Clippers Ready to Hit the Road After Victory

Not to return until February is down to its last few days, the Clippers on Monday night bid a fond farewell to Staples Center.

About to play their next nine games on the road, they have won four of their last five after Elton Brand scored 24 points, Marko Jaric returned to the starting lineup with a strong all-around game and they held off the New York Knicks, 96-89, in front of 16,851.

“We feel good right now,” said Jaric after the Clippers closed with a 9-3 run and improved their record to 22-23. “We have a lot of confidence. We are not scared of this trip. We think that we can really make a surprise and come back even above .500 and try to make a final run for the playoffs.”

With scoring leader Corey Maggette again sidelined because a sprained joint near his left collarbone, Brand made 10 of 19 shots, took eight rebounds and matched a season high with five blocked shots.

Jaric, making his first start since Dec. 19, finished with 15 points, seven assists, five rebounds and six steals, matching a career high for steals. Chris Kaman had 18 points and 10 rebounds, Bobby Simmons 15 and 10. Quinton Ross, again substituting for Maggette, matched a season high with 14 points.

Jaric had two steals during an 8-0 fourth-quarter run that put the Clippers ahead to stay, the first leading to his own layup and the second to a Kaman dunk.

“Obviously, I was pleased with the outcome, the way we gutted it out,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “I was a little disappointed in our start ... but I thought late in the game our defense really picked up.”

The Knicks, who made 70% of their shots in the first quarter and 61.5% in the first half, made 41.2% in the fourth quarter and had six turnovers.

Stephon Marbury led the Knicks with 20 points on nine-for-16 shooting, but he missed his last four shots, among them two that were blocked by Brand and a driving layup that he banked too hard off the backboard with about 15 seconds to play and the Clippers clinging to a 92-89 lead.

“Our guys got a little better aim at Marbury coming to the rim and stepped up and contested shots and blocked shots,” Dunleavy said.

The Clippers won’t play another game at Staples Center until after they’ve completed an eight-game trip, taken six days off for the All-Star break and played another road game Feb. 23 at Phoenix.

Three weeks and two days from today, Feb. 24 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, they’ll finally be back home in Staples Center and, they hope, operating at full strength and poised to make a playoff run.

If able to so position themselves, Dunleavy said, they would greatly benefit from chasing a playoff berth down the stretch, no matter the outcome.

“I think if we can get healthy and just play the season out, play as hard as we’ve been playing, it will be very positive for us,” he said before the game. “I’m confident that if that took place we would be in contention and have a real good run at the playoffs and I think have a good chance to make it.... It’s a very positive environment.”

A positive environment would be a welcome change for the Knicks, still in playoff contention only because they play in the NBA’s worst division.

Limited to their lowest point total of the season Saturday night in kicking off a six-game trip with a 91-61 loss to the Detroit Pistons, they’d dropped nine of their last 10 games and were 2-13 in January. But they’re only three games behind the first-place Philadelphia 76ers in the Atlantic Division.

They scored 51 points in the opening half Monday.