Defensive Hawks Make It 10 in a Row

The Atlanta Hawks, hours after announcing plans to build a 20,000-seat, $200-million arena on the site of the Omni, flattened Orlando, 96-84, Friday night, for their 10th consecutive victory.

The Hawks held the Magic’s Shaquille O’Neal without a basket in the second half.

Steve Smith scored 22 points and Mookie Blaylock 21 for Atlanta, but once again it was the Hawks’ defense that decided the game. O’Neal, after scoring 12 points in the first quarter and 16 in the first half, had only four points in the final two periods.

The streak is the third longest for the Hawks since they moved from St. Louis to Atlanta in 1968. And for the seventh consecutive game, Atlanta held an opponent under 100 points.

Chicago 102, Miami 80--The Bulls won their 14th in a row and stretched their record to 37-3 with an easy victory at Chicago.

The Bulls forced 26 turnovers and held Miami to nine first-half field goals in building a 48-29 lead. They limited Heat center Alonzo Mourning to 12 points, 13 under his average.

Michael Jordan, who had 25 points, had 13 in the first half and was instrumental in dousing the Heat early.

Indiana 107, Boston 90--Derrick McKey scored 23 points and Reggie Miller 22 at Boston as the Pacers won their fifth in a row.

Indiana has won four of its last five on the road and has beaten the Celtics 13 out of 14.

Dino Radja led Boston, a loser of four in a row, with 26 points and seven rebounds.

New Jersey 115, Charlotte 107--Kendall Gill stole the spotlight from Kenny Anderson in his return to New Jersey by scoring a season-high 30 to lead the Nets.

The game was the first between the clubs since last week’s trade that sent Anderson and Gerald Glass to Charlotte for Gill and Khalid Reeves.

New Jersey overcame an early 12-point deficit to build a 20-point lead heading into the fourth quarter . . . then almost blew it.

Glen Rice, who scored 34 points, personally outscored New Jersey, 14-2, in a spurt that drew the Hornets to within 106-104 with 4:02 to play.

Phoenix 107, Milwaukee 97--Charles Barkley had 20 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Suns at Milwaukee.

A.C. Green scored five consecutive points to seal the Suns’ 10th consecutive victory over the Bucks and fifth in a row in Milwaukee.

San Antonio 87, Portland 83--David Robinson had 20 points and 21 rebounds and Chuck Person made consecutive three-point shots in the fourth quarter at San Antonio to put the Spurs ahead for good.

After playing sluggishly for the first 31 minutes, San Antonio seemed to get a boost when Coach Bob Hill was ejected for arguing with referee Bill Oakes.

Seattle 94, Utah 93--Gary Payton’s layup with 10 seconds left gave the SuperSonics the victory at Seattle.

Payton’s winning basket came after Karl Malone’s two free throws with 56.8 seconds remaining put the Jazz in front, 93-92.

Golden State 124, Sacramento 118--Latrell Sprewell’s 26 points led the Warriors over the slumping Kings, who lost forward Brian Grant to an ankle injury and had two ejections.

There were 10 technicals and 69 fouls called in the sloppy game, with the teams combining for 99 free throws--41 in the third quarter.