Clippers Looking Up After Latest Victory : Pro basketball: They make it four in a row and start watching scoreboard with 95-89 victory over Jazz at Sports Arena.

The Clippers. They have become so repetitive.

“A terrific, terrific, terrific win,” Coach Mike Schuler said. “We really played very, very well.”

This is one broken record the Clippers would like to continue spinning. The 95-89 victory over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night before 13,324 at the Sports Arena--despite 41 points and nine rebounds by Karl Malone--was their fourth consecutive win, the franchise’s longest run since March 28-April 2, 1986.

One more and they will have reached back to the start of the 1985-86 season.

Much more and they will be reaching up to Seattle in the standings. It’s still a long, long shot for the Clippers to get the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot, but so was beating Utah, Phoenix, Golden State on the road and Portland on the road since March 17.

Wednesday’s victory over the Midwest Division leaders--as the SuperSonics were blowing a big advantage and losing at home to Portland--certainly helped. The Clippers trail by six games with 11 to play, but the teams still play twice.

“I was trying to listen to the score,” Winston Garland said of his time as a guest on a radio postgame show. “I couldn’t get it. It is starting to get interesting, though.”

At 27-44, the Clippers should surpass last season’s total of 30 victories and could challenge the Los Angeles Clipper record of 32 victories, set in 1985-86. Games still remain against sub.-500 teams Dallas, Orlando, Denver and two with Sacramento. There is also another meeting with San Antonio and Phoenix, both of whom the Clippers have beaten twice.

Against the Jazz, the Clippers shot 53.3% and committed only 14 turnovers, after 11 Monday against Phoenix. Ron Harper had 29 points despite playing with flu. Charles Smith added 22 points, making seven shots in a row at one point.

The Clippers shot 60% in the first half (24 of 40), and no stretch was more impressive than 16 possessions late in the first quarter and early in the second: 16 attempts, 13 scores, four attempts without a miss by Smith and three by Harper, including a three-point basket.

That helped put them ahead, 38-26, 2:31 into the second quarter against a team that came into the game with a five-game winning streak. The lead was double digits as late as 42-32, before the Jazz made a run to head into intermission trailing, 51-46.

Malone had 18 of Utah’s points on nine-of-12 shooting against the new Clipper tactic of defense by center Olden Polynice, with Smith or Danny Manning guarding Mark Eaton. Malone, who puts the power in power forward, covered Randy Breuer against Minnesota, Patrick Ewing against New York and Alton Lister against Golden State, the latter matching Chris Mullin and Eaton.

Even when Schuler re-tooled for the third quarter and put the quicker Smith on Malone, it didn’t help much. Malone, the league’s No. 2 scorer at 28.5 points coming into the game, went 11 shots without a miss in one span stretching back to the first half and finished the quarter with 10 more points.

That kept the Jazz close, because the Clippers led, 72-68, heading into the fourth quarter.

Clipper Notes

Gary Grant will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right knee today as the Clippers try to gauge the extent of the injury that has caused him to miss three consecutive games with stiffness and soreness. “All we know now is that there is the possibility of a loose body in there,” trainer Keith Jones said. “When the doctors go in with the scope, they’ll be able to tell what it is, what extent it’s in there, and the damage as far as how long he’ll be out.” Depending on the severity, Grant could miss as little as two or three days or as much as six weeks.

In an unrelated move, the Clippers put Ken Bannister on the injured list with tendinitis in his right knee and activated Mike Smrek in a switch of backup centers. Smrek had spent the previous eight games on the injured list with a sprained lower back. . . . Grant’s uncertain future this season puts more of a spotlight on Winston Garland, who becomes the starting point guard. The Clippers went into Wednesday’s game 9-5 with Garland in in the opening lineup, 3-1 when he has replaced Grant. “Winston takes pride in moving the ball, is not a mistake-prone player normally and is a good defender,” Coach Mike Schuler said. “He’s done a really nice job.”

Wednesday marked the 28th consecutive game Utah Coach Jerry Sloan has not used his preferred starting lineup of Blue Edwards, Karl Malone, Mark Eaton, John Stockton and Jeff Malone because of injury. In February, Jeff Malone missed time because of a strained back and a groin pull and was replaced by Andy Toolson. Just before Malone returned, Edwards sprained his ankle and has missed the past 15 games, with Thurl Bailey taking his spot. . . . The Ivy League made its mark on Dartmouth grad Walter Palmer, the Jazz’s seldom-used rookie forward. When friends from school came to the March 6 Utah-Washington game at Landover, Md., they brought along a sign that said, “PUT WALT IN.” Palmer’s postgame response: “I appreciate their support. But I couldn’t believe they ended a sentence with a preposition. How embarrassing.”