NBA ROUNDUP : Malones Score 74; Jazz Is Closing In on Spurs

Karl Malone keeps telling the Utah Jazz it can win the Midwest Division.

If the hard-working power forward can keep playing the way he did Saturday night against Denver at Salt Lake City, he might turn out to be a prophet.

Malone scored 41 points and had 11 rebounds as the Jazz pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the Nuggets, 121-110. The victory put the Jazz a half-game behind San Antonio.

The Jazz, which is 33-5 at home, has four games left, three at home and the other at Golden State. The Spurs, who will play at Phoenix today, have five games remaining, three of them on the road.

The other Malone, Jeff, also had a big game for the Jazz. He scored 26 of his 33 points in the second half.

The Nuggets lost their eighth in a row overall and their 18th in a row on the road, but not without a fight.

Although their leading scorer, Michael Adams, was ejected for a flagrant foul against John Stockton early in the fourth quarter, they pulled to 99-98 with seven minutes left.

But Jeff Malone then scored 11 points in a 15-9 run.

When Karl Malone scored 16 points in the third quarter, the Jazz took an 88-73 lead. Orlando Woolridge, who had 20 points, rallied the Nuggets, who have the worst NBA record (19-59).

Atlanta 97, Milwaukee 91--Spud Webb played the key role at Atlanta as the Hawks dealt a blow to Milwaukee’s hopes of finishing with the third-best record in the East.

On a night when Dominique Wilkins had only seven points, the 5-foot-7 Webb scored 23 points, including the go-ahead basket on a driving layup with 22 seconds to play. After Webb’s basket, Wilkins made two free throws and Webb made two more to complete the scoring.

The Bucks, who had won three in a row, fell a game behind Detroit, currently third best in the East. Both have four games left and both are on the road for three of them.

The Bucks, with Frank Brickowski scoring 23 points, took a 91-89 lead with 2:02 left but never scored again.

Seattle 105, Orlando 96--The SuperSonics are hoping their late surge will enable them to avoid playing Portland in the opening round of the playoffs.

Shawn Kemp scored 21 points, six of them on dunks in an 18-5 spurt during the third quarter at Seattle that led the Sonics to their fifth victory in a row.

With four games remaining, the SuperSonics trail Golden State by a half-game in the battle for seventh place in the West. The seventh-place team opens the best-of-five round against the Midwest Division winner. Portland will play the final qualifier.

Golden State 132, Dallas 114--For one of the few times all season, the Warriors had balanced scoring as they handed the Mavericks their seventh defeat in a row.

Sarunas Marciulionis led Golden State with 19 points at Oakland and the Warriors had six other scorers in double figures.

The Warriors are 41-38. Seattle is 40-38 in the battle for seventh in the West.

Houston 95, Sacramento 94--The Rockets kept their hopes of winning the Midwest Division alive.

The Kings, terrible on the road, have been solid at home this season. They were 22-16 going into this game and battled the Rockets to the wire.

Buck Johnson scored 26 points to lead the Rockets to the victory that put them one game behind San Antonio with five remaining.

The Rockets will play the Spurs in Houston Thursday.

Cleveland 102, New Jersey 98--Craig Ehlo scored nine points during a three-minute flurry late in the game to send the Nets to their 20th consecutive road loss.

Brad Daugherty had 24 points and Ehlo 16 to lead the Cavaliers.