X MARKS THE SPOT : And It’s Up to Foes to Take It Away From Sonics’ McDaniel

Game-day afternoons, the starting five of the A. C. Fora High School basketball team in Columbia, S.C., would meet at the corner barbershop and get razor cuts. Moon Dog. Cornbread. Mountain Man. X-man. Alfred. Each in turn had his hair shorn close to the scalp. “It intimidated people back there when we’d cut it real short,” Xavier McDaniel recalled. “Then, in college, (teammates) used to pay me to shave it all off.”

Bald is bad. And to look bad is to, pardon the grammar, play good. McDaniel discovered that long ago; even before he was old enough to shave his face, McDaniel shaved his head.

Image is not quite everything to McDaniel, who will try to lift the Seattle SuperSonics to a victory here tonight over the Lakers in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals. But the X-man has unabashedly cultivated a reputation as an intimidator, a reputation that he says is partly responsible for making him one of the National Basketball Assn.’s best small forwards.

During this series, however, McDaniel and the SuperSonics have been far from intimidating. Seattle trails, 2-0, in the best-of-seven series, and McDaniel has averaged only 18 points. He made only seven of 17 shots as the Lakers won by 22 points in Game 2.

McDaniel says he is unconcerned. Concern would indicate vulnerability. That is not a side of McDaniel, who still affects the bald look, that one sees on the court.

Intimidation helped McDaniel become an all-star last season and, after a woefully unsuccessful experiment during which he played as a sixth man for most of this season, re-establish himself as a dominant player.

A side effect, though, is that this combative attitude also has embroiled McDaniel in an inordinate number of fights.

None of the Lakers can forget last season, when McDaniel wrapped both hands around Wes Matthews’ throat during a skirmish. Nor have the Lakers forgotten McDaniel’s altercation this season with A. C. Green.

But those battles have been tame compared with McDaniel’s pugilistic rookie season of 1985-86. A few days into his first training camp, McDaniel fought with teammate Reggie King, who was soon cut. Then, he made his mark against heavyweights such as Cliff Robinson, Charles Pittman, Kevin Willis, Calvin Natt and Eddie Johnson.

“If I had backed down my rookie year, I’m pretty much branded a wimp,” said McDaniel, chosen fourth overall, behind Benoit Benjamin, in the 1985 draft. “I’d still be getting that same abuse now. I had to make a stand, especially being a rookie coming in with a big contract, making $750,000 and all.

“Everybody was looking at that. Still, my rookie year, guys were giving me some cheap shots. But since then, everybody knows not to (mess) with me. A lot of guys could say I’m dirty. But I’m not. I play hard. I think they respect me for that now, too.”

Opponents might not respect McDaniel, but they have learned not to provoke him. He has drastically reduced his fighting, but his aggressive game has been adopted by the rest of the SuperSoncis and embraced by Coach Bernie Bickerstaff.

But if you suggest that McDaniel has mellowed in his fourth NBA season, he scowls. He has, after all, an image to uphold.

“I haven’t calmed down,” McDaniel said. “I’ll never calm down.”

McDaniel does acknowledge, however, that he has learned the subtleties of NBA aggression. He says that he picked up pointers two seasons ago from then-teammate Maurice Lucas, an all-pro enforcer. “Well, that’s true,” McDaniel said. “As far as when I’d do stuff, I’ve changed. Like, (Lucas) told me, ‘If something happens in the first quarter, you wait to get (even). You got three other quarters and, by that time, the (officials) forget about it and you can do what you want to do then.”

He laughed, then added: “Of course, I don’t do that.”

Although proud to be known as an intimidator, McDaniel does not like being called a dirty player.

“No, I just try to play hard all the time,” he said. “I don’t think I disrupt the game. I’m not always the aggressor. But at the same time, I’m not going to back down. If I back down, I’m dead.

“People wonder maybe why I never fought James (Worthy). Well, he understands my game. There are other guys who don’t, who get caught up (in trading blows) and I have fought. A. C., after fouling Sedale Threatt in that game (in April), he was overly aggressive. He stood over the guy and I don’t feel that was right.”

According to McDaniel’s code of on-court etiquette, he must defend his teammates when opponents violate the code. McDaniel apparently believed Green had done that in April in Seattle, when he knocked Threatt to the floor and then lingered in the area too long for McDaniel’s liking.

“You know the guy was down, and that’s all right,” McDaniel said of the incident. “But then you go about your business. You shouldn’t embarrass him, too.”

Green, who later said that the foul had been unintentional, and McDaniel traded shoves and Laker Coach Pat Riley, of all people, risked harm to himself and his Italian suit by serving as peacemaker.

That game, an 11-point Laker victory at the Seattle Coliseum, was the last time Bickerstaff tried using McDaniel as a sixth man. By starting Derrick McKey at small forward and Michael Cage at power forward and bringing McDaniel off the bench, Bickerstaff had hoped to provide spark off the bench. McDaniel is versatile enough to play three positions, including subbing for off guard Dale Ellis.

Thus, McDaniel went from being an all-star one season to the bench the next.

The SuperSonics were 39-33 with McDaniel coming off the bench, however. They averaged 111 points during that stretch and were out-rebounded in 39 of 72 games.

McDaniel’s scoring average hovered around 20 as his minutes decreased and--McDaniel says--his timing was thrown off.

“This year was almost like I got paid for nothing,” McDaniel said. “I feel this year, being a sixth man, they really just laid me off from work for a year. I don’t feel I really worked at all.”

In the last 10 regular-season games, once McDaniel replaced Cage in the lineup, Seattle went 8-2--averaging 119 points and outrebounding its opponents in eight of those games. McDaniel averaged 30.5 points and shot 57.6%.

Bickerstaff still believes that McDaniel could have been a productive sixth man.

“I thought we’d be better off that way,” Bickerstaff said. “But you never will be if they can’t get it down. He just couldn’t handle it. Mentally, obviously, that handicaps you. If you’re having problems dealing with it mentally, you won’t do it physically.

“I’m sure it was somewhere in his subconscious that he felt it was (a demotion). He had said he tried all kinds of ways to get ready. X is team-oriented. He handled it like a man. But the bottom line is, we didn’t play well that way.”

McDaniel says his problems had nothing to do with his approach. It simply was awkward, he said, entering the game after six minutes had elapsed.

“It wasn’t mental,” McDaniel said. “It wasn’t that I was down. I was just in a situation where I didn’t know what I’d do, game in, game out.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Yeah, this is your role.’ One game, they want me to go in and shoot. Then they might want me to go in and do other things. If I tried to go in and do what I naturally do, it would hurt us. I always felt I had to adapt.

“It was like, one day was a rainy day, the next was a cloudy day. it was never a day I could come in and play without hurting the team in some way.

“But if you’re a starter, it’s zero-zero when you start. I can play all around, not worry about just rebounding, just defense. I can run the floor and get into the game just like Dale can. I was laid-back as a sixth man, not aggressive offensively.”

McDaniel’s season-ending scoring momentum hasn’t carried into the playoffs, however. He averaged only 17 points and shot 40% in the SuperSonics’ first-round series against Houston. Against the Lakers, he is shooting 50%, but has averaged only 14 shots.

In order to avoid a repeat of the Laker sweep in the 1987 conference finals, the SuperSonics need more production from McDaniel and Ellis. Bickerstaff has taught McDaniel to be more patient.

“You get to the point where you start to force things,” Bickerstaff said. “Basketball is a game where you let it come to you, and you take what’s there. I think X understands. But sometimes when you find yourself in a slump, it’s because of the type of shots you’re taking. That puts you in a slump. I’m a proponent of people taking shots, but you got to take good shots.”

McDaniel, without question, will continue to take his shots--with or without the ball.

As long as he remains a starter, probably will augment Ellis’ scoring. And as long as he maintains his aggressiveness, he will continue to draw opponents’ ire.

Those close to the former Wichita State player insist that the on-court intimidation is merely role-playing, however.

Back home in South Carolina during the summer, McDaniel lets his hair grow and his guard down.

Magic Johnson is as bothered as any other Laker by McDaniel’s aggressive play. But he has seen this other side, too.

Two summers ago, Johnson invited McDaniel and friend Sam Vincent of the Chicago Bulls to his Fourth of July party. Soul artist Rick James provided the music, and McDaniel showed some nice moves on the dance floor.

“He’s a pleasant person to be around,” Johnson said. “He really is a nice guy. I guess that (tough-guy act) is what he thinks he’s got to do. That’s him--on the court. Some players need different things.”

For McDaniel, short hair and a short fuse do nicely.

Laker Notes

Seattle point guard Nate McMillan, who suffered a sprained left ankle in the first half of Wednesday night’s game, is questionable for Game 3 tonight. McMillan underwent treatment Wednesday during an optional practice. Coach Bernie Bickerstaff said McMillan will decide whether he is able to play. “A lot of it is pain threshold, how much Nate can stand,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s up to him.” If McMillan is unable to play, Sedale Threatt will start at point guard. . . . Bickerstaff said that McMillan’s absence for most of Game 2 contributed to Dale Ellis’ poor game (14 points). “It’s all execution,” Bickerstaff said. “They’ve got to get Dale the ball and Dale has to do a better job of getting open.” . . . The Lakers flew to Seattle Thursday morning, and Coach Pat Riley canceled practice after the team arrived at its hotel.