Celtics Take Advantage of Clippers : NBA: With support of many in Sports Arena crowd, Boston beats Los Angeles, 104-98, and clinches a playoff berth.

Gang Green came to Los Angeles, so it was an early St. Patrick’s Day at the Sports Arena, where the Boston Celtics made themselves right at home Friday night.

The sellout crowd of 15,350 was, at worst, half for the visitors. Larry Bird’s three-point jump shot with 2:47 remaining, the last of his team-high 22 points, drew chants of “Larry! Larry! Larry!” not to mention finally shaking the Clippers for good in a 104-98 Boston victory. The victory clinched a playoff berth for the Celtics.

“It certainly is disappointing,” Clipper Coach Mike Schuler said of the loss of home-court advantage. “It’s not an encouraging thing. You would think that would not occur in your home building, but I have more important problems to worry about than that.”

Like ending a losing streak that reached four games, despite a season-high 36 points by Ron Harper, who made 14 of 29 shots. Cleveland, which plays here Sunday, is far more beatable than the Celtics, but the last week has seen the Clippers at their inconsistent best. They lost at Miami and Orlando, but put forth a nice effort against the team with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.

“They had a chance to win because we never played with a lot of consistency,” Bird said. “We had a lot of turnovers (17). Mentally, we were not there.”

Rallying from a double-digit deficit, the Clippers, their magic number for elimination from the playoffs reduced to 13, were in position to win. But they scored only 13 points in the final seven minutes, Harper accounting for nine of them, and seven in the last 2 1/2 minutes.

Bird’s three-point shot, his only basket of the fourth quarter, gave the Celtics a seven-point lead. Even on an off night for Boston, that was enough.

That the Clippers, in their first game back after four on the road, should have trouble scoring early was of little surprise. After all, they had reached 100 points in only two of the previous five outings, and averaged only 98.2 in that time.

And then there was the Celtics. Opening a trip that will cover three time zones--games in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Landover, Md., included--they were holding opponents to 44.9% shooting--the lowest in the league.

That’s where the Clippers were at halftime--44.9%--while scoring 48 points to trail by seven. The Celtics led by as many as 14, 48-34, with 4:16 to play in the second quarter, but they finished with a 10-5 mini-rally.

That seemed to carry over to the second half, when the Clippers pulled within 57-55, the closest they had been since 8-6, on Charles Smith’s three-point play less than two minutes into the game. Boston responded with three unanswered baskets, but, after calling a timeout, the Clippers got as close as two again, 65-63.

The Celtics had a five-point advantage heading into the fourth quarter, 79-74, but the Clippers wasted little time in cutting the deficit back to two, needing only their first possession for Olden Polynice’s three-point play. That made it 79-77.

Clipper Notes

This was the first visit by Don Casey to the Sports Arena since last April 22, when he was fired as coach, and also the first time he has seen the Clippers in person since the dismissal. Now a Celtic assistant, he missed the Clippers’ Jan. 11 game at Boston with a bad virus. “You have to go through the motions,” Casey said before the game. “You go in, get it over with, and after a while it (coming back) becomes secondhand.”

With 23 blocked shots in the eight games before Friday, Charles Smith continues to hover among the league leaders. Smith’s 2.04 block-per-game average is a fraction behind the current No. 10, Pervis Ellison of the Washington Bullets at 2.07. “I never thought about finishing in the top 10, but it would be nice to do,” he said. “It would be nice to add to my resume.” . . . Boston guard Brian Shaw did not dress for the third consecutive game because of a sprained right ankle.