Clippers are winning, but without style

By last season’s standards it wasn’t too impressive. By this season’s standards the Clippers’ 103-85 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night stacks up as their best victory of the season -- all because the Clippers finally played a good half.

They outscored Dallas, 60-35, after halftime. It’s a step. They still haven’t uncorked an impressive game. And yet they have the best record in the Pacific Division at 4-1.

“We haven’t been playing our best, but it’s been good enough to win,” Elton Brand said. “And that’s what it’s about.”

The trouble with winning is it takes the glamour out of winning.

The Clippers won three of their first four games, which before last season would have been the team’s best start since the Larry Brown “glory days” of 1991-92.

But then 2005-06 happened, so all a 3-1 record meant this time around was it matched last season’s start, only without all the giddiness. No one remembers the details of the second and third moon landings.

Even though the Clippers were winning games, they weren’t playing great basketball. I know this because before they faced Dallas, Coach Mike Dunleavy said, “We’re not playing great basketball right now.” (That’s some good reporting right there.)

Somehow they managed to share the Pacific Division lead with the Lakers. The schedule (with all but the season opener at home) helped. But the Clippers weren’t winning any style points. If you’re wondering why the Lakers looked so much better in their victories, the answer is ball movement. The Lakers averaged a league-leading 25.4 assists in their first five games. The Clippers averaged 19.5.

The Clippers have looked disjointed and inconsistent. Kind of like season six of “The Sopranos.”

Part of it could be fatigue from never quite settling after their trip to Moscow, then training camp in Santa Barbara. They still showed some symptoms in the first half Wednesday, with slow rotations, unwillingness to fight through screens and lazy reach-in fouls contributing to a 14-point Dallas lead.

It can be tough to find energy during the season. If they’re going to charge the ol’ lithium ions, this is the time. The Clippers play only two games over the next nine days. Not counting the All-Star break (when the NBA scene will grind to a halt in the slow-pace town of Las Vegas, right?) they won’t get another schedule reprieve like that for the rest of the season.

At some point Brand will get fatigue from talking about fatigue. But it’s bound to be an issue after a busy summer playing and traveling with the U.S. national team. He still logs the most extra time before and after practice, and Dunleavy isn’t about to drag him off the court. “He’s got to make that call himself,” the coach said.

He met with Brand to let him know he can chill any time he wants. But Brand doesn’t want to give up the work habits that made him an All-Star last year.

“Mentally I’m a little worn down, more than my body,” Brand said.

Dunleavy has shaved about two minutes per game off Brand’s playing time, and Sam Cassell isn’t force-feeding the guy he called his “horse” last year. The question is whether Brand will have enough to make a run for the post in the playoffs.

Brand’s temporary (at least) abdication as the go-to guy is one reason the Clippers don’t have an identity. The coaches and players like to talk about their versatility, how they can adjust their lineup and playing style to counter any opponent, small or tall, fast or slow.

I’m more partial to the philosophy employed by John Wooden and Red Auerbach: play your way, and let everyone else adjust to you. Maybe I’m just partial to an approach that won 19 titles for those guys.

Maybe the Clippers have found a new theme: Cuttino Mobley as a consistent scorer. He’s put in at least 17 points in all but one game thus far, and his 28-point, seven-rebound, four-steal effort Wednesday led Dunleavy to call it Mobley’s best game as a Clipper.

Dunleavy had Mobley guard Dirk Nowitzki and succeeded because Nowitzki refused to use his eight-inch height advantage and back Mobley down into the paint.

Nowitzki had more shots (20) than points (19).

What happened to Dallas? What happened to the West? The Western Conference standings look inverted, with two division winners and the conference champion from last year -- Phoenix, Denver and Dallas -- occupying the bottom three spots.

It’s as if the Mavericks lost their firepower. Can you believe they’re 28th in the league in scoring? Maybe Mark Cuban could have found a way to keep Don Nelson around as an offensive coordinator. Of course, that would have been about as feasible as keeping Kobe and Shaq together.

And the “Cuban Clause” to the new ‘Sheed Rule means he isn’t even as demonstrative during the games. He’s like Jack Nicholson after the shock treatment in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” After one call went against the Mavericks, Cuban just stood up and raised his right arm, then dropped it. He spent the final minutes slumped back in his chair, his body at a 45 degree angle to the court.

The Clippers? They’re in a much better position.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande go to latimes.com/adandeblog.