Don’t read much into Clippers’ narrow early-season win over Lakers

The Clippers spent part of last weekend giving out food and supplies at a community center in Los Angeles.

Their charity work continued unexpectedly Friday night at Staples Center.

Apparently making the Lakers resemble a team worthy of an NBA logo during the season’s first week is a new tradition in the Hallway Rivalry.

The Clippers eventually snuffed out potential embarrassment and the Lakers, 118-111, after more than a few moments that made you wonder whether they really are capable of playing into June.

Kobe Bryant missed a jumper with 27 seconds to play that could have given the Lakers the lead and a three-pointer that could have tied the score with 16 seconds to go. It was that ridiculously close.

“Not easy, not pretty but we’ll take it,� Clippers forward-center Spencer Hawes said.

As far as long-term implications go, let’s hold off for a bit. Like five months. The Lakers throttled the Clippers in their opener last season, and how did everything else turn out?

The winless Lakers hadn’t even been competitive in their first two games this season, putting them in a strange spot when they took the lead midway through the third quarter on a Jeremy Lin three-pointer.

Meanwhile, the Clippers continued to largely look like a mishmash of ill-fitting parts. They were so out of sync that Steve Ballmer neglected to clap along to Clipper Darrell’s “Let’s go Clippers!� chant even though the new owner was only a few seats away.

Blake Griffin played as if he was trying to take on the Lakers all by himself, spinning and dunking and jump-shooting his way to 39 points. He got some late help from Jamal Crawford, whose 14 fourth-quarter points prevented the Lakers from handing the Clippers what would have qualified as a bad loss by any measure.

“If we can find ways to win and still learn lessons, we’ll take it,� said Crawford, who finished with 22 points. “I think these are good tests early in the season because games like this, you find a way to win in January, February and March.�

Lakers fans wore Halloween giveaway T-shirts reading “FEAR NOTHING� and their team complied, rookie Jordan Clarkson shooting jumpers with confidence and Bryant doing what comes naturally.

He had a reverse dunk in the first quarter that had Lakers fans roaring, but when he missed his late jumpers it was if an air of resignation hung heavily over the court. The most disconcerting part of this season for Lakers fans might be that there are 79 games left.

When veteran Steve Nash and rookie Julius Randle went down with season-ending injuries, it left a roster capable of competing for little more than prime position in the draft lottery.

And maybe that’s the one upside to what looks like another dreadful season. If the Lakers finish with one of the worst five records in the NBA and retain that spot through the draft lottery, they would keep the pick that otherwise goes to Phoenix as compensation for the Nash trade.

Jim Buss’ legacy two years into his tenure running the Lakers’ basketball operations is likely to fall a bit short of the standards established by the family patriarch, who turned the franchise into a cultural phenomenon that won 10 NBA titles in his 34 years as steward.

His son’s Lakers could easily miss the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons.

The Clippers keep playing as if they want the playoffs to start this week rather than deal with the slog of an 82-game dress rehearsal.

“At the end of the day, it’s two wins, no losses right now,� Chris Paul said.

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers has said he didn’t care if his team started 15-0, and the Lakers nearly took care of that. Rivers’ point was that he wanted his team to continually improve and it seems as if there’s nowhere to go but up, up, up.

The first thing they need to do is stop being in a giving mood so often.

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