At 8-0, These Are the Hottest Hawks in History

The Atlanta Hawks improved to 8-0 by beating the Indiana Pacers, 89-86, at Indianapolis for the best start in franchise history. Atlanta surpassed the 7-0 start by the franchise in 1967-68, its last season in St. Louis.

Dikembe Mutombo had 25 points and 15 rebounds and kept Indiana’s inside players shooting jumpers all night. Steve Smith had 21 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter.

Washington 90, Chicago 83--The struggling Bulls lost their fourth game--something that didn’t happen until Dec. 26 last season.

Michael Jordan scored 28 points but was only 10 of 28 from the floor at Chicago as the two-time defending NBA champions, coming off a 21-point loss at Cleveland, dropped to 4-4.

Philadelphia 114, Houston 100--The 76ers rallied behind 26 points and 15 assists by Allen Iverson at Houston to win their first game.

76er forward Tim Thomas was hospitalized for X-rays and evaluation after he collided with Rocket guard Matt Maloney under the Philadelphia basket with 1:18 left in the first quarter. Thomas was taken off the court in a stretcher.

Boston 96, Denver 86--The Celtics won for the first time since opening night and in so doing kept the Nuggets winless. Antoine Walker led the Celtics at Boston with 19 points and 12 rebounds, while Travis Knight had 17 points.

Sacramento 115, Orlando 89--Mitch Richmond scored 25 points and the Kings benefited from some sloppy play by the Magic as they won on the road for the first time this season.

New York 93, Toronto 70--Larry Johnson scored 27 points, more than twice his season average, to lead the Knicks at Toronto.

Utah 98, Vancouver 80--Karl Malone scored 26 points and Jeff Hornacek added 19 at Salt Lake City as the Jazz ended the Grizzlies’ three-game winning streak.

Phoenix 103, Milwaukee 95--The Bucks, who entered the game with the best three-point field goal percentage (.462) in the league, made only one of eight at Phoenix.

Detroit 102, Golden State 71--The Pistons broke a five-game losing streak and kept the Warriors winless at Oakland.

Notes

Toronto guard John Long retired after 14 NBA seasons to become a Raptor liaison for community relations. . . . Kurt Thomas of Dallas was fined $7,500 by the league for elbowing Stacey Augmon of Portland. . . . The NBA’s new television deal has a built-in financial safety net for team owners if they decide to reopen the collective bargaining agreement and impose a lockout next summer. Before next season, even if a lockout or a strike is ongoing, the owners will get the first installment of the $2.64 billion, four-year television deal with NBC and Turner Sports. If all or part of the 1998-99 season is lost to a work stoppage, the owners won’t have to refund the money. Instead, they’d get reduced payments from NBC and TNT or provide the networks with replacement games in the final three years of the deal.