Vince Carter tied a career high with 51 points, 37 in the second half, and the New Jersey Nets extended their season-high winning streak to five games with a 95-88 victory over the Miami Heat in the NBA on Friday.
Carter had 19 points in the third, then 18 more in the fourth -- including 12 straight free throws to seal the win. Jason Kidd added 12 points for the Nets, who beat Miami for the first time in 11 meetings, including a four-game sweep in last season's playoffs.
"Basically, one guy beat us. ... Vince was unbelievable," Heat coach Pat Riley said.
Shaquille O'Neal had 24 points and 14 rebounds, and Dwyane Wade added 17 points -- on only 4-for-20 shooting -- for Miami, which hosts the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday in a much-anticipated Christmas matchup.
Carter drew inspiration from all the Heat-Lakers hype.
"All day I've been watching TV and they were mentioning the Christmas Day game without mentioning they had a game tonight, or to watch the Nets," said Carter, whose team leapfrogged Philadelphia and took a half-game lead in the Atlantic Division. "We're just trying to earn respect."
Carter's averaging 35.4 points on 49 percent shooting during the Nets' winning streak. His 23 free throws were a team record and also a career high, one more than his previous best.
Hawks 111, 76ers 108
At Atlanta, Allen Iverson scored 53 points, the fifth-highest total of his career, but Joe Johnson had 24 to lead Atlanta over Philadelphia.
Zaza Pachulia added 23 points, including the go-ahead free throws, and Al Harrington scored 22 for Atlanta, which won for the fifth time in six games.
Iverson, who entered with a league-best 33.5 scoring average, had 21 points and six rebounds in the first half. He shot 17-of-31 and hit 19 of 21 free throws, the last coming on a three-point play that cut the Atlanta lead to 101-100 with 5:20 remaining.
He broke the record that Shareef Abdur-Rahim set at 7-year-old Philips Arena with a 50-point performance against Detroit on Nov. 23, 2001. Iverson has scored 50 in nine games, including a career-best 60-point effort in a 112-99 win over Orlando last Feb. 12.
Lakers 104, Magic 88
At Orlando, Florida, Kobe Bryant had 21 points and nine assists, and Chris Mihm scored 20 points to lead Los Angeles over Orlando.
In his first game since scoring a career-high 62 points against Dallas on Tuesday, Bryant was 6-of-16 from the field. Lamar Odom had 18 points, six assists and eight rebounds, and Smush Parker added 16 points, five assists and five rebounds for Los Angeles.
Orlando played all but the first few minutes without forward Dwight Howard, who limped into the locker room 2:42 into the first quarter with a sprained right ankle. Steve Francis led Orlando with 28 points and nine assists. Grant Hill had 13 points and eight rebounds, and DeShawn Stevenson had 11 points and eight rebounds.
Clippers 97, Bobcats 88
At Charlotte, North Carolina, Elton Brand had 38 points and 20 rebounds as Los Angeles pounded its way to a victory over undermanned Charlotte.
Chris Kaman added 22 points and a career-high 22 rebounds for the Clippers, who snapped a five-game road losing streak by exploiting Charlotte's shortage of big men.
The Bobcats came into the game as winners of three of their last four despite a depleted roster. It caught up to them against the Clippers, when the absence of Emeka Okafor (ankle), Sean May (knee) and center Jake Voskuhl (ankle) left them unable to compete under the basket.
Brevin Knight led Charlotte with 21 points and Primoz Brezec added 20.
Pistons 97, Warriors 85
At Auburn Hills, Michigan, Richard Hamilton scored 28 points and Ben Wallace added 15 points and 14 rebounds to help Detroit improve to 21-3 with a win over Golden State.
Rasheed Wallace, whose cousin was killed in a shootout with Philadelphia police on Thursday, had 18 points for Detroit, which won its sixth in a row.
Rookie Ike Diogu had a career-best 27 points for Golden State, making 13 of 15 field goals attempts. Baron Davis and Jason Richardson had 14 each.
Knicks 98, Jazz 90
At New York, Jamal Crawford scored 28 points and Stephon Marbury had 22 points and seven assists as New York snapped a season-high seven-game losing streak with a victory over Utah.
Gordan Giricek had 19 points and Matt Harpring added 15 for Utah, which finished a 1-4 road trip.
New York (7-18) made all the big hustle plays in the fourth quarter, including one when Crawford stole the ball while falling down and knocked it to Marbury, who made a layup to make it 87-78 with 5:49 left.
The Knicks, who snapped a five-game home skid, avoided losing six straight at home for the first time in 19 years.
Grizzlies 95, Bulls 77
At Memphis, Tennessee, Mike Miller scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Pau Gasol added 19 points and 11 boards to lead Memphis over Chicago.
Miller was 8-of-15 from the field, including 6-of-12 from 3-point range. Gasol shot 6-of-9 and added four blocks and five assists.
Shane Battier added 13 points, and Lorenzen Wright scored 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Memphis, which won for the third time in the last four. Chicago has lost four of five.
Andres Nocioni led the Bulls with 14 points, while Darius Songaila scored 11. Luol Deng, Chicago's leading scorer, added 10 points but missed 11 of his 15 shots. Chicago shot 36 percent from the field.
Cavaliers 94, Pacers 89
At Cleveland, LeBron James scored a season-low 14 points, but added nine assists and eight rebounds as Cleveland won its fifth straight, holding off Indiana.
Drew Gooden added a season-high 21 points and 12 rebounds on a tender ankle and Larry Hughes had 18 points for the Cavaliers, who blew a 15-point lead in the fourth but made all the big plays down the stretch.
Jermaine O'Neal scored a season-high 34 points with 11 rebounds and five blocks. Fred Jones had 15 points for the Pacers, who were just 4-of-19 on 3-pointers.
Trail Blazers 91, Timberwolves 83
At Minneapolis, Zach Randolph had 21 points and 10 rebounds, Ruben Patterson added a season-high 23 points and Portland overcame coach Nate McMillan's ejection to earn a victory over Minnesota.
It was Portland's third win in 14 games, a slide that has the Trail Blazers firmly in the cellar in the Northwest Division.
Wally Szczerbiak scored 26 points and Kevin Garnett added 24, eight rebounds and six assists for the Wolves, who scored only 13 points in the final period.
Nuggets 108, Rockets 86
At Denver, Carmelo Anthony scored 25 points and Denver held Tracy McGrady to a single basket over the first three quarters to snap a four-game losing streak with a victory over hobbled Houston.
Marcus Camby had 12 points and 16 rebounds and Andre Miller had 19 points and nine assists, as the Nuggets won for the first time since Dec. 13 and pulled within a game of the .500 mark -- far worse than many expected from them at this point in the season.
Coming off a 2-for-11 night in a loss at Toronto, McGrady went 4-for-17 and finished with 17 points against Denver.
Bucks 101, Hornets 94
At Milwaukee, Michael Redd scored 14 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter, leading Milwaukee past New Orleans.
Andrew Bogut added 14 points, T.J. Ford had 12 and Mo Williams 11 for the Bucks.
David West led the Hornets with 27 points and a season-high 18 rebounds. Rookie Chris Paul added 24 points as the Hornets lost for the sixth time in seven road games in December.
The teams met for the first time since the Hornets dealt Jamaal Magloire to Milwaukee on Oct. 26 for Desmond Mason, an unconditional first-round pick in the 2006 draft and cash.
Magloire, an All-Star for the Hornets two seasons ago, was the veteran physical center the Bucks wanted to bolster their frontcourt after missing the postseason last year. He had five points and 15 rebounds.
Spurs 95, Raptors 90
At San Antonio, Tim Duncan made all four of his fourth-quarter shots and nearly finished with a triple-double to lead San Antonio over Toronto.
Duncan scored nine of his 27 points in the final period, and added 10 rebounds and eight assists.
A driving layup by Jalen Rose pulled the Raptors within 73-72 with about 10 minutes remaining in the game. The Spurs then went on a 10-1 run, keyed by a 3-pointer and a long jumper by Nick Van Exel, to build an 83-73 advantage.
Duncan hit a short jump hook during the run, and he capped it by wheeling around Chris Bosh on the baseline and making a lunging left-handed shot.
Rose led Toronto with 19 points, 11 in the fourth.
Wizards 112, Suns 111
At Phoenix, Gilbert Arenas scored 41 points, just enough for Washington to survive his poor foul shooting down the stretch and beat Phoenix.
Arenas missed three free throws in the final 44 seconds, coming up two points short of his season high. He had a chance to ice the game with 12 seconds left, but he missed both foul shots, and Shawn Marion rebounded for the Suns.
At the other end, Steve Nash passed to Boris Diaw, who drove the right side but missed a jump hook. The Wizards' Caron Butler knocked the ball out of bounds, and Phoenix got one shot with a fraction of a second left.
Jim Jackson passed to Nash, but his 20-footer from the side hit both sides of the rim and then popped out.
Butler scored 26 points for the Wizards, who had lost 12 of 17 games before beating Denver on the road Wednesday.
Tim Duncan has won two MVP awards, but even he might have to acknowledge that Tony Parker has had the best all-around start to the season on the San Antonio Spurs.
"He's just been great, he's been aggressive and he's making good decisions," Duncan said. "He still makes some mistakes here and there, but he's real receptive to Pop [coach Gregg Popovich] and what he has to say.
"He's getting better and better and missing less people that are open."
Popovich has been known to be very demanding of Parker, but there's not much to complain about this season. While leading the Spurs to 20 wins in their first 26 games, the Frenchman averaged 20.1 points and 6.5 assists, which would both be career highs. He was shooting 54.2 percent from the field, fourth in the league and tops among guards.
"Tony's been a driven man all year," Popovich said. "He's playing All-Star basketball. The kid is really improving. Every year he adds to his game.
"I don't know what else I could ask of the kid -- but I will."
Besides earning praise from his teammates, Parker's improved basketball decisions have won over another former MVP who, like Parker, was a point guard.
"Tony Parker made a good adjustment this year," former Lakers star Magic Johnson said. "He's not the same Tony Parker any more. Now you can see he's really developing an in-between game.
"He was great either all the way or taking the open shot. If you got him between those lines, you didn't know what he was going to do. But this year he's really come on strong and is making a conscious effort of scoring that little jump shot. He knows what to do now."
LOVE HIM or HATE HIM
Stephen Jackson once ran into the stands to help Ron Artest, so there is no question how he feels about his Indiana Pacers teammate.
But one thing became obvious after Artest made, then rescinded, his request to be traded from the team: Few players can spark as many different opinions as he can. While there is no argument he's among the NBA's most talented players, everything else about him seems to depend on who is being asked.
Jackson knows which side he's on. He followed Artest into the stands during last season's brawl at Detroit, and still is behind him now.
"I stand up for Ron anywhere," Jackson said last week. "Ron's my teammate, I got nothing but love for him.
"I love him to death."
But in the same locker room, there is a differing opinion from Indiana's best player.
"As a player you just get tired of dealing with it, you get tired of talking about issues that have nothing to do with basketball. It never has anything to do with basketball," Jermaine O'Neal told SI.com.
"He brings that aggressiveness, that ability, that energy every single day, and it's hard to do that every single day, but he finds a way. But then there's another part of Ron that you don't quite understand. He does things, says things, and it's more on an individual level, where it's just about Ron and it's never about the team."
While the Pacers continued talking about what to do with Artest, the debate about him carried on throughout the league. Even though Artest averages 19.4 points on top of his outstanding defensive abilities, some agree with O'Neal that it's best to trade him.
"It's always better to play against the likes of Ron Artest than with him," announcer Bill Walton said.
BELIEVING IN BROWN
Larry Brown is going to turn around the New York Knicks. At least, that's what the people who have been beating him are saying.
With the Knicks off to a dismal start in his first season, Brown has taken to blaming himself for the team's poor play. But others believe Brown is the solution, not the problem.
"Larry's always liked challenges and he'll stick with this," said San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, a close friend of Brown's. "He will enjoy, whether they're winning or losing, he will enjoy coaching them. He will continue to coach them every minute of every practice and every game, 'cause that's what he does. He'll be persistent as hell about it, and they'll listen, they'll get better."
Orlando's Grant Hill remembers how good the Knicks used to be when he was a younger player in Detroit. Though the Knicks are nowhere near as good anymore, Hill thinks Brown will have them going in the right direction before long.
"He has an unbelievable track record," Hill said. "It's been a tough few years I'm sure for New York and the fans, but they have the right people in place in terms of Isiah [Thomas] and Coach Brown and they'll get it right. They'll get better during the season and they'll figure it out."
Oklahoma `HOME'
If the Hornets do end up back home in New Orleans at some point, they can only hope to be as well received as they have been in Oklahoma City.
Hurricane Katrina forced the Hornets out of New Orleans after three seasons -- and into a city that loves having them. The Hornets averaged more than 18,000 fans in their first 10 games in Oklahoma City.
"I just think it's one of the great stories that we have in the first third of the year," former coach and current TV announcer Hubie Brown said.
And the Hornets have rewarded their new fans with some strong play. They are 6-4 at the Ford Center, and beat the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs in their last game there before an arena-record crowd of 19,267.
Playing before big home crowds is a reminder of how good the Hornets used to have it when they were in Charlotte. They led the league in attendance in 1988-1989, their first NBA season, and did so seven more times in the next eight seasons before fans began turning away from the team, mostly because of anger toward owner George Shinn.
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