It’s Over, but at Least There Is Hope Now

The smallest crowd that will watch an NBA playoff game this season waved goodbye to the Clippers on Monday, and only some of the people did it with Utah Jazz banners.

The sweeping, 104-92 victory by the Jazz wasn’t so much a game as a reality check.

For the first time in a best-of-five series that barely lasted a weekend, the real Jazz showed up.

So, too, did the Clipper team that everyone had been expecting, that puddle in the basement corner after a refreshing spring rain.

Or did you not recognize the poor shooting, brain-dead defense, the empty Sports Arena seats?

That they played hard and did not quit--attributes that made the Clippers so lovable in recent weeks--do not matter much after the Jazz hit eight of its first nine shots.

The Clippers never even had a chance to cry uncle. The Jazz broke their arm with one swift twist.

The Clippers could have played until their soles bled, and they still wouldn’t have stopped newly awakened Jeff Hornacek or inspired villain John Stockton or that big trunk that belongs to Karl Malone.

The game began with many of the announced crowd of 11,747 waving white towels issued by that cable TV network that nobody can get.

I turned to a guy with Johnny printed on his golf shirt.

I have never been wronged by a guy with Johnny printed on his golf shirt.

“Can I see the towel?” I said.

“Take it,” he said. “It’s a crying towel for when this thing is over.”

At the time, the Jazz led, 2-0.

It was as if nobody really believed the Clippers could win, and everyone got what he paid for.

Particularly those Jazz fans, whose banners boasted things like “Get Jazzed,” and “John Stockton Is My Cousin, Go Jazz.”

The least the Clippers could have done was treat those folks the way they and Fox Sports West treated Baron Davis.

The kid wanted to announce his college choice before the game, on the court, in front of cameras.

The team and network decided that, just maybe, this would be akin to treating the best basketball league on earth like a watery second course.

So Baron was banished to a studio, where he announced that . . . “I’m holding my breath,” Bill Fitch said . . . he was going to UCLA.

“I’m just waiting to see if there are any more car deals involved,” said Fitch, quickly adding, “I don’t blame the kid, I blame the system.”

The above couple of paragraphs are apropos of nothing. I just had to get in one more Fitch goodie before he goes golfing and we can all start bugging Steve Lavin about winning that national championship.

The highlights of Monday’s game were these:

--Donald T. Sterling was in the stands, a big deal because the Clipper owner didn’t make it to either game in Utah.

--Stockton pulled Bo Outlaw to the floor with 4:18 left in the second quarter, a big deal because I can continue to call Stockton dirty without reproach.

Typical, though, even that most inspirational of plays did not inspire.

With the crowd screaming at Stockton, Outlaw missed both free throws, keeping the margin at eight points.

Less than 30 seconds later, Antoine Carr muscled in a layup for the Jazz to make it 10.

Even the Clipper comeback in the final minutes--closing the gap to 10 points on a couple of occasions--seemed tired.

Oh well. Now comes the most fun part of every Clipper year.

The part where one of their players begs other NBA teams to release him from jail. Or turns down $16 million from the Clippers to play for $27,499 for the Chicago Bulls.

This is the part where the effect of all the losses and all the ridicule is seen in a mass exodus of players who no longer want to be embarrassed.

Or is it?

There is a feeling that this compelling late season could be followed by an uneventful off-season, which would suit the Clippers just fine.

They have two free agents--Malik Sealy and Outlaw. They said they will try to keep both, and they better.

Yes, they need a center. And yes, they are stuck with flabby stiff Stanley Roberts until the year 2000, giving new meaning to the catch phrase, “Slouching toward the millennium.”

But you get the feeling some members of the front office are thinking like you, figuring that anything from Roberts would be a bonus, and will be looking for help.

While there are no impact big men who are expected to be available through either the draft or free agency, the Clippers hope to find someone who at least has a chance to move Lorenzen Wright to power forward and Lloyd Vaught to small forward.

“There are areas in which we can improve to the next level, and we will be working on those areas,” said Andy Roeser, Clipper vice president.

The largest of those areas has 16,021 seats that are rarely filled.

Those who have been proponents of the coziness and accessibility of the Sports Arena--me, for one--would now be wise to realize its biggest downfall.

The Clippers players hate it, ripping it to other players, scaring most of the league away.

Bottom line of NBA economics is this: Even a team in a great town such as this will never get much better until it finds a house in which potential top free agents want to live.

This is not a push for Anaheim. David Stern, NBA commissioner, was not in town Monday whispering about Anaheim.

He was whispering about Inglewood. If the Lakers move downtown as expected, Inglewood is expected to offer the Clippers the use of the Forum until the city can build a new arena.

No, the banners wouldn’t stay. But at least there’s a place for them.