Trail Blazers Achieve Harmony : Portland: Club that is putting most pressure on Lakers comes together after obtaining Williams.

They were singing in the Portland Trail Blazers’ locker room. Singing together, more shocking a notion than the way players and staff careened through “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” as part of a CBS halftime show for Christmas Day.

That there was such harmony, even the made-for-TV variety, was the thing. Coach Rick Adelman sat in his cubbyhole of an office near the locker room and acknowledged that it probably couldn’t have happened last season.

“I doubt it,” he said.

Which says a lot more about the Trail Blazers than that they are 18-8 and have been keeping the pressure on the Lakers for weeks in the Pacific Division.

The difference is attitude. Laid-back Adelman replaced hard-driving Mike Schuler, fired Feb. 18 after on-going squabbles with players, first on an interim basis and then given a new contract during the off-season. Buck Williams came in trade and provides a presence. Suddenly, the locker room that housed splintered factions and egos galore last season is tranquil. “The atmosphere is a little thinner,” said Clyde Drexler, the star guard and Schuler’s main combatant. “The air is not as thick.”

The new season didn’t dawn with such rarefied hopes. More than anything, it was wait and see. No one knew how things would change when Adelman became the coach, not merely the alternative to an unpopular leader. No one could have realized the impact Williams would have, beyond his 10-plus rebounds a game and 54% shooting.

There were other uncertainties. Portland already was blessed with a veteran starting lineup, which included an explosive backcourt in Drexler and Terry Porter and an all-star center in Kevin Duckworth. But the Trail Blazers, who were 39-43 last season, had four rookies and two new veterans who figured to play major roles.

One was Williams, who witnessed his share of ugly clubhouse scenes during eight seasons with the New Jersey Nets. He and Drexler talked during the summer, jokingly, about how great it would be to have Williams join the Trail Blazers, and it has worked out better than anyone could have imagined.

“That’s the greatest thing that ever happened to this team,” Drexler said. “Buck is the kind of player who can turn a team around, with his play and approach. He was the missing piece of the puzzle.”

Said Detroit Coach Chuck Daly: “The big asset is Buck Williams. He gives them stability and work ethic and internal leadership. All the things teams need to move up to the next level.”

Williams had been the subject of continuous trade speculation, primarily because he was the only player the Nets could get anything of substance for in return. The Nets obtained Sam Bowie, a promising but injury-prone center, and a first-round draft choice, which they used to get guard Mookie Blaylock. The Trail Blazers got a valuable big man without harming the nucleus of the team.

Williams, 29, was a three-time all-star who didn’t have much to prove as a defender and rebounder. But he was, at the same time, getting a fresh start.

“It got to the point where the trade rumors were mentally getting the best of me,” he said. “I wanted them to end. When the trade was done, I had a sigh of relief. I really wasn’t anxious to get out (of New Jersey). I just wanted the trade rumors to end, so I was glad when it happened.”

Adelman, on the other hand, had everything to prove. He is 43, went 14-21 as interim coach before being swept in three games by the Lakers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs and was given a contract that says win now or be gone. One year, with the Trail Blazers holding an option for the second.

Besides, there are easier places to break in as a head coach. Not because of the town, where he played three seasons and had been an assistant to Schuler and Jack Ramsay since 1983. It’s the team, or at least was. Moods-R-Us.

When the Oregonian, Portland’s largest newspaper, did a season preview, a drawing accompanied: Players in test tubes and Adelman holding a box labled as a chemistry set. One inscription said, “CAUTION: MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR COACHING CAREER!”

Against this backdrop, Adelman, who grew up in Compton and South Gate and attended Pius X High in Downey and Loyola in the pre-Marymount days, has flourished. Having earned the respect of players, can a contract extension be far behind?

“I’ve had nothing but total support from the five starters and Wayne Cooper (a backup center),” he said. “And when you get the key guys saying to the others, ‘This is what is going to make you good,’ it’s going to happen for you.

“I didn’t know exactly what to expect. But a week into camp, I knew we could have something really good going. I remember one day at camp when we did not practice well, and I told the group we can’t let this continue, that they have to respond better. I didn’t know what would happen. But the next day, we had a super practice. Last year, there would have been a lot of griping and we wouldn’t have pulled together as a team. We would have had problems. Not any more.”

Adelman wanted training camp to set the tone. One day, he went to veterans Drexler, Williams, Porter and Jerome Kersey to organize a post-dinner rookie ritual, when the first-year players would stand in front of the room and sing.

“Maybe we were too cool to do that before,” Adelman said.

So they sang, each soloist choosing his own material. College fight song, top 40, whatever. Drazen Petrovic, part of the wave of Eastern European players to hit the NBA this season, went with the Yugoslavian national anthem.

“But we weren’t sure if that’s what he really was singing,” Adelman said of his backup guard. “We had to take his word for it.”

The Trail Blazers have been in tune ever since. Take their word for it.