NBA ROUNDUP : Dallas Ends 19-Game Losing Streak, 102-96

The Dallas Mavericks are the NBA’s team of the month.

Once a month, without fail, they win a game.

Their victory for March, however, was a big one, relatively speaking.

By beating the Orlando Magic, 102-96, Wednesday night at Dallas, the Mavericks ended a 19-game losing streak to fall one short of the NBA record for consecutive losses in a season.

The 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, who were 9-73, still stand alone with 20 losses in a row. The overall record losing streak is 24 consecutive defeats by the Cleveland Cavaliers over two seasons.

Rookie Jim Jackson scored 17 points and Tim Legler had all 11 of his points in the fourth quarter for the Mavericks, who continued their pattern of winning one game in every month this season. In compiling a 5-57 record to threaten the 76ers’ record low total of nine victories, Dallas has won on Nov. 14, Dec. 16, Jan. 19, Feb. 5 and March 17.

Nick Anderson scored 25 points to lead Orlando. Shaquille O’Neal had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Magic, but didn’t score in the fourth quarter.

Phoenix 129, Portland 111--Tom Chambers scored 12 of his 24 points in the second quarter as the Suns improved to 27-3 at Phoenix, the NBA’s best home record.

It’s the first time since March of 1991 that the Trail Blazers have lost three in a row on the road.

Cedric Ceballos scored 24 points and had a career-high 14 rebounds, helping Phoenix to a 64-34 rebounding edge.

Utah 104, Detroit 80--Karl Malone scored 22 points and John Stockton had 16 points and 12 assists at Salt Lake City on a night when the Jazz held the Pistons to their lowest point total of the season.

Isiah Thomas scored 14 points and Dennis Rodman had 12 points and 14 rebounds for Detroit, but the Pistons couldn’t do much with the ball when they got their hands on it, making only 36.5% of their shots.

New Jersey 114, Atlanta 93--Dominique Wilkins’ streak of scoring at least 30 points ended at five games, and his Hawks’ season-high winning streak ended at six games.

It was just as Net Coach Chuck Daly planned it. He took the Hawks’ big guy out of the game with defense at East Rutherford, N.J., and then watched his team coast to the victory behind Drazen Petrovic, who scored 28 points, and Derrick Coleman, who had 27 points and 14 rebounds.

“Chuck and his staff,” New Jersey center Sam Bowie said, “do the best job I’ve ever seen in this league of preparing a defense to stop the other team’s marquee player . . . the guy who has to score a lot of points for his team.

“Dominique came into tonight averaging something like 36 a game over the last five (actually 36.2) and he was never a factor.”

Wilkins finished with 24 points on nine-of-21 shooting.

“We had open shots and we just couldn’t make any,” Wilkins said. “I was off and just couldn’t do anything. I threw up some bad shots. I wasn’t on. We were really out of sync.”

Atlanta’s Kevin Willis had 16 points and 20 rebounds.

The victory was the seventh in nine games for New Jersey and its 15th in 18 home games. It was also the Nets’ sixth win in seven games since Rumeal Robinson moved into the starting lineup for the injured Kenny Anderson.

Indiana 114, Milwaukee 91--The Pacers scored 27 consecutive points at Indianapolis, and the Bucks were held to a team record-low eight points in the third quarter.

It was the eighth victory in a row at home for the Pacers, losers of nine consecutive road games.

Milwaukee, losing for the fifth time in six games, had defeated the Pacers in the teams’ three previous meetings this season.

After missing all five of his first-half shots, Indiana’s Reggie Miller hit four in a row, including two three-pointers, and scored 10 points in only 2:18.

For the quarter, Miller made five of eight shots, including three of five three-pointers, and scored 15 of his 20 points.

Sam Mitchell also scored 20 for the Pacers.

Todd Day scored 20 points and Roberts 19 for the Bucks, whose previous franchise low for points in a quarter was 10 on two occasions in 1981.

The Pacers grabbed a franchise-record 34 offensive rebounds and held a 69-31 overall rebounding advantage over the Bucks, who are the NBA’s worst rebounding team.

Washington 94, Philadelphia 89--Michael Adams scored 21 points and Harvey Grant and Tom Gugliotta 20 each at Philadelphia to enable the Bullets to end an eight-game road losing streak.

Washington, which last won on the road Feb. 10 at Dallas, used a 17-2 fourth-quarter run to take control over the 76ers, who got 28 points from Armon Gilliam but lost for the 11th time in 13 games. They have lost seven of eight home games.