Ceballos Rejoins Suns With 26-Point Effort

Cedric Ceballos’ first game in two months was everything he and the Phoenix Suns could have hoped.

Ceballos, who hadn’t played since Nov. 13, scored a season-high 26 points and had 12 rebounds in his return to the Phoenix lineup as the Suns defeated the Dallas Mavericks, 105-98, Monday night at Dallas.

Ceballos, traded back to the Suns last week by the Lakers, sat out 28 games this season because of a knee injury.

Phoenix blew a 26-point third-quarter lead but recovered to beat the Mavericks for the ninth consecutive time at Reunion Arena.

Miami 98, Washington 95--Alonzo Mourning scored 32 points and the Heat withstood a furious fourth-quarter rally by Washington at Miami.

Juwan Howard, booed throughout the game because he spurned the Heat last summer as a free agent, scored 23 points and helped the Bullets rally from an 82-60 deficit with 9 1/2 minutes left. But they failed to catch Miami, with Chris Webber and Tracy Murray missing three-point attempts in the final 10 seconds.

Atlanta 93, Cleveland 79--Christian Laettner scored 25 points as the Hawks won their sixth game in a row at Cleveland.

Laettner made a high-arching three-pointer to start an 11-2 run at the beginning of the fourth quarter that sent the Cavaliers to their fourth consecutive loss and fifth in eight games.

Charlotte 102, Denver 100--Tony Smith’s jumper with 1:29 left in overtime--his only points of the game and the only basket in overtime--gave the Hornets the victory at Denver.

By scoring only two points in the extra period, the clubs set an NBA record for the fewest points combined in an overtime. The previous record of four points was accomplished twice, most recently by San Antonio and New York on Dec. 10, 1995.

Utah 97, Philadelphia 96--The Jazz, despite making only one field goal in overtime, ended an eight-game road losing streak at Philadelphia.

John Stockton and John Hornacek each scored three points in overtime for the Jazz, who were only one for seven from the floor in the extra period.

Orlando 114, New Jersey 111--Rony Seikaly scored eight of his 29 points in the fourth quarter when the Magic wiped out a 10-point deficit at East Rutherford, N.J.