Brand joins the swat team

Elton Brand was two shy of a triple-double Saturday afternoon at Staples Center.

Two blocked shots shy of it.

Brand and his fellow Clippers were hardly disappointed. The eight blocks he did get were a key factor in turning away the Golden State Warriors, the second-highest scoring team in the league, and turning around, at least for one day, the Clippers, a team struggling to earn a playoff spot.

Saturday’s 103-90 victory for the Clippers (26-29) put them back in the win column for the first time in two weeks and only the second time this month. They had lost four in a row and seven of eight. They stumbled out of the All-Star break earlier in the week by losing to the Phoenix Suns by 25 points.

And they took the court Saturday with their center, Chris Kaman, sidelined because of flu and bronchitis.

So, they turned to the man they always turn to in dire situations -- Brand.

And, against a team averaging 106.1 points, a team that loves to run, the Clippers employed a strategy best summed up in two words: Play defense.

They held a club that had been shooting 46% from the field to a 43.9% mark. And the Clippers’ defense led to a large disparity on the backboards, where the Warriors were outrebounded, 48-35.

Denying the ball to the Warriors put it in the Clippers’ hands more often and they made the most of it. Every Clippers starter scored in double figures.

And leading that offense, with veteran guard Sam Cassell limited because of a lower abdominal strain, was Shaun Livingston, who had a career-high 14 assists in a game in which the Clippers had 31.

But it started with Brand, who took Kaman’s spot in the middle and roamed the paint with ferocity, swatting the best efforts of Warrior after Warrior who dared enter his territory, and intimidating those shooters who escaped his reach but not his influence.

“When he does that,” said Livingston, “it gives us a chance to box guys out, get the rebounds and get our hands on the ball.”

The 6-foot-8, 254-pound Brand says he is happy to play center against running teams such as the Warriors and the Suns.

“Just put me out there,” he said. “I don’t mind. I can even play a little point guard.”

Don’t look for that wrinkle in the near future, but Brand’s statistical line Saturday again showed there is little he can’t do on a court. He had a game-high 31 points -- making 11 of 19 shots and nine of 13 free throws -- a game-high 12 rebounds and he even had a steal.

Al Harrington led the Warriors, who are now half a game behind the Clippers, with 24 points.

“You have to rebound in order to run,” Coach Don Nelson said. “We didn’t rebound. They controlled the boards, they controlled the inside ... and they had Brand.”

“I thought it was one of our best defensive efforts of the year, just what we needed,” Brand said. “When you can block shots like that, it sends a message.”

It was a message that wasn’t clear until late in the game. Despite the Clippers’ defensive prowess, they still led by only 83-81 midway through the fourth.

And then the Clippers went on an 8-0 run, led by Corey Maggette (five points) and Livingston (three), that gave them a cushion they could hang on to.

“Elton Brand was an anchor back there for us,” Quinton Ross said.

An anchor the Clippers hope will keep them from sinking out of contention.

steve.springer@latimes.com