NBA Notes : It’s Finally Time to Take the Cavaliers Seriously

They’ve won nine games in a row, a franchise record. They’ve won 33 of their last 40 regular-season games. They’re leading the league in field-goal percentage and scoring defense and outscoring the opposition by an astonishing margin of 11.4 points a game.

You sort of get the feeling it’s time to take the Cleveland Cavaliers seriously. They’re 22-5 and the championship-starved city of Cleveland is in a frenzy over them. In fact, the situation is almost enough to elicit emotional reaction from Coach Lenny Wilkens.

Almost. Wilkens isn’t about to pronounce his team incapable of winning a championship, but Cleveland’s impassive head coach isn’t exactly guaranteeing one, either.

“We’re what, 27 games into the season?” Wilkens said yesterday. “We have to keep this in perspective. Anything can happen in the end, but I still say Atlanta and Detroit will have a lot to say.”

Still, if the Cavs are operating remotely close to their current level, they’ll have a considerable say in May and, yes, June. Wilkens and Wayne Embry, Cleveland’s equally canny general manager, have brought the Cavs along far more quickly than anyone could have imagined when they took over a disoriented franchise 30 months ago.

Since then, Embry has rapidly reconstructed the Cavs through a series of sound draft choices and judicious trades. He and Wilkens have assembled a team well-suited for the ‘80s, one that can run you to death while confounding you with intelligent team defense.

Brad Daugherty, Ron Harper, Mark Price and John Williams, all rookies in 1986-87, are now playing like seasoned veterans. Larry Nance and Mike Sanders, acquired from Phoenix last February, have brought defense and savvy to the starting forward spots.

Along the way, Embry snatched Craig Ehlo from the discard pile, discovered Yale’s Chris Dudley in the fourth round and acquired Darnell Valentine from Miami for a second-round draft pick. Suddenly, the team is so deep that Tree Rollins, who came from Atlanta last summer as a $1 million free agent, can’t find any playing time.

The primary concern now is guarding against overconfidence. But Wilkens, who was a pretty fair guard in his day, won’t permit it. While things are going smoothly, his players have never proven themselves under playoff duress, when there are no easy baskets and every possession is a veritable gang war.

“I think we’re finally starting to understand that,” Wilkens said. “The running game comes easy ... but the hard thing is getting them to understand the half-court game. You don’t really learn that until the playoffs.”

So we won’t really know about this team until the postseason, though chances are they won’t maintain their current 66-win pace. But they sure are scaring people now.

New Year’s Eve violence, NBA-style:

Saturday night, Utah’s Bobby Hansen and Bart Kofoed were celebrating the New Year in a party at Hansen’s home. Early Sunday morning, Hansen and Kofoed, off-court chums and the only Jazz players in attendance, got involved in some friendly horseplay.

The wrestling got out of hand, however, and ended with Kofoed punching Hansen in the face and fracturing the orbital bone (cheekbone) below his left eye.

Wednesday, Hansen underwent surgery and is expected to miss six to eight weeks. His backup, meanwhile, is out of a job. The Jazz put Kofoed on waivers because of his ill-fated holiday punch.

“This is an appropriate measure,” Utah General Manager Dave Checketts said in a prepared statement. “The results of what began as a play-around resulted in something serious. ... Whether the punch was provoked or not was not the issue. There’s absolutely no excuse for throwing a punch.”

The loss of Hansen and Kofoed left Utah without a backup off guard, so 6-11 Thurl Bailey got time at the position Tuesday. Wednesday the Jazz signed Jim Farmer to replace Hansen. Now they have to fill Kofoed’s spot.

The struggling Pacers are expected to name Dick Versace head coach sometime before the weekend, and if so, Detroit’s Chuck Daly will lose his second top assistant in six months. Ron Rothstein, his former first assistant, resigned last summer to become coach of Miami.

Reluctant to lose another assistant so soon, Detroit General Manager Jack McCloskey resisted the initial overtures of Indiana General Manager Donnie Walsh. But there is an unwritten rule that says you don’t hold back an assistant with a shot at a head job (though Boston ignored it when Jimmy Rodgers wanted to interview with the Knicks two years ago).

“Jack’s first reaction was no,” Versace said Tuesday. “But then he came back and said, ‘I talked with Chuck and you’ve been real good to us, we’ve been successful, and we both feel we can’t stand in your way.’

“Chuck doesn’t want anyone working for him who doesn’t want to be a head coach,” said Versace, who never made it a secret that he aspired to be a head man one day. “He’s the quintessential man’s man.”

Notes

Furthermore: Charles Oakley’s 14 offensive rebounds Tuesday against the Celtics were the most by an NBA player this season. ... Seattle’s Dale Ellis has made 14 of his last 18 three-point shots, lifting his percentage to 50.5 and moving him past the Knicks’ Trent Tucker for second place in the league behind Miami’s Jon Sundvold. Ellis, who has scored at least 20 points in all but two games this season, is the third-leading scorer in the league at 28.6. ... Miami rookie Kevin Edwards committed 11 turnovers Tuesday, the most giveaways since Chris Mullin had 13 last March against Utah. ... Milwaukee’s Jack Sikma hit five three-point bombs against Atlanta last week, believed to be the single-game record for a center. . . . Detroit is angling for Golden State off-guard Terry Teagle, who hasn’t played in more than a month. Teagle could probably be had for a second-round pick. Warren LaGarie, Teagle’s agent, is trying to find a job in Europe for Darryl Dawkins, which would create a spot on the Pistons’ roster. Meanwhile, the Pistons are still said to be shopping John Salley, who is apparently out of favor with Chuck Daly. ... Sometimes, being a benchwarmer can be rewarding. Take Steve Alford. Alford, who was waived by Dallas last month, is still being paid his guaranteed $150,000 salary by the Mavs. But because he was picked up by the Warriors and survived the Dec. 27 deadline, Alford is also guaranteed a paycheck from Golden State for the balance of the season. So Alford is being paid by two teams for doing, essentially, nothing.