Clippers Show Fight, but the Timing Is Off : Pro basketball: After they lose, 99-83, to Houston, Norman and Olajuwon tangle.

The Clippers didn’t have any real fight until after their 99-83 loss to the Houston Rockets at the Sports Arena on Tuesday night.

Then they had a lot.

Ending a game after which Coach Larry Brown was critical of his team’s effort, Ken Norman and Hakeem Olajuwon got into a fight heading toward the locker room. The Clippers were considering a police action against the Rocket star before deciding to take the matter up today with the league.

After the fight, Clipper players held a team meeting to discuss the defeat that dropped them to 28-27. Then--after owner Donald T. Sterling went into the shower room to tell Norman, “The guy comes into my arena and starts punching my guys in the face?”--Olajuwon entered the home locker room, apparently to apologize. But Norman indicated he wanted nothing to dowith patching things up.

“We’ll see them again,” said Norman, who acknowledged being “grazed” by a punch but denied throwing any himself.

“I’m from the west side of Chicago,” Norman said. “I’ve been tapped harder than that.”

Olajuwon said he would not talk about anything but the game.

The Rockets came in having won six in a row and looked the part. The group that had outscored the opposition by an average of 118-94.5 and outshot them, 55%-42%, during that stretch needed only until late in the first quarter to open a double-digit lead, 28-18.

The Clippers were hurting in other ways. Gary Grant, apparently having landed awkwardly after a shot on the left perimeter, suffered a sprained right ankle with three minutes to play in the opening quarter. He was helped off the court by teammates Ron Harper and Elmore Spencer and then went to the locker room, where it was determined he would sit out the rest of the night, but that X-rays would not be needed.

“It felt like when I broke it,” Grant said, referring to the broken left ankle he suffered on Feb. 2, 1990. “I taped it and ran around in the locker room, but it was too sore. I think I’ll be all right because I can walk on it now, and when I broke it before, I couldn’t walk on it.”

The Clippers pulled to 39-33 midway through the second quarter. But Houston surged again, finishing the half with a 14-4 run. Capped by Vernon Maxwell’s three-point shot at the buzzer, that was good for a 53-37 Rocket lead. It was the Clippers’ lowest-scoring half of the season, and the 15-point second quarter was their worst.

Another Clipper rally was turned away during the third quarter. They got as close as 57-48 and had momentum before Houston took charge again for a 78-62 lead heading into the final quarter.

Clipper Notes

Loy Vaught’s good showing Sunday against the Lakers--22 points, on 11-of-16 shooting, and 13 rebounds--was hardly unique. Vaught is averaging 18 points and 7.7 rebounds in 25.7 minutes while shooting 65.8% this season against the Lakers. In 12 games lifetime, he is at 9.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 67.9% in only 19.1 minutes. “I get real motivated to play that team,” Vaught said. “They were a fantasy team of mine during childhood. James Worthy is an idol of mine. The building (the Forum) has a lot of mystique. It all brings back a lot of memories from when I used to watch them on TV growing up.” . . . Kiki Vandeweghe did not suit up and will skip the upcoming trip because of a strained right Achilles’ tendon.

Danny Manning returned after being suspended from Sunday’s game as his penalty--along with $7,500--for a skirmish with Chris Gatling of the Golden State Warriors. That one-game suspension broke a string of 205 consecutive appearances for Manning and was the first time he was sidelined since Nov. 25, 1990. Barred from even being at the Forum, he watched the game at home on TV. “I couldn’t be there,” he said. “There was no use worrying about it. I couldn’t do a damn thing but cheer, and that’s what I did.” Manning declined to comment on the disciplinary action. . . . Among the Rockets’ comforting thoughts during their rise in the Midwest Division is that they have clinched the season series against San Antonio, should that be a factor in a playoff tiebreaker. . . . Houston is 7-3 against the four division leaders.