Hornets hand Bobcats 17th straight defeat 75-67

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Charlotte Bobcats appear to be a collision course with NBA futility.

The Bobcats lost a franchise-record 17th straight game 75-67 to New Orleans Monday night and took a step closer to finishing the season with the worst winning percentage in league history.

If the Bobcats fail to win any of their remaining games they'll finish with a .106 winning percentage, which would be worse than the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, who finished 9-73 for a winning percentage of .110.

It would seem Charlotte's best shot at a win is next Monday at Washington, the second-worst team in the league. However, that same Wizards team just throttled the Bobcats by 28 points in Charlotte last week, so the reality is Monday night might have been their best chance to win a game.

"The whole year has been frustrating but this game was more frustrating because we really got ourselves up for this one," saidGerald Henderson, who finished with a game-high 27 points. "It was a close game the whole game but we couldn't score. It was a struggle to score."

Henderson seemed to be the only one who could score for the Bobcats, who shot 30 percent from the field.

Stephen Silas, who stepped in again to coach the Bobcats for his father Paul, said he went through the entire playbook looking for something that would work.

"The only thing that seemed to work was handing the ball to Gerald Henderson to try to get in the paint," Stephen Silas said.

The loss assured the Bobcats (7-53) of the worst record in the league, giving them a 25 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick in the NBA lottery on May 30. The Bobcats and the rest of the NBA will learn Tuesday if potential top pick Anthony Davis will enter the draft as a press conference in scheduled in Lexington, Ky.

If the Bobcats can land him it would be an immediate help to a team that has struggled both offensively and defensively this season.

The Hornets won despite playing without leading scorers Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman and shooting just 34 percent from the floor. Gordon was given the night off to rest, but no reason was given as to why Kaman was held out of action.

Greivis Vasquez picked up the slack scoring 20 points, while Carl Landry added 14 points and 12 rebounds off the bench for New Orleans.

It was the second-lowest scoring NBA game this season.

"It wasn't pretty," Hornets coach Monty Williams said.

For a while, the teams flirted with a different kind of NBA futility.

The league record for fewest points scored in a game was set on Feb. 27, 1955 when the Milwaukee Hawks and Boston Celtics combined for 119.

This game was tied at 47 after three quarters.

The Bobcats trailed by as many as eight in the second quarter but closed the half on an 18-6 run to take a 39-35 lead at the break as Kemba Walker provided a spark with seven points during the stretch. The teams combined to shoot 37 percent in the first half.

Things got progressively worst in the third quarter as they combined to score just 20 points — the lowest in the league in a quarter this season and the fewest since 2004— on 15 percent (6 for 40) shooting.

The Hornets put a run together to start the fourth quarter and built their lead to seven after Marco Belinelli knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key. The Bobcats would claw back to close the gap to two after Henderson got hot, but Vazquez hit a runner in the lane to make it a two-possession game.

The Bobcats couldn't get any closer after that.

Williams was not thrilled with his team's shot selection after the game.

"(We) missed some shots early but they have to keep taking them," Williams said. "Guys have to play with confidence. We don't want guys thinking about missing shots, especially when you don't have to look over your shoulder. It's not like I'm going to put somebody else in the game to take your spot."

The Hornets only played nine guys.

Henderson said the goal from here on out for the Bobcats is to get a win and avoid setting the dubious NBA record.

"Absolutely," Henderson said. "The Hornets are a good team, but we look at them as similar to us. This is a game we wanted to win. You look on the schedule and we felt like this was one we could really get. That's why it's even more frustrating."

NOTES: NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin took in the game from courtside. ... The Bobcats' 23 field goals and .303 shooting percentage was their worst this season. ...Belinelli scored in double figures for the 41st time this season.

U.N. condemns North Korea launch, warns on nuclear test

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Monday strongly condemned North Korea's rocket launch, urged tightening of existing U.N. sanctions and warned Pyongyang of further consequences if it carries out another missile launch ornuclear test.

China, a permanent veto-wielding council member and North Korea's protector on the 15-nation panel, backed the council's "presidential statement," which was adopted unanimously.

U.N. diplomats said the council's relatively quick agreement on a declaration condemning Pyongyang signaled Beijing's irritation with its hermit neighbor over a satellite launch last week that North Korea had been widely urged not to carry out.

"The Security Council strongly condemns the 13 April 2012 (local time) launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," the statement said.

"The Security Council demands that the DPRK (North Korea) not proceed with any further launches using ballistic missile technology and comply with (Security Council) resolutions ... by suspending all activities related to its ballistic missile program," it said.

The council declaration also demands that North Korea "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner ... and not conduct any further launches that use ballistic missile technology, nuclear tests or any further provocation."

It concludes with a warning to Pyongyang that the council is prepared to take further steps if necessary.

"The Security Council expresses its determination to take action accordingly in the event of a further DPRK launch or nuclear test," it said.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who is the Security Council president this month, told reporters that Monday's decision showed how united the world was.

"The swift and unanimous adoption of this strong presidential statement shows that the international community is united in sending a clear message to North Korea that such provocations are serious and totally unacceptable," she said.

"The Security Council made clear that there will be consequences for any future North Korean launch or nuclear test," she said.

She said the statement was tougher than one the council issued after North Korea's April 2009 missile launch. The 2009 statement said the council "condemns" the launch, while Monday's declaration said it "strongly condemns" Pyongyang.

"DISASTROUS COURSE"

Rice described the council statement as calling for "new sanctions," though what it actually urges is an expansion of the list of firms, individuals and goods the Security Council blacklisted after North Korea's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

Under those measures, North Korea is banned from using, developing or importing ballistic missileand nuclear technologies.

Rice said the U.S. delegation would soon propose a "robust package" of names of individuals and companies to be added to the existing U.N. blacklist, along with additional goods that North Korea would be banned from importing.

The statement does not result in an immediate expansion of the North Korea sanctions regime. Rather it instructs the U.N. sanctions committee to expand its existing sanctions blacklist within 15 days and to review that list annually.

The committee, which includes all 15 council members and works on the basis of consensus, will have to take a separate decision on expanding the U.N. blacklist. China will therefore have an opportunity to thwart any push for adding new names to the North Korea sanctions list if it chooses to do so.

Asked whether she expected Pyongyang to explode another atomic device in defiance of the council, Rice said North Korea followed its 2006 and 2009 missile launches with nuclear tests.

"Clearly the potential for that pattern to persist is one that all members of the international community are mindful of and think would be a disastrous course for the North to pursue," she said. "It will only lead to the North's increased isolation."

North Korea admitted its long-range rocket failed to deliver a satellite into orbit on Friday while U.S. and South Korean officials said it crashed into the sea a few minutes after launch.

While the statement called for tightening existing U.N. sanctions, diplomats said no council member had seriously pushed the idea of imposing new sanctions on Pyongyang in retaliation for the launch, something China and Russia would have opposed.

The existing U.N. blacklist of sanctioned firms and individuals includes those linked to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile industries.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Eric Beech and Jackie Frank)

Dow gains on retail sales but Apple bites Nasdaq

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow rose on Monday as robust U.S. retail sales data helped large-cap consumer stocks, but a 4 percent slide in Apple hurt the Nasdaq.

U.S. retail sales for March shot up 0.8 percent, sharply higher than the forecast, pushing Procter & Gamble up 1.5 percent, while givingWal-Mart Stores , the world's largest retailer, a 1.4 percent boost.

But Apple shares dropped 4.2 percent to $580.13. After a meteoric rise of 43 percent this year, Apple was ripe for profit taking.

Apple wasn't the market's only worry. Spain's rising borrowing costs and a weak New York state manufacturing report stirred concerns about Europe's debt crisis and the U.S. economic recovery.

"The market behavior is fairly manic today and investors are confused after a mixed set of data, Spanish yields, and momentum stocks like Apple losing ground," said James Dailey, portfolio manager at TEAM Asset Strategy Fund in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

"The confusion is leading to anxiety, and that's why we are seeing the blue chips, the large caps, outperform."

Other major drags on the Nasdaq included a slide of 9 percent in the shares of Mattel Inc , the world's largest toy maker, on declining quarterly sales, and a 3 percent drop in Google Inc shares ahead of a high-stakes legal battle with Oracle Corp.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 71.82 points, or 0.56 percent, to 12,921.41 at the close. But the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> inched down 0.69 of a point, or 0.05 percent, to 1,369.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> dropped 22.93 points, or 0.76 percent, to close at 2,988.40.

Procter & Gamble, the world's largest household products company, closed at $66.78, up 1.5 percent, and helped bolster the Dow. Wal-Mart, another Dow component, ended at $60.58, up 1.4 percent.

Spain's 10-year government bond yields climbed above the 6 percent mark on Monday for the first time since the beginning of December. Spain has acknowledged that it has probably slipped into its second recession since 2009.

"Barring an accelerated flight of assets out of the euro zone and into U.S. equities, we see little reason for equities to rally appreciably above the most recent high," said Peter Cecchini, managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York.

"Having said this, we are expecting a short-term bounce, which may lead to a retest of 1,400," he said.

Monday's mixed session followed last week's pullback, when both the Dow and the S&P 500 suffered their worst two-week percentage drops since late November on increasing concerns about the euro zone's debt crisis and weaker-than-expected U.S. economic data.

Earnings season will pick up steam this week, with 86 S&P 500 companies scheduled to report results. According to Thomson Reuters data through Monday, of the 34 S&P 500 companies to have reported earnings so far, 76 percent have reported earnings above analysts' expectations.

Mattel's quarterly profit fell short of analysts' expectations as price increases hurt sales of its iconic Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, driving its stock down 9.1 percent to $31.01.

Google's stock slid 3 percent to $606.07 on Monday, when jury selection got under way in a high-stakes dispute over smartphone technology with Oracle Corp. Shares of Oracle gained 0.5 percent to $28.64.

Volume was light, with about 6.25 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, below last year's daily average of 7.84 billion.

Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a ratio of 17 to 13, while on the Nasdaq, about 13 stocks rose for every 12 that fell.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Jan Paschal)