Nets sleepwalk before 3,216 fans on snowy night
East Rutherford, N.J. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the small crowd. Whatever the reason, the New Jersey Nets were uninspired.
Ray Allen had 23 points and Sam Cassell scored 14 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter as the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the New Jersey Nets 107-100 Monday night.
A snowstorm in the New York area kept the crowd to 3,216. During the first quarter, the Nets announced they could sit wherever they liked.
The Bucks, with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference, blew a 17-point first-half lead but then scored the last six points of the third period and six of the first seven in the fourth to open an 83-75 lead. New Jersey never got closer than five after that.
"I'm pretty disappointed in our effort in the first half," said Nets coach Byron Scott.
"I didn't seen any guys with energy out there except Kenyon Martin. We finally responded in the third quarter, but you can't get down to a team as good as that because it will come back and bite you."
Bucks coach George Karl thought his team, which swept its four-game season series with the Nets, played a very inconsistent game. But he was glad to start a five-game road trip with a victory.
"There were times when we played great basketball and times where we missed shots and didn't play defense," said Karl. "Then in the fourth quarter we responded well.
"New Jersey has beaten some good teams here. I'm just glad we kept control of the game for most of the night."
Rookie Kenyon Martin led the Nets with a triple-double of 18 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists. Stephon Marbury had 18 of his 20 points in the second half and Lucious Harris added 17.
Glenn Robinson scored 18 for the Bucks.
Lindsey Hunter opened the fourth period with a jumper. After Martin hit a free throw, Tim Thomas hit two foul shots and Allen added a turnaround from the baseline to put the Bucks in control.
"A lot of ugly basketball was being played," said Allen.
"This was one of those games we were lucky to have won. We were clearly better, we clearly played a better game.
"I think we knocked the life out of them early," Allen said. "but they came back in the third quarter and kind of shocked us. The fourth quarter was all about defense, it came down to us stopping their go-to guys."
The Nets scored the first seven points of the game but Milwaukee reeled off the next 10 and led throughout the first half.
Heat 87, Pistons 84
Miami Brian Grant scored 20 points and Dan Majerle made a 3-pointer in the final seconds as the Heat overcame the loss of guard Eddie Jones to defeat the Detroit Pistons 87-84 Monday night.
The Heat won their third straight game and for the fifth time in six games, but it wasn't easy or without casualties.
Jones, the cornerstone of a blockbuster trade with the Hornets last summer, dislocated his left shoulder in the second quarter and was taken off on a stretcher. His long-term prognosis won't be known until Tuesday.
"I don't know how long he'll be out," Heat coach Pat Riley said. "Until (Tuesday) we won't know anything. We'll have to wait and see.
"I would imagine that he'll be out a little while I just don't know how long."
The Heat, who moved two games ahead of the idle Knicks for third place in the East, turned to other players for scoring. Anthony Mason scored 16 points and added 19 rebounds, and Tim Hardaway scored 16 points as the Heat moved 13 games above .500.
Majerle, who scored a season-high 12 points, made a 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down and Miami clinging to an 82-81 lead with 14.3 seconds left. The Pistons answered with a 3-pointer from Jerry Stackhouse with 7.1 seconds left.
Hardaway hit a pair of free throws with 6.0 seconds left to give Miami an 87-84 lead. It was Hardaway's first points since the 9:22 mark of the third quarter.
Stackhouse's shot at the buzzer, which would have counted for two points, rimmed out.
Magic 95, Mavericks 81
Orlando, Fla. Cory Alexander hasn't seen a lot of action for Orlando this season. The Dallas Mavericks saw entirely too much of him Monday night.
The seldom-used point guard keyed a decisive second-half run as the Magic defeated Dallas 95-81.
Tracy McGrady had 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Darrell Armstrong scored 21 points.
Dirk Nowitzki's 22 points and 14 points led Dallas, which had its three-game winning streak against Orlando snapped. Juwan Howard had 17 points and eight rebounds and Michael Finley added 14 points.
Orlando trailed by six points with 1:56 remaining in the third quarter but outscored Dallas 21-2 over the next seven minutes. Alexander keyed the run with seven of his season-high nine points, including back-to-back baskets in the closing seconds of the third quarter that put the Magic ahead 71-69.
"It gave us a quick lift," said Alexander, who entered the game with a total of just seven points in eight games since joining the team Jan. 29.
Orlando coach Doc Rivers said he decided to play Alexander after having a a gut feeling on the flight home from Sunday's loss at Detroit.
"I'm playing for the best possible person to be playing for," Alexander said of Rivers, his teammate on the 1995-96 San Antonio Spurs.
Spurs 91 Grizzlies 77
Vancouver, British Columbia San Antonio took control of a tight contest by holding Vancouver scoreless for nine minutes in the second half.
San Antonio put together a 23-2 run bridging the third and fourth quarters to win their 15th straight game against the Grizzlies, who lost their eighth in a row overall.
Derek Anderson scored 25 for the Spurs, whose defense allowed them to move into third place in the Western Conference.
The Grizzlies, who missed 19 straight shots in a previous meeting against the Spurs, missed their first 10 field goal attempts of the fourth quarter.
After Mike Bibby tied the game at 67-67 with 57 seconds left in the third, Vancouver didn't score again until Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf hit a runner with 3:57 left.
San Antonio started the contest quickly, hitting 10 of its first 14 field goal attempts, mostly from the perimeter.
However, the Grizzlies hung tough defensively and began to get baskets inside, even against the twin towers of Tim Duncan and David Robinson.
Jazz 109, Hawks 102
Atlanta Karl Malone scored 30 points and John Stockton added 22.
After Toni Kukoc made a 3-pointer to cut the Jazz's lead to three points with 2:05 remaining, Malone fed Donyell Marshall for a dunk 20 seconds later and then hit a 20-foot jumper from the left wing that made it 107-100 with 1:12 to go.
Utah, which has won four of five and 14 of 17, led by as many as nine points, the first time coming on John Starks' jumper from the top of the key early in the third quarter.
The Hawks fought back and went up 78-76 on a pair of free throws by Jason Terry with 3:39 left in the third.
Kukoc, starting his first game for Atlanta, led the Hawks with 24 points. Terry finished with 21 points and Lorenzen Wright added 18.
Terry hit a pair of free throws with 53.8 seconds remaining to make it 107-102, but Malone fed Stockton for an uncontested layup in Utah's halfcourt offense to end the scoring with 25.1 seconds to go.
Clippers 99, Nuggets 86
Los Angeles Lamar Odom scored 27 points and Darius Miles powered a 20-2 fourth-quarter run that carried Los Angeles to victory over Denver as the Nuggets lost their eighth straight road game.
Odom, playing despite a bruised hip, shot 7-for-8 from the field in the first half and finished 12-for-16 overall while grabbing seven rebounds.
Corey Maggette and Jeff McInnis each added 14 for the Clippers, who have won six of their last nine games.
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