Rodney Stuckey

Yesterday, Detroit gave Richard Hamilton a 3-year contract extension. Last night, he rewarded their generosity by scoring 19 points to lead the Pistons to a 101-83 win over the host Charlotte Bobcats. ESPN.com, citing a team source, reported that the deal was worth $34 million. Playing shorthanded hours after acquiring Allen Iverson in a blockbuster deal that sent Chauncey Billup, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb to Denver, the balanced Pistons toyed with former coach Larry Brown's new team, improving to 3-0. Rasheed Wallace added 15 points and four other players scored in double figures.

Michael Curry will be the Detroit Pistons' head coach next season after only 1 year as an assistant. Curry is set be introduced as Detroit's coach at a news conference today, Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars told the Associated Press. Dallas Mavericks guard Jerry Stackhouse, who played with Curry in Detroit, said Curry was like a player-coach during his career on the court. "It was just a matter of time," Stackhouse said a telephone interview with the AP yesterday.

LeBron James became the youngest player to score 15,000 career points, breaking Kobe Bryant's mark by 2 years, and the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers pulled away late to beat the Chicago Bulls, 92-85, last night, for their 12th win in 13 games. James scored 13 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, giving him 15,026 in his career, and had 11 rebounds. He scored seven straight late in the game as Cleveland sent the Bulls to their 10th straight loss. Mo Williams added 18 points for the Cavaliers, who continued to roll without the injured Shaquille O'Neal.

Yesterday was busy for the Miami Heat, beginning with surgery for center Alonzo Mourning and culminating with last night's 107-103 overtime loss to the visiting New Jersey Nets. Mourning, injured in Wednesday night's loss at Atlanta, had surgery to repair torn knee and quadriceps tendons in his right leg. He is likely out for the season and perhaps done for his career. He previously has said that this would be his final season. Mourning's injury was tinged by irony: It came on the fourth anniversary of the kidney transplant that saved his life.

Mike Woodson couldn't remember another homestand in his 26 years as an NBA player and coach as long as the eight-game stretch his Atlanta Hawks just completed. The Hawks went 7-1, with their only loss to Boston. "It's huge," Woodson said. "I've never been part of a schedule that had eight straight home games. It can either help you or hurt you, and in our case it helped. " Joe Johnson scored 25 points and the Hawks beat the visiting Denver Nuggets, 109-91, last night to close out the homestand with a long-awaited milestone.

Rajon Rondo scored 18 of his 26 points in the third quarter to help the Boston Celtics tie a franchise record with their 18th straight win, beating the visiting New York Knicks 124-105 yesterday. "Rondo was unbelievable in the third quarter," Kevin Garnett said. "He totally took the game over. " [Rondo's] fast and he's playing with some good guys," said Knicks' coach Mike D'Antoni. The win improved Boston's record to 26-2, matching the NBA mark for the best start by a team with two losses.

The Detroit Pistons are starting to see the benefits of the painful rebuilding process that started when they traded Chauncey Billups to Denver. Charlie Villanueva scored 27 points, and Rodney Stuckey had 25 to help the banged-up Pistons hold on for a 101-99 victory over the visiting Nuggets last night. Billups missed a layup in the final seconds, allowing the Pistons to run their winning streak to a season-best four games. "I got what I wanted," Billups said. "But I tried to get the foul too much.

The New Jersey Nets won for the first time this season, ending the worst start in NBA history at 18 losses by beating the visiting Charlotte Bobcats, 97-91, last night. Brook Lopez had 31 points and 14 rebounds, and Courtney Lee scored a career-high 27 points in his return to the starting lineup for the Nets in their first game under Kiki Vandeweghe, their general manager who will coach the rest of the season. Fans stood and cheered in the final minute as the Nets, who set the record for worst start with their loss to Dallas on Wednesday night, won for the first time since April 13, when they also beat the Bobcats.

Dwyane Wade scored 39 points in the first 47 minutes yesterday. In the final minute, he turned into a defensive specialist. Wade blocked two shots in the final 22 seconds and Udonis Haslem scored six points in the last 6.3 as the Miami Heat rallied for a 101-96 victory over the shorthanded Detroit Pistons at Auburn Hills, Mich.. Detroit led for the first 3 1/2 quarters, and appeared ready to pull within a game of fifth-place Miami in the Eastern Conference standings, but Wade and Haslem made sure it didn't happen.

Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points, making the go-ahead jumper with 4.9 seconds left and blocking a potential winning attempt, helping the visiting New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers, 110-109, last night for their seventh straight win. "It was a big game for us confidence-wise," Anthony said. "Coming down the stretch, finishing out the regular season with some good momentum, trying to make a big push. Tonight was another game we had to finish out. " Chauncey Billups had 21 points and seven assists, and Toney Douglas scored 14 for the Knicks, who moved a game ahead of the idle 76ers for the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff chase.

Carmelo Anthony scored 19 points, Tyson Chandler collected 12 points and 12 rebounds, and the visiting New York Knicks defeated the Orlando Magic, 96-80, on Thursday night. J.R. Smith and Toney Douglas each added 15 points for the Knicks, who won for just the third time in their last 13 visits to Orlando. New York also hit 13 three-point shots. Jason Richardson scored 16 points and Glen Davis 15 to lead Orlando. The Magic's loss came on the heels of coach Stan Van Gundy's comments Thursday morning that included his saying he had heard from top team officials that Dwight Howard has asked that he be fired.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - After wondering where their offense has been for the better part of the last month, the 76ers found it here Tuesday against a team that has been in search of it all season. Looking fresh and revived - and nothing like the team that struggled to score points, the Sixers built a 26-point third-quarter lead and cruised to a 97-68 victory against a moribund Detroit team that looked as if it wanted to be anywhere else but on the court at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The New Jersey Nets honored the late Whitney Houston by playing her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" from the 1991 Super Bowl before their game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night. The Newark-born singer died in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday at the age of 48. Her funeral will be Saturday in Newark at the New Hope Baptist Church, where she sang as a child. She will be buried in Fair View Cemetery in Westfield, where her father, John Russell Houston Jr., was buried in 2003.

Through five games, Jodie Meeks was the one 76er who had gotten into a game but really hadn't made his presence felt. Can't say that anymore. Meeks, who before Friday's home opener had made just 9 of 29 shots from the field, caught fire and scored 17 of his season-high 21 points in the fourth quarter as the Sixers christened the home portion of their season with a 96-73 romp over the Detroit Pistons at the Wells Fargo Center. The last team to play a home game this season, the Sixers faced a Detroit team that was without its starting backcourt of Rodney Stuckey (groin)

Through five games, Jodie Meeks had been the one 76er who had gotten into a game but really hadn't made his presence felt. Can't say that anymore. Meeks, who before Friday's home opener had made just 9 of 29 shots from the field, caught fire and scored all but four of his season-high 21 points in the fourth quarter as the Sixers christened the home portion of their season with a 96-73 romp over the Detroit Pistons at the Wells Fargo Center. The Sixers, who play 17 of their next 21 games at home, have won three in a row and improved to 4-2. Meeks was 7 for 12 against the Pistons.

Boston Celtics forward Jeff Green will have surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm and will miss the entire season, the team announced on Saturday. Green is scheduled for an operation on Monday. Doctors have told him the operation "should completely repair Green's condition and that he can expect to resume his NBA career next season," the Celtics said. If so, the timing of his training-camp exam - and the end of the NBA lockout - may have saved Green's life and helped the Celtics avert a tragedy like the 1993 death of Reggie Lewis, who died of heart problems on a practice court in the prime of his career.

Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points, making the go-ahead jumper with 4.9 seconds left and blocking a potential winning attempt, helping the visiting New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers, 110-109, last night for their seventh straight win. "It was a big game for us confidence-wise," Anthony said. "Coming down the stretch, finishing out the regular season with some good momentum, trying to make a big push. Tonight was another game we had to finish out. " Chauncey Billups had 21 points and seven assists, and Toney Douglas scored 14 for the Knicks, who moved a game ahead of the idle 76ers for the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff chase.

It's a feat that wouldn't raise eyebrows in San Antonio, or be a big deal in Laker land, but the 76ers have reached territory that has been foreign for the longest of times. With Friday's 110-94 win over the Detroit Pistons at the Wells Fargo Center, the Sixers improved to 29-29. They are at the .500 level for the first time since Nov. 11, 2009, when they were 4-4. Considering last year's 27-win fiasco and this year's 3-13 start, the Sixers have made a serious turnaround. "This is a great night for our team and our fans," Sixers coach Doug Collins said.

THIS TIME last season, the 76ers were in the same predicament the Detroit Pistons are in now. The players didn't like the coach; the record was abysmal. Playing basketball had become a chore more than anything else. The train wreck that is the Pistons rolled into town, halfheartedly played a game, lost, 110-94, then headed for the team bus seemingly without a care in the world. And probably without coach John Kuester for too much longer. But the Sixers can't worry about other teams' trials and tribulations.

Which is the bigger surprise - that after 132 games the 76ers are finally back to .500 for the first time since Nov. 11, 2009, or that yet another NBA trade deadline has passed and Andre Iguodala is still with the team? Admit it. That is a close one. Just about every season for the last few years, Iguodala has been rumored to be moving on to one team or another. Those things will happen when a struggling team has an $80 million asset on the roster. Often, teams look to dump contracts, and Iguodala's certainly is a big one. The chatter continued this season, when the Sixers opened the season 3-13.