Association Aggregation: Chandler Gets His Ring, Pistons and Bobcats Get Wins

Tyson Chandler didn't get a victory against the Dallas Mavericks, but he left with some hardware. While the Mavericks dominated down the stretch in a 95-85 victory (after allowing the Knicks to get back into the game with a 15-0 to start the fourth quarter), Chandler was presented with his championship ring prior to facing off against his former team.

(Via ProBasketballTalk)

Clearly emotional, Chandler had been waiting for this moment for quite some time. Last month in Toronto, prior to the Knicks taking on the Raptors, Chandler presented former Mavs assistant and current Raptors head coach Dwane Casey with his ring. After the game he said he took extra care not to look at it because he wanted his to be a surprise.

Shortly after the game, Chandler posted this photo to his Twitter account. Congratulations to him. And really, take a moment to check out Dirk Nowitzki smiling and clapping loudly. That guy is great.

Kobe Bryant and the Lakers couldn't get it done in overtime, losing to the Detroit Pistons, 88-85. In an ugly game from both teams (scoring just 88 points in an overtime game is brutal) the highlight might have been Bryant starting the game in a black mask, deciding to switch things up from the clear mask he had been wearing to protect his broken nose.

The mask didn't last long, but man, was it an interesting look.

Bryant switched to the clear mask in the second half, hit a jumper to send the game to overtime, but was unable to rescue the Lakers in the extra session as both he and Metta World Peace missed on attempts to tie the game late.

Rodney Stuckey led the Pistons with 34 points while Andrew Bynum had 30 points on 13-for-18 shooting for the Lakers as Bryant struggled offensively, shooting just 8-for-26 for his 22 points in the loss.

In Charlotte, the Bobcats…defeated the Orlando Magic! 

Seriously. The Charlotte Bobcats defeated the Magic, 100-84.

To make things worse for Dwight and the Magic, they lost to the Bobcats after leading by 20 in the first half. Orlando allowed a 22-1 Charlotte run and then fell apart. The victory was just the fifth for the Bobcats this season.

While Corey Maggette led the way offensively with a season-high 29 points, the star of the night was rookie Bismack Biyombo, putting up a line of 10 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocked shots. 

In Miami, the Heat handled business against the Nets, getting an easy 108-78 victory. They welcomed Chris Bosh back after he missed the last three games following the death of his grandmother and Bosh scored 20 points in his return.

The Heat led by as many as 40 in the fourth quarter, LeBron James continued to stuff the stat sheet, scoring 21 points to go with nine rebounds and six assists and Dwyane Wade played just 14 minutes after turning his ankle, but said after the game that he wasn't worried about the injury.

The Heat are scary. Good. Great.

Kevin Garnett pulled down 13 rebounds in the Celtics' 97-92 overtime victory over the Rockets, and moved past Shaquille O'Neal to 12th place on the NBA's career list. Paul Pierce scored 30 for the Celtics and after the game, Luis Scola had one of my favorite quotes of the night:

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“The fact that we played the overtime was a bonus, was a present."

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I think we should start calling overtime "present time."

Question: What's better than a session of free basketball?

Answer: Better basketball than what we saw in Detroit last night.