Trail Blazers Take It to Short-Handed Kings

The Sacramento Kings were lost without Chris Webber, and the Portland Trail Blazers even admitted there was a certain lack of drama without him.

Damon Stoudamire scored 20 points and Steve Smith had 17 as the Trail Blazers took Rasheed Wallace’s latest ejection in stride and dominated Sacramento, 105-81, Thursday night at Portland, Ore.

Without Webber, out at least four games because of a sprained left ankle, the Kings were ill-equipped for the tussle between the top teams in the Western Conference.

“Quite naturally, I know they missed him. We don’t miss him,” Portland’s Dale Davis said. “We were able to get the ball inside, able to really go at them, and his presence was definitely missed by them.”

The Kings didn’t have a chance from the start, missing 14 of their first 19 shots and falling behind by 18 points in the first quarter. Coach Rick Adelman tried to motivate his starters by benching all of them 6 1/2 minutes in, but nothing worked.

“There’s no excuses,” Adelman said. “We don’t have Chris. There’s nothing that’s going to change that right now. These guys got to go out and play. We didn’t play the way we’re capable of playing. As a result, Portland had a pretty easy game.”

The lead reached 28 late in the third quarter as Stoudamire, who scored 11 in the period, had a jumper, a steal and a three-point basket to make it 81-53.

“I was able to get a couple steals and ignite us, and everybody just followed the lead,” Stoudamire said. “We were flowing. We jumped on them fast, and we were able to sustain throughout.”

Vlade Divac scored 19 to lead the Kings, who fell three games behind the Trail Blazers in the Pacific Division. Utah and San Antonio are 2 1/2 back in the race for home-court advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs.

Boston 108, Seattle 88--Antoine Walker scored 30 points and the Celtics continued their run at the playoffs under interim Coach Jim O’Brien with a victory over the SuperSonics at Seattle.

The Celtics, the No. 8 team in the East, improved to 11-6 under O’Brien, who replaced Rick Pitino on Jan. 8. Boston won for the eighth time in 10 games and bounced back after a one-point loss at Vancouver on Tuesday night.

Paul Pierce got into early foul trouble, but added 18 points for the Celtics, who are 23-28.

Dallas 102, Cleveland 81--Michael Finley and Dirk Nowitzki scored 17 points each and Nowitzki pulled down 15 rebounds at Dallas as the Mavericks extended the Cavaliers’ losing streak to nine games.

The game closed in controversy when players from both sides began pushing each other following Gary Trent’s basket with 3.3 seconds left. Cleveland’s players and coaches felt the Mavericks should have backed off in the final minute of a blowout game.

Cleveland’s Wesley Person then knocked Trent to the floor and the two players got into a brief shoving match. Maverick owner Mark Cuban, fined $395,000 by the NBA this season for his behavior, ran onto the court, then quickly backed off when the players were separated.

“Guys are pounding my guy’s head on the floor, what am I supposed to do?” Cuban said.

Indiana 82, Detroit 73--Reggie Miller scored 19 points and Austin Croshere and Jalen Rose sank big three-pointers in the fourth quarter at Indianapolis.

Jerry Stackhouse had 40 points for the Pistons, who cut a 14-point Indiana lead to four early in the final period. Croshere then made consecutive three-point shots.

Al Harrington added 16 points for the Pacers, who have won six consecutive against Detroit.

San Antonio 102, Washington 78--Two nights after being held scoreless for only the second time in his 12-year career, David Robinson had 16 points in 19 minutes at San Antonio.

Robinson, 0 for 5 from the field in 21 minutes against Dallas on Tuesday, moved past Isiah Thomas into 37th place on the NBA’s career scoring list with 18,834 points.

Washington guard Mitch Richmond became the 26th player in NBA history to score 20,000 points when he made a 16-foot jumper in the second quarter. Richmond led the Wizards with 18 points.

Miami 98, Toronto 91--Tim Hardaway had 18 points and 10 assists, and Anthony Mason scored six points in overtime for the Heat at Toronto.

Hardaway made an 18-foot jumper in overtime to put Miami ahead, 88-86. But Vince Carter, who had a game-high 28 points, tied the score again with a jumper.

Hardaway’s driving layup with 2:45 remaining put Miami ahead for good at 90-88.

Vancouver 99, Golden State 89--Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Mike Bibby had 22 points each as the Grizzlies defeated the Warriors at Vancouver, Canada, for their second consecutive victory.

Michael Dickerson had 20 points and a career-high nine rebounds as the Grizzlies moved to 15-36. Golden State dropped its fifth consecutive road game to fall to 15-35 on the year.