Clippers fail pop quiz in Phoenix, but don’t despair

Algebra 2 is tougher than Algebra 1. The steps at the top of the flight are more demanding than the ones at the bottom.

Phoenix represents another degree of difficulty for the Clippers, even when they are playing without inadequate rehearsal, even when TV schedulers make them perform at lunch. This, of course, is the way it’s drawn up.

On Sunday, the

Suns scored 120 points without Chris Paul, the 36-year-old scoutmaster who was given credit for grabbing this dusty franchise by the lapels and basically pulling it to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Either he was doing a great job with the joystick, back home with Jake and Cliff and Sabrina, or this is a much better and more resourceful team than we’ve been told.

Still, the Clippers took the blows and kept coming, to the point that Terance Mann’s 3-pointer cut the lead to two with 22 seconds left. Then Devin Booker took advantage of a defensive glitch on an in-bounds play and hit yet another shot, and Phoenix took a 1-0 Western Conference Finals lead, 120--114.

“We did OK,” said Tyronn Lue, the Clippers’ coach. “We’ll be better.”

It was reminiscent of the first two losses in the second-round series against Utah, in which the top-seeded Jazz controlled most of the play and the Clippers slipped one more flurry at the end before the bell.

The Clippers brushed aside the fatigue factor, probably because the question was superfluous. Of course it played a part, as witnessed by their 34.8% shooting in the fourth quarter and their willingness to take the first debatable shot available, instead of getting inside the defense as they did in Friday night’s comeback to close out the Jazz.

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