NBA ROUNDUP : Nuggets Halt Slide, Defeat SuperSonics

Denver’s lead had been 6 1/2 games when Magic Johnson took over the Laker coaching job and it had shrunk to 2 1/2 games when the Nuggets continued to lose.

That ended Thursday night when Denver broke a four-game losing streak with a 104-90 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics at home.

It halted Seattle’s nine-game winning streak and pushed the Nuggets three games in front of the Lakers in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.

The victory was important for several reasons, not the least of which was that Denver plays the Lakers twice in the season’s final 10 games. The first is tonight at the Forum.

Dikembe Mutombo had 11 blocked shots for the second consecutive game and also had 13 points and 13 rebounds for Denver.

The Nuggets’ Reggie Williams led all scorers with 24 points.

Shawn Kemp led the SuperSonics with 20 points.

The Nuggets were without their top scorer, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who had a strained hip, and Coach Dan Issel was ejected because of two technical fouls with 2:02 to play in the first quarter.

“Our players stepped it up after Dan got kicked out. This is probably the team we will play in the playoffs, so it was a real big win,” assistant coach Gene Littles said. “We already had our game plan in place, so we didn’t change much after Dan left. We just stepped up our level of play the last three quarters.”

New Jersey 93, Atlanta 87--Derrick Coleman had 24 points and 13 rebounds at East Rutherford, N.J., where the Nets moved closer to a playoff berth by beating the Hawks.

Any combination of five Net victories or Charlotte losses will give New Jersey its third consecutive postseason berth.

Houston 134, Golden State 102--The Rockets set a franchise record for three-point shooting, hitting 12 of 17, and Hakeem Olajuwon had 26 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists for the eighth triple double of his career.

New York 97, Cleveland 94--Derek Harper hit his second three-pointer of overtime with 6.7 seconds to play, giving the Knicks a victory in New York.

Utah 99, Dallas 82--Karl Malone scored 25 points in Salt Lake City as the Jazz won for only the third time in 12 games.