Clippers Have New Work Ethic : NBA playoffs: Team surrenders day off to prepare for Game 3 of series with Houston.

Two nights and two time zones ago, after they had reached the summit inside the Summit, the only thing that disappointed the Clippers was that they couldn’t play a doubleheader.

So they did the next closest thing. After Coach Larry Brown decided against a Sunday afternoon practice, following the Clippers’ late-night flight back from Houston, players talked among themselves and countered that they wanted to go to the Sports Arena. They wanted to surrender a day off, anything to keep the momentum going.

The Clippers worked only 45 minutes and did no running in a practice that was more like a game-day shoot-around. But that is a barometer of their mood.

They wrestled the home-court advantage from the Rockets by winning Game 2 on Saturday, holding Houston to 83 points and the second-fewest field goals in NBA playoff history in the process. Now they get two turns at the Sports Arena, starting tonight at 7:30. Two chances, moreover, to summon the memories of their greatest moments of a year ago, the home playoff games against the Utah Jazz.

Then, the Clippers returned home in an 0-2 hole and faced elimination with the next misstep. Now, they’re in a 1-1 series. Then, the Jazz didn’t need to feel real pressure until losing Game 4 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Now, according to some, the Rockets might as well start feeling it.

“I think so,” said Clipper center Stanley Roberts, who has made 13 of 20 shots the first two games while getting better on defense against Hakeem Olajuwon with each quarter. “We have shown we can come out and play aggressive and play hard. Now, they need to find an answer for us.”

Added John Williams: “Yeah, the pressure is on them. We’re going home, where I’m sure there will be a nice crowd and a lot of enthusiasm. That should help. I think we can beat these guys. I don’t want to come back (to Houston), and a lot of the players don’t want to come back here, either.”

Nothing against the city, of course.

What is the same between last year and this is that the first game at the Sports Arena wasn’t sold out for the Jazz and probably won’t be sold out for the Rockets. The Clippers had been selling 200-250 tickets a day since the end of the post-season--dropping to about 100-150 after the 23-point loss in the series opener--and had jumped to 1,200 Sunday alone by late afternoon on the wave of the road victory. But that only pushed attendance to the 11,000 neighborhood. Selling some 5,000 on game day would take a major rush.

But what the crowd last year lacked in numbers it made up for in volume, providing a feeling worthy of Game 7 of the NBA finals. The Clippers are counting on that kind of boost again.

“I can’t imagine an atmosphere being any better or a group of people being any more supportive,” Brown said, comparing the games at the Sports Arena and Anaheim Convention Center to a rabid college feeling.

Said Loy Vaught: “They cheered harder and louder and longer than anyone could have expected.”

Clipper Notes

The day-after medical report on Ron Harper and his sprained knee ligament couldn’t have been much more encouraging. Just a little soreness, which was expected, especially in light of his playing 39 minutes. His recovery from what at first was feared to be a more serious injury is going so well that Harper is now bothered more by a sprained left ankle from the third quarter of Game 2 than the knee. . . . The Rockets won in both their regular-season visits to the Sports Arena--113-103 on Jan. 12 and 99-83 on March 2. . . . The Rockets’ medical concern, Robert Horry, played only 15 minutes Saturday, again limping noticeably from the tendinitis in his knee that sidelined the rookie small forward the final three games of the regular season.