The AP reports: Manu Ginobili returned from his offseason left ankle surgery, and the San Antonio Spurs celebrated with a victory. Ginobili, who missed San Antonio’s first 12 games, scored 12 points to help the Spurs beat the Memphis Grizzlies 94-81 on Monday night… Rookie George Hill scored 20 points and Roger Mason added 18 to lead the Spurs. Tim Duncan added 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks for San Antonio, which has won five of its last six games. O.J. Mayo scored 23 of his 26 points in the second half to lead Memphis, which has dropped seven of its last eight. Rudy Gay scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Darko Milicic had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Day: November 25, 2008
Nov 24: Rockets 107, Heat 98
The AP reports: Ron Artest is difficult to please. After seeing Yao Ming shake off waves of defenders in a 28-point, 12-rebound effort that helped the Houston Rockets beat the Miami Heat 107-98 on Monday night, someone asked Artest to assess his center’s performance. “I thought he could have played better,” Artest said… Artest scored 20 and Rafer Alston added 14 points for Houston, which finished with six players in double figures and outrebounded Miami 51-35. Luis Scola had 11 points and 13 rebounds, while Carl Landry and Aaron Brooks each scored 11 for the Rockets, who finished off a 3-0 road trip against East teams. Dwyane Wade scored 23 points for Miami, doing so on 7-for-23 shooting, which prompted another quick line from Artest. “He played really bad tonight,” Artest said. “He didn’t play like I’m used to seeing him play.” Mario Chalmers added a career-best 23 points, including five 3-pointers, for the Heat, who also got 17 points from Shawn Marion, 14 from Beasley and a season-high 12 from Yakhouba Diawara.
Nov 24: Magic 108, Bucks 101
The AP reports: Dwight Howard was still standing, and that’s all that mattered for the Orlando Magic. Howard had 24 points and 13 rebounds as the Orlando Magic outlasted the Milwaukee Bucks 108-101 Monday night in a matchup of injury-depleted teams. Richard Jefferson scored 25 points to lead Milwaukee, which lost Andrew Bogut to a knee bruise in the third quarter. The Bucks were already missing Michael Redd and Luke Ridnour, their starting backcourt, to injuries. Hedo Turkoglu, forced to play some point guard when Jameer Nelson went out with a groin pull, and Rashard Lewis each added 22 points for the Magic. Howard picked up his fourth foul halfway through the third quarter but played eight minutes in the final quarter, scoring 7 points but making only 5 of 11 free throws.
Nov 24: Bobcats 93, Sixers 84
The AP reports: It didn’t take long for rookie D.J. Augustin to unseat Raymond Felton as Charlotte’s point guard. Only Felton didn’t lose his starting job, leaving a tiny backcourt that—at least for a night—got the Bobcats out of their offensive funk. Augustin and Felton, each about six-feet tall, combined for 48 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds in their third game starting together, and the Bobcats beat the Philadelphia 76ers 93-84 Monday night to snap a four-game losing streak… Augustin scored 25 points and added a career-high 11 assists. Felton had 23 points and seven rebounds. They combined to shoot 16 for 22 with only six turnovers… Elton Brand had 18 points, but made only 6 of 13 shots and fouled out with under a minute left. He was nowhere near as dominant as he was a night earlier in a win over Golden State that got the Sixers to .500 for the first time. Thaddeus Young was held to six points on 2-of-10 shooting. Andre Iguodala added 17 points for the Sixers, who shot 40 percent and had their two-game winning streak snapped.