A Roundup of the Week April 17-23

PRO BASKETBALL—The Pistons finished the NBA regular season with a flourish, winning their last five games. That streak, capped by a 99-81 victory over the Hawks on Sunday, gave the Central Division champions a 63-19 record, the best in the league. In the first round of the playoffs, Detroit was to meet the Celtics, who beat the Hornets 120-110 in the season finale and so avoided missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 years. Boston finished at 42-40. Although the Knicks opened the week with a 104-100 loss to the Bulls—Michael Jordan, who scored 20 of his game-high 34 points in the fourth quarter, went on to win his third straight NBA scoring title, totaling 2,633 points for a 32.5 average—New York wound up with a 52-30 record and the Atlantic Division title. The Jazz, which won the Midwest Division with a 51-31 record, closed the season with a 111-95 win in a playoff preview against the Warriors. Utah's John Stockton, the league leader in assists, had 10 in that game, to bring his season average to 13.6. Those two teams would face off again this week in the first round of the playoffs—but with a big difference: The Jazz would have Karl Malone back in the lineup. Malone, the league's second-leading scorer, with a 29.1 average, sat out the last two games of the regular season with a sprained ankle. The Pacific Division-champion Lakers, who are pursuing their third straight NBA title, won all four of their games and had the best record in the Western Conference, 57-25. L.A.'s season-closing 121-117 victory over the SuperSonics was the last regular-season game for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 42, who added 10 points to bring his NBA career-record total to 38,387. The Suns won three of their four games last week (and 10 of their last 11), including a 140-85 rout of the Kings—the largest margin of victory in the NBA this season—to finish two games behind the Lakers. In the season's final game, the Trail Blazers beat the Kings 126-120 in overtime, to clinch the lone remaining Western Conference playoff berth. The 1988-89 champion in rebounds, the other major statistical category, was the Rockets' Akeem Olajuwon, with 13.5 a game.

BOWLING—DEL BALLARD JR. beat Walter Ray Williams Jr. 254-218 in the title game to win the PBA's Tournament of Champions and $50,000, in Fairlawn, Ohio (page 92).

BOXING—MARK BRELAND, 24-1-1, retained his WBA welterweight title by stopping previously unbeaten Rafael Pineda in the fifth round, in Atlantic City.

DIVING—At the U.S. championships, in Boca Raton, Fla., PAT EVANS, KENT FERGUSON and MATT SCOGGIN won the men's one-, three-and 10-meter events, respectively. In the women's competition, KELLY McCORMICK won the three-meter springboard event for her ninth national title, and WENDY WYLAND was the 10-meter champion.

GOLF—KEN GREEN shot an 11-under-par 277 to win the Greater Greensboro (N.C.) Open. He beat runner-up John Huston by two strokes and earned $180,000.

Betsy King birdied the first playoff hole to defeat Lynn Adams and win an LPGA event and $37,500 in St. Petersburg, Fla. King and Adams were tied at 13-under-par 275 at the end of regulation play.

HOCKEY—The Kings, who came back from a three-games-to-one deficit to defeat the Oilers in the Smythe Division semifinals, quickly found themselves on the brink of elimination again, as the Flames beat them three straight in the Smythe finals. Calgary dominated Los Angeles from the start, outshooting the Kings 120-68 and winning 4-3, 8-3 and 5-2. In the Adams Division finals, the Canadiens won their first three games against the Bruins, all with Patrick Roy in goal. In Game 4, however, Montreal started Brian Hayward in the nets, and he gave up goals to Cam Neely and Michael Thelven in the space of seven seconds in the second period as Boston triumphed 3-2 to avoid a sweep. The Blackhawks, who had the worst regular-season record of the 16 teams that qualified for the playoffs, took a 2-1 lead over the Blues in the Norris Division finals. Chicago was led by center Denis Savard, who through Sunday had six goals and 17 points in the playoffs. Blues winger Todd Ewen was suspended for 10 games after he came off the bench to start a fight in Game 2, a 5-4 St. Louis win. The league also fined the Blues $10,000. In the Patrick Division finals, Tim Kerr of the Flyers scored his ninth and 10th goals of the playoffs, as Philadelphia won the fourth game 4-1 and evened its series with the Penguins at two games apiece.

HORSE RACING—In a Kentucky Derby prep race, EASY GOER ($2.20), Pat Day up, won the 1‚Äö√Ñ√∂‚àö√±‚àö¬µ-mile Wood Memorial, at Aqueduct. The colt beat Rock Point by three lengths in 1:50[3/5] and earned $340,800. DANSIL ($20), ridden by Larry Snyder, won another prep—the Arkansas Derby—and $240,000, at Oaklawn Park. He covered the 1‚Äö√Ñ√∂‚àö√±‚àö¬µ miles in 1:49[1/5] to defeat Clever Trevor by three quarters of a length.

MARATHON—DOUGLAS WAKIIHURI of Kenya won the men's division of the London Marathon by three seconds over Steve Moneghetti of Australia, with a time of 2:09:03. VERONIQUE MAROT of Great Britain won the women's competition by more than a minute, in 2:25:56.

MOTOR SPORTS—AYRTON SENNA, driving a McLaren-Honda, won the San Marino Grand Prix for the second year in a row, beating teammate Alain Prost by 40.22 seconds. Senna averaged 125.4 mph for 58 laps of the 3.13-mile road course.

TENNIS—STEFAN EDBERG upset Ivan Lendl, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, in the final to win the Japan Open and $122,250 in Tokyo.

Conchita Martinez beat top-seeded GABRIEL A SABATINI 6-3, 6-2 to win the Eckerd Open, in Largo, Fla. She earned $40,000.

MILEPOSTS—NAMED: As basketball coach at Western Michigan, BOB DONEWALD, 46, who had a 208-121 record in 11 years at Illinois State; at Colgate, JACK BRUEN, 40, who guided Catholic University of America to a 110-72 record during his seven seasons there; at St. Mary's, PAUL LANDREAUX, 45, who was an assistant coach at UCLA in 1988-89; at Marshall, DANA ALTMAN, 30, an assistant coach at Kansas State for the past three years; at Ohio University, LARRY HUNTER, 39, whose record in 13 seasons at Division III Wittenberg was 305-76; at Dayton, JIM O'BRIEN, 37, an assistant coach with the New York Knicks for the past two years; at Duquesne, JOHN CARROLL, 32, an assistant coach at Seton Hall since 1982; at St. Bonaventure, TOM CHAPMAN, 40, who in five seasons with Division II Gannon University had a 120-38 record; and at Penn, FRANCIS DUNPHY, 40, who was an assistant coach for the Quakers in '88-89.

As football coach at Western Carolina, DALE STRAHM, 46, who was an assistant coach at Georgia for seven years.

SIGNED: By the Dallas Cowboys, to a six-year, $11 million contract, former UCLA quarterback TROY AIKMAN, the No. 1 pick in Sunday's NFL draft, making him the highest-paid rookie in NFL history.