Chicago 74, Portland 116: A modest night for Greg Oden – 11 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks – because he only played 17 minutes in a rout. Chicago forgot to show up and fell to 5-7.

Denver 91, San Antonio 81: Coming Sunday to a newspaper near you – a flood of notebook items about how Billups has changed the culture in the mountains. Mr. Big Shot led all scorers with 22 points and Denver improved to 8-4 on the season, but more importantly, seven of eight since CB arrived.

Cleveland 89, Detroit 96: It’s not like the Pistons got the bad end of the AI deal – they’re the only team to defeat the Lakers, and they just snapped the Cavs’ 8-game win streak. Iverson had 23 and Rasheed had 21, while LeBron’s streak if insane games came to an end (8-for-21, 0-for-4 on three’s).

Philadelphia 96, Minnesota 102: Still can’t figure out Philly, which seemed to have righted the ship with four in a row … and then stunk up the joint (1-for-11 from three; 65 percent from the line) in Minnesota, which had one win on the season coming in.

LA Clippers 108, Oklahoma City 88: The best way to end a losing streak is to visit the Dustbowl. The Caveman had 25-14 and the Clippers picked up their second victory of the season. Durant had 18 points to lead the losers.