Clippers Don’t Give It All Away to Lakers

As if Thursday night wasn’t bad enough for the Clippers, their hold on the eighth and final playoff spot in the West having taken what could be a serious hit with a home loss to Phoenix, there was Friday and a loss of another kind. A 24-point lead . . . gone.

Their poise, however, remained intact, and they turned what could have been a second hurtful loss in as many nights into a 97-95 victory before 17,505 at the Forum on Malik Sealy’s putback dunk with 7.3 seconds remaining.

It was the Clippers who drew the final line in the sand, even after the Lakers had gone on a 52-28 charge, even after the Lakers had the momentum, the crowd, and a tied game with 26 seconds left.

Sparked by a four-guard alignment that went almost the entire final quarter with Elden Campbell, the Lakers nearly turned a rout into a monster come-from-behind victory, even after Coach Del Harris got a double-technical ejection with 6:17 to play for arguing a non-call. Their chance to take at least a temporary lead disappeared when Campbell missed one of two free throws with 26 seconds left, settling instead for a 95-95 game, and their chance to force overtime ended when Nick Van Exel’s off-balance 17-foot corkscrew fell short at the buzzer.

“We really enjoy beating the Lakers because not only is it another win, but we also made some strides toward gaining respect in the city,” Loy Vaught said after getting 20 points and 11 rebounds.

The Lakers didn’t need this much evidence. The loss dropped them to 1-2 against their cross-town rivals.

If the plan was to erase the memory of the last meeting with the Clippers, a 22-point blasting at Anaheim, the Lakers succeeded Friday in the first half alone. Or was coming up with an even worse showing not part of the plan?

Poor shot selection caused more problems than the Clipper big men, although not many more. A first quarter of 33.3% and a second of 30.4% put the Lakers at 32% heading into the break, with only 16 makes in 50 attempts, not to mention six for 12 from the line. This came on the heels of the Lakers going a combined 48.3% the previous two games.

The miracle was that there was still a game waiting for them at the start of the second half, the Lakers having trailed, 44-35, with 1:45 left in the second quarter. Even after the Clippers finished with a 10-4 run, highlighted by a pair of three-pointers by Eric Piatkowski, the hosts were down by “only” 15 points, a gift under the circumstances.

The Clippers were doing their part too. They shot 52.6% over the same span, a trio of forwards doing most of the damage: Vaught had 16 points and seven rebounds, Bo Outlaw eight rebounds and eight points, and Rodney Rogers nine points and two blocks off the bench. The huge contribution from the guards was Darrick Martin, Sealy and Pooh Richardson going 45 minutes without a turnover.

Still, the Lakers had reason to be encouraged. History, mainly. Or at least recent history, their string of bad beginnings from which there had been several recoveries to win.

One problem to that theory arose early in the third quarter. The Clippers.

Going to recent history of their own, they turned the game into another rout, just like the last time, building a 24-point cushion at 67-43 with 6:51 left. Then, from nowhere, the Lakers arrived.

Down by the same 15 with about two minutes remaining, the first sign of sustained life came with scores on three consecutive possessions, Eddie Jones accounting for two of those with a three-pointer followed by a pair of free throws that made it 73-63 with 3.6 seconds left. But he wasn’t finished--when Piatkowski came down the left side for a layin, a 12-point lead and the chance for the Clippers to regain the momentum heading into the fourth quarter, Jones blocked the shot.

The same crowd that had booed the Lakers on a couple of occasions in the same period was now on their feet and wildly cheering. When the Lakers went on a 10-3 run from there, the deficit was just 76-73. It wasn’t the lead, but it was at least a new game.