THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : These Days, It Isn’t Wise to Look Past the Bucks

After one week, they were merely hot. After two, they were a fluke.

After three, they were a surprise. But last week, when the Bucks tied Portland for the best record in the NBA--briefly--they were a full-fledged Milwaukee Miracle, posing this question for Coach Mike Dunleavy:

Why are you messing up a perfectly good lottery pick?

“I tell ‘em I don’t know any better,” Dunleavy says, laughing.

“People said the Knicks might take six months to get together with all their new players. If they looked at all our young players, they might have said it’d take six-eight-10 months.”

Or forever. The Knicks acquired stars. All Dunleavy could do was raid doghouses.

From Utah came Jerry Sloan’s whipping boy, Blue Edwards, and Eric Murdoch, who failed his audition as John Stockton’s caddie. Off the end of Portland’s bench came Alaa Abdelnaby, who was traded Friday for Jon Barry. Back from Europe came Anthony Avent. From Arkansas came No. 1 pick Todd Day, deemed the best athlete in the draft but downgraded for off-court problems.

Joining last season’s dull-as-their-forest-green-uniformed holdovers, they were immediately and universally written off.

With youth, speed and nothing to lose, Dunleavy turned them loose to press, spectacularly. They lead the NBA in forcing turnovers (22 per game) and opponents’ shooting (43%). They are 4-4 on the road, which compares favorably to last season’s 6-35.

Their bubble is unlikely to survive this week, when they will tour the West Coast.

However, they have caught everyone’s attention.

Included are the Lakers. Jerry West was high on Dunleavy when he hired him and higher when he bolted two overachieving seasons later. For once, the Lakers were in over their heads. Sen. Herb Kohl, the Bucks’ owner, whipped out an eight-year contract, longest ever awarded an NBA coach. It has incentives that could boost it to $12 million, which would make Dunleavy No. 1 on the sideline, ahead of Pat Riley’s $1.2 million.

Of course, no one imagined this. So maybe Dunleavy should ask to renegotiate.

“The only thing I promised people when I came here was we were going to play hard,” he says. “The guys have just given a huge effort.

“I tell them, ‘We’re just taking it one game at a time. You can’t think you’re this good because you probably aren’t.’ ”

URBAN STORM II: THE CLOUDS GATHER

The Bulls and Knicks, two teams which, in the words of ABC’s Keith Jackson . . . don’t like each other very much, met for the first time since last spring’s memorable series.

The setting was New York. The winner was New York, too, by a tidy 112-75.

The Bulls sneered at their presumptive challengers, complained of bully-boy tactics and even managed a farewell snicker after taking a 37-point beating.

Said Michael Jordan of the new Knicks beforehand: “You know what Scottie Pippen said: ‘Same guys, new address.’ ”

Said Coach Phil Jackson afterward: “I told our guys this is their (Knicks’) revenge, which is understandable. But that type of aggressive basketball! We forgot that they allowed people to play like that in this league.”

Said Jordan after spraining an ankle and going four for 20: “If we get a decent game from me, I think we can handle this team with no problem.”

SAME PLAYER, NEW ADDRESS

Two seasons ago Bull General Manager Jerry Krause’s big move to bolster his team was Dennis Hopson.

This season it’s Rodney McCray.

What does he have against picking up a basketball player?

McCray was once an all-around, if self-effacing, player in Houston. However, there is no worse fate for a complementary player than to be shipped to an awful team. But that’s what happened to Rodney, consigned to the salt mines of Sacramento and Dallas, where the lights went out on his game.

He is fifth on the Bulls in minutes--and 12th in scoring at 2.5 points per game.

With Jordan out, McCray played 32 minutes in the loss at Boston and posted a triple-single: two points, three rebounds, two assists.

At least, he still has his all-around game.

“Sometimes, I’m out there on the court and I just feel like looking over at Phil and saying, ‘Get someone else in there,’ ” a disconsolate McCray said.

“In this business, if you’re not producing, sometimes it’s time to give somebody else a chance.”

Will Perdue, perhaps?

FACES AND FIGURES

Don’t try this with Stanley Roberts or John Williams: Phoenix’s Kevin Johnson suffered the groin pull that put him on the injured list for the start of the season by lifting up 310-pound rookie Oliver Miller to congratulate him on a good pass in practice. “I’ll never do that again,” KJ said. “I used to lift Mark West and that was no problem. He weighs about 260. But Oliver weighs 50 pounds more.” . . . Sun Coach Paul Westphal, after Johnson went out again with assorted muscle strains: “I hope he’s doing his stretching. Red Auerbach would say he’s stretching too much. They just didn’t have muscle pulls back then. I guess you could say it’s an inexact science.”

Big D as in Defunct: The Mavericks continue to hold firm on offering Jim Jackson anything more than a four-year $10.8-million deal--but gave Terry Davis a four-year, $8-million extension . . . Hopeful Cavalier types speculated on a Jackson for Terrell Brandon and Craig Ehlo deal. If owner Donald Carter goes for that, he should be impeached, institutionalized or both. . . . Embattled Coach Richie Adubato, after losing to the Jazz: “At the end, it was Walter Palmer, Brian Howard and Tracey Moore against Karl Malone, Jeff Malone and John Stockton.”

See if this sounds familiar dept.: Detroit’s Olden Polynice is upset about his playing time. Quoth the former Clipper: “Now I know how Dennis Rodman felt when he said he wanted to quit basketball.” . . . The price is going up on Rodman, who is back posting 20-rebound nights. “I think Dennis Rodman is an impact player, but are Brian Shaw and Grant Long impact players?” Piston General Manager Billy McKinney said of Miami’s package. “I don’t think so.”

Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon after his game against Shaquille O’Neal: “I have always imagined being a few pounds heavier and a couple of inches taller. He reminds me of a bigger me. . . . He’s a classic big man. He’s a big man you cannot move away from the basket if he doesn’t want to move.” . . . Olajuwon’s first coach, Bill Fitch, said that Hakeem, listed at 7-0, is actually 6-9 1/2. . . . On this team the H’s are silent, but nothing else is: Rocket rookie Robert Horry pronounces his name “Orry.” . . . Welcome to the West Coast: 50 seconds into his first western swing, O’Neal had a dunk blocked by Seattle’s Shawn Kemp. “I just wanted to show him he couldn’t walk in the arena and do whatever he wants,” Kemp said. “It’s still a learning experience for him. Hell, it’s still a learning experience for me.” . . . Comeback of the decade: Gary Payton, No. 2 pick in the 1990 draft, a trash-talking, brick-casting bust for two seasons, has boosted last season’s scoring average from nine points to 15, his shooting from 45% to 55% and in one streak went 16 quarters without a turnover. . . . Said Adubato, who helped nix a Payton-Derek Harper deal after Payton went for 31 points, seven assists and six rebounds against the Mavericks: “He sure made a liar out of me.” . . . Knick Coach Pat Riley, finally moving Charles Smith into the starting lineup: “Maybe I was jerking around with the lineup a little too long.” . . . This is a youth movement?: Sacramento Coach Garry St. Jean, criticized for benching Anthony Bonner and Pete Chilcutt to play veterans Kurt Rambis and Rod Higgins, said he was only substituting by the seat of his pants. Said St. Jean: “That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.” . . . St. Jean has already passed former King coaches Draff Young (0-3) and Jack McKinney (1-8). Next in line: Bill Russell (17-41). . . . His alibi: Miami’s Glen Rice, accused of hitting a patron in a topless bar with a bottle, isn’t expected to be charged. One of the establishment’s featured dancers said she was embracing Rice at the time. . . . Doug Moe on the 76ers’ slow start: “This time last year I was on my back in the hospital being fed intravenously and I had a lot better time.”