Cavaliers Vs. Nets: Carmelo Who? New Jersey Wins Again, Keeps Cleveland Winless In 2011

... a wild sequence that included dunks from Lopez, Kris Humphries and Ramon Sessions, as well as brilliance from Jordan Farmar and Morrow's pitch perfect leaning pull-up banker to give the Nets a 101-98 lead.

That's right: Anthony Morrow is back. In his third game back from injury, the sharpshooter scored 16, 10 in the fourth quarter. After the game, Nets coach Avery Johnson compared Morrow to Mariano Rivera. If that's an indication that things are going relatively well in Newark these days, well yeah. The Nets have now won three of four since owner Mikhail Prokhorov loudly proclaimed the team's chase of Carmelo Anthony to be over. The loss? A 12th round submission to Dirk Nowitzki's phenomenal schwag.

The Cavaliers, meanwhile, have not won since Dec. 18, 2010. That streak reads 17 games long; the NBA record for consecutive losses is 23. Cleveland's next six opponents are the Celtics, Nuggets, Magic, Heat, Pacers and Grizzlies, in case you're interested in being a jerkface watching history.

76ers 105, Suns 95: Don't let the final score fool you: This was a rout. The Sixers led by 22 at one point. Steve Nash had 17 points and nine assists, but also five turnovers that helped Philadelphia get easy buckets in transition. Of course, Goran Dragic and Josh Childress played far fewer minutes and tallied far fewer assists than Nash, but had four turnovers apiece.

Grizzlies 100, Raptors 98: Memphis made up a game on the Blazers (see below) in the race for the No. 8 seed in the West. Andrea Bargnani had 29 and DeMar DeRozan scored 25; put some defenders and a healthy Jose Calderon (mutually exclusive) around those two and you might have something. Put some defenders around Rudy Gay (21 points) and Zach Randolph (17 points, 12 rebounds, blocked five times) and you also might have something. Where all the defenders at?

Bulls 92, Bucks 83: Carlos Boozer is back in action, which makes Chicago rather difficult to beat. The Bulls are 20-7 when Boozer plays, and 11-7 when he does not. That most of Boozer's games have been without Joakim Noah, and most non-Boozer games had Noah in action -- you see my point. Carlos Boozer is good! He had 14, but was overshadowed by the great Kurt Thomas, who had 22 and 9. Wednesday is indeed Australia Day, but I'm afraid Andrew Bogut deserves no figgy pudding.

Rockets 129, Wolves 125: In a defensive struggle, Kevin Martin shone through to score 34 points on 9-18 shooting as Houston edged Minnesota. Even Shane Battier carved out 19 points! That's how you know the teams have conceded several if not all possessions on defense: Shane Battier scores 19. Kevin Love led the Wolves with 24 points and 17 rebounds. Nine of those boards came on the offensive glass.

Kings 96, Blazers 81: Last week, Sacramento crumbled late to gift Portland a win. On Monday, the Kings took back that gift, pulling away from the Blazers behind (who else?) Tyreke Evans (no, seriously, you thought there'd be someone else?) to take the walkaway win. Evans scored nine points in the fourth quarter.

Spurs 113, Warriors 102: Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker were all up in Golden State's grill, scoring 20 and 18 respectively, with a combined 18 assists. That means the pair was involved in 31 of San Antonio's 41 makes. Who said double-star backcourts don't work?