Clippers Stealing the L.A. Scene

It has come to this.

So deep is the sinkhole swallowing the major pro sports teams around here that we are forced to look for salvation in the least likely of places. Like the Sports Arena.

The numbers alone leave us with no choice but to bring together words that normally have no business associating with each other. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, presenting the hottest team in town, yourrrr Los Angeles Clippers.

When the sun came up Wednesday, the Clippers could claim a 5-5 record in their last 10 games. That was better than the Lakers (4-6). Or the Dodgers (4-6) and Angels (3-7). The Mighty Ducks were 1-8-1, counting their playoff brooming at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings.

The Kings won five of their last 10 games too, but they began the off-season by losing their coach. Even though the Kings will be the principal tenant among the three teams that will occupy the Staples Center next season, right now it’s the Clippers who have more of an identity. Imagine that.

The Clippers are the only team for whom not fulfilling expectations is a good thing. We’ll accept and even applaud 5-5, because at one point it looked as if they wouldn’t win five games the entire season.

When they lost at home to the UnrecognizaBulls in Game 2, it looked as if they wouldn’t win a game this season. It took them 18 games to finally get a “W,” and by then they had tied the NBA record for worst start.

They beat the Sacramento Kings on March 11 to get off the hook, and in the subsequent weeks they can claim such impressive victims as the Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers among their nine victories.

Clipper victories can be a little misleading. There is no way athletes, even professionals, can be at their best every night. With the compressed schedule taking tolls on their bodies, it’s only natural for other teams to take the night off against the woeful Clips.

But the Clippers deserve credit for every victory they get this month, because they could have easily packed up and stopped playing in February.

They’re playing with heart and pride, which earns them the right to claim moral victories such as Monday night’s 94-88 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. The Clippers trailed the Spurs, the league’s best team over the past six weeks, by 33 points in the third quarter but came back to within one in the fourth.

Forward Maurice Taylor is more dependable than any second-year player should be, and he gives the Clippers 17 points and five rebounds a game.

The guy you should really be onto is Tyrone Nesby. His averages of 10 points and three rebounds don’t even begin to tell the story. Whenever the Clippers do something good and it happens too fast for you to see who did it, it’s safe to assume it was Nesby.

He wasn’t drafted out of Nevada Las Vegas, but he basically made it impossible for the team to cut him during camp, then made it impossible for Coach Chris Ford not to put him in the starting lineup. He’s always doing something, whether it’s hustling for a steal or flying down the lane to tip in a missed shot.

Part of you wants to shake your head because if the Clippers had played the way they have lately from the get-go, they could be fighting for a playoff spot.

Part of you wants to say, “Easy, fellas,” because if they win too many games they’ll hurt their chances in the draft lottery.

As it stands, the odds are they will get the second or first pick (note to Elgin Baylor: S-T-E-V-E F-R-A-N-C-I-S).

But when you look across town and see how the Lakers are faxing their season in (right now they couldn’t even lick a stamp), you’ve got to be impressed with the way the Clippers are handling themselves--often against teams who have more at stake.

“We just wanted to finish strong,” Taylor said. “The guys who are thinking about coming back, we wanted to do something positive to go into next year with.”

Of course, with the Clippers you always have to assume that most guys are thinking about escaping, not coming back. The list of players who will be free agents this summer includes Nesby, Sherman Douglas, Lamond Murray, Darrick Martin, Eric Piatkowski, Rodney Rogers, Lorenzen Wright.

Taylor hopes that by moving to the Staples Center and finally catching up with the rest of the league’s arenas, the Clippers might be a more attractive option when it comes to retaining players or attracting new ones.

In addition, Taylor said with a smile, “L.A. isn’t the worst place to live, either.”

And an overmatched team that’s trying its hardest isn’t the worst way for the city to be represented. They sure are giving us a nice alternative to the high-priced teams that are stumbling around in Inglewood, Anaheim and Chavez Ravine.

The Clippers don’t have the illustrious pasts of their counterparts. To be honest, their future doesn’t look as bright either.

For the present, however, they’re the best we’ve got.

Lord help us.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.