A `NATION' WITH EXPECTATIONS.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

They're the best NBA team in town, or at least they used to be, way back last season.

This season the Clippers have started more modestly, which in most any other year would be like noting that a hollywood starlet had breast augmentation.

But this new season is unlike any the Clippers have ever experienced, because this season they are expected to be good. Maybe even flirt with greatness.

For the first since the dawn of sneakers, the Clippers last season finished ahead of the Lakers in the standings and advanced deeper into the playoffs.

And it's supposed to be only the beginning. The Clippers, with a few notable exceptions, are still a fairly young team, just beginning to flex their NBA muscle.

So they are watched more astutely now, the standards having been elevated. The starlet comes through with a breakout dramatic role, she can't comeback with ``Showgirls.''

Naturally, the Clippers know this, having earned it with an impressive 2005-06 season, and hopefully, embrace it.

They opened their new season Wednesday at Phoenix, the same team that eliminated them from the playoffs last season, and lost. They held their home opener Thursday at the Staples Center against the Nuggets, the team they defeated in the first round last year, and struggled but won 96-95.

Meanwhile, their hallway rivals, the Lakers, have opened the season 2-0 without superstar Kobe Bryant and their top two centers.

Most expect the Clippers to again be better than the Lakers this season, and that's the price you pay for that new and unexpected Donald Sterling acquisition, respectability.

``No doubt about it, we've created a monster in ourselves,'' guard Sam Cassell said. ``I don't mind pressure. Pressure is good. Pressure makes you step up. Pressure busts pipes.''

It's a newfound thing for the Clippers, being this monster, and only as the season unfolds will we truly discover how they respond to a higher calling.

Certainly they are a lot of nice pieces at the moment, and not all of them fitting as smoothly as when they were rolling over the Nuggets in the playoffs.

Wednesday they started rising star Shaun Livingston at the point and their only offseason acquisition of note, Tim Thomas, in the frontcourt. Thursday they returned to last season's playoff lineup, with Cassell back at the point and Chris Kaman in the pivot.

And then there's the matter of Corey Maggette, who would prefer to start.

Troubling, in these first two games, that the Clippers suddenly demonstrated an odd reluctance to go into their most productive player, forward Elton Brand.

There's a long season for coach Mike Dunleavy to sort all this out, but winning has brought the promise of more winning ways. Dunleavy claims last year's success hasn't impacted this season.

``It's not much different because last year doesn't count anymore,'' he said. ``All those wins don't count this year. We have to play accordingly, until we start showing we're as good as that team.''

Certainly there is a growing awareness of all things Clippers in L.A. Their marketing campaign for the season reads, ``We the People of Clipper Nation'' written above a basketball, with ``Clipper Nation'' scripted across the ball and ``In Hoop We Trust'' printed below it.

It's apparently making inroads, too.

``I have people at the gas station going, `Sam, I'm part of the nation,' '' Cassell said. ``It's good to see the guys in this city recognized.''

It's a bandwagon city, though, and a stumble or two and many will be on their way to some new sporting nation.

That's not the way anyone around the Clippers envision things going, of course, what with their young players still growing and their older players still appearing to have plenty left.

A team that has tasted postseason triumph hungers for more filling success. The pieces appear in place, yet they are not so individually extraordinary that anything is assured.

Last season the Clippers went 47-35, finishing fifth in the Western Conference, making easy work of the Nuggets in the first round and pushing the Suns to a seventh game in the second round. Applause rained down, even as many demanded an encore.

``It doesn't matter,'' Dunleavy said. ``Our expectations are the same. First is to make the playoffs. Once we get to the playoffs, I think we can beat anyone if we're healthy.''

They played a fairly sloppy game Thursday in front of somewhat subdued Staples Center crowd. It's still a young nation.

They'll have better nights. They will need to if they're going to bust some pipes. It is, after all, expected.

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