Clippers Reach .500 Again

For the better NBA teams, a .500 record in January is cause for alarm, a sign that it’s time to ratchet up the intensity.

For the tradition-poor Clippers, it’s a milestone achievement.

They’ve reached the break-even mark after December only four times in 21 seasons, most recently Monday night when they held off the Denver Nuggets, 102-98, in front of 14,817 in the Pepsi Center, squaring their record at 15-15.

Wildly inconsistent from the first half to the second, they got there the hard way. After losing an 18-point second-quarter lead and falling behind by four points in the fourth quarter, they outscored Denver, 18-10, over the final 5:26 before a frenzied crowd brought to life when the officials uncharacteristically reversed a call in the Clippers’ favor.

“It’s a great big win for us,” Elton Brand said.

The Clippers won despite making only 22.6% of their shots in the second half, keeping pace by making 27 of 29 free throws over the last two quarters.

For one day less than a year, they had not beaten a team that made the Western Conference playoffs last season. Not since last Jan. 4, when they upset the Lakers, had they defeated any of the teams that finished in the top eight in the West last spring, losing 27 consecutive games to those teams, nine this season.

A monkey off their backs?

“We don’t even think about that stuff,” Brand said. “We just see our opponent as our opponent. We don’t see it as, ‘Oh, they made the playoffs last year,’ because this is a new team and it’s a new year. You see things like, ‘The Clippers haven’t beaten this team in 19 years,’ or whatever. ... It doesn’t matter to us.”

The Nuggets, after pulling into an 88-84 lead, suddenly went cold against a Clipper zone and the Clippers steeled themselves for a late rally.

“Our guys showed great composure,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “We had an excellent first half; second half, we didn’t do as well. I think some of our guys got fatigued, but down the stretch I thought we executed well.”

None executed better than point guard Rick Brunson, a journeyman-turned-starter whose three-point shot from the left corner punctuated the late run, giving the Clippers a 96-92 lead with 21.7 seconds to play.

“He’s stepping up,” Brand said. “He’s a heady veteran and we’re glad to have him out there. He was projected third -- third-string point guard -- but he’s been holding it down, orchestrating the offense. I’m glad he’s out there with me.”

Brunson, whose contract won’t become guaranteed until Monday, added four free throws in the last 10.8 seconds to match his season high of 18 points.

“The corner shot, that’s my shot; that’s the shortest three,” said Brunson, who didn’t hesitate putting it up after taking a pass from Corey Maggette. “It was a great pass. I mean, forget the shot....

“Guys have trusted me to take those shots, so it felt good.”

Maggette led the Clippers with 33 points, making 16 of 19 free throws, and also had 11 rebounds. Brand scored 21 points to go with 13 rebounds.

Carmelo Anthony scored 21 points for the Nuggets but missed 15 of 21 shots, eight of 10 in the first half when the Nuggets fell behind at one point, 49-31, as the Clippers were on their way to making 61% of their first-half shots. Nene finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds, and former Clipper Andre Miller scored 17 points.

Dunleavy said .500 was nice but not a magic number.

“It’s great for our guys,” he said, “but it’s hard for us to get too far ahead of ourselves because of all the injuries we have. Right now, we’re just trying to hold off until we can get to a point in time where we can find out how good we can be, get all our pieces back in place and then compete.

“We’re competing with everybody -- great teams, good teams -- but we’ve fallen short in some areas. The guys have done a terrific job, but some of the situations we’ve been in, it’s pretty tough to expect guys to have to come through.”

Monday they did.