Trail Blazers Profit From Huge Net Loss : Western Conference: Buck Williams, toiling in frustration for eight years in New Jersey, finds a happy home in Portland.

Buck Williams took a deep, audible breath, ran a hand across his face, massaged his temples, then straightened in his chair.

All right, he was ready to talk about the New Jersey Nets.

Until this season, the woeful Nets were Williams’ employer for eight years. Not all of them were bad, but the last three were nearly unbearable for anyone who cares about winning or self-respect.

That experience has made him appreciate his status as starting power forward for the Portland Trail Blazers, who will play the Phoenix Suns today in Game 4 of the National Basketball Assn.’s Western Conference finals.

Although long considered one of the NBA’s best rebounders and toughest power forwards, Williams seemed destined--no, doomed--to finish his career with one of the dregs of the league, a team that blended well into the landscape of the Jersey swampland.

But at the end of last season, after years of false hope and false trade rumors, Williams was finally liberated. On June 24, the Nets traded him to the Trail Blazers for center Sam Bowie and a first-round draft choice.

And Williams has thrived. No longer needed to provide the bulk of the scoring, rebounding and defense, Williams averaged near his career lows in scoring, with 13.6 points a game, and rebounding, with 9.8. And he could not be happier. At last, he is on a winner. To Williams, 30, it is all that matters.

“I don’t know who came up with this trade, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Williams said. “This is unbelievable. I knew we had a good team and I thought we played well this year, but to get here is really just the highlight of my career--so far.”

To get Williams to Portland was not easy. It turned out that, among other things, teammate Clyde Drexler did a little lobbying. They met two summers ago at a summer clinic/all-star game in Upstate New York. They talked.

“I always admired Clyde from a distance,” Williams said. “He said, ‘Man, we’d be a great team if we could get you.’ He said, ‘We’d be unstoppable.’ I guess we’re both happy I’m here.”

Williams said he could not remember the last time he felt part of a team, rather than just one of a collection of players wearing the same jersey. He speaks passionately about concepts of teamwork that players on good or even average teams take for granted.

“It’s amazing how you can go from 26 wins to 59 wins the next year,” Williams said. “The guys on our team embraced and welcomed me from day one. They made me part of the team. Everybody wanted me here. They said they tried to get me two years ago. When I got here, other players on the team called me. (Kevin) Duckworth dropped by and picked me up for the first practice. That was a real good feeling. We’ve had a good relationship ever since. This team is the most unselfish, hard-working and talented team I’ve ever played on.”

The Trail Blazers were never really thought of as unselfish before Williams’ arrival. They had prolific scoring by Drexler, a bulky center in Duckworth, a solid point guard in Terry Porter and scoring and rebounding by Jerome Kersey. But they were said to be lacking heart and were supposedly more concerned with individual results. Williams said he never saw that side of the Trail Blazers, if it existed.

What he did hear, upon joining the Trial Blazers, was that he was the final ingredient needed to transform the team from good to elite.

“There was a little pressure,” Williams said. “Everybody in management said, ‘Buck, we’ve been trying to get you for two years.’ It was like I was the savior or something. I wasn’t the savior, but I think we all came out and did our job this year. Coach (Rick) Adelman really knows how to handle us, speak to us like professionals. You could see the bond developing in our team.”

Williams, who grew up in rural North Carolina, said he enjoys the slower-paced lifestyle of Portland as opposed to New Jersey.

“I just tried to survive in the East,” he said. “I’m not a big-city guy. This is more my style (in Portland). They are very easygoing, laid back, and I really like that. There’s no pressure on me to be the big-city person that I was portrayed. I can be myself. I hear they’ve got great salmon fishing. As soon as we win it all, I’m going to go out fishing.”

Williams still can’t quite bring himself to laugh at those bad old days with the Nets. A continent separates his past and present teams, but while the losing, the player griping, the revolving door of coaches and the aimless front-office moves in New Jersey are still with him, some feeling for his former team remains.

After the Nets got the first pick in last Sunday’s draft lottery, Williams told reporters how he hoped it would be the first step in the franchise’s attempt to regain respectability. “So, does that mean you want to go back?” someone asked.

“No, I’m happy where I’m at, thank you,” Williams said, smiling.

Western Conference Notes

Although they have a 2-1 lead in the series, the Portland Trail Blazers appear vulnerable going into Game 4 today. In their last two playoff series, Portland is 0-4 on the road and has lost by an average of 20 points, including Friday night’s 34-point flogging in Game 3. Strange, because the Trail Blazers won 24 road games during the regular season. “Somehow, we’ve got to figure out how we won those road games in the regular season,” Trail Blazer Coach Rick Adelman said. “We are capable of winning on the road.” Buck Williams said the Trail Blazers are not fazed by the blowout loss. “Somewhere down the line, we’re going to play better on the road,” Williams said. “We were caught out of position a lot (in Game 3), and that allowed Phoenix to get the ball off the board and push it up the floor. We need to get better shot attempts. When we get behind, we’ve been trying to get all of our points back at once.” . . . Cotton Fitzsimmons, the Suns’ coach, tried to diffuse the growing belief that the Suns are in control of the series even though they trail, 2-1. “All we’ve done is win one game,” Fitzsimmons said. “I’m not surprised we blew a team out, but (Game 3) was surprising. We were the aggressors, but they had a tough night in every respect. But our win doesn’t mean any more than their one-point win and their two-point win up there. The real Portland team will step up. They’ve had a day to think about it. Sometimes, you have those type of games.” Sun players said they are confident they can beat the Trail Blazers a second time today to even the series going into Game 5 Tuesday night in Portland. “If we don’t win Sunday, that 30-point win means absolutely nothing,” Kurt Rambis said. “We have to play just as well Sunday or we’re in trouble. It all comes down to attitude.”