Visitors Are the Ones Who Show Up for Showtime

The voice on the other end of my cellphone could hear noise in the background, and wondered.

“Are you at the Laker game?” he asked.

Pause.

“I mean, are you at the Clipper game?”

The teams, they are a’changing.

For the 100th time since they moved to Los Angeles, the Clippers played the Lakers on Friday night.

For perhaps the first time, the Clippers were the Showtime.

They were the magic of Sam Cassell, the big game of Elton Brand, the strange Superman that was Chris Kaman, the slicked-back mastery of Mike Dunleavy.

They weren’t just a better team but, perhaps more important around here, they were a more entertaining team.

Staples Center was covered in a Laker floor and filled with a Laker crowd but buzzed all night with a Clipper spirit. The result was a 97-91 victory that was about more than points.

The Clippers have beaten the Lakers before, albeit only 21 times in the previous 99 games.

But it’s different now. It feels different, it looks different and, yes, it even sounds different.

There have always been vocal Laker fans in the house when the Clippers were the home team in this series.

But can you ever remember Clipper fans cheering at a Laker home game? Can you ever remember Clipper fans sticking around the gym longer than Laker fans?

“There are more Clipper jerseys tonight, there were more Clipper cheers,” said Brand, who scored a team-high 23 points. “I remember when we used to play this game and only hear boos.”

Now it is oohs.

The Lakers closed the gap to five points in the final three minutes, and this is when the new Clippers kicked in.

Cassell and Cuttino Mobley controlled the ball. Corey Maggette and Brand filled in the gaps. It was never closer.

Maggette beat Lamar Odom for a layup. Kobe Bryant missed a wild three pointer. Mobley beat everyone to the basket for a layup attempt that he missed, but he was fouled, and he converted both free throws.

“Last year late in the game like this we wouldn’t have held together,” said Brand. “This year we brought in win-tested guys who know how to hold on to a game.”

A nine-point lead, just like that, and here came those Clipper cheers again, howling from the rafters for a team that was more entertaining than the Lakers at all but one starting position.

Sam Cassell versus Smush Parker? Cassell hugged the kid early in the game, laughed into his ear, and then climbed into his head and swarmed around his sneakers.

Cuttino Mobley versus Kobe Bryant? Advantage Lakers, although Bryant put up more than 30 shots for a second consecutive game, meaning something about this triangle is not equating.

Chris Kaman versus Chris Mihm? Kaman’s body is finally moving as wildly as his long blond hair, blocking shots and grabbing defensive

rebounds that are painful and perfect.

Elton Brand versus Kwame Brown? A mismatch of seven-foot proportions, beginning with the notion that Brand clearly has an understanding of the game, and Brown clearly does not.

Corey Maggette versus Lamar Odom? Maggette moved into the starting lineup for the first time this season, while Odom continued to play erratically, as if he is out of position, at any position.

In terms of entertainment value, even the head coaches don’t match up these days, underscored by the pregame interview session that is usually as lopsided as these games.

About half a dozen reporters surrounded Phil Jackson, arguably the best coach in basketball history.

Nearly twice that many surrounded Dunleavy, who had previously never been considered the best coach in his building.

“We win and all this rivalry stuff will take care of itself,” said Dunleavy afterward. “We win and I don’t have to say anything.”

But his players, bless them, couldn’t help themselves.

“It’s no big deal for us to be better than the Lakers; we were better than them last year,” said Brand. “We have to shoot for the teams above us.”

If they continue to grow, the Clipper will make the playoffs. This not only means growing in ability, but growing in unselfishness.

The only issue in their locker room these days involves Maggette, who missed the start of the season because of a sore hamstring.

Now that he’s back, it seems Dunleavy would rather have him come off the bench as a sixth man, playing the same minutes as a starter, but allowing defensive specialist Quinton Ross to begin the game.

This week, Maggette was vocal in his opposition of this strategy, announcing that he wasn’t anybody’s sixth man.

He and Dunleavy met a couple of days ago and hammered things out. We think. Stay tuned.

Said Maggette: “It’s up to the coach. As a player, I’m going to handle it the right way.”

Said Dunleavy: “He will do whatever is best for the team.... He said it to you, he said it to me, it’s what I believe.”

As for the Lakers, they have a losing record and a losing feel and, goodness, Jackson

Down the hall it was all smiles Friday. It was Cassell’s birthday, and so equipment guys playfully hung a jersey in his locker with the number 36 on it, for his age.

A better present would have been a jersey with the number three, or the number 30.

It was, after all, the Clippers’ third consecutive win against the Lakers for the first time in 30 years.

“Yeah,” I should have told my caller earlier Friday. “I’m at the Clipper game.”

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.