Clippers Are Moving Up in Town

Any hope for the playoffs may be a distant memory but the battle for the best NBA team in Los Angeles this season turned in the Clippers’ direction Tuesday night.

Despite having Coach Mike Dunleavy absent because of his father’s ailing health and leading scorer Corey Maggette out for the remainder of the season because of a wrist injury, the Clippers picked up a surprisingly easy victory over Utah, 94-85, in front of 19,816, their eighth sellout this season and fifth in their last eight games at Staples Center.

Elton Brand led the way with 25 points and 10 rebounds, but he had plenty of help. Rookie Shaun Livingston recorded his first double-double with 15 points and 10 assists, and Marko Jaric finished with 20 points and seven assists for the Clippers (35-43), who moved one game ahead of the Lakers (34-44) in the West, and who handed longtime assistant Jim Eyen his first official coaching victory.

“We know that in order for us to win, we have to play very aggressive,” said Jaric, who had five steals. “Every time we play good defense and run the floor, we’ve won. This is how we played tonight.”

The Jazz, which played without Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer and Raja Bell along with suspended Kirk Snyder, did not have an answer in the first quarter for Brand, who had 14 points and six rebounds to ignite the Clippers to a 27-15 lead.

But once Brand went to the bench at the start of the second quarter, Utah found some life, thanks to the Clippers missing their first seven shots, including four airballs, in the quarter.

“We started out very hard, jumping on them early,” Jaric said. “We just got tired. But that’s normal in this league. The difference between a strong team and a weak team is how long [droughts] last.”

It did not take long for the Clippers to regain control once Brand returned. Thanks to consecutive dunks by Jaric, Livingston, Chris Kaman and Bobby Simmons, who returned after sitting out seven games because of a lower-leg injury, the Clippers broke open the game, taking a 45-33 lead at halftime.

“We just couldn’t stop them tonight,” Coach Jerry Sloan said. “We got four or five possessions where we did not know what we were doing and it kind of became a mess.”

In the second half, it was more of the same for the Clippers, who turned up their defensive pressure and forced Utah into bad shots. The Jazz shot only 33.3% from the field and every Clipper starter scored at least a basket in taking an 18-point lead into the fourth quarter.

Eyen filled in for Dunleavy, who has been in New York since Sunday to be with his father. With Dunleavy expected to return for the Clippers’ game at Phoenix on Friday, Eyen had a night to remember.

“What helped us was that ... we got after them defensively,” said Eyen about the Clippers, who had a season-high 42 deflections. “We created enough opportunities for us offensively that everybody got into the flow of the game.”

And the Clippers did it without Maggette, who is sidelined because of a torn ligament in his left wrist that will require a cast for the next two weeks.

“It’s tough but he’s missed some games already this season,” Brand said about Maggette, who leads the Clippers in scoring with a career-high average of 22.2 points but sat out 10 games before Tuesday because of injuries ranging from ankle and shoulder sprains to a strained groin and sore foot.

“We’ve had guys like [Quinton] Ross and others step up when [Maggette] was down before.”