At This Clip, Clippers May Eventually Arrive

Creeping up on those Chicago Bulls with a relentlessness that is downright scary, the Clippers went after that people-pleasing 30th victory of the season Sunday at the surprisingly well-attended Sports Arena.

They didn’t get it.

Unimproving their all-time record to 1,354 losses in 2,132 games, the Clippers did what they do best. They lost.

They have now won 73 games over the past three seasons, or a tad more than Chicago won this season.

So, post-mortem yes, post-season no for the Clippers, although bright-spot rookie Brent Barry did say, “There are teams going to the playoffs that we feel we competed against, including some that we may be better than.”

A Bulls-Clippers finals?

Only a matter of time.

This truly was a feel-good year for the Clippers, who age like fine wine--slowly, and usually in the cellar.

OK, so they have had only two winning records over the past 20 seasons. Improvement is improvement.

They won 12 more games this season than last.

“And we didn’t get fat off expansion teams,” Coach Bill Fitch said. “All those guys who said we would get better because of expansion, we made liars out of them.”

Against Vancouver and Toronto, the wily veteran Clippers won three, lost three.

Vancouver won its first two games of the season and its last two games, with 11 victories in the 78 games in between.

“Talk about a . . . sandwich,” the saucy Fitch said.

Respectability being relative, the Clippers earned some this season after a 1995 draft-day trade that received thumbs-down reviews at the time. They got three new players--Rodney Rogers, Brian Williams and Barry--and all three panned out.

The bad news?

Dallas took a bad team into the 1990s, added Jim Jackson, Jamal Mashburn and Jason Kidd over a three-year period . . . and still hasn’t made the playoffs.

Fitch knows what he needs, knows what he wants.

“Somebody who can take over the game for us,” Fitch said. “A go-to guy.

“There are too many damn games where the game is on the line, and we don’t have that one guy who can get us a win.

“That’s what the playoff teams have that we don’t. Houston’s got it. Utah’s got it. If you look at the Lakers, as good as they were, they didn’t have one, either, until Magic [Johnson] showed up.”

A point guard could help the Clippers, who might get lucky in the NBA draft lottery and have a shot at an Allen Iverson, a Stephon Marbury, or perhaps someone a year or two older.

As for free agents, well, don’t expect either Shaquille O’Neal or Michael Jordan to be wearing the old Clipper colors next season . . . whatever the Clipper colors are.

Donald T. Sterling, the owner, is in New York for the NBA Board of Governors meeting that begins Tuesday. Once again, the Clippers will get approval to play several home games in Anaheim . . . and privately, NBA officials still say they will gladly entertain a proposal to move the Clippers to Orange County full-time.

Now 333-651 in their years in Los Angeles, the Clippers have nowhere to go but . . . uh, south.

The league is supposed to get more notice, but will make an exception if Uncle Donald wants to go to Disneyland.

Anaheim’s crowds could be a big help.

They could get the Clippers over that big 30-victory hump.

“I think we learned a lot from this season,” center Stanley Roberts said.

“I felt that we could have made it to the playoffs,” guard Terry Dehere said.

“We should do even better next year,” Barry said. “Another year together will make us even better.”

Pooh Richardson, one of the few veterans on this very young squad, seemed a little more put-out than most.

“I don’t want to hear that ‘almost in the playoffs’ stuff,” Richardson said. “We improved, but we still could have done better. Thirty-eight wins got you in the playoffs [Sacramento]. If you look at the games we let get away, we could have done 38.

“It doesn’t take a miracle.”

A Clipper team motto if ever we’ve heard one.

*

* LOTTERY-BOUND, AGAIN

Clippers’ season ends with 29 victories and a 108-101 loss to Vancouver. C5