NBA Triple Threat: Your daily roundup of last night's action in the Association.

Boston 94 Toronto 87 While watching NBATV tonight, they had the post game press conference after this great win by the Celtics and I noticed that Paul Pierce had his hand wrapped in ice. Kevin Garnett cleared it up by telling everyone that "We're cooling it down" since Pierce scored 22 points of his game high 36 in the 4th quarter to lead the Celtics past the Raptors. Pierce later revealed that he has had a sprained hand for about a week now but he certainly didn't show that tonight. Pierce went 3-13 through the first three quarters but in the 4th he shot 7-9 including two huge threes midway through the quarter to give Boston the momentum it needed for its 5th straight win. Kevin Garnett added 21 and 10 while Ray Allen scored 19 to round out the Boston Three Party.  Chris Bosh had been playing like a madman this season but was slowed significantly by Boston’s big men. Bosh could only muster 9 points and 7 rebounds, though Jermaine O’Neal had a throwback game of 23 and 11. Boston improves to 7-1 while Toronto drops to 4-3 with all three of those losses in the past 4 games.

Phoenix 107 Memphis 102 OJ Mayo had his jump shot going tonight and did everything he could to pull off the upset over the Suns. Mayo poured in 19 of his game high 33 points but it wasn’t enough as the Brazilian Blur, Leandro Barbosa, scored 16 points in the 4th quarter including the three that put the Suns up for good with 43.8 seconds left.  The Gay-Mayo combo played very well but it couldn’t overcome the team effort of the Suns. Amare Stoudemire scored 18 while Steve Nash chipped in 12 and Boris Diaw added 13 off the bench.  This victory is the Suns 9th straight over the Grizzles and moves them to 6-2 on the young season while the young Grizzles drop to 3-5 but are in third place in the Southwest division over San Antonio and Dallas.

Portland 106 Orlando 99 The Blazers just finished up one of the toughest stretches to start a season for any team, and they came out over .500. Brandon Roy continues to play like a man on fire as he dropped 27 points as the Blazers went 3-3 against 6 teams that finished with 52 or more wins last season, the Lakers, Spurs, Suns, Jazz and Rockets, and Magic. For a young team like the Blazers to split that tough 6 game stretch shows that this team is growing up and may round into that team no one wants to play come mid-April. Dwight Howard had 29 points and 19 rebounds, all while fighting a chest cold and Hedo Turkoglu added a season high 35. The Blazers improve to 4-3 while the Magic, who finished 4-1 on this 5 game homestand, drop to 4-3.

Best Lines

• TJ Ford: 24 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals
• OJ Mayo: 33 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals
• Paul Pierce: 36 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists
• Kevin Durant: 37 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 assists

Triple Threat Video of the Night
For those of you unable to see tonight's Raptors/Celtics tilt, here is Paul Pierce's 4th quarter explosion.



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