See the ball. See the ball move. Move, ball, move.

See the players. See the players pass. Pass, players, pass.

See the fans. See the fans cheer. Cheer, fans, cheer.

Surely, it can't be that simple, can it? Could the buzz that seems to be floating about the NBA be attributed to something as simple as moving the ball around?

Well, if you listen to the right people, that's exactly what's going on. Through the first month of the season, the ball is moving about during NBA games, and fans are interested.

"It's fun to watch," said Seattle SuperSonics coach Nate McMillan. "It's more of the traditional, old-fashioned basketball. Scores are a little low, but I think that's because teams are spending more time in their possession and moving the ball instead of coming down running and gunning or going into a two-man game and playing that style.

"For the basketball fan, it's good to see. And for the league, I think this is what they were looking for, not just coming in and watching Michael [Jordan] and [Jerry] Stackhouse taking turns on the wing, isolated with four other guys on the other side."

It would appear that the overhaul of the NBA's rules before last season - permitting zone defenses and forbidding teams from stationing a defender in the lane for three seconds without being near an offensive player - are starting to work as coaches make adjustments.

The big change seems to be the return of the motion offense, as players set screens and their teammates move off them.

"They [defenses] force you to [play more motion]," said Washington Wizards coach Doug Collins. "If you sit down and really watch a game, you would see the nuances of exactly when a great player catches the ball on the wing. It used to be if you cleared a guy [defender] out of that area, that guy had to go. Now, you can leave that guy standing out there defensively."

As a result, offensive teams have eschewed the old isolation plays and, instead, are moving the ball from side to side to get the defenses scrambling.

McMillan's Sonics, one of the league's best shooting teams, have been one of the prime beneficiaries of the new rules, getting defenses moving, and hitting their shots.

"You're seeing a lot more movement from a lot of teams," McMillan said. "It's not so much a passing thing, but teams are starting to get the ball from side to side.

"You're not seeing what we saw a few years ago, which is what I think the league wanted, and the ball is moving from side to side. It's not in just one or two guys' hands. ... You still see some of that, but I think the majority of the game the ball is moving."

Teams aren't necessarily scoring any more than they were this time last year, but, at least, the game looks better, doesn't it?

Quiz

Through Thursday's games, the league's top 10 scorers had something in common. What was it? Here's a hint: Their common trait is apparent to the naked eye.

Golden Arm update

It's not often that a guy launching 37 shots in a game would find himself in second place in the "Golden Arm" contest for most field-goal attempts in a week.

It's even more unusual when the player taking 37 shots trails ... himself.

But that's what happened last week when Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers followed his 37-shot performance in an overtime win over Golden State with a 40-shot effort in a loss to Houston.

As a result, Bryant has taken the seasonal lead for shot attempts per game, 25.8. But Bryant's lead is narrow over last week's leader, Philadelphia's Allen Iverson, who is hoisting 25.6 shots a game.

Waiting for Shaq

With Shaquille O'Neal's return for the Lakers, the Western Conference should snap back into order in no time, because only Dallas seems to have made any hay of the Lakers' fall-off.

Even if the Lakers don't win the Pacific or have home-court advantage in an early round, you still have to figure that O'Neal, who has pretty much proved his status as the NBA's most valuable player with his absence, will power Los Angeles past some helpless team in the first round.

Say you're Houston or Seattle and you earn home-court advantage in the first round of the Western playoffs, and you "luck" into a meeting with the Lakers. How much fun would that be?

Quiz answer

Each player among the 10 scorers stands below 6 feet 10. The last time that happened was in the 1983-84 season.

Quote

"I couldn't tell which was the ass. Could you? And was it the four-legged kind or the two-legged kind?" - Michael Jordan, referring to TNT analyst Charles Barkley, who kissed a donkey Thursday to settle a bet with fellow analyst Kenny Smith about the play of Houston Rockets center Yao Ming.

Compiled from interviews, wire services and reports from other newspapers.