Jazz Beats Nuggets, Matches Best Start

Bryon Russell had 21 points and Jeff Hornacek added 19 as the Utah Jazz matched their best start in franchise history with a 97-86 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night at Salt Lake City.

Utah, which has beaten Denver nine straight times, improved to 7-1 to equal its 1989-90 start. The Nuggets lost their fourth straight game to fall to 1-8.

Nugget forward Antonio McDyess was ejected with 7:54 remaining in the third quarter for screaming at referee Bill Spooner after a foul call under Utah’s basket. Denver Coach Mike D’Antoni also picked up a technical foul, and the Jazz sank five straight free throws to break open a close game.

Cleveland 98, New York 74--The Cavaliers, playing their first game since learning Zydrunas Ilgauskas would miss the rest of the season because of a broken foot, had no trouble beat the Knicks at Cleveland.

The Cavaliers placed Ilgauskas on the injured list and activated rookie forward Ryan Stack.

Houston 93, New Jersey 92--Scottie Pippen made a free throw with 3.3 seconds left in overtime and the Rockets got the benefit of two late calls in beating the Nets at East Rutherford, N.J.

The Nets thought they had taken a 94-92 lead with 6.6 seconds left when Jayson Williams put in the rebound, but referee Scott Foster waved off the basket for offensive interference, ruling the ball was still on the cylinder.

Seconds later near midcourt, Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon made a bad pass to a falling Pippen, but referee Marc Davis ruled Scott Burrell tripped Pippen as he was backing up. Pippen made the first free throw and missed the second.

Indiana 99, Philadelphia 95--The Pacers overcame a 33-point performance by Allen Iverson at Indianapolis to win their 10th straight against the 76ers.

Washington 95, Toronto 88--Mitch Richmond scored 31 points and Rod Strickland had 23 points and 14 assists as the Wizards beat the Raptors at Toronto for their second victory of the season.

Washington’s two victories have come against the Raptors, who have lost five in a row after beating Boston in their season opener.

Boston 131, Vancouver 129--In a triple-overtime game that ended late Wednesday night, the Celtics won at Vancouver one night after the Grizzlies beat the Clippers in double overtime. The Celtics won despite 39 points by the Grizzlies’ Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

Around the League

The NBA fined Kevin Willis of the Raptors $5,000 for flagrantly elbowing Knick point guard Charlie Ward on Tuesday night. . . . The NBA fined Denver General Manager Dan Issel $3,500 for verbally berating officials following Denver’s loss at Seattle last Saturday. . . . Seattle’s Detlef Schrempf told the German newspaper Bild that he plans to apply for U.S. Citizenship. “It’s very likely. The papers have been laying around for a long time,” the 36-year-old German-born forward said. . . . The Detroit Pistons waived guard Mark Macon and forward-center Mikki Moore, then signed free-agent guard Corey Beck from the Continental Basketball Assn. Macon and Moore were free-agent invitees.