Brand Shows What an All-Star Looks Like

OK, so no one rolled a cake out to half court. No balloons or confetti fell from the ceiling.

But the Clippers did manage to make Mike Dunleavy’s 1,000th game as an NBA coach a memorable one Friday night.

Elton Brand matched his career high with 44 points, and the Clippers held the Memphis Grizzlies to 12 points in the fourth quarter in a 91-87 victory at Staples Center.

Brand, who was selected to the NBA All-Star game on Thursday, made 17 of 26 shots and all 10 free throws. He also had nine rebounds and two blocked shots. His last basket was the most important -- a 12-footer with 22.9 seconds to play to give the Clippers an 89-85 lead.

“It’s a change,” Brand said, when asked about the Clippers’ newfound ability to win close games. “We had been winning some close games on the road, and we wanted to come home and do the same thing. We didn’t want to have such a great road trip and be disappointed our first game at home.”

Along with Brand, Chris Kaman added 16 points and 11 rebounds. No other Clipper had more than eight.

The win was the 10th in the last 12 games for Los Angeles (30-18), which stayed two games behind Phoenix in the Pacific Division. It was also the first win over Memphis here since March 30, 2003. Before Friday, the Grizzlies had won eight of the last nine games between the teams.

Memphis, which has lost five in a row, had five players in double figures, with Shane Battier and Pau Gasol each scoring 16.

Dunleavy, now 493-507 overall, is the 23rd coach (eighth active) to reach 1,000 games. But all he could talk about was the pressure the Clippers put on Memphis in the final quarter.

“I thought our guys did a great job defensively in the fourth quarter,” Dunleavy said. “I wasn’t pleased with the way we started the game defensively. I don’t know if it was a hangover from the road trip, but we just didn’t come out with the energy we needed.”

The Clippers were returning home from a successful 4-2 road swing solidly entrenched among the Western Conference playoff contenders, but Dunleavy does not want his team to think about only reaching the postseason for the first time since 1997.

“I told our guys they had a great road trip, and everybody’s telling you how great you are,” Dunleavy said. “The reality is, we have 25 games left, and we’ve got to take care of business.

“We have 25 games left to get a home-court advantage, 25 games left to try and catch Phoenix. There are all kinds of things out there for us to do. Right now our goal shouldn’t be to make the playoffs, but to get home court.”

The Clippers, however, first had to figure a way out of a messy first half.

They had played Memphis pretty evenly in the first quarter. Despite 16 points by Battier (who would not score again), the Clippers were down only 27-26. And early in the second quarter, thanks in part to a pair of thunderous dunks by Chris Wilcox, the Clippers built a 37-30 lead.

Then things went awry. The Clippers scored only eight more points in the quarter and couldn’t stop the Grizzlies from getting layups.

Memphis ran off a 16-2 spurt to take the lead at 46-39. By halftime, it was 54-45.

“Coach really got into us at halftime,” Brand said. “He was disappointed and we were disappointed in ourselves. It’s not that they’re not a good team, but we were giving them open looks. We weren’t rotating correctly.”

Los Angeles spent the next 12 minutes slicing exactly one point off that deficit. But in the fourth quarter, the Clippers caged the Grizzlies’ attack, and overtook them for good, 83-82, with 3:19 to play on Kaman’s layup.

Memphis would miss 19 of 23 shots in the fourth quarter. Brand had 14 points in the quarter to outscore the Grizzlies.

“It’s our maturity,” Dunleavy said. “Defensively we know we’re good and that we can get stops.”