NBA Scores & More: Rajon Rondo Aces Bulls, Kobe Bryant Fills Toronto With Rainbows

Some games don't really deserve in-depth recaps. The Miami Heat beat the Atlanta Hawks 107-87. The Heat are better than the Hawks. Done.

The Hawks started the day Sunday with the fourth best record in the East, and just two games behind the Heat in the Southeast Division. The Heat and Bulls are the returning Conference Finalists, and generally regarded as a cut above the rest of the teams in the East. But the Hawks are right there record-wise, and this was a chance to show that they belonged in the conversation. Playing at home against the mighty Heat, a win would deliver the message that the Hawks are for real and intend to play a major role in the playoffs this season.

Consider the message undelivered. Every team has some number of games where they just fall flat. The energy is wrong, the shots aren't falling, it's just not their night. That the Hawks had such a night against the Heat in their final home game before departing on a tough five-game road trip is unfortunate. But based on this game you'd have to conclude that Miami is just a level above Atlanta.

The Heat went on a 22-5 run in the first quarter; a 22-4 run in the second; and a 17-6 run in the third. That third one was just for giggles, as the game was pretty much already over at that point. By the fourth quarter the game had the feel of the Old Timers games from long ago All-Star Weekends. Jerry Stackhouse, Erick Dampier and Vladimir Radmanovic of the Hawks squared off against Juwan Howard, Shane Battier and Eddy Curry of the Heat. It was a hamstring injury waiting to happen.

Before the fourth, LeBron James had 23 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists in 30 minutes of play. Dwyane Wade had 21 points in just 24 minutes, and Chris Bosh scored 14 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Besides the Three Amigos, the Heat also got 25 points from their point guard position, with Mario Chalmers contributing 15 points on just seven shots and Norris Cole pitching in with 10.

Atlanta got off to a decent start -- and then the wheels came off. Josh Smith made his first three field goal attempts -- then went 1 for 9 the rest of the way. Jeff Teague made a couple of three-pointers early -- then missed his final five shot attempts. Marvin Williams was 2 for 9, Joe Johnson was 5 for 13. It was just a forgettable evening all around. Willie Green led the Hawks with 17 off the bench.

With the win, Miami moves to 21-7 on the season. Chicago lost in Boston, leaving the Heat tied with the Bulls in the loss column for best record in the East. Atlanta falls to 18-10 and needs to do some serious regrouping before facing the Lakers in L.A. on Tuesday.

For more on the Heat, remember the Peninsula is Mightier. To check up on the Hawks, swing by Peachtree Hoops.

Monta Ellis scored 33 points, pulled down five rebounds and dished seven assists as the Golden State Warriors used a patient approach on both ends of the floor to take control of their game late and upend the Houston Rockets 106-97 Sunday night.

In their previous two games, the Warriors had flip-flop big nights from their backcourt with Ellis scoring 48 in a close loss to Oklahoma City and 36 from Stephen Curry in their win at Denver. Against the Rockets it was Ellis' turn again, evenly distributing his 33 points over the four quarters and scoring in a variety of ways, playing in control throughout.

The Warriors as a team followed that same patient, controlled approach to their game against Houston, who came to Golden State five games ahead of the Warriors on the season. The result was a 51 percent effort shooting the ball from the field and a 1.6 assist to turnover ratio, just above their season average.

Epitomizing the ball movement for Golden State was a play in which Ekpe Udoh set a backscreen out of a timeout and Stephen Curry rifled the ball to Brandon Rush, who calmly knocked down one of his two threes. As a team, the Warriors shot 13-24 (54 percent) from three-point territory, including another fine performance off the bench from rookie Klay Thompson.

Thompson, who led the Warriors with four threes, once again proved a vital late game cog in the Warriors' system, scoring nine of his 14 points from 2:15 left in the third quarter through the end of the game. Joining Thompson with off-the-bench fourth quarter production was Udoh, who scored all seven of his points in the final quarter and led a better-late-than-never run to the free throw line for Golden State. Udoh's five free throw attempts in the fourth quarter led the 11 overall attempts in the fourth quarter for the Warriors, who shot only seven the previous three quarters of the game.

They needed that as Houston used their size advantage to grab offensive rebounds leading to 13 offensive rebounds and 20 second chance points and had no trouble throughout the game getting to the line themselves, attempting 33 for the game.

Leading the way in that category for the Rockets was Kevin Martin who, while having a down year in getting to the line (his Free Throw Rate is half its usual number -- 0.28 attempts per field goal attempt vs 0.55 career), cashed in 9-10 from the line, leading the Rockets in points as well with 28.

The game was close throughout despite only owning two lead changes for the whole game, but Warriors took control in the fourth quarter when they kept Ellis and Lee in throughout almost the entire second half and the Rockets went to the bench. The result was a 17-5 run to start the fourth quarter that saw Golden State stretch to their largest lead of 14.

Tom Martin at Dream Shake saw a less than stellar effort from the Rockets point guards:

Kyle Lowry and Goran Dragic failed their test against a good group of Warrior guards -- they combined to shoot 3-12 and got collectively torched by Monta Ellis, whose night took off once he shook Chandler Parsons. Lowry played like the basketball equivalent of a quarterback trying to aim rather than simply let loose and throw. Actually, I take that back: on a few possessions, Lowry hoisted up long three-balls without ever testing the lane. I hate to see him lose his GO-ness inside the arc in favor of becoming a picky passer. He needs to rekindle his old drive on nights like these, as opposed to settling for heaves.

Head to the Winner's Circle, hosted at Golden State of Mind, for their side of the story.

The Utah Jazz began a Southwestern run of three games in three nights on Sunday in Memphis, and they began it in terrific fashion, executing splendidly to grab a 98-88 win over the Grizzlies.

The Grizzlies, donning their mismatched throwback Memphis Tams uniform, looked a bit mismatched on offense as well. Despite decent contributions from each of their top scorers, Memphis shot just 44 percent as a team and turned the ball over 18 times. Rudy Gay, Marc Gasol and Mike Conley combined for 56 points, far surpassing the 32 cobbled together by the other seven Grizzlies. Memphis, after falling behind early, made one run after another -- often spurred by a fine defensive play from Tony Allen -- but, save for a momentary breakthrough in the third quarter, repeatedly fell short of a comeback.

The Grizzlies' chief adversary in that regard was Gordon Hayward, Utah's blushing assassin of a swingman. Hayward involved himself in nearly everything the Jazz did -- forcing several turnovers, making savvy feeds for easy baskets, and leading the team with with 23 points garnered inside and out. In the first half, when Hayward didn't finish, the Jazz turned to Al Jefferson's offbeat plodding for points. Jefferson notched 21, including a number of second opportunity scores that helped to keep Memphis out of transition. Later on, Derrick Favors contributed the inside scoring in a different fashion, plunging three alley-oop feeds from C.J. Miles and Earl Watson to stifle Memphis momentum (momemtum).

Memphis did plenty to trip up their own momentum, falling victim to several unforced turnovers at inopportune moments of the fourth quarter. Bad passes and mis-dribbles nipped several comeback bids before they were consummated. They cut the deficit to just one early in the period, then back to four later on, but squandered their most crucial possessions, eventually falling out entirely when Raja Bell drained a three to put Utah up nine with less than three minutes remaining.

The final result was a broken streak for both teams. Memphis had won two straight, but fell to 2-2 heading into the last of a five-game homestand Tuesday night. Utah, prior to taking the first of their back-to-back-to-back, had lost three straight, including two by double digits. They'll be in New Orleans Monday night for the middle game of the set.

Visit SLC Dunk for Jazz coverage and check out Straight Outta Vancouver for the best on the Grizzlies.

Coming into their Sunday afternoon road matchup against the Boston Celtics, the Chicago Bulls held an active NBA record with four consecutive road wins by 20+ points -- coming against the Milwaukee Bucks by 23, New Jersey Nets by 21, New Orleans Hornets by 23 and Charlotte Bobcats by 31 points.After 48 minutes in the TD Garden without Derrick Rose (back spasms), the Bulls not only saw their streak end with a 95-91 loss, they also found themselves as a side note in the NBA record books courtesy of Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo.

He scored or assisted on 65 of Boston's 95 points, which is impressive in its own right, but the real story in Rondo's dominating performance is that his 32-point, 15-assist, 10-rebound triple-double was just the 10th game of 30+ points, 15+ assists, and 10+ rebounds since 1985-86, which is as far back as Basketball-Reference game data goes (stat via Beckley Mason).

After getting called out by Doc Rivers with the rest of the team in the wake of an awful loss to the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, Rondo responded by pushing the tempo effectively and consistently making plays in the open court against a Chicago Bulls team that ranked No. 1 overall in defensive efficiency.

With Rondo dictating the pace, Boston outscored Chicago 33-7 in fast break points on the night and did so on a perfect 13-13 shooting on the break.

Rivers had much nicer things to say about the play of his star point guard after the 95-91 win:

"I thought we played at a better pace today. You could see it. We were trying to run. That's how we have to play. If we didn't turn the ball over we would have had far more points. I just liked our pace, and that's all we talked about after the game in Toronto and today in our morning walk-through was enough of the walking."

Aside from setting the tone on offense, Rondo also asserted himself on defense against the Bulls' fill-in point guard, C.J. Watson. While Rondo thrived in the up-tempo action, Watson struggled to keep up. He scored 22 points on a paltry 34.8 percent shooting (8-23), but still did help spark a late fourth quarter run to give Chicago a chance -- an opportunity he ended up squandering on his own. After struggling though the first three quarters and shooting just 5-16 over that span, Watson scored 8 points and dished out an assist during the final 5:06 of the game as the Bulls cut a 14-point Celtics lead to just three with 1:23 remaining.

Then the wheels fell off again, as Watson missed a driving layup with 49.9 seconds left, rushed an errant three-point attempt with 27.6 seconds and missed his second free throw that would have cut the margin back to three points during the Bulls' last best chance with 11.9 seconds on the clock. All the while, Rajon Rondo used the fourth quarter to record four points, three rebounds and six more assists. Sunday will not go down as C.J. Watson's best moment. Meanwhile, Derrick Rose is meeting with a back specialist on Monday and recently told K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune that this season is the most he's ever been injured and that he doesn't know what to do. That sound you hear is the collective *gulp* of Bulls fans everywhere.

Outside of the point guard matchup, the rest of the starters for each team were a mixed bag. Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer combined for 38 points on 15-26 shooting, but the Bulls still shot a disturbingly low 20-49 in the paint and only outscored the Celtics 40-38 in that area. Noah scored a quick 10 points in the first quarter, but only added six more for the rest of the game, so he probably pulled out his "finger guns" celebration a bit too early as well. When the Bulls needed Boozer to complete the comeback late in the game, he did not shoot or score in the final two minutes of the game and was nowhere to be found.

As for the Celtics, the traditional "Big Three" of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett only scored 33 points (one more than Rondo) on a combined 12-27 shooting, and backup forward JaJuan Johnson scored more points in the fourth quarter (6) than any member of the Big Three. Johnson and Chris Wilcox performed well while filling in for injured big men Jermaine O'Neal (shoulder) and Brandon Bass (knee).

The loss marked the end of a nine-game road trip for the Bulls, who went 6-3 in their extended travels away from the United Center. A more troubling trend was noted in the game preview on Blog a Bull (which is now updated to include the loss): the Bulls have lost five straight games against playoff caliber teams -- games at Philadelphia, at Miami, vs. Indiana, at Memphis and at Boston -- and are 5-6 overall against teams above .500 in the 2011-12 season. Then again, the Bulls have the best efficiency differential in the entire NBA, so it's way to early to push the panic button.

For more on the Bulls, head over to Blog a Bull. Celtics news and analysis is available at CelticsBlog.