Gill’s Record-Tying Effort Helps Nets Steal Victory

Kendall Gill tied an NBA record with 11 steals and the New Jersey Nets turned the Miami Heat’s sudden slump even worse Saturday with an 88-77 victory at East Rutherford, N.J.

Miami played an all-around stinker against the worst team in the Eastern Conference.

Gill had a triple-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and his 11 steals tied the record set by Larry Kenon of the San Antonio Spurs against the Kansas City Kings on Dec. 26, 1976.

“I almost had two more too,” Gill said upon hearing that he had tied the league record for steals. “If I had known that, I would have tried a little harder to get a couple more.”

Losing their fourth in a row and sixth in seven games, the Heat had their second-lowest point total of the season and lost to a New Jersey team that shot only 34%.

The Heat, which was atop the Eastern Conference standings less than two weeks ago, committed 21 turnovers, shot just 37% from the field and failed to put a sustained run together in the second half.

Keith Van Horn scored 27 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, and Stephon Marbury had 21 for the Nets, who have their first two-game winning streak of the season.

Alonzo Mourning had 23 points, 17 rebounds and nine blocked shots before fouling out with 2:53 to play. But despite his gaudy numbers, Mourning failed to take over offensively against a Net team that was without its three best centers--Jayson Williams, Rony Seikaly and Jim McIlvaine.

Toronto 87, Washington 85--Kevin Willis had 22 points and 11 rebounds at Toronto as the Raptors won their fifth consecutive game.

Rookie Vince Carter had 18 points and Doug Christie had 14 for Toronto.

Mitch Richmond led all scorers with 28 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter. Rod Strickland added 16 points and Juwan Howard had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Washington.

Orlando 92, Detroit 77--Penny Hardaway scored 20 of his game-high 30 points in the second half to lead the Magic at Auburn Hills, Mich.

For the second time this season, Chuck Daly’s Magic stopped his former team’s six-game winning streak. The victory also gives Orlando a 3-0 sweep of the season series. Darrell Armstrong added 16 points and 10 assists for Orlando.

Bison Dele had 20 points and Grant Hill scored 19 for Detroit, which missed all 13 of its three-point attempts and had 23 turnovers.

Minnesota 105, Sacramento 96--Reserve Tom Hammonds scored a season-high 23 points and Terrell Brandon had a career-high 16 assists to lead the Timberwolves at Minneapolis.

The Timberwolves got 43 points from their five reserves, including 21 in the decisive second quarter, as they won for the fifth time in six games.

Kevin Garnett led Minnesota with 24 points.

Portland 98, Phoenix 93--Rasheed Wallace scored 20 points and Greg Anthony added 17 for the Trail Blazers at Portland.

Jason Kidd had 25 points for the Suns, but only six after halftime.

Around the League

Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers, hobbled by injury and mired in a feud with Coach Larry Brown, did not make a trip to Toronto with the team. Iverson, who exchanged words with Brown and sat out the last three quarters of an 85-80 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night, stayed in Philadelphia to get treatment on a strained and severely bruised right quadriceps, team spokeswoman Karen Frascona said. Iverson, the NBA’s leading scorer, will be reevaluated Monday and is listed as day-to-day.