News from December 17. Portland signed Anthony Toliver and placed Greg Oden (left knee surgery, out for the season) on IL. Phoenix activated Taylor Griffin and placed Jason Richardson (sprained ankle) on IL. Miami activated Quentin Richardson and placed Yakhouba Diawara on IL. New York placed activated Jonathan Bender and placed Larry Hughes (strained left groin) on IL. Mia 104, Orl 86 at Mia Michael Beasley (Mia) had 22 points and 8 rebounds. Dwyane Wade (Mia) had 25 points including 10-17 FG, 7 assists, and 3 blocks. Dorell Wright (Mia) had 11 points and 8 rebounds. Dwight Howard (Orl) had 17 points and 14 rebounds. J.J. Redick (Orl) had 13 points and 5 rebounds. Chi 98, NY 89 at Chi Luol Deng (Chi) had 24 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 assists. Derrick Rose (Chi) had 18 points and 6 assists. John Salmons (Chi) had 20 points and 7 rebounds. Al Harrington (NY) had 18 points including 5-18 FG and 4-13 3-pointers and 6 rebounds. Chris Duhon (NY) had 18 points including 5-10 3-pointers and 7 assists. Chi shot 3-9 3-pointers and NY shot 16-47 3-pointers [2nd most (49) 3-pointers attempted in a game in NBA history]. Por 105, Pho 102 at Por Brandon Roy (Por) had 27 points including 7-11 FG, 8 rebounds, and 3 steals. LaMarcus Aldridge (Por) had 15 points including 5-15 FG and 7 rebounds. Jerryd Bayless (Por) had 29 points on 9-15 FG and 9-12 FT. Grant Hill (Pho) had 20 points and 3 steals. Amare Stoudemire (Pho) had 27 points including 9-11 FG and 11 rebounds. Rudy Fernandez (Por, back surgery) and Travis Outlaw (Por, foot surgery) did not play. [All 3 home teams won.] Schedule for Friday, December 18 (All times Central) New Jersey @ Toronto 6:00 pm Utah @ Atlanta 6:30 pm Philadelphia @ Boston 6:30 pm Milwaukee @ Cleveland 7:00 pm ESPN Indiana @ Memphis 7:00 pm Sacramento @ Minnesota 7:00 pm Denver @ New Orleans 7:00 pm LA Clippers @ New York 7:00 pm Detroit @ Oklahoma City 7:00 pm Houston @ Dallas 7:30 pm Washington @ Golden State 9:30 pm ESPN ---- Patricia Bender pbender@eskimo.com For NBA stuff: http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/index.html For Mavs stuff: http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/mavs.html