Not Pretty, but a Win for Clippers

The Clippers usually focus on improving their position in the NBA draft lottery after the All-Star break because they’ve been eliminated from the running for a playoff spot, but not this season.

“This year hopefully the only lottery we’ll be thinking about is the one worth $15 to $20 million,” Clipper guard Malik Sealy said.

But the Clippers are likely to make their fourth consecutive lottery appearance unless they maintain leads better than they did in Tuesday night’s 116-112 victory over the Boston Celtics before 6,252 at the Sports Arena.

“That’s the kind of game we’ve lost in the past,” Clipper Coach Bill Fitch said. “We haven’t been able to dig ourselves out and come back and get the job done, and I thought we did a better job of that tonight and made the plays when we had to.”

Leading the NBA’s second-worst team by 16 points with 7:05 remaining in the third quarter, the Clippers were outscored, 36-17, in an 11-minute span of the third and fourth quarters as the Celtics, who had only nine players in uniform, took a 96-93 lead with eight minutes left.

However, reserve guard Eric Piatkowski, forward Loy Vaught, guard Darrick Martin and swingman Charles Outlaw saved the Clippers (20-25).

Piatkowski made two three-point shots and scored 10 of his 15 points in the final quarter as the Clippers won for the sixth time in their last seven games.

“We’ve got to stop [squandering leads],” Piatkowski said. “We got away from it the last three or four games.”

Vaught, who scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, had eight points in the final quarter and Martin and Outlaw made three free throws in the final 13 seconds as the Clippers won six of seven games on the longest home stand of the season.

“We’re learning how to win,” said Martin, who had 12 points and six assists. “The mistakes we’re making now, come March and April when it’s really really crucial, we won’t make those mistakes.”

Trailing, 112-111, after center Antoine Walker made a follow shot with 1:40 remaining, Vaught made a jump shot over Alton Lister with 1:22 remaining to give the Clippers a 113-112 lead and the Clippers got the ball back when guard David Wesley threw it away on the Celtics’ next possession.

After Pooh Richardson threw the ball away with 49 seconds to give the Celtics a chance to tie, Walker shot an airball with 29 seconds left and the Clippers sealed the victory when Martin made two free throws with 13.9 seconds left and Outlaw one with 4.1 seconds remaining.

Sealy, who had 15 points in the first half as the Clippers scored a season-high 62 points, finished with 21 points.

The Clippers are in the third year of Fitch’s three-year plan to make the playoffs.

“My whole thing coming in here was to keep you guys from telling Clipper jokes all the time and get respect from the other team coming in and make damn sure that they all had to take a shower after the game,” Fitch said.

Fitch, who coached at Boston for four years, is impressed by Celtic Coach M.L. Carr, although the Celtics (11-36) are 25 games under .500.

“He’s done a good job,” Fitch said. “To measure anything that he’s done and be critical of it would be unfair because it would be like judging somebody of a game where they’re down by 20 at halftime and may end up winning by 20.

“In this day and age, you don’t just snap your fingers and make it all happen. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take a step forward. He’s doing it under all those [Celtic championship] flags. He’s one of those guys that doesn’t surrender. He may wave a white towel, but he doesn’t wave the white flag.

“This team has got a future. They’ve got a lot of talent. They had some teams that lost that didn’t have any talent. The two years before I went there they won 27 and 29 games.”