THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Lakers and Clippers: Two Teams Waiting for Dawn

The postseason promises to be short here, should it come around at all, but then we’re having such an interesting season.

Of course, it’s nothing the local teams can market since it’s made up of losses, plummeting attendance and anticipated (or wished-for) departures.

If you’re a Laker fan, put your trust in the adage, it’s always darkest before the dawn.

If you’re a Clipper fan, get a flashlight.

GRUMBLING IN LAKERDOM

Not since the last days of Paul Westhead have Laker players muttered so darkly about the coach and the offense.

The young guys--Doug Christie, Anthony Peeler and Nick Van Exel--want to run. Christie, in particular, hasn’t been shy about lecturing Randy Pfund in the press about the proper deployment of young legs, terming Pfund’s offense “stagnant” and criticizing his need to call a set play every time.

Of course, the three musketeers are fresh off their campuses and might better worry about playing than coaching. But they have a point and have been joined by older Lakers such as Tony Smith and James Worthy, neither a revolutionary.

Pfund has a more immediate concern: his neck.

He didn’t need rabbit ears to hear that Jerry Buss wanted to fire him last spring; to hear Magic Johnson say he was offered his job, to hear Buss say that his one-year extension might serve only to keep him with the Lakers “in some capacity.”

Pfund wouldn’t have to be paranoid to think they’re out to get him and he’d better win as many games as he can, even if he has to play the veterans and slow the pace.

Last week’s meeting at Orlando was a positive step back from a Quinn Buckner-like standoff, but they aren’t always going to score 109 points and beat the Magic. Nothing about this is going to be easy.

If Buss wants Pfund to play the kids, the owner has to let him know he can live with their mistakes. If Pfund plays the vets, he’s just wasting Buss’ time. Does it make a difference if they win 34 games or 24? Or if they average 12,000 fans or 8,000?

Like it or not, they’re rebuilding. The idea is to make it as short a time as possible, not as painless a time as possible.

GRUMBLING IN CLIPPERDOM

What can you say but their chickens are coming home to roost like B-52s on a bombing run? Years of gridlock in Donald T. Sterling’s front office have produced a franchise with three kinds of players:

(1) Gone.

(2) Going.

(3) Eager to be next in line.

If Danny Manning leaves--”When,” says his agent, Ron Grinker--they won’t have a pick left from a draft before 1992.

The prospect of Manning leaving, so long pushed to the back of Clipper minds, has finally become real and is bumming the other players out.

When Ron Harper said last week that the situation “smelled,” that wasn’t the worst of it. Harper is a moaner in the best of times and these aren’t them.

The Clippers are entitled to more loyalty from a guy getting $4 million to guard nobody and score in double figures in alternate games. Indeed, Elgin Baylor got Harper to apologize to everyone in sight--the organization, the fans, the media.

Harper undoubtedly meant he’ll never say it again until he leaves, after which you’ll need a tape recorder and a lot of cassettes to keep up with him.

The real problem lies with Mark Jackson, who revived his career as a Clipper, signed a five-year contract with the club and has been a hard-bitten competitor and an organization man.

When Jackson says: “If it’s going to stay this way, then get me out of here,” they’ve got real trouble.

The Clippers hoped that easygoing Bob Weiss could cheer everyone up in this 11th hour, in effect turning the program over to the players.

The inmates are now running the asylum, but all they really want is out.

IT ISN’T VERY PRETTY, A TOWN WITHOUT PITY

Derek Harper, Vern Fleming, Jeff Hornacek, Brian Shaw . . .

The names spill out of the New York tabloids, speculating on the deal the Knicks seem obliged to make to replace the injured Doc Rivers.

Once an elite team, the Knicks are now eminently beatable, as the New Jersey Nets and Chicago Bulls proved last week. The Bulls, still all-world in adding insult to injury, heaped it on.

Said Horace Grant: “We’re still the Bulls and they’re still the Knicks.”

Said Scottie Pippen: “They still have to prove they can get out of the East. They’ve been good in the playoffs the last few years, but so has Portland.”

However, the Knicks don’t like the deals they’re being offered, and Coach Pat Riley is telling his sniveling fans to act like men.

“I don’t give a damn what people want us to do,” he said. “We’re not going to break down the fiber of this team because someone is going to hold us hostage to this injury.”

The new No. 1 point guard, Greg Anthony, is booed in Madison Square Garden and decried in the newspapers and wherever WFAN’s signal reaches.

Riley isn’t happy about that, either.

“I don’t think he’s struggling,” Riley said. “He’s only struggling when he’s shooting. Everybody is so damned focused in on this damn shooting that they forget where his heart is and what he’s about.

“So if you (in the press) want to continue to ruin him, just keep talking about how the guy can’t hit an open jumper all the time. To me, he’s struggling because everyone says he’s struggling.”

Riley’s right, struggling is the wrong word.

It’s a polite expression a reporter uses to describe a player who should have a fork stuck in him, but whom he must face the next day.

Anthony is shooting 29%. He isn’t struggling. He can’t shoot.

WE’LL NEVER FORGET OLD WHAT’S-HIS-NAME

The Bulls are 12-1 since Pippen came off the injured list--and drunk with victory, or something.

Grant, referring to Michael Jordan as “the guy who retired,” said: “We’re not a one-man show anymore.”

Pippen announced: “I won three championships with basically this same group of guys. No, I’m not surprised by this. Maybe other people are, but we aren’t. This is not meant as a shot at Michael, but he didn’t win three titles by himself.”

More lucid was new Bull Steve Kerr on the unrealized Jordan-Shaquille O’Neal Christmas marquee matchup.

Said Kerr: “I know NBC’s going to be happy about this: Bill Wennington versus Shaq. Me versus Anfernee Hardaway.”

FACES AND FIGURES

Jordan, meanwhile, has begun taking batting practice at the indoor facility at Comiskey Park daily amid speculation that, having retired from Jerry Reinsdorf’s basketball team, he’ll go to spring training with his baseball team, the White Sox. “I don’t think there’s anything Michael couldn’t do,” Reinsdorf said. “If he said, ‘I’d like to try it,’ I certainly wouldn’t say, ‘No, you can’t.’ .” . . . Jordan is actually thinking about it, but won’t start in the minor leagues. “I’m not committing to anything,” he said, “but if I’m not adequate to play in the majors then I’d say, ‘Thanks for a good time.’ .” . . . Some things can’t be explained: The Atlanta Hawks were unimpressive in exhibitions and started the season 1-4. Said guard Craig Ehlo: “One night I went home to my wife and said, ‘It’s going to be a long season.’ All of a sudden, we started playing well.” . . . Dave Gavitt, senior executive vice president of the Boston Celtics, to Hawk Coach Lenny Wilkens: “Thirty-three years I’ve known you, and it took me until this year to realize you’re a genius.”

Larry Johnson has averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds since his disastrous West Coast trip, but Charlotte Hornet owner George Shinn was so wounded by suggestions his $84-million player had been loafing, he called a news conference to release more data on Grandmama’s bad back. Said Dr. Craig Brigham: “The fact that Larry is playing at all is a medical miracle.” . . . Said Brigham’s partner, Dr. Glenn Perry, at Charlotte’s original news conference last July: “It probably sounds worse than it really is.” . . . Said Shinn last week: “You’re darn right I’m sensitive to all this.” . . . The Detroit Pistons’ newest feud involves Isiah Thomas and newly arrived Sean Elliott. Elliott averaged 18 points and shot 56% when Thomas was hurt, but is averaging 12 points and shooting 46% with Thomas playing. Thomas denies it, but Piston insiders say he’s down on Elliott and won’t pass to him. Said Elliott: “You guys have eyes.”. . . . The Houston Rockets’ Vern (Mad Max) Maxwell has won three games with late shots, and Coach Rudy Tomajanovich is pushing him for the All-Star game. Said Rudy T, easing into it delicately: “At one time, there maybe has been the image of him as a gunner.” Well, yes. . . . Stop me before I head-butt again: Dennis Rodman of the San Antonio Spurs, protesting his $7,500 fine and one-game suspension for butting Stacey King: “The league wants to put diapers on us. They don’t want any touching. It’s their game, but when I play, I play to kick butt. You can go home and be nice to the family.” . . . With the NBA’s leading rebounder out, the Spurs were beaten by the Rockets, losing a three-point lead in the closing seconds when Houston got two offensive rebounds and three tries at the tying three-pointer. . . . Behind the Cleveland Cavaliers’ fall: Brad Daugherty, who has career averages of 19 points and 53% shooting, is at 16 points and 46% after dizzy spells, finally diagnosed as vertigo. Daugherty says he can’t play while taking the tranquilizer-like prescribed medication and will try to work it out by himself.

Dallas Maverick Coach Quinn Buckner, whose problems started when he targeted popular veteran Derek Harper, went at it again with him, yelling at Harper in a game against the Knicks, then pulling him. Harper barked at Buckner, went to the far end of the Dallas bench and yelled some more. Buckner walked down and glared at him. Said Buckner later: “It was just a difference in communication. I wanted him to run the offense and he thought he saw the opportunity to run the pick-and-roll. We’ve talked about it, and everything was fine.” . . . Said Harper, rooting openly to be traded to the Knicks: “I’d love to go to bed 1-21 and wake up 17-and-something.” . . . Going out on a limb: Tom Gugliotta, after the Washington Bullets lost eight in a row: “I can’t speak for everybody, but I’m sure not happy with the way we’re playing.”