NBA Basketball

LeBron James watched from the bench in street clothes. The show he saw wasn't very pretty. Boston plodded to an 80-70 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. But the NBA's leading scorer was sidelined with a sprained finger, the NBA's best team had little energy, and the crowd that showed up for the rare 12:30 p.m. start was subdued. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce each scored under 10 points. Garnett had only nine in 26 minutes two games after his streak of 435 games, including playoffs, of scoring in double figures ended when he had eight points in 23 minutes of a 104-59 win over the New York Knicks. Boston improved to an NBA best 14-2 and was led by Ray Allen with 20 points and Rajon Rondo with 12. Cleveland was led by Zydrunas Ilgauskas with 12 points and 13 rebounds and Sasha Pavlovic with 11 points. Gooden had a double-double at halftime and finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

The Orlando Magic are playing so well that they even found a way to beat the Lakers in Los Angeles. Hedo Turkoglu sparked a pivotal 9-0 run with a 3-pointer that put Orlando ahead to stay, then added a layup with 55 seconds left to lead the Magic to a 104-97 victory Sunday night. The victory was Orlando's first on the road against the Lakers after 10 straight losses, including their last two visits to the Forum. They have won only three of the last 18 meetings overall and nine of 30 since joining the NBA in 1990.

Happy and healthy, Grant Hill delivered a reminder that he can still be an elite NBA player. Down the hall, there was nothing but more misery for the New York Knicks, with the loss compounded by news that Stephon Marbury's father died during the game. Hill scored a season-high 28 points, nine during a fourth-quarter flurry that broke open a close game, and the Phoenix Suns pulled away to beat the Knicks 115-104 on Sunday night. Amare Stoudemire added 28 points and 12 rebounds to help the Suns win for the 10th time in 12 games. Phoenix, opening a five-game road trip, also got 15 points from Shawn Marion and Leandro Barbosa, and nine points and 15 assists from Steve Nash. Hill shot 13-of-17 in his highest-scoring game in nearly two years. He went to the bench for good midway through the fourth quarter, possibly all that prevented him from his first 30-point game since he scored 34 for Orlando against Miami on Feb. 27, 2005, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

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