Tuesday Night Games Recap

This Tuesday night’s NBA game exhibits 2 spectacular games. The first game was a battle between the teams of Toronto Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers which was held at the Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland , Ohio (7pm ET). The second game was between the Indiana pacers and the Miami Heat which was held at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida (7:30pm ET), Jan. 19, 2010. Here is a quick game recap of the said games.

 Toronto Raptors vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

Tuesday night’s initial game hailed the Cavs victorious over the Raps, 100-108. The game started with a jump ball from O’Neal and Bosh. Cleveland's Shaquille O'Neal added 16 points and became the fifth player in NBA history to surpass 28,000 in his career. With a layup in the opening minute, O'Neal joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Michael Jordan (32,292) and Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) as the only players to reach the milestone.

• LeBron James scored 28 points and performed a few signature dunks. Mo Williams added 22 and the Cleveland Cavaliers began a long stretch of home games over the next month. James had11 assists and nine rebounds as the Cavs, who just returned from a long road trip, improved to 15-3 at Quicken Loans Arena, where they'll play 10 of their next 12 before Feb. 19.
• Williams left briefly with a left shoulder strain but came back and hit the game's biggest shot, a 3-pointer with 5:27 left that gave the Cavs a 98-94 lead. Williams added 10 assists for the Cavs, who have won 10 straight home games over the Raptors.
• James found a cutting Anderson Varejao for a basket to put the Cavs up by six and then James, who has so far turned down a chance to compete in the All-Star weekend dunk contest, slammed one to make it 102-94. During the second quarter, James delivered a dunk that probably would have earned a few ``10s'' from the judges. Williams drove the baseline and delivered a no-look bounce pass to a slashing James, who caught the ball and double clutched before pounding it through the rim. In the first half, the Raptors did almost anything they wanted on offense. They got easy shots and moved the ball with ease against Cleveland's shoddy defense.
• Chris Bosh scored 21 for Toronto but was limited to just five after halftime by Cleveland's defense, which allowed 60 points in the opening half. The Raptors only scored 17 in the fourth.
• Andrea Bargnani scored 19 for Toronto, which lost for just the fourth time in 14 games.
• O'Neal's fourth personal flattened Jarrett Jack, who flopped to the floor and flung his arm to one side for dramatic effect. However, the rough fouls seemed to ignite Cleveland's D and the Cavs began to separate in the third quarter. They outscored the Raptors 18-10 over the final six minutes to open a 91-83 lead entering the fourth.
• Raptors G Sonny Weems pulled a rib cage muscle in pre-game warm-ups and sat out.
• Toronto guard Marco Belinelli returned after missing two games with the flu and scored 14.
• The league denied Atlanta's protest over a shot-clock error in a Dec. 30 loss to Cleveland.
James could have finished with a triple-double, but had a 10th rebound slip out of his hands with 29 seconds left. The Eastern Conference leaders will host the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.

 Indiana Pacers vs. Miami Heat

The Miami Heat outscored the Indiana Pacers leaving the final score at 83-113 on their game held at the American Airlines Arena at Miami (7:30 ET). The Miami Heat had no chance of losing to Indiana, not when guard Dwayne Wade scored 18 points in the first quarter and Miami held a 17-point lead at the end of the period. It was no surprise that the Heat crushed the Pacers, but the big surprise was Wade ended with only 32 points, and that's taking into account he didn't play a minute in the fourth quarter.

• Wade went 12-for-20 from the field with most of the points coming against Brandon Rush. Wade's first field goal was a 3-pointer, and that started the onslaught.
• The Heat built a 62-43 halftime lead by shooting 61 percent from the field and limiting the Pacers to 37.5 percent.
• The unguardable Wade ended with 25 first-half points, going 4-for-6 on 3-pointers, which tied his season best for 3-pointers in a game.
• The Heat, who holds the No. 5 playoff seed in the East, is locked in a tight battle with sixth-seeded Charlotte and seventh-seeded Toronto, with eighth-seeded Chicago not far behind. The Heat will visit Charlotte on Wednesday.

Although the Pacers are struggling mightily, it could be argued that Miami needed this game more. Indiana committed 12 first-half turnovers that Miami turned into 18 points. Miami has now defeated Indiana all three teams they've played this season, which represents quite a turnaround from how this series went last decade.

The Pacers have dominated the Heat since late in the 2001-02 seasons. But now, Indiana is nothing close to that squad. Indiana's offensive trio of forwards Granger (eight points), Troy Murphy (11 points, 12 rebounds) and Mike Dunleavy (nine points) were 8-for-33 (.242) from the field for 28 points. Granger was 2-for-16 from the field, which greatly pleased Heat coach Erik Spoelstra as much as Indiana's .365 field goal percentage.