At Pond, Clippers Get More Cheers but Need Points

Save The Clippers, Inc., a decidedly non-profit organization, received a generous donation from the Phoenix Suns Saturday night.

Charles Barkley, pacing himself for a long-promised run at an NBA championship, remained on the Suns’ injured list with a strained stomach muscle. This took a chunk out of the Clippers’ vigorously hyped “Superstar Ticket Package,” but 18,018 customers refused to press for refunds and showed up at The Pond anyway.

Joining Barkley on the Phoenix bench were Kevin Johnson and Danny Ainge, the first- and second-team point guards, out with niggling injuries of their own.

Down one Dream Team I starter, one Dream Team II starter and one of the more irrepressible sixth men in the league, the Suns sent what amounted to the ‘B’ squad out against the Clips--and led from wire to wire, yawning most of the way to a 108-101 victory.

Such is Clipper basketball as Orange County will know it during the 1994-95 season:

Sell-out in the stands.

Blowout on the floor.

Automatic for the people.

The Clippers entered this season bucking at the notion that they just might have the stuff to chase the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers’ all-time record of futility--nine victories and 73 defeats over the course of an 82-game schedule.

Harold Ellis swore it would never happen.

The other Clippers guaranteed double figures in the victory column, no doubt about it.

Terry DeHere, Pooh Richardson, Loy Vaught, Elmore Spencer, Tony Massenburg--why, there must be 10, 11 victories in this lineup. Maybe 12. Dallas, Minnesota, Sacramento, Washington, Milwaukee and Philadelphia are still in the league, aren’t they?

Four games in, however, and the Clippers are, as they say, on pace.

Four up, four down.

Four down, 69 to go.

Through the first three, the Clippers were losing by an average of 18.4 points per night, so Saturday’s seven-point deficit might be seen among the more optimistic pockets of Clipper fandom--tiny pockets, but pockets nonetheless--as a step forward.

But final scores can be superficial, especially in just-get-it-in NBA affairs of this ilk. The Clippers went nearly four minutes without scoring, managed their second field goal with 4:18 left in the first quarter, shot 55% from the free-throw line and were outrebounded, 52-40, by a team with Joe Kleine and 6-9 Wayman Tisdale alternating at center.

Phoenix Coach Paul Westphal took as much pity as he could, giving a starting assignment and 32 minutes to Elliot Perry, 24 minutes to Wesley Person, 18 to Trevor Ruffin--even waved Danny Schayes and Antonio Lang onto the court for some late cardiovascular work.

Afterward, Westphal was asked what he thought of the Clips.

What could he say?

Westphal said he thought “Bill Fitch’s doing a nice job. There are no superstars, (but) they are playing hard and together.”

Danny Manning, who found a way out last season and was making his first official return to Southern California as an ex-Clip, described the trip back as strange. “It was weird being back here and not seeing any familiar faces, but that’s business,” he said.

No Ron Harper.

No Mark Jackson.

No Stanley Roberts.

Yes, weird is one word for it.

As for the new, unfamiliar faces, Manning allowed that they “go out and play hard and are feisty.”

Rookie Lamond Murray, one of the Feisty Dozen, is still getting acclimated to Life With Terry DeHere Instead Of Jason Kidd. “Yes,” he conceded, “it was tough tonight . . . There were not any easy baskets out there.”

No, not for Murray’s side. Pooh Richardson, another new face, had 16 points and nine assists, decent enough numbers, relatively speaking. But Pooh, a five-year league veteran, who has seen dark day in Indiana and darker still in Minnesota, was downcast.

“It’s hard to try to find positives,” he said.

Bill Fitch, the Clippers’ coach, tried mightily, though. The defense, he observed, played better than it had against Atlanta, a 108-91 Thursday night defeat.

“If we hadn’t played as good on defense as we did in the first quarter, we wouldn’t have been in the game at all,” Fitch said.

He mentioned reserve center Matt Fish, whose tenacious play and hustle has made him something of an Orange County cult hero--a medium-sized Fish in a big Pond.

And, of course, he loved The Pond. “Let me just say,” Fitch said, “this is a great place to play. The fan support was wonderful and they are really enthusiastic. They are as good as any in the league.”

So Fitch and the Clippers have that, at least six times a season. It’s something.