One for the road braces Clippers

And finally, a Clippers road victory.

They needed eight games to get their first -- and had to hold off the lowly Memphis Grizzlies in the fourth quarter Saturday night to make it happen -- but an 89-82 win in front of 14,509 at FedExForum was just what the Clippers needed.

“I didn’t think we would go winless on the road, but it was good to get one,” said Coach Mike Dunleavy, whose team was the last in the league to win away from its home court. “As something builds, as far as a streak of some kind, it’s just not a positive thing. It can sometimes weigh mentally on you as well.”

The Clippers’ psyche was among many things that came under the microscope in their 0-7 start on the road.

Dunleavy questioned the team’s effort in Friday’s embarrassing 29-point blowout loss at San Antonio. He challenged the Clippers to respond against the struggling Grizzlies, who are only 3-5 here and have the worst record in the NBA at 5-15.

Memphis missed 13 free throws while shooting only 61.8% from the line compared with 82.1% for the Clippers, who made 23 of 28. It still wasn’t easy for the Clippers, but they had to start somewhere.

“It feels good to get that monkey off of our backs, especially after such a tough loss,” said Elton Brand, who led all scorers with 26 points.

“It has been building up, and we felt this was a team that we should beat. We were just about .500 on the road last season, so we have a long way to go to try to reach that mark again. But you have to get that first one.”

The Clippers set a franchise record with 20 road victories last season, finishing 20-21. The 1974-75 Buffalo Braves had 19 road victories.

This season, however, the Clippers are still trying to find their rhythm as a visiting team.

“When we execute like we did tonight, when we move the ball around and take good shots, it just makes the team better,” Corey Maggette said. “It’s about us moving the ball, hitting the shots when we’re open and playing defense. We did those things and good things happened.”

The Clippers (10-9) were determined to start out well and did, turning a three-point lead after the first quarter into a seven-point halftime advantage at 48-41. Shaun Livingston continued to be aggressive in his new role as the starting point guard -- he finished with a game-high nine assists -- and the Clippers maintained a seven-point cushion to start the fourth.

Enter Sam Cassell.

The 14-year veteran accepted Dunleavy’s lineup decision, and has continued to support Livingston in a backup role. But Cassell is still among the league’s top clutch performers, and no one needs to remind Dunleavy.

Cassell was on the court early in the fourth as the Clippers built their biggest lead of 11 points. And after the Grizzlies used a 6-0 spurt to pull within 71-66 with 9:05 remaining, Cassell scored six of the Clippers’ next 11 points to finish with 18.

“Obviously, everybody knows he’s a clutch performer, he’s just a real fourth-quarter guy,” Livingston said of his mentor. “It’s important for me to start the game off and help get the guys into rhythm, which makes it easier for him to come in and just go do his thing because guys are already in rhythm.”

Brand’s 10-foot jumper with 2:33 left extended the lead to 84-77, and the Clippers figured they would finally win on the road.

“Getting that first road win, no matter the circumstances, is always good,” Cuttino Mobley said. “We really needed this.”

jason.reid@latimes.com