Clippers Get Taught a Lesson : Pro basketball: On a night when they could have clinched a playoff spot, they don’t, as Sacramento beats them.

What could have been the night the Clippers clinched the franchise’s first playoff berth since the Buffalo Braves in 1976, wasn’t. What should have become Tuesday’s consolation prize, an easy victory over the Sacramento Kings, didn’t.

The Clippers blew a 14-point lead in the second quarter, blew their cool when Danny Manning got kicked out in the fourth quarter after two technical fouls, then got blown away down the stretch by the Kings, who claimed a 103-97 victory at the Sports Arena.

“I don’t know if we relaxed or not,” Coach Larry Brown said after the Clippers scored 40 points in the second half and had their four-game winning streak snapped. “We haven’t been through this (a playoff race) before. This is like sudden death. . . . Sometimes, when you haven’t gone through it, you’ve got to learn the hard way.”

Sacramento has won three in a row and eight of 13, but this victory meant the season series against the Clippers for the third time in four campaigns. The Kings entered the fourth quarter with a 78-77 lead, then took a 91-81 lead with 7:54 left after a 13-4 run.

That’s when Manning got ejected after his second technical foul, and after he had 20 points and nine rebounds. But he didn’t leave the court before a rare display of anger, after referee Luis Grillo down court and then leaning over to argue the call face to face.

Brown criticized Manning by saying, “I don’t care what happens on the court. This is a big game and you’ve got to rise above that.” But Manning insisted he didn’t do anything worth being kicked out for the second time in his pro career.

“The first technical, I earned,” he said. “The ejection, I don’t think, was right. I went to the hole and got an offensive foul, which was correct. But I was upset at myself and spit on the floor. As I spit on the floor, I wiped it up with my shoes and said nothing and got kicked out.”

Sacramento had a 10-point cushion as late as 95-85 and was up by 99-92 with 1:06 to play. The Clippers cut the deficit to 100-97 on Gary Grant’s three-point jump shot from the right side with 47 seconds left, but that proved to be their last points.

The Clippers are comfortably in seventh place for a playoff date with the Utah Jazz, but they are not home free in trying to stay ahead of the Lakers and Houston Rockets.

The first tiebreaker is the season series, and they can decide that against the Lakers Sunday at the Forum. It’s 2-2 against the Rockets, and it would take a major collapse for the Clippers to lose the second tiebreaker--winning percentage in the conference--because they have a three-game lead with three to play.

At times in the first half, the Clippers were as confounding as the playoff system. They grabbed a 31-21 lead in the first quarter and increased that to 41-27 in the second.

But Sacramento, looking to continue its strong finish while heading to another last-place finish, followed that with a 10-2 rally to pull within 43-37. The Clippers found more breathing room by halftime in the form of two 11-point leads, the last at 55-44 with 1:44 to play.

It was 57-48 at halftime, after the Clippers had shot 55.6%. Manning led with 16 points to that stage, and Charles Smith had five blocked shots after getting a season-high seven in Saturday’s victory over Denver.

The Kings refused to go quietly during the third quarter, too. Behind, 58-50, they charged again, tying the score, at 62-62, on Wayman Tisdale’s dunk to finish a 12-4 run. The Clippers led, tried to pull away, this time at 72-65, but they were reeled in, at 74-74, with 2:14 left.

Finally, Sacramento got its first lead since 15-14 when Spud Webb beat Danny Young to slice down the lane and pass to Anthony Bonner for a layup. That made the score 76-74 with 1:38 remaining, and the Kings were ahead, 78-77, heading into the fourth quarter.

Clipper Notes

Regardless of their standing, the Clippers will begin individual ticket sales Friday at 10 a.m. for Games 3 and 4 of the first round. About 7,000 are available for each through Ticketmaster, the Sports Arena box office and by phone to the Clippers at 748-0500. . . . The Kings are expected to hold preliminary talks with Del Harris, who left the Milwaukee Bucks last week, within the next week to become their next coach. It is not described as an official job interview because the club maintains it has no opening before the season ends, but management has indicated Rex Hughes, who took over on an interim basis after Dick Motta was fired in December, will be offered a position as a scout.