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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, December 18, 2008

Paul lifts Hornets over Spurs, 90-83

Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

New Orleans' Chris Paul, right, steals a pass by San Antonio's Tony Parker to make it 106 straight games with a steal.

CHRIS GRANGER | Associated Press/The Times-Picayun

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NEW ORLEANS — After his history-making swipe, Chris Paul helped the Hornets steal a victory from the San Antonio Spurs.

Paul set an NBA record with a steal in his 106th straight regular-season game and had 19 points and 12 assists to lead New Orleans to a 90-83 comeback victory last night.

Paul broke Alvin Robertson's NBA mark — which stood since 1986 — when he deflected and quickly corralled an attempted pass by Tony Parker late in the second quarter.

"It's an unbelievable achievement. Hopefully nobody else will come break it," said Paul, who often preaches the importance of getting turnovers in order to ignite the transition offense he leads so creatively. "I figure since I set the record, why not smash it? Let's see how long it can go."

David West scored 21 points for New Orleans, hitting a pair of late 3s to help erase a seven-point deficit in the last 5 minutes.

"Luckily, they went down," West said. "I just let them go. That's what you've got to do. You can't be thinking. Obviously, knowing we were down, we just needed some plays. We needed something good to happen for us and it didn't stop there. Other guys made some big plays down the stretch and were able to really push us forward."

With the victory, the Hornets (15-7) narrowly held on to first place in the rugged Southwest Division, moving ahead of idle Houston (16-9) by a half-game and the Spurs (15-9) by a full game.

Parker led San Antonio with 20 points, and Tim Duncan had 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Paul got a brief rest to start the fourth quarter before checking back in with 8:50 to go and New Orleans trailing 74-67. He completed a three-point play that triggered a 23-8 Hornets run to close out the game.

Jazz 103, Nets 92: Deron Williams had 17 points and 11 assists, Mehmet Okur had 23 points and nine rebounds and visiting Utah, which trailed 27-7 after the first quarter, rallied with a 72-point second half to beat the Nets.

The Jazz played without Carlos Boozer for the 15th straight game because of a strained left quadriceps.

76ers 93, Bucks 88: Lou Williams scored 25 points, Andre Miller added 19, and host Philadelphia overcame the loss of forward Elton Brand to defeat Milwaukee and improve to 2-0 under interim coach Tony DiLeo, who replaced the fired Maurice Cheeks on Saturday.

Brand dislocated his right shoulder with 7:23 left in the third quarter after landing on Milwaukee's Luc Mbah a Moute.

Cavaliers 93, Timberwolves 70: LeBron James scored 32 points and visiting Cleveland sent Minnesota to its 11th straight loss, including 0-6 since Kevin McHale took over for Randy Wittman as coach.

The Cavs improved to 21-4, the exact opposite of Minnesota's record.

Pacers 127, Warriors 120: Danny Granger scored 41 points, making all 17 of his free throws, and had 11 rebounds and six assists to lift host Indiana over Golden State.

Golden State led 103-101 before Granger made a turnaround jumper in the lane and a 3-pointer to put the Pacers ahead for good, 106-103, with 6 minutes to play.

Mavericks 96, Raptors 86: Dirk Nowitzki had 27 points and 10 rebounds, and Jason Terry also scored 27 to lead visiting Dallas past Toronto.

Josh Howard added 20 points for Dallas in his first start since Nov. 18. Howard came off the bench Monday night in a loss to Denver after missing 11 games because of a sprained ankle.

Pistons 88, Wizards 74: Allen Iverson scored 28 points, and Rodney Stuckey added 18 points and 11 assists as Detroit won its third straight.

Trailing by 10 at halftime, the Wizards closed to 63-62 with 10 minutes to play before the Pistons went on a 12-3 run and led by at least 10 the rest of the way.

Bulls 115, Clippers 109: Derrick Rose scored on a layup, was fouled, and made the free throw for a 113-109 lead with 42 second left in overtime, and Larry Hughes made two free throws with 18 seconds to lift host Chicago over Los Angeles.

Chicago's Ben Gordon nailed a 25-footer, was fouled and made the free throw with 20 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 109. Teammate Al Thornton missed a 19-footer with .05 seconds left.

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