Clippers Leave Suns Benumbed, 114-101

Gary Grant didn’t have much feeling in his right hand after suffering a bruised nerve in his elbow early in the third quarter.

But Grant and the Clippers could feel sensational after they scored a 114-101 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, ending an 11-game losing streak at Veterans Memorial Coliseum and setting a Los Angeles-era record with their 12th road victory of the season.

“I try not to overplay things,” guard Doc Rivers said, “but this is a tremendous win for us.”

Added Coach Larry Brown: “I don’t know exactly how significant it is, but it’s certainly as big a win as we’ve had. We played a great team on the road. . . . We played the fourth quarter about as well as we can play.”

And that made the difference as the Clippers won the season series from the Suns for the first time since 1984-85.

Their turning-point run started in the closing seconds of the third quarter, after the Suns tied the score, 79-79. From there, the Clippers, who shot 55.3%, went on a 15-2 burst, holding Phoenix without a point for 4:42.

That all but put the game out of reach. The Clippers later scored on eight consecutive possessions and took a 112-95 lead with 1:38 remaining.

“They came out from the start and dictated the tempo,” said Phoenix’s Kevin Johnson, who had 26 points but made only seven of 18 shots. “We battled back and got in good position at the end of the third quarter, but they jumped us again in the fourth. You’ve got to give them credit. They wanted it, and we didn’t come as determined or prepared as we should have and there’s no excuse for that.”

Grant had an excuse for a bad game, but didn’t give in. He finished with 16 assists, tying his season high, and didn’t commit a turnover.

Grant was hurt when hit while going for a layup. He said that he didn’t have any feeling in the hand for five minutes, even as Richard Emerson, the Phoenix team physician, squeezed it during an examination.

Grant eventually returned with an elbow pad, but discarded that after a few minutes. He played 10 minutes of the fourth quarter with some numbness in the arm.

The Suns tried to exploit that and paid for it. Apparently Johnson heard Grant mention to Clipper trainer Keith Jones during a stoppage in play that the hand was bothering him. So, when Grant stood with the ball 20 feet out on the left side, Johnson slacked way off to front Danny Manning on a double team.

Grant started to shoot and stopped. Johnson didn’t move toward him, daring the shot. Grant looked at the Clipper bench, fired, and made the jump shot as part of the fourth-quarter run that sealed the victory.

“It was like, ‘No, no, no--good shot,’ ” Brown joked.

Said Grant of his only basket of the night: “I wasn’t going to shoot it. I was going to wait until somebody was open. But nobody was coming (for the ball). Nobody on our team was coming, nobody on their team was coming.

“He (Johnson) was daring me. He heard me talking, ‘I don’t want to shoot it, I don’t want to shoot it.’ I really didn’t want to. If (Ron) Harper or somebody got open, I would have rolled the ball to him.”

The Clippers shot 63.2% during the first quarter and led, 25-22. They went 50% during the second and led, 54-46, at halftime, with Manning scoring 18 of his game-high 27 points and Harper 15 of his 23.

The Suns, who saw a four-game winning streak end and lost at home for only the second time in 29 games, led for the first time at 71-70. They had only two more leads after that.

Clipper Notes

James Edwards started his second consecutive game at center and played 23 minutes. Charles Smith went 22 off the bench. Olden Polynice, in the starting lineup 95 of his 96 games with the team before being benched Wednesday, did not play on a coach’s decision for the first time during his Clipper career. . . . Tom Chambers returned for the Suns after sitting out the previous three gamesbecause of a sprained right ankle but had only 12 points on four-of-13 shooting.