Nets Win Despite Iverson’s 42 Points

While the fender bender and the New Jersey Nets didn’t come close to slowing down Allen Iverson, the Philadelphia star didn’t get the help he needed.

Iverson’s 42-point performance hours after a minor traffic accident went for naught Thursday night at East Rutherford, N.J. New Jersey had three 20-point scorers, and Kendall Gill made a clutch shot in the closing seconds of the Nets’ 99-94 victory.

“They win a lot of games with him scoring a lot and I think that is their game plan going in, because he is such a great scorer,” said Net forward Keith Van Horn, who scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half to keep Iverson at bay.

“Obviously, you don’t want him to get 42, but we realize if we limit the other four guys on the court it will help us tremendously.”

Philadelphia’s other four starters combined for 33 points.

Iverson was 11 of 26 from the field and 17 of 20 from the free-throw line, but he disagreed when asked if all his shots kept his teammates out of the offensive flow.

“My coach begs me to shoot 25 times a night, my teammates as well,” said Iverson, who leads the league in scoring with a 28.6 average. “I play within the flow of the game, however it looks.”

Iverson also downplayed the auto accident in which he said the car in front of his stopped short.

“It was no accident like you all are getting ready to make it out to be,” he said. “Believe me, I can see it all already. You’re all going to make it seem like some big accident and I crawled out of the car and something like that. It was little. I’ll have my car back in a week.”

Portland 111, Golden State 91--Rasheed Wallace scored 20 points and Steve Smith had 19 at Portland, Ore., as the Trail Blazers routed the slumping Warriors.

John Starks and Donyell Marshall each had 18 points for the Warriors, who have lost four of five after a three-game winning streak.

Damon Stoudamire added 12 points and seven assists, and Brian Grant had 12 points for Portland, which drew within two games of the first-place Lakers in the Pacific Division.

Dallas 111, Phoenix 110--Michael Finley had his second triple-double against the Suns in 12 days at Phoenix as the Mavericks ended a four-game losing streak.

Finley had his fourth career triple-double by the end of the third quarter and finished with 33 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists. On Dec. 11 in Dallas, when the Mavericks beat Phoenix, 120-115, Finley had 33 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists.

Milwaukee 94, San Antonio 91--Sam Cassell scored 27 points and Glenn Robinson had 25 for the Bucks at San Antonio.

Tim Duncan led San Antonio with 18 points, but was only six for 22 from the field. The defending NBA champion Spurs lost for only the second time in 14 games at home this season.

Houston 105, Washington 89--Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato each scored 20 points at Houston as the Rockets ended the Wizards’ three-game winning streak.

The Rockets, who have won only two of their last eight games, used a 13-2 run to take a 93-78 lead with 4:47 left.

Minnesota 109, Seattle 102--Terrell Brandon scored 30 points at Minneapolis as the Timberwolves extended their winning streak to four games.

Kevin Garnett scored 11 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and added 14 rebounds for Minnesota.

Brandon, who had 13 points in both the first and third quarters, keyed a 13-2 run to start the second half.

Atlanta 108, Cleveland 90--Dikembe Mutombo had 16 points, 21 rebounds and nine blocked shots at Atlanta as the Hawks broke a four-game losing streak.

Isaiah Rider scored 30 points for the Hawks, who had lost six of their previous seven.

Cleveland, trailing by 19 points in the third quarter, closed to 88-85 on Andre Miller’s layup with 6:38 to play.

But the Cavaliers, who lost their sixth straight, scored only one more basket after Andrew DeClercq’s layup with 5:59 remaining

Shawn Kemp and Bob Sura scored 17 points each for Cleveland.

Orlando 110, Charlotte 106--Monty Williams scored seven of Orlando’s last 10 points as the Magic extended their season-best winning streak to five games at Charlotte, N.C.

Darrell Armstrong finished with 28 points as Orlando broke a five-game losing skid in Charlotte dating to April 1996. Williams had 15 points, and Ben Wallace had career highs of 15 rebounds and six blocks.

Orlando sealed the victory by making five of six foul shots in the final 75 seconds of a game in which neither team led by more than seven points in the last 35 minutes.

Vancouver 93, Denver 91--Bryant Reeves tapped in Shareef Abdur-Rahim’s miss with 5.5 seconds left as the Grizzlies beat the Nuggets at Vancouver, Canada.

Abdur-Rahim scored 29 points and Michael Dickerson added 22 as the Grizzlies won their second in a row.

Raef LaFrentz scored a career-high 29 points for the Nuggets, who blew an opportunity to go three games over .500 for the first time since December 1994.

Around the League

San Antonio forward Sean Elliott was discharged from a hospital where he spent several days because of flu. Elliott, who had a kidney transplant in August, serves as a color commentator for Spur telecasts, but missed several games this month because of his illness. . . . Vancouver guard Doug West is out at least two weeks after a bone scan revealed a stress fracture in his left wrist. . . . Phoenix rookie Shawn Marion underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and will be out indefinitely. To replace him, the Suns signed forward Ben Davis. . . . Boston activated forward Danny Fortson from the injured list and waived forward Jamel Thomas.