Chauncey Billups drops in 23 points as Detroit topples the New York Knicks.
By The Associated Press

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Chauncey Billups scored 23 points and Richard Hamilton added 21 to lead the Detroit Pistons to their fourth consecutive win, 94-85 over the slumping New York Knicks.

The Knicks played without forward Keith Van Horn, who missed his second game with a sprained right ankle, and lost for the sixth time in seven tries. They never led.

Ben Wallace and Mehmet Okur both had nine rebounds for Detroit.

Kurt Thomas led New York with 16 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with four minutes to play, while Shandon Anderson scored 15 and Charlie Ward had 13.

Detroit led 51-40 at the half, and the teams traded baskets for the first five minutes of the third before the Knicks put together an 10-0 run to narrow the margin to 66-62.

en after that.

‘Wolves 97, Cavaliers 83

CLEVELAND – Latrell Sprewell scored a season-high 31 points and Kevin Garnett added 20, leading the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 97-83 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night.

Sprewell’s 3-pointer with 5:47 remaining gave Minnesota a 15-point lead, and the Timberwolves showed poise down the stretch in holding off the inexperienced Cavaliers.

Cleveland rookie LeBron James scored 19 points – 13 in the fourth quarter – and added nine rebounds. However, he shot 8-of-19 and played just four minutes of the third quarter because of foul trouble.

Garnett added 15 rebounds and Fred Hoiberg came off the bench and matched a season-high with 14 points for Minnesota, which only trailed for the game’s first 2:18.

Ricky Davis added 13 points and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had a season-high 12 rebounds for Cleveland, which dropped to 4-2 at Gund Arena after missing some chances to get back in it late.

Pacers 76, Hornets 75

NEW ORLEANS – The Indiana Pacers, with the NBA’s best record, stayed unbeaten on the road thanks to a last-second miss by New Orleans rookie David West.

Jermaine O’Neal scored 24 points and Reggie Miller hit a pair of go-ahead free throws with 8.4 seconds left to lift the Indiana Pacers to a 76-75 victory over the Hornets on Friday night.

Ron Artest scored 22 points and O’Neal also had 11 rebounds and five blocks for Indiana, which snapped the Hornets’ four-game winning streak.

The Hornets got one last chance with a second left after O’Neal missed a pair of free throws – the second purposely in an effort to run out the clock. But West just missed converting a backdoor alley-oop pass from Sean Rooks, shooting the ball just a bit too hard off the backboard.

Spurs 114, Hawks 75

SAN ANTONIO – Tim Duncan had 20 of the Spurs season-high 68 first-half points and finished with 25 to lead San Antonio to a 114-75 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night.

Manu Ginobili had 20 points on 9-for-10 shooting with five rebounds and five assists, and Tony Parker had 17 points and six assists as the Spurs bounced back from a 95-92 defeat the previous night at Dallas.

Duncan, who also had 10 rebounds, did not play in the fourth quarter.

The Spurs opened the game with a 13-5 run in which Ginobili, who replaced Stephen Jackson as San Antonio’s starting shooting guard, scored eight points. The Spurs led 37-13 by the end of the first quarter.

Jackson made his return to San Antonio after he turned down a three-year contract to stay with the Spurs following their NBA championship last season. He later signed a one-year deal with Atlanta for less money.

Nuggets 108, Wizards 87

DENVER – Carmelo Anthony had 23 points and seven assists, and Voshon Lenard added 19 points in the Denver Nuggets’ 108-87 win over the Washington Wizards on Friday night.

Denver has won four of five and is off to its best start (7-5) since opening the 1989-90 season 8-4. The Nuggets are 5-1 at home after needing until Jan. 8 to get their fifth home win last season.

Andre Miller added 15 points and eight assists, and Chris Andersen had 11 points and five blocked shots for Denver.

Gilbert Arenas had 27 points and Larry Hughes 12 for Washington, which has lost five of seven.

Anthony found his shooting touch after hitting just 11 of 46 shots the previous three games. He was 10-for-18 and added four rebounds.

Jazz 99, Bucks 90

SALT LAKE CITY – Andrei Kirilenko scored 20 points and Raul Lopez scored a career-high 18 as the Utah Jazz overcame injuries to Carlos Arroyo and DeShawn Stevenson and defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 99-90 Friday night.

Arroyo and Stevenson left the court – Stevenson on a stretcher – within 70 seconds of each other in the third quarter. The Jazz erased a seven-point deficit and then took charge in the fourth quarter as Lopez scored seven straight points.

Matt Harpring scored 18 for the Jazz, who improved to 6-1 at home. Michael Redd led Milwaukee (5-7) with 28 points and Tim Thomas had 22 before fouling out on an offensive foul with 4:02 to play. Thomas was scoreless in the fourth quarter as the Bucks lost their third straight for the first time this season. Michael Redd added 20 points for the Bucks.

Arroyo, the Jazz starting point guard who averages 16.5 points and 6.4 assists, sprained his left ankle during a scramble for the ball with nine minutes left in the third quarter. Arroyo missed two games earlier in the season when he sprained the same ankle. He will be fully evaluated Saturday.

Stevenson was knocked down on a drive to the basket with 7:50 remaining in the period. The game was delayed for seven minutes while trainers attended to him. Utah’s starting shooting guard moved slowly before being rolled onto a stretcher and taken to the locker room.

“DeShawn has a neck injury but it doesn’t look serious. He is responding and everything looks normal. They are taking him to the hospital for precautionary tests,” said David Allred, Jazz vice president of communications.

Just after Arroyo and Stevenson were hurt, Redd gave the Bucks their biggest lead, 60-53, with seven minutes left in the third quarter.

Lopez sparked the Jazz with an assist for Curtis Borchardt’s dunk, followed by a 3-pointer. Utah finished the quarter with a 10-0 run capped by Kirilenko’s steal and layup to beat the buzzer for a 74-68 lead.

Lopez scored seven quick points to start the final period as Utah its advantage to 83-71 with 8:24 to play. The Bucks never got closer than seven the rest of the game.

Notes: With 11:30 left the fourth quarter, Thomas shoved Lopez to the floor and received a flagrant foul. … After the crowd started chanting against the referees while trainers attended to Stevenson, Ostertag went to midcourt and waved his arms to silence the fans. … The teams played the first 8:54 without a single team foul. The Jazz then committed three in the a 47-second span. … The teams combined for 13 offensive fouls.

AP-ES-11-21-03 2351EST