Lakers Take Good With Bad

It appears as though these will be the Lakers for at least another couple of weeks, and they’re bracing themselves for the possibility they’ll be undermanned until the All-Star break, which is still a month away.

Coach Phil Jackson already has raised the notion of survival, which means home wins, because it won’t be long before they all get on an airplane and come back in, like, March.

They beat the Clippers on Saturday night, 91-89, at Staples Center, shortly after a hail of injury reports brought them little good news. The Clippers, too, were waiting on players, making the fight somewhat fair. The Clippers actually were favored, and then did not lose their 22nd in 25 games against the Lakers until Keyon Dooling’s off-balance three at the end grazed the front of the rim.

The Lakers have won four of five, and so are ... surviving. The Clippers, against a patchwork Laker lineup and lacking a few of their own, fought back from 11 points down in the fourth quarter, only to kick away their final possession again. In the past week, they have lost three games with the ball in their hands and a chance to win or tie, this time wasting one of the finest games of Elton Brand’s career.

“We had to fight our way through it,” Jackson said.

Marko Jaric scored five consecutive points for the Clippers, bringing them to within two points with 17.9 seconds to play. But on the last possession, Corey Maggette lost the ball in the lane, leading to a scramble, leading to Dooling’s heave and a short, happy Laker celebration.

Brand had 35 points and 20 rebounds and took away only defeat, the Clippers’ fifth in seven games.

The Clippers played without Quentin Richardson, Bobby Simmons and Chris Wilcox, the Lakers without Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone, Horace Grant and Rick Fox.

Both teams played Friday night and lost, the Lakers in Sacramento and the Clippers to Miami, which has now won all of five road games.

So, Saturday night in Los Angeles had its moments, the Clippers ahead by 13 midway through the second quarter, the Lakers behind by one going into halftime, ahead by eight before the Chairman’s Room cleared. Slava Medvedenko had his touch back, after an off night against the Kings, and scored 20 points. Kareem Rush, who made 13 of 22 shots Friday night, matched neither the quality nor quantity, leaving the offense spread among five Lakers in double figures. Derek Fisher scored 11 points. He was three for three from behind the three-point arc in the second half, as the Lakers beat back Brand’s inside game with jump shots.

“Obviously, the main game plan was to ride our horse, and we did,” Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “ ... Just the energy he had to put out in order to do what he did was just incredible.”

Brand sighed. “I don’t care about that,” he said. “I get numbers a lot.”

At issue for the Clippers now is that they are slipping behind the playoff contenders. They missed a near-free shot at the Lakers, two weeks after beating them with Bryant still in the lineup.

“That’s part of the process we’re going through,” Dunleavy said.

Suddenly, it doesn’t look so different from the Lakers’ process, which for a night included, among other things, 32 minutes from 20-year-old rookie Jamal Sampson, most against Brand. Sampson had nine points and 10 rebounds.

Big minutes for young players means the Lakers, it appears, are about to find out how far they can ride Gary Payton. While Jackson has tried to manage his minutes, Payton has all of the hard-labor responsibilities, from ball advancement to ball movement to ball coverage, and he played 40 minutes against the Clippers.

Bryant watched from the Laker bench in the first half and Malone took the same chair in the second half. For the fourth quarter, they sat beside each other. O’Neal did not make an appearance. Malone and Bryant are thought to be at least two weeks away; O’Neal said his calf still hurt and he would not predict when he might return.

Payton had 15 points and 15 assists, 10 of the points and seven of the assists in the second half, when the Lakers built a lead and then clung to it.

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The Battle of L.A.

Leaders for Lakers and Clippers in their two meetings. Lakers Karl Malone and Shaquille O’Neal were absent for first meeting, and Kobe Bryant also was absent Saturday:

SATURDAY: LAKERS 91, CLIPPERS 89

Lakers -- Slava Medvedenko

20 points, 10 rebounds

Clippers -- Elton Brand

35 points, 20 rebounds

JAN. 4: CLIPPERS 101, LAKERS 98

Lakers -- Kobe Bryant

44 points, 10 rebounds

Clippers -- Elton Brand

30 points, 15 rebounds