NBA Roundup : McKey Leads SuperSonics to Win

Derrick McKey, in his second season with the Seattle SuperSonics, became a starting forward.

It wasn’t that the 6-foot 9-inch player from Alabama had been so impressive, it was more that the SuperSonics wanted their best front-liner, Xavier McDaniel, coming off the bench.

In short order, McDaniel adjusted to the instant offense role the Sonics were looking for. It took McKey somewhat longer to become accustomed to starting.

With the season less than half completed, McKey is putting numbers on the board. He had a career-high 34 points, including 13 in the last quarter, Tuesday night to lead the SuperSonics to a 103-100 victory over the Trail Blazers at Portland.

It was the second time in the last 3 games that McKey had established a career high. He scored 32 points, including the winning basket, last week in a victory over Cleveland.

It was the third straight home loss for the Trail Blazers, who are 14-4 in Portland.

By getting only their seventh victory in 18 road games, the SuperSonics’ winning streak reached 4.

The Sonics had an early 20-0 run while building a 32-15 lead. But Portland fought back and pulled ahead for the first time, 77-76, on a jumper by Terry Porter to start the last quarter.

The teams exchanged baskets until McKey took charge. He had a 5-point spurt; then with the score tied, 88-88, McKey’s layup put Seattle ahead to stay.

Seattle Coach Bernie Bickerstaff praised McKey and his team’s poise in the closing minutes. He would not, however, comment on reports of dissension among the Trail Blazers.

Portland Coach Mike Schuler said: “We’ve got to play through this slump, and I have confidence in these players that they will play through it.”

Atlanta 121, Cleveland 105--The Cavaliers don’t lose often, even on the road. But with Dominique Wilkins covering the court, scoring, rebounding and stealing the ball, the Hawks defeated the Cavaliers in Atlanta. Cleveland (30-8) has lost only 6 of 18 on the road.

Wilkins, making 17 of 24 shots, had a season-high 41 points, plus 7 rebounds and 5 steals.

The Cavaliers were done in by turnovers. They shot 58% but gave up the ball 23 times.

The worst offender was center Brad Daugherty. Although he was 9 for 13 from the field, he had 8 turnovers. The Hawks’ entire team had 9.

Chicago 109, Dallas 91--When the season began, Michael Jordan figured that before the 40th game of the season, he would join the 10,000-point club. If he did it by then, he would accomplish the feat in 304 games. Only Wilt Chamberlain, who had that many in 236 games, did it faster.

A bruised knee, which forced him out for 9 minutes in the third quarter in this game at Chicago, may delay Jordan in reaching his goal.

But he shook off the knee problem to score 9 points in the last quarter to make sure the Bulls would hand the faltering Mavericks their 10th consecutive defeat on the road.

With 24 points, Jordan now has 9,967. He needs 33 tonight at Philadelphia in his 303rd game to reach 10,000 for his career. Next closest to Chamberlain is the all-time scoring champion, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who needed 318 games.

New Jersey 117, Denver 115--All the Nuggets needed was for Michael Adams to make just 1 of his 6 shots from 3-point range at East Rutherford, N.J., but for the first time in nearly a year, the long-range sharpshooter didn’t make any.

His string of consecutive games in which he had scored a 3-pointer ended at 79, and the injury-riddled Nuggets lost their fourth in a row.

Alex English scored a season-high 43 points, but the Nuggets, using only 8 players, faded in the closing minutes.

Buck Williams led the Nets with 27 points and 13 rebounds. The Nets were leading, 97-94, with 8:50 left when Williams scored 5 points in a 14-4 run that was too much for the Nuggets to overcome.

Phoenix 106, Charlotte 103--Eddie Johnson scored 11 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter at Phoenix to enable the Suns to hold off the stubborn Hornets.

The Hornets, playing without flu-plagued Kelly Tripucka, their leading scorer, trailed by 10 points with 3:36 left. They cut the deficit to 3 before Kevin Johnson’s jumper with 7 seconds left foiled them.

Houston 118, Miami 93--Otis Thorpe had 6 points and Purvis Short 5 to lead a 19-4 spurt that started late in the third quarter at Houston and enabled the Rockets to end a 4-game losing streak.

The Rockets held only a 74-73 lead with 1:30 remaining in the third period, then jumped in front by 17 with 7:30 remaining.

Milwaukee 114, Sacramento 110--Terry Cummings scored 31 points at Sacramento, enabling the Bucks to remain in third place in the Central Division.

Ricky Pierce came off the bench to score 19 points for the Bucks.