Nicolas Batum woke up hoping his injured knee would allow him to play. As it happened, he set a Trail Blazers record with nine 3-pointers and scored a career-high 33 points to help Portland beat the Denver Nuggets 117-97 Saturday night. "When I came in tonight I was thinking, `Don't hurt my knee, don't be crazy tonight,"' said Batum, who sat out two games with a bruised bone.

Riding adrenaline and some modern treatment on his sprained ankle, Earl Watson took a close game and broke it open for Utah. He keyed a clinching 14-0 fourth quarter run to help the Jazz beat the Los Angeles Lakers 96-87 Saturday night. "You don't really notice because you are lost in the game," Watson said.

Phoenix Suns center Robin Lopez has become a forgotten man since scoring 21 points on opening night. Saturday night he reminded everyone what he's capable of doing. Lopez scored nine consecutive points to spark a 12-2 run starting the fourth quarter and the Suns rallied to beat Charlotte 95-89, the Bobcats' 11th consecutive loss.

Derrick Rose knows how important Luol Deng is to the Chicago Bulls. Rose scored 26 points and had 13 assists and Deng added 21 points in his return after missing seven games due to injury, as the Chicago Bulls easily beat the Milwaukee Bucks 113-90 Saturday night. "He makes the game easy," Rose said of his teammate.

Jeremy Lin cut through the Nets' defense all night before he was finally surrounded. As teammates hugged him at center court while Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" blasted through the arena, it was clear the New York Knicks had finally found a spark. And even the Harvard-educated Lin struggled to explain how it ended up being him.

One spectacular late-game layup in a week wasn't enough for rookie Kyrie Irving. So, the cool-as-ice kid dropped in another. Irving made a driving layup in traffic with 15.8 seconds left -- one similar to the shot he made last Sunday in Boston -- to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 91-88 win Saturday night over the Dallas Mavericks, who were unable to stop the 19-year-old sensation when it...

Shut out of a hotel by the Super Bowl, the Orlando Magic had to fly in from Cincinnati on Saturday before the game. It didn't produce much in the way of attractive basketball, though the Magic could have done worse. Their ugly win could have been an ugly loss. Dwight Howard had 27 points and eight rebounds to lead the Orlando Magic to an 85-81 win over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night.

Blake Griffin fell two assists shy of a triple-double, and he didn't even play in the fourth quarter. It was that kind of dominating night for the Los Angeles Clippers, who rebounded from a disappointing loss in a big way, jumping on the Washington Wizards early and cruising to a 107-81 win. Griffin had 21 points, 11 rebounds and tied a season-high with eight assists to lead Los Angeles, but he...

The Sixers are making the NBA's lockout-induced compressed schedule a vehicle to show off their superior depth and resiliency. Playing without Elton Brand and facing one of the Eastern Conference's top five teams for the second straight night, Philadelphia had double figures from each of its four bench players to overwhelm the Atlanta Hawks 98-87 Saturday night.