Wizards' woes continue with another loss

THERE were boos early and at the end for the winless Washington Wizards, who posted their worst ever start to a season by dropping to nine consecutive losses with a 89-96 defeat to the Indiana Pacers on Monday night.

Indiana's David West scored 13 of his season-best 30 points in the fourth quarter, and Roy Hibbert broke out of a slump with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Still without point guard John Wall, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft, and starting center Nene, the Wizards are the only team in the NBA without a victory. They started last year by losing their first eight games, the club's previous worst opening to a season.

They were led on Monday by rookie Bradley Beal's 18 points, 17 coming in the second half.

Jordan Crawford scored 11 on 2-for-12 shooting for Washington, which was jeered by the announced crowd of 14,426 in the opening minutes and again at the closing buzzer.

In other NBA games, the Nuggets had a 97-92 win over the Grizzlies, the Clippers beat the Spurs 92-87, the Warriors defeated the Mavericks 105-101, the Jazz beat the Rockets 102-91, the Bobcats had a 102-98 win over the Bucks and the Hawks beat the Magic 81-72.

Randy Foye hit four 3-pointers and scored 14 points for the Jazz, who led by as many as 23 in the first half after opening the second quarter with a 13-0 run.

The Rockets pulled within nine late in the third, but Houston wouldn't get any closer with leading scorer James Harden on the bench with a fever and upper-respiratory infection. Harden started 0 of 6 and finished with six points in 17 minutes before exiting just before halftime. Patrick Patterson had 19 points and Jeremy Lin added 13 as Houston lost its third straight.

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