A roundup of the week Oct. 23-29

PRO BASKETBALL—NBA: Washington, which began the week undefeated, seemed to have taken up right where it left off last year. Then the Bullets dropped three straight on the West Coast and fell to third place in the Atlantic Division. Their most devastating defeat was a 29-point rout by Seattle, the only remaining unbeaten team. Lonnie Shelton, acquired as part of the compensation for Marvin Webster, came off the bench to score 23 points. In the Sonics' 80-79 win over Milwaukee, Shelton scored the final three points, and Seattle's other top substitute, Fred Brown, led the team with 20 points. Cleveland's first loss was Detroit's first victory, the Pistons winning 110-105. Paced by Adrian Dantley's 30 points and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 27, Los Angeles beat San Antonio 134-121 for its first victory. The Spurs' George Gervin, who leads the league with a 32.8 average, was held to 18. Philadelphia and New Jersey were both undefeated last week. One of the 76ers' two wins was against Central Division leader Houston 101-99, and the Nets edged Boston 111-109 for their fourth win of the week. John Williamson and Bernard King had 28 and 25 points, respectively, for the Nets, and Dave Cowens had 30 for the Celtics. Earlier, Boston, which has lost six of seven this year, started Cowens at forward but to little avail; San Antonio routed the Celtics 132-109, and Cowens scored only 16. Chicago, which also has won only one game this season, has now lost six straight.

BOXING—WILFREDO GOMEZ of Panama retained his WBC Super Bantamweight title in San Juan with a fifth-round TKO of WBC Bantamweight Champion Carlos Zarate of Mexico. It was Zarate's first loss.

PRO FOOTBALL—For the second week in a row, the NFL featured upsets and superlative quarterbacking. In the two biggest surprises, St. Louis and Cincinnati, which went through the first half of the season without winning, started the second half with victories. Jim Hart completed 12 of 24 passes for 260 yards and the winning touchdown, a 55-yarder to rookie Dave Stief, as the Cardinals beat Philadelphia 16-10. Ken Anderson was 11 of 16 for 268 yards as the Bengals shocked Houston 28-13. On Monday night, the Oilers had beaten the NFL's sole remaining unbeaten team, upending Pittsburgh 24-17. It was the first time an AFC Central team had defeated the Steelers at home in four years. Pittsburgh rebounded with a 27-24 win over Kansas City and has a three-game lead in the division. Washington took a one-game lead in the NFC East by virtue of Dallas' 21-10 Thursday-night loss to Minnesota and the Redskins' 38-20 victory over San Francisco. In his first start of the year, Billy Kilmer completed 12 of 23 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns, and the normally defensive-minded Redskins had their highest-scoring day since 1975. In Foxboro, Mass., Steve Grogan threw for 281 yards and four touchdowns in the first half to lead the Patriots to a 55-21 slaughter of the Jets. Cleveland routed Buffalo 41-20 as Brian Sipe completed 12 of 15 for three TDs and Mike Pruitt rushed for 173 yards on 21 carries. Detroit Quarterback Gary Danielson had his second straight fine day—20 of 32 for 190 yards and two TDs—as he directed the Lions to a 21-17 upset of Chicago, and Archie Manning's two touchdown passes rallied New Orleans from a 10-point deficit to a 28-17 victory over the Giants. Led by Bob Griese's two touchdown passes, one a 63-yard strike to Duriel Harris, Miami defeated Baltimore 26-8. Controversy again surrounded an Oakland-San Diego game after Dan Fouts' 29-yard TD pass to Greg McCrary with 52 seconds remaining gave the Chargers a 27-23 win. The Raiders vehemently contended that McCrary was out of bounds. In other games, Green Bay needed a 48-yard field goal from Chester Marcol to get by Tampa Bay 9-7 (page 32), and Denver beat Seattle 20-17 on Jim Turner's 18-yard field goal 12:59 into overtime.

GOLF—MAC McLENDON defeated Mike Reid with a par on the first playoff hole to win the $125,000 Pensacola Open, the last tournament on the PGA tour. Both players finished at 272, 16 under par.

GYMNASTICS—JAPAN edged the Soviet Union to win its fifth straight men's team title, and the U.S.S.R. defeated Romania for the women's team title at the world championships in Strasbourg, France. The U.S. men placed fourth, the U.S. women fifth. The Soviet Union dominated the championships, winning 17 of 38 medals. KURT THOMAS, 22, of Terre Haute, Ind. won the floor exercise to give the U.S. men their first gold medal since 1932. The U.S. women won their first gold in the history of the competition when MARCIA FREDERICK, 15, of Springfield, Mass. came in first in the uneven parallel bars.

HARNESS RACING—ABERCROMBIE ($3.40), driven by Glen Garnsey, won the $167,862 Messenger Stakes, the final leg of pacing's Triple Crown, at Roosevelt Raceway by 5½ lengths over Happy Escort. The 3-year-old's time was 1:58[2/5].

HOCKEY—NHL: Last year Atlanta finished third in the Patrick Division, but now, three weeks into the current season, the Flames are in first place, the league's only unbeaten team. The scoring of Eric Vail, Guy Chouinard and Bob MacMillan led Atlanta to a 4-0 week that included wins over division rivals Philadelphia (5-2) and the New York Islanders (8-5). The New York Rangers, who finished in last place in the Patrick a year ago, also had a perfect week, highlighted by a 2-1 win over the Canadiens in Montreal. It was Montreal's third loss in five games. Detroit swept three games and replaced the Canadiens atop the Norris Division. In the first of two Detroit victories over Colorado, Red Wing Forward Dennis Polonich high-sticked Rockies Winger Wilf Paiement, who retaliated with a stick swing. Polonich was hospitalized with a broken nose and facial cuts; Paiement was suspended indefinitely. Later in the week, Vaclav Nedomansky had three goals and rookie Roland Cloutier two as the Red Wings handed Chicago its first loss 7-2. Earlier, the Black Hawks had beaten Boston to hand the Bruins their only defeat of the season.

WHA: Quebec, which has given up a league-high 40 goals in eight games, beat Cincinnati 4-3 for its first win, then made it two in a row by handing New England its first defeat 8-5. The following night the Whalers lost again, this time to Winnipeg 6-4. The Jets have not lost to the Whalers in 14 games. Birmingham won the three games that 19-year-old Pat Riggin played in goal, but lost to Winnipeg 7-2 when Riggin was given a night off.

HORSE RACING—SPECTACULAR BID ($3.80), Ronnie Franklin up, finished 8½ lengths ahead of General Assembly to win the $142,280 Laurel Futurity. The 2-year-old colt covered the mile and a sixteenth in a track record 1:41[3/5] (page 92).

MOTOR SPORTS—JOHNNY RUTHERFORD, averaging 120.974 mph in a McLaren-Cosworth, won the Phoenix 150, the final race of the year for Indianapolis-type cars, by 1.9 seconds over A. J. Foyt's Parnelli-VPJ. By finishing 16th, Penske driver Tom Sneva edged 5th-place Al Unser for the USAC points championship.

TENNIS—GUILLERMO VILAS beat John McEnroe 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 to win the $75,000 Swiss Indoor Championship in Basel.

In her debut as a professional, TRACY AUSTIN beat Betty Stove 6-3, 6-3 to win a $35,000 Grand Prix tournament in Filderstadt, West Germany.

MILEPOSTS—DISBANDED: World Team Tennis' Boston Lobsters and New York Apples, which leaves the 5-year-old league with eight franchises. Both teams cited WTT's failure to sign top players for next season as the major reason for folding,

NAMED: Winner of the National League Cy Young Award, GAYLORD PERRY, 40, of the San Diego Padres. A Cy Young winner in the American League in 1972 and the only pitcher to win the award in both leagues, Perry was 21-6 last season with a 2.73 ERA.

REINSTATED: As an amateur by the Southern Pacific AAU, FRANCIE LARRIEU, 25, the U.S. women's record holder in the mile. Along with high jumper Dwight Stones, pentathlete Jane Frederick and javelin thrower Kate Schmidt, Larrieu had been suspended indefinitely from AAU events last June 23 for accepting prize money for competing on television's Superstars series. Larrieu, whose suspension continues through Dec. 31, applied for reinstatement in September and returned the $3,100 she received.

RESIGNED: EMORY BELLARD, 51, football coach and athletic director at Texas A&M, after successive losses to Houston and Baylor that followed four consecutive wins. Credited with creating the wishbone formation while an assistant at the University of Texas, Bellard had a 48-27 record at A&M in 6½ seasons. Offensive Coordinator TOM WILSON, 34, was named interim head coach.