NBA Roundup : Suns Slow Down and Finally Win

The Phoenix Suns, long one of the few pro teams that stressed a slow, deliberate attack, changed to a run-and-gun style this season.

After the Suns lost their first nine games, Coach John MacLeod decided to go back to his old set offense.

It worked first time out. The Suns whipped the Seattle SuperSonics, 117-99, Friday night at Phoenix to gain their first victory. The Suns were the last NBA team to win a game.

Larry Nance, who prefers a running game, scored 25 points and had 11 rebounds to lead the Suns’ attack. He led a 12-0 spurt in the first quarter that put the Suns in front, and the Sonics never made a game out of it.

“We just weren’t making any progress,” MacLeod said. “We gave it a try. You never know when we might try it again. Someday, I would still like to go to it.”

The Suns have been one of the slowdown teams for 12 seasons. They had gone eight consecutive seasons with a winning record until they fell to 36-46 in 1984-85.

But with the fast break the Suns were leading the league in turnovers and points allowed and were off to the worst start in their history.

The Suns, who had been averaging 30 turnovers per game, had only 18 against the Sonics.

Atlanta 122, Detroit 118--Last season when the Hawks were a disappointing 34-48 and finished fifth in the Central Division, they blamed injuries. Almost everyone except Dominique Wilkins missed a number of games.

Although they are still having injury problems, there are signs that the Hawks are considerably improved.

Wilkins is still the key. The talented forward scored 11 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter Friday night at Atlanta to enable the Hawks to hold off a furious Piston rally.

The Hawks led by 16 early in the fourth quarter, but the Pistons, led by Isiah Thomas, battled back to tie the score at 113-113 with 2:55 left.

But Wilkins sank three free throws and Eddie Johnson two to put the game out of reach.

The victory gave the Hawks a 6-5 record and put them just half a game behind the second-place Pistons.

Although they have been without starting guard Doc Rivers all season, the Hawks have had considerable help from newcomers Jon Koncak (7-0) and Spud Webb (5-5 1/2).

Boston 118, Washington 114--The Celtics have won eight in a row since losing their opener to New Jersey in overtime, but Coach K.C. Jones is concerned with one problem.

The Celtics have had trouble holding a big lead. In this game they led, 69-41, early in the third quarter, then needed some clutch shooting by Larry Bird to offset a 48-point fourth quarter by the Bullets. The Celtic reserves just haven’t done the job.

Bill Walton was an exception in this one. He replaced Robert Parish when the starting center hurt his arm in the third quarter. Walton finished with 19 points and 9 rebounds in 28 minutes.

“We just can’t stand to get that far ahead,” Jones said. “We have to do something to make things exciting.”

It was the seventh loss in a row for the Bullets.

Utah 133, Portland 118--Adrian Dantley scored 17 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter at Salt Lake City and wound up passing the 16,000-point mark for his career.

The Trail Blazers were without center Sam Bowie, who has an injured foot. Without their big man, the Blazers were no match for the Jazz on the boards. Utah had 60 rebounds to 46 for Portland.

The Jazz also blocked 14 shots, 5 of them by 7-4 Mark Eaton. Rookie Karl Malone had 10 rebounds and blocked 4 shots and also scored 8 points.

Milwaukee 118, Chicago 103--Terry Cummings scored six of his 22 points in an 18-4 spurt in the fourth quarter that broke open a close game at Milwaukee.

The Bucks, who stretched their lead in the Central Division to 1 1/2 games, held only an 87-85 lead when Cummings’ jumper started the rally.

Sidney Moncrief, who scored five points in the final minute of the third quarter, had four points in the late spurt.

Dallas 110, New Jersey 98--Rolando Blackman has solved the problem of the injured ring finger on his shooting hand. The Mavericks’ guard suffered a deep cut in the finger four days ago, but has taped the finger to the middle finger.

In this game at Dallas, Blackman scored 31 points, eight of them in the fourth quarter to thwart Nets’ hopes of pulling out a victory.

Blackman has played two games with the fingers taped together and has scored 68 points.