Clippers’ Fast Start Does Them No Good : Pro basketball: The Nuggets rally from 13-0 deficit and win on Williams’ free throws.

The Clippers got off to a great start in Sunday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets, making their first six shots to take a 13-0 lead.

It didn’t last.

The Nuggets, who missed their first 10 shots and trailed by as much as 14 points in the first half, came back to win their home opener, 99-97, before a sellout crowd of 17,171 at McNichols Sports Arena.

“They say the sign of a good team is when you win when you don’t play your best,” Nugget Coach Dan Issel said, “so we must be a great team. The effort seemed to be there for the most part, but we just couldn’t make a shot.”

Trailing, 97-93, with 44.8 seconds remaining, the Clippers almost pulled it out.

Danny Manning, who had a game-high 33 points, made a 12-foot fade-away over two defenders with 37.3 seconds remaining to pull the Clippers within two points. Manning, who was fouled by LaPhonso Ellis, missed the free throw, but Nugget center Dikembe Mutombo fumbled the rebound out of bounds underneath the Clipper basket.

Clipper guard Ron Harper, who had 25 points, made a 16-foot jumper off a pass from Mark Aguirre to tie it at 97-97 with 27.8 seconds remaining.

The Nuggets used a timeout to set up a play, but guard Bryant Stith, who missed 15 of 17 shots, missed a jumper. Manning got the rebound, but he lost control of the ball to forward Brian Williams in a scramble underneath the Nugget basket.

Williams was fouled by Loy Vaught and he sank two free throws with 4.3 seconds remaining to give the Nuggets the lead.

Mark Jackson missed a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer.

“I think we have to learn from it because this was our ballgame,” Jackson said. “We came out on fire and we allowed them to get back into the ballgame. We have to feel bad about that. But you learn from it.”

Clipper Coach Bob Weiss said sloppy ballhandling and poor rebounding cost his team the game.

After averaging 25.3 turnovers during the exhibition season, the Clippers had 29 turnovers in Friday’s season-opening victory over Portland and 22 in Sunday night’s loss to the Nuggets, who converted the turnovers into 29 points. Harper, who had seven turnovers in the opener, had seven against the Nuggets.

The Nuggets embarrassed the Clippers on the boards, outrebounding them, 59-42. Ellis grabbed 14, Williams 11 and Stith 10.

“The turnovers and rebounds killed us,” Weiss said. “The turnovers all seemed to result in layups at the other end. We’ve got to learn to take care of the ball better. We try to hit the home run pass instead of just making a little basketball pass and getting a good shot.”

Clipper center Stanley Roberts played only 20 minutes before fouling out with six points and three rebounds. Roberts, who led the NBA with 15 disqualifications last season, has fouled out of both games this season.

“Don’t even ask me about the officiating tonight,” Roberts said. “They already told me not to talk bad about the officials, but they made some horrible calls tonight, horrible.

“I couldn’t tell you if they were picking on me or what. Four of those calls were horrible. One of them, I wasn’t even in the play, I was outside.”

The Nuggets, who shot 13% in the first quarter and trailed, 46-43, at halftime, used an 18-4 run at the start of the second half to open an 11-point lead.

The Clippers got off to an awful start in the second half, missing 10 of their first 12 shots and giving away four turnovers in the first 5:07 of the third quarter.

Guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, the former Chris Jackson, had eight of his team-high 26 points during the spurt.

Clipper Notes

Clipper forward Loy Vaught required six stitches to close a cut on his chin he sustained in the first half. . . . Danny Manning tied a career high by making 15 of 19 free throws.