Coleman Looks Super in Leading the Hornets

Call it a case of poor timing by the Houston Rockets.

On a night when the Rockets came up with a rare solid performance on the road, it was canceled out by the best games of the season from Charlotte’s Derrick Coleman and Anthony Mason.

Coleman had the highest-scoring game in his two seasons with the Hornets and Mason had a triple-double to lead the way to a 102-97 victory Tuesday night at Charlotte, N.C.

“I just got into a rhythm, and my teammates noticed it and kept getting me the ball,” said Coleman, who finished with 32 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots. He made 14 of 22 field-goal attempts as Charlotte won for the sixth time in eight games.

Mason had 12 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for his fifth career triple-double in helping hand Houston its sixth consecutive loss on the road.

Steve Francis had 24 points for the Rockets.

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Phoenix 86, Denver 67--Reserve Rodney Rogers scored a game-high 17 points at Phoenix as the Suns put on their best defensive effort in 25 years.

The 67 points were the fewest allowed by the Suns since an 88-65 victory over the Chicago Bulls on March 6, 1975. Phoenix also set a franchise mark for fewest points allowed in a half, holding Denver to 25 first-half points on 10-of-40 shooting.

The Suns’ season-high eighth consecutive home victory moved them into sole possession of fourth place in the Western Conference, a half-game ahead of Utah.

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Washington 126, Milwaukee 101--Mitch Richmond scored 26 points at Washington as the Wizards ended a season-high, seven-game losing streak.

The Wizards converted 26 of 41 attempts from the field en route to a 72-45 lead at halftime, their highest-scoring first half of the season.

Milwaukee has lost three in a row.

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Minnesota 112, Golden State 89--The Timberwolves made their 20-point first-half lead over the Warriors hold up in winning behind rookie Wally Szczerbiak’s 21 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds at Minneapolis.

Minnesota blew a 20-point first-half lead the last time the Warriors came to town. That incredible 58-point turnaround on Dec. 11 produced the Timberwolves’ fourth-worst home loss, 104-76.

Larry Hughes led Golden State with 14 points.

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Vancouver 85, Chicago 81--With Shareef Abdur-Rahim sick with stomach flu, Michael Dickerson picked up the slack and scored 25 points in a victory at Chicago.

Abdur-Rahim still played 37 minutes, scoring eight points and grabbing 14 rebounds.

The highlight of the night for Chicago might have been the John Starks love-fest.

Starks, loathed by Chicago fans for his thuggery as a New York Knick, impressed the fans with his hustle in the first three quarters and actually had them chanting “We want Starks! We want Starks!”

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Seattle 127, Orlando 91--Rashard Lewis scored 21 points and Emanual Davis made five three-pointers and scored 17 points at Seattle in the SuperSonics’ highest-scoring game of the season.