NBA Roundup : Win Makes It 4 Out of 5 for Unseld

Bernard King scored 28 points and Jeff Malone added 23 Sunday to lead Washington to a 130-113 victory over the Sacramento Kings at Landover, Md., giving the Bullets their fourth win in five games under new Coach Wes Unseld.

Frank Johnson contributed a season-high 20 points and Moses Malone added 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Bullets (12-20). Otis Thorpe tied his season high with 33 points and Reggie Theus added 24 for the Kings (9-26).

“They’ve decided, I hope, that they’re gonna come out and play,” Unseld said. “The guys are working harder, but we’ve demanded that they work harder.”

King, who has averaged 22.9 points in the past nine games, raising his season average to 19, said: “I said when I got here, ‘Don’t measure me after one or two games, but measure me at the end of the season and you’ll see a player who’ll get better and better as the season goes along.’ More important, the team’s getting better and better.”

The loss was the third straight for Sacramento, which has won only once in 16 road games this season.

Sacramento took an early 10-2 lead, but the Bullets came off a timeout to outscore the Kings, 15-2, to take the lead for good with 5:53 remaining in the first period.

Washington led, 32-25, after one quarter, getting 10 points each from King and Moses Malone and 8 from Jeff Malone.

King scored 10 in the second period to help the Bullets draw away. Washington got the first six points of the quarter and led, 71-57, at the half.

Sacramento pulled within 81-72 on a jumper by Theus with 7:07 left in the third quarter. The Bullets then pushed the advantage to 92-74 with 4:54 left in the period.

Jeff Malone had 11 points for the Bullets in the third quarter.

Milwaukee 111, Cleveland 93--Terry Cummings scored 25 points and had 13 rebounds, and Paul Pressey added 23 points as the Bucks took the game away with a 17-3 run late in the third period at Milwaukee.

The Bucks (19-14), coming off a 29-point loss to Washington, got 22 points and a career-high 17 rebounds from center Randy Breuer.

“It’s the most aggressive we’ve played on defense and rebounded for a long period of time,” Milwaukee Coach Del Harris said. “It’s important that when you play a bad game you make a good positive response. And this was a strong response to the poor game we played in Washington.”

Brad Daugherty scored 19 points and Ron Harper and Del Curry each added 14 for the Cavaliers (17-19), who lost their fifth straight road game.

Cleveland trailed by only five, 62-57, before the Bucks went on a 17-3 run over the last five minutes of the third quarter. Cummings and Pressey paced Milwaukee in the period with nine points each.