NBA Roundup : 76ers Defeat Suns at Their Game

The Philadelphia 76ers are quick to adapt to almost any style of play.

The Phoenix Suns, knowing they could never match the 76ers’ run-and-gun game, used a slowdown style Monday night to take an eight-point lead, 58-50, at halftime. But the 76ers caught on and, with the help of a basket from Andrew Toney in the last three seconds, beat the Suns, 100-99.

The win was the 76ers’ eighth in a row and kept them a half-game behind the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Assn.’s Atlantic Division.

“We had a very good plan coming in to tonight’s game,” Phoenix Coach John MacLeod said. “We were going to try and control the tempo. If we tried to run with Philadelphia, they would have run us out of the arena.”

The Suns consistently let the shot clock run down to 10 seconds before setting up a play or taking a shot.

Philadelphia Coach Billy Cunningham said he thought MacLeod made a sound decision to use the slowdown style of play against his fast-breaking team.

“What made it so effective was the way they shot the basketball. With the shot clock running down they continued to make the big baskets.”

Boston 108, New York 97--Larry Bird scored all of his game-high 26 points in the second half to lead the Celtics to victory over the Knicks at New York.

Bird missed all five of his shots in the first two quarters, but the shooting of Robert Parish, who scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half, paced Boston to a two-point halftime edge.

New York, which got 22 points from Bernard King, managed to tie the score three times in the third period despite 14 points in the quarter by Bird. The last deadlock was at 65-65, but Bird gave Boston the lead for good on an off-balance 10-footer with 6:18 left.

Kansas City 110, Golden State 101--Mike Woodson, the Kings’ premier sixth man, came off the bench to score 24 points and lead the team to victory over the Warriors at Kansas City. The loss was the fourth straight for the Warriors.

Eric (Sleepy) Floyd drove the middle and scored to give the Warriors a 101-97 lead with 2:30 remaining, but Golden State did not score the rest of the way.

Woodson converted a pair of free throws, and teammate Eddie Johnson hit a basket to tie the game. Johnson, who finished with 18 points, gave the Kings the lead for good, 103-101, on a basket with 1:24 left.

Dallas 102, Seattle 84--Rolando Blackman and Brad Davis scored 19 points each to pace the Mavericks to victory at Seattle.

The win snapped a four-year losing streak in Seattle for the Mavericks. The Mavericks won their first road game Oct. 22, 1980, at Seattle, then lost nine straight times in the city.