NBA Scores & More: Steve Nash Hits A Birthday Game-Winner, Thunder Trump Monta Ellis Explosion

Steve Nash celebrated his 38th birthday on Tuesday night, but he looked infinitely more energetic and engaged than his 22-year-old counterpart, Milwaukee Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings, in the Suns' 107-105 road win at the Bradley Center. Nash dismantled the Bucks' defense from every conceivable iteration of the high pick-and-roll set. He scored 18 points, dished out 11 assists and punctuated his performance with a three-pointer to give the Suns a 103-101 lead, an assist to Marcin Gortat to reclaim the lead at 105-103, and a game-clinching floater off the glass with five seconds remaining to set the final score at 107-105.

Meanwhile, Brandon Jennings struggled to slow Nash in pick-and-roll and sleepwalked his way to a very disappointing 3-point, 4-assist game. For most of the night he looked entirely disengaged on the offensive end, and his 1-4 performance from the field marked just the second time in his NBA career he has taken less than five shots -- the other being an 11-minute run in his first game back from a broken foot on January 29th, 2011, against the New Jersey Nets.

For most of his 28 minutes on Tuesday night, Jennings hovered aimlessly around the three-point line and made little to no effort to break the defense down or penetrate into the paint. He looked more like a 38-year-old point guard than Steve Nash did on Tuesday, and that stands as a compliment to Nash while doubling as an indictment of Jennings. Scott Skiles referred to his point guard as "disconnected" in the post game interview, while Jennings insisted he was fine and claimed he "just didn't have the shots [he] usually [has]."

The Suns dominated early with their starters, withstood a second-half run by the Bucks reserves, and turned back to their starters to close out the game in the final minutes. Every member of the starting five for Phoenix scored in double digits, while Grant Hill stood out as the only member of that group to shoot under 50 percent from the field. Marcin Gortat led the team with 21 points and Jared Dudley added 19 on 7-9 shooting, but it was Michael Redd who made the biggest splash outside of Nash.

In his first ever return trip to the Bradley Center as the member of an opposing team, Redd recaptured some of the magic from his 11-year career with the Bucks. He made decisive moves off the dribble and hit some silky jumpers on his way to 14 points. and helped the Suns jump out to a 67-50 halftime lead. Milwaukee played a tribute video for the former All-Star, and the sharp-shooting lefty received a very warm ovation when he entered the game with 4:05 remaining in the first quarter. It was a classy moment and something an all-around nice guy like Michael Redd absolutely deserved.

Not every moment could be quite as great for all parties, however. After the Suns jumped out to a 17-point halftime lead and bumped the margin up to 19 in the third, Bucks head coach Scott Skiles abandoned his starters and turned to the bench. Beno Udrih, Mike Dunleavy, Stephen Jackson, Ersan Ilyasova and Larry Sanders sparked a 27-4 run that transformed a Suns blowout into a 94-90 lead for the Bucks with 7:32 remaining in the game.

The bench unit for the Bucks moved the ball with a purpose on offense, disrupted passing lanes and forced contested jumpshots shots on defense and just plain outplayed the different combinations Alvin Gentry employed. Milwaukee's reserves outscored the Phoenix bench 54-22 on the night, thanks to 17 points and 12 rebounds from Ersan Ilyasova, 17 points from Mike Dunleavy and 12 from disgruntled shooting guard Stephen Jackson. S-Jax has been phased out of the starting lineup over the last few weeks, and when Howie Magner of Milwaukee Magazine asked him whether he still wants to be in Milwaukee after the game, Jackson provided this not-so-subtle quote: "I can't answer that. If I answer that, I'll get fined."

After the big push by the Bucks' bench, Nash and the Suns' starters re-entered the game with just over six minutes remaining, down by four. They closed the game on a 17-11 run that looked a lot like the first half. High pick-and-roll orchestrated by the future hall-of-famer moved Milwaukee defenders out of position just far enough to open up clean looks from beyond the arc and generate space for offensive rebounds to reset shots off the mark. The Suns actually failed to convert on a Grant Hill jumper with 26.6 seconds remaining, but Channing Frye deflected the errant shot to Marcin Gortat, who slapped the ball back out to Nash for another shot at the win after a 20-second timeout.

With defensive stopper Luc Richard Mbah a Moute subbed in to defend him, Nash used a staggered double screen at the top of the key from Frye and Gotat to get an angle to the basket to toss up a feathery right-handed floater for the game-winning basket. The Bucks had a chance to tie or go for the win on the last possession of the game, but a late-developing in-bounds play left Stephen Jackson at the top of the key with two Suns defenders draped all over him. In an unforgivable violation of situational strategy, the Bucks failed to even attempt a shot before time expired.

Rather than dwell on the failures of the Milwaukee Bucks, it is best to just focus on the seemingly timeless brilliance of Steve Nash. Enjoy:

For more on the Suns be sure to visit Bright Side of the Sun. Bucks news and analysis is available at Brew Hoop.

Paul Pierce entered Tuesday's action needing 10 points to pass Larry Bird for No. 2 on the Boston Celtics' all-time scoring list. (John Havlicek is No. 1, likely out of reach.) He scored seven in the first half against the Charlotte Bobcats, then missed five straight shots hunting for the bucket that would tie or pass Bird until Rajon Rondo set him up for a three-pointer a couple minutes into the third.

Pierce went on to score 15 points, and Kevin Garnett rung up 22. Rajon Rondo had 14 assists in total, and Boston never trailed in the second half en route to a 94-84 win over the Bobcats.

With the win, the Celtics rose to 14-10 on the season, and sits on the cusp of passing the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks in the East standings -- no small feat considering Boston's slow start to the season. Charlotte has a league-worst 3-22 record. Reggie Williams had a team-high 21 points and five assists; Kemba Walker led the team in rebounds with seven. This roster is trouble.

For more on the Celtics, visit the aptly-named CelticsBlog. For more on the Bobcats, visit Rufus On Fire.

When is a 48-point night from your top scorer, a triple-double from your pivot man and a near perfect game (and a near triple-double) from your point guard not enough to win? When you're the Golden State Warriors, who had those performances out of Monta Ellis, David Lee and Stephen Curry respectively, it's when you play Oklahoma City and Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook remind you why the Thunder are the best team in the NBA, winning 119-116 in Oakland Tuesday night.

Ellis was particularly hot in the first half, where he posted a whopping 30 points in a variety of circus shots around the basket. Ellis had 18 after one, but not even getting a break from Mark Jackson cooled him off as he scored 12 in the second and 10 more in the third to get to 40 after three quarters.

When the Thunder began to assert themselves more in Ellis' direction, the Warriors ran a nice high pick-and-roll with David Lee and soon the Warriors big man began to put numbers up himself. Lee's eventual triple-double came with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists and was often the only big man the Warriors offered on the court.

Curry, the third member of Golden State's own Heat Index, was nearly perfect, shooting 7-9 for his 16 points while dishing 10 assists. Curry, along with Ellis as well, also managed to grab seven rebounds as the Warriors were left to scramble for every possible errant Thunder shot while Golden State went small.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, there weren't many of the missed shots for Oklahoma City. Durant shot 13-27 and Westbrook 12-21 for their high scoring nights and the team as a whole shot better than 52 percent. James Harden had a nice game as a third member of the Thunder offensive posse with 19 points, but it was the dead-on shooting of Daequan Cook that made the offensive difference for the team.

Cook couldn't miss from his favorite baseline perch in the short three-point corner, hitting on five of six three-point shots and scoring 17 points. Cook was instrumental in shooting the Thunder back into range among those times when Golden State might have pulled away.

It was likely the best offensive night for Golden State not only in shotmaking, but in their patience with their offense. In the half court, the Warriors often made the extra pass and got a better shot, while making 55 percent of their own shots as well.

Despite this, the Thunder never stopped working, never lost poise and kept themselves in position to win, which they did when Durant hit the go-ahead bank shot with 14 seconds left and Monta Ellis couldn't pull one more basket out of his game, leaving him short of 50 points and the team short the victory.

J.A. Sherman at Welcome to Loud City points out an important truth and key to the Thunder win:

As much as tonight was an offensive explosion by the Warriors, in the end, it was still defense that sealed the Thunder win. After giving up 36 points to the Warriors in the 3rd, OKC buckled down in the 4th and challenged shots better than they had all game. Golden State took a seven point lead with 7:20 remaining, but only scored nine points the rest of the way, and only four in the final 3:40. Because of this, the Thunder were able to close out the game on an 11-4 run to get the win.

For the Warriors point of view, check out Golden State of Mind.

The Miami Heat have a prolonged six-city tour of the Eastern Conference starting Wednesday night, but before they set sail (the Heat travel in a yacht, even to places like Milwaukee, right?) they had to take care of the Cleveland Cavaliers at home in Miami. And they took care of 'em, all right. Cleveland's starters kept them in the game, but their second unit players simply could not hang with those of Miami, culminating in a 107-91 Heat win.

For most of the way, Antawn Jamison, Anderson Varejao and Kyrie Irving kept Cleveland afloat. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade repeatedly pushed the ball in transition to get quick Miami buckets, but those Three Cavaliers (isn't that the title of that Tony Dumas novel?) responded with efficient scoring from inside and out, led by Jamison, who'd finish with 25.

It was Miami's second unit -- essentially Chris Bosh and four bench guys -- that gave them their first big lead. Against a short-handed (no Daniel Gibson, Tristan Thompson, or Anthony Parker) and woefully inaccurate (4-23 from the field) Cleveland bench group, Bosh, Udonis Haslem and the rest of the Heat reserves widened the gap to as much as nine, only to see a three-man attack of Jamison, Irving and Alonzo Gee cut it to six before halftime.

In the second half, it was a similar pattern, with both teams' starters drawing pretty much even until the over-matched Cleveland bench took the floor in the fourth. This time, the Heat used an 8-0 run to extend the lead to double digits, and never really looked back the rest of the way. Erik Spoelstra's signature game-finishing "Big 5" lineup of James, Wade and Bosh joined by Mike Miller and Haslem closed things out for Miami once more, ending the night with another burst of seven straight points to produce the wide final margin.

All in all, it was a fine team-wide performance for the Heat, a nice outing for both Wade (26 points) and James (24 against his former team, though Cleveland hardly harbors any familiar faces from his time there), and a solid send-off for their lengthy Eastern trip.

The win moved Miami to 19-6, just one game behind Chicago for the best record in the East, while Cleveland fell to 9-14 overall.

Check out Peninsula is Mightier for more on the Heat and visit Fear The Sword to read about the Cavs.

Two of the more surprising teams in the NBA this season have been the Indiana Pacers and the Utah Jazz. The Pacers snuck into the eight seed in the playoffs last year despite a losing record, and then added David West in the offseason, so there were some mildly elevated expectations beginning the season. Still, few expected them to challenge for a top four berth in the East, which is exactly where they are now. Meanwhile, the Jazz fell apart down the stretch last season in the aftermath of the trade of Deron Williams and retirement of Jerry Sloan, and most expected a rebuilding season at best in Utah this year. Yet they've been in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race the whole time.

These two overachievers met in Indianapolis Tuesday night, and the game did not disappoint, with the Pacers coming away with a narrow 104-99 victory. Indiana built a solid lead in the early going, and led by 11 at halftime. An early second half run stretched the lead all the way to 21, and it looked like the home team might run away with this one. But Utah, mostly on the strength of their bench, immediately began the process of erasing that deficit.

Over the course of the next 12 minutes or so, the Jazz outscored the Pacers 35-13, eventually taking the lead at 85-84 with seven and a half minutes left. How would the Pacers respond, after blowing a 21-point lead?

Enter Danny Granger. Indiana's leading scorer, highest-paid player and a former All-Star, Granger had been terrible through three quarters with just four points on 1-8 shooting. But in the fourth quarter, with the game on the line, he scored 12 of Indiana's 20 points, making five of his six field goal attempts. Why had it taken Granger so long to get his game going, to wake up, as it were? Turns out, he'd taken some medication to help him sleep the night before, and was still feeling the effects through the beginning of the game. It wore off just in time. His jumper with 25 seconds left was the shot of the game, giving the Pacers a five-point lead that held up to the end.

Statistically, the game could not have been much closer. Both teams shot 47 percent from the field. Both teams made four three-pointers. Utah took 23 free throws, Indiana 22. Utah enjoyed a slight rebounding advantage, 43 to 37. So how did Indiana win? By taking care of the ball. The Pacers turned the ball over half as much the Jazz, eight to 16. Those extra possessions resulted in the extra field goal attempts that were ultimately the difference.

Darren Collison led a balanced Indiana attack with 25 points. Roy Hibbert (17), Granger (16) and Paul George scored in double figures as well. Six Jazz players reached double figures, led by Paul Millsap with 18 and All Jefferson with 16.

The win brings Indiana's record to 17-7, 7-2 at home. Utah drops to 13-11, but a miserable 2-7 on the road.

For more on the Pacers, visit Indy Cornrows. To listen to the Jazz, try SLC Dunk.