Clippers Get Best of Worst : Pro basketball: Despite Manning’s dehydration, Los Angeles comes back in fourth quarter to beat the lowly Bucks, 100-97.

The NBA’s worst teams seem to bring out the best in the Clippers.

The Clippers, who have already registered two victories over the the worst team, the Dallas Mavericks, ended a three-game losing streak by defeating the second-worst, the Milwaukee Bucks, 100-97, Wednesday night before 13,287 at the Bradley Center.

Guard Ron Harper, who was benched by Coach Bob Weiss for the final 15 minutes 46 seconds of Tuesday night’s 115-111 loss at Chicago, scored eight of his 20 points in the fourth quarter as the Clippers overcame a nine-point deficit in the final 5:24.

Harper, who met with Weiss earlier in the day, said he wasn’t motivated by the benching, but he played with more consistency, which was exactly what Weiss wanted.

“I’m just playing. I don’t worry about last night’s game,” Harper said. “Last night’s game is gone. I don’t hang on those things.”

The Clippers were forced to play the final two minutes without forward Danny Manning, who was carried off on a stretcher with severe dehydration in his legs. Dehydrated from flu, Manning fell to the court in agony and was carried off with ice bags strapped to both legs.

“I couldn’t move nothing,” Manning said.

Manning was taken to the locker room, where he was examined by a Bucks’ team doctor and given fluids. Manning is expected to recover for Friday night’s game at Minneapolis.

Harper took command after Manning, who had a team-high 24 points, left. The Clippers (7-9) ended the game with a 19-7 run to defeat the Bucks for the sixth straight time.

“I’m sure it (being benched) lit some type of fire under him,” Manning said of Harper. “He’s not a person who’s going to go out and pout. Last night he was sitting on the bench, but he was cheering. He was telling me and the guys out on the court what we could do to make things easier out on the court. So he was there for us.”

Harper was there for the Clippers in the fourth quarter.

The Clippers, who trailed 90-81 after an 11-2 Milwaukee spurt, outscored the Bucks, 8-0, to pull to within one with 2:52 remaining. Harper had five points in the spurt, making two layups and a free throw.

But the Bucks came back to take a 95-91 lead with two minutes remaining after Blue Edwards made a three-point shot and Frank Brickowski, who had a team-high 20, sank two free throws.

The Clippers ended the game with a 9-2 spurt. Harper started the comeback by making a layup and Mark Aguirre, who had 13 points in a reserve role, sank an 18-foot jumper to tie it at 95-95 with 59 seconds remaining.

Trailing, 97-95, after Lee Mayberry made a six-foot jumper with 45 seconds left, the Clippers took the lead when Harper made a free throw with 35.5 seconds left and forward Loy Vaught scored on a tip-in with 14.2 seconds remaining after Harper missed the second free throw. Guard Mark Jackson rebounded Harper’s miss and fed center Elmore Spencer, who missed a layup, but Vaught, who had 18 points and nine rebounds, converted it.

“I saw the ball sitting up there like a big red apple waiting for me to go get it,” Vaught said. “Somebody jumped with me, but I thought it was mine. It had my name all over it.”

The Bucks called a timeout to set up a play, but Brickowski missed a layup and Vaught scored on a breakaway dunk with 2.1 seconds remaining. Milwaukee (3-14) had one last chance, but Mayberry missed a three-pointer.

“This was another game we gave away,” said former Clipper Ken Norman, who signed with the Bucks last summer. “It was our game and we didn’t want it.”

Weiss let out an audible sigh of relief afterward.

“We were as down as we could get, but we still came back,” Weiss said. “I hope this has a positive effect on us because we’ve been struggling.”

Clipper Notes

Clipper rookie guard Terry Dehere was ejected with 17.2 seconds left in the third quarter for throwing a punch at Buck guard Todd Day. Dehere denied throwing a punch. . . . The Clippers activated guard Randy Woods and put center Stanley Roberts, sidelined for the season because of a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, on the injured list.