NBA Scores And More: Celtics Shut Down Magic, Grizzlies Steal A Road Win Over Warriors

Few of the Suns themselves played with Shawn Marion in Phoenix, but fans of the team certainly know and remember him well. They might not remember him quite like he appeared on Monday night, though. After being featured somewhat on offense early in his career, Marion settled into more of a versatile two-way role during Mike D'Antoni's tenure as Phoenix head coach. Pretty steadily since then, Marion's had a reputation as an opportunistic scorer -- a player who gets his points without being the protagonist of many set plays. He doesn't even really shoot threes anymore after feasting from downtown in years past.

But on Monday in Dallas, Marion led his Mavericks to a 93-87 win by stepping in as an understudy to the Mavericks' regular alpha scorer, Dirk Nowitzki, who remained (and remains) sidelined by some curious blend of conditioning and knee issues. "The Matrix" proved remarkably effective and quite the spectacle indeed, as Marion's uncanny maneuvering and signature chest-shot earned him a game-leading (and personal season-high) 29 points on 11-21 shooting and a 4-6 night from downtown. The folks at Mavs Moneyball appreciated Marion's starry turn:

For the last two years, Marion has never really been more than a defensive, fast break, hustle points type of player save for the few times the Mavs would isolate him ont he block on a mismatch. But this season, and tonight especially, Marion WAS the offense. Dallas routinely made sure to run pick and rolls and yes, even isolated him on the wing in the "dagger" possession with around 40 seconds left. Dallas would be slightly foolish to believe it can ride Marion to 29 points in 21 shots in Dirk's absence, but on nights like tonight and when the matchup is there, why not?

Phoenix's Jared Dudley was even more blunt with it:

"Shawn was Dirk tonight."

Marion did have help, as Lamar Odom (11 points and 5 assists) and Jason Terry (12 and 4) each contributed points and passing while Brendan Haywood (10 points, six rebounds) and Ian Mahinmi (17 points, nine rebounds, and three blocks off the bench! Get 'em, Ian!) thrived in the paint.

Steve Nash struggled to find his shot, but the Suns got helpful individual performances from the likes of Grant Hill (19 points), Marcin Gortat (yet another terrific double double of 19 points and 17 boards) and Shannon Brown off the bench. The rest of the squad, though, got pretty soundly shut down by Dallas's top-notch defense.

In fact, the only other Sun to leave much of an impact on this one was Sebastian Telfair, who scored eight points off the bench, but had his stint cut short when a wayward swat at the face of the the fast-breaking Rodrigue Beaubois (which may have been something of a retaliation to a hard foul Telfair had absorbed earlier from Brian Cardinal) got him ejected.

The Mavericks' win was their third straight and brought them to 11-7 (and 2-0 without Nowitzki), while Phoenix dropped to 6-10 with the loss.

For more on the Mavericks, visit Mavs Moneyball. For more Suns coverage, check out Bright Side of the Sun.

Joe Johnson scored 28 points, 14 in the fourth quarter and 24 in the second half, and Josh Smith had 19 points and 13 rebounds as the Atlanta Hawks fought off a spirited Milwaukee Bucks bench squad to win 97-92 in Wisconson on Monday night.

With Al Horford out, Johnson has been beastly for the Hawks, scoring almost 23 points per game and scoring over a point per possession in five of the seven games since Horford was lost against Indiana. The Hawks, expected to take a dive after Horford's absence, have won six of seven instead.

The Bucks came in riding high after a pair of road wins in New York and Miami, and played the Hawks close until the very end, when Johnson put the Hawks on his back, made the key plays and the Bucks couldn't stop him.

With less than two minutes left in the game and the score tied at 84, Johnson made a tough series of moves that ended with a runner in the lane. Next time down for the Hawks, Johnson did it again, this time extending the Hawks lead to three points.

The Bucks played the fourth quarter with only one starter in the lineup, point guard Brandon Jennings (21 points), as Scott Skiles sat Andrew Bogut, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Carlos Delfino, and Shaun Livingston after they rotated out in the third quarter. The scrappy Milwaukee bench played hard, led by Mike Dunleavy’s 17 points and Ersan Ilyasova’s 10 rebounds. Drew Gooden had 13, none bigger than the corner three that tied the game at 88 with about a minute left in the game.

Gooden’s improbable three, his second of the season in seven attempts, was immediately trumped by Josh Smith, who was the beneficiary of a wise extra pass from Jeff Teague after the Bucks defense understandably collapsed on a driving Johnson. Smith calmly took his own corner three and, after missing 11 of his first 12 three-point shots this season, made his second also, giving the Hawks a 91-88 lead.

On the other end, Dunleavy found himself wide open for his own three after Smith lost him in rotation, but it rimmed out. When he got it back on the next Bucks possession, again in position to tie the game with a three, he tried to pass the ball to the corner and it was deflected by Marvin Williams, inserted for defense, for the steal and two Josh Smith free throws later the Hawks had sealed the deal.

Brandon Jennings led the Bucks with 21 points and 11 assists, but struggled early defending Teague, who got the Hawks started with 11 first quarter points. Teague was having a fine game until the fourth quarter, when he didn’t look to get inside as before and when he did, he turned it over three times down the stretch.

Elsewhere for Milwaukee, Bogut struggled shooting, making only three of 10 from the field, but did get 12 rebounds and Stephen Jackson, recently relegated to bench duty, played 28 minutes, including the entire fourth quarter defending Johnson, and took only a single shot. He missed.

For more Bucks news, check out Brew Hoop. For the winner’s take, hit up Peachtree Hoops.

Perhaps no team in the NBA has been a bigger disappointment so far this season than the Boston Celtics (though New York can make a case). Of the 16 playoff teams from last spring, only three (the Celtics, Knicks and Hornets) currently have a losing record, but in the case of the Hornets it's clear why they've dropped off after trading team leader Chris Paul, and the Knicks had all of 42 wins last season, so it's not like their fall has been precipitous. Boston on the other hand was a 56-win team returning most of its key players. Yet they recently suffered a string of five losses in six games and stood at 6-9 entering Monday night's meeting with Orlando.

The loss of Jeff Green to a heart condition in December shortly after re-signing him was a significant blow, and for this game the starting backcourt of Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo was sidelined with minor injuries. But perhaps the biggest concern for coach Doc Rivers was that the vaunted Celtics defense, ranked in the top five of the league every season of Kevin Garnett's tenure in Boston, was down to No. 14 in the league in points allowed per 100 possessions.

In other words, it didn't bode well for the Celtics heading into a game against an Orlando team that had won six of seven and sported the second most efficient offense in the league. So of course Boston won in a laugher, 87-56, in the process holding Orlando to franchise lows in points, shooting percentage (24.6 percent) and field goals made (16).

The Magic were held to 20 points in the second half, 10 each in the third and fourth quarters. The Celtics actually made more than twice as many field goals on the evening (33 to 16). Dwight Howard, Orlando's leading scorer and erstwhile Superman, played more like Clark Kent (or even Jimmy Olson) as he missed his final nine field goals after the first period. Howard did at least finish with 18 points and 14 rebounds; no other Orlando player scored more than seven. Orlando's second leading scorer coming in, Ryan Anderson, in the midst of a breakout season that has made him an early candidate for the Most Improved Player award, was scoreless in 23 minutes, shooting 0-8 overall, 0-4 from three point range.

Orlando was clearly out of sorts, but the Boston defense had something to do with that. The Celtics forced 23 turnovers which included 13 steals. (In another first, it was the only game in Orlando history in which they amassed more turnovers than field goals.) Avery Bradley, in the lineup in place of Rondo, pressured Jameer Nelson fullcourt all game, and created havoc for the Magic point guard. Bradley forced several backcourt turnovers, including one eight-second count, and even when Orlando was able to advance the ball to the frontcourt, they were hurried and out of position getting into their offensive sets.

On offense, Boston was led by Paul Pierce and Brandon Bass with 19 points apiece. An energized Kevin Garnett chipped in with 14 points, 10 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 blocks. But it was the defense that surely made Doc Rivers smile, and is the Celtics best path back to the playoffs.

With their second straight win the Celtics improve to 7-9. Orlando drops to 11-5.

For more on the Celtics, visit CelticsBlog. To keep tabs on the Magic, head over to Orlando Pinstriped Post.

The Houston Rockets are one of the hottest teams in the NBA right now, and on Monday night they pushed the league's longest active winning streak to seven games with a 107-92 road victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Point guard Kyle Lowry front-loaded his first triple-double of the season by tallying nine points, seven assists and six rebounds in the first half of play, on his way to a 16-point, 10-assist and 10-rebound night. Lowry's first two assists of the night facilitated smooth jumpshots by Kevin Martin, and the Rockets' shooting guard was just getting started. He racked up 14 first quarter points -- in contrast to the 19 Minnesota scored as a team -- and never stopped pressing with his efficient style of play for the rest of the night. Martin did not require any additional assistance from Lowry for the rest of the night, as he finished with 31 points on a very nice 61.3 percent True Shooting.

Kevin Love managed to outscore Martin with an even better efficiency (39 points on 83.3 percent true shooting) , and Ricky Rubio managed to outduel Lowry as a distributor (12 assists), but both players scuffled when the Timberwolves lost the lead for good in a stretch that covered the final minutes of the third quarter and the first few minutes of the fourth. Everything looked great for Minnesota with 3:58 remaining in the third period. Ricky Rubio had already secured his seventh game with at least 10 assists of the season and a Love three capped a 21-11 run to give the Timberwolves their first lead of the night at 68-65.

Then everything unraveled in an instant. Rubio imploded, committing all five of his turnovers on the next five possessions he used, while Love failed to score again until 8:41 remaining in the final period. By that time the Rockets had pushed their lead back up to nine, thanks in large part a quick eight points from Goran Dragic -- who finished with 14 points, 3 assists and 3 steals. The Rockets pushed the ball after every turnover and missed jumpshot to fuel their 21-11 advantage in fast break points on the night. The Target Center crowd fell flat in response to this disastrous turn of events, a 19-3 run for the visitors, and Houston never looked back from there.

Luis Scola scored well for the Rockets -- 15 points on 7-12 shooting -- but once again had a difficult time contributing on the boards. Scola's three rebounds on Monday night marked his second-lowest total this year, and no doubt contributed to the 41-33 rebounding deficit for Houston in the game. At least Samuel Dalembert picked up some of the slack by grabbing 15 rebounds on his own. All the while, Kyle Lowry darted around the court and collected 10 boards himself and quickly facilitated successful counterattacks on his way to that impressive triple-double.

The 107-92 victory extended the Rockets' winning streak to seven games, while the Timberwolves lost their second straight contest and dropped to a disappointing 4-6 at home. Minnesota has now lost seven straight games to Houston at home and 15 of the last 16 head-to-head meetings overall.

For news and analysis on the TImberwolves, check out Canis Hoopus. If you're looking for in-depth coverage on the Houston Rockets, head over to The Dream Shake.