Chauncey Billups

You can't blame US Olympic men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski if he's rooting against the Heat in the NBA playoffs. An Indiana victory will free up LeBron James , Dwyane Wade , and Chris Bosh to join newly sprung Blake Griffin and Chris Paul of the Clippers. Also still playing are Kevin Durant , Russell Westbrook , and James Harden of the Thunder, Kobe Bryant of the Lakers, and Andre Iguodala of the 76ers. After the league's truncated, cram-jammed season, Krzyzewski would love for his 18 candidates to have as much gas in their tanks as...

You can't blame US Olympic men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski if he's rooting against the Heat in the NBA playoffs. An Indiana victory will free up LeBron James , Dwyane Wade , and Chris Bosh to join newly sprung Blake Griffin and Chris Paul of the Clippers. Also still playing are Kevin Durant , Russell Westbrook , and James Harden of the Thunder, Kobe Bryant of the Lakers, and Andre Iguodala of the 76ers. After the league's truncated, cram-jammed season, Krzyzewski would love for his 18 candidates to have as much gas in their tanks as...

Amare Stoudemire will miss the New York Knicks’ game at New Jersey on Friday because of a sprained left ankle. Chauncey Billups will start, despite leaving the Knicks’ victory at Philadelphia on Wednesday with a bruised right thigh. Billups bruised his left thigh in early March against Orlando and missed six games. Stoudemire was hurt against the 76ers when he stepped on Thaddeus Young’s foot while trying to chase him down late in the fourth quarter. He finished the game, but coach Mike D’Antoni said the ankle has since swelled up and the Knicks are being cautious.

Chauncey Billups will only watch as the Clippers continue their promising season without him. This isn't going to be easy. With his left leg encased in a plastic protective boot and a newly issued crutch standing nearby, Billups sprawled across a few seats Wednesday inside Quicken Loans Arena as his teammates went through their first pregame shootaround since their veteran guard and leader suffered a season-ending injury. Billups tore his Achilles tendon, prematurely ending his first season with Los Angeles and 15th in the NBA. He won't let it be his last.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- New Jersey Nets leading scorer Richard Jefferson will miss the rest of the regular season with a wrist injury he claims resulted from a dirty play by Detroit guard Chauncey Billups. An MRI Monday night revealed a ruptured ligament in Jefferson's left wrist. Surgery is expected within two weeks. Nets president Rod Thorn said Jefferson would not be ready to play again until the second half of May. However, the 24-year-old Jefferson hopes to play in the postseason if the three-time defending Atlantic Division champions get that far. The Nets sorely missed...

The Detroit Pistons showed the Miami Heat that their many moves might not make a difference. Chauncey Billups scored 30 points and Richard Hamilton had 25 and a season-high nine assists last night to lead Detroit past the Heat, 106-101, in a rematch of last season's Eastern Conference finalists. In their first matchup since the Pistons won at Miami in Game 7 of the series, Detroit used clutch shots and key defensive plays in the final minutes to pull away. Detroit has won a season-high nine straight games.

Chauncey Billups made his first three shots of the fourth quarter, leading the Detroit Pistons to an 87-71 win over the Cavaliers last night at Cleveland in the first matchup between the clubs since last season's playoffs. Billups, who was just 1 of 9 from the floor after three quarters, dropped three jumpers -- two 3-pointers -- in the first 3:02 of the fourth as the Pistons went on a 14-3 run to open a 71-58 lead with 8:19 left. Billups scored 17 points, including 12 in the fourth, and added 10 assists.

Chauncey Billups scored 20 points and Tayshaun Prince had 16 points and seven rebounds as the Detroit Pistons used a balanced scoring attack to defeat the Indiana Pacers, 88-76, last night in Indianapolis. Detroit won its second straight after losing four in a row, while Indiana has lost three straight and five of seven. The Pacers dropped under .500 for only the second time this season. The Pacers' scoring burden was carried by Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson, who were both involved in the Nov. 19 melee when Pacers players brawled with Pistons fans.

Trevor Ariza turned an offensive rebound into an emphatic go-ahead dunk early in the fourth quarter and Kobe Bryant quickly stretched the lead, sending the Los Angeles Lakers past the Mavericks, 106-99, last night in Dallas. The Lakers improved to 6-0 for the first time since 2001-02, their last championship season. Ariza's basket put LA up for the first time since the opening minutes, then Bryant (27 points) executed a one-handed rebound-dunk on the next possession. Soon after, he scored 7 straight points and the Lakers held on. Dallas's Jason Kidd got the 101st triple-double...

Richard Hamilton scored 11 points in the final 7 1/2 minutes and Chauncey Billups sank a game-clinching 3-pointer with 16 seconds to go to keep the Detroit Pistons unbeaten with a 111-104 victory over the host Phoenix Suns last night. Billups had 27 points and 11 assists for the Pistons, the league's lone team without a loss. At 5-0, they are off to their best start since they won their first eight in 1988-89. The Suns, 0-3 at home, led by 11 with 2:38 to go in the third quarter and 8 to start the fourth, blowing a late lead at home for the second time this...

Lou Williams nailed the go-ahead 3-pointer, scored 14 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, and spoiled Kobe Bryant's record-setting night while leading the 76ers to 95-90 win over the Los Angeles Lakers last night in Philadelphia. With "Beat L.A.!" echoing through a second straight sellout crowd, Williams hit the tying jumper, then followed with the 3-pointer for a 91-88 lead. He hit another floater to make it 93-88, part of a fantastic fourth that saw him hold off Bryant and help the Sixers improve to 13-3 at home.

LOS ANGELES — Blake Griffin's jaw-dropping one-handed jam over Kendrick Perkins sent Los Angeles Clippers fans into a frenzy, fired up his teammates, lit up the Twitterverse and burned the Oklahoma City Thunder. Griffin had 22 points to go with Chris Paul's 26 points and 14 assists in a 112-100 victory Monday night that snapped the Thunder's four-game winning streak in a matchup of division leaders. Griffin downplayed his monster move after the game, a sly smile only briefly breaking his serious expression.

Blake Griffin's jaw-dropping one-handed jam over Kendrick Perkins sent Los Angeles Clippers fans into a frenzy, fired up his teammates, lit up the Twitterverse and burned the Oklahoma City Thunder. Griffin had 22 points to go with Chris Paul's 26 points and 14 assists in a 112-100 victory Monday night that snapped the Thunder's four-game winning streak in a matchup of division leaders. Griffin downplayed his monster move after the game, a sly smile only briefly breaking his serious expression.

Chauncey Billups' homecoming couldn't have gone better. He scored a season-high 32 points and drew a crucial foul in the waning seconds to help seal the Los Angeles Clippers' 109-105 victory that snapped the Denver Nuggets' six-game winning streak Sunday night. It was Billups' first game at the Pepsi Center since the Nuggets included him in the Carmelo Anthony blockbuster trade nearly a year ago. Billups received a rousing ovation during introductions, and some highlights of his days with the Nuggets were shown on the overhead scoreboards.

Brandon Jennings scored a season-high 36 points, and the Milwaukee Bucks won on the road for the first time this season by beating the New York Knicks 100-86 Friday night. The Bucks won for the sixth time in their last seven trips to New York, where they played better than a Knicks team that has lost five straight overall and heard frequent boos after turning the ball over or missing shots right at the rim all night. Milwaukee snapped a three-game overall skid and improved to 1-8 on the road.

Kevin Love hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer after Ricky Rubio's tying 3 with 20 seconds to play, lifting the Minnesota Timberwolves to a pulsating 101-98 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night. Darko Milicic had 22 points and seven rebounds for Minnesota before fouling out with 1:01 left, and Love had 17 points and 14 rebounds. The Timberwolves, coming off consecutive home wins over Sacramento and Detroit, have won three straight for the first time since a four-game stretch from Jan. 29 to Feb. 6, 2010.

Dirk Nowitzki matched his season high with 39 points and new starter Jose Juan Barea provided quite a spark in the fourth quarter, leading the Mavericks to a 112-97 victory over the Phoenix Suns last night in Dallas. Nowitzki had 37 points through three quarters and the Mavericks seemed to be comfortably headed to victory when the Suns began to make things interesting. But when they got within 10, former Northeastern star Barea - a 5-foot-11-inch backup point guard-turned-co-starter alongside Jason Kidd - helped Dallas regain control by single-handedly guiding a 10-0 run. Soon after, he nailed a 3-pointer that...

The Golden State Warriors aren't used to blizzards or early starts. They had to deal with both yesterday and it didn't go well in Auburn Hills, Mich. Tayshaun Prince scored 23 points, Antonio McDyess had 14 points and 11 rebounds, and the Pistons never trailed in beating the Warriors, 109-87. The game started at 12:30 p.m. and was played in a half-empty arena due to a major snowstorm in Detroit. "We weren't ready to play, and we got our butts kicked," Stephen Jackson said.

Chauncey Billups hit a winning 3-pointer with 1 second left as the Los Angeles Clippers stunned the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks 91-89 on Wednesday night. Mo Williams made his first seven shots and finished with 26 points off the bench in his return to the lineup from a sore right foot, and DeAndre Jordan had 19 points and nine rebounds for the undermanned Clippers, playing their third game in three days. Blake Griffin had 17 rebounds along with 14 points and seven assists — the last one setting up Billups' rainbow from the right of the key. Clippers point...

Chris Paul had 17 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in his Los Angeles Clippers debut and Chauncey Billups made an equally impressive first impression with his new club, scoring 23 points in a 114-95 victory over the Lakers on Monday night. The first of two preseason games between the teams followed a dizzying two-week media frenzy in both camps, during which time the Clippers acquired Paul from New Orleans right after the league squashed a proposed three-way deal that would have sent him to the Lakers.