The Basketball Diaries

Detroit Pistons 90 Los Angeles Lakers 89

There were times in the fourth quarter on Thursday night when the Pistons just couldn't stop Kobe Bryant. Unfortunately for the Lakers, the one time they really needed to stop him, they did. After Tayshaun Prince gave the Pistons the lead with a three-pointer with 4.5 seconds left, the Pistons surrounded Kobe on the defensive end and forced Lamar Odom to take the final shot. As you probably figured out by reading the score, Lamar missed. This kind of pissed off Kobe at first, but after thinking about it for a while, he calmed down. "What are you going to do when guys are open? If I catch the ball, what am I going to do, go one on three?" he asked. "We made the right play, we just didn't complete it." Of course if Kobe hadn't turned the ball over 11 times, maybe it wouldn't have come down to a last second shot.

Boston Celtics 96 Dallas Mavericks 90

The balance of power in the NBA is shifting to the Eastern Conference, at least it is with the top two teams. The Boston Celtics not only improved their league-best record to 36-8, but they also improved their mark against the Western Conference to 13-0. Rajon Rando stole a rebound from Dirk Nowitzki and put in a layup to give Boston a lead it wouldn't relinquish with 42 seconds left. "He didn't block me out, so I went up under and got the ball," Rondo said. "I just wanted to get it up quickly before the defense recognized that I had the ball." Both Paul Pierce and Ray Allen scored 26 points for Boston, who was without Kevin Garnett for the third straight game.

Seattle Sonics 101 Cleveland Cavaliers 95

LeBron James sat this game out with a sore right ankle, and as tends to happen when the Cavs play without LeBron, Cleveland lost to the Sonics on Thursday night. The Sonics jumped out to a 40-24 lead after the first quarter thanks to Chris Wilcox and Kevin Durant, and they just held on from there. Cleveland made a late run to pull within three points with 2:51 left, but Durant reeled off four straight points to give Seattle it's cushion back, and a season sweep of the Cavs.

Elsewhere...

• Spurs 84 Suns 81