European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 01, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 34 b the stars and strides sports monday february v1993 Seattle Brea blazers7 Streak bullets Duck Johnson leaps on hornets David Wingate while trying for a rebound. By the associated press Seattle the Seattle supersonics avoided losing three games in a Row forthe first time this season. And in beating Portland 108-86 sat urday night for their third Victory in fou games Over the Trail blazers this season the sonics broke a six game Portland winning Streak. The sonics also handed the blazers their worst defeat of the season an clinched their five game regular season series with Portland. Eddie Johnson scored 12 of his 20 Points in the fourth Quarter forthe sonics who never trailed. Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton each scored 18 Points for Seattle and Kemp pulled Down 16 rebounds. Clyde Drexler led the Trail blazers with 14 Points. In other games saturday nuggets 109, bulls 102 Denver Dike be Mutombo had 29 Points and tied a career High with 22 rebounds Reggie Williams scored 28 Points and Laphonso Ellis 22, leading Denver Over struggling Chicago. It was the fourth loss in five games for the two time defending Champion bulls while the nuggets won for the fifth time in six games after a 10-25 Start. Michael Jordan scored 39 Points for Chicago. Spurs 129, Kings 124 san Antonio a cry Johnson matched his career High with 22 Points including 12 in the fourth Quarter As san Antonio beat Sacramento. Dale Ellis led the spurs with 27 Points and David Robinson scored 25. Wayman Tisdale scored 29 Points Mitch Richmond 27 and Lionel Simmons 25 for the Kings who lost despite shoot ing 60 percent from the Field. Rockets 108, nets 105 Houston Hakeem Olajuwon fouled out after scoring 22 Points and grabbing 14 rebounds and Houston Heldon in the final 35 seconds to beat new saturday in the Aba lethargic bulls marking time by Jan lieu bad new Day Michael Jordan says the Chicago bulls Aren t running enough. Scottie Pippen says he s tired. Horace Grant wants out. And it s going to take bundles of Cash to get Toni Kukoc to come in. The bickering bulls Are in full Bloom but that does t make them unhappy or the playoffs come everybody forgets it Jordan said. Locker room positioning gripes about More playing time contract positioning All that stuff that plays into an 82-game season is gone. When the playoffs come everybody is like of let s do it together " the bulls Are bored. It s obvious. One of the results of Success is that you learn what it takes to be successful. The bulls Are going through the regular season motions but All they Are thinking about is the playoffs. They know they Are not separated from another title by the remain ing 39 regular season games. They Are separated from another title by four play off bulls know what other championship teams know. The regular season ends in late april. And then the hulls season begins. So right now they Are entertaining themselves and they Are giving fans writ analysis ers and broadcasters plenty to talk about. The bulls averaging about six fewer Points a game than they did last season so in the second half of the bulls loss to the san Antonio spurs last week Jordan moved to Point guard and took it upon himself to Speed up the offence. The identity of this team and the Suc Cess of this team is All about running in an open court situation Jordan said. I know Phil Jackson thinks we re older. 1 Don t think we re older. But our identity is in the open court with myself Scottie and Horace. We re settling too much for the Hal court offence. 1 know the idea is to try and save our legs and be conserva Tive but 1 think we suffer. When you re successful you develop an attitude. When you try to slow it Down it s too de liberate for a lot of us at least for me Jordan of course is bionic. Pippen is not which is Why Pippen says the bulls problems if you Call them that Are caused by fatigue. I Don t think we have the Energy the Speed to run Pippen said. Grant meanwhile can t wait until the end of the 1993-94 season when he will be an unrestricted free agent. Grant averages about 13 Points a game. His brother Harvey averages More than 20 for the Washington bullets. Grant figures he s a least As potentially prolific As his identical twin. Right now he s known Only As the Best Blue Collar worker West of Den Nis Rodman. I Don t want to finish my career known As a Guy who has done All the dirty work and rebounded and played de sense Grant said. I want to be remembered As a Complete player scoring re bounding playing defense and All those types of skills. Meanwhile if the bulls do manage to win the title they know they Are going to have to shake up the team next , the players May maim each other. Kukoc the croatian who is the Best player in Europe has said he wants to come to Chicago. And bulls manage ment will do everything to add him to the team which Means he 11 get a larger con tract than most of the current bulls. Hell probably get More Money than me too said Jordan who claimed to understand. They re going to have to give that to him to lure him to Chicago. It s one of those facts you have to accept because it s going to happen and they really can t disguise it. They Cen talk about deferred Money hidden insurance Money whatever. It s All going to equal out to More Money than we make be cause he s got the leverage better Thane Jersey. New Jersey s starting guards dra zen Petrovic and Kenny Anderson had 32 arid 25 Points respectively. Jazz 113, clippers 105 Salt Lake City Karl Malone scored nine of his 38 Points during a fourth Quarter surge that lifted Utah Over los an Geles. Malone also had 16 rebounds and was 16 of 17 from the line. Suns 126, Mavericks 105 Phoenix Dan Majerle hit eight 3-Point goals one shy of the Aba record and scored 30 Points leading Phoenix Over 110, pistons 106indianapolis Reggie Miller scored 29 Points including five technical foul free throws and a 3-Point goal in a Span of 14 seconds in the fourth Quarter leading Indiana past Detroit. Timber wolves 91, Bucks 82 Minneapolis drug West scored four of his 24 Points during a 12-1 run to open the fourth Quarter As Minnesota snapped a six game losing Streak by defeating Milwaukee. Hawks 149,76ers 123 Atlanta cookie Blaylock scored d career High 30 Points and Atlanta broke its Omni scoring record in a Victory Over Philadelphia. The previous team re Cord was 148 against Orlando in 1989. Hornets 127, bullets 121, of Landover my. Dell Curry had a career High 33 Points including a 3 Pointer that forced overtime As Char Lotte rallied to beat Washington. Heat 98, Cavaliers 95 Miami Steve Smith making his first Start of the season scored 21 Points including a tip in of Rony Seikaly s miss with 38 seconds remaining lifting Miami past Cleveland. Brad Daugherty had 25points and 10 rebounds for Cleveland. Sunday in the Aba lakers sink celts 96-87 Boston a Sedale Threatt and Anthony Peeler scored 16 Points each As the los Angeles lakers beat the Bosto celtics 96-87 sunday in a Battle of longtime championship rivals reduced to mediocrity it was the first meeting Between the teams since Larry Bird and magic Johnson retired. The clubs had met in the championship finals in 1984,1985 and 1987. But this season los Angeles is 22-20 and Boston is 22-21. The lakers had lost seven of their pre Vious 10 games while the celtics won 10 of their previous 13. In the Only Aba game on super bowl sunday Boston was led by Reggie Lewis with 23 Points and Dee Brown with 17. Celtic Center Robert Parish played his 1,303rd Aba game tying Elvin Hayes for second place in Aba history. For Jer Laker Kareem Abdul Jabbar leads with 1,560. For the lakers . Green had 15 Points and 12 rebounds As los an Geles out rebounded Boston 63-46
