There were some anxious moments for Hornets players and coaches shortly after last Saturday?s 101-88 loss to Atlanta after a bomb threat was made to Philips Arena near the end of the game.

"I was made aware right after the game was over," Hornets coach Paul Silas said. "The guys were in the shower and I told Big Shot (equipment manager and Belmont Abbey alumnus Dave Jovanovic) to tell them what was going on. They didn?t believe him at first. They thought it was some sort of a joke. So, I came in there and told them it was real. They moved pretty fast after that and we got on the buses and got out of there."

Hornets forward P.J. Brown said it was the first bomb scare he could recall since he was in junior high in Winfield, La.

"It was kind of weird," Brown said. "But in these days and times, you just never know."

Charlotte guard Baron Davis said he took the threat seriously at first, unlike some of his other teammates.

"I hurried up and got the hell up out of there," said Davis, who was in elementary school in south central Los Angeles during the riots following the first Rodney King verdict.

After searching the arena, officials found no validity to the threat.

Home sweet home

The Los Angeles Clippers stretch of 27 home wins in 36 games is their best stretch since the early 1990s when Larry Brown was the team?s coach.

Brown feels confident this current Clippers? group, coached by Shelby?s Alvin Gentry, can continue the franchise?s renaissance.

"I?ve watched them," Brown said. "They?re terrific. They?re fun to watch, they?re doing great. There?s a lot of athletic teams in the league now but they?re way up there. And they?re young and they play with enthusiasm.

"I just think Elton Brand has made such an impact. He plays with effort, he gets you 19 and 10 or 11 rebounds every game. Never takes a lot of shots. Doesn?t make mistakes. That was a heck of a trade. And he?s a great character kid, which is something that every young team needs. When you?ve got a guy like him that comes to practice and works hard every game and every possession, it?s a tremendous teaching aide to young people."

Brand, the former Duke star, was acquired on draft night last June from the Chicago Bulls.

Riley still hopeful

Miami?s slow start this season has had Pat Riley going through a rollercoaster of emotions. At times, he wants to get rid of his entire team. At others, he?s hopeful of a playoff run.

"The Eastern Conference is so bizarre," said Riley, who has never missed postseason play in his 19 previous seasons as a head coach. "I will continue to believe we can make the playoffs until we can?t make it. We are only five games out. Think about how sick that is. We have lost 20 games already, and we are only five games out of a playoff spot."

Tough times in Portland

Following a Sports Illustrated story on how far the Portland Trail Blazers have fallen in terms of interest and standing in the community, things haven?t improved. In fact, Bonzi Wells has suffered even more.

Wells was quoted in the story saying, "We?re not really going to worry about what the hell they (Portland fans) think about us. They really don?t matter to us. They can boo us every day, but they?re still going to ask for our autographs if they see us on the street. That?s why they?re fans and we?re NBA players."

In the next home game after the story appeared, Wells was in uniform but did not play due to knee injury. However, during the game, a feature on the in-house replay screen asked players what their favorite Christmas gift was as a kid. When it came time to show Wells? taped response, the fans booed so loudly it could not be heard.

DerMarr Johnson on Saturday became the 11th Hawks player to start a game this season. Only Cal Bowdler among those on those the opening-day roster has not been marked on coach Lon Kruger's lineup card at least once.

The coach says more lineup juggling is imminent.

"We're going to make a lot of changes the next two, three weeks," Kruger said, looking ahead to the new calendar year and the return of center Theo Ratliff and No. 2 power forward Alan Henderson.

It was a game of big numbers:

1,000 for the number of career victories Dallas coach Don Nelson now has.

490 for the end of Mavericks guard Michael Finley's streak of consecutive games, due to a hamstring injury.

23.2 for the average age of Atlanta's starting lineup.

In the end, the numbers that mattered most were 113-97, the final score of the Mavs' ninth straight victory, their longest streak since the 1987-88 season.

Trae Thompson of the Star-Telegram reports that, in tonight's game against Atlanta, coach Don Nelson will be shooting for his 1,000th victory.  When he attains that milestone, he'll have been only the third coach to do so, joining Pat Riley and Lenny Wilkens.

Nelson won't have a full complement of players to help.  Omar Cook, who never played, has been waived.  Center Evan Eschmeyer will miss the game with a badly sprained left ankle (he might be replaced on the active roster by Gregg Buckner or Johnny Newman).  And Michael Finley is day-to-day with after straining his left hamstring against Chicago.  If Finley misses the game, it will break his streak of 490 consecutive games.

If they get in trouble tonight against Dallas, which has won the past five meetings, expect the Hawks to go to the young guys on their roster.

"I think [general manager] Pete [Babcock] knows we're the future of the team," Jason Terry said. "He's the one who brought us in here, and he knows what we can do once we've grown up and grown together."

Call them Kruger's Kids, if you will. They are playing together more frequently, and they are starting to taste some success.

And soon, maybe they'll realize that these "kids" should actually be starting...

Pat Riley fielded a few questions after Thursday's game but eventually walked away. He could analyze no more.

He didn't say much to his team after the game, either.

Riley had experienced 20 losses this season. But the 21st, a 100-96 loss to Atlanta, took the wind right out of him.

"Just when you don't think it can get any worse, it gets worse," Riley said.

The Miami Heat held an 18-point lead as late as the 1:37 mark of the third quarter against Atlanta. They played the best basketball they have played all season to that point. But they couldn't even hold onto that.

The Heat's season of misery hit its lowest point yet -- though it seems this team is capable of much worse -- when the Hawks came back to beat Miami at Philips Arena.

"We should be sick with ourselves right now -- each and every one of us. All the way down the line," center Alonzo Mourning said. "We should be sick with ourselves, sick with finishing games like this, sick with our individual performances at certain points in the game. We should be sick with it."

Miami was feeling just fine early. With the help of 11 fast-break points, the Heat played its best 12 minutes of the season in the first quarter to build a 35-16 lead, its largest lead since Nov. 6 last season.

But as early as the end of the second quarter, the Heat showed signs that they would let the Hawks back into the game. After leading 56-37 with 2:31 left in the half, Miami allowed Atlanta to close out the quarter on an 11-2 run to shrink the lead to 10.

"I said to them at halftime, that game's going to have to be in the 80s for us to win," Riley said. "We're going to have to hold them under 40 in the second half and we didn't do it."

The Heat managed to build the lead back up to 19 with 5:37 left in the third quarter. But once again the Hawks closed out the quarter strong with a 7-0 push in the final 1:49 of the period to stay within 11 heading into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth, it was just a matter of time. The Hawks continued to play a zone that troubled the Heat in the third quarter, and it silenced Miami's offense. The Heat's frustration carried over to the defensive end, as the Hawks wound up with several open shots.

"They just dissected us in the second half," forward Brian Grant said. "We didn't know what we were doing there in the last six to eight minutes."

Atlanta tied the score at 94-94 with 2:12 remaining on a Shareef Abdur-Rahim free throw. Dion Glover followed with a three-pointer with 1:16 left to give the Hawks their first lead since the opening seconds of the game.

Rod Strickland brought Miami back within one with a driving layup, but he couldn't contain Jason Terry on the other end, as the Hawks' guard scored to bring the lead back to three at 99-96.

On the Heat's ensuing possession, LaPhonso Ellis ended up with a desperate three-pointer that never came close.

"We let it go," Mourning said. "We were passive. We had the team down. Especially in our position, you can't afford to let a team back in a game. You've got to keep them down. You've got to have more of a desperate attitude and we didn't have one tonight."

A team that was 5-20 entering the game shouldn't have a problem with playing desperate. But such is the makeup of this Heat team. And it's obviously wearing on the coach.

"I got nothing else," Riley said as he walked away from reporters and back into the locker room after the game.

He may need to come up with something. After all, it could get worse.

Atlanta ? By now it has become inexcusable.

Zone defense is a way of life in the NBA. The Heat has yet to learn how to deal with it.

With Atlanta turning to a zone for salvation, the Hawks overcame a 19-point second-half deficit to humiliate the Heat 100-96 Thursday night at Philips Arena.

"When you don't think it can get any worse, it gets worse,'' said coach Pat Riley, his team now 5-21, with as many losses as he had in his second season with the franchise. "It's just ridiculous."

What was ridiculous was how the Heat reacted when Hawks coach Lon Kruger went to a zone. What had been a 73-54 Heat lead turned into a deficit when Hawks guard Dion Glover hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:36 to play.

"When they went to the zone ... I don't know ... it messed us up,'' point guard Rod Strickland said.

Expect to see a steady diet of zone defense all the way to the lottery.

The Heat can't shoot, features a slow-moving variety of older players, and continues to practice a dinosaur offense when rules makers have mandated a move into the new millenium.

"They couldn't do much with it,'' said Hawks said Jason Terry, who went for 32 points and converted a decisive 12-foot jumper with 12.3 seconds to play. "We had younger guys on the floor, and we had more energy than they did."

Suddenly, the Heat's largest lead of the season stood as a mere inconvenience to Atlanta.

"It's a soft zone,'' an indignant Heat center Alonzo Mourning said. "We're supposed to handle it more aggressively, instead of playing passively."

Understand, this was the rare night when the Heat's offense was on, a night guard Eddie Jones went for 24 points, a night power forward Brian Grant broke out of a slump with 16 points and 11 rebounds. It was 35-18 after the first quarter, the most productive quarter of the season, and 58-48 at halftime, the Heat's most productive half in more than a year.

"We've got to have more desperate of an attitude,'' said Mourning, who finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots, but also was 0 for 6 from the foul line. "We didn't have it tonight. We should be sick with ourselves now."

With 16 points on 7-of-19 shooting in the fourth quarter, it all went south for the Heat, just like its season has from the first week.

The collapse left the Heat without a 100-point game this season, tying the franchise record with 26 consecutive games in double digits. The NBA record is 29 such games in a row.

Most confounding is that on a night the Heat finally established an offensive rhythm, Riley blamed the loss on the defense.

Even at 58-48 at halftime, Riley told his players, "The game's going to have to be in the 80s for us to win."

It is the mind-set of a team set in its ways, the mind-set of a team that fails to recognize the virtues of outscoring, a team that refuses to accept the realities of a brave new zone-defense world.

"They just dissected us in the second half,'' Grant said. "We just acted like we didn't know how to play. Or maybe we didn't know what we were doing in the last six to eight minutes. The second half, everything just broke down."

After Terry hit his jumper to make it 99-96, the Heat called time out with 12.3 seconds to play.

As has been the case so many times in late-game situations, the Heat could do no better than a scramble off the inbounds. This time is was forward LaPhonso Ellis coming up short on a 3-pointer, just as he did two weeks ago in Washington.

Said Terry, "They used to be the beast in the East."

It was the perfect setting for a Heat victory.

Miami visited the injury-riddled and exhausted Atlanta Hawks, minus forward Toni Kukoc and on the second half of a back-to-back that had them in Milwaukee the previous night.

But even with that help Thursday, victory eluded the Heat. Despite leading by as many as 19 points, Miami succumbed to Atlanta's zone defense and faded defensively in the final minutes of a 100-96 loss at Philips Arena, one of the Heat's toughest defeats this year.

``Just when you think it can't get any worse, it gets worse,'' coach Pat Riley said afterward. ``It's just ridiculous.''

The Heat was outscored 31-16 in the final quarter as Atlanta erased what was an 80-62 Heat lead with 1:49 left in the third period. The rally culminated with Jason Terry's hanging, running jumper with 12.3 seconds left, giving Atlanta a 99-96 lead with two of his game-high 32 points. The Heat's final opportunity was wasted on LaPhonso Ellis' airball three-pointer with three seconds remaining.

But this game was not lost in the closing seconds. The Heat failed to maintain its lead because it couldn't stop the Hawks on defense and couldn't break their zone on offense.

The Heat scored just four baskets in the final 8:01. Meanwhile, the Hawks outscored Miami 18-4 in the last 5:09, taking advantage of the Heat's defensive lapses.

``When they put the zone up we quit,'' Heat forward Brian Grant said after his 16-point, 11-rebound effort. And, ``we just didn't stop them on the defensive end. They just kept running pick-and-rolls, then they would kick out for the three. They just dissected us. We acted like we didn't know how to play. . . . We had these cats by [19] at one point.''

For most of the game, the Heat looked nothing like the team it has become this season. Miami looked fluid, shooting the ball with consistency and converting from the inside and outside. Eddie Jones, who finished with a team-high 24 points, led Miami to a season-best 58 points in the first half with 16.

The Heat also played its most productive quarter of the season in the first quarter, scoring a season-high 35 points to lead 35-18. The Heat shot 54 percent, hitting 14 of 26 shots -- matching a season high for field goals in a quarter.

Miami led by 19 on four occasions, marking the team's biggest lead of the season. And the Heat was playing aggressively, earning seven more trips to the-free throw line in the first half than the Hawks. But the tenacity didn't last. Atlanta finished with three more free-throw attempts than the Heat.

``What happened?'' center Alonzo Mourning said. ``We let it go. We got passive. We just let the game go. When you have a team down, especially in our position, you can't afford to let a team back in the game. You have to keep them down. We have to have a more desperate attitude and we didn't have that tonight.

``We should be sick with ourselves right now. Each and every one of us.''

The game turned gradually, but surely for Atlanta.

With 8:54 left, the lead shrunk to less than 10 points for the first time since the seven-minute mark in the second quarter when Nazr Mohammed tipped in a miss to close the gap to 88-80.

The loss was tough to handle because Miami has controlled so few games this season like it did this one.

``This is definitely worse than getting beat badly because you've been in control the whole way until the last few minutes,'' forward Jim Jackson said.

Injured Hawks center Theo Ratliff sits and watches and is amazed at what he sees, his young teammates repeatedly falling behind by whopping margins in the first quarter, then fighting to dig themselves out of it.

Thursday there was a happy ending for a change, as a 38-16 run over the final 14 minutes carried the Hawks to a 100-96 victory over the Miami Heat.

When: 7:30 p.m., Philips Arena, Atlanta.

Broadcast: TV ? Sunshine. Radio ? WIOD (610-AM), WACC (830-AM, Spanish).

About the Heat: The Heat is 3-2 this season when scoring 90 or more points but is one game from matching the franchise record of 26 consecutive games below 100 points. The NBA record is 29. The Heat is 4-1 when shooting better than 44 percent from the field but 1-19 when shooting below 44 percent. The Heat is 0-7 on the road against the Eastern Conference. Center Alonzo Mourning has scored in single figures in four of the past five games. Guard Anthony Carter (abdomen) and centers Sean Marks (neck) and Ernest Brown (hand) are on the injured list. Forward Malik Allen (knee) is out. Guard Eddie House (wrist) will be a game-time decision.

About the Hawks: Atlanta has won three of its past four at home. Atlanta won the first game of the four-game season series 90-83 Nov. 3 at Philips Arena by outscoring the Heat 30-11 from the foul line. Atlanta yielded 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots to Mourning but got 20 points and seven rebounds from guard Jason Terry. Atlanta has won five of the past seven in the series. Center Theo Ratliff (hip) and forwards Chris Crawford (knee) and Alan Henderson (knee) are on the injured list. Guard Emanual Davis (concussion) and forward Toni Kukoc (back) are doubtful. That has left former Heat forward Mark Strickland with plenty of playing time.