NBA ROUNDUP : Portland Spoils Karl’s Debut

George Karl took a 24-hour plane trip to take over as coach of the Seattle SuperSonics.

Then Karl, who quit as coach of Real Madrid of the Spanish League to take the job, took his first defeat, 113-109, Thursday night against the Portland Trail Blazers at Seattle.

Karl, former head coach of the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, replaced K.C. Jones, who was fired last week.

Karl said he would let interim coach Bob Kloppenburg, the club’s scout, do most of the coaching against the Blazers--but was up and shouting instructions to his players in the final minutes.

The Trail Blazers led, 107-100, after Jerome Kersey’s dunk with 90 seconds left, but the SuperSonics weren’t finished.

Gary Payton scored with 1:18 left and Shawn Kemp added a three-point play to make it 107-105 with 33 seconds left. Terry Porter hit two free throws for Portland with 24 seconds left before Kemp scored again with 20 seconds to go.

Buck Williams made a dunk to give Portland a 111-107 lead with 11 seconds left and Payton sank Seattle’s last basket with four seconds to play before Porter scored on a goaltending call with two seconds left.

Clyde Drexler had 20 points, Kersey scored 19 and Porter had 18 for Portland. Kemp scored 26 points and Ricky Pierce had 25 for Seattle.

Detroit 111, Minnesota 100--Bill Laimbeer scored nine of his 22 points in the final 6:20 and Dennis Rodman had a career-high 27 rebounds as the Pistons handed the Timberwolves their seventh consecutive defeat at Minneapolis.

Minnesota led, 92-90, with 6 1/2 minutes left before Laimbeer’s outside shooting turned the game to Detroit’s favor. Laimbeer hit two 20-footers, a three-pointer and two free throws down the stretch. The Pistons are 15-6 since Laimbeer returned to the starting lineup Dec. 6.

Rodman has had at least 20 rebounds in 15 of his last 22 games and leads the NBA with a 17.6 average.

Isiah Thomas scored 28 points, Orlando Woolridge added 24 and Joe Dumars had 20 for Detroit, which has won six of seven games.

Pooh Richardson had 23 points and 10 assists for Minnesota.

Denver 115, Utah 111--Reggie Williams had 23 points and the Nuggets held on at Denver to end the Jazz’s four-game winning streak.

The Nuggets had seven players in double figures--just enough to offset Utah’s high-scoring trio of Karl Malone, who had 38 points, Jeff Malone, who had 23, and John Stockton, who scored 20.