NBA ROUNDUP : Pacers Spoil Mourning’s Debut, 110-109

Finally, the Alonzo Mourning era began Friday night for the Charlotte Hornets.

But Mourning, who scored 12 points in 19 minutes in his NBA debut, could not offset a free throw by Dale Davis with 27 seconds remaining and the Indiana Pacers walked away with a 110-109 victory at Indianapolis.

“I’m worried about winning ballgames, not about how I’m playing,” said Mourning, who on Thursday ended his holdout and agreed to a $26.25-million, six-year contract with the Hornets.

Mourning, the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft behind Shaquille O’Neal of the Orlando Magic, had three rebounds and a blocked shot.

“The Pacers are tough,” Mourning said. “They hit the big shots down the stretch.”

Mourning scored Charlotte’s first basket on a 15-footer, missed badly on a hook shot, had a turnaround blocked by Dale Davis and was charged with two fouls in the first two minutes.

Mourning, a 6-foot-10 center from Georgetown, played only seven minutes in the half, getting his fourth foul 4:55 into the second quarter. He sat out the third quarter.

“I wasn’t really worried about my game,” Mourning said. “In the first half I came out kind of anxious and lost my wind real fast. In the second half I was more relaxed.”

Allan Bristow, Hornet coach, said he was pleased with Mourning’s play.

“We’re a much better defensive team when we go big like that,” he said. “You can see how tough we are defensively with him in the game. Alonzo gives us a presence and a lot of size.”

Said forward Larry Johnson: “If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have been in the game. Our frontcourt now is as good as any team in the league.”

Detlef Schrempf scored 23 points for the Pacers, Rik Smits had 18 and Reggie Miller 15. Kendall Gill scored 19 points for Charlotte. Johnson had 17 points and 15 rebounds, and Kenny Gattison had 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Philadelphia 126, Boston 115--Jeff Hornacek scored a career-high 39 points and the 76ers got their first victory for Coach Doug Moe.

Hornacek, obtained in the off-season trade that sent Charles Barkley to Phoenix, made 12 of 18 shots, including all three three-pointers at Boston. He also made all 12 free throws. He added nine assists, five rebounds and two steals. His previous high was 35 points against Philadelphia last March.

Hornacek struggled in Philadelphia’s other three games, making 22 of 52 shots, including one three-pointer in seven attempts.

“The first three games I don’t think I concentrated,” Hornacek said.

Washington 106, New York 104--Pervis Ellison’s dunk with 18 seconds left capped a fourth-quarter comeback that enabled the previously winless Bullets to hand the Knicks their first loss of the season in a game at Landover, Md.

“We had run the same play the last time down the court, and we knew Patrick (Ewing) was going to go after Rex (Chapman),” Ellison said. “I was able to slip to the basket and screen out his guy.”

Pat Riley, Knick coach, was frustrated with the outcome.

“It was more a fluke than anything else,” Riley said. “Still, we shouldn’t have been in that situation after being up by six points.”

Chapman scored 27 points for the Bullets, who trailed by six points with 3:21 left.

Chicago 101, Milwaukee 96--Michael Jordan scored 34 points and Scottie Pippen added 22 as the Bulls used a 24-5 run midway through the second half to win at Milwaukee.

With the Bucks holding a 71-63 lead with 4:09 left in the third quarter, the Bulls started their run when Jordan scored on an offensive rebound. Scott Williams scored eight points and Pippen added three in the last four minutes of the third quarter to give Chicago a 78-74 lead.

Portland 115, Cleveland 109--Kevin Duckworth scored four of his 26 points in the final 1:21 and had 11 rebounds to lead the Trail Blazers at Portland. Terry Porter, who scored 19 points and made all 10 of his free throws, also led Portland, which is undefeated in three games.

John Williams led Cleveland with 25 points. Larry Nance added 23 points and Mark Price 19 points and 13 assists.