The Basketball Diaries

Cleveland Cavaliers 114 Boston Celtics 113

The Cavaliers have been one of the best teams in the NBA over the last month, and on Tuesday night they took down the Celtics for the second time this season. LeBron James just missed out on a triple double, scoring 33 points while handing out 12 assists and grabbing 9 rebounds. James also had five steals in case somebody wanted to accuse him of loafing on defense. "LeBron's just tough. We let him get too comfortable in the first half," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "When you let a great player get comfortable, you're probably going to lose the game." Kevin Garnett missed his fourth straight game for Boston, and is likely going to miss his fifth on Friday in Minnesota.

Los Angeles Lakers 105 New Jersey Nets 90

Pau Gasol made his Lakers debut on Tuesday night, but he was probably a little confused. I'm pretty sure he came to the Lakers thinking that Kobe Bryant was the man who scored all the points, but Bryant could only manage 6 points out in the Jersey swamp. Instead it was Derek Fisher who scored 28 points for L.A., and Gasol had 24 points and 12 rebounds, as the Lakers took care of the Nets. "He played extremely well," Bryant said. "Defenses are used to playing a certain way. You know, screen-and-roll, where I come off the pick, they're used to playing a certain way. Now they have to evaluate how they play that. It's going to be a little bit more for defenses to kind of try to come up with a scheme."

Elsewhere...

• Spurs 116 Pacers 89
• Sixers 101 Wizards 96
• Bucks 102 Grizzlies 97