Rasheed Wallace was more than comfortable in his hometown last night during Boston’s 105-74 romping over the Philadelphia 76ers. The premier 6th man netted six threes while gathering six rebounds and two steals. Whenever traveling to the place of his upbringing, Sheed will always make it a point to perform at his best.

“It’s home. A lot of friends and family don’t get the opportunity to see me play,” said Wallace. “Everybody can’t get that league pass and all that stuff. It’s always fun to come back here and play.” 

Paul Pierce led the 5-0 Celtics in scoring with 21 points. Eddie House and Rajon Rondo added insurance to the blowout with 12 and 11. Philadelphia hit just 1 of 15 from beyond the arc. Andrew Iguodala and Thaddeus Young were the only Sixers to reach double digit numbers.

The Celtics are scheduled to square off against the Timberwolves tonight in Minnesota. Boston Celtics tickets are available now!

Los Angeles Lakers 113, Utah Jazz 100.

Trevor Ariza scored a playoff career high 21 to get the Lakers going Sunday night in LA.  Kobe Bryant and Paul Gasol added the bulk of their scoring with 24 and 20.  LA was in control the whole game, putting up 62 points in the first half alone.  Utah kept the pressure on, outscoring them in the second half but it was never enough.  “They kept knocking on the door and we just never let them in,” said Bryant. The Lakers have the series lead 1-0 with another game to play at the Staples Center before heading to Utah.

Philadelphia 76ers 100, Orlando Magic 98

The #6 seeded sixers stunned the Magic in Orlando in game 1 with Andre Iguodala netting the game winner with 2.2 seconds left.  Iguodala played a great overall game scoring 20 points with eight rebounds and eight assists.  “We won one more game than people thought we would win,” Iguodala said. “I was pretty amped up.”  Dwight Howard had 18 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in the first half, leading to his total of 31 points and 16 rebounds for the Magic. Despite his efforts, Orlando could not hang on to their 18 point lead in the fourth as the sixers rallied back to notch the upset.

Atlanta Hawks 90, Miami Heat 64

The Atlanta Hawks held the Heat to just 25 points in the second half as they cruised to an overwhelming double digit lead.  Josh Smith scored 23 points including a few show time fast-break jams for Atlanta.  Dwayne Wade led the Heat in scoring with 19, but it wasn’t enough to keep his squad in the game.  The Hawks will keep their home court advantage for game 2 before traveling to Miami.

Denver Nuggets 113, New Orleans Hornets 84

Chauncey Billups led the Nuggets to blow by the Hornets Sunday night with 36 points, hitting eight of nine from three. Chris Paul controlled the New Orleans offense with 21 points and 11 assists despite their losing efforts.  The Hornets will have to steal a game at Denver to have any sort of chance to advance past this series.
Game two will be played this Wednesday at 8:30 pm at the Pepsi Center.

San Antonio Spurs 105, Dallas Mavericks 84

Tony Parker led in scoring with 13 points, contributing 19 in the first quarter to help San Antonio get revenge over the Mavericks from game 1. Dallas couldn’t find an answer to Parker all last night, trying numerous different defensive strategies to slow him down.  “You want to make sure I’m in attack mode every single play,” Parker said. “Even if it’s not to score, to penetrate for my teammates or make great cuts.”  The Spurs tied the series 1-1 with the win as they head to Dallas for game 3.

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Three of Devin Harris’s 39 points came in the final seconds after hitting a 47 footer to pull the Nets ahead by 2 points in last nights thriller against the Philadelphia 76ers.  Keyon Dooling and Vince Carter chipped in with 16 and 10 points as the Nets gave Philly their fourth straight loss.  Andre Iguodala led the 76ers with 21 points and 9 rebounds, despite the luck belonging to Harris this time around.

Harris described the excitement saying “after the review, everyone was jumping up and down, going crazy.”  The spectacular shot came after bobbling the ball while running into Philadelphia’s Iguodala, who remains bitter about the play.  “I thought a lot was going on for 1.8 seconds,” Iguodala said. “I thought for sure it wasn’t good and I still don’t think it was good.”

He will have to get over the shot sooner or later as the 76ers travel to Washington to play the Wizards tomorrow.  New Jersey will host the Chicago Bulls at home next.

Philadelphia 76ers tickets are available now.

With half a second to go, Ray Allen fired off a game-winning 3-pointer to give the Celtics their 12th consecutive win. Without Kevin Garnett for the second consecutive game, the rest of the team had to step it up again. Paul Pierce was stellar again, scoring 29 points with 7 rebounds and 6 assists-including the game winner to Allen. “I got to my spot and (Pierce) made a great play,”Allen told AP writer Dan Gelston. Allen’s recent stellar play seems to be giving him a shot at the All-Star team. “I think he’s an All-Star,” Doc Rivers told the AP“If they make an injury substitution, I think those shots clinched it.”

Glen Davis continues to make a huge impact as KG’s replacement. Big Baby had a  doubl-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) and managed to stay out of foul trouble for most of the game.

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Less then one month after the Boston Celtics captured their 17th NBA Championship, many teams around the league are already beginning to try and make some adjustments so that they can put themselves in contention for a title run. Many teams have begun to sign their lottery draft picks and several free agents are close to signing multi-year deals with new teams.

It is expected that the Golden State Warriors will sign Corey Maggette to a five year deal estimated right around $50 million dollars. Last season, Maggette averaged 22.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game for the struggling Los Angeles Clippers. At 6-foot-6, great speed and a soft perimeter touch, he would fit right into Golden State coach Don Nelson’s run and gun style of play.

The Philadelphia 76ers continue to make moves, freeing up salary cap space which many suspect is so that they can make a strong offer to Elton Brand to come and play for them. On Tuesday the 76ers traded away forward Rodney Carney, a future first round draft pick and reserve forward Calvin Booth to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a future second round draft pick and $2.8 million dollars. The Sixers now have another $2 million in salary cap space to add to the $11 million in space available that they hope will land them the post player in Brand that they desperately need to become a contender in the East.

First round draft pick O.J. Mayo (third pick overall) signed a multi-year contract with the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. The Grizzlies pulled off an eight player trade the night of the NBA draft to acquire the rights to the third pick and land Mayo. Memphis also announced the signing of Darrell Arthur, the 27th overall selection of this year’s draft.

The number one and two picks of this years’ NBA Draft have been in the spotlight in the early action of the NBA’s summer league games. Michael Beasley (2nd pick in the draft) scored 28 points in the first game of the summer season for the Miami Heat but then followed it up with only a 9 point outing in the second game a night later. Derek Rose of the Chicago Bulls (1st pick in the draft) scored 10 points in his NBA summer league debut against Miami and Beasley and then followed it up with 9 points in his second game against the Indiana Pacers.

In other league news, the NBA set the new salary cap at $58,680,000 for the 2008-2009 season. This year’s cap went up by more than $3 million dollars over last season’s, which was set at $55.630 million. The minimum team salary for 2008-09 was 75 percent of the cap, or $44.010 million.