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(From the Associated Press) - Chris Bosh didn’t have another career night against Milwaukee. The Bucks would have preferred he had—if the result would have been the same as last time, too. Jarrett Jack scored a season-high 27 points, Bosh added 17 and the Toronto Raptors beat the Bucks 101-96 on Friday night. Marco Belinelli scored 16 points and DeMar DeRozan had 12 for the Raptors, who avenged a 113-107 loss in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, a game in which Bosh scored a career-high 44. “We would have taken Bosh getting 40 and having the win again,” Milwaukee center Andrew Bogut said. That didn’t happen, even though Luke Ridnour scored a season-high 27 points and Bogut added 22. Milwaukee led by as many as 15 but still lost for the third time in four games...Brandon Jennings had 14 points and former Raptor Carlos Delfino chipped in nine points and 11 rebounds for Milwaukee, which is 5-17 on the road. Toronto has won eight of nine at home and will stay there for seven of its next nine.
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(From the Associated Press) - The Miami Heat have had a bizarre week. Three nights after a 30-point win and two nights following a 39-point loss, they scored another lopsided victory. “I can’t explain it. It’s been happening all season,” Heat forward Michael Beasley said. The Heat’s worst losses this season have come in the second game of back-to-back games. After Friday night’s 112-88 rout of the Washington Wizards, it was only natural Miami was looking ahead, and not resting on an easy win...They’re hoping to see more of what they got Friday night from Dwyane Wade. The All-Star guard led Miami with 32 points. Jermaine O’Neal added 18 on an economical 8 for 10 from the field and Beasley had 15...Washington was led by Andray Blatche with 19 points. A fifth-year player, he’s regularly been criticized for his immaturity and was suspended for a game earlier this month for continually complaining that he hasn’t had enough plays drawn up for him...Antawn Jamison, who had just seven points in Wednesday’s loss to Dallas, missed 10 of his 14 shots and was held to eight points.
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(From the Associated Press) - Thaddeus Young’s benching brought out his best. On the court. In the locker room, Young made it clear he didn’t deserve his demotion. “No, not at all,” Young said, “but things happen.” Young and Lou Williams sizzled instead of slumping after getting bumped from the starting lineup, combining for 33 points to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a surprising 92-81 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night...Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry never got hot offensively and Shawn Marion missed nearly the entire second quarter with a lacerated right hand for Dallas...The Sixers kept running, pushing and scoring. Marreese Speights, who scored 14 points, made the first three baskets of the fourth for a 78-67 lead. Willie Green’s three-point play off a driving layup pushed the lead to 14...Nowitzki scored 15 points and Drew Gooden had 14 for Dallas. “We had lapses at the wrong time,” said Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle. “They’re a talented team, certainly better than their record.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Dwight Howard has stopped playfully singing before free throws. He shoots about 100 after every practice and has worked to focus his attention on the rim and not the crowd. If only briefly, the dedication is starting to pay off. Howard had 19 points and 15 rebounds, and the Orlando Magic became the latest team to bully the struggling Sacramento Kings with a 100-84 victory Friday night that wasn’t even that close. Howard beat and bruised an undersized Sacramento front line to help Orlando build a 32-point lead and cruise to its second straight blowout win. The much-maligned free throw shooter made his first 10 shots from the line and finished 11 for 12...Tyreke Evans had 19 points, and Jason Thompson scored 10 for the Kings, who have lost six straight and 11 of 12 games. Sacramento coach Paul Westphal offered a partial explanation for his team’s skid. “We’re playing against division leaders every night,” he said. “That’s pretty much the commonality. When you look at our schedule, it doesn’t mean you chalk up losses in advance, but we haven’t been favored very often.”...“We took care of the teams we needed to take care of,” Magic guard J.J. Redick said. “In both cases, we played great in the first half, got a lead and really clamped down defensively.”...The Magic were off and running with every Kings miss. They scored the first nine points of the second quarter and had strong contributions from nearly their entire roster. Rashard Lewis (15 points), Redick (15 points) and Vince Carter (11 points) all contributed early and rested late with the game decided.
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(From the Associated Press) - Kevin Garnett missed 10 games with a knee injury. Ray Allen missed just about everything else. The forgotten member of Boston’s new Big Three was shooting just 2 for 13 when he hit a 3-pointer with 42 seconds left in overtime to give the Celtics a 98-95 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night. “Ray is one of the great shooters of all time—right behind me. I told him that in the huddle,” said Paul Pierce, who scored 24 before fouling out on a charging call on Boston’s last possession of regulation. “We believe in him so much, no matter how he might be going.”...Allen’s breakthrough gave Boston a 96-95 lead before LaMarcus Aldridge followed with a missed 3-pointer and, after a scramble at midcourt, Allen wound up with the ball and passed it ahead to Tony Allen for the breakaway dunk...Celtics coach Doc Rivers said he ran three plays in a row for Allen, despite his slump. When he called the third one, Rivers said, Rajon Rondo told him, “You know Ray’s going to be wide open on this?” Rivers told him, “Yeah, that’s the idea.” “Listen, he had one of those nights,” Rivers said. “But shooters shoot, and every miss meant the odds were on our side more.” Andre Miller(notes) scored 28, with eight assists and eight rebounds, and Aldridge had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Martell Webster scored 19 and Juwan Howard had 12 rebounds for the Blazers. Rondo scored 19 with nine assists for Boston, and Kendrick Perkins had 11 rebounds.
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(From the Associated Press) - Jamal Crawford scored 24 points, Al Horford had 23 and Atlanta overwhelmed the Bobcats in the first and third periods on the way to a 103-89 victory Friday night that snapped Charlotte’s six-game winning streak...“This is a game about runs,” said Josh Smith, one of five Atlanta players in double figures. “They were able to get on a run in the second quarter and early in the fourth, but we were able to fight it off and make a run of our own."...“They didn’t affect anything we did,” said Gerald Wallace, who led Charlotte with 25 points. “We just came out tonight and played terrible ball. We didn’t share the ball. We didn’t hit the open man. We didn’t make the extra pass. Defensively, we didn’t rotate, we didn’t help out.”...As if the first quarter wasn’t bad enough for the Bobcats, point guard Raymond Felton had to be helped off the court after spraining his right ankle in the final minute of the period...Even without Felton, Charlotte managed to change the flow of the game in the second quarter. Wallace and Stephen Jackson both knocked down all three of their shots, Charlotte hit 11 of 17 overall and the Hawks suddenly went cold (7 of 20). Jackson finished with 24 points.
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(From the Associated Press) - Danny Granger scored 25 points, Troy Murphy added 16 points and 11 rebounds and the Indiana Pacers snapped a three-game skid with a 105-93 win over Detroit on Friday night. Things got even uglier for Detroit when Kuester was involved in a heated exchange with Tayshaun Prince during a fourth-quarter timeout. “Don’t even ask me about that,” said Prince, who returned after missing six games with a knee injury. “Y’all will just change my words anyway.”...Brandon Rush had a season-high 19 points for Indiana, which had five players score at least 14...Richard Hamilton led Detroit with 27 and Jonas Jerebko had 14 points. “We got a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence, but it seems like we took a step backward tonight,” Charlie Villanueva said. “We’re all frustrated tonight, and some guys let their emotions get the best of them.”...Indiana held an 85-67 lead at quarter’s end and led by as many as 23 in the fourth as the few fans left booed loudly. “We just didn’t play with any energy,” Jerebko said. “You saw it. Boston and tonight were like night and day.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Those dazzling scoring shows Kobe Bryant often puts on at Madison Square Garden were nowhere to be found—until the end. He had other priorities for most of the game. Bryant scored 13 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Lakers pull away to beat the New York Knicks 115-105 on Friday night. Pau Gasol added 20 points, half in the final period, and Andrew Bynum finished with 19 for the Lakers, who bounced back from a disappointing loss in Cleveland to even their record after two games of their eight-game road trip...David Lee scored a season-high 31 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, Wilson Chandler added a season-best 28 points and Danilo Gallinari had 20 for the Knicks...In a game that was tight most of the way, Los Angeles led by only two four minutes into the fourth quarter. Lamar Odom scored before Gasol, who had a disappointing performance in Thursday’s 93-87 loss to the Cavaliers, followed with consecutive baskets for a 99-91 lead.
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(From the Associated Press) - Rudy Gay hit a 20-footer with 1.3 seconds left to finish with 25 points and Memphis extended its franchise-record home winning streak to 10 with an 86-84 victory over the Thunder on Friday night...Kevin Durant scored 30 points for the Thunder, but his desperation 3-point attempt from the left wing at the horn bounced off the rim, snapping Oklahoma City’s three-game winning streak. Zach Randolph matched Gay with 25 points, and Marc Gasol finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Mike Conley added 14 points. Hasheem Thabeet didn’t score, but blocked four shots and grabbed nine rebounds. Jeff Green finished with 15 points and, like Durant, had eight rebounds for the Thunder...The score was tied at 84 when Green blocked O.J. Mayo’s shot with 24 seconds left, but Gasol stole the ball from Durant and set the stage for the final play. Gay took the ball at the top of the key and dribbled time off before hitting the game-winner over Durant...“It was a great win for us as a team following the loss to New Orleans (Wednesday night),” Mayo said. “Coming here with a tough Thunder team, young like us and up and coming. It was just a great opportunity for us to get another win at home.”
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(From the Associated Press) - The undercard in the New Orleans-Minnesota sports weekend took place at Target Center on Friday night, and James Posey borrowed a move from Saints quarterback Drew Brees to get the Big Easy off on the right foot. Posey scored on a driving layup at the buzzer for the second straight game, this time lifting the New Orleans Hornets to a 96-94 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night. With the score tied and 3.5 seconds to play, Posey took the inbound pass from Chris Paul, faked a handoff to the dazzling point guard and spun past Corey Brewer to score the game winner...“It’s amazing we got beat with it twice,” said Wolves center Al Jefferson, who had 25 points and 13 rebounds. “It was the same play, different option. Two games, two layups that were buzzer beaters.” Paul had 23 points and nine assists and Darius Songaila had 13 points and five rebounds for the Hornets, who played the second half without David West because of a sprained left ankle. Wolves rookie Jonny Flynn’s three-point play with 3.5 seconds to go tied the game at 94...Flynn had 20 points and Kevin Love added 13 points and nine boards after a two-game absence because of an illness.
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(From the Associated Press) - When Tim Duncan hit the 20,000-point mark Friday night, the crowd gave a standing ovation. Aaron Brooks looked around, not knowing what all the fuss was about. It was the last time the San Antonio Spurs had any reason to celebrate. Brooks scored 23 points and the Houston Rockets ended a five-game road skid with a 116-109 win over the Spurs, who spoiled a superb game from Duncan on the night he became the 35th NBA player to eclipse the scoring milestone...Kyle Lowry also scored 23 and Carl Landry added 19 points, leading the Rockets to their first road win since the day after Christmas. The Rockets have won three of four, and now return to Houston for a six-game homestand...Duncan had 25 points and 14 rebounds, and scored the last 11 points for the Spurs. But with San Antonio trailing by four with 37 seconds left, Richard Jefferson missed a running jumper that all but ended the rally...The Spurs (25-17) began the second half of the season a few games off last year’s pace—an underachieving start by any measure given how much money the front office spent refreshing the roster. Duncan joined the 20,000-point club midway through a season in which the 33-year-old All-Star has been as reliable as ever. He scored 13 points in the fourth and hit all seven of his attempts from the foul line. Parker, dealing with plantar fasciitis, had 22 points and 10 assists in one of his best games of the season.
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(From the Associated Press) - With point guard Monta Ellis sidelined because of a sprained right ankle, Golden State coach Don Nelson needs Stephen Curry to be more vocal on the court...Curry scored a career-high 32 points, Corey Maggette added 29 points and the Warriors beat the New Jersey Nets 111-79 on Friday...Maggette added 29 points and five assists while Cartier Martin, a Development League call-up playing on his second 10-day contract with Golden State, added a career-high 16 points and eight rebounds for the Warriors (13-28), who beat the Nets for the second time this season. Brook Lopez had 21 points and six rebounds for New Jersey (3-39), which lost its 10th straight. The Nets, who also lost their point guard Devin Harris to an injury in the first half, fell to 1-22 on the road. “We competed in the first half but Devin Harris gets hurt and we just collapsed,” New Jersey coach Kiki Vandeweghe said. “We showed some fight and effort but it was too little, too late. This is another game where we could not hit a shot when we needed it.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Until a little over a month ago, Derrick Rose had yet to score 30 points in an NBA game. Now he’s done it four times. Rose scored 32 points and the Chicago Bulls, usually one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA, shot 51 percent to win just their fifth road game of the season, handing the Phoenix Suns only their fifth home loss with a 115-104 victory on Friday night...The second-year guard is one of 10 NBA players who pledged $1,000 for every point he scored Friday night to the Bush Clinton fund for Haitian relief. “They need it right now,” Rose said. “The Haiti people, I feel for them. … I’m happy that I gave it to them.” Luol Deng added 23 points, Joakim Noah had 15 and John Salmons and Kirk Hinrich 14 apiece for the Bulls, 5-15 on the road this season and losers in their first two stops on a season-long seven-game road trip. Amare Stoudemire scored 23 points and Grant Hill 17 in the Suns’ fifth loss in the last six games. Channing Frye scored 16, including 4 of 7 on 3-pointers. Steve Nash had a tough night, making 4 of 12 shots for eight points with seven assists and five turnovers...The Bulls topped 50 percent (43 of 85) for only the sixth time this season. Phoenix shot 38.5 percent. “Our game plan was to make them jump shooters and keep them out of the paint,” Hill said. “For the most part, we did, and for the most part, they made their shots.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Chris Bosh didn’t have another career night against Milwaukee. The Bucks would have preferred he had—if the result would have been the same as last time, too. Jarrett Jack scored a season-high 27 points, Bosh added 17 and the Toronto Raptors beat the Bucks 101-96 on Friday night. Marco Belinelli scored 16 points and DeMar DeRozan had 12 for the Raptors, who avenged a 113-107 loss in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, a game in which Bosh scored a career-high 44. “We would have taken Bosh getting 40 and having the win again,” Milwaukee center Andrew Bogut said. That didn’t happen, even though Luke Ridnour scored a season-high 27 points and Bogut added 22. Milwaukee led by as many as 15 but still lost for the third time in four games...Brandon Jennings had 14 points and former Raptor Carlos Delfino chipped in nine points and 11 rebounds for Milwaukee, which is 5-17 on the road. Toronto has won eight of nine at home and will stay there for seven of its next nine.
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(From the Associated Press) - The Miami Heat have had a bizarre week. Three nights after a 30-point win and two nights following a 39-point loss, they scored another lopsided victory. “I can’t explain it. It’s been happening all season,” Heat forward Michael Beasley said. The Heat’s worst losses this season have come in the second game of back-to-back games. After Friday night’s 112-88 rout of the Washington Wizards, it was only natural Miami was looking ahead, and not resting on an easy win...They’re hoping to see more of what they got Friday night from Dwyane Wade. The All-Star guard led Miami with 32 points. Jermaine O’Neal added 18 on an economical 8 for 10 from the field and Beasley had 15...Washington was led by Andray Blatche with 19 points. A fifth-year player, he’s regularly been criticized for his immaturity and was suspended for a game earlier this month for continually complaining that he hasn’t had enough plays drawn up for him...Antawn Jamison, who had just seven points in Wednesday’s loss to Dallas, missed 10 of his 14 shots and was held to eight points.
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(From the Associated Press) - Thaddeus Young’s benching brought out his best. On the court. In the locker room, Young made it clear he didn’t deserve his demotion. “No, not at all,” Young said, “but things happen.” Young and Lou Williams sizzled instead of slumping after getting bumped from the starting lineup, combining for 33 points to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a surprising 92-81 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night...Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry never got hot offensively and Shawn Marion missed nearly the entire second quarter with a lacerated right hand for Dallas...The Sixers kept running, pushing and scoring. Marreese Speights, who scored 14 points, made the first three baskets of the fourth for a 78-67 lead. Willie Green’s three-point play off a driving layup pushed the lead to 14...Nowitzki scored 15 points and Drew Gooden had 14 for Dallas. “We had lapses at the wrong time,” said Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle. “They’re a talented team, certainly better than their record.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Dwight Howard has stopped playfully singing before free throws. He shoots about 100 after every practice and has worked to focus his attention on the rim and not the crowd. If only briefly, the dedication is starting to pay off. Howard had 19 points and 15 rebounds, and the Orlando Magic became the latest team to bully the struggling Sacramento Kings with a 100-84 victory Friday night that wasn’t even that close. Howard beat and bruised an undersized Sacramento front line to help Orlando build a 32-point lead and cruise to its second straight blowout win. The much-maligned free throw shooter made his first 10 shots from the line and finished 11 for 12...Tyreke Evans had 19 points, and Jason Thompson scored 10 for the Kings, who have lost six straight and 11 of 12 games. Sacramento coach Paul Westphal offered a partial explanation for his team’s skid. “We’re playing against division leaders every night,” he said. “That’s pretty much the commonality. When you look at our schedule, it doesn’t mean you chalk up losses in advance, but we haven’t been favored very often.”...“We took care of the teams we needed to take care of,” Magic guard J.J. Redick said. “In both cases, we played great in the first half, got a lead and really clamped down defensively.”...The Magic were off and running with every Kings miss. They scored the first nine points of the second quarter and had strong contributions from nearly their entire roster. Rashard Lewis (15 points), Redick (15 points) and Vince Carter (11 points) all contributed early and rested late with the game decided.
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(From the Associated Press) - Kevin Garnett missed 10 games with a knee injury. Ray Allen missed just about everything else. The forgotten member of Boston’s new Big Three was shooting just 2 for 13 when he hit a 3-pointer with 42 seconds left in overtime to give the Celtics a 98-95 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night. “Ray is one of the great shooters of all time—right behind me. I told him that in the huddle,” said Paul Pierce, who scored 24 before fouling out on a charging call on Boston’s last possession of regulation. “We believe in him so much, no matter how he might be going.”...Allen’s breakthrough gave Boston a 96-95 lead before LaMarcus Aldridge followed with a missed 3-pointer and, after a scramble at midcourt, Allen wound up with the ball and passed it ahead to Tony Allen for the breakaway dunk...Celtics coach Doc Rivers said he ran three plays in a row for Allen, despite his slump. When he called the third one, Rivers said, Rajon Rondo told him, “You know Ray’s going to be wide open on this?” Rivers told him, “Yeah, that’s the idea.” “Listen, he had one of those nights,” Rivers said. “But shooters shoot, and every miss meant the odds were on our side more.” Andre Miller(notes) scored 28, with eight assists and eight rebounds, and Aldridge had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Martell Webster scored 19 and Juwan Howard had 12 rebounds for the Blazers. Rondo scored 19 with nine assists for Boston, and Kendrick Perkins had 11 rebounds.
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(From the Associated Press) - Jamal Crawford scored 24 points, Al Horford had 23 and Atlanta overwhelmed the Bobcats in the first and third periods on the way to a 103-89 victory Friday night that snapped Charlotte’s six-game winning streak...“This is a game about runs,” said Josh Smith, one of five Atlanta players in double figures. “They were able to get on a run in the second quarter and early in the fourth, but we were able to fight it off and make a run of our own."...“They didn’t affect anything we did,” said Gerald Wallace, who led Charlotte with 25 points. “We just came out tonight and played terrible ball. We didn’t share the ball. We didn’t hit the open man. We didn’t make the extra pass. Defensively, we didn’t rotate, we didn’t help out.”...As if the first quarter wasn’t bad enough for the Bobcats, point guard Raymond Felton had to be helped off the court after spraining his right ankle in the final minute of the period...Even without Felton, Charlotte managed to change the flow of the game in the second quarter. Wallace and Stephen Jackson both knocked down all three of their shots, Charlotte hit 11 of 17 overall and the Hawks suddenly went cold (7 of 20). Jackson finished with 24 points.
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(From the Associated Press) - Danny Granger scored 25 points, Troy Murphy added 16 points and 11 rebounds and the Indiana Pacers snapped a three-game skid with a 105-93 win over Detroit on Friday night. Things got even uglier for Detroit when Kuester was involved in a heated exchange with Tayshaun Prince during a fourth-quarter timeout. “Don’t even ask me about that,” said Prince, who returned after missing six games with a knee injury. “Y’all will just change my words anyway.”...Brandon Rush had a season-high 19 points for Indiana, which had five players score at least 14...Richard Hamilton led Detroit with 27 and Jonas Jerebko had 14 points. “We got a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence, but it seems like we took a step backward tonight,” Charlie Villanueva said. “We’re all frustrated tonight, and some guys let their emotions get the best of them.”...Indiana held an 85-67 lead at quarter’s end and led by as many as 23 in the fourth as the few fans left booed loudly. “We just didn’t play with any energy,” Jerebko said. “You saw it. Boston and tonight were like night and day.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Those dazzling scoring shows Kobe Bryant often puts on at Madison Square Garden were nowhere to be found—until the end. He had other priorities for most of the game. Bryant scored 13 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Lakers pull away to beat the New York Knicks 115-105 on Friday night. Pau Gasol added 20 points, half in the final period, and Andrew Bynum finished with 19 for the Lakers, who bounced back from a disappointing loss in Cleveland to even their record after two games of their eight-game road trip...David Lee scored a season-high 31 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, Wilson Chandler added a season-best 28 points and Danilo Gallinari had 20 for the Knicks...In a game that was tight most of the way, Los Angeles led by only two four minutes into the fourth quarter. Lamar Odom scored before Gasol, who had a disappointing performance in Thursday’s 93-87 loss to the Cavaliers, followed with consecutive baskets for a 99-91 lead.
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(From the Associated Press) - Rudy Gay hit a 20-footer with 1.3 seconds left to finish with 25 points and Memphis extended its franchise-record home winning streak to 10 with an 86-84 victory over the Thunder on Friday night...Kevin Durant scored 30 points for the Thunder, but his desperation 3-point attempt from the left wing at the horn bounced off the rim, snapping Oklahoma City’s three-game winning streak. Zach Randolph matched Gay with 25 points, and Marc Gasol finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Mike Conley added 14 points. Hasheem Thabeet didn’t score, but blocked four shots and grabbed nine rebounds. Jeff Green finished with 15 points and, like Durant, had eight rebounds for the Thunder...The score was tied at 84 when Green blocked O.J. Mayo’s shot with 24 seconds left, but Gasol stole the ball from Durant and set the stage for the final play. Gay took the ball at the top of the key and dribbled time off before hitting the game-winner over Durant...“It was a great win for us as a team following the loss to New Orleans (Wednesday night),” Mayo said. “Coming here with a tough Thunder team, young like us and up and coming. It was just a great opportunity for us to get another win at home.”
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(From the Associated Press) - The undercard in the New Orleans-Minnesota sports weekend took place at Target Center on Friday night, and James Posey borrowed a move from Saints quarterback Drew Brees to get the Big Easy off on the right foot. Posey scored on a driving layup at the buzzer for the second straight game, this time lifting the New Orleans Hornets to a 96-94 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night. With the score tied and 3.5 seconds to play, Posey took the inbound pass from Chris Paul, faked a handoff to the dazzling point guard and spun past Corey Brewer to score the game winner...“It’s amazing we got beat with it twice,” said Wolves center Al Jefferson, who had 25 points and 13 rebounds. “It was the same play, different option. Two games, two layups that were buzzer beaters.” Paul had 23 points and nine assists and Darius Songaila had 13 points and five rebounds for the Hornets, who played the second half without David West because of a sprained left ankle. Wolves rookie Jonny Flynn’s three-point play with 3.5 seconds to go tied the game at 94...Flynn had 20 points and Kevin Love added 13 points and nine boards after a two-game absence because of an illness.
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(From the Associated Press) - When Tim Duncan hit the 20,000-point mark Friday night, the crowd gave a standing ovation. Aaron Brooks looked around, not knowing what all the fuss was about. It was the last time the San Antonio Spurs had any reason to celebrate. Brooks scored 23 points and the Houston Rockets ended a five-game road skid with a 116-109 win over the Spurs, who spoiled a superb game from Duncan on the night he became the 35th NBA player to eclipse the scoring milestone...Kyle Lowry also scored 23 and Carl Landry added 19 points, leading the Rockets to their first road win since the day after Christmas. The Rockets have won three of four, and now return to Houston for a six-game homestand...Duncan had 25 points and 14 rebounds, and scored the last 11 points for the Spurs. But with San Antonio trailing by four with 37 seconds left, Richard Jefferson missed a running jumper that all but ended the rally...The Spurs (25-17) began the second half of the season a few games off last year’s pace—an underachieving start by any measure given how much money the front office spent refreshing the roster. Duncan joined the 20,000-point club midway through a season in which the 33-year-old All-Star has been as reliable as ever. He scored 13 points in the fourth and hit all seven of his attempts from the foul line. Parker, dealing with plantar fasciitis, had 22 points and 10 assists in one of his best games of the season.
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(From the Associated Press) - With point guard Monta Ellis sidelined because of a sprained right ankle, Golden State coach Don Nelson needs Stephen Curry to be more vocal on the court...Curry scored a career-high 32 points, Corey Maggette added 29 points and the Warriors beat the New Jersey Nets 111-79 on Friday...Maggette added 29 points and five assists while Cartier Martin, a Development League call-up playing on his second 10-day contract with Golden State, added a career-high 16 points and eight rebounds for the Warriors (13-28), who beat the Nets for the second time this season. Brook Lopez had 21 points and six rebounds for New Jersey (3-39), which lost its 10th straight. The Nets, who also lost their point guard Devin Harris to an injury in the first half, fell to 1-22 on the road. “We competed in the first half but Devin Harris gets hurt and we just collapsed,” New Jersey coach Kiki Vandeweghe said. “We showed some fight and effort but it was too little, too late. This is another game where we could not hit a shot when we needed it.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Until a little over a month ago, Derrick Rose had yet to score 30 points in an NBA game. Now he’s done it four times. Rose scored 32 points and the Chicago Bulls, usually one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA, shot 51 percent to win just their fifth road game of the season, handing the Phoenix Suns only their fifth home loss with a 115-104 victory on Friday night...The second-year guard is one of 10 NBA players who pledged $1,000 for every point he scored Friday night to the Bush Clinton fund for Haitian relief. “They need it right now,” Rose said. “The Haiti people, I feel for them. … I’m happy that I gave it to them.” Luol Deng added 23 points, Joakim Noah had 15 and John Salmons and Kirk Hinrich 14 apiece for the Bulls, 5-15 on the road this season and losers in their first two stops on a season-long seven-game road trip. Amare Stoudemire scored 23 points and Grant Hill 17 in the Suns’ fifth loss in the last six games. Channing Frye scored 16, including 4 of 7 on 3-pointers. Steve Nash had a tough night, making 4 of 12 shots for eight points with seven assists and five turnovers...The Bulls topped 50 percent (43 of 85) for only the sixth time this season. Phoenix shot 38.5 percent. “Our game plan was to make them jump shooters and keep them out of the paint,” Hill said. “For the most part, we did, and for the most part, they made their shots.”
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