Kirk Hinrich scored a season-high 30 points and tied a career high with 13 rebounds on Tuesday for the Chicago Bulls in a costly 111-100 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in which forward Malik Allen was taken to a hospital with an apparent head injury.
Chicago also lost guard Chris Duhon to a bruised jaw after he took a shot to the face in the second quarter.
Hinrich also finished with nine assists, while Luol Deng added 24 points and 10 rebounds and Andres Nocioni scored 20 points.
PHOTO: AP
Kevin Garnett led the Timberwolves with 27 points and 12 rebounds. Rashad McCants and Marcus Banks scored 18 apiece as Minnesota lost for the 10th time in 13 games.
Allen was injured when he rotated to guard a driving Rashad McCants 20 seconds into the second quarter. As he fell backward, Allen's head banged into teammate Darius Songaila's knee.
Allen remained on the floor for several minutes, and his neck was immobilized before he was carted away. As he left the court, Allen moved his arms and raised a fist. He was taken to Rush University Medical Center.
PHOTO: AP
SuperSonics 114, Hornets 104
At Seattle, Ray Allen scored 33 points and Seattle held off a major fourth-quarter rally to beat New Orleans.
Playing its first home game in 16 days, Seattle won for just the third time in the last 13 games. But what looked like a rout turned got a little exciting in the final period.
Seattle led by 23 late in the third quarter, only to watch the Hornets pull within three late in the fourth. The Sonics scored 15 of the final 23 points to finally pull away.
Allen missed only one shot in the first half en route to 20 points, and Rashard Lewis added 25 for the Sonics, who had all five starters score in double figures.
Rookie Chris Paul led the Hornets with 25 points and 14 assists and Rasual Butler added 23 off the bench, including a club record-tying five 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
Lakers 102, Magic 87
At Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant had 28 points and eight assists to lead Los Angeles over Orlando.
Smush Parker added 17 points and seven assists for the Lakers (29-28), who took control of the game with a third-quarter scoring burst.
Lamar Odom had eight points, 12 rebounds and five assists as LA climbed back above the .500 mark. Chris Mihm and Brian Cook had 12 points apiece in the Lakers' balanced attack, Kwame Brown had 11 and Ronny Turiaf 10.
Grant Hill led the Magic with 23 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor. Dwight Howard had 15 points and nine rebounds for Orlando, which lost for the ninth time in 10 games.
Boston College will get a day off as a reward for salvaging its inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference season.
"I think it's a tremendous accomplishment, considering how we started. There was a little bit of concern about that," coach Al Skinner said after BC, which started 0-3 in its new conference, beat Wake Forest 80-65 on Tuesday night to clinch a bye in the first round of its first ACC tournament.
"The guys never hung their heads and they're in a good place now."
Craig Smith had 23 points and eight rebounds and Jared Dudley scored 22 for the 12th-ranked Eagles (23-6, 10-5 ACC). Smith, who hurt his left shoulder running into a pick, iced it after the game but said he expected to be OK for the regular-season finale.
BC, which defected from the Big East over the summer, could improve its position even more on Saturday: A victory over Virginia Tech in the regular-season finale could help the Eagles avoid top-ranked Duke until the conference championship game.
It's quite a turnaround for the team that called not one, but two team meetings to snap out of an early slump. The first one was players only; in the second, Skinner let them know what he thought of comments by victorious North Carolina State players that the Eagles had given up.
"He had some things to say because we weren't playing up to our potential," senior Louis Hinnant said. "This meeting, he was really animated. Me and Craig, we've been here the longest. Neither one of us has seen him like that.
"We both took it personally," Hinnant said. "We wanted to go out with a bang. We wanted to turn it around, and we did a pretty good job."
BC won seven of its last eight and 12 of its last 14 to clinch a spot in the conference's top four. That means the Eagles would only have to win three games for a conference title.
"It increases our chances of succeeding," Skinner said. "To play four straight days against this level of competition and expect to win, I think, is impossible. To do it three straight days is tough."
Trent Strickland scored 15 for Wake Forest (14-15, 2-13), which went 0-8 on the road in the conference. The Demon Deacons clinched last place in the ACC with the loss.
No. 10 Illinois 71, Minnesota 65
James Augustine doesn't care that he just missed a triple-double Tuesday night. His focus is on a much bigger prize.
Augustine had 16 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high seven assists to lead No. 10 Illinois over Minnesota 71-65, moving the Illini within a half-game of Ohio State for the Big Ten lead.
"Someone told me at halftime I had five assists, but I just laughed at it," Augustine said. "The win's more important."
Illinois finishes the regular season at Michigan State on Saturday. Ohio State has two games left, including one at Northwestern on Wednesday.
"I'm a huge Northwestern fan," Augustine joked. "We're gonna hope they pull it out."
"We haven't made plans yet, but we'll probably all get together and watch that game," said Jamar Smith, who hit a crucial 3-pointer down the stretch.
Dee Brown scored 14 points and Rich McBride had 12 for Illinois (24-5, 10-5), which is looking for its third straight Big Ten title.
Vincent Grier scored 19 points and Moe Hargrow added 17 in their final home game for the Golden Gophers (14-12, 5-10), who have lost 15 straight to Illinois dating back to 1999. Spencer Tollackson and Adam Boone had 10 points each for Minnesota, which finishes its schedule on Saturday at Northwestern.
"We played great in stretches," Grier said. "But, the whole year's been like that, ups and downs."
Grier, Hargrow, Boone, Zach Puchtel and J'son Stamper were all playing their last game at Williams Arena on senior night.
"I thought our seniors' focus and desire was excellent," Gophers coach Dan Monson said. "They put it on the line today, but it just wasn't enough."
Asked whether he thought Minnesota had a chance at the NCAA tournament, Monson was realistic, saying he didn't think a 5-10 record in the Big Ten would get the Gophers in. About the only chance they have is to receive the automatic bid that comes with winning the conference tournament.
"I don't know if we have to win the Big Ten Tournament, but that probably depends on who we play and how far we go," Monson said. "We have to worry about Saturday first."
National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern said on Tuesday the league wants to find a way to help the Trail Blazers stop losing money in order to keep the team in Portland.
Owner Paul Allen made team finances public last week, estimating the Trail Blazers may lose US$100 million over the next three years.
Lance Conn, the head of Allen's investment firm, Vulcan Capital, blamed what he called the worst arena lease in the NBA, along with a lack of a public subsidy for the Rose Garden, the home of the Blazers.
The announcement set off a flurry of meetings with state and city officials, and Stern said he has scheduled ``lots of meetings'' in person and by telephone in the coming week.
"It's our preference, our strong preference, to have the Blazers in Portland, in Oregon, playing at the Rose Garden and being able to be a financial success," Stern said.
But he acknowledged the public outcry over the possibility of a subsidy for a billionaire owner would make it difficult to build support.
"Those are decisions best left to elected officials, but there are choices that have to be made," Stern said.
"Just because you have the money doesn't mean you have to spend it," he added. "Throwing good money after bad is not what a successful businessman will do for very long."
Stern noted the Rose Garden was financed by Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp, without public money. But the team's sister company, Oregon Arena Corp, declared bankruptcy in 2004 and Allen chose to give up ownership rather than continue to pay interest on construction debt.
As a result, team revenue has declined sharply, along with ticket sales, down by a third from five years ago.
"Right now they're in a pretty untenable situation," Stern said.
Curtis Sumpter takes redshirt
Villanova forward Curtis Sumpter decided to take a medical redshirt and sit out the rest of the season.
Sumpter, a second-team All-Big East selection last season, will return to the fourth-ranked Wildcats next year for his senior season.
He tore his anterior cruciate ligament on Oct. 19 and hasn't played this season. It was the second time in seven months Sumpter had surgery to repair the same torn ACL. He first hurt his knee in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
"I am working hard to get back and help my classmates," Sumpter said. "I feel like I am getting stronger and faster each day. But I feel the best decision is to continue working hard and to try to help my team in other ways over the final weeks of this season. I'm making the decision that is best for my future."
Sumpter finished third on the team last season in scoring with a 15.3 average.
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