THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Everybody’s Setting in the West but Suns

Didn’t you used to be . . .

The Western Conference?

Two seasons ago, six of its teams won 50 games. A year ago, seven won 47. Now it’s sagging, as a look at the Midwest Division from the All-Star break to the start of this weekend suggests:

* Houston: 18-4

* San Antonio: 15-13

* Denver: 12-12

* Utah: 9-14

* Minnesota: 6-20

* Dallas: 4-20

What has happened to the once-wild West?

Phoenix Suns--The best hope, even if they are 6-foot-10, 6-6 and 6-4 1/2 across the front line and don’t play the 6-10 guy, Mark West, much. Since their 0-4 start against the top three in the East, they have beaten the Chicago Bulls in Chicago and the New York Knicks, and gone 4-0 on an Eastern swing, including an easy victory at Indianapolis against an Indiana Pacer front line that goes 7-4, 6-11, 6-11.

Seattle SuperSonics--Your basic post-adolescents, finding out what it means to aspire to elite status. Since their 10-game winning streak, they are 9-7.

Portland Trail Blazers--For a couple of years, management has been wondering if its window was closing, and this season someone threw a rock through it. Clyde Drexler is out again with that hamstring. Good night, Blazermania.

Clippers--Starting to play like a team of free agents. Good news: They have opened talks with Ron Harper.

Lakers--Snakebit City. They can’t kill anything and nothing will die. If they had only started this sooner, it would be Lottery City and cause for rejoicing.

Sacramento Kings--One more lottery should do it. Here it comes.

Rockets--They haven’t been past the first round of the playoffs since Ralph Sampson left.

Nuggets--A bunch of young guys feeling their oats now that the pressure is off, unless the Lakers collapse entirely.

Spurs--John Lucas’ honeymoon reached 24-4, but it’s over. Avery Johnson has been unmasked once more and there is no other point guard on the lot. Team defense, once formidable, is degenerating, as is everything else. “We’ve lost it right now,” Lucas said. “We’ve got to get it back.”

Jazz--Biggest fall of all. The addition of Jay Humphries and Larry Krystkowiak looked perfect for a rugged team that lacked only depth. But Mark Eaton’s arthroscopic surgery basically cost the Jazz its season. He has tiptoed through 62 games with minimal impact. Coach Jerry Sloan has told friends he expects to be fired. Karl Malone and John Stockton wish they had never heard of the Dream Team.

Timberwolves--They will finish their third season with one good player under 26, Christian Laettner.

Mavericks--Actually, they are on a roll, 4-18 since Jim Jackson arrived. They were 4-48 before.

ROLLING BETWEEN RUMBLES

Since John Starks ended Kenny Anderson’s season, the Knicks are 16-3, including a two-game losing streak after the Phoenix brawl, and things are tilting their way in the race for best record in the East.

The Knicks romped through Miami, where 10 technical fouls were assessed, along with two flagrant fouls. They had a 20-point lead before Patrick Ewing hit Grant Long in the mouth with what most observers agreed was an accidental elbow. Heat Coach Kevin Loughery, who held a different opinion, went off.

Thereafter, Loughery was heard yelling, “Knock ‘em down! Knock ‘em down!” at his players.

Asked referee Ronnie Nunn: “Did I hear you correctly?”

Said Loughery, innocently: “I didn’t say anything.”

Perhaps by coincidence then, Heat reserve Keith Askins hit Ewing with a forearm and precipitated a square-off that included four Miami policemen on the floor.

Demonstrating their newfound self-control, the Knicks held their tempers, finished mopping up and got the heck out of Dodge.

With two weeks left, they are clinging to a half-game lead over the Bulls. More important, they control all the tiebreakers, so the Bulls are effectively 1 1/2 games behind.

“This will be fun,” Michael Jordan said. “We haven’t been challenged like this the last two years in April. . . . This is where your character has to come out.”

A couple of nights later, they lost to the Bucks.

SONIC BOOM AND BUST

Since their 10-game winning streak ended, the SuperSonics have lost at home to the Pacers, Mavericks and Trail Blazers without Drexler, Rod Strickland and Kevin Duckworth, and Coach George Karl feels like biting someone in the neck.

“Pro basketball has turned into a blackmail system of minutes, shots and ego,” Karl said, bristling at grumbling about his play-everyone-short-minutes program. “I don’t like blackmail.”

Fumed team captain Nate McMillan: “Right now, we’re pretending to be this, we’re pretending to be that, we’re pretending to go for a title. We ain’t going for no title. I think we’re concerned about stats and the way we look out on the floor and what people are saying about us. . . . We’ve got to quit the BS. There’s so much BS going on, it’s sickening.”

Fingers are again being pointed at forever-promising Derrick McKey, who is on another of his walkabouts. The problem is actually closer to home, with the erratic, trash-talking young stars of the franchise, Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton.

During a recent game, Payton, on a fast break, tried to lob a pass off the backboard so Kemp could jam it. The play misfired and Karl left both players on the bench when the second half started.

Said Payton: “We’ll do it again. This is the ‘90s. Style is part of our game.”

DON’T CRY FOR HIM,

AMERICA

That was an awful gaffe for a nice, if exuberant, young man, but don’t bet on that timeout defining Michigan forward Chris Webber or ruining his career.

Before he made his mistake, he had already shown enough to reopen everyone’s eyes. Until last weekend, pro scouts were saying he was dominating but raw. After pillaging all the big men Kentucky and North Carolina sent against him, he’s back to being raw but dominating.

A week ago, a poll of scouts had him No. 5 among college players who might be in the June draft. Now he’s No. 2 or 3. Such a jump, based on last season’s contracts for No. 3 Laettner and No. 5 Tom Gugliotta, would be worth $5 million over the life of a five-year contract.

FACES AND FIGURES

Early recess: The inmates are running the asylum in Detroit, where lame-duck Coach Ron Rothstein couldn’t say a word when Isiah Thomas, Terry Mills, Alvin Robertson and Butch Morris flew to New Orleans to watch Michigan in the NCAA final. “They’re grown men,” said Rothstein. So he approved their going? “I didn’t say that,” Rothstein said. . . . In Indianapolis, Charles Barkley applied to visit Mike Tyson but was turned down because the jailed fighter is allowed only one “special visitor” a month and had already had one--Shaquille O’Neal.

It’s still not nice to fool with Mother Nature or Jordan, especially on national TV: Said Boston’s Reggie Lewis, preparing for last week’s matchup, “All my friends will be watching back home and saying, ‘Oh man! Jordan’s eating him up! Jordan’s eating Reggie up!’ You don’t want to go out there and get embarrassed on national television.” Jordan then scored 32 points and held Lewis to four-for-18 shooting. . . . What to do? After losing Terry Mills and Mookie Blaylock for financial reasons, the New Jersey Nets would like to prove they can sign someone, but unrestricted free agent-to-be Chris Dudley is asking for $3 million. Coach Chuck Daly is down on Sam Bowie, so the move is doubly important, but Dudley says if it’s not done before he gets on the market, he doesn’t think he will be back.

Shawn Bradley alert: “He’s not just a shot blocker,” Golden State Coach Don Nelson said of the young man who will turn pro after having played only his freshman season at Brigham Young. “He has great hands. He can pass. He can score from the outside and from the low box. He makes his free throws. He’s truly an amazing tall person. I don’t think we’ve seen a guy like that in our league.” Says Sacramento General Manager Jerry Reynolds: “You may have, five years from now, a 7-6 Bill Walton. Not many teams are going to let that slip by.”

They didn’t call him Mad Dog for nothing: Fred Carter, 4-15 as the 76ers’ interim coach: “If I had this team from the start, we’d be in the hunt for the seventh or eighth playoff spot.” . . . Add Dog: In Orlando, Carter decided to single-team O’Neal, whose low-post game he called rudimentary. Shaq had 22 points by halftime and finished with 35, including 13 dunks. He said it was the first time anyone had tried that since he was a sophomore at Louisiana State. Said Carter, looking at it in a new light: “Shaq is like the Colossus of Rhodes. No one else measures up to him.”

Daly after Derrick Coleman was ejected for throwing a punch: “You have to show restraint. I had players in Detroit who would drive other players crazy and then walk away like Gandhi.” . . . Nelson, on his own center, Victor (Big Smoothie) Alexander: “That tells you all you need to know. Why can’t he be called ‘Rock’ or ‘Killer’ or ‘Big Toughie?’ ”