Round 1 to Clippers by 105-88 Decision : NBA: Harper leads way with 29 against former Cleveland teammates in first game since trade.

A 5-10 NBA team tied for fifth place played host to a 6-10 team in seventh place Thursday night, and the two actually managed to stir some intrigue.

It was the reunion game: Reggie Williams returned to Los Angeles and Ron Harper faced his former Cleveland teammates for the first time since the Nov. 16 trade.

It wasn’t much of a game after halftime. The Clippers outscored the Cavaliers, 34-21, in the third quarter to win for the second time in three games, 105-88, before 9,044 at the Sports Arena.

It was as if Williams stuck his head into the homecoming party--nine minutes, zero of six from the field, no points--and Harper was named king. He connected on 11 of 23 attempts, had 29 points, including two three-point baskets, and nine rebounds in 38 minutes.

Cleveland or not, it didn’t make much difference to him.

“This is the kind of game I’d like to have game in and game out,” said Harper, who has scored 55 points in his last two outings.

He went six of seven for 17 of his points in the decisive third quarter, when the Clippers (6-10) turned a 48-45 halftime edge into an 82-66 lead by making 65% of their shots. The advantage didn’t drop below 10 after that.

“I thought at the beginning he was a little tight, which is a natural reaction when you’re traded,” Coach Don Casey said. “I thought the players tried to set him up a lot. But he seemed pretty good after that.”

Harper insisted he didn’t give the game extra buildup, and the Clippers say they weren’t looking to him more than usual. It’s just he was open quite a bit.

“I think he knew where to cut off his old teammates,” said Gary Grant, who played as if he had inside information, too, getting 18 assists and only three turnovers.

The only bad news for the Clippers came when Joe Wolf pulled a muscle just above his right hip early in the third quarter. He is not expected to accompany the team this evening to Seattle for Saturday’s game against the SuperSonics, so Benoit Benjamin should get his first start of the season.

Williams, who still lives in Manhattan Beach, and Harper both downplayed any added importance to the game.

“I take each game at a time,” said Williams, who was averaging 7.6 points and 17.3 minutes in the eight previous games with the Cavaliers, two of which he started. “I’m not looking for revenge or anything. That’s not my style.”

Said Harper, a lifetime Ohio resident before the trade: “I’m not thinking about it too much. I went home (after the Laker game Tuesday) and thought about it a little, that I would be going against some friends for the first time. But I didn’t lose any sleep over it.”

He certainly didn’t shy away from the moment, either, taking 14 shots (making five) in the first half for 12 points. Two came when he took a pass from Grant and dunked in the face of Craig Ehlo, his practice counterpart at Cleveland, with 2:34 left in the first quarter.

“Ron Harper is a great player,” said Mark Price, who led Cleveland with 21 points and 10 rebounds, of his former backcourt mate. “He did what I feared.”

Clipper Notes

The Clippers, still searching for a consistent outside shooter, briefly discussed a deal that would have sent Joe Wolf to the New York Knicks in exchange for Johnny Newman, although officials for both sides cautioned that talks never got past the early stages. Newman, a fourth-year forward, is a three-point threat, who averaged 16 points a game last season. Wolf, normally a power forward, has started each of the first 15 games for the Clippers at center. The Knicks are interested in him as backup to Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley on the front line, and as a hedge against an unsuccessful return by Kiki Vandeweghe from chronic back problems.