Clippers Need to Stay Off the Road

If the Clippers are serious about this, if they don’t want the fun times and red T-shirts and even the springtime “Beat L.A.” chants directed at them to be a once-every-30-years deal, then the first thing on the list of goals for next season is to win the division and gain home-court advantage in the playoffs for as long as possible.

As much progress as they made this season, their 127-107 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Monday night showed they have yet to reach the ability to win a Game 7 on the road. That’s championship-contender stuff, as the Dallas Mavericks demonstrated against San Antonio on Monday.

To beat a rested Phoenix Suns team in front of the home fans demanded a level of execution the Clippers didn’t have in them.

The only reason the Clippers had home-court advantage against Denver in the first round this year was because they backed into a quirk in the NBA’s seeding system, a loophole that will be closed next season.

But now the Clippers had to take on the Suns, who finished seven games ahead of the Clippers to win the Pacific Division (sans Amare Stoudemire). We saw Monday night the difference those seven games made.

“It was tough,” Elton Brand said. “On the road, playing a Game 7 is very difficult. You have to bring a lot of energy, you have to fight through everything. The crowd is against you and they’re comfortable on their home court. You have to play the right tempo.”

The hoop seems a little bigger at home, the rims are a little friendlier. The Suns shot 42% in three games at Staples Center and 49% in the first three games at US Airways Center. They shot 60% on Monday, the night the Clippers’ worst fears were realized.

“Unfortunately, we knew they were capable of putting a game together like that,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said.

The Clippers made the difficult task of winning in Phoenix’s home even harder by trying to win with Phoenix’s pace. You don’t want to go Barry White (Playing Your Game, Baby) with the Suns. The Clippers went through that in Game 1. They can shoot at a high percentage, get caught in the fast flow like a thrill-seeking kayaker heading through the rapids, and it only reinforces Phoenix’s strength.

The Clippers tried to be patient in the second half, but by then it was too late. They would work the ball inside for two points, while Phoenix came right back and scored three points. For the game, the Suns made 15 of 27 three-point shots. The Clippers were 0 for 4. I only took one math class in college, but I believe that’s 45 extra points for Phoenix.

Steve Nash, refreshed by a three-day break after Game 6, made four of his five three-point shots on his way to 29 points. The Suns got production all across the board, including five three-point baskets from Shawn Marion, while the only Clipper who truly matched the magnitude of the game was Brand. Brand had 36 points and nine rebounds -- and almost as importantly, only one turnover while playing all but five seconds of the game.

Corey Maggette was up and down and even Sam Cassell was so-so.

It wasn’t that the Clippers no-showed, the way every Cleveland Cavalier not named LeBron James did in Detroit on Sunday. The Clippers shot 52.6% and six players scored in double-figures.

“We played solid,” Cassell said. “Phoenix had it going on all cylinders.”

Can we really say the Clippers had a better season than the Lakers if it ended the same way, with a seventh-game loss to the Phoenix Suns? Yes, because the Clippers’ loss came in the second round, a two-week extension the Clippers earned by winning more games than the Lakers from November to April. Despite so many indications to the contrary, the regular season does matter in the NBA.

But nothing matters as much as a Game 7.

Let’s look at this game for what it was. It was an opportunity, not a make-or-break moment for the Clippers. Sometimes, a Game 7 loss can be the start of something great. Michael Jordan’s dominance of the 1990s and the second half of the Lakers’ 1980s dynasty were forged in the crucible of Game 7 losses on the road.

“We grew,” Brand said. “We’re going to grow a lot. We’re going to improve. We took our lumps, like they said. This is a big lump. We’re going to let it sting over the summer and get better.”

A seven-game series reveals everything. The Clippers weren’t inept or inadequate. They just weren’t the better team, certainly not good enough to overcome the crucial double-overtime loss in Game 5. For now, they don’t have a glaring weakness to address. Their off-season checklist starts at home by re-signing free agents Cassell and Vladimir Radmanovic.

“They’ll be a team to reckon with,” Suns Coach Mike D’Antoni said.

“We have a lot of young guys that can take the next step over this off-season and get better,” Dunleavy said. “Hopefully, for us now this is something where we’ll be making these visits every year.”

Not quite. They don’t want to be visitors. Next time, they need to play host.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande, go to latimes.com/adandeblog.