RON ARTEST scored 30 points, Kevin Martin added 27 as the Kings dealt a blow to Houston’s chances of winning the Southwest Division with a 99-98 victory over the Rockets in Sacramento on Tuesday night.

The Rockets (49-25) fell 2 1/2 games behind New Orleans and San Antonio in the division race with only eight games remaining, hurting their chances of hosting a first-round playoff series.

Tracy McGrady scored 32 to lead Houston, but missed a jumper at the buzzer that would have won it. The Rockets have lost five of eight since a franchise-record, 22-game winning streak.

“It’s tough. You lose a game like this and you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Rockets coach Rick Adelman. “That is why it is tough for all the teams in the West. This was a brutal loss.”

The Kings (34-40) surpassed last season’s win total with the victory, the first time they have improved since going from 55 wins to 61 in 2001-02. That season under Adelman ended with a trip to the Western Conference finals.

In another NBA game in Milwaukee, Bobby Simmons scored a season-high 24 points and Michael Redd added 36 in the Milwaukee Bucks’ 119-115 overtime win over the New York Knicks.

Rookie Yi Jianlian from Shenzhen scored eight points for the Bucks.

The Bucks snapped a four-game losing streak and won for the second time in the last 12 games.

(SD-Agencies)