Familiarity Breeds Hope for Clippers : Game 3: They have played well in Sports Arena, where they play Jazz tonight.

Wake up the echoes? Better set a couple of alarm clocks to be sure.

On Dec. 13, the Clippers rallied from a 19-point deficit during the second quarter and beat the Utah Jazz, 102-101, in overtime at the Sports Arena. It remains one of their most memorable victories of the season.

Now, the Clippers need even more. They need to rally from a 2-0 deficit against the Jazz or be eliminated from the playoffs when the best-of-five first-round series moves to the Sports Arena tonight at 7:30.

“Personally, I enjoy playing on the road because of all the fans getting on me,” Clipper Ken Norman said. “But from a standpoint of the teams, it’s very important for us to come home. Not only for our team, but because Utah is not a good road team.”

And the Clippers are a good home team.

They had a 29-12 record at the Sports Arena, tying a team record, and had victories over the Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State Warriors, Lakers and Phoenix Suns after Larry Brown took over Feb. 12.

But among the defeats was a 106-101 loss to the Jazz on Feb. 25. And it was not a pretty picture. The Clippers were outscored in the final three minutes, 12-4.

The Jazz, 39-4 at home in its first season in the Delta Center, had an 18-23 record on the road in an uneven schedule. Utah played 20 of its 41 road games before Christmas. It turned the other way down the stretch, but the Jazz still lost five of its last eight road games.

But the next sign that the Jazz is ready to crumble in this series will be the first. Its dominance in Game 1 last Friday was followed by a Game 2 victory Sunday, during which the Clippers played much better and still fell 11 points short.

They missed 14 of 25 free throws Sunday, offsetting 20 offensive rebounds--eight by Norman--and only 12 turnovers.

There isn’t any new cure for the poor free-throw shooting, but the Clippers might make other adjustments. One, at the suggestion of captain Danny Manning, is to have Norman chase Jeff Malone around screens more, allowing Ron Harper stretches of relief from fighting through Mark Eaton and Mike Brown to get to Malone.

The hoped-for result would be Harper’s being able to concentrate more on offense. He had only 12 points on five-of-11 shooting and a team-high four turnovers during Game 1, despite being the only starter with previous playoff experience. It was a showing he rated as “horrible.” During Game 2, Harper made only nine of 24 shots but had seven points and four rebounds during the fourth quarter.

“I think (playing defense) has been affecting his shot a little bit, but he was our best offensive player on the court at the end,” Brown said. “He got us back into the game.”

The two shooting guards, Jeff Malone and Harper, have become good friends since Harper’s pro debut in the fall of 1986 with the Cleveland Cavaliers against Malone and the Washington Bullets. But they haven’t always been close enough for Harper’s taste this series.

“I don’t think I’m tired,” he said. “It’s just that I get frustrated, having to fight through picks all the time.

“I don’t think it takes away from my game, but it makes my job a lot harder. Any time a player like Jeff Malone has a second or two to shoot a ball, that’s all he needs.”

Malone is one of the best at shooting as he comes off a screen, so teams try to at least make him dribble to slow the release. When those screens are as big as Eaton, Brown and Karl Malone, though, defenders feel as if they are going around Utah’s other Wasatch Front.

It cost the Jazz first- and second-round draft choices and a couple of players, Eric Leckner and Bobby Hansen, to get Jeff Malone from the Bullets in 1990. He has responded with consecutive personal-best seasons in shooting, 50.8% and 51.1%. He has shown the ability to play the point in a pinch and spreads defenses because of his marksmanship. That opens more opportunities for John Stockton and Karl Malone.

Jeff Malone is averaging 26.5 points and shooting 57.5% in the playoffs. And Harper draws him as a defensive assignment after playing 3,144 minutes during the regular season, the seventh-most in the league; and all 82 games, more than the previous two seasons combined.

Clipper Notes

Only three teams have won a best-of-five series after losing the first two games. Utah did it against Golden State in 1987. . . . Charles Smith, bothered by a strained lower back suffered during Game 1, is improving, trainer Keith Jones said.

John Stockton has had 23, 21, 21 and 19 assists in Utah’s last four games. . . . Jazz opponents have failed to score 100 points in nine of the last 11 games, with the Clippers getting 97 and 92. The two that broke 100 were Denver and Minnesota, two of the lowest-scoring teams in the league.