NBA Notes : San Antonio Collects Top 1986 Draftees

San Antonio has four of the top 28 picks from the 1986 draft on its roster, but only one of them originally was chosen by the Spurs.

Guard Johnny Dawkins of Duke was taken 10th by the Spurs, forward Walter Berry of St. John’s was picked 14th by Portland, Anthony Jones of Nevada Las Vegas 21st by Washington, and Larry Krystowiak of Montana 28th by Chicago.

With Ron Harper, John Williams and Brad Daugherty running 1-2-3 in scoring for the Cleveland Cavaliers, they have a chance to become the second rookie trio in NBA history to lead their team at season’s end.

In 1956, Maurice Stokes averaged 16.8, Jack Twyman 14.4 and Ed Fleming 12.5 for the Rochester Royals, forerunners of today’s Sacramento Kings.

The 1965 Knicks came close with Willis Reed, Jim Barnes and Howard Komives finishing 1-2-4 for New York.

Consistency, thy name is Robert Parish.

In his first six seasons with the Boston Celtics, Parish had field-goal percentages of .545, .542, .550, .546, .542 and .549.

Larry Bird says he doesn’t appreciate distractions during NBA halftimes and timeouts.

“It seems like every night there’s cheerleaders on the floor, or a bunch of guys jumping on trampolines, or a high school game,” Bird said. “It’s getting ridiculous. This is supposed to be the NBA. Every night, it’s getting to be a circus out there.”

A 99-93 victory at Houston on Jan. 29 allowed the Milwaukee Bucks to extend their streak of consecutive non-losing months to 47.

“They were very aware of the streak, and they were a bunch of happy caballeros after that game,” Bucks’ publicity director Bill King said.

The Bucks, who finished January with a 9-8 record, had to overcome a difficult plane trip to make it to Houston. After a game at Golden State the night of Jan. 27, they caught a 1:30 a.m. flight, but because of fog in Houston, the team circled the airport for 90 minutes. The jet was diverted to Dallas-Fort Worth for two hours, delaying the Bucks’ arrival at their Houston hotel until 2 p.m.

Milwaukee’s streak of non-losing months extends back to February 1980, Sidney Moncrief’s rookie season.

Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics continued their streak of months at .500 or better to 52, a period that spans the career of Larry Bird. The Boston string includes four .500 months, including one October when they were 1-1.

Utah forward Karl Malone, the leading scorer for the Jazz, has some definite ideas about what constitutes a perfect basketball game.

“When I have the complete ballgame--70 points, 20-for-20 from the line and 30 rebounds--I’ll retire. Until I do that, I’m going to keep plugging away.”