NBA ROUNDUP : Kings Set Road Futility Record: 35 and Counting

The prospect of the Sacramento Kings taking their NBA-record road losing streak into next season became likely after the Minnesota Timberwolves handed them their 35th consecutive road loss, 112-94, at Minneapolis Monday night.

Sacramento broke the record set by the New Jersey Nets, who lost their final 28 road games last season and first six of this season. The Kings, who are 22-17 at home and 1-38 on the road, last posted a victory away from Arco Arena on Nov. 20 at Washington, the fourth road game of the season.

In the 35 road games since, Sacramento has lost by an average of 15.7 points. Only eight of the defeats were by less than 10 points.

With remaining road games at Utah and Portland, the Kings are looking at the possibility of extending the record to 37 games. King Coach Dick Motta doesn’t have any answers.

“I’ve tried everything,” Motta said. “Days off ahead of time. Work them hard the day before. No shoot-around. Shoot-around. Talk about focus and body care. Even dug as low to talk about girls . . . and all the things that are important to a guy.”

Lionel Simmons, the league’s top rookie scorer, missed all nine of his shots before leaving early in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury. He said the fact that the Kings now own the record doesn’t take the pressure off.

“There’s pressure until we win,” he said. “It’s not the record, it’s the losses.”

“I was concerned that they would really play hard,” Minnesota Coach Bill Musselman said. “I’m sure they looked at an expansion team as a chance for them to get it.”

But expansion clubs have certainly been no easy mark for the Kings, who have lost six times by an average of 21.5 points to the league’s four newest teams.

Antoine Carr scored 24 points for the Kings, who shot 40.8% and were outrebounded 66-40.

Tyrone Corbin scored 19 points, Pooh Richardson 17 and Sam Mitchell 16 for the Timberwolves, who have won four of their last five games and are 20-20 at home in only their second NBA season.

Chicago 103, Milwaukee 94--Michael Jordan scored a season-high 46 points and the Bulls won a club-record 58th game with their victory over the Bucks at Chicago.

The Bulls upped their record to 58-21 to surpass the club mark of 57-25 in the 1971-72 season. The victory also gave Chicago a 1 1/2-game lead over idle Boston in the race for the Eastern Conference’s best record and homecourt advantage through the playoffs.

Jordan, scoring 40 points for the 10th time this season, had 20 in the first half on the way to surpassing his previous season high of 44 points against Orlando.

Jordan and Hodges teamed up to score 12 of the points in a 14-0 run late in the third quarter as the Bulls turned a 64-62 deficit into a 76-64 advantage.

Houston 97, Seattle 93--Otis Thorpe scored 28 points, including the go-ahead basket with 6:05 to play at Seattle, and the Rockets moved into a second-place tie with Utah, one game behind San Antonio in the Midwest Division title chase.

The Rockets, 24-6 since the All-Star break, and Jazz are 51-27 overall to San Antonio’s 52-26. Each team has four games remaining. Because of tiebreaker formulas, Houston must finish ahead of San Antonio and Utah in order to claim the division title.

The Rockets used free-throw shooting to set up the surge that snapped the Sonics’ five-game winning streak. Five free throws preceded Thorpe’s basket that put the Rockets on top for keeps at 86-85.