European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 10, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday March 10,1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 23national basketball association Hawks hovering not rising by Mark Bradley Atlanta journal Constitution Only two things in basketball matter a Road wins and Home losses. The average team is supposed to win at Home and lose on the Road. A Good team will win its share of away games a bad one will blow games at Home. A team never wants to have More Home losses than Road wins. The Atlanta Hawks have nine Road wins and 10 Home losses which pretty much tells their tale. The Hawks we Erc 22-24 at the All Star break having played five straight Road games. Since then they be commentary played nine of 13 at Home and have actually Slid a game further from .500. They re 0-4 on the Road since the break. 6-3 at Home. Neither number is Good enough. Given the Chance to stitch together a substantial winning Streak the Hawks  beat new Jersey on the Road or Phoenix at Home. A team that would make something of itself must do both. Instead the Hawks mailed one in against the nets and lost a win Nab Legame in the Omni. Granted. Phoenix is a Fine team but the Hawks Arentt about to surge past Indiana merely whipping up on rum dums. Why is overhauling Indiana important because for some reason the Hawks brass feels that if i team is seeded seventh in the East it can beat new York the Likely no. 2 seed. No word on just How a team that can twin at new Jersey expects to win a game in new York on tuesday the Hawks had a Chance against Phoenix and wasted it. Check the stats. The Hawks had 42 baskets hit 25 free throws took 42 rebounds made 27 assists and scored 20 Points off 15 opposing turnovers. So did Phoenix. Rarely will you see a More symmetrical game and with All things so equal the Home team should win. This one lost. The suns made two Little plays at the end a getting an offensive rebound off a missed tree throw then stopping Atlanta from doing the same a and the Hawks went away grumbling i enough with the excuses. So the Hawks have been Hurt. Every team has. Injuries Are As much a part of basketball As free throws. The Good teams absorb them and keep winning. John Battle and Jon Koncak Are Back now and Kenny Smith was imported to provide in Mike frat Cllon swords a immediate  then without Glenn Rivers this team  be Hawks Dominique Wilkins drives through Derrick Gervin and Jack Haley during nets 114-109 win saturday losing to Washington at Home to new Jersey anywhere. But it docs. The Hawks arc playing like a team looking Over its shoulder. The players no fools sense that an off season reshuffling is coming. Trouble is they have 23 games and maybe a playoff series before the off season arrives. Some Hawks arc acting As if  be Here after Fratello is gone which might no to be the Case. Pete Babcock has largely kept his own counsel since arriving in Atlanta but is known to prefer fral Cllon a coaching to certain Hawks playing. But the climate of instability a a new pm on the scene Fratello in the last year of his contract a has left nerve endings jagged All around. Over the last week the players have Jawed at their coach As never before. While a bit of Chat of the Battle repartee could be written off As nothing a and has been in the past a the sheer volume of Backtalk is too great to be dismissed. Fratello was so distraught Over the Phoenix loss that he made a terse statement to the Media answered one question even More tersely and tied to the training room. Although there a such a thing As creative tension this much unrest can Only tear Down. No Hod knows whose team this is anymore. Is it Ted Turners Stan Kastens Babcock a Fratello a Dominique Wilkins Moses Malone a Steve Holman a or is it anyone s at All at a Point in the season when a talented losing team must close ranks and play its Way toward respectability the Hawks Are Hying off on Little Solo tangents. Somewhere along the Way the Hawks ceased being a team and became a collection. Clippers deserve to be spanked Don Casey could be canned by Jan Hubbard new Day the Clipper ship has been full of holes during the captaincy of Donald t. Sterling a Man who missed his calling when he purchased the san Diego clippers in 1981. But then it Wasny to Sterling a fault. The Job As the san Diego Chicken already was taken. About three weeks ago. Sterling held court in his office As a group of clippers whined about the methods of coach Don Casey. If Sterling and general manager Elgin Baylor had any class they would have shown the players the door or something More drastic. Perhaps they could have taken away their pacifiers. But they listened and in the process undermined Casey to the Point of no return. Sterling and Baylor already had sent a pointed message to the players by giving Casey a one year contract. The message was a a we re not sure of this Guy so we re not going to commit to  and when players understand that management does not support a coach enthusiastically its Only a matter of time before Mutiny develops. The Gist of the complaints from the players who have not commented publicly on the meeting were that Casey has made questionable decisions did not have a Good player rotation and talked behind players backs. Casey denies charges of bad mouthing although he Points out that if a player is not playing commentary Well and a coach says he is not playing Well is that being honest or two faced the clippers Best players arc in their Early or mid-20s. Ken Norman Benoit Benjamin and Joe Wolf Are 25. Charles Smith is 24 and Danny Manning is 23. Its understandable that they arc frustrated. Yet anyone past the diaper years understands that the clippers. 24-35 after beating new Jersey wednesday night have been ravaged by injuries to starting guards Ron Harper a sure Allstar before undergoing major knee injury Jan. 16. And Gary Grant who suffered a broken ankle feb. 2. With a full complement of players. Casey directed the clippers to an 18-19 record which is the closest they had been to .500 that late in the season under Sterling s Blockhead leadership. In their previous eight seasons with Sterling at the Helm the clippers had a 185-471 record a percentage of .282. Obviously there were no playoff appearances although the Boss has had High Hopes. He once predicted a championship before the team went 17-65. While it is True that some coaches deserve to be fired nothing Casey has done suggests he should. What is evident is that some of the clippers deserve to be spanked. Of the players on the Active roster reports in los Angeles indicate Only Benjamin did not attend that february meeting. The players who did do not understand two realities a if Casey is fired. Sterling is fully capable of hiring the biggest Jerk in America. So life would be worse. A pouting to the Point of forcing a Man to lose his Job is not exactly admirable behaviour. Bullish on Bird there have been suggestions in Boston that the celtics should Trade Larry Bird a suggestion Michael Jordan considers idiotic. A if they want to Trade  Jordan said smiling a a we la take  Jordan was informed that even if the celtics would Trade Bird it might be hard for the bulls to gel him because of the salary Cap. A i d take a  ionian said. A i make enough Money on outside  after the bulls Defeated the celtics 118-114 sunday in Boston Garden Jordan was asked if Bird looked like he had lost a step. Jordan had a  look on his lace and said. A the scored 38.�?� Rocky Mountain Low the nuggets had Only an average february at Home winning five of eight games at Mcnichols Arena. They hoped to win More but nuggets coach Doug Moe said there is a logical explanation. A a we re losing All these Home games because of the Altitude a he said. A when we re winning at Home everyone says it s because of the Altitude. Well the Altitude shrinks this month. The altitudes been Down this year and that a really ticking me