SportsBettingChamp.com Sports Blog

There are only 4 games in the NBA tonight: Orlando - Miami, Milwaukee - New Jersey, New York - Utah, Memphis - Golden State. Two of the four have no significance whatsoever so we’ll focus on the first one to have significance since the second is a bygone conclusion.

The Orlando Magic go into Miami having won 5 games straight and 8 out of their last 10 including home wins over Boston, Milwaukee home and away and New York home and away. Miami in contrast have only won 3 of 5 and 5 of their last 10 to give Philadelphia a sniff of the 5th seed that the Heat currently occupy. If the Heat lose at home tonight then there will only be a half game between themselves and the ‘Sixers. They’ll have a tough task on their hands playing the Magic who’ve only lost 11 away from home all season, exactly the number of games Miami have lost at home all season.

Miami will be hoping for a big game from talisman Dwayne Wade who’s averaging a league best 29.8 points a game and has helped the Heat win 24 more games than a year ago to plant himself firmly as a candidate for MVP. He scored 27 on Saturday to help the Heat to beat the Bucks 102-95 to bounce back from back to back road defeats to Chicago and Indiana.

Orlando will be wanting another double double from centre Dwight Howard, who has 56 already this season including one triple double. He’s averaging 21 points a game and managed 18 points and 8 rebounds against the Bucks in just 24 minutes. Orlando leads the series between these two team 2-1 with this game being the last, both their wins came in Orlando though but by double digits margins of 10 and 23. In the latter Dwight Howard led the Magic with 32 points and 17 rebounds to see the Magic win by 122-99.

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First up there was no upset in Cleveland as LeBron and the Cavs won their 12th straight game – a franchise best – thanks to LeBron James’ 24 points and 12 assists and Cleveland’s defense in the second half. At the end of the first quarter Cleveland were down by 10 and at half time were still now by 2 before limiting Dallas to 25 points in the second half. They eventually won 102-74 and Joe Smith came off the bench to collect a double double (12-13rebounds). Cleveland are the 61st team in league history to win 60 games in the regular season.

L.A went into Atlanta with a fight for home court advantage throughout the play-offs with Cleveland and Cleveland were winning by a game. They’re now winning by two games after the Hawks held the Lakers to their lowest points total of the season, 76. Whilst allowed to have an off night some of the time last night really was when Kobe Bryant needed to have an on night. He only scored 17 points, shooting 7 of 19 from the field and while someone else usually steps up to win the game for L.A on a Kobe off night last night was the case. Only one player apart from Kobe got into double figures (Pau Gasol (21-11rebounds) while the rest were shutout by the Hawks effective defense to see the Hawks prevail 86-76.

New Jersey’s slim play-off hopes all but evaporated in Minnesota when the short handed Timberwolves handed the Nets their 43rd loss of the season and leave them 5 and a half games behind Detroit and Chicago for the 8th seed in the East with 9 games to play. Vince Carter led the Nets as usual with 36 points but apart from that no one turned up and Minnesota were able to ground out a win without Randy Foye and Al Jefferson to snap a 7 game losing streak, this one ended 108-99.

Toronto blew a 17 point lead to take the game to overtime before finally finishing off the Chicago Bulls at the Air Canada Centre in a performance that Raptors fans will hope to galvanise their team onto some kind amazing streak that would see them into the play-offs. Toronto are 7 games off of 8th place with 9 to play so will probably need some slip ups by other teams but they did their hopes the world of good by beating Chicago, who are in 8th place themselves. Chris Bosh had 31 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Raptors while Andrea Bargnani was next with 28. The Raptors will hope that their team can win games without blowing double digit leads if they are to get anywhere near 8th spot in the East.

Detroit moved back into the 7th spot that they vacated a couple of days ago by beating 76ers at home. Bolstered by the return of Allen Iverson the Pistons ground out a win in a game where the lead changed hands 19 times in the first 3 quarters before Detroit went on a 10-0 run in the 4th quarter to nullify a 6 point Sixers lead and give them the win, 101-97. Tayshaun Prince top scored for the Pistons with 21 points.

The Boston Celtics had to wait a while before their cream rose to the top at home to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder had a lead of 9 at one point in the 1st half before Boston woke up and levelled the game up at 45 by half time; they then out scored the Thunder by 19 in the second half to win 103-84. Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 27 while Glen Davis had a double double (19-10rebounds).

The Indiana Pacers kept their own play-off push on track after a win at home to the Washington Wizards. The Wizards, who were close to beating Detroit on Saturday night thanks to the return of Gilbert Arenas, didn’t have Arenas at Conseco Fieldhouse last night due to Ed Tapscott deciding to rest him but still came close to beating the Pacers. Caron Butler had 31 points and Antawn Jamison dropped 29 but they couldn’t beat Granger and co. who shot 51 percent from the field and won 124-115.

In New Orleans Chris Paul won the game for the Hornets with an audacious play with seconds to go at home to San Antonio. Leading 87-86 with possession Paul split two defenders before being fouled by Manu Ginobili but in the process made sure he got a shot away to send him to the stripe for 3 foul shots. He made each of them and sent the Hornets to their 45th win of the season, a win they dearly needed as they’re currently 7th in the West where only 2 and a half games separate 2nd from 7th. Paul led New Orleans with 26 while David West was next with 23 and 16 rebounds for a double double to see the Spurs off 90-86.

Finally Phoenix’s assault on the 8th seed Dallas in the West looks to be over after their third straight road loss, this time to Sacramento. Fatigue seemed to play a part in this game as Phoenix, who were playing their fourth game in five days, gave up 126 points against a team that’s averaged only 100 points a game. This loss leaves them 3 and a half games off of Dallas with only 8 games left to play and worse for the Suns is that whenever they have won Dallas has matched them. It looks like Shaq will be out of the play-offs for the first time since 1993.

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The most interesting game, in my opinion, tonight is the match up between Chicago and Toronto at the Air Canada Centre. It seems nobody can pick a clear winner in this game, every projection on the internet has one team winning 51% of the time while others say 51% in the other team’s favour which isn’t surprising.

You can never count out Toronto at home because that is where their big men can play at ease. Bosh, Parker, Marion, Calderon, Bargnani, Kapono, that is a line-up on paper that should be in the play-offs, and they still have a chance at those play-offs but will need to win all of their remaining games. This is one of their hardest, the Bulls are coming off a 4 game winning streak that’s seen them overtake Detroit as the 7th team in the East and in that time they’ve been playing some stellar stuff, winning 7 of 8.

The Bulls will be trying for their first 5 game win streak since late 2006 but they’ll have to do it on the road where they’re only 12-26 on the season. Like Toronto they’re a home team, the Raptors themselves will be hoping to at least end the season .500 or more at home where they’re currently 16-20.

Tim Thomas is questionable for tonight’s game while for the Raptors so are Jose Calderon (averaging 12 points a game) and Andrea Bargnani (15 points), which will delight the Bulls in a game that’ll surely go down to the wire. Tip-off is at 3.30pm ET.

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There were 8 games played last night and every one of them went to plan:

First up in the day game the Bulls, thanks to John Salmons, managed to avoid completely blowing a 10 point 4th quarter lead at home to the Pacers to win late, 112-106. Salmons had 22 points and sunk 2 late 3-pointers to give Chicago victory and keep their play-off train firmly on the tracks. A loss last night would have seen them drop back to 8th place after Detroit also won, Ben Gordon top scored with 25 points while Brad Miller came off the bench for 17. Danny Granger led Indiana with 32 but was powerless to stop Chicago prevailing.

Next the aforementioned Detroit Pistons went to Washington knowing a loss could give a big opportunity to Charlotte to close the gap between the two sides to a half game. They got things done at the Verizon Center though and were up 12 going into the 4th quarter before being outscored and only winning by a whisker, 98-96. Rip Hamilton led with 31 with Tayshaun Prince dropping 19. One notable performance from the Wizards was Caron Butler’s double double (11-10rebounds) and the return of Gilbert Arenas for his first game in over a year, who scored 15 points and nearly won the game late on, unfortunately his 3-point attempt was blocked.

Charlotte earned their 33rd victory of the season with a home win over the New York Knicks, 96-85. Gerald Wallace flirted with a triple double before eventually ending the game with 23 points (a team high), 9 rebounds and 8 assists with 3 blocks and 2 steals to boot. After a good first quarter which saw them end it 7 points up the Knicks imploded as we’ve all seen a number of times this season. The ‘Cats were leading by 2 with no time to go in the 2nd quarter before the Knicks gave up a foul in half court as Charlotte were in the process of shooting a very long 3 to end the half. Gerald Wallace then had 3 foul shots to take with another being added on for a technical foul (presumably too much talking to the officials by NY), all 4 were converted to see Charlotte up by 6 at the break. The team from Madison then kept in range by tying the 3rd quarter before being outscored by 5 in the 4th, in a game in which the Knicks only managed to shoot 37 percent from the field.

The Heat bounced back from their recent shaky form with a rout of the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that are sorely wishing for a re-run of the second half of the season. This win saw them stay in 5th place in the Eastern Conference and the return of game winning performances by Dwayne Wade, who dropped 27 while Udonis Haslem got himself 16 and 12 rebounds. Miami won this one 102-85.

Houston managed a comfortable win over the hapless L.A Clippers, 110-93, to stay tied for 3rd place in the Western Conference with Denver. The Rockets were never in danger in this game, ahead from the start. By the end of the first half the home team was amassed a lead of 21 and the game was never in doubt. Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks each had 21 points with the former also jumping high for 15 rebounds for a double double while Shane Battier scored 15 shooting 100 percent of his shots.

Denver came home to see the Golden State Warriors at the Pepsi Center and had no trouble in dispatching them to stay as high as possible in the West. Golden State had raced into a 10 point lead early in the 1st before the Nuggets went up a few gears and started to click and eventually prevailed easily, 129-116. Carmelo Anthony top scored for the Nuggets with 31 including 3 for 5 from behind the arc.

Utah came back in overtime to beat Phoenix, after letting a 21 point lead slip in the second half. A titanic effort by Phoenix to come back and (this was emphasised by the fact that bookmakers stopped taking bets on Utah to win at the start of the second half!) eventually lead by 7 late on in the 4th before an untimely turn over gave the ball back to the Jazz who scored and took it into OT to eventually win 104-99.

Finally no surprises in the Northwest where Portland beat Memphis at home without breaking into a sweat, 86-66. This win kept the ’Blazers in 5th place in the West just behind Houston. Brandon Roy top scored with 21 with LaMarcus Aldridge also chipping in with 18 apart from them not much to speak of.

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This is an ongoing theme in the previews but most seem to feature the Phoenix Suns due to the fact that that’s the most exciting battle in the NBA at the moment. The Suns will look to make up a game on Dallas, who lost last night, to take the gap to only 2 games. They couldn’t be going to a harder place to get a win though, Utah, where the Jazz have only lost 6 times all season.

Pheonix do lead the series though and this game is the last one in that series. Both of their victories have come in Phoenix where they’ve managed to out score the Jazz 106-104 and 118-114. In the first game of the series however, they were held to under 100 points at they lost 109-97 in Salt Lake City.

Utah have no injury worries to plague them tonight while, as on Thursday night, Phoenix still have Leandro Barbosa out. Phoenix will be hoping their league best 109 points a game will be able to carry them to a victory tonight or else it could be curtains for their play-off bid. Utah will be looking to keep pushing for the highest spot available and if things go their way tonight they could be up to a tie for 3rd place. Tip-off is at 9pm ET.

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10 games were played on Friday night so a much bigger round-up then yesterday:

Orlando kept in 5th gear after their win over Boston on Wednesday night with a win over Milwaukee, again in Orlando. Every Magic starter scored double figures with Rashard Lewis leading with 19 and 8 rebounds. Orlando will need to keep winning if they want to keep the 2nd seed that they’re currently occupying. They were never in trouble last night, winning every quarter of play to win 110-94.

Charlotte showed that they’re still serious about the play-offs by going into Philadelphia and getting a good win, the Bobcats are now 2 and a half games behind 8th placed Detroit. Gerald Wallace got a double double(14-11rebounds) while Boris Diaw top scored with 24 and shot 50 percent from the field. Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young had 25 and 21 respectively but no other Sixer showed up and so Philly lost this on 100-95 and will be slightly looking over their shoulders as 7th place Chicago are only 3 games behind them now.

Toronto have 10 games left and are 7 and a half games off of 8th place. In those 10 games only 3 of them are against teams over .500 and only 1 of those are away from home. With this win Toronto matched their highest win streak of the season, 3. They will be hopeful of putting together a bigger run if they want their outside chance of a play-off place to become a reality. Chris Bosh led the Raptors with 21 points and 13 rebounds while Andrea Bargnani dropped 14 and 9 rebounds. Kevin Durant scored the most of Oklahoma’s points with 18.

Boston kept the pressure on Orlando with a win in Atlanta, keeping the Hawks at bay despite a late fight back. The Celtics were up by 17 at the end of the 3rd quarter before Atlanta out scored them by 11 in the final quarter to avoid a drubbing, this one ended 99-93. Ray Allen had 22 while Glen Davis had 12 rebounds and 19 points for a double double. Kevin Garnett didn’t play though, a fact that will worry the Celtics faithful.

Cleveland got their 11th straight win this time beating the Minnesota Timberwolves by 22 points, 107-85. Mo Williams and (who else) LeBron James led the Cavs with 22 and 25 points respectively. James also had 12 rebounds for his 26 double double of the season. Cleveland are closing in on the Eastern Conference’s top seed, with only 10 games left Cleveland are 5 games clear of 2nd placed Orlando and Boston.

The Lakers, however, have clinched the Western Conference top seed with a win over New Jersey last night, 103-95 and with it probably signalled the end of the New Jersey’s outside shot of making the play-offs, the Nets are now 4 and a half games off of Detroit in 8th place. Pau Gasol top scored in the IZOD Center with 36 points shooting 14 of 19 from the field, making 80 percent of his foul shots and getting 11 rebounds to get a double double. Vince Carter led the Nets with 20.

In possibly the biggest shock of the night Chris Paul couldn’t manage to lead the New Orleans scoring only managing 22 points despite playing nearly the whole game. David West was the player to upstage Paul with 29 points but this couldn’t save the Hornets from losing to the Knicks at Madison by 103-93. The damage was done in the third quarter, coming out for the second half the Hornets were 7 points ahead but were outscored by 19 in the next 12 minutes and held to only 16 points. Power forward Al Harrington led New York with 23 and David Lee was next with 18 and 11 rebounds for a double double. This loss meant that New Orleans dropped to 7th in the Western Conference in the on going battle for the middle seeds.

Denver went into Dallas and escaped with a tight victory, 103-101. No one will be happier with this then the Phoenix Suns, who lost on Thursday night. If Dallas had won they would have been 5 games clear of Phoenix in what would have surely be the end of that race, however they’re now only 3 games in front so there’s still life in the race for 8th seed. Carmelo Anthony led the Nuggets with 43 and 11 rebounds for a large double double and J.R Smith came off the bench to drop 22 points. This win moved Denver into a tie for 3rd place in the West with Houston.

San Antonio easily beat the L.A Clippers at the AT&T Center in San Antonio and were never in trouble throughout the game. By the end of the first quarter they were up by 20 and never looked back eventually winning this one 111-98. They’re currently in 2nd place just 1 and a half games in front of Denver and Houston so every win is vital in keeping that 2nd place.

Finally in the battle of the bad teams in the West the Memphis Grizzlies managed a rare road win, beating the Sacramento Kings 113-95. Kevin Martin’s 31 couldn’t help save the Kings from losing another game to slip to .211 for the season, the worst record in the league.

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The most tantalising game tonight is the match-up between the Celtics and the Hawks in Atlanta. Boston are coming off a close loss at Orlando that saw them lose control of 2nd place in the Eastern Conference to said Magic. Atlanta are coming off a 102-92 loss to San Antonio in their backyard, where they’ve only lost 8 games all season they will be hoping to bounce back from that loss that was their 2 in 3 games after Cleveland snapped their 7 game winning streak on March 21st. They will be delighted to know that Tony Allen and Leon Powe are out for tonight’s game with Rajon Rondo questionable.

Boston will be hoping for another 20 minute contribution from Kevin Garnett, who’s started to look his former self after being out injured for so long, he played 17 minutes on Wednesday and scored only 4 points but getting 8 rebounds and a block. Paul Pierce, who’s been averaging 20 points a game this season, top scored with 26.

Atlanta only have one injury problem ahead of tonight’s game, Acie Law is out for them. They’re only giving up 96 points per game and will be looking to shut out the Celtics who’ve looked strained in recent weeks. Boston are 2-0 up in the series with one win in Atlanta and one in Boston with 2 games to play. Both wins have been close games though, the first in Boston was by a whisker 103-102, while the second in Atlanta was 88-85. Tip-off’s at 7.30pm ET and the game’s on NBA TV for anyone who’s interested.

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Only 3 games were played last night with it being a Thursday thus leading to a rather threadbare round-up:

First up the Lakers went to Detroit and, although encountering some problems in the second quarter (they went into half time 3 points down) they managed to blast away the beleaguered Pistons in the 3rd quarter to eventually win 92-77. Kobe had 30 while Pau Gasol had another double double (12-11rebounds) along with Lamar Odom (12-10rebounds). Will Bynum came off the bench for Detroit to drop 25 points. With this loss Detroit moved to 3 games behind .500 and dropped into 8th place.

In Chicago the Bulls won their 3rd straight against the struggling Miami Heat to move pass Detroit into 7th place in the Eastern Conference. Dwayne Wade’s 31 couldn’t help save the Heat who’ve lost 2 straight and gone 5-5 in their last 10 games. All of the Bulls’ starters scored double figures with John Salmons leading with 27, Tyrus Thomas had a double double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. With the way they’re playing coupled with the way Detroit are playing Chicago will be confident of holding onto the 7th seed.

Finally Phoenix’s six game winning streak was halted in Portland as the Trail Blazers managed to outscore them in something of a shoot-out, 109-129. LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy led the scoring for the ‘Blazers with 29 and 26 respectively with Aldridge also managing 12 rebounds for his 18th double double of the season. Shaq’s 20 was the highest amount scored by a Suns player. This loss leaves Phoenix 3 and a half games behind Dallas and they will need something big to catch the 8th seed now.

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It being Thursday means that they are only 3 games on: Lakers-Pistons, Miami-Chicago and Suns-Trail Blazers. If Detroit lose and Chicago win Chicago will take 7th spot from Detroit, something that they’ve been gunning towards for a while now. The game that’s most interesting though is the Suns continuing battle to get closer to Dallas, Dallas, as mentioned previously, have kept Phoenix at bay and still have a 3 game lead on them in 8th position. While the Suns have won 6 straight this is where their run could come to an end, Portland have only lost 7 at home all season and look good value for a seed higher than 7th, led by Brandon Roy. A win tonight would see them move into 5th place in the tense Western Conference where there are only 7 games separating 9th placed Phoenix with 2nd placed San Antonio. Phoenix have the edge on the ‘Blazers this season and are leading this series 2-1 with the last game being played tonight, both wins were in Phoenix though. The Suns are a
veraging 109 points a game and their strategy of simply outscoring teams has worked well over the past week or so but with Shaq and co. playing their second game in as many days it will be interesting to see if fatigue becomes a factor late in the game.

The Suns will be pleased to know that Martell Webster is out for the ‘Blazers while Travis Outlaw and Rudy Fernandez are both questionable. Phoenix themselves have Leando Barbosa out but will be hoping that his gap is filled by a big game from one of their other stars, most probably Steve Nash. You sense that if Phoenix lose this one to drop to 4 games behind Dallas then heads will really start to drop. Tip off is at 10.30pm ET.

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There were 11 games played on Wednesday night, some results were important while some were not:

In the important column the first game of the night was San Antonio’s trip to Atlanta. The Spurs, having just come off a 1 point win at home to Golden State to avoid losing 3 straight at home, had to face the daunting prospect of the Hawks in Atlanta where before last night they’d only lost 7 games, however they managed to power past Atlanta thanks to Tony Parker, who filled the hole created by Tim Duncan’s absence with 42 points and 10 assists in a game winning performance. Roger Mason also pitched in with 18, shooting 7 for 10 from the field. Despite this loss Atlanta clinched their second play-off spot in as many seasons and are currently sitting in 4th spot in the Eastern Conference.

New Jersey went into Cleveland needing something if they were to get anywhere in the remainder of the season. On Sunday night in New Jersey they had lost to the Cavs 96-88 and this loss was larger than that, 98-87 to be precise. LeBron James and Anderson Varejao both had double doubles, 22-11assists and 16-11rebounds respectively. The Cavs are still the best team in the league with a record of 58 and 13. This win was the Cavs 10th straight.

In Indiana the Pacers relatively good home form claimed another victim, this time Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat. Danny Granger returned for the Pacers with 28 points whilst shooting 50% from the field whilst T.J Ford came off the bench and dropped 20 with 9 rebounds. Both teams were particularly bad from behind the arc, Miami shot 17 percent while Indiana only managed 26 percent. With this win Indiana keep their slim play-off hopes alive and are currently 4 games off of 8th place. Miami are now facing a real fight for 5th spot and are now only a half game in front of Philadelphia, who won last night.

Speaking of the ‘Sixers Philadelphia dispatched Minnesota at home comfortably to close in on the aforementioned Heat. Minnesota haven’t looked the same team since Al Jefferson was injured a few weeks ago, Thaddeus Young had 29 with Iguodala and Miller both getting 15 a piece to carry Philly to within one game of getting into 5th spot in the East.

Charlotte went into Washington knowing that, with 8th placed Chicago beating 7th placed Detroit the previous night, a win would put the pressure on both 7th and 8th place. They went to the Verizon Center with a full squad but will be ruing this missed opportunity to go within a half game of 8th place, a chance they may not get again. Antawn Jamison carried the can like most nights for the Wizards, shooting 50 percent from the field and chipping in with 27 points, Andray Blatche and Mike James both had 15 while Nick Young came off the bench to play 25 minutes and dropped a solid 23 while shooting 10 of 15 from the field. With this 95-93 loss the Bobcats move 2 and a half games behind 8th place and will be praying that the Pistons don’t upset the Lakers tonight, a result that would probably see their task of catching up on 8th a lot, lot harder.

The Toronto Raptors saw off the Milwaukee Bucks to underline how bad the Bucks have become recently. In their last 10 games the Bucks have gone 2 and 8 which has seen them go from 8th place in the East to 10th and 3 games out of 8th. Chris Bosh managed a double double (18-14rebounds) along with Jose Calderon (19-11assists) for the Raptors. All of their starters got into double figures along with Jason Kapono from the bench showing another glimpse of the team’s potential. Toronto will be hoping for much better next season.

The New York Knicks underlined why they’re not cut out for a play-off push by losing to the Clippers at home in overtime, blowing a 16 point first quarter lead in the process. Mike Taylor of the Clippers came off the bench to collect 35 points while Zach Randolph managed 33 as a starter. New York are now in danger of dropping behind the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference standings and are only .394, 2 games in front of the Raptors.

The big clash of the night in the Western Conference between Denver and New Orleans ended with the team from Mile High coming out of New Orleans with a 101-88 win. If New Orleans had won they would have jumped into 3rd place in the ultra tight West but 29 from Carmelo Anthony and 26 from Chancey Billups helped stem the loss of Nene, who was suspended by the league. Chris Paul could only find a below average 19 points but still got a double double with 13 assists. This game highlighted the fact that the Hornets don’t have much of a bench with only 22 points coming from it compared to Denver’s 34.

Dwight Howard and his Magic managed to clinch the Southeast Division title with a fantastic win over the Boston Celtics, 84-82. Dwight Howard managed to complete his double double in the first quarter, eventually ending with 24 points and 21 rebounds along with 4 blocks including blocking a potential game winning lay up by Paul Pierce with 3.8 seconds left in the game. With this win Orlando are now tied with Boston for 2nd spot in the East with both teams 5 games off Cleveland.

While Phoenix have won 6 straight including last night Dallas have refused to buckle under the pressure to keep 8th spot in the West theirs. This time they countered the Suns win with an easy win over Golden State at home. A day earlier the Warriors had given San Antonio a real scare in San Antonio eventually losing by 1 point and were hopeful of another close game. The Mavs, however, weren’t playing ball and raced into a 11 point lead by the end of the first quarter, they eventually triumphed 128-106 with Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry having 26 points a piece.

The aforementioned Phoenix Suns will be wondering what on earth they have to do to get closer to Dallas in 8th. This time they beat Utah at home, 118-114, but to no avail. The Suns are still 3 games off Dallas and with the season coming closer and closer to an end things are starting to look bleak. However, if anyone in the Suns camp had had these thoughts pre-game they certainly didn’t show them on the court, all 5 Phoenix starters went into double figures along with 2 bench players. Shaq managed a double double (12-10rebounds) while Grant Hill led the scoring with 26 points and 10 for 16 from the field. Phoenix will just have to keep on winning and praying…

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