The NBA / Gordon Edes : Malone Takes Up Slack for Dantley

When the Utah Jazz traded Adrian Dantley to the Detroit Pistons for Kelly Tripucka last summer, lots of people wondered whether Tripucka could compensate for the points the Jazz were giving up by unloading Dantley, their leading scorer for seven seasons.

Tripucka hasn’t come close, in part because he hasn’t gotten anywhere near the playing time Dantley did, in part because the Jazz didn’t structure their offense around him as it had around Dantley.

But who would have believed that Utah’s power forward, Karl Malone, would have more points this season than Dantley has with the Pistons?

“If I’d taken bets on that before the season, I’d be taking a round-the-world cruise this summer,” said Bill Kreifeldt, Utah’s director of public relations.

Malone, nicknamed The Mailman because he delivers, or so they say in Salt Lake City, has a 23-point lead on Dantley, who has played one fewer game.

A ferocious rebounder, Malone averaged 14.9 points a game last season, his first in the National Basketball Assn. after three years at Louisiana Tech. This season, Malone ranks 18th among the league’s leading scorers, with a 21.8 average.

And he may just be tapping his potential. Check his numbers for the last 30 games against those of the first half of the season.

First half: 19.3 points a game, 9.8 rebounds, 49% field goal percentage, 57% free-throw percentage.

Last 30 games: 25.3 points a game, 11 rebounds, 55% field goal shooting, 64% free-throw shooting.

More on Malone: Although there are 11 Johnsons in the NBA, only one, Magic Johnson of the Lakers, ranks among the league’s top 20 in scoring. Magic ranks 10th.

But all three Malones are among the top 18. Moses Malone of Washington is 9th, Jeff Malone of the Bullets is 17th and Karl is 18th. Collectively, the Malones are averaging 23.7 points a game.

Franchise maker or breaker: Patrick Ewing’s second season with the New York Knicks came to a premature end when he sprained his left knee, but it may not have been a moment too soon.

Ewing, who signed a $31-million, 10-year contract after the Knicks had selected him No. 1 in the NBA’s first draft lottery, has given New York little return on that investment.

Last season, the Knicks won 23 games. They had won only 21 this season when Ewing went down. He has been booed in Madison Square Garden, has been in several fights and has raised questions about his ability.

“He’s not ready to be a franchise right now,” Gerald Wilkins of the Knicks told Gary Binford of Newsday recently. “He’s just not that type of player right now, I feel. He needs people who are going to help him out and he doesn’t have that yet.”

Said Coach Bob Hill: “I think it hasn’t been Patrick’s or anyone else’s fault. It’s the situation this team has been in. I don’t think it’s fair to expect him to solve a decimated team’s problem. Patrick has tried, especially this year.”

Mychal Thompson describes the Eastern Conference playoffs as a torture chamber, but Boston’s Larry Bird predicts that the Celtics will survive and advance to the final series, no matter how much or little Bill Walton is able to contribute.

“There are a lot of teams with a chance to win it,” Bird said. “Atlanta’s young and they’re a great basketball team. But I still feel, no matter what situation we’re in, we’re going to be able to beat teams like Atlanta and Milwaukee, because of our height and our ability to play together.

“We’ve been together for a long time. That alone means a lot.”

On Walton, Bird said: “He’s not going to be as good as he was last year, there’s no question about that. You can’t sit out seven months and come back and be just as good as you were the year before.”

Wonder where Navy’s David Robinson will wind up next season, even if he can’t play because of his naval obligations?

Well, most likely he’ll be assigned to one of the major naval bases, located in Seattle, San Diego, Oakland, Pensacola, Fla.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Norfolk, Va.; Washington, D.C., and Newport, R.I. The only team with a lottery pick that plays anywhere near any of those areas is the Clippers.

The SuperSonics have the Knicks’ No. 1 pick, but New York will keep its pick if it is among the first three in the lottery.

Scoring machine: When Denver’s Alex English hit a 12-foot jump shot with 9 minutes 47 seconds remaining in the first quarter last Tuesday against the Clippers, it put him over the 2,000-point mark, the sixth straight season he has reached that milestone. English has scored more points in the 1980s than any other player in the NBA.

With less than three weeks left in the regular season, eight players have a chance to score 2,000 points this season, which would equal the NBA one-season record set in 1971-72.

They are: English, Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Bird, Kiki Vandeweghe, Kevin McHale, Mark Aguirre and Dale Ellis.

In 1971-72, the eight were: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, John Havlicek, Tiny Archibald, Gail Goodrich, Bob Love, Bob Lanier, Elvin Hayes and Sidney Wicks. Jerry West, who missed five games with injuries, fell short by 15 points.

Making amends: Mark Aguirre scored 43 points against New Jersey in the first game he played after his ejection from a game against Detroit, after which he got into a shouting match with Coach Dick Motta and was called a jerk by teammate Derek Harper.

“My main concern is to get my teammates’ respect and confidence back,” Aguirre said. “That slip-up in Detroit kind of tarnished things for me. It disturbed me more than the team. It really upset me.”

Said Harper: “Mark’s an emotional guy. He apologized and we cleared things up. He’s very emotional. He’s tried real hard to not be foolish or wild. You have to respect that.

“Hey, we need him. He’s so important to this team that it’s ridiculous.”