A Roundup of the Week March 9-15

PRO BASKETBALL—In the Central, where the only tight division battle remains, Atlanta stretched its winning streak to 10—the NBA's longest this season—but still couldn't catch Detroit, which had its own 6-win string going. The Hawks beat Chicago 108-103, San Antonio 113-106 in OT, Dallas 113-105 and Denver 104-100—and were half a game back. The Pistons downed New York 116-93 and Indiana 107-98, then got last-second free throws from Bill Laimbeer to edge Chicago 100-99 and Philadelphia 98-95. Meanwhile, third-place Milwaukee went 3-1 for the week and lost ground to the leaders. In the Pacific Division, the Lakers, who had won seven straight, widened their lead over Portland to 11½ games by romping past Denver 143-107, Portland 125-116 and the Clippers twice, 136-114 and 115-101 (page 56). The Bullets ceded second place in the Atlantic to Philadelphia after a 121-79 thrashing by New Jersey—the Nets' most lopsided win since November 1973, when they were an ABA team playing on Long Island—and a 115-107 defeat by Milwaukee, their first home loss in two months. Washington then beat Chicago 106-105 in OT and Cleveland 97-89 to end the week half a game behind the Sixers and 12½ games behind Boston, which was 2-1 on the week. Dallas stood six games up on Utah in the Midwest after offsetting the loss to the Hawks with wins over Seattle, 130-117, and Houston, 118-109.

BOWLING—JIMMIE PRITTS JR. ended a three-year winless streak with a 238-214 victory over Mike Jasnau in a PBA tournament, in Overland Park, Kans.

FIGURE SKATING—At the world championships in Cincinnati, KATARINA WITT of East Germany regained the women's title; BRIAN ORSER of Canada took the men's crown; EKATERINA GORDEEVA and SERGEI GRINKOV of the U.S.S.R. repeated as pairs champions; and NATALIA BESTEMIANOVA and ANDREI BUKIN of the U.S.S.R. won their third dance title (page 20).

GOLF—PAYNE STEWART won his first tournament since 1983, beating David Frost by three strokes with a 20-under-par 264 at the Bay Hill Classic, in Orlando, Fla. Don Pooley aced the 192-yard 17th hole to claim a $500,000 bonus.

HOCKEY—After fiddlin' Phil Esposito, the trade-happy coach-G.M. of the New York Rangers, acquired L.A. center Marcel Dionne, the Rangers proceeded to win three straight: Jan Erixon scored his first goal at Madison Square Garden since March 1985 in a 3-2 win over Boston; Bob Froese stopped 39 of his former teammates' shots in a 6-1 rout of Philadelphia; and Tomas Sandstrom scored at 1:05 into OT to edge Pittsburgh 3-2. They ended the week with a 5-2 loss to the Flyers, who still led the Patrick Division by 18 points. The Rangers, who began the week just one point ahead of fifth-place Pittsburgh, moved into third place, two points behind the Islanders, one point ahead of Washington and five up on the Penguins. Wayne Gretzky passed the 1,500-point career milestone with a goal and three assists in Edmonton's 6-3 win over Detroit and added five points in victories over Buffalo, 5-3, and Hartford, 4-1, to finish the week with 1,506 points. He trails only Gordie Howe, Dionne and Esposito in the NHL record book. The Oilers, however, trail no one and have a nine-point Smythe Division edge over Calgary. Hartford goalie Mike Liut collected his league-leading fourth shutout, a 3-0 win over Winnipeg, but the Whalers lost to Quebec 6-4, Calgary 6-1 and Edmonton, letting their Adams Division lead shrink to seven points over Montreal (page 69). In the Norris, St. Louis used 3-2 wins over Toronto and Chicago and a 3-3 tie with Washington to climb over the Blackhawks and North Stars into second place, just four points behind Detroit. The Red Wings beat Minnesota 4-3 but fell to Vancouver 7-4 and Edmonton before tying Winnipeg 1-1.

HORSE RACING—PHANTOM JET ($4.20), with Keith Allen aboard, tied a track record in winning the Tampa Bay Derby by a length over Homebuilder. The 3-year-old colt ran 1[1/16] miles in 1:43[4/5].

INDOOR SOCCER—Baltimore stretched its winning streak to four and its Eastern Division lead to 2½ games, beating Minnesota 6-4 and Tacoma 3-2 before losing to Wichita 6-3. Tacoma sandwiched wins over Minnesota, 6-3, and Cleveland, 4-3, around the loss to Baltimore and moved three games ahead of San Diego in the Western Division.

SKIING—MARIA WALLISER of Switzerland won a World Cup super-giant slalom race in Vail, Colo., to clinch both the overall and Super-G season titles. In men's racing, PETER MUELLER of Switzerland won the downhill and MARC GIRARDELLI of Luxembourg took the super-giant slalom, on Mount Allan, near Calgary (page 42).

SPEED SKATING—BONNIE BLAIR added victories in the final 500- and 1,000-meter women's World Cup races to the season titles she had earlier clinched in those events; NICK THOMETZ also swept the men's 500 and 1,000 season championships after placing second in the final 500 race and winning the 1,000, in Inzell, West Germany.

TENNIS—PARAGUAY beat the United States 3-2 in first-round Davis Cup competition, in Asuncion, Paraguay.

TRACK & FIELD—RODDIE HALEY ran a world-best 59.90 in the 500 meters—the first official clocking under a minute—to help ARKANSAS win a record fourth consecutive NCAA men's indoor championship. LOUISIANA STATE took the women's title by 19 points over Tennessee, in Oklahoma City.

MILEPOSTS—GRANTED: By a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge, a preliminary injunction against drug testing of Stanford diver SIMONE LeVANT, 22, during NCAA competition. In the first legal challenge to the 14-month-old NCAA policy, Judge Peter G. Stone ruled that mandatory urine tests are an unconstitutional invasion of privacy (page 15).

RELEASED: From his letter of intent to play basketball at UCLA, by the Collegiate Commissioners Association, SEAN HIGGINS, 18, who claimed he signed the letter because of physical coercion by his stepfather, Clifford Benson-Bey (page 15).

TRADED: By the Los Angeles Kings, center MARCEL DIONNE, 35, a minor leaguer and a draft choice, to the New York Rangers for center BOBBY CARPENTER, 23, and defenseman TOM LAIDLAW, 28; by the Edmonton Oilers, left wing RAIMO SUMMANEN, 25, to the Vancouver Canucks for left wing MOE LEMAY, 25.

DIED: WOODY HAYES, 74, hot-tempered and controversial football coach who had the fifth-winningest record in collegiate history (238-72-10) in three seasons at Denison, two at Miami of Ohio and 28 at Ohio State; of a heart attack; in Upper Arlington, Ohio (page 94).

Bobby Locke, 69, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame who won four British Open championships, nine South African Open titles and numerous European events; of meningitis; in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Harry Silbert, 75, a jockey agent who teamed with Bill Shoemaker for 37 years and more than 8,600 winners; of cancer; in Los Angeles.