Barkley’s Late Surge Leads Rockets by Suns

Charles Barkley took over the end of the game Saturday night at Houston, scoring 12 of his season-high 35 points in a rugged fourth quarter and the first six points of overtime to lead the Rockets to a 103-93 victory over the Phoenix Suns.

“I just had a good night,” Barkley said. “Dream [Hakeem Olajuwon] had a good night and Scottie [Pippen] had a good night. Everybody has to step up at some point. Tonight everybody did something.”

The Rockets outscored the Suns, 12-2, in overtime.

“I had to bring him [Charles] back earlier in the third quarter than I wanted, but we were getting a little stagnant,” Rocket Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “He just came in and did it all, scored, played defense, got rebounds.”

Barkley also had 18 rebounds, two short of his season high. Olajuwon had 16 points and 10 rebounds.

After a basket by Tom Gugliotta with 2:14 to go in overtime, Pippen hit a free throw with 1:27 left and a big three-point basket with 56 seconds showing to keep the Rockets ahead.

Gugliotta led the Suns with 22 points and nine rebounds. Cliff Robinson added 17 and Jason Kidd had 14 points and 15 assists.

Dallas 104, Sacramento 90--Steve Nash, mired in a shooting slump, hit five three-point shots and scored a season-high 22 points to carry the Mavericks over the Kings at Dallas.

Nash, shooting 35% from the field, got plenty of scoring help from his teammates as Dallas won the season series, 2-1. Nash took 10 three-point shots, was seven of 17 overall and added four assists.

Gary Trent had 22 points and 11 rebounds and Michael Finley scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half. Finley scored 10 consecutive points in one surge as Dallas protected a nine-point halftime lead. Hubert Davis added 17 points.

Milwaukee 83, Atlanta 77--Glenn Robinson scored 21 points, including a key jumper with 53 seconds left, to give the Bucks a sloppy victory over the Hawks at the Georgia Dome.

The Bucks shot 43% from the field, but still took over sole possession of second place in the Central Division. Dell Curry and Chris Gatling added 12 points apiece.

In only his fourth NBA start, Chris Crawford led the Hawks with 15 points, while Steve Smith added 14.

Atlanta turned the ball over 24 times and shot 37% in its fifth game in seven days.

Washington 113, Cleveland 83--Juwan Howard had 28 points and 15 rebounds, Otis Thorpe scored 17 points and the Wizards’ beleaguered frontcourt had its best game of the season at Washington.

Add Mitch Richmond’s 29 points, Rod Strickland’s 16 assists and six steals and Terry Davis’ body-to-body defense on Shawn Kemp, and the Wizards were able to put together their biggest margin of victory this season in a game in which they never trailed and put away with a 32-11 run in the third quarter.

Already last in rebounding in the NBA, the Cavaliers were dominated, 45-33, on the boards by the Wizards, the third-worst rebounding team in the league. Cleveland didn’t have an offensive rebound in the first half.

New York 96, Boston 78--Latrell Sprewell scored 21 of his game-high 27 points in the first half as the Knicks defeated the Celtics at New York, sending the Celtics to their eighth consecutive road loss.

Patrick Ewing scored 11 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 27 minutes as he returned to the Knicks’ lineup after missing the previous six games because of tendinitis in his left Achilles’.

The Knicks, who have won six of their last 10 games, ended a three-game losing streak to the Celtics. The losses followed a 21-game winning streak New York had over Boston.

San Antonio 92, Vancouver 88--Tim Duncan scored four of his 24 points in overtime as the Spurs overcame a dismal first-half shooting performance, making only nine of their first 39 shots, to defeat the Grizzlies at Vancouver.

Mario Elie iced the victory by sinking three of four free throws in the final 10 seconds and finished with 16 points. Duncan also finished with a game-high 14 rebounds.