Celtics 86, Nets 77: Maybe the Nets should play as well in the even quarters as they do in the odd periods. New Jersey got outscored 23-9 in the fourth quarter and fell to the 30-4 Celtics. Josh Boone did well -- except when he was at the free-throw line. He had 14 points and 16 rebounds in 37 minutes, but he went 0-for-6 from the stripe. The Nets as a team made only 9......

Cleveland 110 Knicks 106: The good news is the Knicks played a pretty good game on the road against a tough opponent. The bad news is they still lost. Zach Randolph had a nice debut with 21 points and 14 rebounds and Jamal Crawford also had 21, but LeBron James exploded for 41 points. The Knicks stayed in the game to the end and if they had done a little better from the line (11-19)......

Raptors 89, Nets 83: All the pressure in Game 2 was on the Raptors, but they came back and evened this series at one game apiece. This game had a painfully low-scoring first half, but things picked up down the stretch as Toronto's Chris Bosh and Anthony Parker overcame the efforts of Jason Kidd and Vince Carter for the Nets. Richard Jefferson's absence in the first half -- he didn't score and ended up with......

Raptors 104, Knicks 94: Losing to the Raptors while T.J. Ford and Chris Bosh run wild isn't that bad. But the Knicks did that while making the frontcourt of Jorge Garbajosa and Andrea Bargnani look like twin towers north of the border on Wednesday. Their ability to defend the two foreign big men no doubt would have been helped if David Lee, out three to four weeks with an ankle injury, had been on the......

-Raptors 90, Nets 78: Each team played without a star, but only the Nets played without energy. They missed Richard Jefferson and also, it seems, the ability to defend Toronto's T.J. Ford, who helped his team overcome the loss of center Chris Bosh. Vince Carter was -- surprise! -- booed when he touched the ball. He probably didn't let it get to his head, but he still was held in check during a 12-point performance.......