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There are 11 games being played tonight. Dallas will be hoping that they can bounce back from their loss to Atlanta by winning at Danny Granger’s Pacers to avoid losing another game to the Phoenix Suns. It will be tough against Indiana who have a good record at home (19-13) and would be in the play-off race if it weren’t for a few untimely injuries earlier in the season and a bad road record. Dallas haven’t been playing well recently and this was shown in the 4th quarter last night when Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry combined to shoot 2-10 in the fourth quarter and Terry and Kidd missed all eight of their 3-point attempts in that period. Dallas finished 6-31 from behind the arc.

The Pacers will be hoping to snap a 4 game losing streak that’s seen them cement their fourth non-winning season and are 4 games behind 8th placed Chicago and will need to win this game if they are to have any hope of muscling in on that final play-off place. At home is where they will probably find those four games but they aren’t helped by the fact that Danny Granger, Troy Murphy and Marquis Daniels are all questionable for tonight’s game. They will be buoyed however, by the stat that Dallas are 2-8 in their last 10 road games.

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Only 3 games in the NBA last night and due to that there were no real shocks. The biggest game of the night (Dallas @ Atlanta) went the way of the home team, the form team. Atlanta finished their seven game homestand 7-0 and are looking very good. Dallas are now only 3 and a half games in front of the Phoenix Suns and must be starting to get slightly worried. Atlanta have just about wrapped up 4th spot in the Eastern Conference unless they manage to lose nearly all their road games. Since they’re 9 and a half games off of 3rd placed Orlando they will probably just coast to the end of the regular season.

LeBron James managed his 7th triple double of the season to carry the Cleveland Cavs to their 6th straight win but the ‘Blazers managed to push them into overtime before they eventually prevailed, showing that they can really battle for wins.

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to outshoot the young Golden State Warriors 114-106 and there’s not much to say about this game. The Lakers had given up leads of 15 and 14 in their last two games but were able to hang on despite a spirited comeback from the Warriors in the 4th, coming from 18 points down to only 3 but then Azubuike missed a 3 pointer and L.A woke up and finished them off.

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It’s Thursday so only 3 games tonight: The most interesting game in terms of play-off implication is the Hawks hosting the Dallas Mavericks, in what the Suns will hope is one of Dallas’ many losses. The Mavs are 3 games off .500 away from home and the Hawks have only lost 7 at home. The Hawks have won 6 straight and are in a prime position to make it 7 at the Phillips Arena. Josh Howard is questionable for the Mavs and they will need everyone fit if they are going make a good account of themselves. ESPN have Atlanta as 60% favourites and the stats back this up. 4 of Atlanta’s main 5 are averaging double figures and the Hawks will want to make sure they win to negate a lose that will probably come when they go to Cleveland on Saturday.

Dirk Nowitzki is averaging 25 points for Dallas but they’ve been massively inconsistent this season, which is why they only find themselves hanging on for the last play-off place in the West. It will be difficult for them with Atlanta looking hot at home and with the chance to secure their first non-losing season since 1997/98 there will be extra incentive for the Hawks to go for the win. Al Horford will be hoping to get his 5 double double of the current homestand to propel the Hawks to their biggest win streak since their 7 game win streak in the 1998/99 season.

Elsewhere Cleveland will host Portland where they are expected to win. After Orlando pushing them all the way it will be interesting to see how the Cavs respond. And lastly there’s going to be a shootout between the Lakers and the Warriors. The Warriors have sprung surprises before this season and are averaging 108 points a game. The Lakers have been upset before at the Staples Center and it could happen again tonight.

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With 11 games being played last night there were obviously going to be some interesting situations. Obviously the biggest thing that happened last night was Boston finally managing a win, although they made hard work of it, at home to the Miami Heat. Credit to Miami, pushing Boston all the way to overtime without Dwayne Wade was a good effort but the Celtics were always going to be favourites and duly did the job. Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce both managed double doubles (27-10assists) and (36-11boards) respectively and Eddie House came off the bench to get 16 valuable points.

Elsewhere Portland managed to beat Indiana by 10 points despite Danny Granger’s sterling effort of 35 points. Too bad none of the 4 other Indiana starters got any points. The Bobcats easily beat the Kings, as they should, and now stand only a game and a half off the 8th seeded Chicago Bulls.

New Jersey managed to blowout their close rivals, the Knicks, to show that they’re not that bad. Neither team will make the play-offs though, the Knicks didn’t really expect to make them but the Nets did. They’ve been much too inconsistent to even have a chance for the 8th spot. Better luck next season.

Chris Paul beat the Timberwolves with 26 points and the winning assist. They will need to keep winning to avoid dropping a place to Utah and having to face the 2nd seed in the West which would make things much harder. As for the Timberwolves see the Nets. Orlando beat Milwaukee by 26 points and if I were trying to put a Bucks bias on this game then I would say at least they improved in the second half. They were down by 30 at half time. In the last 10 games they’ve gone 3-7 to take them right out of the picture for 8th. See the Nets.

The aforementioned Chicago Bulls are looking good for the play-offs, however. They managed an easy win against one of the many NBA whipping boys, the Oklahoma City Thunder. They are now in the 8th seed and are on the tail of the Detroit Pistons who are in freefall. Derrick Rose dropped 25 points to help them to a 103-96 win on the road.

Carmelo Anthony’s late 3 pointer gave the Nuggets a hard fought win away to the Grizzlies 111-109. Denver are currently in 4th spot in the Western Conference and would currently play the Trail Blazers in a toss-up. There are still a few games to go so that could change but that would be a tantalising series.

In Houston the Pistons carried on with their self destruction, this time losing to the Rockets after 2 periods of overtime. They’re now 1 game behind .500 and just look hapless. They will have to hope that Charlotte start losing or else the last few games will be nail biting after seemingly looking like they had a good seed wrapped up in late December/January. They’ve lost 3 straight now and would play Boston in the first round. If they managed to win one game it would be a miracle. As for Houston they’re still pushing San Antonio for the runners-up spot in the West and are looking relatively good.

The Suns kept their slim hopes of the 8th seed in the West alive by beating the 76ers in Phoenix in another shootout. If they could manage to muster up some defense they would be a fantastic team. They’re still 4 games off the 8th placed Dallas so they need some slip-ups from Dirk and co.

And last and completely least the L.A Clippers beat the lowly Wizards in a battle of two really bad teams. The Wiz were level going into the 4th quarter but as always they blew it at the end and gave up 30 points in the last 12, whilst only scoring 15. See the Nets for both teams.

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Tonight’s 11 games start with ESPN’s first offering, Miami - Boston. The Celtics will be hoping to finally wrap up that pesky Atlantic Division once and for all, a loss tonight and they’ll start to wonder if their next win is ever going to come. Again it will be a tough ask but at least this time they’re at home.

Miami are a tougher team than the previous two they’ve played on the road (Milwaukee and Chicago) and are coming off a two day break after losing 77-85 at the 76ers on Sunday night. Miami are looking comfortable as the 5th seed of the division, it’s probably too much to ask for them to wrestle 4th place from Atlanta but they’ll want to make sure they cement 5th to avoid the daunting prospect of facing the Orlando Magic or the Boston Celtics in the Conference Quarter-Finals in April.

Miami were dealt a tough loss on Sunday, where they had a 7 point lead going into the 4th quarter before being limited to only 9 points in the next 12 minutes, going 2-for-17 from the field. Jermaine O’Neal, who was traded to the Heat from Toronto earlier in the season, dropped 20 with Dwyane Wade getting 18 points and Udonis Haslem managing a modest double double (10-11). This showing was below par, especially for Wade, who before that game was averaging 43 points and 9 assists in the previous week. After carrying his team to 3 straight victories the Heat undoubtedly needed this rest. It will be a tough ask for them to go on the road and repeat their heroics of last week especially considering their record of 12-19 on the road.

The season series between these two teams is tied at 1-1 with both remaining games being played in Boston, in January the Celtics won 98-83 before the Heat levelled it up a week ago winning 107-93, that night Wade pitched in with a team-high 32 points and confirmed victory with a 3 pointer in the dying seconds.

The Celtics are also coming off a road loss, their second in a row, this time to the Chicago Bulls. With Kevin Garnett still out, Tony Allen doubtful and Leon Powe and Eddie House questionable for tonight’s game it will be interesting to see how big a factor fatigue will play in this match-up. In the mean time Paul Pierce and Kendrick Perkins have been trying to carry the load, in Milwaukee on Sunday night the latter managed a double double (26-12) in the 77-86 loss and on Tuesday night the former sunk 37, both promising signs but Boston will want the whole team to play if they’re going to beat the Heat tonight.

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Well done Cleveland. We now know that you’re in fact the No.1 seed in the East, something that was questioned before last night’s game. Cleveland won thanks to Mr James and Boston managed to lose their second straight road game, this time to Chicago. The Cavs are the only team this season that are still unbeaten at home when playing against it’s own Conference, so well done to them. Everyone seems to like ESPN style quick round-ups of games so I’ll try doing that for each of last night’s 8 games:

We start in Atlanta where shock horror(!) the Hawks managed to blow out Sacramento, showing that they can…blow out Sacramento. I doubt there was much point in playing this game and a quick check of the final score shows that the Kings starting five probably thought as much. The Hawks seem assured of a play-off place and, like many other teams, are now wondering which team they are going to be playing.

Now for the big game of the night, Orlando went into Cleveland hoping to show everyone they meant business at the top of the East. They managed to show that, yes they do mean business but no, even they can’t stop LeBron James. Little Jimmy managed to pop up for a quick, ‘so I have to carry my team again do I?’ 43-12 double double including the game winning 3 from quite far behind the arc. Dwight Howard led his team with his 53rd double double of the season, a feat that must be boring him by now, but couldn’t pull off the win.

Boston managed to lose to the Bulls, giving up a 13 point 3rd quarter lead in the process and showing for the umpteenth time that they miss Kevin Garnett. In their last 10 games without him they’ve gone 4-6 and have looked far from the World Champions that they are, despite Paul Pierce putting up some good numbers. Two players, Perkins and Rondo, had double doubles last night but that didn’t stop them from losing. They need to go home and wrap up their division quickly. With their win the Bulls leapt into the 8th play-off spot in the East and now lead Milwaukee by a half game, Milwaukee don’t look to be the threat, they should be more worried about Charlotte who’ve won 7 out of their last 10.

Detroit showed that they’re still serious about losing a play-off berth with another loss, this time at Dallas. Dallas look like they’ve seen off Phoenix to the 8th spot in the West (barring a major collapse) and are now 5 and a half games ahead of the Suns with the season nearing it’s end. Phoenix have looked inconsistent and although they’ve regularly put up 3 figures they don’t really have any defense. Detroit (33-33) will have to be careful that they don’t lose out on the 7th seed as they seem to have been passed by the 76ers for the 6th. They might have a glimmer of hope against the Celtics but if they fall further behind they’ll either end up playing the Cavs as the 8th seed and get swept or miss out altogether. A season that started relatively well has gone rapidly downhill.

San Antonio had a routine win at home to the Timberwolves, who without Al Jefferson are nothing so we’ll move on. The Spurs look set to get a high seed and are currently in the No.2 spot, it’s hard to see them messing that up.

Utah beat the lowly Wizards by 15, if they could manage to win a few road games they would be in a much better situation with regards to the play-offs but as it stands they’re only set for the 7th seed, although a couple of wins could see them pass New Orleans and Portland. Point being it’s a tight race for the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th places in the West.

There was a shootout between the Clippers and Golden State, the latter being the best team out of the 6 really, really bad teams in the West and the former being a team that’s just really, really bad.

And last but not least the 76ers managed to go into Los Angeles and win against the proper Los Angeles team. Andre Iguodala (who despite his name isn’t a type of lizard) managed 25 points including the buzzer beating 3 pointer to win the game. This win meant more to the Sixers than the loss meant to the Lakers. The Lakers will still have the No.1 seed and are just trying to stay hot for the play-offs while the Sixers were able to solidify their position as the 6th seed, which was helped by Detroit losing. There’s now a 3 game gap between Detroit and Philadelphia with the Pistons seemingly only going in one direction.

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And thus we move onto a much more appetizing Tuesday night offering, 8 games all of differing quality. At one end of the spectrum we have a tantalizing clash between Orlando, a great road team, and Cleveland, a great everything team. And in the red corner we have the LA Clippers at Golden State. Ouch. Let’s focus on the former.

Orlando have been a steady if unremarkable team this season, led by Dwight Howard, who’s averaging a double double per game. Currently very comfortable in the 3rd spot of the East they have the chance to really show that they mean business by going to the Quicken Loans Arena and winning. It will be a tough ask but if there’s time to play Cleveland it’s now: The Cavs have won 5 straight since losing to Boston on March 6th, all these wins however, have been closely fought including giving up 123 to Sacramento, 111 to Phoenix, only beating the Knicks by 5 and the Clippers by 4.

After these performances they therefore, will be happy to know that Delonte West and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are coming back from recent injuries, although in the case of the latter Ilgauskas broke his nose on Thursday and it’s unknown how this will affect his game. With Dwight Howard being so mean on the boards Cleveland will want their star rebounder back to stop Howard from running rampant and getting key offensive rebounds to swing the game.

Orlando themselves will be bolstered by Hedo Turkoglu, who’s likely to be coming back from tendonitis in his left foot sustained last week. This is definite plus seeing as he’s averaging close to 17 points a game. This will be seen as a straight out battle between Howard and James but it will be the lesser players that play the biggest part in tonight’s game. If Lewis, Turkoglu and Alston can have big nights then the Magic will have a chance and if, big if, they do win expect to see some murmurs in the Cavs camp about the No.1 seed

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There were only five games on Monday night and no real surprises (I don’t consider Houston winning in New Orleans a surprise, two evenly matched teams and while everyone watching the NBA knows that the Hornets don’t really have a bench it seems the Hornets don’t know. Chris Paul isn’t going to step up and win every game and they seems to think that he will), sure Oklahoma ground out a win against the Spurs but you’ve got to expect Durant and co. to win some of their games, especially at home where they’ve won 4 straight.

Gregg Popovich can be forgiven for any part he may have played in San Antonio losing a 15 point lead because over the 1,000 games he’s played I’m sure he’s won more than he’s lost when in that situation. It didn’t help though, that the Spurs turned the ball over 16 times against a team that shot .358 from the field and that they took so many 3 pointers that inevitably never came off (.158 from behind the arc) and that smacks of desperation, seeing a lead vanish and then trying something desperate to get it back.

Still the loss doesn’t really affect San Antonio’s play-off hopes, they will still get in in the poor Western Conference it’s just a matter of which seed. Currently they’re sitting second behind the Lakers and, if the season stopped now, would play Utah who aren’t a real threat (assuming that they win every home game). They have to watch out for Houston who are only 1 and a half games off them after last night’s win over another Southwest rival New Orleans. This looks to be the most exciting battle in the Western Conference unless Phoenix can continue putting up 125+ points a game and catch the 8th seed Dallas.

Other than that it was a regular night in the NBA, the Raptors showed how bad they really are by giving up 3 figures to the Bobcats, a team that likes to grind out opponents. It’s surprising the ‘Cats didn’t mess up after wondering what they were supposed to do when they were 10 points up with 2 quarters to go. They’re working up a head of steam now, not the levels of steam that come out of a steam engine but more the level of steam that comes out of a boiled kettle. Having said that they’re only 2 games off of Milwaukee now and if they can keep their home form going they’ll have a good chance of winning the battle for the 8th seed and the honour of being swept by the Cavaliers in the first round.

Apart from that Memphis also showcased the fact that they’re also quite rubbish and the same goes for the Nets, a team that’s flattered to deceive so many times. Any hopes of them making the play-offs must now be dead after two lacklustre performances on the road, sure you don’t expect to go to Denver and win but to lose by 25 is a bit much and I’m not even going to go into the loss to the Clippers on Sunday. Just how can you lose to the Clippers!?

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As for tonight’s games the stand out is between the 3rd and 5th seed in the West. Houston go to New Orleans (who should consider just changing their name to the New Pauleans Hornets seeing as it’s what everyone’s thinking anyway!) who’ve only lost 9 games in the Big Easy. Both teams were poor offensively last night, NO only scored 79 (and 29 of those were Paul‘s), the second time they’ve done that in four games and Houston only dropped 85 against the Spurs with Artest missing an agonisingly open 3 late on in the 4th.

ESPN and the like have NO as clear favorites, but I’m going with Houston for the win tonight!

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Undoubtedly the most interesting game, in terms of play-off consequences, last night was the match up between Boston and Milwaukee in Milwaukee. Boston were gunning for the Atlantic Division title but looked sluggish throughout, never really taking the game and the Bucks by the scruff of the neck and showing that when Garnett is out they need the whole team to step up. The team did not.

Watching everyone bar Perkins was painful, the worst being the pitiful 4th quarter showing when, even with Villanueva fouled out, they still couldn’t capitalise on the Buck’s 32.6% shooting. The Bucks have to be praised for their defence and in particular their rebounding, you can’t shoot 32.6% without a few offensive boards and 21 of their 47 rebounds were off the Celtics’ glass. Bogut was the best with 10 and 3 on offense and earnt a solid double double.

This was a team effort from the Bucks and that’s what you have to do when playing a team that’s lost less than 20 games, 6 players had double figures and the scoring was smooth, the less said about Boston’s scoring and some of the wild shots that Tony Allen shot the better.

The Celtics will hope to bounce back and win the division against Chicago on Tuesday night and I daresay they will do it, good teams don’t keep losing. Well apart from Detroit. Oh wait I said good didn’t I, don’t worry. Any team that loses to Memphis should be roundly laughed at but to lose AT HOME to the Grizzlies entitles the Pistons starting five to a session in the stocks. Upon where the whole of the NBA (including the Memphis franchise and the ghost of Bill Davidson, who I‘m sure was spinning in his coffin watching that performance) will, instead of rotten tomatoes, throw basketballs emblazoned with the number of away wins Memphis had to their name before last night’s game (3) at their faces so that they can start to realise a) How bad it was to lose to them at home and b) the number of new starters they’re going to need before they can become serious play-off material again. Incidentally I see Charlotte as the team that will pip them to the 8th spot.

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