NBA ROUNDUP : Road Back for King Is Smoothed by 52 Points

Before the knee injury that almost ended his career late in the 1985 season, 50-point games were nothing to Bernard King.

But, after being sidelined for nearly two seasons and making a slow, painful recovery, the veteran forward of the Washington Bullets doubted he would ever reach that figure again.

So, even though they came against the run-and-shoot Denver Nuggets, King’s 52 points Saturday night at Landover, Md., were special.

King had 23 points in the first quarter as the Bullets scored 48 on their way to a 161-133 romp.

“This is definitely the most special game in my career in the sense that I’ve come back from a major injury that no one thought I could come back from,” he said.

“I always believed I would come back and play well, but I never thought I would score 50 points in a game after undergoing major knee surgery.”

King, 34, had already clinched the NBA scoring title before the injury in 1985. He averaged 32.9 points. When he was ready to play two years after the injury, the Knicks let him get away.

By last season, he was averaging 22.4 points. This season he has been among the leaders.

And he has become more than merely a shooter. He was 20 for 35 in this game and had eight rebounds and six assists.

His last basket broke Moses Malone’s Washington scoring record. But he left with four minutes to play and missed his own mark of 60. It didn’t seem to bother him at all.

Chicago 116, Seattle 91--The SuperSonics built their six-game winning streak against teams with sub-.500 records.

Michael Jordan and the Bulls made short work of the streak at Chicago. Jordan had 31 points as the Bulls broke a close game open in the third quarter.

Their fifth victory in a row enabled the Bulls to remain a half-game behind Milwaukee in the tight Central Division race.

Atlanta 134, Golden State 130--Dominique Wilkins was afraid his Hawks would have a letdown after Friday night’s upset of the Boston Celtics. So he took personal charge at Atlanta.

Wilkins scored a season-high 45 points and had 14 rebounds. His two free throws with five seconds left ended a rally by the Warriors.

The Hawks scored 18 points in the first 3:06 and led the entire game. Only a traveling call against Chris Mullin shortly before he scored a basket prevented the Warriors from creating a tie with seven seconds to play.

Portland 120, Cleveland 114--The Trail Blazers, showing signs of fatigue in their third road game in four nights, managed to improve the best NBA road record to 12-2.

Portland (27-3) opened a 14-point lead in the third quarter, but it took a banked-in three-pointer by Clyde Drexler with 20 seconds to play to clinch it.

The Trail Blazers, who have won five in a row and eight of their last nine, wind up the trip tonight at Milwaukee.

Milwaukee 109, New York 100--The Bucks, hoping to give their top players some rest for tonight’s game against Portland, built a 21-point lead at New York early in the third quarter.

But there was no rest. The Knicks fought back to tie before the third quarter ended. It took perfect free-throw shooting (24 of 24) and clutch shooting by Ricky Pierce in the stretch to pull it out.

“We thought we had a breather,” Pierce said. “But we started making silly fouls and they came back to get even.”

The Bucks are 14-0 at home.

Phoenix 134, Miami 95--The Suns weren’t about to let up on a weak team. With Xavier McDaniel scoring 24 points at Phoenix, the Suns won by their biggest margin of the season.

The Suns are 7-0 against the Heat. The Heat, playing for the first time without injured center Rony Seikaly, made it a game for a half, trailing by only six points. The Suns scored 49 points in the third quarter.

The Suns’ Tom Chambers suffered a hamstring injury in the second quarter and didn’t return.

Detroit 99, Houston 84--When the Pistons were in their slump, it was largely because their guards weren’t scoring. Joe Dumars has put an end to the problem.

Dumars scored 20 of his 30 in the first half at Auburn Hills, Mich., and led the Pistons to their third victory in a row. In the three games, Dumars has 70 points.

Indiana 114, New Jersey 105--Rik Smits scored 15 of his 23 points in the third quarter at Indianapolis to help the Pacers break open a tight game. The Pacers, leading by 56-52 at halftime, opened the second half with an 11-2 run and were never threatened.

Charlotte 109, Orlando 100--Kenny Gattison came off the bench to score 19 points at Charlotte and help the Hornets end an 11-game losing streak.

Dallas 90, Sacramento 79--The Mavericks held the cold-shooting Kings to 30 points in the first half at Dallas and handed them their sixth consecutive defeat.

Derek Harper scored 26 points for the Mavericks.