Rose blooms as Jordan hits all-time low

Jalen Rose turned his best game in months, while Michael Jordan endured his worst game in nearly 16 years on Thursday.

Rose snapped out of a slump with 26 points as the Indiana Pacers extended their winning streak to four games with a 108-81 victory over the Washington Wizards, who saw Jordan limited to a career-low six points.

Rose was hot from the start against the Wizards, making 10-of-18 shots and all five of his free throws.

"I am a scorer and scorers keep shooting, keep hustling and keep scoring," he said.

Jordan could not have been worse, finishing with six points on 2-of-10 shooting after sitting out the final 15 minutes. He had scored at least 10 points in 866 consecutive games since his previous low of eight points against Cleveland on March 22, 1986.

"The reason he scored a career low is because I didn't play him," Washington coach Doug Collins said. "I'm not going to put Michael out in that kind of a game."

"I knew I wasn't going to come back in," Jordan said. "If I felt it was an issue, I would have returned. That was not important. For the effort this team put in tonight, no one should be happy with the outcome. Everything fell into my lap and no one stepped forward to carry the load."

Tyronn Lue picked up the slack with a season-high 23 points but was the only player in double figures for Washington.

HEAT COOLED

In Atlanta, Jason Terry scored 32 points and hit a clutch basket with 12 seconds left as the Atlanta Hawks overcame a 19-point second-half deficit to hand the Miami Heat their fourth straight loss, 100-96.

Miami led 73-54 with 5:37 left in the third quarter and 82-69 in the opening minute of the fourth, but Atlanta stormed back and snapped a 94-94 tie on a 3-pointer by Dion Glover with 1:36 left.

Atlanta's Shareef Abdur-Rahim shot just 6-of-19 but finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds for his third straight double-double and 16th this season. Glover added 16 points for the Hawks, who made 30-of-34 free throws.

"We gotta figure out a way to start out these games better," Abdur-Rahim said. "The turnaround was big. We kept fighting, we got some big stops."

Eddie Jones scored 24 points to lead six Miami players in double figures.

In Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki scored 24 points as the Dallas Mavericks overcame the loss of Michael Finley and extended their season-high winning streak to eight games with an 89-74 victory over the hapless Chicago Bulls.

Nowitzki had 10 points in the first quarter, helping the Mavericks open a 32-20 lead. They never trailed thereafter.

Finley played a career-low three minutes before leaving with a pulled left hamstring muscle.

STREAK SNAPPED

In Auburn Hills, Michigan, Kenyon Martin, in his first game back after a one-game suspension for a flagrant foul, scored 21 points as the New Jersey Nets snapped a 14-game road losing streak against the Detroit Pistons with an 88-75 victory.

Martin scored 12 points in the first quarter, helping the Nets open a 24-20 lead. New Jersey stretched its advantage to 44-39 at halftime before breaking open the contest early in the third quarter.

"It was a great feeling to be back out with the fellas," said Martin, who was suspended for his hard foul on Utah's Karl Malone.

Jerry Stackhouse scored 16 points for Detroit but made just 7-of-20 shots.

In Phoenix, Stephon Marbury snapped a tie with a jumper from just inside the 3-point arc with two seconds left, and Paul Pierce's game-winning 3-point attempt rattled out at the buzzer as the Phoenix Suns edged the Boston Celtics, 84-82.

Marbury was just 1-of-11 from the field before hitting the go-ahead jumper, but it was enough to hand Boston its first losing streak since a four-game skid from November 17-24.

Shawn Marion scored a season-high 30 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for Phoenix.

Pierce had 33 points and seven rebounds for Boston.