With Nothing to Lose, Clippers Win Again, 107-97, Over Utah

The Clippers couldn’t have hit this tough stretch of schedule at a worse time, mired in a slump on the court and distracted by contracts and trade possibilities off it.

But, as if out of nowhere, the Clippers have found an old spark and produced consecutive victories over very good teams. Wednesday night before 12,230 at the Sports Arena, they beat the Utah Jazz, 107-97, as Stanley Roberts had a season-high 21 points and Danny Manning scored 21 of his team-high 25 points in the second half.

“We’re surprising a lot of teams,” Roberts said. “They think we’re still in a slump. But we have rallied behind each other. We’ve picked each other up. The way we see it, we’ve got nothing to lose. We’ve already been losing.”

Manning was only two of seven from the field in the first half, but finished 11 of 21. He scored 10 consecutive points at one critical stretch to give the Clippers a 95-88 lead with 4:21 to play. That proved insurmountable for the Jazz.

“We milked him,” point guard Mark Jackson, who had 14 assists against only two turnovers, said of Manning. “I tried to call every play we had, and I even made up some to get the ball to him.”

Utah’s Karl Malone had 38 points and 16 rebounds, both game highs. John Stockton had 12 assists, but only three in the second half, as the Jazz fell into a virtual first-place tie with San Antonio in the Midwest Division.

“I can only do so much,” Malone said. “I just try to go out and do the best I can. This has to be a team effort.”

After using different starting lineups in each of the previous three games, the Clippers stayed with the group that began Sunday’s victory over Seattle, their best showing in a long while. That meant Ken Norman and Ron Harper started and John Williams and Gary Grant were reserves.

The Clippers led, 15-8, but that didn’t hold. Utah, which beat Cleveland the night before at Salt Lake City, went ahead, 20-19.

The Clippers scored on six consecutive possessions in the second quarter, capped by Harper’s three-point play. But that only got them a 41-38 lead.

The Jazz led, 46-43, at halftime.

Malone had 14 points and seven rebounds the first half, and Stockton had nine assists. Roberts, after being ejected after playing only 16 minutes the game before, led the Clippers with 13 points on six-of-eight shooting.

Roberts continued on his hot streak in the third quarter, making four of six shots. That helped the Clippers take a 75-71 lead with 43 seconds to play. The game was tied, 75-75, heading into the final quarter.

Clipper Notes

Once a major contributor, Kiki Vandeweghe has all but vanished from the playing rotation, victim to the Clippers’ desire to give more time to Loy Vaught, John Williams and Stanley Roberts on the frontline. Vandeweghe, averaging 18.8 minutes and 11.3 points before suffering an ankle injury Dec. 3, had not even played in the five games before Wednesday, when he played three minutes. “I’ve had a lot of talks with Kiki,” Coach Larry Brown said. “When we signed him at the start of the year, it was with the hope that we would have a terrific team and he would help get (us) over the hump and provide experience off the bench and (be) a great shooter. But as the season’s gone on, with all the problems that have been well-documented in the papers, I don’t think we have a championship team right now, and we need to give the young players some time.” The shelving of Vandeweghe and Jaren Jackson’s broken right ankle mean the Clippers are, in essence, without their two best outside shooters.

Ron Harper played after missing the previous two days of practice following the nasty spill Sunday against Seattle that resulted in a sore right hip and a sore right shoulder. The hip was a bigger problem. “Very sore,” Harper said before the game. . . . Williams is again bothered by a sore right arch, the same injury that kept him out of two recent games. He then suffered a sprained left knee late in the third quarter. . . . The teams play again Saturday at Utah.