Suns’ Night Turns Bleak When the Shots Don’t Fall

It was a familiar scenario for the Phoenix Suns in San Antonio. As much as they tried, they couldn’t make any shots.

This time, the Suns managed a season-low point total and dropped a 91-71 decision to San Antonio on Thursday night.

Tim Duncan had 25 points and 10 rebounds for his 200th double-double for the Spurs.

The Suns, missing Shawn Marion for the second consecutive game because of a concussion, made only 27 of 84 shots. Jason Kidd was three of 17 and finished with seven points, well below his 15.7 average, as Phoenix scored the second-lowest total in its history, barely surpassing its 68-point performance against Kansas City on March 8, 1981.

“We just didn’t make shots,” Sun Coach Scott Skiles said. “We had a wide array of shots we missed. If you’re going to play a team like that and get layup attempts and short jump shot attempts, you have to make them.”

Seattle 101, Cleveland 99--Shammond Williams’ 18-foot jumper with less than one second remaining in overtime gave the SuperSonics a dramatic victory at Cleveland.

Gary Payton scored 27 points for Seattle, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

Williams, who finished with 19 points, hit an arching shot from the wing that capped a game-ending 8-0 run.

New York 95, Boston 88--Marcus Camby scored a season-high 27 points and grabbed 17 rebounds to help Jeff Van Gundy become the third-winningest coach in Knick history as New York won at home.

With 224 career coaching victories, Van Gundy moved past Pat Riley on the team’s career coaching victories list.

Houston 108, Milwaukee 91--Steve Francis scored 29 points as the Rockets defeated the Bucks at Milwaukee for their 13th consecutive victory against a Central Division opponent.

Around the League

Cleveland’s Chris Gatling was apologetic, but appealed a $10,000 fine by the NBA for making derogatory and inappropriate comments toward a member of the Toronto Raptors public relations staff. The 33-year-old Gatling sent a letter of apology for questioning the presence of a Raptors’ female employee gathering locker room quotes after a 101-89 loss Tuesday night at the Air Canada Centre. . . . Detlef Schrempf, who agreed to come out of retirement to take the place of injured forward Scottie Pippen, will stay with Portland for the rest of the season. . . . Milwaukee activated forward Darvin Ham and put veteran forward Jerome Kersey on the injured list with a foot problem.