New York dents Cavs’ standing
Jamal Crawford scored 25 points and Maurice Taylor had 16, including 11 in the fourth quarter, as the visiting New York Knicks damaged Cleveland’s playoff chances with a 95-89 win over the Cavaliers on Thursday night.
With guard Stephon Marbury watching from the bench for the entire fourth quarter, the Knicks held off Cleveland’s rally and handed the Cavs a loss they couldn’t afford with less than a week left in the regular season.
LeBron James scored 27 points on 7-of-25 shooting – 4 of 13 on 3-pointers – and had a career-high 18 rebounds for the Cavaliers (40-38), who entered the night with a one-game lead over Philadelphia (39-38) for the No. 7 playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Cleveland leads idle New Jersey (38-40) by two games in the standings with four games left, but three of those are on the road. The Cavs would lose a tiebreaker to the Nets.
The Knicks, who were beaten here by 25 points on Jan. 8, snapped a seven-game losing streak in Cleveland.
76ers 126, Heat 119 (OT): At Philadelphia, Allen Iverson scored 38 points and had 16 assists, helping the Sixers spoil the return of Shaquille O’Neal and overcome a career-high 48 points from Dwyane Wade with a victory over Miami. Marc Jackson scored 26 and Kyle Korver 20 for the Sixers, who won for the fifth time in six games. With Cleveland’s loss to New York, the Sixers (40-38) moved into a tie for seventh in the East standings.
Mavericks 102, Trail Blazers 90: At Portland, Dallas didn’t need Dirk Nowitzki, who had the night off. Jerry Stackhouse came off the bench to score 18 points, and the Mavericks soundly beat the woeful Blazers for their sixth straight victory. The Mavericks swept the Blazers 4-0 for the first time in franchise history. Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Blazers, who have lost 9 of 10 games. Dallas had already clinched the No. 4 seed for the Western Conference playoffs without a chance to move up in the standings.
Curry out for season
Chicago Bulls center Eddy Curry will miss the rest of the season because of an irregular heartbeat, but doctors are optimistic he’ll be able to play again.
Curry will undergo further tests that will take another six weeks, meaning he’ll miss the team’s first playoff appearance since 1998. Doctors still aren’t sure what caused the heart arrhythmia, which hasn’t recurred in the last two weeks. The 22-year-old has been sidelined since March 30.
The Bulls are 6-3 since Curry’s irregular heartbeat was discovered, and 7-8 overall without him.
After losing more than 30 pounds last summer, the 7-footer has become the inside force the Bulls envisioned when they drafted him fourth overall in 2001.
He led Chicago with 16.1 points a game and was shooting 53.8 percent, the fourth-best effort in the NBA. He was averaging 5.4 rebounds.
He scored at least 25 points in his two games before being sidelined.
Around the League
Pepperdine junior guard Alex Acker will declare for the 2005 NBA draft. … All-American point guard Chris Paul will give up his final two years of eligibility at Wake Forest and also enter the draft. … Torin Francis will forgo his senior season at Notre Dame to enter the draft.