A Roundup Of The Week April 20-26

PRO BASKETBALL—NBA: The Rockets beat the Kings 97-78 in Kansas City to open the best-of-seven Western Conference championship series. In that game K.C. committed 26 turnovers and Houston's Moses Malone scored 29 points. Malone was held to 18 points in Game 2 as the Kings triumphed 88-79 behind 31 points by Reggie King. In the third game, in Houston, Kansas City's defense was even more effective against Malone, who had only 12 points, but the Rockets got 23 from Calvin Murphy to win 92-88. Houston scored a 100-89 fourth-game victory on Sunday, in which Malone exploded for 42 points and 23 rebounds. In the East, Philadelphia took a 3-1 lead over Boston (page 14).

WBL: Behind 39 points by rookie Center Rosie Walker, the Nebraska Wranglers clinched the best-of-five league championship series with a 99-90 victory over the Dallas Diamonds in Game 5 in Omaha.

BOWLING—STEVE COOK beat Pete Couture 287-183 to win a $150,000 PBA tournament in Akron, Ohio.

BOXING—THOMAS HEARNS retained his WBA welterweight championship with a 13th-round TKO of Randy Shields in Phoenix (page 64).

Matthew Saad Muhammad successfully defended his WBC light-heavyweight crown with a ninth-round KO of Murray Sutherland in Atlantic City, N.J.

Hilario Zapata retained his WBC junior flyweight title with a 15-round decision over Rudy Crawford in San Francisco.

GOLF—TOM WATSON shot an 18-under-par 270 to win the $350,000 New Orleans Open by two strokes over Bruce Fleisher.

Beth Solomon defeated Jane Blalock on the third hole of sudden death to win the $100,000 Birmingham ( Ala.) Classic. Both finished regulation play at 206, 10 under par.

HARNESS RACING—NO NO NERO ($63.60), driven by Stan Bayless, beat Armbro Willard by a neck to win the $401,500 Los Alamitos Spring Championship. The 3-year-old covered the mile in 1:57[4/5]. The purse was the richest in California harness-racing history.

HOCKEY—With a 13-1 triumph over Sweden, the Soviet Union's national team clinched its 17th world championship, in Goteborg, Sweden.