Listless Clippers Humbled Again : Pro basketball: Brown questions team’s character after a 114-106 loss to Pacers.

“Your team looked like it came out disinterested,” someone said to Larry Brown.

“That’s probably being nice--disinterested,” the Clipper coach said Tuesday night at Market Square Arena. “The nicest thing is you said ‘team.’ I didn’t even think we were a team.”

If this was Brown’s analysis of the Clippers’ 114-106 loss to Indiana before 10,197, one area received the closest attention. It was the heart--even if Brown was having trouble finding it.

“The thing that concerns me is that we’re not getting better,” Brown said after the Clippers lost for the seventh time in 11 games and dropped to 16-14. “We’re not improving our rebounding, we’re not improving our defense. Our shooting percentage is going down every game because we don’t pass the ball, and we don’t get to the free-throw line. If we were playing Denver, who’s really struggling, or Dallas, it wouldn’t make a difference. We’d still have trouble.

“I’m embarrassed with the effort, and that’s my fault. I’m not happy with the way we’re playing. Quin (Snyder, an assistant coach) asked how we could jump up and play so good against the Knicks. Well, it takes character every night to step forward and put it on the line. Every once in a while, you can get something accomplished. With good teams, we lay it on the line every single game.

“I don’t know what it is. I don’t see anybody stepping forward and being a leader. Gary (Grant) is trying, with his effort, but he looks so out of place. When I see him in the game, it looks like he’s on fast forward and everybody else is in slow motion.”

The Pacers (14-16) took a nine-point lead near the end of the first quarter, pushed it to 14 midway through the second quarter, then to 17 at halftime, 66-49. They were already outrebounding the Clippers, 28-11, getting nine on the offensive end alone. Rik Smits, who came in averaging 12.3 points, had 16 at halftime.

There was no letup in sight. Indiana needed less than two minutes of the third quarter to build its cushion to 73-49. A few minutes after that, it hit 25 points, 79-54, when Dale Davis tipped in a miss by Pooh Richardson.

The Clippers managed to make it interesting. When they cut a deficit of 22 points with 7:10 to play to 12 at 5:21, the Pacers rushed Detlef Schrempf and Reggie Miller back in, just in case. No cause for panic, though. The margin got to nine points with 2:41 to play, but never closer, until a basket by Ken Norman in the final seconds.

The Pacers, who had lost six in a row, had 22 more rebounds. It was also the third time in four games a team with a losing record has beaten the Clippers.

“Right now, we’re not a basketball team. (We’re) just a bunch of individuals,” Norman said. “We don’t play as a team, don’t compete as hard as we need to compete to win.”

Said Ron Harper of the Clipper players: “Some care, some don’t care, some may care, some never will care.”

Danny Manning, who does care, again led in scoring with a season-high 35 points, after getting 32 against Boston on Sunday. He hit 15 of 17 free throws. Smits finished with 27 points for the Pacers.

Clipper Notes

Ron Harper had four more steals, giving him 17 in the last six games. He is at 2.46 per game, good for third in the league behind perennial leaders Alvin Robertson and John Stockton. . . . The 55 rebounds by the Clippers last month at the Sports Arena were the most by a Pacer opponent. The 33 Tuesday were the fewest. . . . Pacer Coach Bob Hill, in the final season of a two-year contract, is expected to sign for two more years sometime this week.