NBA ROUNDUP : Portland Beats Suns; Drexler on Injured List

Rod Strickland scored nine points in the final 5 1/2 minutes as the Portland Trail Blazers came from behind to beat the Phoenix Suns, 102-97, Tuesday night at Portland, handing the suddenly struggling Suns their third loss in four games.

But the Trail Blazers had to temper the good news on the court with bad news from the sidelines.

All-Star Clyde Drexler was put on the injured list, meaning he must sit out at least five games. Drexler is expected to be sidelined 10 days to two weeks because of a strained tendon in his left hamstring. He sustained the injury early in the fourth quarter of Portland’s loss at Boston on Sunday.

It’s the second time this season that Drexler has been put on the injured list. He sat out nine games earlier because of a sore right knee.

Drexler leads the Trail Blazers in scoring at 20.2 points per game.

Terry Porter scored 26 points and Cliff Robinson added 22 for the Trail Blazers.

Chicago 87, New Jersey 80--Being without the injured Kenny Anderson (broken wrist) against the Bulls was bad enough for the Nets at East Rutherford, N.J.

When Sam Bowie’s flu, Drazen Petrovic’s foul problems, a shattered backboard by Chris Morris causing a 21-minute delay and a little too much Michael Jordan were all added in, it ended up as the worst offensive performance of the year for New Jersey and another victory for the Bulls.

Jordan scored 24 points to lead the Bulls to their sixth victory in a row overall and their seventh in a row on the road. It was the 11th victory in 13 games for the Bulls, who continue to win without the injured John Paxson and Bill Cartwright.

However, Morris gave the East Rutherford crowd something to talk about when he shattered the backboard on a dunk with 4:21 to play.

“You know me, I’m dunking as hard as I can,” Morris said. “But at that angle, it’s hard to try to do that. The last person to do it from that side (right baseline) was a man that was 6-9 and 250 pounds. That’s Darryl Dawkins. But me? I ain’t 215. But I try to dunk with force.”

New York 107, Atlanta 98--The Knicks, averaging 78 points while losing by an average of 27 in their previous two games, got 30 points from Patrick Ewing to beat the Hawks at New York despite 42 points from Atlanta’s Dominique Wilkins.

The Knicks, who won their seventh straight home game and improved their record to 24-4 at Madison Square Garden, took advantage of the absence of the NBA’s fifth-leading rebounder, Kevin Willis, who sat out after straining his lower back.

The Hawks lost for the first time in five games this season in which Wilkins has scored 40 or more points. Wilkins got nearly half of his points from the line, making 20 of 22 free throws.

Indiana 109, San Antonio 95--Detlef Schrempf had team-highs of 26 points, seven rebounds and nine assists at Indianapolis, leading the Pacers to their third consecutive victory.

Reggie Miller added 20 points, George McCloud came off the bench for 18, and Rik Smits had 16 before fouling out, offsetting 37 points and 12 rebounds by David Robinson of the Spurs.

Robinson was the only Spur to score in double figures and San Antonio made only 39% of its shots. Dale Ellis of the Spurs made only three of 18 shots.

Orlando 108, Minnesota 89--Jeff Turner came off the bench to spark an early fourth-quarter run that carried the Magic to victory at Orlando. Turner scored 10 of his 22 points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter as the Magic turned a five-point lead into an 88-71 advantage. Minnesota never got closer than 14 after that.

Shaquille O’Neal led the Magic with 25 points and 16 rebounds. Doug West led the Timberwolves with 28 points.

Milwaukee 120, Dallas 86--The Bucks romped at Milwaukee, handing the Mavericks their 25th consecutive road loss and dropping the team to 4-49.

Frank Brickowski led the Bucks, who have won only four of their last 14 games, with 17 points.

Seattle 108, Cleveland 105--Shawn Kemp’s free throw with 11 seconds to play at Seattle helped the SuperSonics to their eighth consecutive victory.