Clippers’ Young Has Enough : Pro basketball: Though hobbled, he sinks key free throws in 97-96 victory.

Danny Young, still feeling the effects of a sprained left ankle that kept him out of two games last week, had little acceleration and no lift in Sunday’s game against the Golden State Warriors.

Try finding someone on the Clippers to believe it.

Young, though denying he was the hero of a most improbable comeback against a team fighting for the Pacific Division lead, lifted the Clippers to a 97-96 victory before a sellout crowd of 15,800 at the Sports Arena by making two free throws with 3.6 seconds to play.

Young said there were many heroes. Ron Harper scored eight of his team-high 21 points and assisted on two baskets in the final 5:04, and Danny Manning finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, six on offense. But Young, whose ankle was such that he had to use a set shot on a key three-pointer with 1:41 to go, was the unlikely final hero.

He had been stopped once, when Tim Hardaway blocked a similar shot seconds before.

Young had little chance to convert the follow-up, six feet out along the left baseline.

“I was behind the basket and falling away,” he said.

So he gave Hardaway a pump fake. Hardaway went for it and landed on Young.

“My body was like ‘Yes,’ but my mind was saying ‘No,’ ” Hardaway said. “And my body took over my mind.”

Hardaway, who finished with 34 points, made one more try on defense. He walked by Young and told him to miss one of the free throws. Simply put the game in overtime and they would call it even, Hardaway said.

Young said he couldn’t do that.

An 84.2% shooter from the line coming in, Young swished the first attempt for a 96-96 score.

The second hit the front of the rim . . . bounced up . . . and in.

The Warriors had no timeouts, so Hardaway pushed the ball upcourt to Chris Mullin. But the horn sounded before Mullin could launch his straight-away jump shot from a few feet behind the three-point line.

He missed anyway.

And the Warriors missed a chance to sweep the season’s three games at the Sports Arena. They fell 1 1/2 games behind first-place Portland in the Pacific Division.

They missed in a big way, losing a 94-86 lead in the final 1:58. From there, the Clippers finished with an 11-2 run, keyed--fittingly--by Young’s three-pointer.

That was followed by Harper passing to Gary Grant for layup with 1:10 to go, then Harper making two free throws with 44 seconds left. The Clippers had closed within 94-93 and went off the court to a standing ovation when Golden State called a timeout.

The Warriors sprung Hardaway for a drive down the lane. But Charles Smith, playing with a sore knee, moved off his man, Victor Alexander, and blocked Hardaway’s shot. It was a gamble that paid off.

“If Tim would have found him,” Smith said of Alexander, “they might have got a dunk.”

All the Warriors got, instead, was turned away. Smith put an exclamation point to his defensive play on the ensuing trip by cutting left to right along the baseline and taking Harper’s pass for a slam dunk and a 95-94 Clipper lead.

It turned out to be temporary when Hardaway followed with an eight-footer with 13.5 seconds left. That was the Warriors’ only field goal the final 4:43, and their last lead. Young then moved to center stage.

“That’s the best defense we have played in a long time down the stretch, and against a real good team,” Clipper Coach Larry Brown.

Said Mullin: “Timmy did all he could to get us the win. But the last 10 minutes, we didn’t play well.”

The Clippers did. Improving to 31-30 and tying their victory total from last season, they had 19 turnovers the first three quarters, but only five in the fourth and--most important--none in the final 7:20.

Clipper Notes

The 31st victory of 1999-91 came April 12. . . . James Edwards did not play because of a sprained ankle and is questionable for Tuesday at Sacramento. . . . Doc Rivers, eligible to come off the injured list against the Kings, is probable. . . . The Clippers have won five games by one point.