Losing Is So Last Year

Their last performance a sobering experience, the Clippers could have used a quick confidence boost.

They got a big one Friday night in a 99-89 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at Staples Center.

After a poor showing against the Phoenix Suns in their previous game, the Clippers outplayed the short-handed 76ers, again playing without All-Star guard Allen Iverson, dictating the tempo from the start and leading by as many as 22 in the second half.

Elton Brand had 24 points and 10 rebounds, and Cuttino Mobley contributed 20 points as the Clippers won for the fifth time in six games, again moved a season-high 12 games above .500 and notched their 38th victory, one more than they had all last season, with 18 games still to play in the regular season.

They also continued to receive consistent production from reserves Vladimir Radmanovic (15 points), Corey Maggette (11 points) and Shaun Livingston (six assists).

The Clippers didn’t resemble the bunch that appeared overmatched from the outset in Wednesday’s 126-95 loss to the Pacific Division-leading Suns, and that was good news for Coach Mike Dunleavy.

“Phoenix is Phoenix,� Dunleavy said. “You’ve got to play on top of your game, you can’t make very many mistakes against them, because they’ll make you pay the price.

“Phoenix shoots the ball so well that you don’t get away with much. With almost everybody else, you can make a mistake, here or there, and you get away with it.�

The 76ers (31-34) are in the “almost everybody else� group, especially without Iverson (right foot sprain), who did not accompany the team on the trip. Philadelphia has lost three straight without Iverson, the NBA’s second-leading scorer with an average of 33.2 points.

Playing the second of back-to-back games, the 76ers needed everyone to do more, and they had five players in double figures, led by Chris Webber with 19. Philadelphia cut the Clippers’ lead from 22 to 10 in the fourth quarter, but the challenge proved to be too much to overcome.

“After the performance we gave in Phoenix, it was good our team came out and did a lot of things,� Maggette said. “As usual, our bench is coming in, helping out and doing what we do. We had to do something, because it was a bad performance the last game.�

Blowout losses often triggered losing streaks in the Clippers’ recent past, but this team isn’t easily rattled.

“We know what we’re capable of, we know what we can do when we play the way we can, so it’s just about us getting our act together and doing it,� said Brand, whose double-double was his 36th this season. “We’re more of a veteran team now, and just having that experience and confidence really helps at those times when you have a bad game.

“We’ve had some ups and downs, but we’ve done a pretty good job of not letting one game, whether we win or lose, carry over to the next day. We usually just keep focused on what we’re doing, and that’s helped us a lot. And even when we have a game like we had [against Phoenix], it just makes us work harder.�

“We were playing at a high level before that game, but they force you to do things you normally wouldn’t do,� Sam Cassell, who had nine points and six assists, said of the Suns. “I told my guys not to let it frustrate them, because it still counts as one loss no matter what the score is.

�... You just move on. We didn’t panic when we had other games like that this year, and we’re not going to start now. We just go regroup. We always do.�

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The Clippers improved to 3-1 when wearing orange-and-black throwback uniforms from their days as the Buffalo Braves. ... In a rare early call off the bench, rookie forward-center Boniface Ndong contributed in the second quarter, scoring three points and grabbing five rebounds in seven minutes. He played eight minutes overall.