By ART THOMPSON III

The Orange County Register

LOS ANGELES - No doubt exhilerated and equally relieved at Wednesday night’s double-overtime victory over the Sacramento Kings, Clippers team owner Donald T. Sterling expressed his strong support for his coach, Mike Dunleavy.

After weeks over a month in which the owner and the coach did not speak with each other, the two had a lengthy telephone conversation on Tuesday afternoon, followed by a meeting later that evening at Sterling’s Beverly Hills office.

The meeting of the minds seems to have done wonders.

“Coach is a great person,” Sterling said, Wednesday night. “And he’s really competitive. He really does want to win.”

During the phone conversation, according to Dunleavy, Sterling asked him to present an agenda of topics that he wanted to cover.  Discussed at the meeting where ways both believed the team can be improved.

Dunleavy said Wednesday that he feels confident that he and Sterling are 100 percent in accord and that he has the owner’s support.

“We’ve got to get better talent,” Sterling said, following Wednesday’s game. “Better talent, that’s the name of the game.”

Contrary to what has been long believed, Sterling said that he is not absolutely against trading the team’s first-round draft pick.

“Sure I would do it,” he said. “If the player we could get was better.”

The Clippers will have their own lottery pick this year. They also still are owed a first-round pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves, which is lottery protected 1-10, until 2010, when the Clippers would own it outright.

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