Norman Steps In for Harper, Fuels Clipper Victory : Pro basketball: He scores a season-high 35 points as team holds off SuperSonics. Harper surgery set for Tuesday.

The front court suddenly became the backcourt for the Clippers, but things didn’t get too turned around Thursday night. They won for the seventh time in their last 10 games, 105-95 over the Seattle SuperSonics.

This was the Clippers’ first attempt at guard by committee, with forwards Ken Norman and Danny Manning at times moving into the backcourt to fill the void left by Ron Harper’s injury. The crowd of 11,150 at the Sports Arena, including Harper, seemed to like what they saw--except for the SuperSonics’ rally from a 22-point, second-quarter deficit.

Gary Grant tied a career and club high with 21 assists. Benoit Benjamin had 14 rebounds, the seventh time in eight games he has had at least 10.

Norman had 35 points, three shy of his career high, and 12 rebounds.

“I think they wanted to demonstrate to themselves as a group they can pick up the void,” Coach Don Casey said after the Clippers improved to 17-19.

Seattle, playing without its star guard, Dale Ellis, recuperating at home from injuries suffered in an auto accident, had all but caught the Clippers by the end of the third quarter, and trailed by only 76-71.

They stayed as close as 85-81 with 5:30 remaining before the Clippers put the game away with an 11-4 run. Charles Smith had five of his 21 points in that stretch.

“I don’t think getting up early meant much,” Norman said. “What meant a lot was playing good basketball for 48 minutes and not showing any letdown with Ron Harper not being here.”

Before the game, Harper and team physician Tony Daly announced the surgery would be performed Tuesday at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Harper’s home state.

“Rehabilitation is so important to the whole process,” said Mark Termini, Harper’s agent. “My feeling is that it’s best to have it back here, where Ron has a home base and a support system.”

Daly and John Bergfeld, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ team doctor, will perform the operation, in which a tendon from the knee will be attached in place of the completely torn ligament and, it is hoped, grow in as a new ligament. It is the same operation that Danny Manning underwent Jan. 4, 1989, but Harper’s injury is more serious. There also is torn cartilage on the inside and outside of the right knee.

“Is it career threatening?” Daly said. “If you asked me that 10 years ago, I’d probably have said yes.”

The patient, however, has no doubt.

“I’m not putting a timetable on things,” Harper said, “but I know I’ll be back 100%.”

Harper said he watched tape of the play, during which he landed wrong after catching a pass from Grant under the basket with 7:04 to play in Tuesday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets at the Sports Arena.

“I saw it once, and that’s it,” he said. “It was very ugly.”

In the first half, with Harper sitting in the stands about 10 rows behind the basket closest to his teammates’ bench, the Clippers had every right to be tentative without their leading scorer. Instead, they took a 42-20 lead with 9:52 to play in the second quarter.

The patchwork backcourt held up. Grant, in his usual spot at the point, had 14 assists against only two turnovers in the first half. The plan was to have Norman play off guard on defense, and he helped hold Seattle to 18 points in the first quarter while scoring 21 points in the half. Manning, a better ball handler, played off guard on offense, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds before intermission.

By then, however, the Clipper lead had dwindled to 13 at 59-46, and was soon to reach single figures.

Clipper Notes

Rookie guard Jay Edwards, who dressed for the first time Thursday, admitted to being a little nervous before his first pro game--in which he didn’t play. Part of it may have been that he’s not really in playing shape after spending the first 35 games on the injured list because of tendinitis in his left knee. “I don’t know for sure,” said Edwards, the second-youngest player in the league, behind the SuperSonics’ Shawn Kemp. “But the only way to be sure is to practice and play, and it’s hard to get in shape just by running. It’s not the same as playing.”

Hopes by Don Casey that the team would be able to visit the White House during a 2 1/2-day stay in Washington on a February trip were dashed when the coach was told President Bush would be out of town. Casey and then-head coach Don Chaney had a 15-minute meeting with then-Vice President Bush three years ago on another Clipper trip. Casey’s connection is a friend on Bush’s secret service detail, someone Casey met through his former student manager at Bishop Eustace High in New Jersey. . . . Danny Manning has had all restrictions on playing lifted, the Clippers said. Tom Garrick, who did not dress for Tuesday’s victory over the Charlotte Hornets because of a bruised left knee, was back in uniform but did not play.