Confidence Is High After Win

Back at .500 for the third time this season, the Clippers’ confidence surged after Tuesday’s victory over the Miami Heat raised their record to 9-9.

Many teams around the league might be looking for a new coach if they were merely .500 after 18 games, but not the Clippers, who were last above .500 early in the 1996-97 season. A victory Friday against the Utah Jazz at Staples Center would push the Clippers over basketball’s Mendoza Line for the first time since they were 6-5 on Nov. 21, 1996.

“We’re building as a team,” point guard Jeff McInnis said. “Our character is growing. It felt good to come back and get this one [against Miami]. It seemed we were always losing these types of games.”

Locked in a tight game with the Heat, the Clippers rallied from four points down in the fourth quarter to win, 87-83. A four-point deficit in some games is nothing. But Tuesday, the biggest lead for each team was six.

“It shows where we’re headed,” McInnis said.

Coach Alvin Gentry cautioned against reading too much into the Clippers’ early-season record, however.

“I don’t care what this team’s record is because we’re still in the process where we’re trying to play consistent basketball and making good decisions,” he said. “We’ve still got to make some strides before becoming a very good basketball team. We’re not kidding ourselves into thinking we’re going to win the NBA championship.”

Gentry gave the players a day off Wednesday.

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Defeating Utah has been a chore for the Clippers, who have lost 11 consecutive to the Jazz. That dubious streak includes a 106-101 loss Nov. 23 at Salt Lake City, when the Clippers failed to record a basket in the final 4:40.

The Clippers last victory over John Stockton, Karl Malone and Co. was March 27, 1999 at the Arrowhead Pond. They are winless in five in a row against the Jazz in Southern California.