Clippers to Finish Off Futile March at Home

The Clippers have come home, by all appearances, to finish their obituary for the 1988-89 season.

They have 11 victories, second-fewest in the National Basketball Assn., but will play 18 of their final 26 games at the Sports Arena, starting tonight against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Once, when the Clippers had a forward named Danny Manning, a coach named Gene Shue and a goal of respectability this season, that would have been something to look forward to. Now, though, even surpassing the 1987-88 total of 17 victories appears a lofty goal. Just the same, Coach Don Casey continues to talk optimistically.

“My thinking is to rejuvenate our players, to make a stand, to make our march in March and end on a high note,� he said. “We want to give the fans and the franchise some real good feelings about the future.�

If that’s going to happen, the Clippers have to start now, and beat some good teams in the process. They have lost nine consecutive games, 28 of 29 and are 11-45 overall. Philadelphia, tonight’s opponent, trails only New York in the Atlantic Division. Still ahead at the Sports Arena, among others, are Cleveland, Phoenix, Detroit, Boston, Golden State, the Lakers and Utah.

The Clippers, after losing by an average of 14.2 points on the just-completed five-game trip, are different from the ones who left after a pair of five-point Sports Arena losses, one in overtime.

For one thing, they are younger. The roster is the same, but the emphasis isn’t. The young players--four rookies and four second-year pros--will be given more playing time, the better to evaluate them, especially with another expansion draft coming up.

In turn, 10-year veteran Norm Nixon has seen his playing time dwindle from 26 minutes through the first 51 games to 20.8 in his last five appearances in favor of rookies Gary Grant and Tom Garrick at point guard, just as Nixon, returning after serious injuries, reached a level of consistently good play.

“I don’t think it’s good all the time, but we’re going in the right direction of playing competitively with the young guys, and we could win a couple with the older guys, but where does that get us?� Casey said. “That’s the issue as I see it: When you play young people primarily, you jeopardize a victory.�

Indeed, the young Clippers may have returned as the worst team in the NBA.

“There’s no one problem,� Casey said. “You have a rookie point guard who is playing with rookies. . . . The young guys have not established outside games (as shooters), Charles (Smith) is still trying to get an inside game by pro standards, (Joe) Wolf and Reggie (Williams), after missing so much of last season with injuries, are practically rookies because of that.�

Will Casey strike out?

He remains interim coach and no decision has been made about his future, so the final 26 games are as important to his future as any player’s. He has brought a certain enthusiasm that was missing in Shue’s final weeks, but, clearly, consistent double-digit losses can’t be what owner Donald T. Sterling had in mind when Casey was told to be competitive.

At the same time, the decision to lean strongly to youth came from above. Moreover, Sterling isn’t exactly rushing to douse rumors that talks have already started to find a new coach.

For his part, Casey, in his first stint as a NBA head coach, refuses to spend time worrying about the situation.

“The (interim) label is there,� he said. “I thought when they asked me to take it over, it was a dilemma. . . . The way it was presented to me, was to get them to play hard and then we’ll see what’s best for the franchise at the end of the year. I think we’re accomplishing that, but I think along the way they’d like to have some Ws mixed in.

“It has been more difficult than I thought it would be. I have talked to a lot of coaches at games who say that I didn’t know what I was in for when I took over a team on a losing streak and with a lot of problems. In my mind, I thought I had all the magic answers, and when they didn’t occur, I got disappointed and upset.

“When you’re an assistant coach in this league and have not been a head coach, you don’t understand. You can’t fully appreciate the dilemma of a head coach. . . . We’re talking about a team that has won 12 and 17 games the last two years. Things like that do not change overnight.�