A roundup of the week April 6-12

PRO BASKETBALL—With four straight victories over Chicago, by scores of 121-109, 106-97, 113-107 and 109-103, Boston swept its best-of-seven NBA quarterfinal series. Philadelphia and Milwaukee played give and take, the Sixers winning 125-122 behind 38 points by Julius Erving, the Bucks triumphing 109-99, Philly succeeding 108-103 and Milwaukee coming out on top 109-98. After a 107-98 Houston victory at San Antonio, the Spurs got 34 points from Mark Olberding for a 125-113 win. In the next game Houston received 41 points and 15 rebounds from Moses Malone for a 112-99 victory, and then lost 114-113 to even the series 2-2. Upstart Kansas City won three of four in its playoff with Phoenix (page 88).

BOWLING—EARL ANTHONY beat Gil Sliker 230-224 to win the $100,000 Long Island Open in Garden City, N.Y. for the third year in a row.

BOXING—LARRY HOLMES successfully defended his WBC heavyweight title with a unanimous decision over Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas.

Sean O'Grady won the WBA lightweight championship by a unanimous decision over Hilmer Kenty in Atlantic City, N.J.

Sammy Serrano regained the WBA junior lightweight title that he had lost in August, with a "unanimous 15-round decision over Yasutsune Uehara in Wakayama, Japan.

GOLF—TOM WATSON shot an eight-under-par 280 to win the 45th Masters by two strokes over Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller (page 34).

Donna Caponi won a $125,000 LPGA tournament in Raleigh, N.C. with an eight-under-par 208, one stroke better than Cathy Sherk.

GYMNASTICS—Utah won the AIAW championship in Salt Lake City, defeating UCLA 145.65-144.1. SHARON SHAPIRO and DIANE DOVAS of UCLA won the individual titles in the vault and uneven bars, respectively, while HEIDI ANDERSON of Penn State placed first in the floor exercise and LAURIE CARTER of Oregon State was No. 1 in the balance beam.

HOCKEY—While Edmonton was shocking Montreal in their best-of-five playoff series (page 40), Minnesota and Calgary were pulling upsets of their own. In 14 seasons in the NHL, the North Stars had never won a game in Boston Garden. Last week they did it twice, beating the Bruins 5-4 on an overtime goal by Steve Payne and 9-6 with Payne and Al MacAdam scoring twice each. The Stars clinched the series in Bloomington with a 6-3 triumph. After leading off with 4-3 and 6-2 victories, the Flames extinguished Chicago 5-4 on Willi Plett's 40-foot slap shot in the second OT. The Rangers won 3-1 in their playoff opener in Los Angeles, but lost their next outing there 5-4. That game was marred by a brawl that helped set a variety of playoff records for penalties, including the one for the most minutes by two teams in one game (267). The Rangers then triumphed 10-3 and 6-3 to eliminate the Kings. More predictably, the Islanders swept Toronto 9-2, 5-1 and 6-1 with Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier each getting 10 points in the series, and Buffalo eliminated Vancouver for the second year in a row, by scores of 3-2 in overtime, 5-2 and 5-3. St. Louis split its four encounters with Pittsburgh. After winning 4-2 and losing 6-4, the Blues went ahead in the series with a 5-4 win, in which Bernie Federko got the game winner with 4:06 to play, but the Penguins then came back with a 6-3 victory. Philadelphia started off with two triumphs, 6-4 and 8-5, over Quebec before losing two, 2-0 and 4-3 in overtime, to end the week tied 2-2 with the Nordiques.

HORSE RACING—SPLENDID SPRUCE ($32), ridden by Darrel McHargue, beat Johnlee n' Harold by 1¾ lengths to win the $270,600 Santa Anita Derby. The 3-year-old was timed in 1:49 for the 1‚Äö√Ñ√∂‚àö√±‚àö¬µ miles.

Bold ego ($3.40), John Lively up, defeated Top Avenger by 1½ lengths to win the $228,600 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park. The 3-year-old covered the 1‚Äö√Ñ√∂‚àö√±‚àö¬µ miles in 1:50[2/5].

Bold 'n determined ($2.60), Eddie Delahoussaye up, beat La Bonzo by a nose to win the $219,700 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park. The 4-year-old filly ran the 1[1/16] miles in 1:44[1/5].

MOTOR SPORTS—DARRELL WALTRIP, averaging 126.703 mph in a Buick, won the Rebel 500 Grand National race on the 1.366-mile oval of the Darlington (S.C.) International Raceway. He finished half a second ahead of Harry Gant, who drove a Pontiac.

SOCCER—Fort Lauderdale got goals from Gerd Mueller and Teofilo Cubillas to defeat Edmonton 2-0 and bring its record to 3-0, the best in the NASL. The Cosmos beat Minnesota 3-1 on three goals by Giorgio Chinaglia.

SQUASH RACQUETS—SHARIF KHAN beat Aziz Khan 15-9, 15-5, 15-9 in Toronto to win the North American Open for the sixth straight time.

TENNIS—JIMMY CONNORS beat John McEnroe 6-4, 7-6 to win a $250,000 tournament in Tokyo.

Guillermo Vilas defeated Sammy Giammalva 6-2, 6-4 to win the $175,000 Houston National Championship.

Chris Evert Lloyd beat Pam Shriver 6-3, 6-2 to win a $150,000 tournament in Hilton Head Island, S.C.

TRACK & FIELD—WILLIE BANKS triple-jumped 56'9½" in San Jose, Calif. to surpass by 1¾ inches his own four-week-old American outdoor record.

MILEPOSTS—ACQUITTED: By a circuit court jury in Eugene, Ore., RON BILLINGSLEA, 30, a former assistant basketball coach at the University of Oregon, of a charge of first-degree theft involving $1,680 in airline ticket refunds belonging to the university.

NAMED: As basketball coach at Providence College, JOE MULLANEY, 55, who had a 29-49 record in three years at Brown, replacing Gary Walters, who resigned.

DIED: JOE LOUIS, 66, who held the world heavyweight boxing title longer, from 1937 to 1949, and defended it more times, 25, than any other champion; of cardiac arrest; in Las Vegas. Louis, whose real name was Joseph Louis Barrow, was born the seventh child of a sharecropper in Lafayette, Ala. in 1914 and moved to Detroit when he was 12. He fought his first amateur fight at 18 and had a record of 50-4 before turning pro in 1934. He won the title on June 22, 1937 by knocking out Jim Braddock in the eighth round. Louis retired as champion on March 1, 1949 and later attempted a comeback. He lost a title fight by a decision to Ezzard Charles in New York on Sept. 27, 1950. He never fought for the championship again. He later worked as a boxing referee, a professional wrestler and a greeter at a Las Vegas hotel.