LA Lakers 108, LA Clippers 97: Ba-ba-ba Bynum! He wasn’t having the breakout season many anticipated, but he erupted with a career-high 42 points and 15 boards against the Paper Clips. It isn’t often that a Kobe triple-double (18-12-10) is completely overshadowed, but besides the Bynum statline, Clippers rookie center Deandre Jordan, in starting just his second NBA game, scored 23 points and took 12 rebounds.

Phoenix 109, New York 114: The Knicks bench outscored the Suns reserves 57-18 and New York surprisingly won for the fourth time in six games. Chris Duhon (!) had 19-7-6. Steve Nash, the two-time former MVP, only had 9-19-6. The Duhon-Nash dichtomy is one that will have scholars scratching their heads years from now. And then, the a-ha moment will come when someone remembers that the influence is attributed to an Italian genius named D’Antoni.

Boston 98, Miami 83: No looking ahead to Orlando for the Celtics – they jumped out to a massive lead and coasted. D Wade was the only Heat starter that came to play – he scored 25. The rest of them tallied 12. Here’s what we don’t get about Doc – with the game such a blowout, why have your three stars log 32 minutes or more with the Magic looming tonight?

Cleveland 104, Portland 98: LeBron. Dominant. Again. He dropped 34 points and 14 assists, and Mo Williams added 33 points and a clutch three late. Portland shot just 40 percent from the field and got 10-8 from Greg Oden in 25 foul-plagued minutes. Nice read here on how Portland’s Martell Webster was/is so in awe of LeBron that he asked him to autograph sneakers before a game last year. And here’s everything you ever wanted to know about LeBron’s visit to the arena last night.

Utah 99, Houston 108: If anyone can tell us how on earth the Rockets are winning without T-Mac and Artest – they’re beating and competing with good teams – please do so. Von Wafer, he of the sub $800k contract, continues to surprise, scoring 21 points. It was his 10th straight double-digit scoring performance this month; he had one in the three years prior.