Advertisement

Clippers Take It Personally : Pro basketball: Pacer forward’s on-court chatter helps inspire L.A. to beat Indiana, 106-97, and improve to 4-0 at the Sports Arena this season.

Share
TIMES STAFF WRITER

Before Danny Manning got the last of his 22 points and 12 rebounds and Ron Harper all of his season-high 26 points, before Doc Rivers went four for four from the free-throw line in the final 47 seconds to help the Clippers beat the Indiana Pacers, 106-97, Monday night, there was Chuck Connors Person, the mouth that bored.

Not in the snoozing sense, but in the constant digging of his voice into the mind of almost every Clipper. It was grating to those who guarded him, such as Ken Norman, to those who had heard it repeatedly in the past, such as former Atlanta Hawk Rivers, and to those simply on the bench.

Person scored 14 points, but none bigger than his three-point jumper. None bigger, that is, for the Clippers, in need of a jolt and about to get one when the Rifleman connected from the right baseline with nine minutes to play in the third quarter.

Advertisement

What he said can’t be repeated, the Clippers say. But the words turned out to be some of the nicest they have heard this season.

“His mouth hurt them (the Pacers),” Rivers said. “We were kind of in a lull and struggling. Then he hit that three and we got a wake-up call. All of the sudden, the bench came alive because of what he said.”

This is becoming a very unusual rivalry, especially considering the teams play only twice a season. When the Pacers won at the Sports Arena in March, they attributed it largely to motivation from alleged derogatory comments by Donald T. Sterling, statements the Clipper owner denies making.

So consider this a payback by the Clippers, now 4-0 at the Sports Arena.

“I guess if I woke them up I woke them up,” Person said. “I wake a lot of people up.”

The Clippers (5-2) needed some time to knock the sleep from their eyes, though. Person’s shot put them six points behind. They rallied to go ahead by as many as five points in the third quarter, 69-64, only to fall behind again by a game-high seven, 82-75, with 9:15 to play in the game.

Then they woke up.

The Clippers caught the Pacers at 89-89 with 4:16 left when Norman put back Harper’s missed layup. Indiana pulled ahead, 95-94, but the Clippers ended with a 12-2 run to win.

The Pacers, who got 27 points from Rik Smits but endured five traveling violations against the 7-foot-4 center, ended the game with only two field goals in the final 2 1/2 minutes. The first, Reggie Miller’s layup with 1:54 to play, got Indiana its last lead, and the next didn’t come until only 20 seconds remained, Smits’ hook in the lane.

Advertisement

Person? He had only three points after his third-quarter three-pointer.

“It makes you want to play harder on defense,” Norman said of Person’s chatter. “It makes you want to get a stop to shut him up.”

If the Pacers (2-5) were worn out heading into the finale of the five-game trip through the Pacific Division, they didn’t show it early, scoring 27 points in the first quarter and 50 in the first half to lead by a basket.

But they had a setback when Vern Fleming, the backup point guard, took a flagrant foul from James Edwards with 49 seconds left in the first quarter and landed hard in the lane. He suffered a bruised lower back and, after missing both free throws, left the game for good.

Clipper Notes

Magic Johnson, an opponent for 12 years, is on his way to becoming a Clipper season ticket holder. His agent, Lon Rosen, called Andy Roeser, the team’s executive vice president for business operations, Monday afternoon to say Johnson would like to become a Sports Arena regular. “We just talked a little bit about two or four tickets,” Roeser said. “We’re going to work on the location. He (Johnson) is still going to be out of town a while, but we’ll get something done. Sooner or later, he will be a season ticket holder. The real trick is finding him seats with enough leg room.” . . . Pacer President Donnie Walsh, a member of the USA Basketball committee that selected the 1992 Olympic team, said no replacement will be made for Johnson until at least January and maybe as late as April, so that all necessary team changes can be made at once. Walsh said that a point guard will probably be chosen among Johnson’s spot and the other two selections.

Advertisement