Sub-100 Still Meant Subpar for Los Angeles

Staples Center now belongs to the Phoenix Suns, the visiting relatives who just won’t leave. They’re comfortable in the surroundings and sure seemed better equipped for this juncture of the series than the Clippers.

While the Clippers shrunk in the moment, the Suns got their second consecutive playoff victory in this building: last week’s Game 6 escape act against the Lakers and Friday’s Game 3 victory against the Clippers. It’s to the point where Steve Nash even gets calls along the sideline.

The Clippers can’t let Phoenix beat them when the Suns shoot less than 40% and don’t make even a third of their three-pointers. Because the Suns are going to have another game when they make their threes, get the confidence going and there won’t be a thing the Clippers can do about it.

The Suns aren’t supposed to win these ones when they don’t score 100 points -- they hadn’t all playoffs. They’re not supposed to win when the game is decided by three points or fewer -- they hadn’t all year.

That’s what makes the 94-91 Phoenix victory in this Western Conference semifinal series twice as damaging.

The Clippers are supposed to win when they’re home and they have the momentum and Phoenix has some doubt creeping in. With the Hollywood stars slowly making their way to the Clippers’ courtside (ladies and gentlemen, Bruce Willis ... and say hello to David Duchovny), the Clippers lost this game because they couldn’t stay in character.

Sam Cassell’s mantra to his teammates is: “Do what you do.” Don’t let the pressure of the playoffs force you to try too hard. The Clippers weren’t smart, they weren’t careful with the ball, they weren’t as determined to own all of the rebounds. No starter played at top capacity; even Elton Brand’s near-triple double of 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists was diminished by missing eight of his last 11 shots.

About the only one who lived up to expectations was Vladimir Radmanovic. In the fourth quarter, he did what he was brought here to do in a midseason trade: drain three-pointers.

But Cassell didn’t get a fair shot at his thing: making the big shots during money time.

That’s on Mike Dunleavy. If you thought the few minutes without Brand in the fourth quarter of Game 1 hurt, how about almost 11 minutes of the fourth without Cassell in Game 3? Cassell didn’t return to the game until there was 1:17 to play. Then he was forced to shoot. It was an airball.

Dunleavy said he wanted to go with a defensive lineup.

“It’s a roll of the dice for a coach,” he said. “I thought with the game going like it was going, I wanted to stay with my defense.

“I made a bet on my defense ... we broke down.”

Maybe Dunleavy is the one who doesn’t feel comfortable in Staples Center during the fourth quarter. Remember, he was on the sideline when the Portland Trail Blazers had their Western Conference finals Game 7 collapse in 2000.

This wasn’t nearly as bad. But for a Clipper team that would be bathed in glory just for reaching Game 1 of the conference finals, it hurts to think that they lost two of the first three games of this series without key players on the court for critical stretches.

Cassell didn’t blame Dunleavy.

“Coaching is a feel,” said Cassell, who hopes to be a coach himself one day. “We were winning the game with me on the bench.”

That’s because Radmanovic made three consecutive three-pointers to cap off a Clipper comeback from an 11-point deficit. (He scored 14 of his 18 points in the quarter.)

But the Clippers couldn’t hang on, even though the Suns missed seven consecutive shots at one point. That’s because the Suns turned every little bump into a trip to the free-throw line, where they cashed in on all nine attempts. Their free-throw shooting (88.5%) was about the only thing resembling their usual form on a night they shot 37.2%.

The Suns decided to make their big move on defense in this game, assigning the 6-foot-7 Shawn Marion to cover Cassell. Marion didn’t stick with Cassell the entire game, but Cassell never got untracked, finishing with six points on two-for-10 shooting. Marion wasn’t drained by the defensive work; he had 32 points and 19 rebounds. It was hard to find a praise-worthy Clipper other than Radmanovic.

Now the Clippers have to find a way to even this series again, a task made more challenging against a Phoenix team that discovered it can win even when things don’t go its way.

“It was an uncharacteristic type of performance for us,” Nash said. “But at the same time, typically resilient.”

This is the team that rallied from a 3-1 first-round deficit to the Lakers, and the team that bounced back from a smack-in-the-face loss in Game 2 of this series. So this comeback thing is starting to become their identity.

If the Clippers, now down 2-1, are going to continue to act out of character, they might want to try emulating the Suns.

J.A. Adande can be reached at [email protected]. To read more by Adande go to latimes.com/adandeblog.