NBA roundup

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Michael Jordan scored 28 of his 32 points in the first half Thursday as the Washington Wizards pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the Orlando Magic 108-93. <br><br>The Wizards

Friday, January 17th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Michael Jordan scored 28 of his 32 points in the first half Thursday as the Washington Wizards pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the Orlando Magic 108-93.

The Wizards beat the Magic for the first time in three meetings this season in a game between two .500 teams expected to battle for playoff position in April. Washington also recovered from its worst game of the season, an 84-75 home loss to undermanned Toronto on Tuesday.

Tracy McGrady scored 31 points for the Magic, who overcame a 16-point first-half deficit but fell apart with just one field goal in the first 4:59 of the final period.

Larry Hughes, Brendan Haywood and Kwame Brown keyed the Wizards' stretch run, scoring 23 of Washington's 34 fourth-quarter points.

Hughes scored nine of his 22 points in the fourth period. Haywood had five of his season-high 16 points, and Brown scored all of his nine points in the final period.

Jordan was 12-for-25 from the field, but just 2-for-7 in the second half.

The Wizards played their second game without leading scorer Jerry Stackhouse, who has a pulled left groin.

Jazz 92, SuperSonics 85

In Salt Lake City, Matt Harpring scored 15 of his 26 points in the third quarter as Utah rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to beat Seattle and extend the SuperSonics' losing streak to six.

The Sonics had not dropped six successive games since early in the 1990-91 season.

Karl Malone finished with 34 points and nine rebounds and Andrei Kirilenko had 13 points and eight rebounds as the Jazz won for the fifth straight time at home.

Gary Payton had 27 points eight assists, while Desmond Mason and Rashard Lewis each scored 11 for the Sonics. Seattle, which opened the season 4-0, dropped to five games below .500 for the first time this season.