Boston 113, Philadelphia 110

Paul Pierce is going to be thankful for at least two things, a big win and having tomorrow off.

He deserved it though.

In 43 minutes, Pierce led the Celtics (11-4) to victory tonight over the Sixers (5-10) with a Gracious performance (27 pts, 6 rebs, 6 asts). Pierce made big shots down the stretch with the aid of Rajon Rondo, who woke up in the fourth. Rondo scored 8 of his 10 points in the fourth and ended the game with 17-foot jumper to make the score 109-105 with 9 seconds left to play. Although Philadelphia played their hearts tonight with Mareese Speights, Elton Brand and Lou Williams out due to injury, it wasn’t enough. Andre Iguodala led the way with 25 points, 9 rebounds, & 9 assists for the Sixers.

Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett added 18 and 19 points respectively to help out in the victory.

Stat of the Game: Philadelphia went 13-20 from three point land but shot 13 free throws less than the Celtics, who went 30-39 compared to 19-26 for the away team.

Miami 99, Orlando 98

In the game of the night, Miami (9-5) gets a big road win against the defending Eastern Conference Champion. With the clock ticking down, everyone in Amway Arena knew that Dwyane Wade was going to take the last shot. They were right. But the Magic (11-4) forgot an easy fundamental: boxing out. As the shot was falling short, Michael Beasley came from the baseline, untouched, and threw down the rebound, his 12th of the night, with 1.6 seconds left to go, ending the game in thrilling fashion. Beasley finished with 15 points.

A little controversy ensued quickly thereafter as the Orlando bench thought Beasley’s throw down was offensive basket interference, but it was close.

Wade struggled from the floor going 6-22 en route to 24 points to lead the Heat while Jason Williams shot 9-12 from the field for a game high of 25 points to lead the Magic, but missed two key free throws down the stretch to give Miami the chance they needed to win the game. Despite this, it’s a great to see the 34-year old point guard playing so well after taking one year off. His performances speak for itself.

Stat of the Game: Despite his 9-14 performance from the charity stripe against Toronto the other night, Dwight Howard is 18-40 in his last 4 out of 5 games. This has to improve if the Magic plan on winning a Championship. He went 6-11 tonight, and if shoots better, the Magic go into Atlanta tonight with a 6 game winning streak.

New Orleans 102, Milwaukee 99 (OT)

I would like to start of this wrap up by making a former apology to Jeff Bower:

You obviously do know this team better than anybody with having the foresight to give first year guys Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton quality playing time. You are now 4-3 since you fired Byron Scott and 4-2 since Chris Paul went down with an injury. I was wrong to react the way I did, and again, I apologize for that.

Now to the game, the Bucks (8-5) were up 91-88 until Collison nailed a 3 with 7.5 seconds to go to send the game into overtime.

In extra fun, Collison stepped up again by stealing the ball from Brandon Jennings, who struggled for the second straight game (14 pts, 5 turnovers, 26% from the floor), when Milwaukee was up 1. Jennings was forced to foul to stop the Hornets from getting an easy two. Collison nailed the free throws to give New Orleans the lead for good. Collison finished with 18.

David West finally stepped up tonight by leading all scorers with 27 and grabbing 10 boards. Collison and Marcus Thornton is the big reason for this early season turnaround, but if David West can play like he did two years, this team will make a playoff push for the 7th or 8th spot.

Stat of the Game: Milwaukee’s Bench outscored New Orleans 61-32 with Luke Ridnour and Hakim Warrick scoring 22 and 23 respectively, but received no help from the starters. The Bucks also acquired Michael Redd back from injury and he dropped 11 points the losing effort, but on 4-16 shooting including the last shot of the game to attempt to send the game into double overtime. It will be interesting to see how Redd plays with the Rookie Phenom in the nearby future.

This is The Ref is signaling I’m out until next time and remember: Enjoy your Thanksgiving.