CLIPPERS GET EVEN BEAT LAKERS TO TIE FOR EIGHTH IN WEST, DESPITE KOBE'S 50 POINTS.

Byline: ROSS SILER

Staff Writer

They can't match the championship banners or the star power of their Staples Center co-tenant, but the Clippers can always say they turned the tables on the Lakers in the closest thing to a playoff game the two have ever played.

Their postseason hopes flickering in the second half, with Kobe Bryant on his way to another supreme scoring night, the Clippers somehow emerged with a 118-110 victory to pull back even in the race for the Western Conference's final playoff spot.

Bryant finished with 50 points and played all 48 minutes but didn't score in the last 8:46. The Lakers led by as many as 17 points in the second half and 10 in the fourth quarter but were left with their seventh loss in the past nine games.

The players who were left in the locker room after Lakers coach Phil Jackson spoke wore the same stunned look as Luke Walton, who could only say, "There's something majorly wrong with us."

"There's not a team we can't lose to right now," Lamar Odom said. "We're not tight enough as a group."

The Lakers (40-39) still have a 1 1/2-game advantage over the Clippers and Golden State, who are tied for eighth with 38-40 records and are both one game up on 10th-place New Orleans.

If one stat carried the night, it was free throws. The Clippers went 34 of 44 from the line to 22 of 29 for the Lakers. The Lakers gave up 109 points or more for the fourth straight game, during which opponents are shooting 39.8 free throws on average.

No one was a bigger beneficiary than Corey Maggette, the Clippers forward who finished with a career-high 39 points and went 17 of 24 from the line. Elton Brand added 32 points and 12 assists.

The Clippers also watched Sam Cassell deliver another quintessential fourth-quarter performance. After missing four games with back spasms, Cassell had eight points and three assists in the final 12 minutes.

"We had to win this game," Brand said. "Fourth quarter, that was it. We had to get this game. We don't expect Golden State to lose any more. We don't expect New Orleans to lose any more except for the last game against us. So it's all or nothing now."

Added Maggette: "We believe in ourselves, even if nobody else does."

The Clippers, who split the season series (2-2) with the Lakers for the third season in a row, recovered after losing three straight games.

Bryant scored 10 points in the first quarter, 15 in the second and 19 in the third, but only six in the fourth. The Clippers forced the ball out of his hands by sending two or three defenders in Bryant's direction. He made just 2 of 8 shots in the fourth quarter and tired.

It was his ninth 50-point game of the season, the most since Wilt Chamberlain also had nine in the 1964-65 season. Yet it came with Bryant forced to play the entire game and with Jackson saying he agreed that it was a necessary move.

"I said, 'You ready for a rest?'" Jackson said. "He said, 'If I come out, we'll probably be down by 10 before I can take a breath.' He's probably right in that situation."

After trailing by 17 points in the third quarter, the Clippers rallied to tie the score 102-102 with 6:34 left. Bryant had the ball poked free by Brand and Maggette ran out for a layup while being fouled by Sasha Vujacic. They took their first lead of the second half less than a minute later as Tim Thomas buried a 3-pointer to make it 105-103. Thomas later ran out for a basket after Smush Parker threw away a pass.

Even with a bad back that left him reclining on the sidelines, Cassell was a fourth-quarter difference maker. He breezed past Parker for a layup as the Clippers went ahead 109-103 with 3:50 to play.

If the fourth quarter is where nearly every playoff game is decided, the Lakers again came up empty. Jackson described his team's "fourth-quarter enigmas" last week and the Lakers were outscored 32-17 in the final 12 minutes Thursday. They finished the night by missing four straight shots in the last 2:40.

"I told them it was like they were playing behind when they were up by 10 tonight," Jackson said. "There was a certain sense of instead of relaxing in the game they were just kind of waiting for the shoe to drop, and it did."

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2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) The Lakers' Kobe Bryant, who scored 50, has the ball knocked away by the Clippers' Cuttino Mobley.

(2) Lakers center Andrew Bynum goes up to block a shot by Clippers forward Elton Brand on Thursday at Staples Center.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

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