Mutombo Rebounds Better Than Garnett

Dikembe Mutombo made all 11 of his shots and had 27 points and 29 rebounds as the Atlanta Hawks beat the reeling Minnesota Timberwolves, 105-94, Tuesday night at Atlanta.

Mutombo’s rebound total was the highest in the NBA since Dennis Rodman grabbed 29 for Chicago against Atlanta on Dec. 27, 1997. It was two shy of Mutombo’s career-high of 31 and offset an outstanding night by Kevin Garnett.

Garnett had the sixth triple-double of the NBA season with 22 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists. Garnett, who did not take a foul shot, was coming off a horrible game Saturday in which he missed 14 consecutive shots and committed eight turnovers.

In recording the seventh 20-20 game of his nine-year NBA career, Mutombo upped his league-high rebounding average to 14.8.

“I was frustrated with the way I played over the weekend,” said Mutombo, who was also coming off a subpar effort with five points and 13 rebounds in a loss to Cleveland Saturday. “I really didn’t have patience with my performance. I told them [his teammates] tonight would be different, but this game was special. It’s hard to believe.”

Asked if he thought of a possible quadruple-double after finishing with seven steals, Garnett shrugged.

“With Mutombo going 50 for 50? Hell no,” he said.

Phoenix 114, Detroit 104--Scott Skiles’ debut as head coach of the Suns was a success at Phoenix behind Jason Kidd’s 18 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds.

Rex Chapman scored a season-high 22 for the Suns, Oliver Miller scored 17 and Tom Gugliotta 16 as seven Phoenix players scored in double figures.

Skiles, at 35 the youngest coach in the NBA, took over Monday when Danny Ainge resigned to spend more time with his family.

Before their lineup was introduced, the Suns ran a brief video tribute to Ainge that ended with the words “Thanks Danny.”

Golden State 102, Miami 97--The Warriors surprised the Heat for their third victory in a row after an 11-game losing streak. Chris Mills scored 23 points and John Starks added 21 at Oakland.

New York 101, Houston 90--Patrick Ewing came out with a vengeance, scoring 14 points in the first quarter as the Knicks won at Houston. He finished with 20 on six-for-10 shooting.

Ewing shot a combined three for 19 in his first two games after sitting out the first 20 of the season recovering from a torn Achilles’ tendon.

Seattle 109, Denver 84--Gary Payton scored 25 points in the first three quarters before taking a seat on the bench for the rest of the night as the SuperSonics defeated the Nuggets for the 13th consecutive time in Seattle.

Payton overwhelmed Nick Van Exel, Denver’s starting point guard who used to give Payton fits when Van Exel played for the Lakers. Van Exel, obviously tired from the Nuggets’ six games-in-10-days trip, had four points on two-for-10 shooting, while Payton made 10 of 16 shots with seven assists and four steals.

Nugget star Antonio McDyess played only the first four minutes of the second half before being taken out because of back spasms.

San Antonio 111, Dallas 93--Tim Duncan had 29 points and 12 rebounds at Dallas as the Spurs won for only the second time in their last six games.

“We’re on the way back up,” Duncan said. “We were down for a little while but we’re headed back where we want to be. We moved the ball better, shot better and were a better rebounding team tonight.”

Utah 101, Washington 80--Karl Malone scored 11 of his 34 points in the third quarter to help the Jazz take command at Washington and stretch its winning streak to six.

Utah outscored Washington, 29-14, in the third quarter and pulled away with a 14-1 run midway through the period. Malone scored all 11 of his points during that stretch as the Wizards went without a basket for 6:42.

Toronto 105, Indiana 97--Vince Carter scored 24 points and Antonio Davis had 16 points and 14 rebounds against his former team at Toronto as the Raptors ended the Pacers’ six-game winning streak.

Cleveland 115, Boston 88--Bob Sura had 22 points and 10 assists and Lamond Murray added 20 points as the Cavaliers handed the Celtics their seventh consecutive road loss.

With Shawn Kemp in foul trouble most of the night, Mark Bryant came off the bench to score 12 points for Cavaliers. Kemp played only 16 minutes and scored 16 points.

Notes

Center Stanley Roberts, banned from the NBA last month under the league’s toughened drug policy, is being prevented from playing overseas too after FIBA, the sport’s international governing body, banned him from signing with Efes Pilsen in Turkey. “They cited no precedent, nothing,” said Roberts’ agent, Oscar Schoenfeld, appealing the ban through FIBA. NBA players previously kicked out of the league under the drug policy, including Roy Tarpley, Richard Dumas and Micheal Ray Richardson, faced no restrictions when they moved overseas to resume their careers.