THE NBA : Mavericks Easy to Knock, but at Least They’re in the Playoffs

Take away the backcourt play of Rolando Blackman and Derek Harper and the Dallas Mavericks are a bad team waiting to happen. Instead, they are going to the playoffs.

The team’s most talented player, Roy Tarpley, has missed 35 games because of drug-related suspensions. The starting center, James Donaldson, made a quick recovery from knee surgery only to hobble much of the season with other injuries. Two forwards, Adrian Dantley and Sam Perkins, have, in their own way, given the impression they don’t want to be there. And the team’s first-round draft choice, Randy White, has been a disappointment.

The other troubling news for the Mavericks is that they lost to Portland last week and were swept for the first time ever by the Trail Blazers, their probable first-round opponent. The defeats came by an average of 18.7 points, the losses in Oregon by 31 and 32 points.

But Dallas is in the playoffs. Maybe Coach Richie Adubato deserves credit, but there has been no contract offer to make him coach beyond this season.

The front line is banged up, bummed out or, in Tarpley’s case, down and out for a while, yet Adubato has succeeded since replacing John MacLeod 12 games into the season. The biggest knock against the longtime assistant at Dallas, New York and Detroit is that he’s not a glamour name.

There are big decisions to be made in Big D. What to do with Tarpley, a troubled player who is talented enough to make some teams take a chance on him. What to do with Perkins, who before the season turned down a three-year contract worth $5.1 million to become an unrestricted free agent after 1989-90.

Dantley will be gone, having waived his guaranteed $1.22-million deal for next season in order to become a free agent.

The Mavericks have an impressive collection of draft choices over the next few years, so what happens between now and the fall will be an especially critical time. For now, it’s Perkins, Tarpley and Adubato, two big-namers and a guy just getting the job done.

The Orlando Sentinel and a local fast-food chain sponsored a vote by fans to select a most valuable player for the Orlando Magic. The winner, as if pulled out of a hat, was point guard Scott Skiles, who was ninth on the team in scoring and 11th in field-goal percentage as a part-time starter at the time of the announcement.

Skiles is also white. The eight players ahead of Skiles, including Terry Catledge, No. 1 in scoring and rebounding, are black.

In one of the most wide-open playoff races in years, the possibilities of what could be decided on the last day of the schedule are fitting. Consider a portion of the Game 82 lineup for Sunday:

Phoenix plays at San Antonio in what may decide the home-court advantage in the same first-round playoff matchup. Utah is at Houston with the Jazz fighting the Spurs for the Midwest Division title and the Rockets pushing for the playoffs. Portland plays host to the Lakers. The Trail Blazers are battling Utah and San Antonio for the second-best record in the Western Conference.

In the East, Boston plays at Philadelphia in a game that could determine the Atlantic Division champion.

If there ever was a time for Dwayne Schintzius to show NBA scouts and general managers his makeup--mentally and physically--this was it. A good performance at the Orlando Classic last week, a gathering of many top seniors in a predraft competition, could have erased a lot of doubts after a controversial college career at Florida, which ended in January when he quit in a dispute over being disciplined by Coach Don DeVoe.

So what does Schintzius, a talented 7-foot 1/2-inch center with everything to prove about his attitude, do?

He shows up at 293 pounds, 18 more than even he admits is ideal playing weight. Then he blames it on a bad scale he bought, claiming it was reading 280 at home.

“I don’t think anyone was really surprised,” said one Western Conference executive, a comment that speaks volumes about how NBA officials assess Schintzius’ lack of maturity.

“It makes you wonder. But I don’t know where he dropped to (in the draft). It seems like somebody will always take a chance on a big guy.”

You also have to wonder about the measuring systems at some colleges, too. Hyped-up measuring sticks, maybe. Of the 36 players at Orlando, 28 were found to be shorter than listed in college. That includes Loyola Marymount’s Bo Kimble, said to be 6-5 but found to be 6-3 1/2.

Of the eight teams that faced Houston, San Antonio and Dallas on the same trip, six went 0-for-Texas. Detroit and Philadelphia went 1-2. Portland, with a 2-1 swing in November, was the only team to manage a successful trip.

The Pistons went 3-4 when Joe Dumars was out because of a broken left hand and had their lead in the Central Division cut from 7 1/2 games to 2 1/2.

The ejection of Mark Price last Wednesday against Chicago was the first ejection any level for the Cleveland guard.

Price, who lists the Rev. Billy Graham as his idol, said he didn’t swear at referee Woody Mayfield, a claim backed up by Michael Jordan, an on-looker who later corroborated that the ugliest the language got was “Bull.” No pun intended.

Charles Barkley, to the Philadelphia Daily News: “New York is my kind of town, because I’ve got a gun.”