Nuggets Finally Get Third Victory
The streak is over!
The Denver Nuggets are still the worst team in the NBA, but for the first time in 24 games they were better than the opposition.
Reserve Anthony Goldwire tied his career-high with 20 points and the Nuggets trounced the Los Angeles Clippers 99-81 Saturday night to snap a 23-game losing streak that tied the Vancouver Grizzlies’ 1995-96 NBA record for the longest in a single season.
Rookie coach Bill Hanzlik traded smiles with assistant Brian Winters in the closing seconds. At the buzzer, rookie Bobby Jackson, Goldwire and second-year player Dean Garrett shared congratulatory hand slaps. The entire team trotted off the floor grinning.
The Nuggets could have tied the overall record of 24 consecutive losses set by Cleveland at the end of the 1981-82 season and the start of 1982-83.
Instead, they dominated the Clippers, the team that provided Denver with its last victory way back on Dec. 7.
Denver also snapped its franchise-record 22-game road losing streak as it won away from home for the first time this season.
Except for a five-point deficit early in the game, the Nuggets led the entire way and opened their largest lead, 26 points, early in the fourth quarter.
The Nuggets are still far from staying out of the NBA record book. They remain a threat to break the record for fewest wins in a season - nine - by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers.
Other games
Reggie Miller scored 23 of his 32 points in the second half as the Indiana Pacers overcame a 17-point deficit to defeat the visiting Boston Celtics 95-88.
It was the second consecutive night Indiana won after overcoming a double-digit deficit in the second half.
In Atlanta, Isaiah Rider scored 28 points and the Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Hawks for the first time in more than three years, 92-77.
Portland, ending its current road trip 3-1, had lost six in a row to the Hawks since Jan. 3, 1995. The Blazers have won five of their last six games, while Atlanta has lost three in a row.
In Vancouver, British Columbia, Otis Thorpe had 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists as the Vancouver Grizzlies beat the Golden State Warriors 107-96 for the first three-game winning streak in franchise history.
Golden State lost its 14th in a row.
Rodman returns
“Nothing happened,” Dennis Rodman said Saturday as he returned to practice with the Chicago Bulls, one day after he’d been sent home before a game in New Jersey for missing practice. “I messed up and that’s it. It’s as simple as that.”
Rodman will play in today’s game against Utah but might not start and will receive a substantial fine, Bulls coach Phil Jackson said.
Why didn’t Rodman show for the Friday morning shoot-around?
“I didn’t feel like it,” he said.