Van Exel Leads Way in Nuggets’ Victory

Nick Van Exel, thoroughly outplayed by counterpart Gary Payton in three previous games this season, made his presence felt more Saturday night and the Denver Nuggets took advantage.

Van Exel had 18 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds, helping the Nuggets to a come-from-behind 105-97 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics at Denver.

In the previous games, Payton had scored 81 points, Van Exel only 14.

“Van Exel isn’t going to have bad games all the time,” SuperSonic Coach Paul Westphal said. “He’s a good player.”

George McCloud scored 20 points and James Posey had 19 for the Nuggets, who ended a losing streak to Seattle at four games.

The Nuggets, who trailed by 14 points late in the first quarter, took a 77-74 lead entering the final period, and outscored Seattle, 23-13, in the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter.

“Between Posey and McCloud, and with the threat of Van Exel, they really have the ability to spread the floor for [Antonio] McDyess to go to work or find the open man,” Westphal said. “They shot the ball with great confidence and effectiveness.”

Payton had 30 points and 10 rebounds for Seattle, and Brent Barry scored 20. Seattle remained in eighth place in the Western Conference and trails No. 7 Sacramento by 1 1/2 games with six to play.

An eighth-place finish would match Seattle against the Lakers in the first round; seventh would match Seattle against Utah.

“The Lakers or Utah, it doesn’t make any difference,” Payton said. “The way we are playing right now, anybody can beat us.”

Washington 108, Atlanta 98--Chris Whitney scored 19 points at Washington as the Wizards extended the Hawks’ losing streak to a season-high six games.

Richard Hamilton scored 16 points, Mitch Richmond had 15 and Jahidi White had 13 points and 14 rebounds for Washington, which stretched Atlanta’s road losing streak to a franchise-record 11 games.

Alan Henderson led Atlanta with 22 points. Dikembe Mutombo had 10 points and nine rebounds but spent much of the night jawing with the officials.

Mutombo finally drew a technical foul from Joe DeRosa with 22.7 seconds left in the third quarter while standing motionless and silent over White, who had fallen at his feet while scrambling for the ball.

Portland 98, Vancouver 85--Steve Smith scored 27 points and the Trail Blazers held the Grizzlies to one basket in the third quarter at Portland.

Rasheed Wallace added 21 points and Brian Grant had 20 for Portland, which lost, 89-87, in Vancouver Thursday night.

The Grizzlies scored nine points in the third quarter. Their only basket came on Michael Dickerson’s layup with 7:26 left.

Despite getting into foul trouble early and having Grant and Damon Stoudamire go to the bench with four fouls early in the third, Portland went on 13-4 run to open the quarter. Smith had seven points during the run and 11 in the quarter, and Wallace had 10.

Cleveland 117, Detroit 98--Shawn Kemp scored 25 points and Lamond Murray had 11 of his 21 in the third quarter at Cleveland as the Cavaliers ended Detroit’s winning streak with four games.

Grant Hill, bothered by a sore left ankle, scored 11 points on four-of-18 shooting and made only two of eight free throws. He sat out the final eight minutes when the game was out of reach.

Jerry Stackhouse, averaging 24 points a game, wasn’t much better. He was only three for 14 from the field, missed two dunks and had five turnovers.

Milwaukee 109, New Jersey 101--Ray Allen scored 21 points and Tim Thomas, Glenn Robinson and Sam Cassell had 20 each as the Bucks held off the undermanned Nets at Milwaukee.

Milwaukee, which has won five of its last seven after struggling through the season’s second half, pulled within 1 1/2 games of Orlando for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot. The Bucks play host to the Magic Monday night in the first of two games between the teams in the season’s final six games.

Milwaukee began the second half with a 9-0 run that included seven points from Robinson and built the lead to 70-50. The Bucks went up by as many as 23 points.

Toronto 98, Chicago 79--The Raptors clinched the first winning season in their five-year history and moved closer to a playoff berth by routing the Bulls at Chicago.

The victory allowed the Raptors to move within a half-game of idle Charlotte for fifth place in the Eastern Conference. Toronto’s magic number for clinching a postseason berth is two.

Around the League

The Chicago Bulls activated B.J. Armstrong and put Randy Brown on the injured list because of back spasms. . . . The New York Knicks signed swingman Brandon Williams to a 10-day contract, filling their active roster two days after John Wallace was put on the injured list. . . . Anthony Carter of the Miami Heat was fined $10,000 by the NBA for a flagrant foul against Elliot Perry of the New Jersey Nets in Friday night’s game.