Instead of Storming, Clippers Were Becalmed

Well, so much for respectability.

The bad thing about being respectable, you have to stay that way or you hear about it from the neighbors, like Jay Leno. Last season’s pleasant-surprise, playoff-making Clippers are this season’s 0-2 Clippers, having met two of their fellow Western contenders and lost to both.

On the other hand, they’re Clippers and they’re used to skepticism.

“Anybody but us, it’d be a surprise,” guard Brent Barry said. “With us, it’s our goal to get back and get some respect.

“It’s better to be an underdog. You don’t have any pressure. Each night, we go out and do what we’ve always done, play hard.”

The Clippers played hard Saturday night but so did the Portland Trail Blazers, who had a better team, besides. That stuff often happens to the Clippers, who actually have a nice, young, hustling, entertaining club, certainly the bargain entry in town. You certainly can’t beat the ambience in the Sports Arena, low prices, good sight lines, room to stretch out in the stands. If they could acquire one genuine star and make normal progress, they’d have a nice future, but in Clipperdom, devolution has been more their way, so we’ll have to wait and see.

It was your standard Clipper opening night, making up in light and sound effects what it lacked in attendance. Coming off last spring’s pleasant surprise, the Clippers flashed scary images of tornadoes on their video screens while Bill Walton handled the narration.

Rumbled Walton, the erstwhile NBC critic and so-called expert in his best voice of doom: “They don’t care what the critics say . . . they ignore the so-called experts . . . so get ready for the storm!!!”

The so-called experts had the Trail Blazers as favorites, although the new coach, Mike Dunleavy, would have felt better if his shooting guard wasn’t suspended and his point guard wasn’t just getting back after missing most of the preseason.

What did he expect? They’re the Trail Blazers.

“I haven’t seen that,” Dunleavy said before the game. “Even the J.R. [Rider] thing we’re going through right now, for the most part, it happened in Minnesota. I’ve got to pay for it.

“I’m not happy about that but I understand the league’s position.”

The league’s position was that after two convictions over the summer, one a guilty plea to a marijuana charge in Oregon City, Ore., the other a no contest to a year-old charge of possessing illegal “cloned” cellular phones, Isaiah Rider should sit out the first two games. With Kenny Anderson trying to get back into shape, that left Dunleavy to start John Crotty and Stacey Augmon.

Sure enough, the Clippers’ storm arrived in the first quarter, a 14-0 burst that shot them into the lead. Anderson’s arrival righted Dunleavy’s ship, but since neither team could make two 15-footers in a row, they grappled into the fourth quarter.

The Clippers led, 68-60, with 7:54 left but neglected to make another shot from the field, one of those things that will happen. Meanwhile, Anderson, wobbling to the wire, having missed 13 of his 17 shots, knocked down two 20-footers in the last 1:30 to put it away.

“Some teams are gonna be more talented,” Portland’s Brian Grant said. “But I don’t think anybody is gonna play as hard as they play.”

Said Anderson, “They’re a pesky team . . . [but] at the end, I knew it. No disrespect toward them, but I knew they were probably going to fold in the fourth quarter.”

Barry had another of his wild, wonderful games. The No. 1 pick, Maurice Taylor, entering late, scored six quick points in the fourth quarter and looked so good Bill Fitch left him in down the stretch.

Hope springs eternal in the Clipper breast. That’s what makes it so hard for them.