Philadelphia

The Clippers are no longer quite so selective these days. Their to-do list before the playoffs has changed from collecting marquee victories to collecting victories of any sort. A case of March malaise has left the team that once held the best record in the NBA in danger of opening the playoffs on the road. So a 101-72 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night at Staples Center was welcome even if it was ragged at times, particularly in the early going. Chris Paul shook off a horrid performance from 24 hours earlier to finish with 19 points on eight-for-10 shooting to go with nine assists, six rebounds and five steals.

CLIPPERS VS. PHILADELPHIA When: 7:30. Where: Staples Center. On the air: Prime Ticket; Radio: 980, 1330. Records: Clippers 46-22, 76ers 26-40. Record vs. 76ers: 1-0. Update: The 76ers have the worst offense in the NBA, scoring a league-low 92.6 points per game. But the 76ers do play good defense, allowing just 96.2 points per game, the 10th-lowest figure in the league.

PHOENIX - Andrew Bynum spent all last season showing he was an All-Star talent and done with the durability questions that plagued him throughout his Lakers career. On Monday, the Philadelphia 76ers announced he would undergo surgery to clean out loose cartilage in both knees. It was described as season-ending surgery, though Bynum never played a minute for the 76ers this season. Bynum, 25, is getting $16.1 million in the last year of his contract. He becomes a free agent in July.

Paris Jackson, the daughter of late music legend Michael Jackson, has been offered a chance to become an NFL cheerleader for the Philadelphia Eagles. Jackson is currently a cheerleader for Buckley High in Sherman Oaks and has drawn the eye of Eagles cheer director Barbara Zaun. “We think Paris will make a great Eagle cheerleader,” Zaun told TMZ.com. “We thought that she had a lot of poise, confidence and enthusiasm in her cheer performance. Paris has that 'wow factor' that makes a great cheerleader.” There's one catch though.

It could be the countdown to nothing for the Philadelphia 76ers, the way each breathless update is offset by another discouraging development. Andrew Bynum will be ready for the start of training camp after receiving injections in his arthritic knees in Germany! Actually, it's auf Wiedersehen until late October because of pain in the center's right knee. Once the discomfort in Bynum's knee subsides, he'll be rolling toward a quick return! Well, that is until he put his left knee in the gutter in November while bowling.

So lionized in Europe that France put him on a postage stamp but almost unknown in this country except to left- and right-wing zealots who either esteem or excoriate him, Mumia Abu-Jamal would be the perfect subject for an investigative documentary that explored his life and thought with a calm and even hand. "Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary" is not that film. Instead, filmmaker Stephen Vittoria has presented Abu-Jamal as a revered revolutionary who is in it for the long haul, someone whose extraordinary qualities are so much a given that he becomes an object of awe and wonder.

Dennis Dixon may be considered a long shot to earn Philadelphia's starting quarterback job -- or even a spot on the team's opening-day roster -- but he does have one advantage over fellow Eagles QBs Michael Vick and Nick Foles. Not only he is the only one of the three who has played under new Coach Chip Kelly's system, but Dixon excelled in his spread offense at the University of Oregon. With Kelly as his offensive coordinator in 2007, Dixon was in the Heisman Trophy conversation -- passing for 2,136 yards with 20 touchdowns and four interceptions to go with 583 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground -- before a torn ACL ended his senior season prematurely.

PHILADELHPIA - Welcome to The Show. The Clippers put on a show of force Monday night that overwhelmed the Philadelphia 76ers, 107-90, at the Wells Fargo Center. The main attractions were dunks, three-point shooting and defense on the final night of an eight-game trip that began Jan. 30 and ended with an emphatic victory that enabled the Clippers to return home with a 4-4 record. After a 1-3 start, they won three of the last four games. "We could have easily come in sluggish and had a letdown, knowing we have that 51/2-hour flight [back to L.A.]

Michael Vick took a significant pay cut to stay with the Philadelphia Eagles and compete for a starting job. The four-time Pro Bowl quarterback agreed Monday to a restructured three-year contract with the Eagles, only two seasons after signing a $100-million extension that included $35.5 million in guaranteed money. The new deal is essentially for one year, however. A person familiar with the contract said Vick could earn up to $10 million in 2013 if he meets all of his performance incentives, and the team will void the remaining two years on March 15. That person spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms haven't been released.