THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Team’s Better, but Front Office Isn’t

Meanwhile, back at the Sports Arena . . .

If it has been a fairy-tale season at the Forum, it has been harder for the Clippers, a bunch of innocents who sat down at the table just as the waiter arrived with the bill for the last five years of managerial chaos.

What-me-worry Bob Weiss might have kept the mood lighter, but he might not have won 11 games. A year ago at this time, he was only up to 20 with Danny Manning (succeeded by Dominique Wilkins), Ron Harper and Mark Jackson.

Bill Fitch, of the clenched-teeth school, has whipped the young Clippers into giving everything they have and more than they suspected they had. There have been the inevitable complaints about his long, hard practices, but one day they’ll look back on it as their introduction to the game as it’s approached at its highest levels. It was the Laker way and the Celtic way in the ‘80s, it’s the Knick way now and the Clipper way, too.

Of course, the Clippers don’t have quite as many talented players. The organization had two things to do this season:

1. Find some.

2. Create a new atmosphere in which they aren’t always leaving.

No. 1 has gone OK. Loy Vaught became a front-line NBA player. Malik Sealy, who spent two years looking for a position, found one. Pooh Richardson regained his confidence. Lamond Murray showed something, if in flashes. Bo Outlaw has a better blocks-per-minute average than anyone except Dikembe Mutombo. Even Stanley Roberts is said to be rehabbing diligently. So he’s played only 14 games in two seasons, for $3.5 million a year they can hope, can’t they?

The Clippers now have a nice supporting cast. With that in mind, they pursued a Scottie Pippen deal to the end, even offering No. 1 picks in 1995, ’97 and ’99.

The deal didn’t happen. The Clippers say they’re not interested any longer. Maybe it’s because Pippy sent word he didn’t want to come.

However, people close to Pippen say he hasn’t ruled it out. He just wants to see if he has better options, like a deal sending him to Phoenix.

The Bulls have their own wish list, like the Shawn Kemp deal that fell apart last spring. However, the Clippers had the high bid on the table, so stay tuned.

Now about that pesky No. 2.

Ambience remains a challenge unanswered. No, they’re not going to Anaheim. Yes, they’re still drawing flies in the Sports Arena. No, the phony crowd counts don’t make the players feel any better. Yes, they’d like to build their own arena up here. No, there’s still nothing official.

But they have started pushing the boulder back up the mountain. Of course, it hasn’t been a laugh riot. The bottom line still shows four losses for every victory and the boys in the front office are still strung out.

Last week, the Clippers “punished” the Daily News’ beat writer, Marc Stein, moving him upstairs from his usual courtside seat. Stein had erred in a story on salary-cap implications of a Pippen deal. The Clippers were indignant because they had announced the details.

However, there’s so much spin control going on, especially at the trading deadline, reporters can get dizzy and even lawyers can’t agree on the Byzantine cap rules with their million exceptions.

To date, the Daily News has given the Clippers more than 750 column inches of free publicity, more from a sense of professionalism than any ringing demand from its readers. Let’s face it, this isn’t an ideal moment in their history for the Clippers to try throwing their weight around.

THE CROWNED HEADS ARE HANGING LOWER

Or, you can’t go home again, Phi Slama Jamma.

The defending NBA champion Houston Rockets went into the weekend No. 6 in the West, 5-4 since trading for Clyde Drexler.

Not only do they have the standard problem of integrating a new player, but forwards Robert Horry and Carlos Herrera just returned to the injured list, leaving them smaller than small. They’re starting Mario Elie, a guard, at forward and Chucky Brown, a small forward they found in the CBA, at power forward.

“The theory is to get Robert and all of our players as well as they can get for the April stretch run,” operations head Bob Weinhauer said. “There’s no sense bringing him in and out and then not having him ready for the playoffs.

“Hopefully, Robert can hit his stride for the last 15 or 18 games of the season. We need to be healthy going into the playoffs.”

In other words, “Who are those guys on the ridge, Col. Custer?”

Desperate for a power forward to replace the departed Otis Thorpe, the Rockets could work only a deal sending Scottie Brooks to Dallas for Morlon Wiley, a switch of No. 3 point guards.

Brooks had once played an important role for the Rockets but fell into disuse when Sam Cassell arrived. The tyke from UC Irvine, stung by the trade, even said Coach Rudy Tomjanovich had done him wrong.

Brooks and Rudy T made up before their game at Dallas several days later, after which Brooks scored 12 points and had five assists and two steals in 23 minutes of the Mavericks’ upset.

Some years, it goes like that.

LATEST DISPATCHES FROM DENIAL WORLD

Still unable to grasp the essentials of their situation--they’re no good anymore--the Boston Celtics continue to blame their problems on attitude. They’re so persistent, it appears to be something they believe rather than merely the usual swill for public consumption.

This makes for much hand-wringing in Boston. Elsewhere, of course, it’s fun for the whole family.

After a loss to the Indiana Pacers last week, designated madman Xavier McDaniel blew up in practice, angered that Pervis (Don’t Knock Me Out of Service) Ellison had called a foul.

In his usual colorful language, X complained, “We all . . . around! That’s the . . . problem! Instead of talking . . . when you come to practice, play hard in the game! This team don’t have heart! If it did, last night we would have won!”

To make his point, McDaniel kicked over a chair and hurled a ball into the stands. This was followed by the umpteenth team meeting and another new resolve to dig in.

Red Auerbach, now little more than a token presence, welcomed the outburst.

“Damn right,” Auerbach said. “You want people to be emotional, to care. It’s hard when you look at this team and then look back. You don’t want to spend too much time thinking about it or talking about it, but in Lenny Bias and Reggie Lewis--that was our long-range plan. You take those two guys and put a point guard and a center with them and you’re in business, real business.”

The next night, the Celtics lost at home to the Washington Bullets.

Memories won’t restore the dynasty, nor will firing Coach Chris Ford while letting M.L. Carr continue his on-the-job training course.

The smart move would be to bring in old Auerbach favorite Don Nelson to run the organization, but that would be embarrassing a year after hiring Carr. Let’s see how management does on the attitude test.

FACES AND FIGURES

Shaquille O’Neal, in consecutive games against Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon, scored 60 points with 30 rebounds to his opponents’ 54-24 and the Magic went 2-0. . . . Knick Coach Pat Riley, who dislikes gimmick defenses, played Shaq one-on-one all season and Shag averaged 40 points. Also, the big Magic guards, 6-7 Penny Hardaway and 6-5 Nick Anderson, manhandled 6-2 Derek Harper and 6-3 John Starks so if they meet in the playoffs, Riles had better think of something.

Kenny Anderson of the New Jersey Nets says he’s feeling depressed, but it’s a professional, not a psychological, condition. Anderson is shooting a woeful 40% and his once-pristine image has been scuffed by incidents such as the day he skipped practice and was found by the New York Post in a Manhattan strippers’ bar named Scoots (Headline: “He Scoots, He Scores!”) Insiders say Anderson wants to be traded and will force the Nets’ hand by threatening to become a free agent.

No kidding: “This team has no heart,” Derrick Coleman said of the Nets after a rout at Chicago. . . . Imagine what he would have done without the extra incentive: Benoit Benjamin’s mother, who runs a nursing program in Chicago, attended that game against the Bulls. “It’s inspiring me,” said Ben before the game. “You always want to play well in front of your mother.” He scored six points and had two rebounds.

Nice call: UCLA’s own Don MacLean, voted the most improved player last season, turned down a $12-million, two-year extension by the Bullets because he thought he could make big bucks when his contract runs out in the summer of ’97. This season, he was sidelined because of tendinitis in his knees, suffered a broken thumb in a fight in a restaurant and lost his starting job to Chris Webber and Juwan Howard. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot and I’m not sorry I didn’t take the money,” says MacLean. “Now it’s a challenge, to try to prove to everybody I can play and then end up getting a better contract than the $12 million that was offered me.”

Milwaukee Coach Mike Dunleavy has head-case problems of his own with Todd Day, improving but upset that there’s a bigger dog around. Said Day, “I score 10 points in the first quarter and then get four shots the rest of the game. And it’s not just a one-game thing.” . . . Big Dog? How about Big Baby? Now Glenn Robinson is mewing because Eddie Jones beat him out for MVP of the rookie game. “I always thought being on a winning team would give a guy an edge,” Robinson said. “My team was ahead the whole game. So it will take more than numbers to win rookie of the year.”. . . The California Kidd fights back: Jason Kidd who was shooting 33% on Jan.3, has shot 45% since. Says Dallas Coach Dick Motta: “You don’t expect him to clank it anymore, do you?