Sports

NBA

Magic trampled by one of league's worst

Associated Press
Published January 5, 2006

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TORONTO - The Magic grabbed the fewest rebounds in their history and allowed one of the NBA's worst teams to have a record night.

Rookie Charlie Villanueva scored 24 points and the Toronto Raptors shot a franchise record 63 percent from the field in a 121-97 rout of Orlando on Wednesday night.

The Raptors (10-22) own the third-worst record in the NBA, but tied a season-high in points and outrebounded the Magic 34-21.

The 21 rebounds are a franchise-low for Orlando, which lost in Detroit on Tuesday.

"It was a lack of effort on our part," Magic guard Jameer Nelson said.

Mike James added 17 points and seven assists for the Raptors, who have won four in a row for the first time since winning five straight in December 2003.

All 12 players on Toronto's roster scored and seven reached double figures. The Raptors' previous best shooting percentage was 61.9 percent on March 3, 1998 at Cleveland.

"Guys just stepped up. Everybody, one through 12," Villanueva said.

Nelson had a career-high 31 points for the Magic, who placed forward Grant Hill on the inactive list before game because of a strained groin. Steve Francis scored 10 points, on just 2-for-7 shooting.

"They outplayed us in every aspect of the game," Orlando coach Brian Hill said. "We were totally outplayed and outcoached."

Morris Peterson capped a 14-6 run at the end of the second quarter with a 3-pointer to give the Raptors a 61-42 halftime lead.

Villanueva, named Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for December, had 13 points in the half. Chris Bosh, Toronto's best player, played just four minutes in the first half after picking up two early fouls.

He finished with 10 points in 15 minutes.

"This shows our growth," Bosh said.

The Raptors have won six of their last eight games overall, beginning with a 92-90 victory over the Magic on Dec. 19.

"We had to rebound," Toronto coach Sam Mitchell said. "We remember last year, when they beat us by 24 or 25 on the boards."

HORNETS 107, HEAT 92: Desmond Mason scored 24 points and the host Hornets overcame Dwyane Wade's second career triple-double.

The Heat, who trailed 72-50 after Chris Paul set up Mason for a two-handed alley-oop jam with 7:58 to play in the third quarter, pulled within 11 with a string of nine straight points that extended into the fourth quarter.

Rasual Butler, who spent the last three seasons with Miami, responded by hitting a pair of 3-pointers during a 10-2 spurt to get the Hornets' lead to 93-74 and the Heat were never again closer than 14.

Wade, who had a triple-double on Dec. 30, 2004 against Detroit, had 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists to become the first Heat player to accomplish the feat twice.

CAVALIERS 91, BUCKS 84: LeBron James scored 17 of his 32 in the fourth quarter and visiting Cleveland held Milwaukee's bench scoreless.

James, who had 12 points in the first half, took over in the fourth and led the Cavaliers to their eighth win in nine games.

Cavs guard Larry Hughes will miss the next six to eight weeks with a broken finger. General manager Danny Ferry said that one or two screws would be inserted in the joint area of Hughes' right middle finger later this week to close the fracture.

CELTICS 109, BOBCATS 106: Orien Greene's driving layup with 57.5 seconds left broke a 102-102 tie and gave the visiting Celtics the lead for good. Bernard Robinson missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer. Charlotte, playing without injured big men Emeka Okafor, Sean May and Melvin Ely, was outrebounded 45-39 and outscored in the paint 46-36.

SONICS 101, BULLS 97: Ben Gordon hit a 3-pointer with 33.4 seconds left to pull host Chicago to within 99-97. After a jump ball, Gordon stepped out of bounds near the Bulls bench, giving Seattle possession and eventually the win in Bob Hill's debut as Seattle's head coach.

TIMBERWOLVES 91, MAVERICKS 78: Host Minnesota, which won for only the third time in its last 11 games, was paced by Kevin Garnett's 23 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.

NUGGETS 106, PACERS 86: Stephen Jackson and Fred Jones each hit a 3 as the visiting Indiana pulled to 62-58 in the opening minutes of the second half, but Carmelo Anthony scored four points in a 7-0 run that restored the Nuggets' double-digit lead and the Pacers never really threatened again.

SUNS 105, 76ERS 85: Steve Nash scored 24 and sat out the fourth quarter while host Phoenix completed a rout for their fifth victory in six games. Philadelphia was without Chris Webber for the first time this season. He sat out with a lower back strain.

SPURS 106, TRAIL BLAZERS 75: San Antonio limited visiting Portland to 9-for-32 (28 percent) shooting in the second half and the Spurs had 57 rebounds, including 20 on the offensive end. The Spurs outscored the Blazers 28-11 in the final quarter.

BULLS: Center Tyson Chandler is expected to miss a week with a sprained right ankle.

Chandler injured the ankle when he stepped on the foot of Milwaukee guard Mo Williams during the third quarter of Monday's 93-92 loss to the Bucks.

JAZZ: The team assigned second-round draft pick C.J. Miles to Albuquerque of the NBA Development League. Miles, 18, who entered the draft straight out of Skyline High School in Dallas, has played in just 10 of Utah's 32 games this season. Miles has be inactive for the last seven games.

SONICS: Guard Mateen Cleaves was waived. A first-round draft choice of the Pistons in 2000, Cleaves averaged 3.8 points in 159 career games. He also played for Cleveland and Sacramento.

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 01:19:08]