Pippen Blazes Trail on Offense for Rockets

Scottie Pippen showed up in the Houston Rockets’ offense at just the right time.

Pippen, struggling much of the season on offense, scored 18 of his season-high 31 points in the third quarter and had six of Houston’s 11 three-point baskets, leading the Rockets to a 86-76 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night at Houston.

“I was pretty hyped up today, this was a big game and this is a team we could see in the playoffs,” Pippen said. “I just came out and played more aggressive. I wanted to play as aggressively on offense as I possibly could.”

Pippen’s big third quarter helped cut Portland’s 41-38 halftime lead to a 64-63 at the end of the third quarter. But Charles Barkley and Sam Mack quickly put the Rockets in the lead for good.

Portland tied the score at 65-65 with 7:21 to play, but Hakeem Olajuwon’s jumper put the Rockets ahead, 67-65. Barkley had three baskets and Mack a pair of three-point baskets in a 12-5 spurt that gave Houston breathing room.

“Obviously, this is one of the biggest wins of the year,” Rocket Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “I think our team played an inspired game. We played tremendous defense in the fourth quarter.

“Scottie was phenomenal. He blocked shots, he passed, he rebounded. I said the other day there’s going to be a breakthrough game for him and I hope this one is it.”

Seattle 99, Sacramento 98--Hersey Hawkins made a three-point shot at the buzzer in overtime in a wild game at Sacramento that also had a buzzer beater at the end of regulation.

With 6.1 seconds to play in overtime, the SuperSonics inbounded the ball near their bench and Gary Payton dribbled all the way to the opposite basket before passing to Hawkins in the corner for the winning shot.

Predrag Stojakovic had made a three-point shot for the Kings with one-tenth of a second left in regulation to tie the score at 91-91 and send the game into overtime. Stojakovic’s shot bounced high off the rim and fell through long after the buzzer had sounded. Television replays were inconclusive on whether he got the shot off before the buzzer.

The victory moved the SuperSonics 2 1/2 games ahead of the Kings in the battle for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Dallas 101, Minnesota 95--Michael Finley scored a season-high 34 points for the Mavericks, 13 in the fourth quarter, at Dallas.

Gary Trent had 22 points and nine rebounds for the Mavericks, who beat the San Antonio Spurs, 92-86, on Tuesday night. Prior to that victory, the Mavericks had been 0-17 against the top eight teams in the Western Conference.

Hubert Davis added 13 points and Steve Nash 11 for Dallas, which has won two in a row for only the fourth time this season. Missing from the Minnesota lineup were Kevin Garnett (flu), Terrell Brandon (right thigh contusion) and Anthony Peeler (strained left calf).

Joe Smith had 21 points and Dennis Scott added 18 for the Timberwolves, who’ve lost six of their last seven games.

Golden State 85, Denver 79--Terry Cummings scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, including a decisive pull-up jumper with 1:08 to play at Oakland.

The Warriors won their third in a row in beating the Nuggets for the 10th time in 11 games at home. The Nuggets’ road record fell to 1-20 this season. Trailing, 60-54, after three quarters, Denver stuck around long enough to pull within 78-76 after Danny Fortson scored with 1:24 to play.