Clippers Like This Brand Game

The highlight-reel plays were glaringly absent Thursday. Crowd-pleasing dunks were few and far between.

The Clippers were substance over flash during their comprehensive 116-96 victory over the overmatched Golden State Warriors before 13,568 at the Arena in Oakland, and they were OK with that in the end.

The Clippers rebounded as if their season depended on snaring every ball as it fell from the iron. They defended like a team bent on making their remaining games meaningful. Plus, they shot down the Warriors each time they drew near, which wasn’t often after halftime.

It was an unbeatable package for the Clippers, who got 30 points and 16 rebounds from a relentless Elton Brand. Four other Clippers scored 10 or more points, including point guard Jeff McInnis, who had 18 to go with 13 assists.

The Clippers also outrebounded the Warriors, the league’s best rebounding team, 48-46, and they kept an opponent from scoring 100 points for the 12th consecutive game.

“That’s big for us because it says a lot about our defense,” said Brand, who also blocked four shots. “If we can keep a team under 100, we have a great chance to win because we have the offense.”

The Clippers began the evening only 11/2 games behind the Utah Jazz for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. While the Clippers were thumping the Warriors, the Jazz powered by the Washington Wizards, 94-79, at Salt Lake City.

So the Clipper deficit remains 11/2 games with 13 to play.

Whatever else happens the rest of the way, it would appear the Clippers have a stranglehold on a spot in the top nine in the West. They lead the 10th-place Phoenix Suns by 51/2 games. The Clippers play the Jazz and Suns twice each, however, and a great deal could change in the season’s final weeks.

“Good, bad, indifferent,” Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry said, “at this stage, we’ve just got to win games. We played tonight with a purpose and a great effort. There were only a few moments where we got lackadaisical. All in all, I thought we played aggressively and we played smart.”

Although it failed to result in a basket, one play in the second quarter epitomized the Clippers’ hunger for a victory. Leading a fastbreak, McInnis launched a lob pass and not one, not two, but three Clippers leaped for it, hoping for a dunk.

In the end, no one got it.

A hustling Brand took the rebound, but a certain basket was swatted out of his hands by an alert Warrior. The Clippers ended up getting one of two free throws by Quentin Richardson out of the deal and they led Golden State at that point, 42-33.

“We had to win this game,” Gentry said. “We could not afford to lose this game and the guys played accordingly.”

Scalding three-point shooting by Richardson and Eric Piatkowski got the Clippers rolling toward a 57-50 lead by halftime.

Richardson was three for three and Piatkowski was four for four from behind the three-point arc in the first half. By the end of the half, the Clippers were eight of 11 on three-pointers.

At game’s end, they made nine of 16 (56.3%) as Richardson and Piatkowski each made four of five.

Led by Brand, the Clippers built a 65-54 lead less than three minutes into the third quarter. He raced ahead of the pack for a dunk, followed with a short jump shot and scored on a drive to the hoop moments later.

Brand scored 13 points in the third quarter, making six of seven shots and one free throw.

McInnis and Brand picked-and-screened the Warriors until they weakened and, soon enough, the Clippers led, 89-73, after three quarters.