It was mostly Dwight Howard, with 29 points and 18 rebounds, as the Magic won in Chicago. Jason Richardson added 18 (including four 3-pointers) before leaving with a sprained ankle. Orlando doesn’t play again until Sunday, giving him some time to recover. J.J. Redick would fill in if J-Rich can’t go. For the Bulls, Carlos Boozer had 26 but Derrick Rose shot 6-22 and Luol Deng was 1-9, then admitted the torn ligament in his left wrist might need some
Tweet of the Day: Ronnie Brewer
Game of the night: Chicago at San Antonio
Two juggernauts will collide in Wednesday night’s best NBA game when Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls (28-8) visit Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs (24-10). They are currently ranked third and fourth, respectively, in Heisler’s Power Rankings. Finally ending their annual rodeo road trip with an 8-1 record, The Spurs start a seven-game homestand over the next two weeks. They hope to continue a dominant stretch as they have won 12 of their past 13 games. The Bulls have won
Fantasy Spin: Monday, Feb. 27
There will be better recaps of the All-Star game than mine, because the main fantasy takeaway is Kobe Bryant’s broken nose and Luol Deng falling on his already very sore wrist. Neither returned, but both are warriors who won’t miss many games, if any. Andrew Bynum was a surprise starter after having his knee injected two days earlier, and lasted just five minutes. We’re going around the league today, in alphabetical order. The string of numbers after each team is games
The Bernucca List – Edition 13
Last week’s edition of The Bernucca List produced a handful of wrong guesses until reader Dashiell broke through with the right answer – former scoring champions who played for the Celtics. Get this: Throughout their illustrious history, the Celtics have never had a scoring champion. Unlucky edition 13 is below. The idea is to correctly identify the list with the proper parameters. First correct answer gets a mention in next week’s list. You can answer via the comments or Tweet me. The Bernucca
The Bulls continue to win without Rose; Chris Paul wills Clippers to victory
Teams usually struggle when starters and franchise players are constantly in and out of the lineup. But try telling that to the Chicago Bulls, who hold a record of 25-7, the best in the league. Derrick Rose missed his fourth straight game due to back issues Thursday night, but it did not matter as the Bulls improved to 7-2 without their franchise point guard and continued their dominance at home by defeating the Celtics 89-80. Granted, most of those wins without Rose
All-Star snubs: A.Varejao, R.Allen, B.Jennings, P.Millsap, M.Ellis, K.Lowry
Dirk? Apparently, the Western Conference coaches chose this year’s All-Star reserves based upon last year’s accomplishments. The 14 All-Star reserves were announced tonight on TNT, and there were a couple of surprises. None was bigger than the selection of Nowitzki, who is averaging the lowest numbers since his sophomore season. His points per game (17.6) are down 5.4 from last season, his field-goal percentage has dropped from.517 to .461, and whose 3-point percentage has nosedived from .393 to .211. He even acknowledged recently
Tonight’s best game: Chicago at Philadelphia
Detractors of the Philadelphia 76ers point to their easy schedule thus far. On Wednesday night, they have an ideal opportunity to prove those folks wrong. The Chicago Bulls visit Philadelphia in Wednesday’s best NBA game and should be one of the toughest tests the 76ers have faced thus far. Philadelphia (15-6) is just 3-4 against teams with winning records, and one of those wins came Monday night vs. floundering Orlando. The 76ers have lost to Portland, Utah, Denver and Miami. The Sixers have