CLIPPERS NO LONGER NBA'S JOKE.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

Listen up, and no laughing.

The Clippers are good.

Hey, hey, it was clearly understood there would be no laughing.

Those days are over. History. Old news. A tired Leno bit.

The Clippers are off to the best start in their history, and even if their 9-2 mark has come mostly against a bunch of stiffs, it's still a 9-2 start. It still has them only a half-game back of San Antonio for the best record in the Western Conference.

It's still being pulled off by the - Clippers!

Those would be the same Clippers who have managed exactly one winning season in the 24 years of Donald Sterling's ownership.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and the Clippers feel fine. It's an upside-down world. One with the Clippers on top of the Pacific Division, and not resting familiarly on the bottom.

``I was hoping one day it would happen,'' Clippers forward Corey Maggette said.

Hope had taken an annual beating in Clipper Land, where they were not only once anointed the worst franchise in professional sports by Sports Illustrated, but had to suffer the indignity of failing in the same city - if not building - where the Lakers reigned as the NBA's adored glamour team.

From this sea of miserable drafts, nasty contract negotiations, unhappy players and astonishingly consistent losing, has apparently emerged an extremely solid, deep, balanced team that is setting its sights on the playoffs and beyond.

``I said when I came in here, I thought this would change,'' Mike Dunleavy said.

He and everybody else who dared called themselves Clippers coach. Dennis Johnson, Alvin Gentry, Chris Ford, Bill Fitch, Don Casey, Gene Shue, Don Chaney, Jim Lyman, Paul Silas - they were all going to change things.

Only Larry Brown, making one of his rare coaching pilgrimages, led the Clippers to a winning season, in 1991-92.

Other than that, it has been lot of guys calling the organization hell, counting the days until free agency and pointing more fingers than at a GMC board meeting.

Every season the Clippers would tease us with a promising young core, only to come back the next season with another promising young core.

But this offseason nobody fled to greener NBA pastures. This offseason, it was the Clippers returning centerpieces Elton Brand and Maggette and spending money to add a pair of veterans - Sam Cassell and Cuttino Mobley.

That's right, Sterling spent money. Reached into pockets previously reserved for another apartment building or newspaper ad heralding his philanthropy, and added missing pieces.

It's all backward, a Bizarro World come to life, a mirror held up to all things that have been Clippers.

``I knew this would happen sooner or later,'' Maggette said.

Make that heavy on later. Exactly how good the Clippers are remains uncertain. In their first 10 games, they have played only three teams that barely claim a winning record (6-4 Milwaukee, 7-6 Philadelphia and 7-6 Golden State).

``We haven't played any elite teams,'' Dunleavy said. ``We haven't played Detroit or San Antonio, so that tempers where we're at.''

That's all about to change. In their next 10, they play only one team with a losing record. Coming soon: the Spurs, Pistons, Heat and Cavs (twice).

Not even Dunleavy believes the results of the next 10 games will approach the first 10.

``I don't think we're that good right now,'' he said.

They are far from some finished product. Wednesday night they had to scrape and crawl to overcome an eight-point deficit with six minutes to play in the fourth quarter to defeat 1-11 Toronto.

But they increased the intensity, got some clutch play from Cassell and showed a confidence that seldom made an appearance in, say, the past 24 years.

``That started with that first game against Seattle,'' Brand said. ``We were down big (13 in the fourth quarter) and Sam just went on a tirade and hit shots and played defense and got us on a roll.

``We can win these games. Last year, the year before that, we lost the close games like that. We didn't come from behind and win games. Now we've got that.''

The Clippers finished 37-45 last season, 10th in the Western Conference, and out of the playoffs. This year, Dunleavy expects to be in the postseason.

``My expectations are higher,'' Dunleavy said.

This is all going to take some serious getting used to for NBA followers. It could prove too much for some to grasp. The Clippers good? What next, a President not borne of privilege?

``You say it's not supposed to happen, but I've been saying we're going to get better all along,'' Dunleavy said.

Dunleavy is not ready to claim the Clippers are among the league's elite, but neither is he ready to limit their turnaround.

I'm not putting any cap on us,'' he said.

Just on the one-liners. Try and make the adjustment.

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CLIPPERS at DENVER

- Joe Stevens