POSTSEASON BERTH NOT ENOUGH FOR CLIPPERS: NOW, IT'S A DIFFERENT MIND-SET.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore NBA 

Admittedly, Elton Brand was naive coming into the NBA seven years ago. A winner in high school and an NCAA Championship game finalist at Duke, Brand thought winning as a professional was the natural next step.

"I was cocky," Brand said. "I came in thinking, OK, I turned Duke around. We won in high school. So of course (I'll win) in the NBA."

Then he went to a Chicago team just beginning to rebuild after Michael Jordan left and lost 65 games his first year and 57 his second.

That's when Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and agent David Falk sat him down for a little NBA refresher course.

"They taught me about salary cap. They taught me about youth," Brand remembers. "They'd say, `Look at the teams that are winning championships. First, they're not the lowest payroll teams and second, they're not the youngest. Now look at the teams you're playing for: They are the youngest. You're not going to win too many championships like that."

Or games, for that matter.

Brand, who was traded to the Clippers five years ago, hasn't experienced a winning season until this year.

"A lot of tough times," Brand said.

A victory today - or one over the final seven games - puts Brand in the playoffs for the first time in his career. He says he never lost hope through the dark days of his early career, but there were definitely moments of despair.

"That's why (making the playoffs) means so much to me," Brand said. "It means a lot, considering how things have gone in my career."

But here's the catch: Now that he's finally in the playoffs, Brand will be bitterly disappointed if the Clippers don't capitalize on their chance. He's waited too long, suffered through too many losing seasons to just be happy to be here.

"Definitely disappointed," Brand said. "Without a doubt, I will be. I mean it's a nice achievement and all because this franchise hasn't been in the playoffs since (1996-97). But we can't be satisfied with just getting there. We still have some goals we want to notch off."

Coming into the season, the Clippers' objective was to reach the playoffs. But even Brand knows they've played well enough to raise the bar of expectation for themselves.

Now, anything less than a playoff series win will be considered a disappointment.

If the season ended today the Clippers would open the playoffs against Dallas, but with seven games remaining there's a possibility they could face either San Antonio or Denver.

Of those opponents, the only team the Clippers have a winning record against is Denver, which they've beaten two times in three meetings. They are 1-3 against San Antonio and they've lost both games against Dallas.

The Clippers play the Mavericks two more times over the final seven games.

At this point, it's not about who they play. It's about turning a good regular season into a successful postseason.

And the only way the Clippers can do that is by winning a playoff series.

"That's a mind-set," Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. "Look, I played on playoff teams every year of my career. I always thought I'd be playing for a championship. We were never the favorite team but we always had enough to get there and put ourselves in a position to do it. You have to think that way."

Dunleavy knows all about turnarounds and breakthroughs. He transformed the previously high-flying, Showtime Lakers into a slow-it-down, methodical defensive team and took them to the NBA Finals in 1990-91.

When he arrived in Portland in 1997, the Trail Blazers had not played past the first round of the playoffs in five seasons. By 1999-2000, they were in the Western Conference finals.

It's taken three years for Dunleavy to turn the Clippers into a playoff team, and he's done it by relying on a proven method: Focus on defense first, and let the rest take care of itself.

"If you want to be a winning team, if you want to be a championship team, you better play defense," Dunleavy said.

And you better accept the challenge to raise your game a couple of notches. That's a process that's already started, with the Clippers experiencing mixed results.

They came back from 22 points to beat Denver on Wednesday, then beat Phoenix on the road the next night. But they also dropped a home game to Sacramento on Friday, even though they knew a victory would clinch a playoff spot.

And prior to the win at Phoenix, they had lost three of their past four on the road.

"I've been telling guys the last 10 games of the season will change from the standpoint of how the games are played," Dunleavy said. "The games are more important. You've got teams playing for playoff spots to get in or to position themselves for homecourt, so you're going to see that shift to where it becomes more of a playoff type situation."

Ironically, Dunleavy began stressing those points just before losing three of four on the road.

"That speech didn't work, they didn't understand it," Dunleavy said. "All of a sudden we got out butts kicked a couple times and then it was like: `Ok, this is what (Dunleavy) was talking about."'

The question now is whether the Clippers can take that mind-set to the playoffs.

If they don't, this season will be considered a step in the right direction, but a disappointment overall.

"It's great that we're here," Brand said. "But we're not satisfied."

--Darko reborn: Darko Milicic will always be the guy the Pistons drafted ahead of Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, then gave up on three years into his career.

But he also has a fighting chance to finally develop into a decent NBA player now that he's getting meaningful minutes in Orlando.

Milicic, who is averaging about 21 minutes after joining the Magic in a trade from Detroit, played his former teammates for the first time Friday and showed definite flashes of the player they always thought he would eventually be.

He blocked a Rasheed Wallace shot while scoring eight points on 4-of-5 shooting in an 89-87 Magic win.

"I told y'all," Wallace said. "Darko can play. But he didn't do anything different than what I've seen in practice since I got traded to Detroit. ... I was happy for him."

But no one's happier than Milicic, who languished on the bench in Detroit playing behind championship-caliber veterans. Milicic's talents have never been questioned, he just never got the opportunity to play with the Pistons gunning for NBA championships.

In Orlando, he gets to play.

"I'm happy playing here," he said. "I just enjoy it."

--To win or not to win: The question is Chicago is what means more to the franchise: Getting to the playoffs - the Bulls have climbed all the way to the eighth spot in the eastern Conference - or missing the postseason and positioning themselves for a top-three lottery pick.

Bulls coach Scott Skiles' response explains how the team feels: Are you kidding me?

"We want in," he said. "We believe, for our guys, making the playoffs would be a benefit."

Even if it means a one-and-done against one of the top three seeds?

"Obviously, it would be against Detroit, Miami or New Jersey, three great teams, depending on where we finish," Skiles said. "For all of our young guys, those experiences are valuable. A coach can explain to you what it's about playing in the playoffs and all that, but until you go in and go through it, talking really doesn't mean anything. "We think it's important for our guys to go through it. We learned from last year. We were up 2-0 and then got swept. Games 5 and 6 went right down to the wire. Unfortunately, we didn't get them, but we feel like our guys learned from it."

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1) no caption (Mike Bibby, left)

Eric Gay/Associated Press

(2) Darko Milicic has averaged 7.9 points and 4.6 rebounds since being traded from Detroit to Orlando.

Fernando Medina/Getty Images

Box:

(1) Daily News/CBS 2/KCAL 9 SPORTS CENTRAL POWER RANKINGS

- Ross Siler

(2) FIVE QUESTIONS WITH ... MIKE BIBBY

- Vincent Bonsignore

(3) OFF THE GLASS