Houston Rockets 95, Portland Trail Blazers 86: Tracy McGrady scored 35 points, 26 of which came in the second half, helping Houston push its way to victory against the Trail Blazers. “There’s going to be a team that wins 50 games and doesn’t make the playoffs,” he said. “So it’s a battle out there. I love it.” Houston has a four game lead over the Nuggets, who currently hold the final eighth spot. Houston plays Seattle twice and the Clippers twice, giving them arguably the easiest schedule of teams aiming for the playoffs. Their remaining three games are at Denver, at Utah, and Phoenix at home.

LA Clippers 98, Sacramento Kings 110: Can someone please get Elton Brand out of LA? Or at least send him to that other team in LA? The Clippers lost again, will again have a lotto pick this summer, and again will be bad next year, barring some kind of miraculous turnaround/huge pickup in free agency. The Kings, who are slowly approaching .500 ball, were led by Kevin Martin’s 26 points.

Chicago Bulls 101, Cleveland Cavaliers 98: LBJ had 33 points for the Cavs, but the rest of Cleveland didn’t do much to show up. Since the Cavs acquired Ben Wallace in the trade, they’re only 10-10, and only three of those wins are against current playoff teams.