Bullets Top Clippers in Closing Seconds : NBA: Two free throws by Eackles are the difference for Washington, 101-99. King scores 32.

Ledell Eackles made two free throws with two seconds remaining, and league scoring leader Bernard King contributed a game-high 32 points despite 12-of-33 shooting to give the Washington Bullets a 101-99 victory over the Clippers Wednesday night before 11,485 at the Sports Arena.

The Clippers, who made only 17 of 31 free throws, dropped to 13-25. Washington improved to 16-19 and won for the third time in four tries, including a victory last Thursday against the Clippers at home and Boston.

The Clippers, who trailed by as many as 14 points in the third quarter, 72-58, pulled back into contention with a 7-2 run. That cut Washington’s lead to 80-77.

Finally, the Clippers, again hurting themselves with bad free-throw shooting, took the lead at 85-84 with 6:45 remaining. The Bullets momentarily grabbed the lead back, but the Clippers went back up, 92-88.

It was last tied at 97-97 with 54 seconds left, even though the Bullets, surviving at the line, hadn’t made a field goal since King’s rebound layin with 3:09 to play.

And when nothing developed for Washington out of its own timeout, the Bullets were again sent to the line, Darrell Walker having been fouled by Tom Garrick while attempting a baseline jumper with four seconds left on the shot clock.

Walker made both for a 99-97 advantage with 13 seconds remaining, and the Clippers called timeout. They responded, as Garrick hit a 10-footer in the lane with eight seconds to play.

The Bullets called timeout, and that set the stage for Eackles’ free throws.

The Clippers used their last full timeout for a final play, looking for a second consecutive overtime game.

But when Danny Manning’s out-of-bounds pass from midcourt forced Ken Norman out of position from a hoped-for layin, time had expired by the time Norman saved the ball to Jeff Martin 15 feet out on the right side.

The Bullets, who lost by 30 at Phoenix the night before, started the healing process early, scoring on seven consecutive possessions at one stage of the second quarter to take a 13-point lead, 46-33.

But the Clippers followed that with 18-8 rally, six different players contributing points, and pulled within 54-51 with 1:15 left in the half. Eackles’ jumper gave Washington a 56-51 advantage at halftime.

The Bullets shot 54.2% the first half, Haywoode Workman going four for six, Eackles seven for eight, and Pervis Ellison four for five, the latter two off the bench.

King, who had 45 when the teams met last week in Maryland, contributed 13 first-half points, one less than Eackles had.

Benoit Benjamin led the Clippers with 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots in the first half. Winston Garland had 11 on five-of-five shooting.

By the end of the third quarter, when the Clippers shot 35%, the Bullet lead was 78-70.

Clipper Notes

The war in the Persian Gulf hit close to home for some Clippers. Ron Harper’s twin brother, Donald, is in the Middle East in an unknown capacity with the Army and a cousin of Charles Smith is also in the Army and stationed on the front line. Smith sent some Clipper hats and T-shirts to Saudi Arabia when the team was in Boston late last week and before coming to the Sports Arena Wednesday evening intently watched television reports of the attack by allied forces. “This (the game) is very unimportant compared to that situation,” Smith said. As for playing, he added, “I will try to stay focused. I know what I have to do tonight.” Harper said he spoke to his brother Saturday in Hawaii, before Donald was deployed.

Benoit Benjamin said he has never been on a rebounding streak like this in his five-plus seasons in the pros, a run of 19, 20, 19, 20, 18 and 15 the last six outings that boosted his season average to 12.2 heading into the Washington game. “I’ve always been an excellent rebounder, dating back to high school,” he said. “The thing I’m doing now is pursuing more balls and not waiting for them to come to me. That’s been the big difference. It seems like I’m hungrier for rebounds.” Even at 12.2, however, Benjamin does not have enough total rebounds or games played to qualify among the league leaders, the 318 and 26, respectively, falling short of the 361 and 32 that required as of Wednesday. Were Benjamin eligible to be among the leaders, he would have gone into action fourth. Moreover, the recent run makes he and Akeem Olajuwon the only players to have more than one 20-rebound game this season. The Houston center has done it five times. . . . Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of Harper blowing out his right knee against Charlotte at the Sports Arena. “I don’t think about it,” he said. “Everyone does tell me, though.”