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(From the Associated Press) - It was just two seasons ago that the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons played in the Eastern Conference finals. Things have changed. Boston entered Tuesday’s game coming off one of its worst performances in recent memory—a humiliating home defeat by the hapless Nets—while the Pistons are headed for their first 50-loss season in a decade. Fittingly, it was a refugee from another devastated NBA franchise that ended up being the difference in an ugly game. Nate Robinson, playing his fourth game with Boston after being acquired from the Knicks, scored 14 points in 15 minutes to help the Celtics win 105-100...Detroit (21-39) led 77-73 early in the fourth, but three 3-pointers by Robinson helped Boston go on a game-winning 16-4 run. “This was big for us,” said Ray Allen, who scored 18 points. “Nate was big. He can get to the basket, he can hit the mid-range stuff and he can get the 3-ball. That helps us a lot with the second unit.” The Pistons have lost four in a row despite leading in the fourth quarter of every game...Paul Pierce committed a foul with 1:13 left and the Celtics leading 95-90, and rookie Jonas Jerebko went to the free throw line. After protests from the Celtics, though, the officials sent Ben Wallace to the line, and he missed both shots. Wallace, who left moments later with a minor knee injury, is now 2 for 20 from the line in Detroit’s last five games...“We had a great chance, but you can’t miss opportunities against a team like the Celtics,” Pistons guard Ben Gordon said. “We knew they were going to have a strong finish, especially after what happened in their last game.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Afterward, Dwyane Wade could only exhale. “There’s no easy wins in the NBA,” Wade said. These days, that especially rings true for the Miami Heat. Wade finished with 35 points and 12 assists, Quentin Richardson hit two huge 3-pointers in the final minutes, and the Heat snapped a four-game slide by digging deep to beat the undermanned yet spirited Golden State Warriors 110-106 on Tuesday night. Richardson and Michael Beasley each scored 15 points for Miami, which got 14 points and 12 rebounds from Jermaine O’Neal and 14 more points from Carlos Arroyo, who came off the bench to play 34 minutes at point guard. “Where we are, any win is a good win for us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It wasn’t a great game for us, but we got the win, so we’ll take it. The only thing that matters right now is that we stay in this fight. However. By whatever means to get it done, we just need to stay in the fight and keep on swinging.” They’re now 25 games under .500 and long out of the Western Conference playoff picture. Someone forgot to tell Don Nelson’s club—which dressed only eight players, the NBA minimum, and that was after they signed a D-Leaguer earlier in the day—that it’s merely playing out the string. Nelson spent most of the game pacing the sidelines, showing an intensity that typically gets reserved for a playoff Game 7. Ronny Turiaf literally smacked teammates on their backsides in the final minutes, trying whatever he could to spur them along...Anthony Morrow scored 24 points, C.J. Watson had 20 and Stephen Curry added 18 for Golden State, which had a chance to tie the game with 5 seconds left— but Curry’s pass skipped off Turiaf’s hands, Arroyo followed with two free throws, and Miami escaped. Turiaf finished with 15 for the Warriors, who signed Reggie Williams to a 10-day contract after calling him up from the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Williams scored 10 points in 20 minutes.
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(From the Associated Press) - The Oklahoma City Thunder don’t like to see the kind of defensive numbers that ended up on the box score against the Sacramento Kings. Only the fact that the Thunder won anyway provided a tiny measure of redemption. Kevin Durant had 39 points and 10 rebounds, Russell Westbrook added 30 points and 13 assists, and Oklahoma City survived one of its worst defensive performances of the season in a 113-107 victory Tuesday night...Rookie Tyreke Evans scored 27 points for Sacramento, which shot 54 percent and became only the seventh team to make more than half of its shots against the stingiest defense in the NBA. It was the second highest shooting percentage this season against the Thunder, who had been holding opponents to only 43.7 percent. “Defense has got to be what we do every day,” Oklahoma City forward Nick Collison said. “We don’t want to win with offense and outscoring teams because we know in the long run, that’s not a good way to go. It’s not going to work.”...The Kings were still within three after Carl Landry hit two free throws with 2:15 to play, but Nenad Krstic lobbed the ball to Durant for a two-handed alley-oop slam at the opposite end. Landry had a follow dunk to make it 111-107 with 34 seconds left, but Sacramento opted not to foul and the shot clock ran all the way down before Durant missed a baseline jumper. Francisco Garcia missed a contested 3-pointer in the final 5 seconds for the Kings. Durant corralled the rebound and iced the game with two free throws...Jeff Green had 15 points and Krstic finished with 14 points and nine rebounds as Oklahoma City held a 43-32 advantage on the boards. The Thunder turned 17 offensive rebounds into 23 second-chance points. “We didn’t play great defense tonight but the last four or five minutes, we really had a couple stops in a row and that really made the game for us,” Krstic said. “And rebounds were huge for us, too.” Landry added 17 points and Beno Udrih and Garcia scored 13 apiece for the Kings. Sacramento played without reserve Andres Nocioni, who was suspended after he pleaded no contest to a drunken driving charge. The Thunder finished a perfect three-game homestand and moved a season-best 13 games over .500.
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(From the Associated Press) - Kobe Bryant is searching for his shooting touch five games into a return from injury. He still found a way to score, though. Bryant had 24 points, hitting 14-of-15 free throws, and the Los Angeles Lakers pulled away with a dominating third-quarter run for a 122-99 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night...Andrew Bynum added 16 points and Pau Gasol had 14 points and 16 rebounds for the defending NBA champions, who fell behind early before improving to 14-0 against the Pacers at Staples Center. Jordan Farmar scored 19 points, including 10 in the fourth when he ran the offense while Bryant rested his myriad of injuries. The Lakers won their third in a row heading into a stretch of three road games in four days, capped by Sunday’s contest at Orlando, where they won the NBA title in June...Troy Murphy had 17 points and 13 rebounds, Dahntay Jones scored 16 points, Josh McRoberts had 15 and Earl Watson finished with 10 assists for the Pacers. They dropped to 7-24 on the road and have lost eight of their last 10 overall. “They dominated the inside and they got one of the two greatest players in the world on the perimeter and the rest of the cast isn’t that bad,” Indiana coach Jim O’Brien said. “That’s why they’re the world champions.” Bryant nearly matched his career average of 24.9 points against Indiana, though most of his offense came at the line. He was just 5 of 14 from the field, missing all four of his 3-point attempts. “He felt like his outside game wasn’t going well so he had to take the ball to the basket,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “You have to take care of yourself when you go to the basket a lot, especially when you’re injury prone. He found a way to play, which is very admirable.” Bryant hit a 21-foot fadeaway to beat the halftime buzzer, keeping Los Angeles ahead 60-54. That momentum carried into the third, when the Pacers closed to 62-61 before the Lakers took over. They went on a 35-10 run that produced a 98-71 lead heading into the fourth.
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(From the Associated Press) - It was just two seasons ago that the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons played in the Eastern Conference finals. Things have changed. Boston entered Tuesday’s game coming off one of its worst performances in recent memory—a humiliating home defeat by the hapless Nets—while the Pistons are headed for their first 50-loss season in a decade. Fittingly, it was a refugee from another devastated NBA franchise that ended up being the difference in an ugly game. Nate Robinson, playing his fourth game with Boston after being acquired from the Knicks, scored 14 points in 15 minutes to help the Celtics win 105-100...Detroit (21-39) led 77-73 early in the fourth, but three 3-pointers by Robinson helped Boston go on a game-winning 16-4 run. “This was big for us,” said Ray Allen, who scored 18 points. “Nate was big. He can get to the basket, he can hit the mid-range stuff and he can get the 3-ball. That helps us a lot with the second unit.” The Pistons have lost four in a row despite leading in the fourth quarter of every game...Paul Pierce committed a foul with 1:13 left and the Celtics leading 95-90, and rookie Jonas Jerebko went to the free throw line. After protests from the Celtics, though, the officials sent Ben Wallace to the line, and he missed both shots. Wallace, who left moments later with a minor knee injury, is now 2 for 20 from the line in Detroit’s last five games...“We had a great chance, but you can’t miss opportunities against a team like the Celtics,” Pistons guard Ben Gordon said. “We knew they were going to have a strong finish, especially after what happened in their last game.”
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(From the Associated Press) - Afterward, Dwyane Wade could only exhale. “There’s no easy wins in the NBA,” Wade said. These days, that especially rings true for the Miami Heat. Wade finished with 35 points and 12 assists, Quentin Richardson hit two huge 3-pointers in the final minutes, and the Heat snapped a four-game slide by digging deep to beat the undermanned yet spirited Golden State Warriors 110-106 on Tuesday night. Richardson and Michael Beasley each scored 15 points for Miami, which got 14 points and 12 rebounds from Jermaine O’Neal and 14 more points from Carlos Arroyo, who came off the bench to play 34 minutes at point guard. “Where we are, any win is a good win for us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It wasn’t a great game for us, but we got the win, so we’ll take it. The only thing that matters right now is that we stay in this fight. However. By whatever means to get it done, we just need to stay in the fight and keep on swinging.” They’re now 25 games under .500 and long out of the Western Conference playoff picture. Someone forgot to tell Don Nelson’s club—which dressed only eight players, the NBA minimum, and that was after they signed a D-Leaguer earlier in the day—that it’s merely playing out the string. Nelson spent most of the game pacing the sidelines, showing an intensity that typically gets reserved for a playoff Game 7. Ronny Turiaf literally smacked teammates on their backsides in the final minutes, trying whatever he could to spur them along...Anthony Morrow scored 24 points, C.J. Watson had 20 and Stephen Curry added 18 for Golden State, which had a chance to tie the game with 5 seconds left— but Curry’s pass skipped off Turiaf’s hands, Arroyo followed with two free throws, and Miami escaped. Turiaf finished with 15 for the Warriors, who signed Reggie Williams to a 10-day contract after calling him up from the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Williams scored 10 points in 20 minutes.
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(From the Associated Press) - The Oklahoma City Thunder don’t like to see the kind of defensive numbers that ended up on the box score against the Sacramento Kings. Only the fact that the Thunder won anyway provided a tiny measure of redemption. Kevin Durant had 39 points and 10 rebounds, Russell Westbrook added 30 points and 13 assists, and Oklahoma City survived one of its worst defensive performances of the season in a 113-107 victory Tuesday night...Rookie Tyreke Evans scored 27 points for Sacramento, which shot 54 percent and became only the seventh team to make more than half of its shots against the stingiest defense in the NBA. It was the second highest shooting percentage this season against the Thunder, who had been holding opponents to only 43.7 percent. “Defense has got to be what we do every day,” Oklahoma City forward Nick Collison said. “We don’t want to win with offense and outscoring teams because we know in the long run, that’s not a good way to go. It’s not going to work.”...The Kings were still within three after Carl Landry hit two free throws with 2:15 to play, but Nenad Krstic lobbed the ball to Durant for a two-handed alley-oop slam at the opposite end. Landry had a follow dunk to make it 111-107 with 34 seconds left, but Sacramento opted not to foul and the shot clock ran all the way down before Durant missed a baseline jumper. Francisco Garcia missed a contested 3-pointer in the final 5 seconds for the Kings. Durant corralled the rebound and iced the game with two free throws...Jeff Green had 15 points and Krstic finished with 14 points and nine rebounds as Oklahoma City held a 43-32 advantage on the boards. The Thunder turned 17 offensive rebounds into 23 second-chance points. “We didn’t play great defense tonight but the last four or five minutes, we really had a couple stops in a row and that really made the game for us,” Krstic said. “And rebounds were huge for us, too.” Landry added 17 points and Beno Udrih and Garcia scored 13 apiece for the Kings. Sacramento played without reserve Andres Nocioni, who was suspended after he pleaded no contest to a drunken driving charge. The Thunder finished a perfect three-game homestand and moved a season-best 13 games over .500.
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(From the Associated Press) - Kobe Bryant is searching for his shooting touch five games into a return from injury. He still found a way to score, though. Bryant had 24 points, hitting 14-of-15 free throws, and the Los Angeles Lakers pulled away with a dominating third-quarter run for a 122-99 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night...Andrew Bynum added 16 points and Pau Gasol had 14 points and 16 rebounds for the defending NBA champions, who fell behind early before improving to 14-0 against the Pacers at Staples Center. Jordan Farmar scored 19 points, including 10 in the fourth when he ran the offense while Bryant rested his myriad of injuries. The Lakers won their third in a row heading into a stretch of three road games in four days, capped by Sunday’s contest at Orlando, where they won the NBA title in June...Troy Murphy had 17 points and 13 rebounds, Dahntay Jones scored 16 points, Josh McRoberts had 15 and Earl Watson finished with 10 assists for the Pacers. They dropped to 7-24 on the road and have lost eight of their last 10 overall. “They dominated the inside and they got one of the two greatest players in the world on the perimeter and the rest of the cast isn’t that bad,” Indiana coach Jim O’Brien said. “That’s why they’re the world champions.” Bryant nearly matched his career average of 24.9 points against Indiana, though most of his offense came at the line. He was just 5 of 14 from the field, missing all four of his 3-point attempts. “He felt like his outside game wasn’t going well so he had to take the ball to the basket,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “You have to take care of yourself when you go to the basket a lot, especially when you’re injury prone. He found a way to play, which is very admirable.” Bryant hit a 21-foot fadeaway to beat the halftime buzzer, keeping Los Angeles ahead 60-54. That momentum carried into the third, when the Pacers closed to 62-61 before the Lakers took over. They went on a 35-10 run that produced a 98-71 lead heading into the fourth.
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