NBA ROUNDUP : Expansion Grizzlies Set the Record for Losing

For the Vancouver Grizzlies, it was a Canadian catastrophe.

The Grizzlies set an NBA record for futility by an expansion team with their 18th consecutive loss Sunday, and they couldn’t have picked a worse opponent.

The Toronto Raptors, the expansion team from the eastern side of the country, beat the Grizzlies, 93-81, at Vancouver behind rookie Damon Stoudamire’s 24 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.

The strains of “O Canada” had barely faded when the Raptors, playing their fourth road game in six days, went on a 19-2 run to take a 25-11 lead. They never trailed again in the first meeting of the Canadian teams.

Stoudamire, the point guard the Grizzlies passed up in the draft in favor of Bryant “Big Country” Reeves, capped the spurt by making a 20-foot jump shot and a 23-foot three-point basket.

“We didn’t want to be the team that Vancouver beat,” Stoudamire said. “We just wanted to go out there and jump on them early, and that’s what we did.”

Miami had held the record by going 0-17 to start the 1988-89 season.

Willie Anderson scored 18 points and Alvin Robertson 17 for Toronto. Ed Pinckney added 12 points and 16 rebounds.

Sacramento 110, Miami 90--The Kings capitalized on the absence of three injured Heat starters and rolled to an easy victory at Sacramento.

Playing without Alonzo Mourning, Kevin Willis and Billy Owens, the Heat suited up nine players. Their reserves were outscored, 55-19, by the Kings’ bench.

Mourning will be examined today by team doctors after spraining a tendon in his left foot Saturday at Phoenix.

After leaving the game, Mourning said he had heard a tear when the injury occurred. He also said the foot had bothered him in the past week.

New York 118, San Antonio 112--Despite playing most of the second overtime without three starters, the Knicks beat the Spurs on John Starks’ driving layup with 24 seconds remaining.

Starks scored eight of his 25 points in the second overtime at New York.

Portland 103, Houston 101--Arvydas Sabonis made a five-foot hook shot that was counted but appeared to have been taken after the buzzer to lift the Trail Blazers to a double-overtime victory over the Rockets at Portland.

Sabonis grabbed a rebound off a missed layup by James Robinson and turned around before making the shot. Houston protested but to no avail.

Atlanta 108, Boston 103--Ken Norman had 26 points and nine rebounds and Grant Long scored 15 points and grabbed 16 rebounds at Boston as the Hawks stopped a five-game losing streak.