NBA Roundup : Dallas Wins 9th Straight, Goes for More

The Dallas Mavericks have won nine straight games, but their plans are long-range.

Mark Aguirre scored 23 points, Sam Perkins added 21 and Roy Tarpley had 15 points and 21 rebounds Monday night as the Mavericks overwhelmed the Denver Nuggets, 123-96, at Dallas.

The victory gave Dallas a 4 1/2-game lead over the second-place Nuggets in the Midwest Division.

“We’re not hung up on nine in a row,” Perkins said. “We’d like to see if we can do more more damage.”

Dallas outrebounded Denver, 65-29, tying a a club record. The Mavericks’ 48 defensive rebounds set a team mark.

The Mavericks, criticized this season for the lack of a killer instinct, outscored Denver, 38-15, in the final quarter.

“We talked before the game about a full 48-minute effort,” Mavericks guard Rolando Blackman said. “We haven’t been doing that this year. We’ve had a tendency to let teams off the hook.

“If we’re going to repeat as division champions we’ve got to beat the teams right behind us. We always seem to get our tails waxed whenever we go to Denver so we’ve got to beat them here.”

Tarpley and Rolando Blackman scored six each during a spurt which Dallas used to break an 85-85 tie and build a 103-88 lead with 5:49 left.

Philadelphia 102, Chicago 101--Gerald Henderson made a driving layup at the buzzer and the 76ers broke a five-game losing streak by downing the Bulls at Philadelphia.

Chicago took the lead, 101-100, with 59 seconds left on a free throw by Michael Jordan, who scored 35 points. The Bulls had a chance to add to their lead but Horace Grant, who scored 20 points, missed two free throws with four seconds left.

Bulls’ Coach Doug Collins charged the scorer’s table twice in the final seconds when Philadelphia rebounded Grant’s second miss and called time out before any time ran off the clock.

Charles Barkley had 26 points and 11 rebounds and Cliff Robinson added 20 points for Philadelphia.

Utah 115, Sacramento 110--Karl Malone scored 41 points and grabbed 15 rebounds at Sacramento as the Jazz sent the Kings to their seventh straight defeat.

Malone scored seven points in the final six minutes, including the basket that put Utah ahead for good, 101-100, with 5:18 left.

Thurl Bailey and Bobby Hansen added 21 points each for Utah and John Stockton had 19 assists.

Reggie Theus scored 22 points for Sacramento.

Washington 110, Golden State 105--Moses Malone scored 33 points and the Bullets broke away at the start of the third quarter and beat the Warriors at Oakland.

The Bullets had a 50-47 lead at halftime but Malone scored 10 points in a 14-6 run at the start of the second half that made it 64-53.

Otis Smith scored 29 points for the Warriors, who lost their fourth straight, and Chris Mullin added 20.

Portland 107, Cleveland 94--Jerome Kersey had 33 points, 8 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 blocked shots as the Trail Blazers turned back the Cavaliers at Portland.

Cleveland cut the lead to 96-92 with 2:31 left, but Terry Porter’s basket, two free throws by Caldwell Jones and a free throw by Kevin Duckworth moved Portland back to a 101-92 lead with 1:20 remaining.

Brad Daugherty scored 23 points for Cleveland.