THE NBA : East Coast Has Its Own Kind of Magic

Walt Disney World is 20 minutes from the parquet-floored Orlando Arena, but the whole area has become the Magic Kingdom, thanks to the Orlando Magic.

That’s what happens when an expansion team wins two games in the first week of the season.

The Magic beat the New York Knicks Nov. 6 in the second game in franchise history, after a last-minute loss to New Jersey a couple of nights earlier. The local ABC-TV affiliate broke into regular programming for a special bulletin announcing the inaugural victory.

Then, two nights later, Orlando trailed injury-depleted Cleveland by 25 points in the second quarter but rallied to win, on the road, no less. The Magic returned to Central Florida and was greeted by 350 screaming fans, some of whom handed flowers to players and coaches.

“Hysterical. Maniacal,” is how Pat Williams, the team’s president and general manager, described the mood after the first week. “Beyond anything I’ve seen in 20 years in the NBA.”

It would have been enough for the Magic to have won a game early in the season. But to have come close to a 3-0 start, to beat New York and Cleveland, to lose to defending NBA champion Detroit by only four points last Friday? No one could have dreamed that up.

The only negative was center Dave Corzine suffering a torn knee ligament against Cleveland, an injury that will sideline him at least six weeks. That puts the Magic in the hunt for big men, as are several other teams, but he hasn’t been missed on the boards. Orlando decisively out-rebounded its first five opponents, 269-208, and Terry Catledge, a 6-foot-8 forward playing with his third NBA team in five seasons, averaged 11.5 rebounds and missed double figures only once.

“We put a veteran club together,” Williams said late last week. “This is by design, that we wanted to win as soon as possible. . . . We wanted to be viewed not as an expansion team, but as a new team. This, though, has gone beyond anything we hoped for.

“Corzine called me about his knee . . . and we got to talking. He said, ‘This is not an ordinary NBA city. The players aren’t used to seeing this.’

“Neither am I. We had doctors calling the office today, volunteering to do Corzine’s surgery. Jerry Reynolds has a back problem and we must have heard from every chiropractor in the city offering advice.”

Said guard Reggie Theus: “Our goal was, we didn’t want anyone walking out here and laughing at us because we’re an expansion team. We’re still not good enough to think we can just go out and win, so we have to work harder than everybody.”

Nobody’s laughing.

When New York lost to Orlando, it marked the third time in a little more than a season that the Knicks have been upset on their first trip into an expansion city. They were beaten last season by the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat.

They can complete the expansion grand slam March 15 at Minnesota.

A new season hasn’t done much to keep the heat off Coach Mike Fratello at Atlanta, but, for a switch, the source isn’t the players. That, in itself, is a welcome change for Fratello, who now apparently has only restless fans to deal with in the wake of a 1-3 start.

“I don’t like the fact that Mike is getting heat from the fans,” guard Doc Rivers said. “There’s no trouble between us and Mike. Far from it. . . . Mike’s relationship with us has never been better.”

Now if Rivers could only play well enough to keep Fratello around for a while. The guards have been criticized most for the early poor play, especially poor outside shooting.

Atlanta called Phoenix, asking about Jeff Hornacek, but Cotton Fitzsimmons, the Suns’ coach and director of player personnel, told the Hawks not to waste their breath.

Atlanta is so loaded in the front court--Dominique Wilkins, Cliff Levingston, Kevin Willis, Antoine Carr, Jon Koncak and Alexander Volkov--that Volkov, the hit of training camp, got 30 seconds’ playing time in the first three games.

“In my head I understand it,” said Volkov, the most valuable player of the Soviet Union’s national team in 1988. “I know it is difficult for coach to get so many good players in the game. (But) in my heart I don’t understand it.”

Blazermania, the basketball-induced spirit that swept Oregon when the Trail Blazers won the NBA title in 1976-77, was alive for a night last week, when Bill Walton returned to Portland to have his jersey, No. 32, retired.

Then it was back to reality.

“He seemed a little depressed by his health,” said Danny Ainge of Sacramento, that night’s opponent. “I asked him if he was thinking about making a comeback and he said, ‘Hey, I’m just trying to walk without pain.’ ”

Walton, who averaged 13.3 points in 10 injury-plagued seasons, had numerous operations on his feet and ankles.

Denver and Sacramento should have offered refunds to the 6,933 fans who showed up at McNichols Arena last Wednesday, instead of just having the coaches offer insights.

“I’ve been here 10 years and I’ve seen a lot of great games, a lot of very good games and a lot of good games,” said Doug Moe, whose Nuggets won, 102-84. “But this may have been the worst-played game.”

To which Sacramento Coach Jerry Reynolds replied: “Doug is an astute judge of bad basketball. I’ve always considered him that. If he said that, it must be true.”

The Nuggets shot 43%, with Michael Adams making one of 13 and Blair Rasmussen six of 16. The Kings hit 41.3%, as Ainge made four of 13, Ralph Sampson three of 10 and Wayman Tisdale seven of 17. Sacramento had 29 turnovers.

The most positive stat might have been the time of the game, 1 hour 55 minutes. It just seemed much longer.

Forget the problems it caused the Secret Service. You should have seen the Indiana Pacers’ front-office scramble when Vice President Dan Quayle showed up, semi-unannounced, for last Wednesday’s home game against Detroit.

The vice president’s office had notified the Pacers of the possibility that he would pop in to watch them play the defending NBA champions, but made no definite plans. With about seven minutes to play in the second quarter, Quayle, an Indiana native, and an entourage of about 30 strolled in.

There was no place for him to sit. The Secret Service wanted to clear out the owner’s section of courtside seats, but that was nixed for unspecified reasons by team President Donnie Walsh, who instead evacuated the Pacers’ box, which meant his daughters had to move.

“I told my daughter she needed to move so the vice president could sit there,” Walsh said later. “She said, ‘Vice president of what?’ I said, ‘The United States.’ She said, ‘Oh, OK.’ ”

Quayle left at halftime. Not that he missed much.

The Pacers then held the Pistons to 25 points in the second half, tying the NBA mark for the third-lowest scoring half of the shot-clock era.

NBA Notes

Pervis Ellison, the league’s No. 1 draft choice, is expected to make his debut tonight for the Sacramento Kings against the Chicago Bulls. Ellison had been out since surgery Sept. 27 to remove bone spurs on his right foot and ankle.

Pearl Washington, a former first-round draft choice with New Jersey, has joined the Rapid City Thrillers of the Continental Basketball Assn., where the average salary is $450 a month. But worry not for the former Syracuse star. He still has a $125,000 shoe contract, which stipulates only that he must play in an organized league to collect, not necessarily the NBA.

The proprietor of the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas, site of Michael Jordan’s wedding to the former Juanita Vanoy Sept. 2, turned down an offer of $50,000 from a magazine for the 12-picture portfolio.