The Charlotte Bobcats plan to sign former Cleveland Cavaliers center Dwayne Jones to fill one of the roster spots they opened Wednesday, the Observer has learned.

Jones could be in practice as soon as today, after the Bobcats cut forward Andre Brown and Linton Johnson Wednesday. Neither had a guaranteed contract and neither was active for the Bobcats' past four games.

While those moves would leave the Bobcats one short of the maximum 15 players under contract, general manager Rod Higgins and coach Larry Brown said nothing was imminent on the trade front.
 

“We weren't playing these guys,'' Larry Brown said of the forwards waived Wednesday. “Sure, we're looking to see if there's anything we can do, but I don't know that (anything else will happen). I feel bad (about the cuts) because these are good guys, but we moved on.''

Bobcats managing partner Michael Jordan r

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) Greg Oden had 11 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in his home debut for Portland and the Trail Blazers built a 30-point, first-half lead in a 116-74 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night.

Oden, sidelined all of last season by a knee injury after being drafted first overall, entered the game to a standing ovation with 4:28 left in the first quarter, and dunked 21 seconds later. The 7-footer had his third double-double in four games after missing six of Portland's first seven games because of foot injury.

Brandon Roy scored 20 points to help Portland improve to 6-2 in its last eight and 7-5 overall. Chicago has lost four of its last six to fall to 5-7.

Portland raced to a 16-3 lead and set season highs points in a half (62) and game.

Roy, playing just 27 minutes, was one of six Portland players to score in double figures. Joel Przybilla had a season-high 14 points and

Salt Lake City - Andrew Bogut thought it was a great chance wasted.

The Milwaukee Bucks were able to take a 10-point, third-quarter lead over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night, but the Bucks faltered down the stretch in a 105-94 loss at the EnergySolutions Arena.

"Compared to the Denver game, it was a step up," said Bogut, who finished with 16 points and a season-high 20 rebounds. "We came with intensity and played hard. But we still were making simple mistakes. We were so close, yet so far.

"Mental lapses for 4 or 5 minutes at a time absolutely cost us ball games. If we don't have those lapses, we win this game tonight."

The Jazz shot 51.4% from the field, marking the second night the Bucks allowed a team to shoot better than 50%.

C.J. Miles paced the Jazz (8-4) with 25 points, while forward Carlos Boozer added 20 points and 11 rebounds. Point guard Ronnie Price added<

There was no mistaking that the Bruins played a dud of a first period when Buffalo poured four pucks past a helpless Manny Fernandez. But when Marc Savard put a shot past Ryan Miller at 13:08 of the first, he made it a 4-3 score -- or, in Claude Julien's mind, a 1-0 game to start the second.

And that was why the Bruins managed to wipe out what was once a two-goal Buffalo lead and turn a stinker into a 7-4 victory.

"We got ourselves in trouble early," Julien said. "We gave them some unbelievable chances. I felt sorry for Manny. We left him hanging at the beginning. The quality shots those guys were allowed to take were very uncharacteristic of our hockey club. We found a way to get back in the game. They had their own issues at their end. We were able, by the end of the first period, to be down by just a goal. That was important to our team. In reality, that made it a 1-0 hockey game."

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HOUSTON _ Maybe the Mavericks should just stay away from Dallas. They seem to have a lot more success away from home.

They finished off a 3-0 road trip Wednesday night with a 96-86 thumping of the Yao Ming-less Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center. The Mavericks now are 5-3 on the road, 0-4 at home.

Alas, they will have no choice but to embrace the cozy environs of their American Airlines Center, where nine of the next 11 games will be played.

On Wednesday, they took advantage of Yao's absence by beating the Rockets badly on the boards and got great shooting from Jason Terry (31 points). When the game got dicey, Jason Kidd and Terry combined for six quick points and an 83-73 advantage with under five minutes to go.

The Rockets, besides missing Yao, also had Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest coming off of minor injuries from Monday's game in Oklahoma City. They simply didn'

The New Orleans Hornets dropped to 5-5 on the year with a stunning 105-96 loss to the Sacramento Kings, who played the game without three injured starters.

Guard John Salmons led the Kings with 29 points and former Hornets guard Bobby Jackson had eight fourth-quarter points, two of them 3-pointers, as the Kings pulled away.

David West led the Hornets with 22 points. Chris Paul had 20 points and 15 assists.

New Orleans is .500 for the first time since Dec. 11,1006 when they were 10-10.

Third quarter

The third-quarter pace was somewhat frenetic, with the Kings surging back to take their first lead of the game,57-56, on a layup by Jason Thompson.

Sacramento went on to advance it's lead to nine points, 69-60 with 6:17 remaining in the quarter.

But the Hornets went on a 9--0 run to tie the score, the tying bucket coming on a Peja Stojakovic