Billups Back; Rondo Ejected; Wizards Finally Win

HOU @ OKC: Pleased to have won at home the night before in memory of coach Kevin McHale’s daughter Sasha, the Rockets flew to attend her funeral yesterday in Minnesota before arriving in Oklahoma City physically and emotionally drained. The return of James Harden to face his former teammates was an anticlimax (17 points on 3-for-17 shooting), and Chandler Parsons (shoulder) couldn’t play at all. Daequan Cook scored 17 as the fill-in SF, and Patrick Patterson had a career-high 27 in the lopsided defeat. Kevin Martin scored 17 against his former team, Kevin Durant poured in 37 and Serge Ibaka was great — 23 points, 9 rebounds and 6 blocks.

NYK @ MIL: This was a laugher, as the Knicks cruised behind 29 points and 8 boards from Carmelo Anthony. It was also an easy night for Tyson Chandler (17 PTS, 8 REB) as the Bucks don’t have a single big man playing well. Scott Skiles is completely ignoring Drew Gooden; his best player on many nights last season has yet to play a minute this year. Samuel Dalembert and John Henson both started and were scoreless. Only Milwaukee’s guards kept them from an even more humiliating home loss. Monta Ellis (17 PTS, 7 AST) and Brandon Jennings (18 PTS, 5 AST) are reliable and Beno Udrih added 18 off the bench. Steve Novak (19 PTS, 5-of-7 from deep) and Pablo Prigioni (11 PTS, 7 AST) had excellent nights as coach Mike Woodson was able to rest his starters in the fourth quarter.

TOR @ MEM: That’s two uninspired losses in as many nights for Raptors, who were without Andrea Bargnani (ankle) and used Ed Davis (10 PTS, 6 REB) at PF. Linas Kleiza (11) was inserted as the starting SF, with rookie Terrence Ross (8) getting 30+ minutes off the bench. Rested and at home, the Grizzlies dominated, with Mike Conley (16 PTS, 5 AST, 2 STL, 2 BLK) recovered from the flu and Zach Randolph (17 PTS, 13 REB, 6 AST) getting back in the double-double groove. Of note in deeper leagues, Marreese Speights was on fire (18 PTS, 12 AST in 24 minutes) while Darrell Arthur got a DNP-CD. It may take the latter quite a while to regain his old job after a couple of serious leg injuries.

PHO @ DET: Maybe that 40-point blowout is rock bottom for the Suns, but they are only halfway through a long road trip and there’s room to get even worse. An unhappy Marcin Gortat (6 PTS, 3 TO) is playing like a man who wants to force a trade. For the Pistons, it was a confidence-building romp. Brandon Knight (19 PTS, 6 AST) was solid; Rodney Stuckey (18 PTS, 5 REB, 4 AST in 24:44) looked good off the bench and Charlie Villanueva (19 PTS, 6 REB, 4-of-5 from 3-point range) has now played three good games in a row. Feel free to pick him up as a FA in deeper leagues and ride the hot hand.

DAL @ CHI: I’m not surprised at all by this result. Dallas was tired from a narrow loss the night before, Darren Collison (finger) couldn’t play and Chris Kaman was no match for Joakim Noah (13 PTS, 10 REB, 5 AST, 3 BLK). Only Shawn Marion (18) scored more than 10 points for the Mavericks. Luol Deng (22) led the Bulls, who gave plenty of extra run to reserves like Jimmy Butler (13) and Nate Robinson (14) in a laughably easy win.