LOS ANGELES What this long day of basketball was about, as it turned out, was control.

The Clippers relinquished it along with a good portion of their playoff hopes.

The Lakers had it, toyed with it for a while, but ultimately retained it, and took advantage.

Given an immense amount of help by the Clippers in nailing down a playoff berth, the Lakers eventually took advantage. By beating Seattle 109-98, they are finally in the postseason. At 41-40, they're now safe from being caught by both Golden State and the Clippers.

Clinching is hardly a cause for prolonged celebration, since three months ago, they were talking about home-court advantage, and there's absolutely no sign they'll do anything but make a postseason cameo.

"I think there's a sigh of relief," said coach Phil Jackson, "but I do think they know they've got to improve their play, too.

"As I've been telling them, if you're going to play and give away games at the end, it doesn't matter if you go into the playoffs. You're just going to be fodder. It's very painful if you go through the playoffs now that it's a seven-game series and lose to a very qualified team. So it's very important to learn that lesson quickly."

Still, clinching a spot beats a number of alternatives, including the one the Clippers now face. After their stunning, embarrassing 105-100 loss to Sacramento earlier in the day, the Clippers now need help two wins and a Golden State loss to Dallas or Portland to slip into the postseason.

"It's hard to be in this situation," said Tim Thomas, "to have to depend on others who really don't care for you."

The Lakers avoided such prospects by shaking up the starting lineup welcoming back Kwame Brown and all but declaring the imminent close of the Smush Parker era by giving Jordan Farmar his first career start and by facing an opponent almost wholly unable to pose any kind of threat, with starters Ray Allen and Luke Ridnour sidelined.

Still, these being the end-of-the-season Lakers, even that didn't make it easy. After leading by 19 in the first half, they allowed Seattle to creep within a point twice the last time at 87-86 with 7:59 left, before Kobe Bryant finally put them away with yet another 50-point game, his 10th this year. (This one was achieved without exceeding Phil Jackson's 30-shot barrier; Bryant was an extremely efficient 18 of 25 from the field.) "We needed this type of game right now, for us and for the city, to kind of take care of business when we can," said Bryant.

It was the kind of game the Clippers couldn't muster.

They had kept clinging to the knowledge that their playoff fate was in their own hands "The last five games, that's what we've talked about amongst ourselves," said coach Mike Dunleavy but lost that control because they came out and played as if it didn't matter.

Against a Sacramento team giving big minutes to a mostly anonymous bench crew Justin Williams, Francisco Garcia, John Salmons and Quincy Douby all played more than 24 minutes, including the entire fourth quarter the Clippers managed to fall 23 points behind in the first half, and trailed by 24 in the fourth quarter.

Then they mounted a frantic comeback, pulling within four in the final minutes. But this game wasn't about the finish, it was about the start or the lack of it.

"I was shocked by our first-half play," said Dunleavy. " The intensity level, I just don't know. I don't know what happened there. We needed that for 48 minutes. We needed that kind of mental toughness."

Of course, given the way the Clippers have ambled through the season, giving back everything they gained last season, a certain lack of character shouldn't really be that surprising by now. That didn't make it any harder to accept or acknowledge for the one guy whose character and effort is never in question.

"You can't explain non-effort," said Elton Brand. "Some guys made effort, some didn't. Some guys want to go fishing and do other things, I guess."

Brand was so downcast that it almost seemed as if the Clippers had been eliminated, not just severely wounded. But then, that's how it felt to Brand.

"It does feel like the end, because it's not in our hands," he said. "I like things to be in my hands, something we could win out and be in the playoffs. Now that's gone. It's waiting for somebody else to do something, and I don't really like that."

It's gone because too many Clippers played as if they were waiting for someone else to do something.

The Lakers certainly know something about that problem. Even in Sunday's, Phil Jackson noted there were players he singled out Lamar Odom and Luke Walton who were watching a bit too much.

But Sunday, they had things together enough to ensure they won't be watching the postseason from the outside.

That's quite likely more than the Clippers will be able to say, and Sunday's results will just be the latest reason why.

Contact David Lassen at dlassen@VenturaCountyStar.com.