NBA Roundup: It's Much More Difficult For Kobe To Score His Number These Days

Notes from Friday's games in the National Basketball Association:

Kobe Shackled. The Detroit Pistons pretended to again be a team interested in defense last night, locking Kobe Bryant up like he committed some kind of crime. He scored just two points through the first three quarters. He did pad his stats in the fourth quarter, finishing with 17, but those points were as meaningless as his wedding vows. Tayshaun Prince had 31 for the Pistons, who won 97-83.

This Is Yao We Do It. Yao Ming dominated Eddy Curry last night, which I'm sure comes as a huge surprise to all of you huge Eddy Curry fans. Yao scored 35, grabbed 17 boards, and blocked 7 shots. Five of those blocks were in the first half, and four were on Curry. Jerome James is getting frustrated with his lack of playing time, too. "I know I'm not Tim Duncan. Neither am I Kevin Garnett," he said. Nor are you Brian Scalabrine, really. Good luck, though.

Winless No More. The Nuggets finally got a win, becoming the very last team in the NBA to do so. Carmelo Anthony went for 31, finally showing some of that Olympic sizzle. They held on to beat the Sixers, who got one of those vintage Allen Iverson performances (6-of-20 shooting). The Nugs were without Kenyon Martin, as they probably will be for a very long time. He needs surgery on some loose cartilage.