Clippers Don’t Lose Their Advantage : Game 4: After a three-day postponement and a move to Anaheim Convention Center, they beat the Utah Jazz, 115-107, to extend playoffs to Game 5.

The Clippers picked up where they left off and beat the Utah Jazz, 115-107, Sunday afternoon at the Anaheim Convention Center to force a fifth and deciding game tonight at Salt Lake City in their first-round series.

It was as if there was no three-day delay because of civil unrest in Los Angeles. As if this were the Sports Arena, not an impromptu home in another county and another area code. As if this were the way the Clippers planned it all along, winning the two games in Southern California--anywhere in Southern California, it turned out--to even the series, 2-2.

“If I could have hoped,” Clipper Coach Larry Brown said, “I would have hoped for this.”

Hoped for another boisterous crowd, even though the 7,148 fans fell short of capacity by 252. Hoped for a Game 5. His dreams, and maybe Utah’s nightmare.

Only three teams have lost a best-of-five series after taking a 2-0 lead. Utah was one, against Golden State in 1987. The noose tightens again.

How hard was the Jazz swallowing after being outscored, 11-2, in the final 1:44? Loud enough for the Clippers to hear down the hall.

“We weren’t supposed to get to a Game 5,” said Danny Manning, who had 33 points and 10 rebounds and agreed with several teammates that the pressure is on the Jazz tonight. “(Or) so the experts said. But, anyway, we’re here. And we won’t go away.”

Added Ron Harper, whose only playoff appearances ended with losses in Game 5, in 1988 and ’89 against Chicago while playing for Cleveland: “I’m not going to speak for them. Anytime you’re supposed to win, the pressure is on you anyway. This series was supposed to be over five or six days ago.”

But he won’t speak for them.

Six days before Game 4, the Jazz arrived in Los Angeles riding a 2-0 lead in a series against an opponent that lost three of its final four regular-season games and was inexperienced in the playoffs. Then Utah lost Game 3.

The chance to push the Clippers out the door Thursday in Game 4 never came. Fires and looting in Los Angeles forced postponement of Game 4 to Saturday and then Sunday. It was moved to the Anaheim Convention Center, which last housed basketball when four high school games were played the same night to begin the 1989 Empire League season.

The Clippers brought their own court and music from the Sports Arena, their own cheerleaders and their original fans. Most important, though, they brought the same team that played well over the majority of the second half of the season and in Game 3.

Pregame introductions were accompanied by a standing ovation. The Clippers left the court at halftime with a 53-50 lead, despite 23 points and six rebounds from Utah’s Karl Malone. They hit the ground running the third quarter, putting together a 16-6 run for a 72-60 advantage.

But the cushion was only 79-76 at the end of the period after John Stockton sank back-to-back three-point jump shots for Utah.

The Clipper lead dissolved when Blue Edwards tossed in a shot on the run from the right side, was fouled and made the free throw to put the Jazz ahead, 87-84.

The Clippers needed two possessions to reclaim the lead, but Utah passed them again, 105-104, with 1:54 to play when Jeff Malone connected from the lane. That was the last Utah saw of the Clippers in its rear-view mirror.

Manning had two free throws with 1:44 remaining, subtle beginnings to an 11-2 run. Charles Smith made a layup with 1:13 to play for a 108-105 lead. Mike Brown followed with a layup to bring the Jazz back within a point with 1:05 to play.

Then Doc Rivers, two of nine from the field but eight of nine from the free-throw line to that point, made two more free throws with 53 seconds left. After Edwards missed a jump shot, Rivers started at the top of the circle, weaved through traffic on the left side and, with a sudden burst of speed, charged down the lane and flipped the ball up.

It rested on the rim for a moment, then dropped through. Fouled, Rivers then added the free throw, giving the Clippers a 113-107 advantage with 23 seconds left.

“Doc is a veteran ballplayer,” said Harper, who scored 10 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter. “That’s the reason we traded for him. To do the things he did today.”

Karl Malone finished with 44 points--including 22 of 24 from the free-throw line to set team playoff records for free throws and attempts--and 11 rebounds. Stockton added 18 assists and 16 points, but it wasn’t enough.

“They’re carefree right now,” Malone said. “They don’t have anything to lose. There’s a lot of pressure on us because we were expected to win this series. But we can’t worry about that. We just have to come out and play our best.”

Next stop: Salt Lake City.

Clipper Notes

Of the 11,400 tickets sold for the original Game 4, an estimated 6,950 were used Sunday. That meant about 200 more were sold on a walk-up basis. Either way, the group that was small in size was large in volume. Said Larry Brown: “The only thing they didn’t do well was help Karl Malone miss free throws.” . . . Much to the credit of Clipper management, the NBA and the Convention Center staff, the game went off without a major hitch. The only apparent problem was an electrical failure in the first quarter that caused the game clocks at each end to occasionally operate a second apart. It also forced the official scorer to use a hand-held air horn and required the addition of portable 24-second clocks in the corner of the baseline the first half when the ones over the basket went on the blink.

Bo Kimble did not suit up after receiving 14 stitches in his right hand, the result of falling through a glass shower door Friday. . . . Dept. of Getting Ahead of Yourself: Fans were chanting “We want Seattle! We want Seattle!” in the closing seconds. . . . This was only the third time a Jazz opponent has broke the 100-point barrier in 12 games.

* MAIL GOES THROUGH: Karl Malone refused to be distracted by fans. C13