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(From the Associated Press) - The Boston Celtics haven’t found a way to fix their defensive woes. Center Brook Lopez scored 25 points and guards Devin Harris and Courtney Lee added 23 and 21 points and the New Jersey Nets topped the Celtics 104-96 Saturday. The Nets, who entered the game 5-52 and 2-27 on the road, took a 29-27 lead on Keyon Dooling’s jumper at the end of the first quarter and never trailed again...Kevin Garnett had 26 points and Marquis Daniels had 16 for the Celtics, playing their third straight game without Paul Pierce. The Celtics hope to get Pierce back for Tuesday’s game against Detroit. New Jersey took 41 free throws to the Celtics’ 11. “It shows that we were aggressive,” Lopez said. “A lot of the season we’ve been settling for jump shots at very inopportune times. Tonight we were very assertive in trying to get to the basket and get the best possible shot we could.” Celtics coach Doc Rivers blamed his team for the free throw disparity, saying “it was on us.”...Garnett said he was “disgusted” at the loss and said it came down to defense. “In this league you have to get stops, it’s that simple. A team gets into a rhythm, and it’s hard to turn it off.”
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(From the Associated Press) - With or without Dwyane Wade, the Miami Heat are no match for the Milwaukee Bucks this season. The Bucks drubbed Wade’s supporting cast for their sixth consecutive victory Saturday, beating the Heat 94-71. Milwaukee is 3-0 this year against Miami, winning by a total of 50 points. The Bucks are assured of taking the season series for the first time in seven years. “Every time we play them, they pretty much hand it to us,” Heat guard Rafer Alston said...“When you are missing your best player and another team is coming at you hard like we were tonight, it can be tough,” Bucks center Andrew Bogut said. “They need him back sooner rather than later.”...Recently acquired John Salmons scored 18 points to lead the Bucks. Reserve Jerry Stackhouse added 16 in 25 minutes, shooting 4 for 7 from 3-point range. “The confidence level is very high, and we’re really playing well as a team,” Stackhouse said. “Everyone is sharing the ball and getting it done at both ends of the court.” Jermaine O’Neal had 14 points for the Heat, and the rest of their starting lineup totaled 24...Michael Beasley shot just 5 for 14 and had 10 points and seven rebounds. “I feel like it’s more my fault than anybody else’s,” Beasley said. “Maybe if I could have grabbed a couple more rebounds and knocked down a couple more shots, we could have gotten on a roll.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Danny Granger and the Indiana Pacers haven’t given up on the season. Granger had 30 points and eight rebounds to help the struggling Pacers beat the Chicago Bulls 100-90 on Saturday night...Dahntay Jones and Troy Murphy each had 17 points, and Roy Hibbert added 12 for the Pacers, who avoided being swept by the Bulls this season in the teams’ four games. “We just want to play for each other,” Hibbert said. “I think we did a great job of that tonight. Maybe we can make a run. You never know what happens in this league.” Derrick Rose had 27 points, and Luol Deng added 13 points and 18 rebounds for the Bulls (31-28), who trailed most of the game and fell behind by 16 in the fourth quarter...“This is one of those bumps in the road,” said Chicago’s Taj Gibson, who finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. “We just have to get back on track.” Pacers coach Jim O’Brien has been impressed with his team’s ability to stay focused, despite its disappointing record. “Good win for our team,” he said. “We did a lot of positive things. We built a lead and kept a lead.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Zach Randolph overwhelmed them with his scoring and rebounding. Tracy McGrady lasted 15 minutes before calling it a night. Good thing all the New York Knicks’ moves are for the future. Because if they were about the present, all of them backfired Saturday night. Randolph had 31 points and a career-high 25 rebounds against his former team, and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Knicks 120-109 to tie a franchise record with their fourth straight road victory...Marc Gasol added 25 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists as the Grizzlies overwhelmed the Knicks’ frontcourt. Rudy Gay scored 27 points for Memphis, which outrebounded New York 52-32...Al Harrington, playing more after McGrady departed with a sore left knee, scored 31 points for the Knicks. David Lee added 21 but had only seven rebounds while battling Randolph and Gasol...Gay scored 10 points in the first 3 minutes of the fourth, and the Grizzlies opened an eight-point lead midway through the period. New York ran off eight straight to tie it at 107 on Danilo Gallinari’s 3-pointer with 4:04 to play. That’s when Randolph took over, preventing the Grizzlies (30-29) from falling below .500 for the first time since they were 15-16 to end 2009. “That’s how scary we can be, anybody can take over at any point in time,” Gay said.
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(From the Associated Press) - Portland Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan has tinkered all season to try and find the right combination of players to overcome injuries and adversity. Nicolas Batum has thrown himself into that mix. Batum scored a career-high 31 points, LaMarcus Aldridge added 21 and the Trail Blazers cruised to another easy victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, 110-91 on Saturday night...Batum hit a career-high five 3-pointers and added a season-high seven assists and seven rebounds in his best game since returning from a torn labrum on Jan. 25. Batum had never scored more than 20 points in his career...Al Jefferson led Minnesota with 19 points, his highest total since scoring 18 six games ago against Washington...Rudy Fernandez added 18 points the Blazers. “Al got us off to a great start. Defensive-wise, we were adhering to our game plan, doing things we wanted to do,” Wolves coach Kurt Rambis said. “But the last five minutes of the second quarter, they just got on this little roll and we couldn’t find ways to stop them. Then they came out in the third quarter and just punched the game away for us.”...There weren’t many bright spots for the Wolves, but the play of Darko Milicic continues to be a positive. Milicic blocked three shots for the third time in five games since coming to the Wolves in a trade from New York. Ramon Sessions scored 13 points for Minnesota, and Corey Brewer and Kevin Love each had 10. Jefferson also had 11 rebounds for his 28th double-double.
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(From the Associated Press) - Deron Williams says he plays better when he’s angry. After the Utah Jazz lost Friday night in Sacramento, Williams was steaming mad and took it out on the Houston Rockets. “I felt a lot of motivation. I wasn’t happy with the way I’ve been playing, so I wanted to come out and set the tone early,” said Williams, who scored 20 of his 35 points in the first quarter in Utah’s 133-110 victory over Houston on Saturday night...Williams was 13 of 17 from the field, and had 13 assists and seven rebounds to help the Jazz set a season high for points. Carlos Boozer, Paul Millsap and Wes Matthews each added 18 points and the Jazz made a season-best 14 3-pointers...Kevin Martin led Houston with 32 points, and Aaron Brooks had 19. Martin could see Williams’ determination from the start. In the opening minutes, he asked Williams, “You are really feeling it tonight, huh?” Williams replied, “You know, I just had a bad game last night.”...“They didn’t have a guy who could stay in front of him. He just kept taking it to them,” Boozer said of Williams, who was 4 for 4 from 3-point range as the Jazz finished 14 of 25...Utah hasn’t lost consecutive games since the first two games of the 2010. The Rockets, coming off a win in San Antonio on Friday night, are 2-7 in their last nine games.
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(From the Associated Press) - On a night filled with offensive ineptitude it was only fitting that missed free throws proved to be the deciding factor. Stephen Curry scored 27 points and the Golden State Warriors used the hack-a-Ben strategy to finish their rally from a 14-point deficit in the second half and beat the Detroit Pistons 95-88 on Saturday night. The Warriors shot 41 percent from the field and committed 17 turnovers but came up with their first win without scoring at least 100 points since Jan. 30, 2009, at New Orleans...Anthony Tolliver added 19 points and 14 rebounds, and C.J. Watson scored 17 points in place of injured leading scorer Monta Ellis as the Warriors snapped a five-game losing streak against the Pistons...Prince scored 18 points to lead Detroit. Rodney Stuckey added 17 and Richard Hamilton had 16 as the Pistons dropped their third straight game. “The last three games we have played in, we have let the team come back in the last quarter,” Kuester said. “We had it under control and we allowed them the opportunity to get back in the game. We lost our intensity. We had too many turnovers.” The arena was barely half-filled at the start for this matchup between two of the NBA’s worst teams. The fans who didn’t show up didn’t miss much. The teams combined to hit less than one-third of their shots in the opening quarter. The Warriors scored their fewest first-half points of the season and trailed 50-37 at the break.
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(From the Associated Press) - The Boston Celtics haven’t found a way to fix their defensive woes. Center Brook Lopez scored 25 points and guards Devin Harris and Courtney Lee added 23 and 21 points and the New Jersey Nets topped the Celtics 104-96 Saturday. The Nets, who entered the game 5-52 and 2-27 on the road, took a 29-27 lead on Keyon Dooling’s jumper at the end of the first quarter and never trailed again...Kevin Garnett had 26 points and Marquis Daniels had 16 for the Celtics, playing their third straight game without Paul Pierce. The Celtics hope to get Pierce back for Tuesday’s game against Detroit. New Jersey took 41 free throws to the Celtics’ 11. “It shows that we were aggressive,” Lopez said. “A lot of the season we’ve been settling for jump shots at very inopportune times. Tonight we were very assertive in trying to get to the basket and get the best possible shot we could.” Celtics coach Doc Rivers blamed his team for the free throw disparity, saying “it was on us.”...Garnett said he was “disgusted” at the loss and said it came down to defense. “In this league you have to get stops, it’s that simple. A team gets into a rhythm, and it’s hard to turn it off.”
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(From the Associated Press) - With or without Dwyane Wade, the Miami Heat are no match for the Milwaukee Bucks this season. The Bucks drubbed Wade’s supporting cast for their sixth consecutive victory Saturday, beating the Heat 94-71. Milwaukee is 3-0 this year against Miami, winning by a total of 50 points. The Bucks are assured of taking the season series for the first time in seven years. “Every time we play them, they pretty much hand it to us,” Heat guard Rafer Alston said...“When you are missing your best player and another team is coming at you hard like we were tonight, it can be tough,” Bucks center Andrew Bogut said. “They need him back sooner rather than later.”...Recently acquired John Salmons scored 18 points to lead the Bucks. Reserve Jerry Stackhouse added 16 in 25 minutes, shooting 4 for 7 from 3-point range. “The confidence level is very high, and we’re really playing well as a team,” Stackhouse said. “Everyone is sharing the ball and getting it done at both ends of the court.” Jermaine O’Neal had 14 points for the Heat, and the rest of their starting lineup totaled 24...Michael Beasley shot just 5 for 14 and had 10 points and seven rebounds. “I feel like it’s more my fault than anybody else’s,” Beasley said. “Maybe if I could have grabbed a couple more rebounds and knocked down a couple more shots, we could have gotten on a roll.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Danny Granger and the Indiana Pacers haven’t given up on the season. Granger had 30 points and eight rebounds to help the struggling Pacers beat the Chicago Bulls 100-90 on Saturday night...Dahntay Jones and Troy Murphy each had 17 points, and Roy Hibbert added 12 for the Pacers, who avoided being swept by the Bulls this season in the teams’ four games. “We just want to play for each other,” Hibbert said. “I think we did a great job of that tonight. Maybe we can make a run. You never know what happens in this league.” Derrick Rose had 27 points, and Luol Deng added 13 points and 18 rebounds for the Bulls (31-28), who trailed most of the game and fell behind by 16 in the fourth quarter...“This is one of those bumps in the road,” said Chicago’s Taj Gibson, who finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. “We just have to get back on track.” Pacers coach Jim O’Brien has been impressed with his team’s ability to stay focused, despite its disappointing record. “Good win for our team,” he said. “We did a lot of positive things. We built a lead and kept a lead.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Zach Randolph overwhelmed them with his scoring and rebounding. Tracy McGrady lasted 15 minutes before calling it a night. Good thing all the New York Knicks’ moves are for the future. Because if they were about the present, all of them backfired Saturday night. Randolph had 31 points and a career-high 25 rebounds against his former team, and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Knicks 120-109 to tie a franchise record with their fourth straight road victory...Marc Gasol added 25 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists as the Grizzlies overwhelmed the Knicks’ frontcourt. Rudy Gay scored 27 points for Memphis, which outrebounded New York 52-32...Al Harrington, playing more after McGrady departed with a sore left knee, scored 31 points for the Knicks. David Lee added 21 but had only seven rebounds while battling Randolph and Gasol...Gay scored 10 points in the first 3 minutes of the fourth, and the Grizzlies opened an eight-point lead midway through the period. New York ran off eight straight to tie it at 107 on Danilo Gallinari’s 3-pointer with 4:04 to play. That’s when Randolph took over, preventing the Grizzlies (30-29) from falling below .500 for the first time since they were 15-16 to end 2009. “That’s how scary we can be, anybody can take over at any point in time,” Gay said.
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(From the Associated Press) - Portland Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan has tinkered all season to try and find the right combination of players to overcome injuries and adversity. Nicolas Batum has thrown himself into that mix. Batum scored a career-high 31 points, LaMarcus Aldridge added 21 and the Trail Blazers cruised to another easy victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, 110-91 on Saturday night...Batum hit a career-high five 3-pointers and added a season-high seven assists and seven rebounds in his best game since returning from a torn labrum on Jan. 25. Batum had never scored more than 20 points in his career...Al Jefferson led Minnesota with 19 points, his highest total since scoring 18 six games ago against Washington...Rudy Fernandez added 18 points the Blazers. “Al got us off to a great start. Defensive-wise, we were adhering to our game plan, doing things we wanted to do,” Wolves coach Kurt Rambis said. “But the last five minutes of the second quarter, they just got on this little roll and we couldn’t find ways to stop them. Then they came out in the third quarter and just punched the game away for us.”...There weren’t many bright spots for the Wolves, but the play of Darko Milicic continues to be a positive. Milicic blocked three shots for the third time in five games since coming to the Wolves in a trade from New York. Ramon Sessions scored 13 points for Minnesota, and Corey Brewer and Kevin Love each had 10. Jefferson also had 11 rebounds for his 28th double-double.
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(From the Associated Press) - Deron Williams says he plays better when he’s angry. After the Utah Jazz lost Friday night in Sacramento, Williams was steaming mad and took it out on the Houston Rockets. “I felt a lot of motivation. I wasn’t happy with the way I’ve been playing, so I wanted to come out and set the tone early,” said Williams, who scored 20 of his 35 points in the first quarter in Utah’s 133-110 victory over Houston on Saturday night...Williams was 13 of 17 from the field, and had 13 assists and seven rebounds to help the Jazz set a season high for points. Carlos Boozer, Paul Millsap and Wes Matthews each added 18 points and the Jazz made a season-best 14 3-pointers...Kevin Martin led Houston with 32 points, and Aaron Brooks had 19. Martin could see Williams’ determination from the start. In the opening minutes, he asked Williams, “You are really feeling it tonight, huh?” Williams replied, “You know, I just had a bad game last night.”...“They didn’t have a guy who could stay in front of him. He just kept taking it to them,” Boozer said of Williams, who was 4 for 4 from 3-point range as the Jazz finished 14 of 25...Utah hasn’t lost consecutive games since the first two games of the 2010. The Rockets, coming off a win in San Antonio on Friday night, are 2-7 in their last nine games.
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(From the Associated Press) - On a night filled with offensive ineptitude it was only fitting that missed free throws proved to be the deciding factor. Stephen Curry scored 27 points and the Golden State Warriors used the hack-a-Ben strategy to finish their rally from a 14-point deficit in the second half and beat the Detroit Pistons 95-88 on Saturday night. The Warriors shot 41 percent from the field and committed 17 turnovers but came up with their first win without scoring at least 100 points since Jan. 30, 2009, at New Orleans...Anthony Tolliver added 19 points and 14 rebounds, and C.J. Watson scored 17 points in place of injured leading scorer Monta Ellis as the Warriors snapped a five-game losing streak against the Pistons...Prince scored 18 points to lead Detroit. Rodney Stuckey added 17 and Richard Hamilton had 16 as the Pistons dropped their third straight game. “The last three games we have played in, we have let the team come back in the last quarter,” Kuester said. “We had it under control and we allowed them the opportunity to get back in the game. We lost our intensity. We had too many turnovers.” The arena was barely half-filled at the start for this matchup between two of the NBA’s worst teams. The fans who didn’t show up didn’t miss much. The teams combined to hit less than one-third of their shots in the opening quarter. The Warriors scored their fewest first-half points of the season and trailed 50-37 at the break.
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