Why Is This Man Eating Popcorn?

Now the Suns are regrouping just in time, exactly as they did two years ago when they roared into the NBA finals. And Phoenix is much better this time. The key statistic is its league-leading total of 1,059 steals (the vastly underrated guard, Don Buse, lives here), which are the source of a significant number of fast breaks and which offset the team's fecklessness underneath.

How much do the Suntan Boys rely on finesse? "If team tug-of-war ever got to be CBS' halftime show," says Phoenix Gazette columnist Joe Gilmartin, "the Suns would finish 22nd." The team also can be intimidated by—shhh—zone defenses, which tend to shut down Coach John MacLeod's vaunted motion offense.

Because of their low profiles, it seems to be a big secret in mediaville that the self-contained scoring machines, Westphal and Davis, are absolutely brilliant and that MacLeod is one of the best coaches in the business.

With the home-court advantage over everybody but Portland, Philadelphia and San Antonio, this team will be very tough to handle in the playoffs and certainly a strong favorite over Milwaukee in the mini-series, then over Denver, whose magnificent Thompson, in closing out the season, scored 73 points, tying the third-highest total in NBA history.

SEATTLE

"What the bleep's goin' down with you bleepers?" was Bob Hopkins' idea of a pep talk in the huddles while the SuperSonics were losing 17 of the 22 games he coached. When Lenny Wilkens took over, he installed a starting lineup of Center Marvin Webster, rookie Forward Jack Sikma and Guard Gus Williams, along with the firm of Johnson and Johnson (Forward John, Guard Dennis) who proceeded to powder—get it?—the opposition and even get along with each other.

Moreover, Wilkens has meticulously formed the embryo of a true "team," one with the strength to grow and mature. That sounds suspiciously like what happened in that other paradise of the Pacific Northwest last season.

In the final weeks Seattle and Los Angeles traded third place in the division as if it were a ticking package, but the Sonics should defeat the Lakers in their mini-series on rebounding and defense if not on character.

Because Webster, the former Human Eraser, has become a rejuvenated in-your-facer—what with his blocked shots and his averages of 36 minutes and 13 rebounds—the Sonics have risen to No. 2 in the NBA on defense.

"Banger" Sikma, he of the flaxen locks and the trivia-answer alma mater ( Illinois Wesleyan, folks), and leading scorer-assist man Williams, he of the "attitude" that got him released from Golden State, have been revelations, while Downtown Freddie Brown has been content to ride the bench until Wilkens beckons him to throw in his patented bombs from the Space Needle.