Games – Page 43 – NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog

Strong rebounding helps Bulls beat Heat

Even when seated, the Chicago Bulls outrebounded the Miami Heat.

Following one missed shot, the ball rolled between forward Carlos Boozer’s legs as he fell on his backside, yet he still managed to scoop it up and feed a teammate for two more second-chance points for Chicago.

Dominating on the glass and the hardwood, the Bulls became only the third visiting team to win in Miami this season, beating the Heat 96-89 Friday night.

Chicago outrebounded Miami 48-28. The Bulls had 19 offensive rebounds to four for the Heat…

”It always feels good to beat the Heat,” said center Joakim Noah, who had 12 rebounds…

The Heat, who are last in the NBA in rebounds, had won four games this season when outrebounded by 15 or more. But this time the disparity beat them…

James scored 30 points, extending his streaks of scoring at least 20 points to 31 consecutive games this season, and 52 games in a row overall when including last year’s playoff run. He has scored at least 25 in eight consecutive games.

But he had just six rebounds, which led the Heat. Boozer had 12 rebounds for Chicago, and Taj Gibson added nine in 17 minutes…

Boozer scored 27 points after totaling a season-high 31 Wednesday at Orlando. Noah, back after missing one game with flu-like symptoms, had 13 points.

— Reported by Steven Wine of the Associated Press

Rondo leads Celtics to chippy 94-75 win vs Pacers

Kevin Garnett went over the fans sitting courtside to save the ball, and then he ran through the seats halfway up the court before he found an opening – over the broadcast table – to get back on the floor.

By the end of the game, he couldn’t get back on the floor at all.

Garnett scored 18 points before he was ejected for a flagrant foul in the fourth quarter, but by then the Boston Celtics were on their way to a 94-75 victory over the Indiana Pacers that snapped a four-game losing streak.

”You could tell we needed this win, and that’s how we came out tonight,” Garnett said after Boston held the Central Division-leading Pacers to a season-low 31.8 percent shooting. ”We needed a win. Tonight was the night to stop the bleeding. I felt like we did that.”

Rajon Rondo added 18 points, seven assists and five rebounds for Boston, which had lost eight of 10 to fall a season-worst three games below .500. Garnett also had seven rebounds and made a nice play to keep a ball from going out of bounds in the second quarter.

After going over the thickly padded courtside seats, Garnett couldn’t find a gap in them to get back on the court. He ran through the fans until he got to midcourt, then jumped onto and over the broadcast table to return to the game.

Things weren’t so comical by the fourth quarter, though. After three Pacers technical fouls, Garnett picked up a Flagrant 2 for hitting Tyler Hansbrough in the face while flailing with his arms…

Hansbrough, who scored 19 points, said his immediate concern was his history of concussions.

— Reported by Jimmy Golen of the Associated Press

Wes Matthews scores 21 to lead Blazers past Grizzlies

The Portland Trail Blazers turned up the defense down the stretch to turn back the Grizzlies.

Wesley Matthews scored 21 points, J.J. Hickson added 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Portland beat Memphis 86-84 on Friday night.

Rudy Gay’s jumper from near the top of the key was off the mark as time expired, allowing the Trail Blazers to escape a closely played game that saw nine ties and 21 lead changes.

”I thought we played very good team defense,” said LaMarcus Aldridge, who had 15 points and 12 rebounds for Portland. ”We played their tendencies very well down the stretch. We had talked about it all game, about knowing what guys were going to do, and I thought down the stretch we guarded that.”

Nicolas Batum and Damian Lillard added 11 points apiece for the Trail Blazers, Lillard also handing out eight assists, as Portland won for the ninth time in its last 12 games.

Marreese Speights had a season-high 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Grizzlies in place of Zach Randolph, who missed the game with flu-like symptoms. Gay had 19 points, but was 8 of 21 from the field.

Marc Gasol scored 12 points and had a career-best eight blocks. Darrell Arthur contributed 10 points off the Memphis bench.

— Reported by Clay Bailey of the Associated Press

Nets beat Wizards 115-113 in double overtime

Exactly three hours after the game started, Joe Johnson finally won an exhausting game for the Brooklyn Nets.

Johnson’s 18-footer with 0.7 seconds left in the second overtime lifted the Nets to a 115-113 victory over the Washington Wizards on Friday night.

Bradley Beal’s two free throws tied the score at 113 with 9.1 seconds to play before Johnson, who had 18 points, hit the shot that improved Brooklyn to 4-1 under interim coach P.J. Carlesimo…

Brook Lopez had 27 points and 13 rebounds for the Nets, and Deron Williams added 24 points and 10 assists.

Beal had a career-high 24 points. Jordan Crawford scored 23 points and Nene, who fouled out in the first overtime, had 20 for Washington, which lost its fourth in a row and is now 4-27…

The game featured the return of Andray Blatche, who was let go by Washington last summer after seven stormy seasons. The Wizards used the amnesty provision on Blatche, who was banished from the team by Wittman last March for poor conditioning.

Blatche was booed by the crowd when he entered with just under five minutes to play in the first quarter. Moments later, with the crowd still booing, he hit his first shot and then drew laughs when he tripped as he ran down the court. He had 13 points and 12 rebounds…

Brooklyn was without G C.J. Watson (bruised right knee) and F Kris Humphries (sprained left ankle). F/G Jerry Stackhouse returned after missing Wednesday’s game at Oklahoma City with a sore right hamstring.

— Reported by the Associated Press

DeMarcus Cousins drops 31 points, 20 rebounds on the Raptors

Sacramento Kings coach Keith Smart called DeMarcus Cousins ”the guy who makes it all work for us.”

Friday night’s performance was the perfect example of that.

Cousins scored a season-high 31 points and matched his career high with 20 rebounds, John Salmons scored eight of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and the Kings topped the Toronto Raptors 105-96.

”He had the right energy to start the game, he had the right mindset of not trying to score 50 but trying to let his teammates play,” Smart said of Cousins. ”He’s in a good spot as a basketball player right now and he’s only going to get better.”

Salmons said Cousins is helping the Kings win by trusting his teammates and giving up the ball when he gets double-teamed…

Jason Thompson scored 14 points and Isaiah Thomas had 11 as the Kings won their second straight road game. They’d gone 1-13 away from home before winning at Cleveland on Wednesday…

Kyle Lowry scored 24 points and Ed Davis had 11 points and 13 rebounds for the Raptors, who came in having won eight of nine and a season-best five straight at home.

”We did not have an answer for DeMarcus Cousins inside,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. ”We did not play with any zip. We were flat.”

Alan Anderson scored 20 points, DeMar DeRozan had 14 and Jose Calderon added 13 for the Raptors, who also lost 107-100 at Sacramento on Dec. 5.

— Reported by Ian Harrison of the Associated Press

Kyrie Irving scores 33, lifts Cavs over Bobcats

Kyrie Irving feels he’s at his best when the fourth quarter begins.

He certainly was Friday night.

Irving scored 16 of his game-high 33 points in the final period, including a pull-up jumper from the foul line with one second left, to help the Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Charlotte Bobcats 106-104 and snap a three-game losing streak.

Irving scored 16 of his team’s final 18 points in the fourth quarter.

”I kind of got in a zone and kept it going,” Irving said. ”And they kept feeding me.”

With the game tied and 16 seconds left, everyone in the crowd knew who was going to take the last shot for the Cavaliers.

”Those are the moments I kind of live for,” Irving said.

— Reported by Steve Reed of the Associated Press

Barea leads T-Wolves to 101-97 win over Nuggets

Not even a sprained finger to their All-Star forward could spoil this win for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

And it definitely made up for the clunker they turned in the night before – as much as it can, anyway.

J.J. Barea scored 12 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter while Kevin Love sat on the bench with an injured finger, lifting Minnesota to a 101-97 win over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.

The Timberwolves were playing for the second straight night, but fatigue hardly appeared to be a factor as they handed the Nuggets a rare home loss…

”It was good to hit some shots. We’ve been struggling to hit shots as a team,” Ridnour said. ”To be able to get going like that feels good.”

Especially with Love only able to watch after leaving with a sprained finger on his right hand in the third quarter. Love broke the same hand in October, missing the opening nine games of the season, and has struggled to get on track with his jumper ever since.

On the play in which he was injured, Love appeared to be sliding past a Nuggets player in the lane when he suddenly clutched at his hand before heading into the training room. Love had 12 points and 17 rebounds in nearly 24 minutes…

The Timberwolves were without point guard Ricky Rubio, who has been dealing with back spasms and remained in Minnesota during the two-game swing through Utah and Denver.

— Reported by Pat Graham of the Associated Press

Knicks end Spurs 7-game winning streak in romp

Sometime between Stephen Jackson’s sideline stumble and J.R. Smith’s soaring slam, the San Antonio Spurs realized this wasn’t their night.

Too much fatigue and way too much Knicks defense.

Carmelo Anthony scored 23 points, Smith kept up his surge with 20 and New York snapped San Antonio’s seven-game winning streak with a 100-83 victory Thursday night.

Steve Novak added 15 points and Tyson Chandler had 10 points and 14 rebounds to help the Knicks bounce back from consecutive losses by dominating the final period against the Spurs, who appeared to run out of gas in their second game in two nights.

”They shot the hell out of it and I could see it wasn’t going to happen,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. ”Just too low on fuel and their defense was too good. Bad combination, and then they made shots, which makes it even worse.”

Tim Duncan and Tony Parker each had just 11 points for the Spurs, who lost Jackson to an unusual injury, then lost what had been the NBA’s longest winning streak.

Jackson played just three minutes off the bench before spraining his right ankle when he took a shot then fell back into a waitress working the sideline in front of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Smith, who had scored 25 points in his last four games as a reserve, highlighted his outing with an acrobatic dunk in the fourth quarter that brought fans to their feet. The lobbed pass came from reserve point guard Pablo Prigioni, who had one of his most complete games since coming to the NBA at age 35, finishing with six points and nine assists.

— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

Kings get second road win of season, in Cleveland

It’s one thing for DeMarcus Cousins to say the Kings play better when they share the basketball.

It’s another for Cousins to put that into action. Cousins has tried to do that more lately, and it’s working.

Cousins scored 18 points and grabbed 16 rebounds Wednesday, but it was a pass to John Salmons for his sixth assist of the night that was his biggest play in helping the Kings beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 97-94 at Quicken Loans Arena.

It was the Kings’ second road win in 15 games.

The Kings (12-20) trailed 90-89, having squandered a 10-point lead in the third quarter, when Cousins found Salmons in the corner for a three-pointer and a 92-90 lead with 52.9 seconds to play. Cousins’ six assists led the Kings.

— Reported by Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee

Warriors hand Clippers 2nd straight loss

Stephen Curry’s shooting stroke flowed so smoothly he swished shots without even looking at the basket.

At one point, the Los Angeles Clippers cornered Curry on the sideline near the Golden State Warriors’ bench. The 6-foot-10 Lamar Odom tried to crowd Curry out of bounds, and the diminutive point guard never hesitated to chuck up the shot.

”I lost sight of the rim and I knew it was going in,” Curry said. ”I haven’t been that locked-in in a while.”

Curry scored 25 of his 31 points in the first half, David Lee finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds and the Warriors coasted past the ailing Clippers 115-94 on Wednesday night.

After winning a franchise-record 17 straight games, Los Angeles has suddenly dropped two straight and has Golden State surging from behind.

Curry made nine of his first 10 shots, including 4 of 5 from beyond the arc, and added eight assists and six rebounds to pace Golden State’s 26-8 spurt to start the game. His twice-surgically repaired right ankle healthy again, Curry – along with Lee – is making a strong case to be the first All-Star for the Warriors since Latrell Sprewell in 1997…

Jamal Crawford scored 24 points on a sore left foot and Chris Paul had 23 points and six rebounds for the Clippers, playing with heavy hearts after learning of the death of owner Donald Sterling’s son earlier in the day. Small forward Caron Butler also wasn’t with Los Angeles because of personal reasons.

After owning the NBA’s longest winning streak since the Boston Celtics rolled off 19 consecutive games from Nov. 15 to Dec. 23, 2008, Los Angeles has struggled to shoot in losses at Denver and Golden State. The Clippers shot 38.5 percent in Tuesday night’s 92-78 loss at Denver and 36.4 percent at Golden State, ending a difficult 24 hours for the franchise.

— Reported by Antonio Gonzalez of the Associated Press