gets 1st Win Ever to Put Onus on Clippers, 89-88

For 40 days and 40 nights, starting with a Nov. 5 loss to the Clippers at home, the collective forces of the National Basketball Assn. poured down on the Miami Heat.

The dark clouds hung over the expansion franchise as it opened its first season with 17 straight defeats--3 shy of the league record for consecutive losses in a season and 7 short of the mark for most over 2 years.

The Heat had become national news, what with the intrigue of ineptitude. Its first victim would be hung with an indignity of its own.

So enter the Clippers.

This season, they had already been the first team to lose to the Charlotte Hornets, the league’s other expansion entry. And they had lost by 28 points to Sacramento, the current anchor of the Pacific Division, and by 50 points to Seattle.

The Clippers took it a step further Wednesday night, becoming the first team ever to lose to the Miami Heat.

The Heat not only won, 89-88, before a crowd of 7,703 at the Sports Arena. It deserved to win.

The Clippers, who shot 45.3% and committed 23 turnovers against one of the worst defenses in the league, had their last-second opportunity to save face go astray.

Norm Nixon got the ball at halfcourt after a timeout, dribbled and shook away his defender, Rory Sparrow, just enough for a fallaway jumper from 19 feet out. The shot from the right side hit the rim just as the buzzer sounded--and bounced away.

When the sunshine finally broke through, the Heat was not about to let it pass without basking a little. But after 5 players scored in double figures, hadn’t they earned it?

“We made him work hard enough for it,” said Heat center Pat Cummings, whose 15 points tied Grant Long and Billy Thompson for team-high honors. “If that last fadeaway jumper from the corner had gone in, we weren’t meant to win.

“We’ve come close several times. Tonight, down the stretch, we kept our control and our composure and we were able to pull it out. It felt great.”

If you can’t beat the Heat, get out of the league?

No, but it’s a safe bet there will be more than a few people around the country giggling at the Clippers (7-14) this morning.

“One shot didn’t cost us the game. I think we were outplayed all night,” Clipper Benoit Benjamin said. “They were hungrier than us.”

No one can doubt Nixon was hungry for the last-second shot. He has yearned through the early weeks of the season to play a key role down the stretch of a game, and this time he got it. Except the attempt, a good one, didn’t fall.

“Norm said he wanted the shot,” Clipper Coach Gene Shue said. “I like it when a player takes that kind of responsibility. I was convinced Norm would get a good shot at the basket, and he did. It just didn’t go in.”

The scouting reports that said the Heat had improved since the season-opening 111-91 loss to the Clippers at Miami appeared accurate.

But for the Heat to be leading by 10 points in the second quarter, and by 12 in the third, 70-58? What gives?

The Clippers do. They gave up 53 points by halftime to a Miami team that came in averaging just 94 in a game, about 6 points less than any one else in the league.

The Heat, up 48-38, with 1:38 left before intermission on Billy Thompson’s slam dunk, led at halftime, 53-44. That included a 16-8 run in the final 3:51 of the second quarter--7 points coming from converted power forward Cummings in only his second game starting at center in about 5 years, and 7 from ex-Laker Thompson--so the Clippers were struggling just to stay close.

Coming off Tuesday night’s loss at Portland, where they committed 30 turnovers, the Clippers had 15 in the first half alone against the Heat. That accounted for 16 Miami points.

It was more of the same in the third quarter, as the Clippers opened by failing to score in 10 of their first 12 trips downcourt. The two in which they did were on 4 free throws by Quintin Dailey (21 points).

Benjamin broke the field-goal drought that began before halftime and lasted 6 minutes 51 seconds on a layin with 5:35 to play in the third quarter. That cut the Clipper deficit to 59-52, but the Heat built its lead back up to 63-52 a minute later.

The Clippers, suddenly very beatable at home after looking so good previously, were buried, never able to dig themselves all the way out.

“No question,” Shue said. “We had plenty of time to catch up, but it seemed like every time we came back, the Heat also answered.”

The Clippers know all about answers today. Trivia buffs all over Miami and Charlotte will remember them well.

Clipper Notes

Danny Manning led the Clippers with 23 points, hitting 11 of 14 shots. . . . Rookie Charles Smith, expected to return tonight after spraining his right wrist and bruising his right hip, instead sat out for the third straight game and eighth in the last nine. Not coincidentally, the Clippers lost all 8. “I’m 99% better, but they want to wait for that extra 1% just to make sure,” Smith said.