NBA ROUNDUP : Trail Blazers End Perfection for Rockets

So the Houston Rockets won’t have another perfect November.

So they won’t duplicate their 15-0 start of last season.

So what?

So don’t tell Rocket Coach Rudy Tomjanovich it was only one game in a long season. And don’t tell him the pressure is off.

“I have to admit I’ve been spoiled,” Tomjanovich said after the Rockets fell, 102-94, Tuesday, to Portland at Houston.

“Our team has been great, very focused. I’m proud of them, but it hurts to lose a home game when we’ve won so many tough ones on the road. I feel no relief. I thought if we played our game we should win.”

Clyde Drexler scored 30 points to lead the Trail Blazers, who snapped Houston’s 23-game November winning streak.

“This was a good road win for us,” said Drexler, who had sat out two games because of an injured right ankle. “It was a victory that not many teams get. Not many people beat them in their own building. We did it in the fourth quarter and that’s encouraging.”

Portland outscored the Rockets, 15-9, over the final 5:21.

Houston (9-1) got 27 points from Hakeem Olajuwon and 20 from Vernon Maxwell. Cliff Robinson added 29 points for the Trail Blazers.

The loss was the first for the Rockets in November since a 108-99 defeat by the Utah Jazz on Nov. 28, 1992.

Cleveland 112, Minnesota 79--Mark Price scored 17 points to lead seven Cavaliers in double figures in a victory at Cleveland.

It was Minnesota’s worst loss in a season in which eight of its nine defeats have been by double figures.

Milwaukee 116, Boston 94--Vin Baker came home to Hartford, Conn., to score 20 points and team with Todd Day, who had 23 in leading the Bucks to a victory.

Boston guard Dee Brown left the game in the second quarter with a bruised left knee and did not return. He appeared to have been injured when he tripped over a television cable.

Atlanta 102, Philadelphia 99--Stacey Augmon scored 23 points as the Hawks kept Philadelphia winless on the road (0-4).

Charlotte 102, Golden State 98--Hersey Hawkins scored seven of his 18 points in a fourth-quarter stretch at Charlotte.

Seattle 104, New Jersey 97--Gary Payton scored a season-high 26 points, including a layup that put the SuperSonics ahead to stay with 3:04 left at Seattle.

NBA Notes

In other news, a full year before tip-off, the NBA expansion Vancouver Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors are at risk of becoming endangered species because of a league requirement that they sell 12,500 season tickets by Dec. 31. By Friday, the Grizzlies had sold only 8,110 tickets and the Raptors had sold about 6,500. . . . The NBA Players Assn. has filed a grievance on behalf of San Antonio forward Dennis Rodman. . . . Phoenix Sun guard Elliot Perry, who suffered a concussion in Monday night’s loss to the Jazz, was released from a Utah hospital. . . . Charlotte’s David Wingate will have arthroscopic knee surgery today and be sidelined indefinitely.