Clippers Are Perfect Tonic for Brown, 106-101

Larry Brown is starting to feel comfortable again in the National Basketball Assn.

“It’s been a real adjustment,” Brown, basketball’s nomad coach, said after his San Antonio Spurs beat the Clippers, 106-101, before a Sports Arena crowd of 9,450 Friday night. “I don’t know all the personnel in the game yet, so it’s tough. Basketball is still basketball, but it’s been tough.”

Especially when you coach the Spurs, losers of 10 of their last 13 and suddenly trying to hold the line at that with Johnny Dawkins and Alvin Robertson, last season’s starting guards, both injured. Especially, too, when you coached the University of Kansas to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship in 1988.

Does he miss Kansas and, as Coach Rick Pitino of the New York Knicks said recently, sometimes wonder if moving to the National Basketball Assn. was the right move?

Yes.

But does he regret it?

No, at least not on this night, even if the victory merely improved the Spurs to 13-30.

“It’s been hard,” he said. “But I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to coach again in the pros. . . . We’re not fighting for the NBA title, and we’ve been able to give some of our kids some really unbelievable experience.

“College is great. But, hey, I’m one of only 25 coaches at this level.”

So is Don Casey, if only on an interim basis. The job of coaching the Clippers is his until the end of the season, and management says he’s in no danger of getting fired before then as the losing streak continues.

The Clippers, who have lost 17 straight, tied a season high with 33 turnovers, and dropped to 10-34.

In the process, milestones were reached by a team that is still groping for mediocrity. The Clipper losing streak equals Miami for the longest in the league this season--a run the expansion Heat ended by beating the Clippers Dec. 14. It also is the second-longest losing streak in franchise history, topped (bottomed?) only by the 19 straight by the 1981-82 team.

This may have been the Clippers’ best chance for a victory in a while. San Antonio is the only sub-.500 team they have played since Sacramento Jan. 11 and also the last one they figure to see until Washington on Feb. 18. Moreover, 8 of their next 12 games are on the road, starting with tonight’s meeting with Golden State.

“There’s still dilemmas and there’s still youth and there’s still problems,” Casey said. “But to come within 5 points while having 33 turnovers says something about how well we can play.

“Many people didn’t think we could break the streak against Portland (Wednesday), and we almost did. The fact is, we’ve got to keep going out there to try to break this thing. Or I’m going to be dead.”

Clipper Notes

Benoit Benjamin had a season-high 7 blocked shots. . . . Ken Norman was fined $2,500 for his fight with Portland’s Jerome Kersey Wednesday night. Kersey, however, was hit for $3,500 and suspended for Friday night’s game against the Lakers at the Forum. . . . Danny Manning, who has been attending therapy sessions for about 2 weeks, took a step on the lengthy rehabilitation of his right knee Wednesday, when he rode a stationary bike for the first time. That came about a week ahead of schedule, and the plan is for him to begin running sometime around April 15 and light basketball workouts July 15.

Before signing a 10-day contract Friday with the Clippers, Eric White had played with Utah on another 10-day contract, Wichita Falls (Tex.) of the Continental Basketball Assn. and Fantoni of the Italian league this season. The 6-foot 8-inch, 210-pounder who appeared in 17 games with the Clippers last season, he will take the roster spot of Grant Gondrezick, the reserve guard who is on the suspended list after entering a substance-abuse center.