NBA ROUNDUP : Maxwell’s Shot Just in Time for Rockets

Hakeem Olajuwon had scored 47 points, but still the teams were looking at overtime when Houston called time out with 3.4 seconds to play at home Friday.

Look to Olajuwon to win the game? Not with Vernon Maxwell around.

He hit a three-point shot with 0.4 seconds to play to beat the San Antonio Spurs, 103-100, and declared it a triumph of skill and knowhow, not of fortune.

“(Coach) Rudy (Tomjanovich) drew a great play and the guys executed the play. Luckily, I knocked it down, again,” said Maxwell, who scored 18 points.

Maxwell thought a moment, then added: “No, I’m not lucky. I’m not going to say I’m a lucky guy because I’m not.”

Houston’s victory, its eighth in nine games, snapped San Antonio’s six-game winning streak.

Olajuwon hit 13 of 19 first-half shots and had 31 points at halftime. His previous season high was 43 points Nov. 9 against Indiana. His career high is 52 points on April 19, 1990, against Denver.

“This is as good as I’ve ever seen him,” Tomjanovich said. “He was really smooth, taking the open shots. It was a really great effort.”

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Sacramento 89, Chicago 79--Olden Polynice scored 21 of his season-high 25 points in the first half at Chicago to lead the Kings to their fourth victory in five games.

The Bulls helped down the stretch, shooting only 22% in the fourth quarter as their home record dropped to 10-9.

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New York 91, Milwaukee 88--Hubert Davis sank five three-point baskets in a second-half spurt as the Knicks overcame a 17-point deficit and horrid rebounding to win at Milwaukee.

New York won its eighth consecutive game and beat the Bucks for the seventh time in a row, despite being outrebounded, 25-10, before halftime and 43-34 overall.

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New Jersey 110, Philadelphia 101--Kenny Anderson scored a season-high 40 points and Derrick Coleman added 29 for the Nets, who snapped a four-game losing streak.

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Utah 95, Boston 93--The Jazz erased an eight-point deficit with a 12-2 run in the last 5:34 and stretched their road winning streak to a club-record 11 games.

Boston had one last chance, trailing by one point, but Antoine Carr intercepted Dominique Wilkins’ crosscourt pass 20 feet from the Celtic basket with nine-tenths of a second to go. Carr was fouled and made one shot.

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Minnesota 104, Detroit 92--Rookie Donyell Marshall scored 25 points and hit two three-point baskets during a third-quarter run at Minneapolis that helped the Timberwolves snap their seven-game losing streak.

They also snapped a 16-game string of games at 100 or fewer points.

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Orlando 101, Atlanta 96--Anfernee Hardaway hit four free throws in the final 15 seconds and Shaquille O’Neal blocked two shots in the final 46 seconds for the Magic, which won at Atlanta.

Hardaway scored 26 points and O’Neal and Donald Royal added 21 apiece as the Magic snapped Atlanta’s three-game winning streak.

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Indiana 113, Washington 99--Reggie Miller scored 31 points and Dale Davis played a key role in a third-quarter surge at Landover, Md., that carried the Pacers to a victory and sent Washington to its 10th consecutive loss.

Davis scored 10 of his season-high 25 points in the third period, when Indiana extended its five-point halftime lead to a 16-point cushion.

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NBA Notes

Center Felton Spencer, who had started all 34 of Utah’s games, tore his left Achilles’ tendon in the first quarter while going after a loose ball at Boston. . . . San Antonio Spurs center Moses Malone will have surgery to repair a tendon in his right leg, ruptured during practice Monday. . . . Reggie Miller of the Indiana Pacers has been fined $5,000 by the NBA for his actions during a game against the New York Knicks.