Clippers Getting Ahead of Themselves : Pro basketball: Victory over Hornets gives them 3-2 record on eight-game trip.

The guy in the second row of Charlotte Coliseum paid for the seats, so he could yell whatever he wanted.

Ron Harper decided to yell back.

“Hey, Ron, no playoff money this year,” the fan called to Harper, the former Cleveland Cavalier, with 2:55 to play in the game.

“Wanna bet?” Harper fired back.

Heady talk from the Clippers. But even with the playoffs months away, they figure something has been earned with another night of mostly solid play, this time in a 108-98 victory Tuesday over the Charlotte Hornets before 23,901.

The Clippers are 3-2 on an eight-game trip that was supposed to be filled with doom. That’s 13-18 overall, a victory pace some two months ahead of last season. But the playoffs?

There were no such predictions after the game. But Harper wasn’t discounting the possibility, either.

“If we keep playing like this, anything can happen,” he said.

Anything good and anything bad. Sandwiched between a great offensive start and another good defensive effort in the second half was a second quarter in which the Clippers were outscored, 24-17. After opening the game with 28-10 lead, the second-quarter slump put the Clippers down at halftime, 52-48.

“We like to keep the crowd around for the concessions,” Clipper Coach Don Casey deadpanned.

How considerate. Give some credit to Tyrone (Muggsy) Bogues, who turned 25 Tuesday but is still 5-foot-3, for stopping the Clippers’ momentum. He came in, and they went dead, a transition game stalled by a pesky defender who pushes the ball upcourt and gets about 10 assists per game.

“I’ve never seen anyone go past Gary (Grant) and Harp like that,” Clipper Danny Manning said. “I don’t mean to embarrass them, but man!”

Said Grant, standing nearby: “It’s not embarrassing.”

In other words, it happens to just about every point guard.

Soon, however, the vendors were on their own. The Clippers got selfish and decided to win the game.

The third quarter took care of that, the Clippers using a 24-8 run over the final 7 1/2 minutes to take an 82-72 lead into the final period. Any uncertainty that remained was taken care of with another surge, this time 10-4 in the opening 4:02 for a 92-76 advantage.

All that remained was the shouting: the fan to the court and Harper to the stands.

“If we get to the playoffs this year, I’m going to send him a note,” said Harper, who had a game-high 25 points, and eight rebounds and six assists.

For the fourth consecutive game, Charles Smith had a double-double: 23 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Not coincidentally, those are the same four games the Clippers have been without injured Ken Norman.

Smith has paid special attention to rebounds in the absence of Norman, and the response has been impressive--an average of 13 a game on the trip.

“I want to be as good as I can be in this league,” he said. “I can’t unless I continue to improve. That’s what I’ve been doing.”

The Clippers, as a whole, can relate.

Clipper Notes

Success on the road has translated into success in Los Angeles for the Clippers, who have sparked a dramatic rise in television ratings and ticket sales. The recent strong showing was worth an addition of about 150,000 more households for the Boston and New York games in Channel 5 compared with similar situations last season, according to Mitch Huberman, the team’s vice president for marketing and broadcasting. “We’re certainly seeing an increase of TV viewership,” he said. “Even better, the numbers have steadily increased, so people are catching on with each game.” The Clippers also released a new ticket push of newspaper, radio and TV ads and brochures centered around Ron Harper. It began, coincidentally, last Wednesday, the same day the Clippers lost to Detroit by four points, and the game before they won at Boston Garden for the first time since 1979. The result is 106 new season-ticket holders as of Tuesday afternoon, an unusually large in-season surge that brings the Clipper total to 6,640. “We’ve never done a campaign like this in mid-season,” said Randy Hersh, the director of marketing. “It’s really exciting around the office. The phone has been ringing off the hook. It’s partly because of the new brochures and ads, but it’s mostly because of the success of the team.” . . .

The Clippers were informed that Ken Norman, who went back to Los Angeles last week because of a strained groin, will probably rejoin them for Friday’s game at Milwaukee. If he plays, and for how long, will depend on the strength of the day-to-day injury and game situations. . . . In the latest all-star voting update, Benoit Benjamin is ninth among centers and Danny Manning is ninth among forwards. No Clipper is among the top 10 guards. . . . ESPN and TNT reported Tuesday that Charlotte Coach Dick Harter would be fired by the end of the week. Hornet owner George Shinn spent 20 minutes after the game denying it.