clarinews@clarinet.com (02/01/90)
DALLAS (UPI) -- Rolando Blackman and Sam Perkins combined for 8 key points down the stretch and Dallas held Houston scoreless for 6:03 of the fourth quarter Wednesday night to bring the Mavericks their seventh straight win, a 98-91 decision over the Rockets. Houston scored only 3 points over the last 6:35 of the game and 2 of those came with less than a second remaining. The seven wins in a row are the most for Dallas since its club record 11-game winning streak two seasons ago. Houston overcame a 12-point deficit in the third quarter on the shooting of Akeem Olajuwon and Otis Thorpe and took an 88-83 when Olajuwon scored with 6:35 to play. But the Rockets did not manage another point until 32 seconds remained, by which time they were trailing by 7. During that drought Olajuwon traveled, missed a short jumper and was called for being in the lane for three seconds. In addition, Buck Johnson missed a jumper from the free throw line and threw the ball away. The 12-point run Dallas managed during that stretch included 4 points each from Perkins and Blackman. Derek Harper paced the Mavericks with 21, Perkins and Roy Tarpley both had 18 and Blackman 14. Thrope had 29 and Olajuwon 25. They teamed to score 36 of Houston's 42 points in the second half.