Clippers in Right Place at Right Time

Clipper Coach Bill Fitch has griped about the schedule, and perhaps rightfully so, given the grueling travel his team has to endure.

For example, after returning home from a three-game, four-day trip next Sunday, the Clippers play host the Philadelphia 76ers at the Sports Arena next Tuesday night and play at Vancouver the next night.

“We’re like Lewis and Clark, going North, South, East and West,” Fitch quipped.

But Fitch owes the NBA a debt of gratitude for handing the Clippers the depleted Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night.

New Maverick General Manager Don Nelson has made so many trades that the Mavericks need name tags in the locker room.

No one in the Maverick team picture from last season, including the owner, coach and trainer, is with the team now.

The Clippers, who have had difficulty subduing bad teams, took advantage with a sloppy 87-69 victory before an announced 6,592 at the Sports Arena.

“Sometimes these are the toughest games to win,” Fitch said. “We made hard work out of it. I’m not going to apologize for a win. There have been a lot of nights where we lost games like that.”

It was the fewest points the Clippers have given up since giving up 65 points in a 13-point win over the Seattle SuperSonics on Nov. 18, 1990, at the Sports Arena.

With with only eight players available because of Monday’s trade that sent Jim Jackson and four other players to the New Jersey Nets for center Shawn Bradley and three other players, the Mavericks (17-32) were in disarray. They were also tired, having played at Vancouver on Monday night.

Guard Malik Sealy, who missed seven of 10 shots in his last game, made nine of 13 and scored 23 points for the Clippers (21-27), who had lost their previous two games.

“This was probably the weirdest game I’ve had to prepare for in my career,” Sealy said. “I’ve never seen a trade like that. It was weird. If every team wants to do that before they play us, that’s fine with me.

“It was a difficult game to play, because we didn’t have a grasp of who was going to be out there. It was hard to scout them, but we had to go out and play defense and execute and we were able to do that.”

Point guard Darrick Martin, who scored a personal-best 38 points the last time former UCLA coach Jim Harrick attended a game, didn’t play as well in front of Harrick, who demoted him at the start of his senior season.

Martin missed five of seven shots and had six points and five assists in 21 minutes.

Only two other Clippers scored in double figures. Rodney Rogers scored 11 points and forward Loy Vaught had 10 points and nine rebounds as the Clippers extended their home winning streak to five games, their longest since March and April of 1993.

Dallas began dismantling the team by trading Jason Kidd and Loren Meyer to the Phoenix Suns for A.C. Green, Sam Cassell and Michael Finley on Dec. 26.

Nelson traded Jamal Mashburn to the Miami Heat last Friday for Kurt Thomas, Sasha Danilovic and Martin Muursepp.

Maverick Coach Jim Cleamons said it will take a while to become cohesive.

“Let me look into my crystal ball,” Cleamons said when asked how long it will take for the Mavericks to adjust. “I have no idea. It depends on how hard they work and how hard they put their hearts and souls into it.”

But they’re anything but cohesive now.

The Mavericks shot only 36.5% and scored only 14 points in the fourth quarter, shooting 27.8%.

The game was as disorganized as a pickup game at Venice Beach, as the Clippers had 23 turnovers and the Mavericks 17.

“We ran out of gas,” Cleamons said. “They had tired legs and we ran out of manpower. We had some wonderful looks at the basket, but we didn’t have enough energy in our legs to make them.”

Or enough players.