THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Time to Look Back Before Looking Ahead

Now that that’s over . . .

The real NBA season, the one fans look forward to in the confidence that every game will produce a meeting between rested, motivated teams is, thank heaven, finally upon us.

It took only six months. Let’s have a word about our contestants, 11 of whom get off here.

PACIFIC DIVISION

Portland--Back after a midseason nap. They could split this team in two and both would make the playoffs. Seriously.

Lakers--A transition so smooth you almost couldn’t spot the seam.

Phoenix--Never recaptured last spring’s magic. Surprise: Xavier McDaniel gives them a defensive-chump forward tandem with Tom Chambers, and hasn’t happened offensively.

Golden State--Like the mid-1980s Raider offense: Heisman Trophy winners at skill positions, slugs on the line.

Seattle--Size, strength, youth, depth. Alas, no brains.

Clippers--Haven’t we seen this season somewhere before?

Sacramento--The rookies were OK, the atmosphere poison. Veterans took R-and-R on the injured list.

MIDWEST DIVISION

Utah--Jerry Sloan dodged a bullet. If these bargain basement contenders gave him a forward and a charter airplane, they might take the next step.

San Antonio--Battered by injuries, but Larry Brown worked a minor miracle. Big move by David Robinson, who was already great. Sean Elliott arrived. If they had made the deal for Walter Davis, they would be an elite team, but owner Red McCombs was upset at Brown for the acquisition of Sidney Green.

Houston--Heady days for the classic underachievers, but what’s next when Vernon Maxwell shoots more than Hakeem Olajuwon?

Orlando--Caught lightning in a bottle, expansion division. Tied for third-best record of non-playoff teams. The Scotts, Dennis and Skiles, were great. Matt Guokas got coach-of-the-year mention.

Minnesota--Imagine, a whole season waiting for Bill Musselman to get fired.

Dallas--The future went from now to never.

Denver--Caught sewage in a bottle. Their 10.7-point margin of defeat was 3.3 higher than next-worst Dallas.

ATLANTIC DIVISION

Boston--Last hurrah. Pray for Larry’s back.

Philadelphia--Like Mark Twain’s death, rumors of Charles Barkley’s maturity were greatly exaggerated.

New York--Best entertainment value since the fall of George Steinbrenner and Donald Trump.

Washington--Wes Unseld, great guy, loses Jeff Malone, starts without John Williams and Ledell Eackles, who turn up looking like Run DMC, develops Pervis Ellison and Harvey Grant.

New Jersey--Been down so long it looks like up to them.

Miami--With all those prospects, why haven’t they ever finished ahead of another expansion team? Ron Rothstein’s firing expected daily.

CENTRAL DIVISION

Chicago--Either they will stumble in the playoffs or prove that traditional theories concerning team size, depth and harmony are outmoded. In the latter case, chalk it up to two words: Michael Jordan.

Detroit--Sayonara, Bad Boys. Don’t let the door hit you in your attitude.

Milwaukee--They started 25-8. If only the playoffs began Jan. 1.

Atlanta--Waited too long to break up their nucleus. Now they will shop everyone but Dominique Wilkins. Moses Malone available at fire-sale prices.

Indiana--Got rid of head case Coach Dick Versace. Now to get rid of head case Chuck Person and mellow out Reggie Miller.

Cleveland--If it wasn’t for bad luck, they wouldn’t have any at all.

Charlotte--Owner George Shinn gets to see his favorite ACC stars up close and personal. Now he knows how big a turkey J.R. Reid is.

Now, our award winners. Because we maintain arms-length distance from mainstream thought, probable actual winners are in parentheses.

MVP--Michael Jordan (Jordan).

Coach of the year-- Very tricky since the real proof of who did what won’t be in until June. Remember last year when Pat Riley broke through . . . only to have his team mutiny within the month?

The choice is Larry Brown. (Houston’s Don Chaney is a lock, but who’s responsible for Rocket shot selection?)

Most improved player--With apologies to Tim Hardaway, Harvey Grant, Kevin Gamble and Scott Skiles, it’s Kenny Smith of Houston, playing with his third team in 15 months, now one of the league’s best point guards. (Wide-open race.)

Sixth man--Larry Smith, Houston (Ricky Pierce, Seattle, or Dan Majerle, Phoenix). All are deserving, as are Kevin McHale and Detlef Schrempf, but here’s a salute to Mr. Mean, who turned the Rocket season around. At 33, averaging 24 minutes a game, he’s 13th in rebounding.

Rookie of the year--Lionel Simmons, Sacramento (Derrick Coleman, New Jersey). Coleman, the superior prospect, faded, but Simmons kept coming.

Defensive player of the year--Dennis Rodman, Detroit (Rodman). A player 6-feet-8, 210 pounds who gets 1,000 rebounds? This man is unreal.

NBA Notes

Hors d’oeuvres: The Bulls, who will meet the Knicks, are 7-1 against them in two seasons. The loss was the controversial game in which Trent Tucker was ruled to have caught an inbounds pass, turned and hit the game-winning shot in three-tenths of a second. The rule was then changed to prevent a repeat. . . . Detroit went 5-0 against first-round opponent Atlanta. . . . I Coached Well but We Played Lousy: With Larry Bird resting his back, the Celtics went 2-6. After a loss to the Pistons, Chris Ford fumed: “You can ask the players, because I’m tired of answering those questions. I can’t find the answers, so see if you can ask the players. . . . I don’t want to be abrupt with you guys, but I think you can catch my drift.”

Charles Barkley said Monday he would miss the rest of the regular season with his sprained knee, said Tuesday he might miss part of the playoffs, played Thursday. Hint to Charlie: The 76ers won’t be around for more than part of the playoffs. . . . Keys to the puzzle: Detroit insiders say when Isiah Thomas ripped Piston “stowaways,” he was referring to unhappy Vinnie Johnson, John Salley and James Edwards. When he ripped people who were “part-time this, part-time that,” he was alluding to Coach Chuck Daly, who missed a practice because of Olympic duties. . . . Said Daly: “As Pat Riley says, the circle of blame gets bigger, and I’m willing to accept my share.” . . . Rockets Flying Too Close to the Ground: Houston cooled from its 22-2 run, went 2-3 whereupon Vernon Maxwell said they had been “just resting for the playoffs. I’ll guarantee you we’ll win the last three.” Instead, they lost at home to San Antonio and Dallas . . . SuperSonic Coach K.C. Jones, despairing of Dana Barros’ fine play that saddled him with a 10-man rotation, including five guards: “The normal order of things is eight people. We have 10 players here who can do it. That doesn’t create the best atmosphere.” Suggestion: Bench Gary Payton and try nine.

Goodfellas: Larry Johnson, plum of the 1991 draft, chose Sherwood Blount Jr. and Steve Endicott as agents. Blount is the Southern Methodist booster banned by the school after its football program received the death sentence and is under indictment in a savings and loan scandal. Blount and Endicott are members of the Dallas country club where Johnson’s mother, Dortha, works as a cook. . . . Johnson originally signed to attend SMU before an SAT problem obliged him to attend junior college. . . . Molting: Nebraska’s 7-foot Rich King, heretofore regarded as too stiff to stick a fork in, tore up the coaches’ all-star game at Indianapolis and is now projected as a first-rounder. . . . Says a general manager who saw King during the season: “I remember my notes from the first game--no quickness, no speed, can’t rebound. He didn’t do one thing in the game. The second game I saw, he didn’t start.”

Coach Jim Lynam of the 76ers, who lashed out at Philadelphia fans booing the draft of Kenny Payne in 1989, acknowledges that it hasn’t worked out. “The real disappointment is, the one thing we were sure he could do--shoot the basketball--he hasn’t been able to do,” Lynam said. . . . Chosen after Payne: Vlade Divac, Sherman Douglas, Cliff Robinson. . . . The Knicks have decided to fire John MacLeod. The Heat is reportedly interested in MacLeod and former Celtic coach Jimmie Rodgers for its upcoming vacancy. . . . You can take the guys out of Syracuse but you can’t take the Syracuse out of the guys: The Heat’s Douglas and Rony Seikaly combined for 64% at the free-throw line--the same number the Orangemen shot this season.