Trail Blazers Lose Even More Ground

Portland’s slide turned into a slump.

Coming off their most lopsided loss of the season, the Trail Blazers were maybe even worse Wednesday night against the New Jersey Nets. Playing sluggishly, they lost, 115-103, at East Rutherford, N.J., to the 11th-place team in the East.

After being tied with the Lakers (50-11) for the league’s best record just over a week ago, the Trail Blazers (46-14) are now 3 1/2 games behind them in the race for the NBA’s best record.

“Not much good to say at all,” Portland Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “From the very start of the game defensively we were soft and slow to react, and it put us behind. We have a lot of work to do. Teams go through slides at time, and we have to get ourselves back under control.”

Portland, coming off a 19-point loss to Toronto, fell behind for good less than six minutes into the first quarter, trailed by 14 at halftime and by as many as 25 in the third quarter to lose for the third time in four games--making this the Trail Blazers’ worst stretch of the season.

Stephon Marbury led New Jersey with 24 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds.

Rasheed Wallace had 19 points for Portland.

What has gone wrong?

“What has gone right?” guard Steve Smith asked. “It’s not just this loss, it’s the last two or three. We haven’t been through this kind of streak, but it’s not something we can’t get through. It might not start tomorrow, but we want to get it better and make a run for the end.”

Portland’s four-games-in-five-nights trip only gets tougher tonight with a game at Indiana, where the Pacers have won 24 in a row.

Detroit 130, Denver 116--Jerry Stackhouse scored a career-high 40 points and Grant Hill added 27 points and 10 assists for the Pistons in George Irvine’s debut as coach at Auburn Hills, Mich.

Alvin Gentry was fired as coach on Monday.

Antonio McDyess led the Nuggets with 29 points.

Orlando 103, Chicago 67--The Magic took advantage of the Bulls’ 25 turnovers and 33.3% shooting to move into a tie with the Bucks for the final Eastern Conference playoff berth at Orlando.

Boston 112, Milwaukee 101--Antoine Walker scored 30 points, pulled down a season-high 19 rebounds and had 10 assists to lead the Celtics at Boston. Ray Allen led the Bucks with 28 points.

Philadelphia 107, Vancouver 90--Allen Iverson and Toni Kukoc each scored 20 points to lead five 76ers in double figures at Philadelphia in the 76ers’ fourth straight victory.

Kukoc’s point and assist (nine) totals were both his best since being traded Feb. 16 by Chicago.

Washington 118, New York 113--Juwan Howard scored six of his 29 points in overtime at Washington to help the Wizards beat the Knicks for their first two-game winning streak since December.

Sacramento 105, Charlotte 92--Vlade Divac scored a season-high 27 points and had 11 rebounds as the Kings rallied from an 18-point, first-half deficit to win at Sacramento.