Reserves Help Heat Hand Kings First Loss

With his team winless and in danger of blowing a lead for the third game in a row, Coach Pat Riley turned to the bench and found help.

Reserves Mike James and Vladimir Stepania sparked a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter at Miami that helped the Heat give the shorthanded Sacramento Kings their first loss Sunday, 88-78.

The victory allowed Riley to avoid the first 0-3 start of his career.

“It was a great effort,” he said. “A lot of NBA teams don’t bring it every night. They bring their talent, and maybe they get by with it, but we can’t. We have to bring an incredible effort every night.”

Keon Clark scored 19 points for Sacramento (3-1), which was again without three regulars and shot 36%. Starters Bobby Jackson and Predrag Stojakovic were a combined six of 30, and the Kings made only two of 14 three-point attempts.

Jackson gave the Heat’s defense a backhanded compliment.

“They got away with a lot of grabbing and holding,” he said. “We like to do a lot of backdoor cuts, but that wasn’t there tonight because they kept grabbing us.”

Miami was called for 23 fouls to 16 on Sacramento, but Clark also complained about the officiating.

“Unfortunately, there are people on the floor who also control the game, and they aren’t in uniform,” Clark said. “I guess all we can do is control what we can, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Seattle 91, Utah 77 -- It didn’t help the Jazz that Karl Malone got into early foul trouble at Seattle and went scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting, the first time he has been shut out in his 18 NBA seasons.

Malone’s previous career low was two points on Dec. 18, 1985, his rookie season, at New Jersey.

Gary Payton, on the other hand, made nine of 12 shots and scored 18 points to help the SuperSonics improve to 3-0.

Desmond Mason had 16 points, Vladimir Radmanovic scored 15 and Peja Drobnjak 10 for Seattle. Kenny Anderson, in his first action for the SuperSonics this season after fighting back spasms, scored 10.