What you missed while pouring out a 40 for Nate Dogg…
Bulls 98, Wizards 79: And with that score, the Bulls move into first place in the Eastern Conference.
The game itself was pretty much all Bulls, they took an early lead on a 20-5 run (despite Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah being out), although the Wizards made a bit of a second quarter push behind Jordan Crawford (15 points in the quarter). But the Bulls defense tightened up in the second half and held Washington to 35 points for the final 24. Which seemed fitting because their defense is why they are on top in the East.
Some individual performances of note. JaVale McGee had 12 blocked shots, including a few out on the perimeter as he chased down blocks all over the place. (The Bulls grabbed the offensive rebound on 38.5 percent of their missed shots, which may have had something to do with McGee chasing down blocks.) Keith Bogans hit 5-of-10 from three and dropped 17 points for his best game of the season.
Pacers 119, Knicks 117: A pretty entertaining game, so long as you are not a coach in charge of either of these teams’ defenses. Second game of a home-and-home and you didn’t really see a lot of changes from the Pacers win Sunday. The Knicks don’t play defense but when they moved the ball and ran in transition they could outscore the Pacers. Tyler Hansbrough had 30, 15 in the third quarter when it looked like the Pacers would pull away. The Knicks fought back, had some questionable execution down the stretch and that opened the door for a dramatic Danny Granger game winner.
Hawks 110, Bucks 85: Joe Johnson was knocking down the jumper (8-of-15 on shots outside the key according to the shot chart, he finished with 36) and when he and his teammates are hitting from the outside they can beat anyone. The Bucks offense still sucks.
Trail Blazers 104, Mavericks 101: Dallas started out 11-11 from the floor and shot 74 percent in the first quarter — yet never led by more than 8 and it was just three after the first quarter. Close game at the end and the Mavericks had looks to tie but could not knock down shots like they could at the start. Big win for the Blazers playoff push.