The West Squad Will Have Its Guards Up : All-Star Game: Adelman is expected to put both Drexler and Magic Johnson in the front court.

The NBA brought its best players and a couple of its top coaches here for a weekend of basketball pyrotechnics ranging from dunks to three-point competitions and finally, today at Charlotte Coliseum, the free-wheeling All-Star game itself.

So who went and ruined things and let the purists in?

Some people were talking strategy Saturday, the only practice day before the 41st annual event. They were concerned about matchups and defensive possibilities. They were wondering how forwards Charles Barkley or Dominique Wilkins would handle things if forced to cover guards Clyde Drexler or Magic Johnson.

All this is a little like going to a MENSA convention and worrying about who would figure out the 15% dinner tip. No winning team has scored fewer than 130 points since 1982, so offense always seems to get taken care of somehow.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of things you don’t see during the regular season,” said Laker forward James Worthy, making his sixth consecutive All-Star appearance. “For some reason, that tends to happen more here, when coaches are not around to holler at them or take them out. Maybe it’s not hotdogging, but the players will experiment a bit more.”

So will the coaches. Of their 12 players, the Western Conference has six guards, not counting converted forward Chris Mullin, and five of those play the point: Tim Hardaway, Magic Johnson, Kevin Johnson, Terry Porter and John Stockton.

Because of the unbalanced lineup, Coach Rick Adelman of the Portland Trail Blazers expects to counter by using Magic Johnson and Drexler in the front court, raising the possibility of four West guards on the court at the same time.

“My biggest concern, especially with the type of team we have, is just to make sure everyone gets an equal chance to play,” Adelman said.

Said Adelman’s counterpart, Chris Ford of the Boston Celtics, though faced with an easier proposition: “I told the players that the coaching staff’s job is to read the minutes and their job is to distribute the ball and keep each other happy.”

The East will have three centers: starter Patrick Ewing, Brad Daugherty and Robert Parish. The matchup has clearly become speed vs. size.

“I think in a game like this, speed is everything,” said Kevin McHale, one of three Celtics elected by fans or selected by coaches to play, although Larry Bird will not play because of a sore lower back. “But we’ll try to post up some of their smaller people.”

Worthy said he never considered skipping the game despite a sprained right foot, although he should be back in the starting lineup Tuesday at Phoenix. An obvious appeal to playing here is that, as a product of nearby Gastonia, he can play before several friends and family members.

“This is an extra special treat for me because I am close to home,” said Worthy, one of the West’s reserve forwards along with Tom Chambers. “There will be a lot of family. It should be very special.”

Several players will have a local following: Worthy, Daugherty and Michael Jordan, who played at the University of North Carolina, and Wilkins, from Washington, N.C.

NBA Notes

Even though his familiar uniform No. 7 is available, Kevin Johnson will wear No. 41 today. A starting guard for the West, he won’t say why until after the game, but the safe bet is that it’s a tribute to his close friend and Phoenix teammate, Mark West.

Starting next season, all NBA arenas will have a game clock hanging with the 24-second clock above the basket. That will allow players to know how much time remains after the shot clock is turned off in the closing seconds. The NBA’s competition committee also considered the issue of instant replay, but the only decision was, according to Commissioner David Stern, to “continue to explore.” . . . As was the case this season, the NBA will open the 1992-93 season in Japan, although no teams have been selected.