GO FIGURE - CLIPPERS RALLY IN WIN : CLIPPERS 105, DENVER 103.

Byline: Gary Washburn Daily News Staff Writer

Only the NBA's worst team was capable of bailing the Clippers out of another fourth-quarter collapse with one of its own.

This time, the 2-25 Denver Nuggets went brain dead with a 10-point lead and 2:34 left. And the Clippers made their biggest rally in the Bill Fitch era to take an improbable 105-103 win in front of 5,284 at the Sports Arena on Saturday night.

After blowing so many games with fourth-quarter failures, including Friday night's overtime loss to the Lakers, the Clippers ended the game with a 12-0 run.

``Sometimes Christmas comes late,'' Clippers coach Bill Fitch said. ``If you get a late gift, you take it.''

Rodney Rogers (game-high 29 points) made two three-point plays to bring the Clippers to within 103-99. Then some tenacious Clippers defense, led by little-used reserve James Robinson, shut Denver down while the Clippers chipped away.

Lorenzen Wright's putback with 1:19 left tied it at 103 and his free throw with 8.8 seconds left, after a Robinson steal, gave the Clippers the lead. Denver's Bobby Jackson drove to the hoop but fumbled the ball out of bounds, giving the Clippers their sixth win in 30 games.

Robinson finished with 12 points on 3-of-10 shooting but had three key steals and forced the tempo when Denver was just trying to hold the lead.

It's the Clippers who are usually in the position of getting caught by a more experienced squad. But Robinson used psychology to frazzle the rookie Jackson into two crucial mistakes.

``I told him, `I've seen you play at (the University of) Minnesota, and I know you got game,' '' said Robinson, who played for the Minnesota Timberwolves last season. ``I told him I was going to get a steal.''

He did. One on Jackson and the other on LaPhonso Ellis when Jackson raced down the court and ignored Ellis trying to cross the timeline.

The Clippers dug themselves in another hole with a horrible first nine minutes of the fourth quarter. Denver turned an 88-85 deficit into a 103-93 lead in a seven-minute stretch. Denver rookie Tony Battie scored eight of his 19 points in the final quarter.

But no one accused the Clippers of ever giving up. They did rally to tie the Lakers and sent it into overtime after blowing a seven-point lead.

So Rogers' three-point plays provided some hope. And the hulking 6-foot-8, 255-pound former Nugget recalled late comebacks weren't impossible. Behind eight against Utah in 1994, he scored nine points in eight seconds before the Jazz scored the final hoop to win.

``I saw the momentum starting to change,'' Rogers said about Saturday's game. ``We played some great defense down the stretch and (Robinson) sparked us. It was a good win and we needed it.''

But it's likely not the breakthrough they were looking for. Denver barely qualifies as an NBA team with five rookies in the playing rotation. The Nuggets have lost all 15 road games and eclipsed 100 points for just the fourth time this season, twice against the Clippers.

The Clippers would rather have knocked off Chicago or the Lakers to make a statement - instead they began a five-game stretch against teams with losing records with one of the season's worst performances.

``This doesn't mean as much as if we would have won the last couple of nights,'' Rogers said. ``But at least we didn't lose it. We didn't give up and we turned the tables, but we know what losing like this feels like.''