NBA Basketball

Ray Allen was shaky, Kevin Garnett was quiet, and Paul Pierce flat out struggled. Trouble for the Boston Celtics? No. On a night when the three superstars were less than super, Rajon Rondo matched a season-high with 18 points, and the Celtics continued their torrid pace by holding off the Chicago Bulls 92-81 on Saturday night. Sure, Allen scored 21 points, but Rondo was the difference. Boston was leading 86-70 after James Posey threw a behind-the-back pass to Allen with 5:23 remaining, but instead of cruising to a win, the Celtics had to hang on. The Bulls scored the next 11 points, culminating with a three-point play by Andres Nocioni that made it 86-81 with just under a minute left. Garnett then hit a fadeaway jumper, and the Celtics won their sixth straight. At 17-2, they own the league's best record.

Maybe the Phoenix Suns were a little tired after scoring all those points on this road trip. Maybe on the second game of a back-to-back, and the finale of a five-game trip, the NBA's offensive juggernaut took the league's worst team a little too lightly. Or maybe the frigid Minnesota winter chilled Steve Nash and the red-hot Suns on a day when temperatures dipped well below zero. Whatever the reason, the success-starved Timberwolves will take any win they can get, any way they can get it. The magnificent Suns' offense fell flat in the second half and Al Jefferson tied a career-high with 32 points to go with 20 rebounds to carry the Timberwolves to a 100-93 victory on Saturday night.

LeBron James consistently hit jumpers. He looked good on drives to the basket and wowed the crowd with a couple of dunks. Too bad for the Cleveland Cavaliers that was before the game. When James shed his basketball gear for street clothes just before tipoff, he could only watch helplessly Saturday night as the reigning Eastern Conference champions extended their slide. Gerald Wallace scored 22 points and Raymond Felton went 8-for-8 from the foul line in the final 16 seconds as the Charlotte Bobcats snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 96-93 win over the slumping Cavaliers. As James missed his fifth straight game with a sprained left index finger, the Cavaliers couldn't hold onto a three-point lead early in the fourth quarter, then missed several chances down the stretch in their sixth straight loss.

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