Nobody can get very excited about the style of basketball the Cleveland Cavaliers are playing these days. On the other hand, it's easy to get excited about the way the team is winning.
With Bobby Phills scoring 22 points and Tyrone Hill adding 21 points and 15 rebounds Wednesday night, the Cavaliers cruised to their 10th straight victory, 91-75 over the slumping Washington Bullets.That brought Cleveland within one win of the franchise mark of 11 straight, set last February and March.
As has been the case throughout the streak, the Cavs won with a furious, rotating defense and a deliberate offense - a system that wouldn't likely be very popular if it wasn't producing so well.
"It wasn't pretty. I don't think it was one of our better games," said Mark Price, who scored 15 points. "It was a grind-it-out game, and in the second half our defense was much better."
Washington, which has lost 10 of 11 games, scored just 31 points in the second half, and its final total was a season low for the Bullets.
The game marked the fourth time during the current streak that the Cavs have yielded fewer than 80 points; only one team has reached 100 against them during that span.
"Their defense, obviously, is very good," Washington coach Jim Lynam said. "Not only did we miss a lot of shots, we didn't get to the foul line. We were in a tie game at 37. It wasn't so much our defense. We couldn't score."
Calbert Cheaney led Washington with 16 points and rookie Juwan Howard had 15.
Bulls 105, Celtics 97
Seven Chicago players, led by Toni Kukoc with 27 points, scored in double figures as the Bulls built an 18-point lead, then held on for the victory.
The Celtics dropped their fourth straight game and 11th in their last 14.
Blue Edwards led Boston with 19 points.
Knicks 101, Pistons 93
Patrick Ewing matched his season high with 30 points and Derek Harper and John Starks each hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final minutes to help New York snap a three-game home losing streak.
The victory was the Knicks' sixth straight against the Pistons, who dropped their fourth in a row despite 24 points from Joe Dumars and 21 from Grant Hill.
Hill and Dumars scored eight points each in the fourth quarter, but Detroit, which trailed 93-90 with 2:19 to play, made just one of its final six shots.
Charles Smith scored 23 points and Anthony Mason added 14 rebounds as the Knicks won their second straight after a five-game losing streak, the longest in Pat Riley's coaching career.
SuperSonics 121, 76ers 102
Kendall Gill scored five of his 25 points in the final 3:34, leading a late 17-5 surge as Seattle pulled away from Philadelphia.
Led by Dana Barros and Willie Burton, the 76ers trimmed a 23-point deficit to 104-97 before Gill, Gary Payton and Detlef Schrempf sparked Seattle's big finish.
Payton and Schrempf scored 23 points apiece for the Sonics, who won their 13th straight home game.
Barros led the 76ers with 26 points.