NBA Scores & More: Nuggets Get Revenge Over Clippers; Bulls Hold Off Knicks

The Trail Blazers entered Sacramento just 3-8 on the road, so perhaps the Kings knew they weren't quite toast when Portland bolted ahead in the first half. LaMarcus Aldridge and the Blazers led by as much as 13 points in the second quarter and took a nine-point lead into halftime, but the Kings worked their way back into the game and survived down the stretch to earn a 95-92 victory.

The first half was pretty much all Blazers. Marcus Thornton, in his return from a thigh bruise, found the range for Sacramento in the early going, but didn't provide enough offense to make up for what Portland had going at the other end. Aldridge was dominant in the first half, capitalizing off poor Kings rotations to get easy buckets inside and from mid-range. In the second quarter, Portland's bench group, anchored by key members of the 2004-05 New York Knicks, just torched the Sacramento second unit. Jamal Crawford created off the dribble while Kurt Thomas swished one stationary baseline 18-footer after another, the same way he's been doing since roughly 1952. Once Aldridge and company returned, the Blazers forged ahead and appeared to have all the momentum heading into halftime.

After the break, though, the Kings turned the tables with force. On the defensive end, John Salmons, Jason Thompson and Chuck Hayes all made significant contributions to keep Aldridge (relatively) off the scoreboard and off the glass and clogged the middle to prevent easy opportunities and force turnovers. Offensively, the Kings were considerably more aggressive. Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton, and John Salmons each took turns scoring in bunches with their customary attacks. Evans barreled his way to the rim in transition while Thornton sliced around the paint to draw fouls (including one nasty but ultimately harmless shot to the head from Gerald Wallace) and Salmons did his thing from outside.

Sacramento got back into it quickly, but looked like they might fall down again until human flare/miniature person who supplanted Jimmer Fredette as the lead backup guard -- Isaiah Thomas -- did this:

That play led to a personal five-point run from Thornton and the Kings more or less regaining their bearings to finish out the game. There was a moment of terror in the closing seconds when the Blazers forced a backcourt turnover down three, but both Raymond Felton and Crawford missed potential game-tying threes and Sacramento emerged victorious.

Sacramento's win moves them to 7-15 on the season (but 5-4 at home) while the Blazers fell to 13-10 on the season and just 3-9 on the road.

Check out Sactown Royalty for all things Kingly and Blazer's Edge for Portland coverage.

The Atlanta Hawks came home after a 10-day, 5-game road trip and started strong, gaining a 13-5 advantage to start the game, but gave way to sloppy passes and flatfooted defense as the energetic Memphis Grizzlies came into Atlanta and smoked the Hawks 96-77.

The Hawks need to attack to succeed and they had a hard time doing that against the Grizzlies, who forced turnover after turnover after that initial Hawks burst in the first quarter and then heavy duty in a third quarter that saw Memphis shoot 11-21 from the field while the Hawks went 5-19. That advantage would aid the visitors to a 26-12 third quarter margin and help them cruise on to victory over the previously hot Hawks.

Mike Conley gave Jeff Teague a hard time, forcing the triggerman in the Hawks offense to a 2-7 night from the field. Teague and Josh Smith, who had three turnovers including a staggering, fumbling throw out-of-bounds, checked out after merely two and a half minutes into the second half and only Teague made it back for a short stint in the fourth quarter. After the third quarter ended, both Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams felt the same fate and were done for the night.

Marreese Speights was also somewhat benched, albeit for the winning team. Speights started the night for Memphis, but got yanked early in the first quarter and his replacement, Dante Cunningham, typified the effort and productivity coach Lionel Hollins was looking for.

Cunningham came in and immediately made a difference, providing five rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block for the first quarter. Cunningham had five offensive rebounds and 13 rebounds overall for the game while scoring eight points with three assists. Breaking the book, Hollins started Cunningham to start the second half instead of the original starter, Speights.

The Hawks had no defensive answers for the busy Grizzlies. Rudy Gay led five Memphis players with double digit scoring, putting 21 points on the board. Gay also added three steals as the league-leading theft team added 13 more to their tab in their rout of the Hawks. Tony Allen and O.J. Mayo both had 18 points in support of Gay's effort.

To underscore the ineffectiveness of the entirety of the Hawks team Thursday night, their lead scorer was the aforementioned benched Josh Smith, with 11. Joe Johnson, who torched Toronto two nights earlier for 30 points, had 10 points on 4-10 shooting.

The Los Angeles Clippers came into Thursday night's game against the Denver Nuggets on a serious roll. The Clippers had won four straight games against the likes of the Thunder, the Jazz, the Grizzlies and these same Nuggets and in the first quarter, it seemed that they would just keep right on rolling. Blake Griffin scored eight first quarter points that included two big dunks and the Clippers made four threes on their way to a 32-19 lead and seemingly another big win.

And then they hit the wall. Over the next two quarters, Denver outscored the Clippers 67-35. L.A.'s jump shots stopped falling, the Nuggets got out on the break, and they ran the Clippers into the ground. The middle 24 minutes of the game were a transition drill, and the Denver offense got it, while the L.A. defense didn't. The game flow graphic on PopcornMachine is just a steady incline during those middle two quarters. Denver went on runs of 11-4, 8-2, 6-0, 5-0, 12-3, 8-1, and finally 7-0 to open the final quarter. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro put up the white flag early, with Chris Paul's brief two-minute stint being the only appearance by a Clipper starter in the final period.

It's not surprising that Denver began to turn the tide in the second quarter. The Nuggets are one of the deepest teams in the league, while the Clippers don't have any bench to speak of beyond sixth man Mo Williams. The moment Paul went to the bench, a Denver unit consisting of Danilo Gallinari and four reserves started to take big chunks out of the league. When Blake Griffin took his first rest a few minutes later, the pace of the erosion quickened. Unfortunately for L.A., even when their starters returned, their game did not. Denver's bench had turned the tide for good.

It helped the Nuggets cause that Gallinari was on fire. Just 6-24 in the two losses prior to this game and shooting under 30 percent from three-point range on the season, Gallo made all five threes he took in the game -- four of them during a six-minute stretch spanning halftime. His first three of that sequence cut the L.A. lead to one; the next one gave the Nuggets their first lead since 2-0 with 67 seconds left in the first half; the final two were the first scores of the second half and stretched the Denver lead to nine. The Clippers never recovered.

In this lockout compressed 66-game season, we're hearing a lot about "schedule losses" -- games a team has little or no chance to win simply because of the rigors of frequent games and the accompanying travel. The Clippers had played the night before in Utah, and were playing their fourth game in five nights, with travel between each. Adrenaline and a home crowd carried the team to a big first quarter, after which they just ran out of steam. Players with tired legs will tend to leave jump shots short: after making 4-7 threes in the first quarter, the Clippers missed 14 of their next 15 three-point attempts, with the majority of them, you guessed it, short.

Gallinari finished the game with 21 points (on just 10 shots), 6 rebounds and 4 assists to lead the Nuggets and Ty Lawson finished with 18 and 6 assists. In typical Denver fashion, six other players finished with between 8 and 15 points. The Clippers were led by Griffin with 18 (only two of which came in the second half) and Paul with 15 and 9 assists. Randy Foye picked up 17, with 14 of those coming in garbage time.

With the win Denver moves to 15-7 and ahead of the Clippers into sole possession of second place in the Western Conference. LA drops to 13-7.

For more on the Nuggets, click through to Denver Stiffs. To read up on the Clippers, visit Clips Nation.

Before the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls tipped off on Thursday night, Derrick Rose and Carmelo Anthony were both officially named Eastern Conference starters in the 2012 NBA All-Star Game. As a bit of poetic justice, the game itself served to reinforce exactly why the honor absolutely befits Rose, but is discordantly attached to Melo. The NBA's reigning MVP imposed his will on the game, blowing past Iman Shumpert on command and consistently weaving himself around Tyson Chandler in the lane for feathery floaters and acrobatic finishes at the rim. Rose took the ball wherever he wanted to go, and perhaps more importantly, understood where the ball needed to be at all times. His team-high 32 points and game-high 13 assists almost represented his dominance well enough, and the reality of a 105-102 Bulls road win fill in the most crucial gaps.

As for Carmelo Anthony, he lacked a steadfast belief in his role as a team leader and top performer. In the first half, Melo attempted to serve as facilitator on offense, but ended up looking more like less dangerous and less aggressive version of himself in the process. Sure, he recorded two assists in the first quarter, but the vectors on his passes and drives lacked a disruptive element and came off more as passivity than an effective transformation of style.

When the smoke cleared on the first half of play, Anthony's two early assists looked inconsequential next to his four turnovers and 3-10 shooting. In the second half, he returned to his roots as a more decisive and focused scorer, finishing with 26 points on 10-26 shooting and just three assists. Like Rose, Carmelo can usually take the ball wherever he wants to against the defense, but unlike Rose, he still doesn't quite seem to know where he should be going or what he should be doing when he arrives. To punctuate his performance, Anthony rushed the ball up court with 5.2 seconds remaining and a chance to tie the game with a three, but only managed to throw up a leaning 30-foot attempt that caught more backboard than rim.

Not everything for the Knicks was infused with the same uncomfortable tone. They actually made the contest one hell of a spectacle down the stretch, especially considering that they never held a lead after grabbing a 15-13 advantage with 5:18 remaining in the first quarter. Most of the surge came during the third quarter, when they hit 14 of their first 18 shot attempts and managed to avoid committing even a single turnover as a team. Melo played his most dangerous stretch of basketball in the third -- 12 points on 6-10 shooting and zero turnovers - while Amar'e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler added some tough baskets in the paint.

Amare's game-high 34 points represented a career best against the Bulls and marked the first time he has scored more than 25 points in a game this season (he did so 37 times in 2010-11). Most of his damage came on high pick and roll plays where Iman Shumpert or Landry Fields created enough room for STAT to get a step or two of momentum before hitting the next line of defense on the rotation from the hard roll or lateral pop, just like the good old days in Phoenix with Steve Nash. Stoudemire got a great look at a three to tie the game late, but simply couldn't execute the shot out of a well-designed set play. As for Chandler (9 points, 8 rebounds), he played fairly well and continued a rather odd streak. Of his 239 points in 2011-12, Chandler has still scored every point this season either in the paint or at the free throw line. Landry Fields added 17 points on 7-10 shooting, while Iman Shumpert dished out a team-high 8 assists.

The Bulls supported Rose's effort with 12 points from backup point guard C.J. Watson and 16 points from both Carlos Boozer and Kyle Korver. With Luol Deng and Richard Hamilton still unavailable, head coach Tom Thibodeau turned to rookie first-round pick Jimmy Butler, who played disciplined team defense and added seven points and two steals in almost 21 minutes of action. The only truly confusing moment from Thibodeau and the Bulls came in the final minute of the game, where Ronnie Brewer fouled Carmelo Anthony when the Bulls had a 4-point lead and then declined to foul Melo on his final effort to tie the game in the final seconds. As John Schuhmann noted after the game, Thibs did not intend for the fouling to take such a nonsensical turn and cited a "miscommunication" with Ronnie Brewer.

The victory pushes the Bulls to an Eastern Conference best 19-6 record, while the Knicks fall to 8-14 overall.