Portland Recovers in Dallas

The Portland Trail Blazers gave the Dallas Mavericks a good lesson in what playoff basketball is going to be like: Physical, intense and risky for a team that relies on outside shooting.

Rasheed Wallace led an inside attack with 18 points and eight rebounds and Rod Strickland guided a fourth-quarter rally Tuesday night as Portland rumbled past the Mavericks, 96-88, at Dallas, ending their season-best winning streak at six.

The Trail Blazers vaulted past the Mavericks for the fifth spot in the Western Conference and did it with Wallace tying his own NBA record with his 38th technical foul and Scottie Pippen being ejected for twice arguing with officials in the fourth quarter.

But Portland was able to harness its fire long enough to claw out of a 12-point deficit.

“We knew we had to step up and challenge them for an individual standpoint of stopping guys and I thought we did a great job of it,” said Pippen, who had 16 points, six rebounds and five assists and was a big factor in the Trail Blazers taking over the game in the third quarter. “It was a great team win for us.”

Michael Finley led the Mavericks with 24 points, but scored only five in the fourth quarter.

“You’re going to have nights like this,” said Juwan Howard, who had 20 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots while losing for only the third time in 12 games in Dallas. “We have to learn from this and put it behind us.”

Wallace tied his own NBA technical foul record, set last year, with 5:37 left in the second quarter after he threw the ball high in the air following a whistle for a personal foul. He had shoved Dirk Nowitzki in the chest.

One day after spraining his left ankle against San Antonio, Portland center Arvydas Sabonis did not play.

Sacramento 125, Houston 109--Peja Stojakovic scored 29 points and Chris Webber had 28 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds at Sacramento as the Kings reclaimed first place in the Pacific Division.

The Kings built their lead by making their first 14 shots and scored 46 points in the first quarter--four off the NBA record and the most since the franchise moved to Sacramento. The Rockets never recovered.

New York 110, Cleveland 75--Allan Houston ended his scoring slump with a career-high 39 points at Cleveland to lead the Knicks to their fifth win in a row. The 35-point home loss also matched the largest in Cleveland’s 31-year history.

The Knicks played without Glen Rice who could be held out for a week because of soreness in his left foot.

Toronto 102, Indiana 81--Vince Carter had 33 points at Toronto to help the Raptors sweep the season series against the Pacers.

The loss dropped Indiana into a tie with Boston for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

New Jersey 104, Vancouver 90--Kenyon Martin and Keith Van Horn scored 24 points at East Rutherford, N.J., for the Nets, who ended a five-game losing streak and extended the Grizzlies’ losing streaks to six despite playing without leading scorer Stephon Marbury (sore hip).

Orlando 103, Chicago 95--Reserve Monty Williams scored a season-high 22 points at Chicago, helping extend the Bulls losing streak to seven games.

The Magic won for the third time in four games despite Tracy McGrady being limited to 12 points on five-of-16 shooting.

Utah 84, Detroit 79--John Stockton scored nine of his 14 points in the fourth quarter at Salt Lake City, helping the Jazz overcome a nine-point deficit and only 13-points from Karl Malone.

Jerry Stackhouse scored 29 points for Detroit, which lost for the fourth time in five games.

Phoenix 105, Washington 91--Jason Kidd topped the 30-point mark for the third game in a row and Shawn Marion had 24 points and 11 rebounds for the Suns at Phoenix.

Around the League

North Charleston, S.C., became the second city to get a team in the eight-team National Basketball Development League, scheduled to debut in November. Hall of famer Alex English will be the coach. . . Cleveland put forward Robert Traylor on the injured list because of lower back spasms and activated forward Chucky Brown. . . Chicago forward Elton Brand was sidelined for the third game in a row because of left knee tendinitis. The Bulls also released guard Khalid El-Amin. . . New York forward Larry Johnson was sidelined for a seventh game in a row because of a sore back.