AT LAST, CLIPPERS ARE FOR REAL.

This might take some getting used to. Will seriously cut into our standard supply of one-liners. Shake a long-standing stigma.

Are you ready for a Los Angeles Clippers team that is ... respectable?

No, it's more than that. They're exciting. They're an up-and-coming, talent-loaded, what-will-they-do-next, real live NBA team.

Wait, it's still more than that. They're that rarest of all Clippers animals - a promise delivered.

Every season the Clippers are bloated with more phony promise than December movie hype. An annual refrain that proved almost numbing ... Check out this exciting new draft pick! What a great young team! What incredible promise!

Which invariably would be followed by a team struggling to win 20 games, a coaching change, their best player skipping out of town, and another lottery pick.

So are you ready for Clippers in the playoffs?

The Clippers think they're onto something, that something big is in the making. That the 14-11 record they took into Saturday night's game wasn't just the stuff of a favorable early home schedule but the end of the Clippers' dreary promise-to-disappointment circle.

And this is some serious history. In their past 22 years, the Clippers have had exactly one winning season.

Guard Eric Piatkowski is in his eighth season with the team, doubling the tenure of any Clipper, which ought to qualify him for national relief. All he's ever known is losing - previous to this season.

``It's so refreshing, it's unbelievable,'' Piatkowski said. ``I'm telling you, it's nice that instead of people making jokes about you to have them say, `I wish I could come see you, but you're sold out most of the time.' And looking at the standings, and instead of being in the cellar, you're toward the top. You go out and people recognize you and say nice things.''

There should be a team identity crisis, but these youthful Clippers are thoroughly enjoying their ride, believing in themselves more by the day. You figure maybe they're so young, they're naive. Like they're unaware a couple of years ago Sports Illustrated dubbed this the worst franchise in professional sports. Yet the Clippers seem keenly aware of what's come before them.

``They talk all the time that they would like to be the group of players that get this thing turned around in a real positive way,'' Clippers coach Alvin Gentry said.

``We've got good camaraderie, good chemistry on this team. I think everybody here wants to be a part of that group of players and coaches where they say, `Hey, remember when the Clippers turned it around?' ''

This is getting way ahead of things, of course. The season is not quite a third behind them, and most of it has been spent at home. Entering Saturday's game against Sacramento, the Clippers were 13-5 at Staples Center and 1-6 on the road.

It has to be beneficial to a young team to start the season with so many games at home, to enable its confidence to grow before being challenged on the road. And things are about to become much more challenging.

After Jan. 1, the Clippers play eight of their next nine away from Staples. They come home for four games, and then play seven consecutive road games.

``We're definitely going in the right direction and there are a lot of positive things going on, but when you think about it, other than (Phoenix on Tuesday), every game we won, we should have won,'' Piatkowski said.

``A lot will be told when we get on the road in January. That's when we can separate ourselves from the pack.''

The Clippers are winning with a wealth of young talent put together the past two seasons by general manager Elgin Baylor, and the draft-day addition of forward Elton Brand from the Chicago Bulls. Brand and his reliable 20 points and 10 rebounds quickly have proven a steadying influence.

Everywhere else, there is an abundance of talent. Center Michael Olowokandi, the former overall No. 1 pick, remains a disappointment offensively but is surrounded with so much ability he is proving valuable as a defensive presence and rebounder. At forward there is Lamar Odom, Darius Miles, Corey Maggette and Brand. At guard there is Quentin Richardson, Keyon Dooling, Jeff McInnis and Piatkowski.

That's a talented, quick, extremely athletic team. One demanding to be taken seriously.

``I've been excited since training camp,'' Baylor said. ``The reality is, they're talented. And they're going to get better.

``I enjoy watching them play, their growth, their development. They're a very exciting team to watch. And I get that from around the league. I talk to all the GMs and they tell me, `Boy, it's a joy to watch how exciting you are.'

``And the best thing about it is, you never know what's going to happen. Somebody comes up with a spectacular play.''

See, they're not just threatening to become a winner. They're winning with panache. They're high-flying entertainment.

Even playing in the world-champion Lakers' shadow, and in the same building, people are noticing. They averaged a franchise-record 14,600 last year and are up to 16,500 thus far in the 2001-2002 season.

It's the ``team fires up the crowd, the crowd fires up the team syndrome.'' Counting the end of last season, the Clippers have won 20 of their past 26 games at Staples.

``Everybody is confident right now that they can make plays, that they can hit a big bucket,'' Odom said. ``My first year in the league, it was like, `We've got a lead. What's going to happen?' Now we just feel like we know how to close things out.

``We don't just want to have a big head. We've still got a lot of games.''

Yes, you heard right, a Clipper actually voicing concern the team might become overconfident. This is a new world.

Team owner Donald Sterling has shown an amazing ability in the past of messing up the team's potential, but maybe he's too distracted by his humanitarian self-promotion to muddle it up this time.

Certainly, there is no current Clipper aching to get out. No Maurice Taylor, Lamond Murray, Derek Anderson, Danny Manning or Ron Harper bemoaning their current plight and dreaming of megabucks elsewhere.

``Management did a nice job of getting rid of all the guys who didn't want to be here,'' Piatkowski said. ``There were guys upset at their contract and wanted an extension and didn't get it. Always so many guys who weren't happy.

``Whereas now it seems everybody's happy to be here. Everybody wants to be here. There aren't bad apples in the group, no cancerous person sitting in the back of the bus talking bad about this and that, who finds the bad in every little thing. Guys around here aren't doing that. We have a good group of guys and they like it here.''

They're killing Jay Leno, making SI look bad. They barely average 25 years of age, have six key players with two or fewer seasons of experience, and they've become the darnedest thing ... respectable.

``The one thing I told our guys when I first got here, if you want respect, earn it,'' Gentry said. ``It has nothing to do with our owner, nothing to do with the front office, the guy selling tickets.

``It all has to do with the players and coaches when they walk out on the court. That's where you earn respect. We're the ones who can eliminate the jokes.''

The Clippers, not funny. A major adjustment ... and a promise finally fulfilled?

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