Heat Finishes Fast in Routing Rockets

Miami’s speed overwhelmed Houston’s age.

Tim Hardaway had 25 points and 10 assists, including 10 points during a 19-2 run early in the third period, as the Heat raced by the Rockets, 117-93, Thursday night at Houston for its 10th consecutive road victory.

“We wanted to run them up and down the court and make it hard on them--get those old legs tired,” Hardaway said. “And that’s just what we did.”

Miami trailed, 55-53, early in the second half before Keith Askins, returning to play after a two-game suspension for a flagrant foul and spitting incident, made a three-point basket to put the Heat in front.

Hardaway followed with a three-pointer and a two-pointer and Voshon Lenard added a three-pointer to make it 64-55. After Kevin Willis scored for Houston, Hardaway scored five of the Heat’s next eight points as Miami pulled away for good.

“The second half we wanted to put a lot more defensive pressure on the post guys, and we did. And we wanted to run on them, and we did,” Heat Coach Pat Riley said. “You can’t get into a walking game with these guys. If you do, it just sort of plays into their hands.”

The Rockets, losing for the fifth time in seven games, were led by Charles Barkley’s 18 points.

Washington 103, New York 90--The Wizards took an early lead and weathered a fourth-quarter surge to end the visiting Knicks’ three-game winning streak.

Calbert Cheaney scored 27 points, Chris Webber had 26 and Rod Strickland added 21 points and 10 assists. But it was steals by Cheaney and Strickland and a blocked shot by Harvey Grant that kept the Wizards’ second consecutive victory intact after the Knicks cut a 23-point deficit to seven.

Larry Johnson had 19 for the Knicks.

Phoenix 102, Detroit 93--Kevin Johnson had 19 points and a season-high 10 assists and Cliff Robinson scored 22 points at Phoenix.

Johnson, starting because of Rex Chapman’s nagging ankle injury, was eight for 13 from the field.

Joe Dumars had 20 points for Detroit, which lost for the fourth time in six games.

Milwaukee 104, Denver 87--Ray Allen scored 26 points and Glenn Robinson had 22 at Milwaukee as the Bucks ended a three-game losing streak and extend the Nuggets’ losing skid to 13 games.

Denver, which missed 17 of its first 18 shots and dropped to 5-55, was led by Johnny Newman with 22 points.

NBA Notes

The Portland Trail Blazers waived Dontonio Wingfield and signed former Clipper guard Gary Grant to a 10-day contract. . . . The Utah Jazz decided not to re-sign reserve center William Cunningham after his 10-day contract expired. Cunningham was signed to replace Greg Ostertag (stress fracture). Ostertag is expected back within two weeks.