NBA

• Pacers 108, Trail Blazers 99
  • I can’t believe how well the Pacers have played this season. Myself — and plenty of others, had them pegged as one of the worst teams in the sport, but Rick Carlisle has proven, yet again, that he’s one of the league’s top coaches. It hasn’t hurt Indiana that Bennedict Mathurin has been one of the NBA’s best rookies, averaging 17.4 points per game.
  • Portland is a solid team, but isn’t good enough to survive Damian Lillard shooting 7-24 and Anfernee Simons shooting 7-20 in the same game.
• Bulls 126, 76ers 112
  • Zach LaVine has been more inconsistent this year than the Bulls brass probably would prefer, but his 41 points in this game were more than enough for Chicago to grab the win. The 27-year-old wing needs to eliminate performances of him scoring 15 or 13 points, which had occurred twice in three games preceding this one.
• Knicks 112, Raptors 108
  • The lack of improvement Scottie Barnes has shown from last season to this one has been alarming at best. After shooting 2-10 yesterday, Barnes’ field goal percentage is down almost five points from his rookie campaign. At 16-23, the Raptors could be facing some difficult decisions regarding their roster and the future of the franchise.
• Nets 108, Pelicans 102
  • The Pelicans are a fairly injury-prone team, so they’ll need some unheralded players to step up at times. Enter Naji Marshall. The Xavier product has played well lately, and has given New Orleans good mileage, averaging 27.0 minutes per game in both December and January.