The Basketball Diaries

Washington Wizards 88 Boston Celtics 83

There's panic in the streets of Boston, for the mighty Celtics have lost two in row, both to the Wizards. The once amazing 30-4 Celtics are now just a mediocre 30-6. How will this effect the Patriots this weekend? Will Tom Brady be able to sense the Chargers pass rush if he's too busy worrying about what's wrong with the Celtics? I doubt it. Caron Butler had 21 points and Antawn Jamison had 20 and 10 to lead Washington. "Our eyes are on winning a championship," Butler said. "Hopefully we get Gilbert back by March and when he comes back we will be even more dangerous."

Los Angeles Lakers 123 Seattle Sonics 121 OT

How were the Lakers going to respond to losing Andrew Bynum for 8 weeks? Like you didn't know? Kobe Bryant scored a season high 48 points, including the game-winner with 4.3 seconds left in overtime. Kobe scored the last six Lakers points in the overtime, and you can probably expect to see a lot more 40 point performances with Bynum out. "This is a tough one," a tired looking Bryant said. "Tonight was one of those nights where I kind of had to read the mood of the team. Us kind of being a little deflated with [Bynum] going down, being a back-to-back, coming in on the road, it was one of those things where I just kind of wanted to be a lot more assertive."

Sacramento Kings 122 Dallas Mavericks 120

Monday night was only Kevin Martin's second game back after missing the last six weeks, but he didn't look very rusty. Martin scored 39 points to help the Kings end Dallas' 7-game win streak Monday night in Sacramento. Though it was John Salmons' game-winning drive with 2.4 seconds left that sealed the deal. "For me it's just basketball," Martin said. "I always felt like I could come back and play. It was just a matter of where my wind was. I told coach, 'I can only give you 28 minutes a night right now.' He said, 'As long as they're good.'"

Elsewhere...

• Bobcats 119 Nuggets 116
• Blazers 99 Nets 73
• Spurs 89 Sixers 82
• Jazz 98 Bucks 87