Without Rider, Timberwolves Beat Clippers : Pro basketball: L.A. can’t capitalize on suspension of Minnesota’s top scorer and falls, 82-81.

The indignities pile on top of the defeats for the Clippers.

On Friday they couldn’t beat the Washington Bullets despite Chris Webber’s absence. On Monday, after the Minnesota Timberwolves suspended team scoring leader Isaiah Rider for one game without pay because he missed their morning shoot-around, the Clippers again failed to take advantage of a potentially vulnerable opponent.

“It would have been a real tough game to lose because they’re the only team with a worse record than us, and we needed a win,” said forward Christian Laettner, who scored a season-high 26 points to rally the Timberwolves to an 82-81 victory before a crowd of 12,338 at Target Center.

“I was thinking we should be able to beat them without J.R. (Rider), and we did,” Laettner added after the Timberwolves (6-19) won for only the second time in 12 home games. “We didn’t play well the first three quarters. Some guys were going easy because they thought they could do that against the Clippers. But you can’t do that.”

To an extent, the Clippers, who fell to 3-23 after their fifth consecutive loss, beat themselves.

They led, 40-34, at halftime and by six with 8:41 left in the game, but Chris Smith--who replaced Rider--and Laettner carried the Timberwolves to a 75-71 lead with 3:25 to play. The Clippers led, 78-76, after Terry Dehere made a driving layup with 1:08 to go, but after Laettner made a free throw to bring Minnesota within a point, Loy Vaught missed a jumper--one of only two misses on a night he scored a team-high 20 points.

The Timberwolves called time out with 32.1 seconds to play and took the lead for good when Laettner, down low, found Pat Durham for a wide-open three-point shot.

Durham, who was released by the Timberwolves after training camp and re-signed out of the CBA on Nov. 24, made the shot near where the old three-point arc was painted until it was moved this season.

“We’re the Timberwolves. We don’t rely on artistic performances,” Durham said. “We’ll take every win we can get.”

The Clippers had a chance to take it back with about eight seconds left, but Pooh Richardson’s three-point attempt from the left side hit the rim. “I went to run the play and they were shading to that side, so I tried to bring the defense the other way,” Richardson said. “There was no way that was the way it was drawn up.”

Smith was fouled by Dehere and missed both free throws with 6.5 seconds to play, but in the scramble for the rebound, as Vaught and Lamond Murray converged on Durham, the ball went out of bounds and was awarded to the Timberwolves with 4.6 seconds left.

Laettner, fouled by Vaught with four seconds to play, made both free throws to make it 82-78. Murray made a three-point shot with half a second left for the final margin.

“It’s a bag of ‘ifs’ when you get to one-pointers, two-pointers. You’re a shot away, a call away,” Clipper Coach Bill Fitch said. “It hurts like hell whether you’ve lost 23 or lost none. They hurt. . . .

“The one thing about it, I think every guy that was in the ballgame can think of one play that was worth one point. One rebound, one missed free throw, one point he didn’t get. It’s something for everybody to put on their pillow tonight. They (his players) played hard and deserved to win.”

That, for the umpteenth time, had to suffice for the Clippers.

“This was difficult. All of them are,” Richardson said. “But you have to play hard. You can’t give up. You’ve got to keep working.”

That’s the Timberwolves’ philosophy too. Laettner said he was surprised by the number and enthusiasm of the fans, since the Vikings were playing the San Francisco 49ers at the nearby Metrodome with the NFC Central Division title at stake.

“Maybe they see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “Sometimes I do, and sometimes it seems to be blocked out, but that doesn’t mean you stop.”

Clipper Notes

Gary Grant, who is participating in shoot-arounds as he completes his recovery from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, probably won’t be activated until after this trip.