AROUND THE NBA : Hawkins to Replace Bird on East’s All-Star Squad

NEW YORK — Guard Hersey Hawkins of the Philadelphia 76ers today was named to replace injured forward Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics on the East team in Sunday’s NBA All-Star game.

Hawkins received the highest number of votes among all players not selected as reserves by the Eastern Conference coaches.

Hawkins, in his third season in the league, is averaging 21.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game. This will be his first All-Star appearance.

Bird, a perennial All-Star and selected in fan balloting to be a starter Sunday, missed 14 games with a back injury. He played Wednesday night against Charlotte and scored 18 points, but the Celtics announced before the game that he would not play tonight in New York or in the All-Star game Sunday.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ highest paid-player, forward John Williams, has come off the disabled list after 78 days and is expected to play tonight against Houston.

Williams, who was activated on Wednesday, missed 37 games because of a sprained left foot.

Before the season, the Cavaliers kept Williams by matching a Miami Heat contract offer worth $24 million over seven years. The pact called for $5 million this season, putting Cleveland well over the NBA salary cap.

In nine games this year, the 6-11 Williams averaged 11.7 points. He opened the season as a starting power forward, but was coming off the bench as both a forward and center before the injury.

To make room on the roster, Cleveland placed 7-foot center Milos Babic on the injured list due to a chronic inflammation of his left knee.