Bullets Top Clippers--Schuler Unloads : NBA: Coach rips into his team after Eackles’ free throws give Washington a 101-99 victory.

Mike Schuler, having just finished the first true decible-climbing rip job of the Clippers in his 38-game tenure as coach, saw injured Ron Harper walking out of the locker room and couldn’t resist.

“You’d better find your cape,” Schuler called to him. “Everyone is waiting on you.”

But to hear Schuler after the Clippers lost to the Washington Bullets, 101-99, Wednesday night before 11,485 at the Sports Arena on Ledell Eackles’ two free throws with 2.4 seconds left, adding Superman to the lineup might only be a start. Add a couple super heroes to be named in a trade and then maybe he’ll feel better.

“For the first time, I think I’m really, really disappointed in this group of people,” Schuler said. “We came out at 7:30 and were not ready to play and did not put forth the effort to win the game.

“I think these people really need to take a look at themselves. They have got to determine whether winning is that important to them. I’ll tell you what. Tonight, it wasn’t that important to them.”

The steam letting was gaining momentum.

“I talked to this team before the season, and I heard a lot from them about protecting the crib, protecting the crib,” Schuler said of the home court. “Unfortunately, I think that’s just lip service.

“Prepared to play? I’m not going to be the scapegoat for this. They were very prepared. The thing I can’t give them is the effort to play, the desire to play, the intensity to play, the pride to play.”

In losing for the 17th time in 21 games, the Clippers fell behind by 13 points in the second quarter, 46-33, against a team coming off a 30-point defeat the night before. Schuler had figured out by then that the Clippers didn’t have the necessary intensity.

They may have followed with an 18-8 rally to cut the deficit to 54-51 with 1:15 left in the half and later also come back from 14 points in the third quarter, 72-58. But, as Schuler pointed out, the Clippers didn’t finish off the Bullets.

The Bullets went on top 99-97 with 13 seconds left after Darrell Walker made a pair of free throws. Tom Garrick responded for the Clippers with a 10-footer in the lane.

Washington’s last possession resulted in Eackles being caught along the left baseline with the shot clock at four. He put up a shot and missed, but was fouled by Garrick. He made both attempts.

The Clippers used their last full timeout for a final play, looking for a second consecutive overtime game. But when Danny Manning’s out-of-bounds pass from midcourt forced Ken Norman out of position from a hoped-for layin, time had expired by the time Norman saved the ball to Jeff Martin 15 feet out on the right side.

That wasn’t the only opportunity missed--the Clippers went 17 of 31 from the line (54.8%) and scored only four points the final three minutes.

Clipper Notes

The war in the Persian Gulf hit close to home for some Clippers. Ron Harper’s twin brother, Donald, is in the Middle East in an unknown capacity with the Army and a cousin of Charles Smith is also in the Army and stationed on the front line. Smith sent some Clipper hats and T-shirts to Saudi Arabia when the team was in Boston late last week and before coming to the Sports Arena Wednesday evening intently watched television reports of the attack by allied forces. “This (the game) is very unimportant compared to that situation,” Smith said. As for playing, he added, “I will try to stay focused. I know what I have to do tonight.” Harper said he spoke to his brother Saturday in Hawaii, before Donald was deployed.

Benoit Benjamin said he has never been on a rebounding streak like this in his five-plus seasons in the pros, a run of 19, 20, 19, 20, 18 and 15 the last six outings that boosted his season average to 12.2 heading into the Washington game. “I’ve always been an excellent rebounder, dating back to high school,” he said. “The thing I’m doing now is pursuing more balls and not waiting for them to come to me. That’s been the big difference. It seems like I’m hungrier for rebounds.” Even at 12.2, however, Benjamin does not have enough total rebounds or games played to qualify among the league leaders, the 318 and 26, respectively, falling short of the 361 and 32 that required as of Wednesday. Were Benjamin eligible to be among the leaders, he would have gone into action fourth. Moreover, the recent run makes he and Akeem Olajuwon the only players to have more than one 20-rebound game this season. The Houston center has done it five times. . . . Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of Harper blowing out his right knee against Charlotte at the Sports Arena. “I don’t think about it,” he said. “Everyone does tell me, though.”