The Basketball Diaries

New Orleans Hornets 100 Chicago Bulls 88

I had a bit of a dilemma on Tuesday afternoon. As I was about to leave for work, I had to decide whether I wanted to record the Bulls game, or the Purdue/Michigan State game to watch when I got home. After coming to the realization that FanHouse pays me to write about the Big Ten, while the Bulls should pay us all for emotional damages suffered while watching them play, I chose Purdue/MSU. I made the right call. It was the same old story for the Bulls as they played a strong first half and blew it in the second half. "Obviously we would like to come out with a better effort in the third, we were right there in the fourth quarter and we kind of got our butts kick in the fourth quarter," Hinrich said. "Offensively we couldn't get anything going and had some unfortunate turnovers that they capitalized on." If there was anything positive to take away from this game it's that Tyson Chandler-A Chris Paul Production only managed to score 4 points, though he did grab 16 rebounds.

Detroit Pistons 94 Atlanta Hawks 90

Chauncey Billups couldn't make a basket to save his life through the first three quarters of the Pistons game against the Hawks on Tuesday night. He missed all eight of the shots he took, but fortunately for Detroit, they don't call him Mr. Big Shot because he drains a lot of first quarter jumpers. In the fourth quarter Chauncey came alive to score 12 of his 16 points, and help lead the Pistons to their 9th straight win. "You know me, man, you know me," Billups said. "Late in games, if I have an opportunity I'm going to take advantage of that, whether I'm hot or not. I always feel like that fourth quarter is a different game. It was like a lid was on the basket most of the game. Some of those shots [in the fourth] were the same shots I shot early in the game. I just couldn't stick them." Rasheed Wallace picked up the slack for Billups in the first three quarters, and finished the night with 21 points.

Denver Nuggets 114 Miami Heat 113 OT

Everytime I start to feel sorry for myself about having to deal with watching the Bulls play "basketball" I remind myself of one thing: At least I'm not a Miami Heat fan. The Heat lost their 9th straight game on Tuesday night against the Nuggets, and still haven't reached double digits in wins this season (9-41). Dwyane Wade led all scorers with 29 points and 10 assists, but a missed jumper at the buzzer was the only shot he took that really mattered. J.R. Smith blew up for Denver, making 8 three-pointers and finishing with 28 points. "When he is that energized it is something we can ride," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "We did tonight."

Elsewhere...

• Celtics 104 Pacers 97
• Nets 92 TWolves 88
• Grizzlies 107 Kings 94