Clippers See Lead Fizzle : Pro basketball: The Jazz, led by Karl Malone’s free throws, dominates the fourth quarter in scoring a 106-101 victory.

The Clippers found themselves on the wrong end of a comeback Tuesday night.

Facing the Utah Jazz, a team they had beaten with one of their most memorable comebacks, the Clippers were outscored, 12-4, during the last three minutes and lost, 106-101, before 13,732 at the Sports Arena.

Even that 12-4 is a bit misleading. The Clippers, who lost their third in a row, got their final basket on a concession dunk by Ken Norman with four seconds remaining.

Norman wasn’t done, either. He got into a postgame shoving match with Utah’s Mark Eaton outside the locker rooms, each player apparently getting in a push before security guards broke it up. Norman declined to comment on any part of the game, but Eaton said later that the bad feelings started when he got pushed in the back by Norman while going for a rebound near the end of the game.

The game had been more physical than normal for Norman, who, along with the Clippers’ other small forward, Danny Manning, had guarded Karl Malone for much of the second half. Malone finished with a game-high 33 points, including 12 in each of the final two quarters.

“I just tried the matchup, and I thought Kenny would do as good a job as anybody on him,” Coach Larry Brown said. “We didn’t have a small lineup in mind. I was just taking a chance.”

The Clippers (27-28) led by 97-94 when the Jazz started its comeback. Utah moved ahead for the first time since the second quarter at 98-97 on Jeff Malone’s jumper from the right side with 2:29 remaining. That was part of an 8-0 run culminated by Eaton, who was stuck along the perimeter with the shot clock running down. Eaton made a 22-footer on his only shot of the game with the clock at one second.

“When you get the ball with one second on the shot clock, you don’t have a lot of options,” Eaton said. “I just sort of said, ‘OK.’ ”

That put the Jazz ahead, 102-97, with 1:23 remaining. The Clippers had been shut out between Manning’s runner down the right side with 3:30 to play and Doc Rivers’ jumper with 1:14 remaining. That was the last of the team-high 28 points by Manning.

“The offense obviously didn’t work well,” Rivers said. “But they didn’t get too many two-point shots. They just stood at the free-throw line.”

Utah made 31 of 36 attempts, including all 15 during the fourth quarter. The Clippers made 17 of 23 the entire game.

“They went into the bonus with about 8:40 left in the game,” Rivers said. “I was sitting on the bench at the time, and I said this could hurt us. Every time we touched them, they went to the free-throw line.”

The last time the teams played in Los Angeles, the Clippers trailed by 19 points at halftime before winning. This time, the Clippers seemed determined to take a short cut and win without a huge rally.

They started out right, leading, 39-32, midway through the second quarter. The lead went to as many as nine, first at 51-42 and then 53-44 at halftime.

The Clippers shot 53.2% for the first two quarters, paced by the starting forwards. Loy Vaught made six of his eight shots during the first half and Manning six of his nine for 12 and 14 points, respectively. Manning had eight of his points during the second period.

David Benoit led the Jazz, which saw its six-game winning streak end the night before in a three-point loss at Portland, with 10 first-half points.

The Jazz closed within 73-69 by scoring on seven consecutive possessions. But the Clippers answered with a run to end the quarter with an 81-75 lead.

The Clippers took an 87-77 lead on Ron Harper’s layup with 10:04 to play and led by 91-80 on Manning’s layup.