Clippers Gain by Losing to Seattle

And now, on to the second phase of the plan.

The Clippers succeeded in securing home-court advantage for the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, but their work is only half done.

The Clippers also must finish in the sixth-seeded playoff position to use their potential edge, and they moved closer to that goal Sunday night with a 114-98 loss to the Seattle SuperSonics.

With center Chris Kaman and swingman Cuttino Mobley sidelined because of injuries, the SuperSonics controlled things from the start, leading by as many as 19 points in the first half, 30 after halftime and winning easily in the Clippers’ final regular-season game at Staples Center.

Ray Allen scored 21 points for Seattle (34-46), which lost to the Clippers, 101-97, Friday at Seattle. Elton Brand scored 22 points for the Clippers, Sam Cassell had 12 points and seven assists, and Shaun Livingston contributed 18 off the bench.

The loss ended the team’s bid to match the 1974-75 Buffalo Braves, who finished 49-33, for the best mark in franchise history, but there were some positives.

The Clippers (46-34) dropped a game behind the fifth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in the playoff standings.

If the teams finished with identical records, the Grizzlies, who play host to the Clippers on Tuesday at FedEx Forum, have the tiebreaker edge.

The Grizzlies’ “magic number” is one to clinch the No. 5 spot.

As the Clippers approach the finish, it’s all about playoff positioning.

“Finishing sixth is a great thing,” Brand said. “The way the seedings run and the records run, we’d have home-court advantage. With the playoffs, I’m hearing that’s a big thing.... You want as much home court as possible.”

They also want to play Denver.

The Clippers won the last three games against the Nuggets in taking the season series, 3-1.

Privately, many in the organization expressed hope that the team, which occupied the fifth spot for most of the second half of the season, would fall to sixth to avoid a first-round encounter with the fourth-place team, either the San Antonio Spurs or Dallas Mavericks.

San Antonio occupies the conference’s top spot and Dallas is fourth.

The Clippers went 2-1 against the Spurs, are 0-3 against the Mavericks and finish the regular season at Dallas on Wednesday.

“We’ll get home-court advantage at six, so it’s nice for a young team to open up at home,” said Sam Cassell, who has appeared in 103 postseason games.

“I’d prefer to start the playoffs off at home. I think everybody in this locker room would prefer the same thing.

“It’s not that Denver is the lesser team; they’re not. We’ve had some hard-fought games with the Nuggets. It’s a new season with playoff basketball. Anything is liable to happen, so we wouldn’t take those guys lightly at all.”

Since the Clippers will either finish with a better record than Denver or have the tiebreaker advantage if the teams finish tied, they will get home-court advantage even though the Nuggets, as a division winner, will be seeded higher.

Coach Mike Dunleavy has dismissed speculation it would benefit the Clippers to fade down the stretch, reaffirming they always play to win.

In one stretch of the first half Sunday, the lineup included rookie guard Daniel Ewing, rookie forward James Singleton and rookie center Boniface Ndong. Dunleavy acknowledged that Kaman and Mobley would have played Sunday if the Clippers were “in a Game 7” of a playoff series.

“I don’t think [playoff positioning] has anything to do with it,” Kaman said of why he sat out against Seattle. “I don’t think coach wants guys to get lackadaisical.

“He wants everybody to play.... I just need a little more rest for my knee.”