NBA Scores: Bucks Crumble, Lose As Knicks, Sixers Win

The Milwaukee Bucks blew an opportunity to whip up a bad opponent and keep pace with the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers in the East playoff race. The mighty Washington Wizards, now 16-46 on the season, took out the Bucks while the Sixers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers handily and the New York Knicks handled the New Jersey Nets.

The result is that Milwaukee trails the No. 8 seed by 2.5 games with just five left.

Jordan Crawford racked up 32 for the Wizards, as Milwaukee's defense caved and allowed Washington to shoot 55 percent from the floor. Crawford actually outscored his match-up, Monta Ellis, by one point on three fewer shot attempts (accounting for free throws).

The Sixers got strong efforts on offense and defense in their win over Cleveland. Jrue Holiday was the big scorer with 24, and Philly held Cleveland to 17 points in the critical third quarter.

In one of the Nets' final games in New Jersey, New York came in and squeezed out a 104-95 victory as Deron Williams did not play. Carmelo Anthony racked up 33 points, seven rebounds and four assists. J.R. Smith added 15 off the bench.

In other action ...

Lakers 99, Warriors 87: L.A. won another game without Kobe Bryant to go 5-2 during the spell. Andrew Bynum racked up 31 points on 12-14 shooting. Pau Gasol added 22 points and 11 rebounds.

Grizzlies 103, Hornets 91: Memphis kept pace with the victorious L.A. Clippers with a revenge win over New Orleans. Rudy Gay had 26. D-League call-up Jerome Dyson led the Hornets with 24. He registered seven field goal attempts and 16 free throws.

Jazz 112, Blazers 91: Utah took advantage of the losses by Houston and Phoenix to beat Portland handily. Perhaps surprisingly, the guards did the heavy lifting, as Devin Harris and Wet Willy Hayward combined for 50.

Spurs 127, Kings 102: That's right, the Spurs won each of their three games in this back-to-back-to-back by at least 20 points. It's a blowout-to-blowout-to-blowout.

Bulls 100, Bobcats 68: Charlotte shot worse than 30 percent from the floor. The Bulls had four more assists than Charlotte had made field goals. Guh.

Heat 96, Raptors 72: Apparently it was "take bad teams' lunch money" night for the better teams in the East. Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade sat, and Miami still bludgeoned Toronto. LeBron James had 28.

Hawks 116, Pistons 84: Atlanta had four players in double figures off the bench. Detroit had three players in double figures total.