Clippers Turn the Tables and Trump Bryant’s 44

Even with Shaquille O’Neal and Karl Malone watching on television somewhere, Sunday night’s basketball game at Staples Center held the usual themes of the Clippers playing for respect and improvement and ticket sales, and the Lakers wishing it were April.

Still, not everything was in its familiar place.

For one, the Clippers won, 101-98, and Mike Dunleavy almost sounded as if he’d like to throw it back, and the Lakers lost for the sixth time in nine games, suddenly and momentarily vulnerable in what was supposed to be the easy part.

Kobe Bryant scored 44 points, but did not touch the ball on the Lakers’ final three possessions, which ended on layup attempts by Derek Fisher and Gary Payton that were blocked and a last, desperate three-point shot by Payton as time expired.

Free under the basket on the occasion of O’Neal’s strained calf and Malone’s historic first trip to the injured list, Elton Brand had 30 points and 15 rebounds. Quentin Richardson scored 20 points, enough at or near the rim to disgust the Lakers, whose defense has been lethargic for three weeks.

“Until we [fix] that,” Horace Grant said again of the Laker defense, “we’re going to see a few Ls. It’s will. Determination. If you don’t have the will to do it, you’re not going to do it. It takes a real team, real men, to play aggressive defense.”

The Clippers shot 48.6 % from the field, had 34 free-throw attempts to the Lakers’ 22, and took 52 rebounds to the Lakers’ 42. Yet, they scored two points on their final seven possessions, allowing the Lakers most of the way back from a 99-93 deficit. Two key blocks -- Brand on a Fisher layup that would have given the Lakers a 100-99 lead and Keyon Dooling on a Payton layup that would have tied the score, 100-100 -- eased the horrors in execution, however.

“I’d almost rather play really good and lose,” Dunleavy said. “With the mistakes we made, with the turnovers we made, we were nowhere near as good as we played [Saturday, in a loss to the Sacramento Kings]. It was embarrassing to me.”

Although the Lakers would argue, at the time and in the postgame interviews, that Fisher was fouled and Dooling’s block was goaltending, it was the Clippers who left the “Let’s go Lakers!” cries behind, happily, with their first win in six in the intracity series.

“We own this city tonight,” Brand said, as humbly as someone might say something like that.

After losing those five in a row to the Lakers, and 21 of 23, and, oh, larger numbers like that, the Clippers had a fairer fight.

O’Neal and Malone were injured and the Lakers had sagged in the last three weeks. They had lost five of their last eight games, all of them with O’Neal in the starting lineup, and had given up an average of 107.8 points in the losses. In that spirit, the Lakers gave up 56 points in the first half and, because they were so spotty on defense, clung to Bryant’s offensive game.

The Clippers played without starting point guard Marko Jaric, who sprained a foot against the Kings, and Bobby Simmons, who sprained a wrist against the Kings.

Still, they reached the fourth quarter ahead, 84-76, by shooting more free throws and balancing their scoring, Richardson joining Brand around the rim.

And the Lakers answered with Bryant.

Ultimately, on his way to his highest-scoring game since he put 44 on the Golden State Warriors on April 16, Bryant took 27 shots, with which Jackson did not bicker, publicly. He made 14, including four of seven three-pointers and 12 of 15 free-throw attempts.

“We need everybody to get involved,” Payton said. “Kobe’s going to score for us, but we need everybody to play.... We move the ball and get shots on offense, we’ll be fine. We take quick shots or we hesitate or we’re not where we need to be. We’ve got to understand, we’re not going to be with these guys for a while, and we’ve got to play through it.”

Between the first and second quarters, after Bryant’s first 10 field-goal attempts and 17 points, a fan held up a Clipper jersey with Bryant’s No. 8 on it, and the Clipper fans cheered. Bryant intends to become a free agent in the summer, and some of the speculation has Bryant considering the Clippers -- the only way to leave O’Neal and remain in Los Angeles.

When the jersey was brought up to Bryant afterward, he turned to leave the locker room and said, “On that note, I’ll call it a night.”