NBA schedule and results: Wizards top Bulls, Clippers win in Portland

Then there’s Pierce, who took the place of Trevor Ariza. Pierce may be aging and not the defender Ariza is, but the 37-year-old has veteran guile, championship experience and big shot-making ability. Washington hasn’t missed a beat with Pierce taking over the small forward position, and he scored a team-high 22 points on just 12 shots against Chicago.

Rose tied a career-high with six three-pointers, and one of them came in thrilling fashion to cap off his masterful 17-point first-quarter performance.

This is my favorite kind of block:

Full extension, perfectly timed, meeting right at the summit.

The story goes that they found Jusuf Nurkic’s dad first. Hariz Nurkic is a police officer in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, according to the Nuggets broadcast, stands at 7 feet tall and over 400 pounds, which is what’s known in the biz as a Very Big Cop. Here’s the tale from the Nurkic fan page:

Jusuf has confirmed at least the gist of the story, and I’m inclined to believe the part about beating up 14 guys because if I say I don’t believe it, I might get beat up, too.

The Chicago Bulls played well enough against the Washington Wizards to take a six-point lead into half, but the end of the second quarter offered a scary sight for Chicago. Center Joakim Noah went down fighting for an offensive rebound and had to be helped to the locker room.

Taj Gibson started the second half for Chicago in place of Noah.

No one expects this type of move from Mason Plumlee, and that apparently includes Zach Randolph.

Beverley is actually having a great season shooting the ball. This one must have slipped.

For more on the Raptors and DeRozan, visit Raptors HQ.

This is not how the season was supposed to go. First, it was said, the struggles were because the team full of new parts was taking its time to figure stuff out. Then, it was said, the losing streak was because LeBron was out. All of that is true. So is the fact that the season is far from over. But it’s not early anymore, either. The calendar has turned. The Cavaliers have played nearly half their games. By this point the team was supposed to be gearing up for a run at the Eastern Conference’s top spot, not worrying about whether it could figure out a way get itself an extra first round playoff game at home.

LeBron’s return from an eight-game absence on Tuesday was supposed to kick start a turnaround. That it didn’t has to be troubling to the Cavaliers and their fans. Granted, not everything that happened on Tuesday was bad. For one, LeBron looked as fresh and spry as he has all year. He dunked over the Suns and drove through them. He finished with 33 points (on 11-18 shooting), seven rebound and five assists. While Smith leading the team in field goal attempts (19) is probably not something that David Blatt would like witness ever again, the newly-acquired Cavalier did hit 10 of those shots, eight of which came from behind the arc. He finished with 29 points.