Ben Gordon scored 22 of his career-high 35 points in the fourth quarter Wednesday night to lead the Chicago Bulls to their seventh straight win, 102-99 over the Charlotte Bobcats.

``I was just feeling it,'' said Gordon, who scored the Bulls' final 16 points. ``I was getting good looks, I was freeing myself up, and all I needed was a split second.''

Fellow rookie Emeka Okafor had 17 points and 10 rebounds, another solid but far from spectacular night.

``When Ben gets in a zone, he just turns it on,'' Okafor said. ``I was with him for three years, so I've seen everything.''

Vince Carter scored 39 points as the Nets barely beat the Charlotte Bobcats 95-91 on Monday.

``It was important for us to find some energy, so I just tried to get us started early,'' Carter said. ``Once I got going and got double-teamed, it opened things up for everyone else. In the situation were in, we have to have the mentality to get off to a fast start.''

``Vince is an All-Star, we all know he's going to get his, but we still had a chance to win,'' Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace said. ``If you execute and do what you have to do on the offensive end, you can still win. We didn't do that tonight.''

``You have to find a way to win, and they are not all going to be masterpieces, especially coming off two losses,'' Lawrence Frank said. ``Winning on the road is not easy, and Charlotte competes hard every night.''

Just one night after defeating the Phoenix Suns, the Miami Heat went up to Charlotte and were defeated by expansion Bobcats by a final score of 94-92.

Primoz Brezec was dominant, scoring 27 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.  Gerald Wallace chipped in 17, while Rookie of the Year candidate Emeka Okafor had 17 points.

Shaquille O'Neal was his usual solid self, scoring 26 points with 16 rebounds.

Charlotte went up big at the half, outscoring the Heat 27-13 in the 2nd quarter.

For the second time in four days, the Charlotte Bobcats defeated the Orlando Magic, this time 108-94 on the road.

Emeka Okafor had 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Bobcats.

The Magic have lost nine of their last 10 and are now a game and a half out of the playoffs.

``We need some leadership both from the coaching staff and our veterans to say 'Hey, listen, we still have a lot of games left,' `` said Magic coach Chris Jent, 1-3 since taking over for Johnny Davis. ``People are writing us off, but stranger things have happened. We have to not feel sorry for ourselves but go out there and play a game we love.''

``This game shows we're learning, we're evolving,'' Okafor said. ``We've been in situations like this before and learned from our mistakes. We never panicked, we never rushed, we stayed poised the whole way.''

The Charlotte Bobcats today activated forward Gerald Wallace from the injured list and placed forward Theron Smith on the injured list with right knee swelling, it was announced by Bobcats General Manager and Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff.  Wallace will be in uniform for tonight?s home game against Phoenix.

Wallace has appeared in 53 games (52 starts) this season and averaged 11.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 30.0 minutes.  His 1.7 steals ranked him seventh in the NBA.  Wallace missed only five games this season prior to the bruised ribs injury, four games with a grade-2 concussion from December 4-10 and one game with a right wrist sprain on February 26.  He is the Bobcats fourth leading scorer and third leading rebounder.  Over his last 10 games played, he averaged 13.2 points and connected on .452 (48-106) from the field.  His rib injury occurred with 2:14 left to play in the fourth quarter of the Bobcats game at Minnesota on March 8 and he missed seven games with the injury.

Smith has appeared in 33 games (five starts) this season and averaged 3.2 points and 3.5 rebounds in 15.5 minutes. This will mark Smith?s third stint on the injured list, having missed the first 18 games of the season due to right knee surgery from November 4 to December 12.  He missed 11 games from January 11 through January 30 with right knee tendinitis.

After receiving the good news that Steve Francis would only be suspended for three games, the Magic managed to blow a 16-point lead against the expansion Bobcats on Monday night.

Brevin Knight's jumper with 12.4 seconds to play gave the Bobcats a 102-97 victory, breaking their 10-game losing streak.

``It's frustrating, but we're going to get to the playoffs,'' Dwight Howard vowed. ``We've got 15 more games left. We can't let any more slip away like this.''

``They kept playing. They outplayed us,'' new coach Chris Jent said. ``It takes a lot of commitment to play 48 minutes. We gave a great effort, but we played a half of basketball and that's not enough.''

The Spurs picked up their 50th victory of the season and clinched a spot in the playoffs, beating the Charlotte Bobcats by a final score of 93-76.

Tony Parker was through for the night at the end of the third quarter but still managed 24 points, five rebounds and five assists. Tim Duncan played a few minutes of the fourth quarter and finished with 19 points and six rebounds.

The Spurs and Suns are contending for the best record in the Western Conference.

Kenyon Martin is suffering from patella tendinitis in his left knee.  While the extent of the injury remains unknown Martin has has been listed as questionable for Wednesday night?s home game versus the Charlotte Bobcats.

Martin is averaging 15.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per game this season, his first with Denver.

The Nuggets had won eight games in a row before losing to the Suns on Sunday.

Sixty games through an often difficult season, Kobe Bryant had displayed the occasional heroics, but had yet to hit a game-winning basket.

On the sixty-first game, he delivered.

Bryant?s shot from the top of the key with 0.9 seconds left capped a 21-point fourth quarter explosion, and gave the Lakers a stunning, 117-116 come-from-behind victory over the Charlotte Bobcats.

The win gave the Lakers consecutive road victories for the first time all season, after Thursday?s 100-95 win at Dallas. And it kept the Lakers (32-29) tied for the eighth spot in the West with the red-hot Denver Nuggets, winners of eight straight.

But back to Kobe.

All season long, he?s labored under the pressure of expectations. The Lakers had become his team, but too often, they played like no one?s idea of a team. The expected fourth quarter Kobe theatrics- so taken for granted during the Shaq years ? had become unusually sparse recently. Time after time, Bryant would pile up the points for the first three quarters, then be a non-factor in the fourth.

Tonight, he reversed that trend. For three quarters, Bryant had been held in check, hitting only 4 of 12 shots for 11 points. The expansion Bobcats, enjoying their second sellout crowd of the season, led 100-90 halfway through the fourth. Rookie standout Emeka Okafor was on his way to a career high 30 points. The crowd was rocking. Then came the eruption: six straight Bryant baskets, three of them three-pointers ? to lead a Lakers charge that brought them within 110-108.

They were within 116-113 when Bryant drove the lane, found it blocked by a double-team, and kicked it out to Tierre Brown for a corner jumper. Brown shot an airball, which fortunately landed in the arms of Jumaine Jones, whose putback brought the Lakers to within 1. A Charlotte miss gave the Lakers the ball back with 6.8 seconds remaining.

Bobcats guard Keith Bogans had the unenviable task of trying to stop Bryant, who took the ball at midcourt, drove right at Bogans, then pump faked twice. Bogans didn?t foul ? but he didn?t stay on his feet, either. Bryant waited till Bogans landed, then calmly soared above him and sank a 20-footer. A last-second Bobcats shot wasn?t close.

After admonishing reporters earlier in the week for assuming the Lakers would fold on this current six-game road trip, Bryant had to be feeling good. He finished with 32 points, hitting 8 of 12 in the fourth. Four other Lakers scored in double figures, with Chucky Atkins (26 points) providing a potent 1-2 punch with Bryant

After falling out of the playoff race Tuesday night, the Lakers cleared the air with a heart-to-heart meeting on Wednesday, and some magic words must?ve been said. The trip turns tough next week, with back-to-back games at Washington and Philadelphia, and the Kobe-Shaq rematch in Miami on St. Patrick?s Day. Hopefully, Bryant will have saved some fourth quarter magic.

The Bobcats will be facing the 76ers tonight without starting forward Melvin Ely. The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that he will miss the game due to bruised ribs.

Ely is averaging 7 points and 4 rebounds per game for the 12-46 Bobcats.