McMillen Plays a Big Role in Victory by Bullets

When he hasn’t been running for office or getting involved in Democratic politics, Tom McMillen has been a professional basketball player.

A three-time All-American at Maryland, McMillen has been mostly a part-time player in his 10 seasons in the NBA. He has been best known for his ability to shoot from outside.

The 6-10 veteran is proving a valuable member of the Washington Bullets. With all their other big men hurt, the 6-11 veteran is keeping the Bullets from fading away.

With Jeff Ruland, Cliff Robinson and Rick Mahorn all out with injuries, McMillen not only started his fifth game in a row Tuesday night at Landover, Md., he played the entire 48 minutes.

McMillen, 32, scored a season-high 26 points to lead the Bullets to a 109-104 victory over the hapless Golden State Warriors. He sank two free throws with eight seconds left to make certain the Warriors lost their 12th consecutive game.

McMillen was greeted by teammates with a canister of oxygen after the game.

Until the rash of injuries wiped out Coach Gene Shue’s front line, McMillen, who doubles as Assistant Finance Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was content to play his 10 minutes per game. Once in a while he could be counted on to make a few baskets and get a rally started.

The Bullets, with McMillen as a starter, are 3-2, and their defeats were by two points and five points. In four of the games he has started, McMillen has established a season-high for points.

“When you realize we are missing our top three rebounders, two of whom happen to be our leading scorers,” Shue said, “You know how much it has meant for us to have Tom come through. We are on a two-game winning streak.”

The injuries have also given former UCLA star Darren Daye a chance to play. In 38 minutes the 6-8 forward had 18 points, 7 rebounds and made 5 of his 7 shots from the field. In addition, he guarded Purvis Short, the shooting star of the Warriors and helped hold him to 14 points, one of his lowest outputs of the season.

Philadelphia 101, Cleveland 100--In a reversal of roles, Moses Malone missed the shot that would have won the game at Richfield, Ohio and 6-1 Maurice Cheeks tipped it in to win the game. It was the only rebound for the little guard.

“I jumped as high as I could,” Cheeks said. “They didn’t box me out. Probably didn’t think I would go for the rebound with only four seconds left in the game.”

It was another tough loss for the Cavaliers, who had forged in front on a three-point play by Mel Turpin with 19 seconds left.

Malone, the league’s leading rebounder, had 12 rebounds, but was only 2 for 9 shooting.

Houston 101, Phoenix 97--Ralph Sampson scored 28 points at Houston and the Rockets overcame some hot early shooting by the Suns to win their third in a row.

As the second half of the season gets under way the Rockets and the Denver Nuggets have shown the most improvement in a year. Both have won seven more games than they did last season at the same time. The Nuggets lead the Rockets by one game in the Midwest Division.

Larry Nance had 13 of his 25 points in the first quarter when the Suns made 65% of their field goal attempts.

Chicago 123, Portland 115--Michael Jordan and Orlando Woolridge each scored 29 points at Chicago and led a fourth-quarter rally that steamrollered the Trail Blazers.

Woolridge scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, seven of them in the first three minutes of the period to help the Bulls take a 99-94 lead. Jordan then made sure the lead held up.

San Antonio 117, Kansas City 113--Rookie Alvin Robertson scored 26 points at San Antonio to lead the Spurs to their fourth win in a row and lift them to the .500 mark.

Detroit 130, Atlanta 113--John Long scored 28 points at New Orleans to lead the Pistons to an easy victory. Dominique Wilkins of the Hawks led all scorers with 32 points.

New York 92, Seattle 90--Darrell Walker sank a 16-footer with six seconds left at New York to give the Knicks their second win in a row. Saturday night he sank a 20-footer with four seconds left to beat Atlanta.

Utah 102, New Jersey 99--Adrian Dantley, starting to score the way he did when he was winning scoring titles, scored 35 points at Salt Lake City to lead the Jazz to victory. The Nets scored six points in the last 35 seconds but fell short.