NBA ROUNDUP : Olajuwon Rules as Bulls Fall

Hakeem Olajuwon had 24 points and 11 rebounds, but he saved his biggest play for the finish.

Olajuwon blocked Michael Jordan’s last-second three-point attempt and the Houston Rockets beat the Chicago Bulls, 105-102, Thursday night at Houston.

“He went out there and he didn’t have much time to shoot,” Olajuwon said.” He was turning around and I was coming at him and my timing was perfect.”

Jordan scored 22 points, including six in a row in as Chicago rallied with seven consecutive points to get within 101-100. After an exchange of baskets, Vernon Maxwell and Otis Thorpe each sank one free throw and Houston had a three-point lead.

It was time for Jordan to take over, but Olajuwon had other ideas.

“Everybody in the gym knew I was going to get the ball in the end,” Jordan said.

The loss was the Bulls’ second in a row and their seventh in 44 games. It also was the Bulls’ fourth consecutive defeat at the Summit.

Maxwell, fined $7,500 and suspended for a game because of his conduct in Chicago’s 114-100 victory over the Rockets on Saturday night, scored 23 points.

“This was a sellout crowd and it caused a lot of emotion,” Rocket Coach Don Chaney said. “But the ingredient a lot of people are missing is our guys were looking forward to this game because of the way we got killed up there.”

Cleveland 115, Orlando 98--Larry Nance scored 33 points, making eight shots in a row at one points, and added 13 rebounds as the Cavaliers defeated the Magic at Richfield, Ohio.

The Cavaliers, smarting from a 99-96 loss at Orlando last Saturday, missed six of their first seven shots but took charge by hitting six in a row for a 16-8 advantage. Nance hit two jump shots during the flurry, starting his string of eight shots without a miss.

After Cleveland built a 69-44 lead with 8:50 left in the third quarter, the Magic got back into the game on the shooting of Nick Anderson. Orlando got to within seven points as Anderson scored 16 of his 28 points in the third quarter, but he was blanked in the final quarter.

Mark Price had 20 points and 13 assists for Cleveland.