Boston 96, Miami 86 (Celtics win series 4-1)

There was a little scare in the second half, but Paul Pierce confirmed his next visit to Miami will be “on vacation”.
Pierce’s 21 points and excellent all-around play held off a furious attack led by Dwyane Wade and company to clinch the first round playoff series. They now await the winner of the Cleveland/Chicago (most likely Cleveland) series, whose game was currently at halftime as of press release.
Ray Allen also led the Celtics with 24 points, shooting 5-6 from beyond the arc. Rajon …

Bulls 101, Celtics 93
Derrick Rose must have heard me and Shooter bash the hell out of him on the podcast because in the biggest game of the year for the Bulls he stepped with a career high 39 points and one NASTY dunk.  Rose is now averaging over 20 ppg this year after carrying the entire Bulls team in this last stretch run.  Rose was 15-22 from the field and his counterpart Hinrich dropped 30 himself!  It was a pretty evenly matched game as both teams had under 10 turnovers, …

Hawks 109, Lakers 92
Suddenly, after this 2-3 road trip, the Lakers look beatable, don’t they?  The Hawks smacked them around all night and got contributions of double-digit scoring from 7 players including 3 off the bench (Crawford, Pachulia and Evans) while Joe Johnson poured in 25 points to go along with 8 assists.  The Lakers defense just wasn’t present tonight as they allowed the Hawks to shoot 54% from the field.  Atlanta outrebounded, outassisted and out-less-turned-over the ball than the Lakers (they only had 5 compared to the Lakers 11).  Naturally …

Bucks 102, Nuggets 97
Believe in the Bucks. That’s what I have to start with here following the Bucks second straight road win against Western Conference foes. This is their signature road win of the second half for a team that has won 14 of 16.
My favorite thing about this game in particular is that the team is not depending on Brandon Jennings (not that they don’t have to other times). Jennings was only 3-9 from the floor for nine points, but Carlos Delfino and Luke Ridnour combined for 32 points …

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Bucks 98, Pacers 94
Don’t look now, but the Bucks have another winning streak going.  Tonight they did just enough to win as they edged out the dismal Pacers 98 to 94.  Jerry Stackhouse led the Bucks with twenty points off the bench.  Andrew Bogut scored himself another double-double putting in 18 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.  Rookie Brandon Jennings had a stat-filler type  with 8 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals.  There is not much left to say about the Pacers who fell to 7-29 on the road …

Nuggets 102, Hornets 95
Down two going into the fourth, Carmelo Anthony saved his best for last.  Melo scored twelve of his thirty two points in the final frame.   Melo and Chauncey Billups helped break an 86 to 86 tie with six minutes to go outscoring the Hornets by nine in that stretch.  Billups ended up with 27 points and Nene added 17 points and 12 rebounds.  As much as I want to talk about the Nuggets winning this game, I cannot help but notice that both New Orleans Hornets …