NBA ROUNDUP : Kings Tie Mark for Futility

With his Sacramento Kings matching an NBA record for failure, it’s no wonder Coach Dick Motta was thinking about the poor paying customers.

“If I paid (to see the game), I’d want a refund on that first quarter,” Motta said Monday night after the Kings tied the single-season record with their 28th consecutive road loss.

Sacramento fell, 104-86, to the Dallas Mavericks, who got 31 points from hot-shooting Rolando Blackman.

There was one consolation for Motta, whose team can break the record tonight in San Antonio. He wasn’t around at the end.

Motta was chased with 2:47 left in the second quarter by Joe Crawford after collecting a second technical foul. Motta said he was puzzled by his ejection. He said he only asked Crawford about a call by official Pete Quin and never cursed.

“I just asked him about the call,” Motta said. “I was trying to say something funny because the team looked like. . . . He said not to talk about his partner like that.”

Motta was unable to watch because there was no television monitor in the locker room.

Previous losers of 28 in a row on the road in a single season were the 1974-75 New Orleans Jazz and the 1989-90 New Jersey Nets.

Lionel Simmons had 19 points for Sacramento, 1-31 this season on the road.

Chicago 121, Denver 108--The Chicago Bulls’ 24th consecutive home victory was one of their easiest.

Michael Jordan scored 15 of his 31 points in the third quarter as the Bulls breezed to their eighth consecutive victory and improved their record at Chicago Stadium to 29-3.

The Nuggets dropped their third consecutive game and 11th in a row on the road, where they are 3-29.

Orlando Woolridge led Denver with 21 points, 15 in the first half.

Philadelphia 99, Orlando 91--Charles Barkley scored 24 points and Ron Anderson led an 18-4 surge to start the fourth quarter for the 76ers at home.

Leading, 69-65, after three quarters, Philadelphia made it 77-69 on two free throws by Hersey Hawkins. Then the 76ers scored 10 points in a row--six by Anderson--to make it 87-69 with 4:57 remaining.

Dennis Scott, the Magic’s high scorer with 22 points, made only eight of 33 shots. Orlando lost its fourth game in a row.

Phoenix 111, Indiana 103--Tom Chambers scored four of his 21 points during a decisive 14-2 run in the fourth quarter as the Suns won at home.

Jeff Hornacek added 20 points and Dan Majerle and Kevin Johnson each had 19 for the Suns, who are 6-0 at home against Central Division teams this season.

Indiana, which had won its last three games, all on the road, got 20 points each from Reggie Miller and Detlef Schrempf.

Miller, the NBA leader in free throws at 92%, missed two of his 10 attempts and had his consecutive streak stopped at 52.