Kidd Leaves Trail Blazers Wondering What Hit Them

By reputation, Jason Kidd is no sharpshooter. But he shot down the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night.

Kidd scored 23 of his 29 points in the second half including going four of five on three-point shots to lead the Phoenix Suns to an 84-79 victory against the Trail Blazers on Sunday at Phoenix.

“Confidence is something I’ve never been short of,” he said. “You’ve got to have confidence to feel that when you let it go when it goes in. Tonight I felt good.”

The Suns scored the last 10 points of the game after falling behind, 79-74, on Steve Smith’s layup with 1:45 to play.

But Phoenix fought back and Kidd made a shot with 15 seconds to go to give Phoenix an 82-79 lead.

The Trail Blazers had a chance for a game-tying three-point shot but Mario Elie knocked away Scottie Pippen’s inbounds pass and Shawn Marion sealed the victory with two free throws.

Cliff Robinson had 20 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for the Suns. Rasheed Wallace scored 16 points for Portland.

Seattle 118, Golden State 102--Gary Payton scored a season-high 38 points and had 12 assists to help the SuperSonics overcome a 51-point performance by Antawn Jamison at Seattle.

Jamison was 23 of 36 shooting and had 14 rebounds. It was the first time a Warrior scored 50 points since Bernard King in 1981.

The SuperSonics improved to 3-1 under new Coach Nate McMillan.

Ruben Patterson had 24 points and eight rebounds in 29 minutes for the SuperSonics.

Milwaukee 92, Indiana 80--Glenn Robinson, one of three starters who began the game on the bench for missing a pregame meeting, scored 24 points to lead the Bucks at Milwaukee.

Buck Coach George Karl kept Robinson, Jason Caffey and point guard Sam Cassell out of the starting lineup one day after criticizing his team for its dismal play in a loss at Atlanta.

But it was still not enough to stop the Bucks who led by 10 points before Jalen Rose scored seven consecutive points to pull the Pacers to 61-57.

The Bucks rallied after Robinson’s dunk gave Milwaukee its biggest lead at 71-61, and their lead did not go below double digits the rest of the fourth quarter.

Detroit 93, Washington 87--Jerry Stackhouse returned after missing one game because of flu and scored 24 points to lead the Pistons at Auburn Hills, Mich.

Stackhouse, the NBA’s leading scorer with a 28.7 average, was seven of 19 from the field and eight of 12 from the free-throw line.

Washington, which has lost four in a row and six of seven, was without Mitch Richmond who did not travel because of a left knee injury he suffered during Saturday’s loss to Miami.

Felipe Lopez tied his career-high with 23 points and Gerard King scored a season-high 16 points for the Wizards.

San Antonio 97, Vancouver 79--Tim Duncan scored a season-high 30 points to end a two-game losing streak for the Spurs at Vancouver, Canada.

The Spurs used a 35-point third quarter to take control of the game.

Sean Elliot tied his season-high with 19 points, including five three-point shots and David Robinson had 11 for San Antonio.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Grizzlies.