NBA Scores & More: Magic Pepper Heat With Threes, Spurs Beat Sixers And Jeremy Lin Won’t Stop

Either way, Brandan Wright was the man in Denver, and provided the depth they needed to protect the lead they’d built and withstand Nugget runs.

The Mavericks’ win snapped their losing streak and pulled them even with the Nuggets in the Western Conference standings. Both teams are 15-11.

After the intermission, Parker really began to flex his muscles in high pick-and-roll. Aside from scoring 21 second half points, he also helped the Spurs pull away and keep the lead safe by creating a multitude of easy opportunities in the paint. As San Antonio dropped in 28 points in the paint on 14-23 inside shooting during the final two periods, the Sixers struggled to get those same quality looks and settled for jumpshots on 24 of their final 43 attempts and scored only 18 points in the paint over that same span.

Philly has taken the lowest percentage of shots within three feet of the rim of any team so far this season, but their inability to prevent the Spurs from operating in the painted area prevented any comeback bid on Wednesday night. Thaddeus Young put together a solid offensive effort with 16 points on 8-11 shooting, but struggled to defend the pick-and-roll as the hedge defender and off-ball help defender in the second half. The subtle disparity in the quality of offensive opportunities allowed San Antonio to grow their lead to eight points by the end of the third quarter and never let it get under five for the remainder of the game. The game recap at Liberty Ballers serves to punctuate the difference between the approach of the two teams on Wednesday night:

How competitive is the Western Conference this year? At the start of Wednesday night’s action, four teams were tied for the fifth through eighth positions in the conference with identical 14-11 records. There were three other teams within a game ahead or behind that group as well. Given that only eight teams make the playoffs, that is one very important pack of teams.

Over the course of 12 minutes of game time, Portland put together a 27-8 run to tie the game at 77. But as is so often the case in the NBA, the Blazers used all their energy to get back to even, and had nothing left. They tied the game twice more, but were never able to take the lead, and then allowed Houston to go on an 8-0 run to regain control. Portland was all out of comebacks at that point.

As for their collective accuracy, their success in making those shots marked only the fifth time since 1986 that a team has attempted 42+ threes and made 17+ of them. The Magic became the second of those teams to win.

Wade ended the game with a game-high 33 points on 15-24 shooting while James struggled to a 5-15 game from the field. James did add six rebounds and 10 assists, but on a night where Orlando shot five percentage points worse than Miami (47-42), the +12 advantage on made threes the Magic enjoyed was all they needed to get the win.

We begin with this effort for which we wish there was a photo. Alas, all we have is the bat signal, alerting the world to a hilarious sign.

Behind the bench, there was photographic proof of someone using a rather old meme, updated to fit Lin. This is where Charlie Sheen and Jeremy Lin collide, and we all run and hide.