NBA Roundup : Lever Pulls the Lever as Nuggets Beat Celtics, 102-100

Lafayette Lever hit a tiebreaking 20-foot jumper with 26 seconds left, pacing the Denver Nuggets a 102-100 win over the Boston Celtics Thursday night at Denver.

“I thought they all played great,” Nugget Coach Doug Moe said. “It was a tough, tough game. If it wasn’t the Boston Celtics out there, we probably would have won by 20.”

After Lever’s basket broke a 98-98 tie, the Celtics’ Larry Bird missed from 17 feet when teammate Jerry Sichting fell at Bird’s feet trying to set a pick.

Denver made a wild pass inbounding the ball, but Bill Hanzlik slapped it off the leg of Boston’s Scott Wedman, enabling Denver to retain possession.

Bird immediately fouled T.R. Dunn, who made both free throws with 11 seconds remaining for a 102-98 lead.

Alex English scored 31 points to lead the Nuggets. Calvin Natt had 18, Hanzlik 17 and Lever 16. Lever also had 11 assists.

Bird led the Celtics with 17 points and had 16 rebounds.

The defeat was only the 11th for the Celtics in 53 games, their 10th in 30 road games.

Danny Ainge gave Boston a 54-52 lead at halftime by sinking a 60-foot three-pointer as the buzzer sounded.

Milwaukee 120, Houston 113--Sidney Moncrief scored 9 of his game-high 28 points during a third-quarter rally, and Terry Cummings added 21 at Houston as the Bucks won their seventh straight.

The Rockets played without leading scorer Akeem Olajuwon, who is sidelined for at least three weeks with a knee injury. The Rockets have lost six of their last nine games.

Ralph Sampson led Houston with 24 points before fouling out with 7:06 left in the game.

Detroit 109, Cleveland 107--Joe Dumars made a 22-foot baseline shot with one second left to give the streaking Pistons a win at Richfield, Ohio.

Cleveland’s John Bagley made a 30-footer at the close of the game, but the officials ruled it left his hand after the buzzer sounded.

Detroit extended its winning streak to six straight games, the team’s longest of the season. The Pistons have won 9 of their last 10 and 16 of their last 20.

Cleveland played without its leading scorer, World B. Free, who was sidelined by a strained left calf muscle.

Kelly Tripucka led the Pistons with 28 points.

Sacramento 107, San Antonio 105--Guard Reggie Theus went 6 for 6 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, including two with five seconds left, as the Kings edged the Spurs at Sacramento.

Sacramento made 11 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter. San Antonio hit only 7 of its 15 free throws in the final quarter, missing 7 of its last 9 attempts.

Chicago-Portland--The Chicago-Portland game scheduled for Thursday night was rescheduled for tonight because the Bulls could not fly out of New Jersey, where they played Wednesday night. Fog delayed or postponed flights into Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.