If I remember correctly, somebody shot at Michael after he had been playing basketball, but they shot into his house, where his wife and baby were? And he blamed his brother Joey for that, thinking that he had to have been in on the plan. So the shooting at the Lucibello diner was revenge for that attempt?
According to Tommy Scafidi, Mikey Chang identified Joey Chang as part of the hit team that shot at him in 1992 (Joey Chang allegedly pointed Mikey out for the shooters). This was after the Felix Bocchino murder, so the Ciancaglini-Merlino crew of associates had already killed one of Stanfa's made guys. Joey Chang being present for hits is also backed up. In early 1993 (while he was the official underboss) Joey Chang allegedly was the getaway driver in the Rod Colombo murder.
Joe Licata claimed to have been involved in cooling things down after the attempt on Mikey Chang and got Merlino and Ciancaglini made. Funnily enough, Scafidi also claimed that Gaeton Lucibello was part of the hit team sent to kill Mikey (there's conflicting info on that; Sergio Battaglia said he and Herbert Keller were sent to kill Mikey), which is ironic seeing as Lucibello sided with Ciancaglini and Merlino. It's not beyond the realm of reason however, as Lucibello was identified as being involved in the Rod Colombo murder for Stanfa.
The attempt on Joey Chang was definitely retaliation for the attempt on Mikey Chang. When Joey Chang survived, however, Joey Merlino and Mikey Chang tried to blame the attempt on Biagio Adornetto. The attack happened after Adornetto survived Stanfa's attempt on his life, and Adornetto also had a history of badmouthing Joey Chang (Adornetto felt he would have made a better underboss than Joey Chang). Stanfa seemed to believe this at first, as he assigned Rosario Bellocchi and Gary Tavella to kidnap one of Adornetto's friend's to find his location. By the end of April 1993, however, he had clued on that the Ciancaglini-Merlino faction was behind it. He wanted to lure Ciancaglini, Merlino and Lucibello in to a meeting to kill them but this plot was picked up on tape by law enforcement. Ciancaglini, Merlino and Lucibello were informed about the threat to their lives so they never went in and Stanfa sent out hit teams to stalk them, ultimately leading to the outbreak of the war.
