Heat’s Off When the Heat’s On

Fourteen seconds in and Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning had already blown past Clipper counterpart Michael Olowokandi like he was a pylon, delivered a thunderous dunk, drawn a foul and made the free throw.

Uh-oh, one of those games.

Matters would get worse before they got better Tuesday for the Clippers, whose smarts and skills were put to the test against the woebegone Heat at Staples Center.

In the end, the Clippers matched the Heat basket for basket, shove for shove and rebound for rebound and emerged with a hard-earned 87-83 victory against the league’s worst team before a crowd of 16,594.

Lamar Odom’s layup and free throw gave the Clippers the lead for good, 83-80, with 2:07 remaining, sending the Heat reeling toward its 12th consecutive loss. It was the Clippers’ fourth victory in five games.

“We just could not survive three-out-of-19 shooting in the fourth quarter,” Miami Coach Pat Riley said after the Heat fell with a thud to 2-14.

Miami’s Jimmy Jackson missed a runner in the lane that would have tied the score, 85-85, with five seconds left. Clipper forward Elton Brand rebounded the miss, the last of 17 he took, was fouled and made two free throws, his 22nd and 23rd points, to seal the deal.

“It’s proof that we’re growing as a team,” Brand said after his 13th double-double returned the Clippers to the .500 mark with a 9-9 record.

Indeed. These have been the sorts of games that have doomed the Clippers to defeat this season. They have been superb when things have been well in hand late. Or when the bounces have gone their way.

But when locked in tight battles, particularly while losing all five road games, the Clippers have failed. They haven’t been especially patient or poised at critical moments.

But they were Tuesday, rallying from four points down in the fourth quarter and pleasing Coach Alvin Gentry with their resolve in crunch time.

“When we really needed to make a play, we made a play,” Gentry said, referring to Odom’s drive for the go-ahead points and Brand’s rebound of Jackson’s miss. “The game went like I thought it would. I knew we’d have to grind it out against that team.”

As ever, or so it seems when East meets West, the Clippers wanted the tempo fast and the Heat wanted it slow. Given the running, dunking and jump-shooting exhibition the Clippers put on during their 31-point romp Sunday against the Indiana Pacers, keeping the game moving at a glacial pace was a sound game plan for Miami.

At times, it was as annoying as fingernails on a chalkboard.

The last thing Riley wanted to see was the Heat following instead of leading Tuesday. Given Miami’s losing streak, watching the Clippers running and jumping around the Staples court would have been unbearable.

So, the Heat ran its half-court offense, hustled after rebounds and loose balls, and set stout picks.

Jackson, signed as a free agent Sunday, gave the Heat an outside presence, scoring nine points on four-of-seven shooting in the first half. Mourning, still battling a kidney illness, added an inside presence by scoring a team-leading 11 in the first 24 minutes. Jackson had 14 points by game’s end and Mourning had 21 for the Heat.

“We should have done it five weeks ago,” Riley said of signing Jackson. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

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STREAKING DOWNHILL

With an 87-83 loss to the Clippers on Tuesday, the Miami Heat dropped its 12th game in a row, the worst such streak in Pat Riley’s coaching career. But the Heat is still five losses away from tying its franchise record and has a long way to go before being included among the league’s worst one-season streaks:

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TEAM SEASON STREAK VANCOUVER 1995-96 23 DENVER 1997-98 23 PHILADELPHIA 1972-73 20 DALLAS 1993-94 20 CLEVELAND 1981-82 19 CLIPPERS 1981-82 19 CLIPPERS 1988-89 19 DALLAS 1992-93 19 VANCOUVER 1996-97 19

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