RECAP:

Playing without Elton Brand and facing one of the Eastern Conference’s top five teams for the second straight night, Philadelphia had double figures from each of its four bench players to overwhelm the Atlanta Hawks 98-87 while Dwight Howard had 27 points and eight rebounds to lead the Orlando Magic to an 85-81 win over the Indiana Pacers. The Los Angeles Clippers rebounded from their disappointing loss to the Nuggets in their previous gamee to dominate the Washington Wizards and cruise to a 107-81 win while the Knicks had finally found a spark--not Carmelo Anthony--but Jeremy Lin who scored a career-high 25 points and the Knicks salvaged the finale of a back-to-back-to-back set by the New Jersey Nets 99-92. Greg Monroe made up for the loss of Brandon Knight to score 24 points and pull down 16 rebounds to help the Detroit Pistons beat the New Orleans Hornets 89-87 in a matchup of two of the NBA’s worst teams. Kyrie Irving made a driving layup in traffic with 15.8 seconds left to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 91-88 win over the Dallas Mavericks who were unable to stop the 19-year-old sensation when it mattered most while Kevin Love scored 25 points and grabbed 18 rebounds and Luke Ridnour added 22 points to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves over the Houston Rockets 100-91. All-Star Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 22 points and 11 rebounds but Tony Parker scored 42 points and broke the Spurs’ franchise record for career assists, leading San Antonio to a 107-96 win over the NBA-best Oklahoma City Thunder. Derrick Rose scored 21 points and had 13 assists and Luol Deng added 21 points in his return after missing seven games due to injury, as the Chicago Bulls easily beat the Milwaukee Bucks 113-90. Riding adrenaline and some modern treatment on his sprained ankle, Earl Watson took a close game and broke it open for Utah. He keyed a clinching 14-0 fourth quarter run to help the Jazz beat the Los Angeles Lakers 96-87 while rarely-used Robin Lopez scored nine consecutive points to spark a 12-2 run starting the fourth quarter and the Suns rallied to beat Charlotte 95-89, the Bobcats’ 11th consecutive loss. Marcus Thornton scored 28 points and Tyreke Evans had 26 points and nine assists to help the Sacramento Kings beat the Golden State Warriors 114-106 in overtime to win consecutive games for the second time this season while Nicolas Batum set a Trail Blazers record with nine 3-pointers and scored a career-high 33 points, LaMarcus Aldridge added 29 points and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Denver Nuggets 117-97.


NBA TOP TEN:



NBA GAME ACTION:


SCORES:

Philadelphia @ Atlanta: 98-87
Orlando @ Indiana: 85-81
Los Angeles C @ Washington: 107-81
New Jersey @ New York: 92-99
New Orleans @ Detroit: 87-89
Dallas @ Cleveland: 88-91
Houston @ Minnesota: 91-100
Oklahoma City @ San Antonio: 96-107
Chicago @ Milwaukee: 113-90
Los Angeles L @ Utah: 87-96
Charlotte @ Phoenix: 89-95
Golden State @ Sacramento: 106-114
Denver @ Portland: 97-117