The Basketball Diaries

Chicago Bulls 103 Atlanta Hawks 94

I was at work on Tuesday night talking with my friend Marcus about how much we hate the Bulls and we'd like to punch every single player in the face. All of them except for one, that is. We both came to the conclusion that we love Drew Gooden. He's been the only good thing to come of this season so far. Little did we know that a few miles away at the United Center, Drew was having a monster performance against the Hawks. Gooden scored 31 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to lead the Bulls over the Hawks as they desperately try to steal a playoff berth. "I've been feeling good as of late, comfortable in the offense and getting my shot in rhythm, whereas when I first got here I couldn't knock down the outside shot for nothing because I didn't know when it was coming," Gooden said. "I'm confident. I feel every time I shoot, it's going to go in and tonight it just happened to go in."

San Antonio Spurs 107 Orlando Magic 97

The Spurs have gotten their act together again, winning their 4th straight game on Tuesday night after going 1-5 in a six game stretch earlier this month. Manu Ginobili had 28 points, Michael Finley had 24, and Tim Duncan contributed 19 points and 15 rebounds. The Spurs were also able to force Orlando to try and drive the lane instead of relying on the outside shot as they normally do. "We made a decision to make them penetrate," Ginobili said. "We were not going to let Rashard [Lewis], Hedo [Turkoglu] and Keith [Bogans] take wide-open shots." The strategy worked too because even though Dwight Howard managed 24 points and 21 rebounds for the Magic, it wasn't enough to overcome the Spurs.

Utah Jazz 128 Charlotte Bobcats 106

The Jazz were having such an easy time with the Bobcats on Tuesday night, they decided to make things a bit more interesting in the 4th quarter. After allowing the Bobcats to cut a 20-point lead down to three, the Jazz quickly built the lead right back up to 20 as they seemingly toyed with Charlotte. "We weren't exactly clicking for a while," said Kyle Korver, who made three 3-pointers during Utah's 17-6 run in the fourth. Carlos Boozer led the Jazz with 28 points and 13 boards while Deron Williams scored 14 and handed out 15 assists.

Elsewhere...

• Hornets 114 Pacers 106
• Mavs 103 Clippers 90
• Blazers 102 Wizards 82