Bad Ending to Carter’s Happy Day

A distracted Vince Carter played so poorly Friday night that he wanted to take himself out of the game.

Eddie Jones scored 25 points and the Charlotte Hornets held Carter to 18 in a 102-84 victory over the Toronto Raptors at Toronto.

“It’s tough to stay focused when everybody is putting so much emphasis on the wrong things,” Carter said.

Carter, who accepted an invitation to replace injured Tom Gugliotta on the U.S. Olympic team for the Sydney Games on Friday, made only four of 16 shots as his streak of 23 consecutive games with 20 or more points ended.

“There is a lot going around here. Outside things are distracting,” Carter said. “When it goes like this I just want to beat myself in the face sometimes. There were a couple of times I wanted to take myself out because I felt I was hurting the team.”

Anthony Mason, who frequently posted up Carter, had 20 points and nine rebounds, and Derrick Coleman added 19 points and 12 rebounds. Elden Campbell had 14 points and nine rebounds, and David Wesley scored 12.

“Not only was Vince off, but he was taking some really tough shots,” Wesley said. “They were just out of sync.”

Portland 96, Golden State 83--Already without Arvydas Sabonis, the Trail Blazers got another scare when Steve Smith had to be helped off the court in an otherwise routine victory at Oakland.

But Smith, who suffered a twisted ankle and left the game for eight minutes in the first half, returned to score 21 points.

Sacramento 113, Detroit 103--Chris Webber had 29 points and 14 rebounds and Nick Anderson added 28 points and 11 rebounds for the depleted Kings at Sacramento.

The Kings had only eight players in the final 2 1/2 quarters after Vlade Divac went out because of a strained knee seven minutes into the game and Corliss Williamson was ejected in the second quarter.

The injured Jon Barry and Predrag Stojakovic didn’t dress.

Minnesota 116, New Jersey 115--Kevin Garnett scored 38 points and Malik Sealy scored with 38.8 seconds to play in overtime for the Timberwolves at East Rutherford, N.J.

The victory was Minnesota’s fifth in a row and 14th in 17 games.

Philadelphia 117, Boston 115--Matt Geiger’s layup with 40 seconds to play in the second overtime lifted the 76ers at Philadelphia.

It was the 76ers’ fifth consecutive victory, their longest streak of the season.

Allen Iverson and Eric Snow each scored 21 points for Philadelphia.

Miami 99, Milwaukee 87--Alonzo Mourning had 24 points and 11 rebounds and the Heat made 55% of its shots at Milwaukee as it stayed one game ahead of the New York Knicks on top of the Atlantic Division.

Orlando 112, Houston 96--Darrell Armstrong led a balanced attack with 21 points at Orlando, Fla., as the Magic handed the Rockets their ninth loss in 10 games.

New York 95, Atlanta 83--Latrell Sprewell scored 30 points, 15 in the third quarter, to lead the Knicks at New York.

Rookie Jason Terry scored 17 points to lead Atlanta, which has lost seven in a row on the road and 13 of 16 overall.

Chicago 70, Denver 68--Hersey Hawkins scored all six of his points in the final two minutes at Chicago, including two free throws with eight seconds to play, as the Bulls ended an eight-game losing streak.

It was the lowest-scoring game in the NBA this season. The 138 points were two fewer than in the Bulls’ 71-69 victory over the New Jersey Nets on Dec. 10.

Utah 98, Seattle 95--Karl Malone scored six points in the final two minutes for the Jazz, including a turnaround jumper with 6.2 seconds to play at Seattle.

Malone had 21 points and 12 rebounds.