Led by a scoring surge from Paul Pierce and a renewed effort on defense, the
Boston Celtics are healthy and looking again like one of the better teams in the
Eastern Conference.

Pierce will try to move into second place on the franchise’s all-time
scoring list when the Celtics welcome the lowly Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday
night.

After a slow start and being hampered by injuries, Boston (13-10) has won
four straight and eight of nine, including 98-80 over Memphis on Sunday.

Kevin Garnett matched his season high with 24 points and grabbed nine
rebounds while Rajon Rondo, playing his second game after missing eight with a
wrist injury, tied a season best with 14 assists.

The Celtics’ turnaround is unsurprising to Pierce, who missed the first
three games with a bruised heel.

“I think a lot of it has to do with us getting healthy,” he said. “We were
just a rusty group at the beginning of the year. … We probably used those
first eight to 10 games as a tune up, but I think now we’ve finally flipped the
switch where we’re playing more consistent ball.”

Pierce scored 21 points Sunday to move nine behind Hall of Famer Larry Bird
for second place on the club’s scoring list. Pierce is averaging 23.4 points
over the last nine games – up from the 14.6 in his first 11.

While the healthier lineup has helped the team offensively, Boston also
credits it for the improvement on the other end of the court. Over the last nine
games, opponents are averaging 81.2 points on 38.8 percent shooting against the
Celtics, who have the second-best scoring defense in the NBA at 86.7 points per
game.

“Defense is key the last three weeks for us,” coach Doc Rivers said. “Our
guys have bought into it.”

The Celtics should have little trouble putting up those kinds of defensive
numbers against Charlotte (3-21), which has dropped 11 straight while averaging
83.0 points.

Following losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland by a combined 77
points, the league-worst Bobcats are coming off a 95-89 defeat at Phoenix on
Sunday that dropped them to 1-13 on the road.

Charlotte led by six at the half and pushed the advantage to 10 early in the
third quarter, but it scored just 17 points in the fourth to allow Phoenix to
rally.

Kemba Walker scored 22 points and Reggie Williams added 21, but they
combined for just four in the fourth quarter, when Charlotte shot 35.3 percent.

“We just missed some shots that we should have made and they came down,
executed their offense and they made shots,” Walker said. “They really just
outplayed us in the fourth quarter.”

Williams made his third appearance and first start with the Bobcats after
signing in December. Bismack Biyombo, the seventh overall pick in the 2011 draft
who was acquired in a trade with Sacramento, made his first start and had 11
points and 12 rebounds for his second double-double.

Charlotte is closing a four-game road trip before returning home to face
three teams leading their respective divisions in Chicago, the Los Angeles
Clippers and Philadelphia.

The Bobcats have won their last two meetings with the Celtics, holding them
to fewer than 90 points in each.

Carlos Boozer scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half to lead the injury-depleted Chicago Bulls to a 95-89 win over the struggling Charlotte Bobcats on Saturday night.  

Luol Deng added 22 points and eight rebounds as the Bulls won their seventh straight at home and improved to an NBA-best 15-3 despite the absence of two starters and two key reserves. Richard Hamilton added a season-high 18 points for Chicago.  

The Bulls played their fourth straight game without reigning NBA MVP Derrick Rose (sprained left big toe). They also were missing starting center Joakim Noah, a late scratch because of a left ankle sprain.  

Gerald Henderson Jr. led Charlotte with 22 points, but the Bobcats lost their fifth consecutive road game. They have dropped nine of 10 overall.

Byron Mullens added 17 points for Charlotte.  

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau likes to talk up his team’s depth and Saturday’s game gave him plenty to discuss.  

In addition to the missing starters, reserves Taj Gibson (left ankle sprain) and John Lucas III (left groin strain) also sat out. The Bulls had plenty of firepower left on the roster.  

Omer Asik started in place of Noah and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds. Veteran Mike James took Lucas’ place as the backup point guard and had seven points and a team-high nine assists, his most since Dec. 27, 2008.  

C.J. Watson started for Rose at point guard and had 11 points and nine assists. Watson is averaging 16.5 points and six assists in his last four games after missing nine games because of an elbow injury.  

Charlotte started undersized point guards D.J. Augustin and Kemba Walker together in the backcourt for the fourth straight game, but the quick lineup struggled against Chicago’s defense, which leads the league in fewest points allowed per game.  

Walker scored just four points, Augustin had three and neither player was on the floor down the stretch.  

The bright spot for Charlotte was Henderson, who is averaging 21.8 points on 32-of-55 shooting in his last four games since moving from shooting guard to small forward in coach Paul Silas’ lineup.  

Chicago forced five Charlotte turnovers as the Bulls built a seven-point first-quarter lead, but the Bobcats hung close behind Mullens’ 10-point quarter.  

The Bobcats edged ahead in the second quarter against Chicago’s depleted second unit, but Deng led a late-quarter Bulls charge with nine points over the last 6:50 of the half.  

Deng’s putback dunk off a missed 3 by Kyle Korver capped an 11-2 Bulls run to end the half. Chicago led 50-43 at the break.  

The Bulls pushed their lead to 11 in third quarter as Boozer scored 15 points and Hamilton added 10, which offset the 13-point period from Henderson.  

NOTES: The Bulls have won 33 of their last 35 home games. . The Bulls are 7-0 at the United Center for the first time since 1996-97. . Bobcats forward D.J. White left with a bruised left knee during the second quarter and did not return.
 

The league-leading Chicago Bulls will look to extend their home court winning streak when they host the Charlotte Bobcats tonight at the Madhouse on Madison. Here’s a quick look at the game.

Game time: 8 p.m. EST.

TV: Local coverage in the Charlotte and Chicago areas (check your local listings), NBA League Pass (subscription required).

The Bobcats (3-12; 34-48, missed playoffs/10th place in East): Michael Jordan’s Bobcats are in full-on rebuilding mode, which is never pretty at the beginning. Gone are Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace and Kwame Brown; in are top 10 draft picks Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo, along with Corey Maggette, Reggie Williams (out with a torn meniscus) and Derrick Brown. It’s going to be a long, long season for the ‘Cats, who are totally focused on developing their young talent.

Last Season vs. Bulls: Believe it or not, the Bobcats were one of the league’s most successful teams against the Bulls last season – they split four games with Chicago, and even managed to get a win at the UC.

Statistics

PPG: Bobcats 91.1 (24); Bulls 96.2 (11).

FG%: Bobcats 43.4 (17); Bulls 45.8 (7).

Assists: Bobcats 20.9 (16); Bulls 22.3 (4).

PPG Allowed: Bobcats 101.7 (30); Bulls 85.1 (1).

FG% Allowed: Bobcats 45 (16); Bulls 42 (5).

Rebounds/offensive – Bobcats 41.9 (t16) / 10.9 (t17); Bulls 46 (1)/13.3 (2).

Key statistic: The Bulls are first in PPG allowed, the ‘Cats are dead last.

Probable starters

PG – D.J. Augustine (15.3 ppg, 7.2 apg, PER 17.7) vs. C.J. Watson (10.8 ppg, 4 apg, PER 23.5).

PG – Kemba Walker (11.5 ppg, 3.3 apg, PER 16.1) vs. Rip Hamilton (12.3 ppg, 3.4 apg, PER 14.8).

G – Gerald Henderson (15.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, PER 13.9) vs. Luol Deng (15.6 ppg, 7.5 rpg, PER 15.9).

PF – Tyrus Thomas (6.9 ppg. 3.8 rpg, PER 7.3) vs. Carlos Boozer (14.8 ppg, 8.4 rpg, PER 20.7).

C – Byron Mullens (12.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, PER 18.1) vs. Joakim Noah (7.2 ppg, 8.3 rpg, PER 14.2).

Key Match-ups: Kemba Walker vs. Rip Hamilton. The former UConn star has averaged 17.3 ppg and 5 apg as a starter the past three games. Look for Luol Deng, who creates a real match-up problem for the ‘Cats, to have a good game.

The Write-Up: First off, Derrick Rose is listed as day to day, but is likely to miss his fourth straight game with a turf toe injury. Moving on, the Bobcats have lost their last four road games, averaging just 83.5 points on 40.5 shooting during the skid. That doesn’t bode well for a team traveling to the United Center, where the Bulls have racked up a perfect 6-0 record while holding opponents to just 71.8 points per game. Backup point guard C.J. Watson has stepped up big in Rose’s absence, averaging 18.3 ppg in three games since returning from an elbow injury. It’ll be interesting to see how the Bulls defend the Bobcats’ three-guard lineup.

Prediction: This is, on paper, a game the Bulls should easily win, so I’ll go with the Bulls, 95-73.

Notes: Taj Gibson was in a walking boot after spraining an ankle in Friday’s resounding win over the Cavs; his status for tonight’s game is unknown….. The Bulls have played more games (17) and more road games (11), and have more double digit victories (10), than any other team.

Sources: Sources: Chicago Bulls team page, Yahoo! Sports; Chicago Bulls Clubhouse, ESPN; Charlotte Bobcats team page, Yahoo! Sports; Charlotte Bobcats clubhouse, ESPN; NBA team statistics page, NBA.com; 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats Preview, Fox News; NBA Season Preview: Charlotte Bobcats, Pro Basketball Talk/NBC Sports; 2011-2012 Charlotte Bobcats Season Preview, HoopsWorld.com.

YCN featured sports contributor Steve Merritt is – for better or worse – a lifelong Chicago Bulls, Bears and Cubs fan. He’s followed the Bulls since 1969, when he tuned in after bedtime on a cheap dime store radio tucked under his pillow.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)—Rookie Bismack Biyombo is beginning to make quite an
impression with the Charlotte Bobcats.

Enough so that he’s moving up the depth chart.

Bobcats coach Paul Silas said starting Saturday night against Chicago,
Biyombo will move to center where he’ll backup starter Byron Mullens for the
remainder of the season. That’s a good move for Biyombo, who had been buried on
the depth chart beneath a glut of power forwards including Tyrus Thomas, D.J.
White and, at times, Boris Diaw.

The decision comes after Biyombo’s most impressive game as a professional
Tuesday night at Orlando.

Biyombo registered his first double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds in
the loss to the Magic, and played well on defense. Even though Magic center
Dwight Howard scored 25 points, Silas likes the job Biyombo did on Orlando’s
dominant big man. Biyombo had four blocks and nine defensive rebounds and seemed
to frustrate Howard late in the game.

“I was playing him at the power forward spot and I had so many guys
there,” Silas said. “But now he’s going to be my backup center. He’s going to
play there from here on in. He and Byron will share that spot and Byron will
start and Bismack will come off the bench.”

Biyombo is only 6-foot-9, but Silas considers him the toughest player on the
team.

He showed that against the Magic.

Silas points to one sequence in which Biyombo blocked a shot on one end and
raced the floor to finish with a dunk on the other end.

“That’s something you don’t see every day,” Silas said. “He really played
hard and played tough. He’s probably the toughest player I have on the club. And
he deserves more playing time.”

That doesn’t mean Biyombo is a complete player. Far from it.

He’s still learning the American game after spending last season with the
Spanish team Fuenlabrada.

Of all of the first-round picks this year, perhaps nobody needed a training
camp and summer league ball more than Biyombo. Simple concepts were foreign to
him and it’s taken awhile for him to pick them up.

The NBA lockout and a contract rift with Fuenlabrada put him even further
behind.

But his performance against the Magic was what the team had been looking
for. Biyombo was an encouraging 5 of 5 from the floor against Orlando and made
very few mistakes.

But Silas said there’s still plenty of work to do, particularly on offense.

“For a while he couldn’t even catch the ball and was very nervous
offensively,” Silas said. “But now, working with (assistant coach) Rob
Werdann, he’s catching the ball and learning how to shoot, even little baby
hooks. But this coming summer we really have to work on his shots. Once he gets
confident in his shooting he’s going to be really good.”

Biyombo is very modest, deflecting all and any praise.

He views himself as a beginner, a kid with so much to learn he can’t even
choose what he needs to improve on the most.

“I have to get better at almost everything, to be honest with you,”
Biyombo said. “To me, every day is a learning process. It’s going to take a
long time, but it’s starting to click.”

Silas said he loves Biyombo’s passion for the game.

“His aggressiveness and toughness and intensity, I like all of that,”
Silas said. “He’s learning. Before he wouldn’t be in the right spot or wouldn’t
rotate correctly, all of those kinds of things. Now it’s getting there. I like
the way he approaches the game. He wants it. He’s working hard every day. That
says a lot to me about a guy who was drafted (seventh overall).”

Biyombo said battling Howard was “a good challenge,” but clearly he wasn’t
intimidated.

“He’s a tall guy,” Biyombo said. “I enjoyed playing against him.”

Prior to Tuesday night’s breakout game, Biyombo was averaging less than 12
minutes per game with 29 total points and 36 rebounds in 13 games. Strangely, he
didn’t play against Cleveland the night before the Orlando game.

That made his performance all the more surprising.

“You always have to be ready and stay positive,” Biyombo said. “You just
never know. I’m always ready and as far as my playing time, that’s a coach’s
decision and something you can’t control. I have to get better.”

When he does, Silas thinks Biyombo has star potential.

“People are going to be very surprised, I think, in a year or so with his
ability to get it done,” Silas said.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)

With little down time during this fast-paced NBA season, Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy has been anticipating a night when his team had to rely on unconventional methods to stay in games.

Van Gundy’s predictions finally came to fruition Tuesday night against Charlotte as the Magic needed late baskets from unusual suspects and timely defensive stops to preserve a 96-89 win – their fifth straight – over the Bobcats.

Dwight Howard had 25 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Magic, which survived 18 turnovers to win for the 10th time in 12 games.

Jameer Nelson added 17 points, Hedo Turkoglu had 15 and Von Wafer 13 as the Magic won for the 10th time in 12 games. Turkoglu and Wafer each scored eight points each in a decisive fourth-quarter run to help preserve the victory.

”We gotta keep rolling, we gotta keep playing and not think too much into it,” forward Ryan Anderson said of the Magic’s current run. ”I think that we’ve beat some really good teams, and just as important we need to keep our heads and really stay focused down the stretch like we did tonight.”

Gerald Henderson had 22 points for Charlotte, which has lost eight of its last nine. The Bobcats are also winless in their last five trips to Orlando.

Charlotte stayed close throughout the game and pulled within a basket late in the fourth quarter before Ryan Anderson’s 3-pointer extended Orlando’s lead to 86-81 with 1:33 to play. The Bobcats never got closer.

”We threw the ball away too much,” Bobcats coach Paul Silas said. ”We defended Howard very well and then we started going in the lane too much for help, then they kicked the ball out for 3s.

”That was the game right there when they made those shots. But we hung in there. We’re just not there yet, but we’re getting there.”

Henderson agreed with his coach’s assessment.

”We are playing better,” he said. ”I think it is at the end of games that we have to lock down and execute. I think we will be better off with experience and kind of have to learn to win.”

Another victory aside, Van Gundy said there is still a lot to work on the defensive end. Charlotte shot 46 percent from the field (36 for 77) Tuesday after coming in shooting just 39 percent in the second half of games this season. Still, he liked his team’s resiliency late in the game.

The Magic also connected on 46 percent of their shots (36 for 78) for the game, but were just 7 for 22 (31 percent) from the 3-point line after hitting at least 10 in four straight outings.

”We’ve relied on our shooting and so when we have a night where offensively we’re not very good and the ball’s not dropping, then we get ourselves into trouble,” Van Gundy said. ”We’ve got to be able to rely on our defense, which I think in the second half we did.”

Charlotte went into halftime with a 50-47 advantage after a scrappy first half that included eight ties and seven lead changes.

Both teams shot 48 percent from the field, but the Magic struggled from both the 3-point line (3 for 10) and at the free-throw line (4 for 10). Charlotte was for 4 for 8 beyond the arc and a perfect 8 for 8 from the line, in addition to holding a 22-20 rebounding edge.

The Bobcats benefited from some Magic foul trouble in the opening 12 minutes to take a seven-point lead.

Howard and Turkoglu were forced to the bench after picking up two fouls each less than five minutes into the game.

Without two of Orlando’s starters to deal with Charlotte closed the quarter on a 16-5 run. Henderson led all scorers with eight first-quarter points.

The Magic host San Antonio Wednesday and get a one-day break before the Los Angeles Lakers visit Friday night.

Unconventional or not, Howard said he likes the buzz that is coming out of the locker room right now with tougher games and stretches awaiting them on the schedule.

”Playing some great basketball – just got to keep it up,” Howard said. ”We picked it up a little bit. We just have to be consistent and understand that this is going to be a tough season.”

Notes: Magic G Jason Richardson missed his second consecutive game with a bone bruise in his left knee. … After playing five games in six days, the Bobcats are off until Saturday when they play at Chicago to begin a stretch of four games in five nights.