Clippers Sail, Lakers Sink and They’re in Same Boat : Clippers: They get a second chance when Seikaly travels and Norman’s shot beats the Heat, 117-116.

Rony Seikaly blocked the shot that looked to be the Clippers’ last chance to beat the Heat, and grabbed the ball out of the air. He controlled it, and the game for that matter.

But when Seikaly was called for traveling, the Clippers had a second last chance. They didn’t waste this one, as Ken Norman, open under the basket on the left side, got the entry pass from Danny Manning and laid it in with 2.4 seconds left for a 117-116 victory at Miami Arena.

It was a strange night from the beginning--the game clock and 24-second clock didn’t work the entire first half, forcing the public-address announcer to call out the time in intervals. But the ending to a 2-hour 32-minute marathon was even more bizarre.

Winners of 10 of 14, the Clippers led, 115-114, until Bimbo Coles put the Heat ahead with a driving layup down the right side with 8.4 seconds remaining. The Clippers called a timeout to set up the response. It came in two parts.

Part I: Manning, standing at midcourt, tossed the ball into Charles Smith along the right baseline. Smith gave Seikaly a pump fake and then went up for a short jumper. Seikaly blocked the ball, then walked with the ball.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know,” Seikaly, who had 20 points, 20 rebounds and four blocks, said when asked if the call was correct. “I have to look at the tape. In that situation (when he heard the whistle), I thought I might have stepped out of bounds or someone called time out. The last thing I expected was a traveling call at that time of the game.”

Part II: This time, Manning inbounded from under the basket. Ron Harper cut down the right side and three defenders followed. The pass went instead to Norman, and only silence followed from the fans.

“I was so wide open I almost missed it,” Norman said of the last of his 18 points. “Really. I was so wide open it was almost scary.”

It was a double setback for the Heat. Glen Rice, who would have been a prime option for the real last chance, suffered a sprained left ankle on the play and did not return for the ensuing possession.

As it turned out, Miami got a good shot anyway. But Grant Long’s eight-foot runner down the right side bounced off the rim, and the Clippers, after beating Orlando Sunday, had a 2-0 start to the trip and their ninth victory away from the Sports Arena, already bettering last season’s mark of 8-33.

“We felt we could come on the road and get these first two,” Norman said. “We felt these were two we should win. We got them. We played hard and stayed together down the stretch. Now we need to take that momentum into New York and Boston.”

The Clippers (30-28) continue to win the close games. They are 8-3 in games decided by three points or less, this being the fourth victory by one point.

Other numbers are equally encouraging: The victory moved them within two of the Los Angeles Clipper record of 11 wins away from the Sports Arena.

Manning led the Clippers with 30 points, tying Rice for game-high honors. Harper added 20 points, and Gary Grant had 14 points, 13 assists and six rebounds.

Clipper Notes

Doc Rivers, on the injured list and expected to be sidelined for two weeks after spraining his left ankle Friday, is progressing so well he might play again as soon as next Tuesday. That would mean he would miss only five games. “Just looking at his pain level Friday and Saturday, he thought this might be something that would hang on for a while,” trainer Keith Jones said. “But with the next couple of days, he showed a lot of improvement.” Most importantly, the swelling in the joint is down and the mobility is returning. . . . The news on James Edwards is not so encouraging. He is expected to miss the final two games of the trip, against New York and Boston, because of a sprained right ankle.

Last add ankles: Danny Young was held held out, despite dressing, to rest his sprained left ankle, an injury suffered in Sunday’s victory at Orlando. He would have been used in an emergency situation only.

Tharon Mayes, who signed a 10-day contract Tuesday afternoon to take Rivers’ spot, played 13 minutes in his debut and had three points.

A Rarity

This is the first time the Clippers have been tied with or ahead of the Lakers this late in the season since the Clippers were the Buffalo Braves. At the end of the 1975-76 season, Buffalo had a 46-36 record and the Lakers finished at 40-42. Here are the Pacific Division standings:

TEAM W L PCT. GB Portland 40 18 .690 -- Golden State 39 18 .684 1/2 Phoenix 38 22 .633 3 Seattle 33 26 .559 7 1/2 Clippers 30 28 .517 10 Lakers 30 28 .517 10 Sacramento 20 38 .345 20