NBA Notes : Here’s an All-Star Team for the Unheralded

Every year, deserving players are left off the National Basketball Association All-Star team. So with that in mind, let’s shift focus and honor five players who are having solid, quiet seasons for improving teams.

Forward, Larry Krystkowiak, Milwaukee -- Like the second ‘k’ in his name, Milwaukee’s power forward from Montana is a silent, overlooked presence on the league’s most surprising team. He’s a dependable scorer (11.7 points per game) and rebounder (7.1), but his true value is on defense, where he routinely guards the opposition’s scoring forward. If you’ve been checking box scores, you know the opposition’s big scorers rarely reach their average against the Bucks.

Forward, Thurl Bailey, Utah -- A 6-11 version of Lakers small forward James Worthy, goggles and all. Playing alongside three All-Stars (Karl Malone, John Stockton, Mark Eaton), Bailey might be the least known 20-point scorer in the game. He’s also a capable rebounder and shot-blocker who, paired with Malone, creates matchup problems for opposing front lines.

Center, Mark West, Phoenix -- Despite playing 24 minutes a game, West is ninth in the league in blocked shots. While on the floor, he serves the same defensive purpose as the Knicks’ Patrick Ewing -- as a backstop for a team with a daring, wide-open style. There’s no way Phoenix would have made the Larry Nance trade with Cleveland if West had not been included. Not a constant offensive threat, but his 65.3 percent field-goal shooting would lead the league if he had enough attempts to qualify.

Guard, Lester Conner, New Jersey -- Not even Harry Weltman, who made sure to include Conner in the Joe Barry Carroll deal, could have imagined Conner would become the Nets’ most valuable player. In the past week, Conner had his first two career triple-doubles -- both against Seattle -- and is the only point guard besides Denver’s Fat Lever with more than 100 steals, 200 rebounds and 300 assists.

Guard, Winston Garland, Golden State -- Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond have received most of the publicity, but the second-year guard has been instrumental in the Warriors’ stunning about-face. Garland, who was waived twice as a rookie, leads the team in assists and steals while averaging more than 15 points and just 2.5 turnovers.

Pearl Washington is having so much trouble keeping his weight down that Miami Heat public relations men should consider changing his name to Pearl Harbor.

Washington, who has been hobbled by a groin pull for most of the season, apparently is healthy enough to resume playing. But Miami’s coaches won’t reactivate him until he gets his weight down to an acceptable level.

The former Syracuse star is listed officially as 200 pounds, but he was tipping the scales at 213 last week and is still seven to 10 pounds overweight. So he remains on the injured list. Washington missed 10 games with the groin injury in December. After returning for five games, he reinjured it and has missed 17 games since.

“It’s a major concern,” said Miami Coach Ron Rothstein, “because if he’s not at the prescribed weight, he’s only going to get hurt again. It’s a very tender situation for him. Weight has always been a problem, and if he’s going to do anything, he has to learn. What’s the sense of putting him out on the floor with the extra weight so he can pull his groin again?”

Washington is in the final year of the original three-year deal he signed with the Nets. He’s also in the final year of a sneaker contract, and his future never has seemed cloudier.

Losing to the Nets sure brings out the worst in a team. After Seattle lost at the Meadowlands Tuesday night -- the Sonics’ second loss to the Nets in eight days -- Dale Ellis and Xavier McDaniel got into a shouting match that caused Coach Bernie Bickerstaff to close the locker room to reporters.

McDaniel said he took exception to comments Ellis had made about his teammates after the 109-99 loss.

“I wasn’t speaking for myself, I was speaking for me and my teammates,” McDaniel explained. “When someone says his teammates don’t have heart, that they’re sissies, he’s singling himself out from the team, as if he’s the only one who has heart and is the only one out there winning.

“Yes, he’s scoring a lot of points,” McDaniel said of Ellis, the NBA’s third-leading scorer, “but if people like me don’t set picks and rebound, he doesn’t get those points. ... I just don’t think another player should say anything like that. It’s putting me down and putting the rest of the players down.”

This hasn’t been an easy season for McDaniel. A year ago at this time, he was averaging 24.3 points and 7.7 rebounds, shooting 51.8 percent from the floor and heading for the All-Star Game for the first time. But he injured his knee soon after, slumped badly the rest of the season and became a sixth man this season.

With his playing time reduced to 28 minutes, he’s averaging only 18.6 points and 5.3 rebounds on 46.9 percent shooting. And Ellis has supplanted him as Seattle’s All-Star representative.

McDaniel: “I accepted the position, and there’s nothing else I can do.”

Golden State’s Manute Bol was shooting 27.8 percent (5 for 18) from three-point land, a better percentage than Chris Mullin (19.1 percent), Isiah Thomas (25.0), Gerald Wilkins (25.3) and Michael Jordan (25.0).