Shoot, at Least Brand Kept Playing Till the End

The Clippers were down at the half in the seventh game against the Phoenix Suns, Elton Brand scoring 20 points, but getting no help from his teammates.

He elected not to quit, though, taking three more shots before four minutes had elapsed in the third quarter, doing everything he could to keep the Clippers in the game.

He continued shooting, even though some people might criticize him later for shooting too much, and began shouting to his teammates in an effort to encourage them to continue playing hard.

The rest of his team was playing poorly, but he kept them involved while understanding his role as the go-to scorer. He continued to attack the basket, maybe just to keep Charles Barkley off his back, but he took a fourth shot with more than 17 minutes remaining in the game. The Clippers were losing by double digits, the Suns were double- and triple-teaming him and he kept firing.

As the second half continued, the Clippers were never in it, but it was a pleasure to watch a great player give everything he had to the very end.

*

THE CLIPPERS began the fourth quarter down by 15, the same total that Mike Dunleavy’s Portland team found itself ahead of the Lakers a few years back before blowing it, Dunleavy getting the ironic chance to redeem himself.

Oh well.

*

I JOINED Dunleavy, Donald Sterling and others Sunday night for dinner, and while Phoenix fans might’ve called it the Clippers’ last supper, I took the opportunity to review all of the coach’s screwups and discuss ways of still winning.

The dinner ended abruptly, though, with Sterling announcing, “that’s it,” when Dunleavy and I couldn’t agree on the game plan, Sterling saying later, “I thought you were being too hard on the coach.”

I was just trying to get him ready for the Suns’ onslaught, and now that I think about it, what would Sterling know about preparing a team for a big playoff game?

*

DUNLEAVY GOT the Clippers this far, further than they’ve ever been, but we never agreed on the playoff use of Shaun Livingston late in tight games or the emphasis on defense at the expense of offense -- keeping Sam Cassell and Corey Maggette on the bench.

The Clippers were the better team for most of these playoffs, throwing away two opportunities for wins and the chance to end this series in six games, but in the end Dunleavy was right. He said if the Suns had one of those games where everything went in for their shooters, there would be no beating them.

The Suns closed out the Lakers and Clippers, but it appears the Clippers have the brighter future even though Cuttino Mobley and Chris Kaman failed the team at a time when it needed them the most.

Mobley, signed for $42 million, began Game 7 with the lowest shooting percentage among the eight players who played the most, while Kaman’s first-quarter jitters sabotaged any chance of the Clippers’ jumping quickly on the Suns.

It was a good run, but now it’s back to the drawing board for Dunleavy, and while I’d like to be there to help, knowing how much he appreciates it, what would the Dodgers and Angels think if I just ignored them?

*

DANCING DARRELL (Bailey), the Clippers fan wearing the blue and red suit and putting on a show at every home game the last six years while customizing cars by day, was at the airport to wish the Clippers good luck on their journey to Phoenix.

Sterling noticed him, and probably mistaking him for TNT’s Craig Sager because of the crazy sports coats Sager wears, invited Dancing Darrell to jump on the Clippers’ flight and stay with the team at the Ritz-Carlton.

“I didn’t have anything with me, but I called my wife and she said, ‘Go,’ ” Bailey said. “I had to go to Macy’s when I got to Phoenix and buy a change of underclothes and get a toothbrush and some deodorant.”

When I left Dancing Darrell in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton before Game 7, he still wasn’t sure how he was going to get home or whether he’d be joining the team in Texas, the Clippers obviously wanting some kind of proof that he purchased a change of underclothes and got a toothbrush and some deodorant.

*

WHEN I made an attempt to get on the elevator in the Clippers’ hotel, I noticed a woman inside who made a quick move to push a button, the doors closing and clobbering me. She apologized and said she had pushed the wrong button.

Then she said, “T.J.?”

I said, “good guess,” and then she introduced herself as the wife of former Dodgers manager Jim Tracy, and so she really was trying to close the elevator doors on me.

Tracy’s Pittsburgh Pirates were in town to play the Arizona Diamondbacks, and when we talked later, he wanted to know, “What’s happened with the Angels?” Obviously, as he would know, any team that loses three in a row to the Dodgers has to have a problem.

*

TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Sylvia Avila:

“You’re a coward just like Raja Bell. You should feel lucky and privileged to meet Kobe Bryant face to face. If you had a real (guts) you would be writing about Jerry Buss and Mitch Kupchak not being able to get enough proven players. Charles Barkley learned his lesson and so will you. Kobe made Barkley look like a selfish, ignorant buffoon. Stay off the bandwagon, Kobe-hater. Have a miserable day!”

Didn’t you mean to say, “Stay off the tank?”

*

T.J. Simers can be reached at

t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.