Cavs keep close, but fall to Wizards
Jordan, two weeks shy of his 40th birthday, scored 27 points in 43 minutes Tuesday night as the Washington Wizards beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 93-84.
"This is one of the toughest games, when you know you've got seven days off after that," Jordan said. "Guys are thinking about spending time with their families. It's tough, but we had to gut it out."
Stackhouse, the Wizards' leading scorer, missed his second straight game with a groin injury.
Despite constant double-teams, Jordan made 13-of-26 shots and had eight assists as the Wizards held off a stubborn challenge by the NBA's worst team. Neither team led by double digits until the final two minutes, even though starting Cleveland point guard Smush Parker sprained his right ankle on a layup in the first quarter and did not return.
Dajuan Wagner scored 19 points, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who have lost four straight overall and seven in a row on the road. Cleveland wasted a 50-36 rebound advantage with 22 turnovers, including several unforced sloppy passes out of bounds.
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The Wizards scored 31 points - exactly one-third of their total - off turnovers.
"Usually we'd come into a game like this and lose by 30 or 40," said Darius Miles, who scored 13 points. "Now we're disciplined, and we're in the game. We'll make our mistakes while we're young."
As he did on Saturday, Jordan worked himself free using screens and a variety of fadeaways over double teams. He leaped backward to gain separation for back-to-back jumpers around the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter to slow Cleveland's momentum not long after the Cavaliers cut a six-point lead to one.
He was also able to find the open man out of the double-teams when necessary.
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Cleveland then went more than four minutes without scoring, and the Wizards went up by 10 with a minute remaining.
The Cavaliers opened the second half with a 7-0 run to tie the game, but the Wizards responded with a 10-2 spurt to go up 62-54.
Kings 110, Mavericks 109
At Dallas, Keon Clark's high-flying dunk off a missed 3-pointer with 16.5 seconds left gave the Sacramento Kings a 110-109 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, capping a thrilling showdown between the Western Conference division leaders.
Michael Finley's 3-pointer with 57 seconds left put Dallas, which had trailed by 16, ahead 107-106. After Mike Bibby and Dirk Nowitzki traded tough jumpers, the Mavericks still led by one.
Hedo Turkoglu missed a long 3-pointer and the rebound went straight up. The long, lanky Clark - who earlier had an amazing one-handed, reverse alley-oop dunk - caught the ball and slammed it through in one motion.
The Mavericks, who had won four straight and seven of eight, had one possession left, but Nowitzki missing a 10-footer in the lane. He'd gotten a good look at the basket after spinning away from Peja Stojakovic.
Doug Christie grabbed the rebound with about 3 seconds left and dribbled away in celebration. Sacramento coach Rick Adelman turned to his bench and threw a victory punch, while an ecstatic Vlade Divac leaped onto the back of assistant coach Terry Porter.
Bibby led Sacramento with 27 points. Nowitzki, who missed his first eight shots, finished with 28 points, 16 rebounds and five assists for Dallas.
Lakers 97, Pacers 94
At Indianapolis, Kobe Bryant scored 35 points and Shaquille O'Neal fought off foul trouble for 19 points and 12 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers won their fourth in a row.
The Lakers are at .500 for the first time since they were 2-2 on Nov. 3. Following a Christmas loss to Sacramento, the Lakers were 11-19. Since then, they are 12-4 and are only 2 1/2 games behind Houston for the eighth seed in the West.
Knicks 105, Clippers 92
At New York, Latrell Sprewell broke the NBA record for most 3-pointers in a game without a miss, going 9-for-9 from behind the arc.
Sprewell broke the mark of 8-for-8 held by Jeff Hornacek, Sam Perkins and Steve Smith, making consecutive 3s midway through the fourth quarter to break the record after a 19-point lead had shrunk to nine.
Sprewell finished with a season-high 38 points, shooting 14-for-19 overall. The crowd called for him to take another 3 in the closing minutes, but he did not oblige the one time he had a brief open look with about 35 seconds left.
Raptors 98, Bucks 95
At Milwaukee, Vince Carter scored 25 points and blocked a potential tying 3-pointer by Ray Allen just before the buzzer as Toronto won for the fourth time in five games.
Antonio Davis scored 16 points for the Raptors and Morris Peterson added 14.
Nuggets 102, Bulls 100, OT
At Denver, Juwan Howard scored 30 points and Chris Whitney hit five free throws in the final 20.6 seconds of overtime as the Nuggets won consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 8-10.
Whitney also made the 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime. Replays seemed to show Whitney's foot was on the 3-point line when he released the ball.
Donyell Marshall led Chicago, which owns the NBA's worst road record at 2-25, with 21 points. It was the second straight night the Bulls lost in overtime. Phoenix defeated Chicago 115-111 on Monday.
Trail Blazers 96, Magic 89
At Orlando, Fla., Scottie Pippen recorded his first double-double of the year with 25 points and 17 rebounds as Portland defeated Orlando for the eighth straight time.
The game was delayed for several minutes when the shot-clock buzzer became stuck following a violation on Portland with 2:13 remaining in the game. After the buzzer was fixed, all scoreboards and shot clocks then malfunctioned, forcing the arena's public address announcer to call out the time remaining in the game and on the shot clock.
Timberwolves 103, Rockets 89
At Minneapolis, Kevin Garnett scored 23 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and added nine assists as Minnesota avenged a 20-point loss to Houston on Friday.
Rasho Nesterovic added 19 points for the Timberwolves and held Rockets center Yao Ming to 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
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