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• The Clippers have effectively replaced veteran backcourt scorer Chauncey Billups with veteran front court defender Kenyon Martin. Has that exchange made them legitimate title contenders?
• We're getting some statistical proof that coaches may call too many timeouts at the end of games. Don't have the numbers to back it up, but I'd wager that a similar phenomenon is at work at the end of the first half, when coaches compulsively spend their "use 'em or lose 'em" timeouts.
• What does Keith Smart talk to Jimmer Fredette about to help the rookie break out of his funk?
• Oracle Arena is the coolest. Earlier this week East Bay rapper Too $hort dropped in unannounced to perform with the Warriors dancers during a third quarter timeout. Then Dave Chapelle appeared in the locker room. Nate Robinson is the guy in the background yelling lines from "Half Baked."
• Greg Oden's health trials have been painful for him, and those who root for him. Now, while Oden copes with another surgery, that second group is feeling some sympathy fatigue.
• Interesting thought here on the Monta Ellis vs. Steph Curry debate in the Bay Area: "Choosing is more important than whom they choose" because what the Warriors really need is a big man. Speaking of which...
• The Lakers are the definition of top heavy, with three great players and about 10 awful ones (and Matt Barnes). John Hollinger (Insider) makes a great case for why LA should unload one great player in exchange for a few good ones to even out the roster. He recommends they move Pau ... now how does Gasol and Steve Blake for Monta Ellis and David Lee sound?
• Jeremy Schmidt wants the Bucks to sell high on the suddenly studly Ersan Ilyasova.
• Meanwhile Queen City Hoops urges the Bobcats not to give up on Tyrus Thomas. At least while Boris Diaw is the alternative.
• The Lakers used a clever double action to get Troy Murphy an and-one. Also notable on that play: Andrew Bynum's slick bounce pass.
• Writes Jay Kaspian King, "regardless of what the polite rules of our post-racial society might say about conflating athletes into symbols or talking too much about race, Jeremy Lin-as-symbol-for-his-people has already arrived." There's no question! This is easily the most complex current in the swirling of story lines surrounding Jeremy Lin. Over at HoopSpeak, I reflect on playing pick-up with two Asian-Americans who had very different reactions to being called "Jeremy."
• Rick Adelman has the Timberwolves running some beautiful motion-based sets to get Kevin Love a few easy buckets.
• Flawed though they are, the Suns still play some pretty, self-less basketball. Wizard bloggers wish their team would learn a thing or two from it.

(The Dallas Mavericks host the Los Angeles Lakers, Wednesday at 9:30 ET on ESPN)

Last month, the Lakers scored a season-low 73 points, but still managed to beat the Mavericks, 73-70. Although 73 points is low for the Lakers, their offense has struggled all season to score.

Last season, the Lakers averaged 101.5 points on 94 possessions per game. This season, they rank 22nd in the league in scoring (93.3 PPG) even though they are averaging 93 possessions per game.

The Lakers’ 102-90 loss on Sunday against the Phoenix Suns typified their offensive struggles, especially behind the arc. They shot 3-of-18 on 3-point attempts, and for the season the Lakers are shooting 30.1 percent from 3-point range -- down more than 5 percent from last season.

They shot 1-of-16 (6.3 percent) on 3-point attempts in a road loss to the Kings on Dec. 26, and failed to make a 3-pointer on 11 attempts in a road loss at Portland on Jan. 5. It was the first time Los Angeles failed to make a 3-point shot in a game since Nov. 16, 2003 against the Miami Heat.

Derek Fisher and Metta World Peace are posting career-low percentages on 3-point attempts, and Kobe Bryant, Steve Blake and Matt Barnes are shooting below their career marks as well.

Beyond their shooting struggles, the Lakers have not been able to run this season. They have the fewest transition points (330) in the league and average only 10.3 transition points per game. Only 8.6 percent of the Lakers’ plays have come in transition this season, second-fewest in the league behind the Orlando Magic.

Bench production has been another area of concern after the departures of Lamar Odom (14.4 PPG last season) and Shannon Brown (8.8 PPG last season). The Lakers have the fewest bench points in the NBA this season, 21.5 bench points per game, compared with 28.2 last season.

All of the Lakers’ offensive struggles have been magnified in road games where they are 5-11 this season, compared with 14-2 at the Staples Center.

• Geoff Calkins of The Commercial-Appeal: As slogans go, it’s not quite Grind House. But the fundamental spirit is the same. It’s what this team is, once again. It’s how it has survived and thrived. The Grizzlies defeated the Philadelphia 76ers at FedExForum Tuesday night, 89-76, lifting their record without Zach Randolph to 18-12. Yes, 18-12. Six games over .500. Raise your hand if you thought that was possible when Randolph was felled against the Bulls. I know, the Grizzlies had done it before. They went on their playoff run after Gay went down. But this was Z-Bo. This was a completely different deal. Or not, as it has turned out. The Grizzlies just went back to work. And if that can sound cliché, it’s also true. The NBA is obsessed with individual stars. More than any other professional league. See Linsanity. See LeBron or Kevin Durant. Small wonder the Grizzlies have once again receded in the national consciousness. They don’t seem to give a flip about any of that. In a world of glitz and glitter, they’re still grit and grind.
• Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: Speights played in his 28th game for the Grizzlies last night, getting his 26th start. He scored 12 points in 21 minutes. He has been a key cog for a team that is missing forward Zach Randolph with a torn right medial collateral ligament, averaging close to nine points and just under seven rebounds in 23 minutes. ... Much like Speights needed to get out of Philadelphia. "Everything has been great here," Speights said. "They've welcomed me, the fans welcomed me and the coaches and players. I just go out there and play my basketball. I can't be another [Randolph]. He does what he does and I do what I do. It just gives me a chance to come out here and do what I do to help win games." Unlike Philadelphia, Memphis is using Speights primarily as a power forward instead of a center. It is, he said, a more natural fit for him. "I can stretch their offense, get more bigs on the floor. This is a hard-defending team so I just go out there and do the things that I do - take charges and rebound. That's my natural position, power forward, because I can put the ball on the ground and shoot it and all that. But when guys come in like Thaddeus Young and players like that, then I'd rather play center. [In Memphis], I'm usually playing with another big guy."
• Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News: Sure, the 11-game winning streak was fun while it lasted. But the NBA is all about positioning for the playoffs. And playing starters for extended minutes in February doesn’t make much sense, particularly when injuries and back-to-back games start piling up during the most difficult road trip of the season. Gregg Popovich can’t be faulted for resting Tim Duncan and Tony Parker in his team’s 137-97 blowout loss Tuesday night at Portland. The Spurs are already struggling without Tiago Splitter, Manu Ginobili and T.J. Ford. Those injuries led to Duncan playing nearly 79combined minutes in his last two games. You don’t ask a 35-year-old player to play those minutes and then demand much on the back end of a back-to-back. During the month of February, Parker has played at least 38 minutes in five games. His minutes in the last two games ranked among his top 11 games of the season. It made sense to give him a chance a night of rest on Tuesday night, too. “Those guys are out and I can’t run our other guys into the ground,” Popovich told reporters after the game. “When it’s time for them to rest based on the schedule and the time they’ve been playing, that’s what’s got to happen if you want to put some money in the bank for later.”
• Jason Quick of The Oregonian: The score was lopsided, the game uncompetitive at the Rose Garden on Tuesday, a big Trail Blazers win thanks to the calculated resting of San Antonio stars Tim Duncan and Tony Parker by coach Gregg Popovich and the suddenly hot shooting of Portland guards Jamal Crawford and Raymond Felton. But behind the scenes, another game was being played Tuesday, and it was quite the nail-biter for Blazers management. The game is the competition for the services of free agent center Joel Przybilla. According to agent Bill Duffy, who spent halftime sitting courtside with team president Larry Miller, Przybilla is expected to make a decision Wednesday between signing with Miami, Chicago, Milwaukee or Portland ... or remaining idle at his home in Milwaukee, where he is an All-Star father to his two sons. "I think Portland is always the sentimental favorite for obvious reasons," Duffy said. "Joel has a home here and he had the best years of his career here. And at this particular time, it looks like he is needed, too." The Blazers have made an offer to the 32-year-old center for the remainder of the season. Now they are waiting. Hoping. Wondering.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: Fourth quarters are supposed to belong to veteran players, men who have learned over time to harness their emotions as the possessions grow few and consequences for mistakes escalate. So what 19-year-old Kyrie Irving is doing in his rookie season almost defies logic and -- in the case of his no-look, over-the-shoulder pass to Alonzo Gee -- description. He is becoming one of the kings of late-night basketball and his band of Cavaliers teammates are only too happy to tag along. Irving led another furious fourth-quarter rally as the Cavaliers stunned the Detroit Pistons, 101-100, before 13,459 fans in The Q. The first-year point guard scored 17 of his 25 points in the final period to erase an 11-point deficit. Irving and Gee combined for 30 of the Cavs' 35 points in the quarter. It marks the fifth time this season the Cavs (13-17) have come back from 11 or more points to win. They trailed by as many as 17 points late in the third quarter Tuesday night.
• Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press: It's ridiculous ripping on the Pistons for winning those precious few games in a season that ultimately gets defined by where they'll eventually fall in this spring's draft lottery. Worse, it's hypocritical. Those upset that the Pistons' recent success might cost them a top-five pick in what some consider the deepest NBA draft since 2003 -- when LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade went in the top five -- need to look at the calendar. An anniversary's approaching. It's nothing worth celebrating, but certainly remembering. The mutiny wasn't simply an embarrassment for the Pistons, it remains a popular reference point for those fed up with the perceived inmate-run, ego-driven asylum that has become the NBA. Several Pistons deliberately blew off the morning shoot-around in Philadelphia on Feb. 25, 2011, in an orchestrated protest against coach John Kuester. The players involved were justly criticized for their unprofessionalism and for basically not caring what people thought about them. If that outraged you, then these Pistons playing like they actually care and respect the game should be a source of modest pride -- even if it won't get them to the playoffs and eventually costs them a realistic chance at an impact player in the draft. You can't have it both ways.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: Former North Central High School and Indiana University star Eric Gordon will experience free agency for the first time in his four-year NBA career this summer. The soon-to-be restricted free agent has no idea where he'll play next season, but he knows his hometown team, the Indiana Pacers, is on the list of teams he finds intriguing. The New Orleans Hornets will be able to match any offer made to Gordon this summer. "It's going to be interesting," Gordon said Tuesday. "It's all about whatever happens, happens. Coming back here would be a lot of pressure, but I think it would be good for the fans. We'll see. You never know where this summer will take me." Gordon has been on the minds of most Pacers fans since he and the Hornets failed to agree to a contract extension last month. The Pacers could use a scorer like Gordon, but it's unknown how aggressively they would pursue him. He's averaging 18.1 points in his career. The Pacers will have salary cap space but do not have a history of pursing restricted free agents. The other issue is that Gordon has had a difficult time staying healthy. He has played more than 62 games in a season only once.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Although the Hornets listed him as having a bone bruise on his right knee, guard Eric Gordon admitted Tuesday his injury was more serious, involving cartilage damage. Gordon said arthroscopic surgery was performed last week to remove cartilage debris from his knee. Before Gordon gave details Tuesday, Hornets officials had only disclosed that a surgical procedure was performed to clean up his right knee. “First off, you can label it as a bone bruise, or say so,’’ Gordon said. “Of course, it was a little more serious than that. It was a little bit of cartilage damage that came about, but nothing more serious than that. “I had a little cartilage debris. That happens when you have damage to a cartilage, and that was that — and I needed it. I’ve never had surgery before. All you can do is listen to the doctors as far as moving forward, and I know the timing sucked, but no one knew how serious it was. We went through multiple doctors, and the only way we could find out is (to) go in there.’’ Gordon also admitted he first experienced pain his right knee when he still was with the Los Angeles Clippers, before a blockbuster trade that sent him to the Hornets, with Al-Farouq Aminu and Chris Kaman, in exchange for All-Star point guard Chris Paul. “At that time I thought it was nothing serious because I was fine and nothing was swollen,’’ Gordon said. Gordon has not played since Jan. 4, against the Philadelphia 76ers.
• Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald: The Jeremy Lin effect: Ticket of America’s Michael Lipman said courtside seats for Thursday’s Knicks-at-Heat game are selling for $6000 behind the basket, with one sideline courtside seat going to a rapper for $12,500 – both double what Lakers-at-Heat and the Celtics-at-Heat home opener commanded. Those sideline courtside seats cost $1500 to $2000 for most games. One went for $20,000 in the NBA Finals.
• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: Spoelstra has resisted all Lin questions of late, and his players had grown weary of them. Now they know they can't avoid them. Spoelstra acknowledged that Thursday "will be a game that won't require a lot of motivation by either team." Chalmers admitted that he was "definitely excited about a matchup like that, especially with the media hype." But Wade said he wasn't losing sleep over it: "It's not the Finals or anything." There might be a special guest. President Barack Obama has a fundraiser scheduled at the University of Miami on Thursday afternoon, and Heat officials are preparing for the possibility that he will attend. With seven rebounds, including one on a one-handed putback dunk that brought Wade out of his seat and onto the floor, Haslem passed former center (and current DJ) Rony Seikaly to become the second-leading rebounder in Heat history. "Eventually, he will be the mayor of this town," Spoelstra said. Wade laughed at speculation in New York that he will be distracted Thursday by the All-Star party he's hosting in Orlando after the game. "That's hilarious. I don't even know what to say about that one. I think I've shown that I'm a pretty focused guy, I know how to focus on the task at hand. I had way more things going on than a party, with big games."
• Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: It's hard for Isaiah Thomas to enjoy nights like Tuesday. For the second game in a row, the Kings rookie guard set a season high in scoring. He finished with 24 points, highlighted by a third quarter in which he tied the team record for three-pointers in a quarter with five and scored 20 points. But the Kings lost to the Miami Heat 120-108 at AmericanAirlines Arena. It was Sacramento's sixth straight defeat, its longest skid of the season. The Kings' ability to stay close to Miami – with All-Stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh – for most of the night didn't console Thomas. "It's pointless," Thomas said. "You're doing good, but you're not getting over the hump. Somehow, some way we've got to get over this hump. We're in games for long periods of time, and then with the good teams, they go on a 10-0 run, and that hurts us. We've got to figure something out and try to stop that." The last King with 20 or more points in a quarter was Kevin Martin, who scored 24 in the fourth quarter Feb. 23, 2009, against New Orleans. Thomas' 20-point outburst was the biggest by a Heat opponent in a quarter this season and, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the biggest by a Kings rookie in a quarter since at least the 2000-01 season.
• Tony Bizjak of The Sacramento Bee: National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern on Tuesday said the Sacramento Kings owners have agreed to make a substantial contribution to the city's $387 million arena deal, but he did not disclose how much. Stern said he expects negotiations between the league and city to continue into the weekend. "There is a lot of discussion going on," he told TNT. "We're hoping by the March 1 deadline there will be a financing plan that makes sense." Asked what will happen if there is no deal by that deadline date, he said, "We'll see. Here we go again." During the interview with TNT's David Aldridge, Stern, however, indicated he considered any contribution to the arena from the probable arena operator, AEG, to be a team contribution.

PORTLAND -- Our first clue that the San Antonio Spurs’ league-best 11-game winning streak might be coming to a self-inflicted end came when coach Gregg Popovich announced his starting point guard to the assembled media:

"Cory Alexander."

That’s not who Popovich meant to say, obviously -- Cory Alexander was a bit player for the Spurs a long, long time ago. So long ago that your correspondent went to college with him.

The name he was looking for was Cory Joseph, but you could forgive Popovich his lack of familiarity. He had started All-Star Tony Parker at the point every game this season until Tuesday, when he opted to rest Parker and fellow star Tim Duncan, play his kids and "put some money in the bank" for the rest of the season.

With the Spurs starting Joseph, Richard Jefferson, Kawhi Leonard, DeJuan Blair and Danny Green, Popovich mostly chilled on the sidelines as his Spurs were thrashed by the Portland Trail Blazers 137-97, dropping the Spurs' record on the season to 23 wins, nine losses and one DNP-Coach’s Decision.

A 41-point Portland explosion in the first quarter -- nearly six times their output a night earlier in L.A. against the Lakers -- put the Spurs’ JV team out of its misery early, with newly instated started Jamal Crawford hitting four 3-pointers and getting fouled for three shots on a fifth.

Knowing what fate likely awaited, Popovich had some fun with it, slowly dragging us along before the game before revealing that Duncan and Parker wouldn’t play and who his other starters would be.

“What’s our rookie’s name, the guy we drafted? Kawhi? Kawhi Leonard at 3," he said.

Popovich opted to rest his stars because of the grueling “Rodeo road trip” that San Antonio is undertaking, when a rodeo takes over their home court at AT&T Center for three weeks. They haven’t played at home since Feb. 4 and have traveled to both coasts since. Both Parker and Duncan had played 38 minutes in Utah the night before, after they had played 45 and 41, respectively, in an overtime victory against the Clippers on Saturday.

“[Tim] and Tony need a rest. Everybody’s played a lot of games, and somewhere along the line, everybody gives somebody a rest. I think we’ve reached that point," Popovich said. "This is whatever it is, third game in four nights, X in whatever nights before that. I don’t know what it is any more, I lost track. But they’ve been going and going and going. If we don’t do it now, I think we’re asking for trouble later.”

Popovich debated just limiting Parker’s minutes before deciding to pull the plug entirely. Already missing Manu Ginobili and Tiago Splitter against a strong home-court team, this was a good night to mail one in.

“We’ve gone that way before, but really you play or you don’t," Popovich said. "You do that half-ass thing and they play a few minutes, it never works. They play and you should have rested them and they didn’t really get rest. So we’re just going to hold him out.”

Popovich has long been the league’s most devoted practitioner of this maneuver, selecting certain games to sit out his key players and keep them fresh for later in the season.

It’s a lesson Blazers coach Nate McMillan might want to learn; one night after keeping LaMarcus Aldridge and Gerald Wallace on the court for 38 and 35 minutes in a hopeless situation against the Lakers, he had Wallace still out there with Portland up by 40 in the fourth quarter. It was their last game before the All-Star break, yes, but the cumulative wear and tear of this season is already taking a toll on Wallace in particular, who is averaging 35.8 minutes and had three straight single-figure outings before Tuesday night.

And it may also have taken a toll on Wes Matthews, who was on the court for no good reason in the fourth quarter when he sprained his left ankle. Fortunately for him, he’ll have eight days to recuperate before Portland plays again.

This is the type of move that’s made easier by Popovich’s ironclad job security. But it’s also an example of the willingness to think outside the box that has made him the dean of the league’s coaches. You don’t often say that about the side that just lost by 40, but the Spurs have always been willing to do things a little differently if it gives him them an advantage down the road.

The Miami Heat were in a zone against the Sacramento Kings' zone defense in their 120-108 win on Tuesday night.

The Kings spent almost the entire first half trying to contain the Heat’s potent half-court offense by playing a zone . That’s something that had worked for other teams earlier this season, but not for the Kings in this contest.

The Heat entered having scored on 42 percent of their possessions against zone defenses. But the Kings' zone posed no problems. The Heat scored 47 points against Sacramento’s zone defense, shooting 65 percent against it.

Heat guard Mario Chalmers tied a career-high by making six three-pointers. Four of those came on spot-up jumpers. He typically averages a pair of baskets on spot-ups per game.

The Heat have won seven straight games by 10 or more points, the second-longest streak in Heat franchise history. The last time a streak of seven or more such wins occurred in the NBA was when the Heat won a team-record nine in a row last season.

Reversal of Fortune
The Portland Trail Blazers ended the San Antonio Spurs 11-game winning streak on a night in which Tim Duncan and Tony Parker both sat to rest.

This was a game that was over early. One night after scoring a franchise-record low seven points in the first quarter, the Trail Blazers tallied an NBA season-high 41 first-quarter points.

The 137 points that Portland scored in its win was its most since 1997. The 40-point defeat was the Spurs worst defeat, also since 1997.

Feat of the Night
Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert scored a career-high 30 points in an overtime win against the New Orleans Hornets.
Hibbert hadn’t even reached the 20-point mark in his last 14 games.

The primary reason for his success on Tuesday? Offensive rebounding.

Hibbert had seven offensive rebounds and converted five baskets from them, netting 11 points for himself. He entered averaging only 2.4 points from offensive rebounds (so around one basket) per game.

Plus-Minus Note of the Night
All four Cleveland Cavaliers reserves had a positive plus-minus, and all five of their starters had a negative one in their 101-100 win over the Detroit Pistons.

The most notable of the Cavs subs was Alonzo Gee, who had 16 points and 11 rebounds. In his 25 minutes, the Cavaliers outscored the Pistons by 14 points. It was his second-best plus-minus of the season.

HoopIdea is reimagining NBA basketball, and we kicked things off with a plea to speed up the end of close games. Timeouts, fouls, free throws, substitutions, video reviews and the like can turn the last two minutes of riveting NBA action into a 15-minute collection of dead ball time with short breaks for basketball.

The argument for those dead balls centers around the idea that coaches need to direct their players. As David Thorpe put it on Google+, “we need timeouts in this game, otherwise the games will be even more ragged than they sometimes are.” He expanded the point on the NBA Today podcast speaking for many coaches when he says coaches needed those dead balls to put their imprint on the game, and to raise the quality of play.

But we had some counter theories: Henry Abbott noted that late-game offense tends to be horrible, and wondered if those timeouts were not, as advertised, helping teams score baskets ... but might instead be very effective at strengthening the defense. Subbing in the best defenders, settling on the team's plan to handle different likely plays ... maybe that's what matters most about timeouts.

In a follow-up, I presented a further wrinkle: that as useful as timeouts can be, there are plenty of times when a timeout hurts the offense. As much as anything, they give coaches, many with insecure jobs, the chance to put their imprint on the final moments and fulfill the perhaps ill-placed expectations of their profession. But do they do that at the expense of spontaneous play, which can lead to easy buckets?

So do timeouts help the offense or defense more at the end of games?

Thanks to the people at NBA.com/stats, we now have some insight. According to their research, NBA teams are more likely to score in crunch time if they don't call timeout. It turns out that in no scenario were teams more likely to make a shot when they called timeout.

This is true even though fast-break points were excluded entirely from the analysis -- to present an apples-to-apples comparison of half-court plays. The downside of this exclusion is that one of the big arguments against timeouts is that they slow play. In other words, if you included them, timeouts could look even worse.




Some more important notes from the NBA's stats wizards:

• Second-chance points are excluded.
• Points from foul shots are also excluded, which means we are looking at field goal percentages as opposed to points per possession, which is the ultimate metric for how well an offense works.
• Fast-break opportunities (which would typically only come from non-timeout scenarios) are excluded.
• We don’t know why the offense called timeout. If it was to rescue a bad possession, and leaves only a handful of seconds on the clock that hurts the “out of timeouts” side of the data by absorbing a low percentage shot from the no-timeouts data set.
• The data comes from the last four-and-a-half seasons from opening day in 2007 'til now.

So why do offenses appear to shoot worse coming out of timeouts?

Miami Heat forward Shane Battier cites lessons learned from Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, telling Heat Index’s Tom Haberstroh: “I was born and raised in the Coach K school of ‘in closing situations, not taking a timeout,’” Battier says. "Defenses aren’t as prepared after a late bucket to tie or take the lead because emotionally teams aren’t as prepared to get that stop. If you call timeout you allow a team to set their defense, focus in. Everyone knows exactly what everyone runs anyway.”

Battier does like to use the time afforded by a timeout to check out the opponent’s personnel, which helps him anticipate the play they are likely to run. But in his mind, you can forfeit the emotional and strategic advantages that timeouts are meant to provide by calling one.

I argued that coaches can fall into the trap of "Hero Coaching" because there is social and psychological pressure to do something, anything, to tangibly impact the end of the game. Battier was more blunt: “Coaches want to show that they're worth the millions that they're getting paid, which is fair. And the public would say, "He drew up a great play, he’s earning his money."

While coaches like Gregg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra are famous for calling elegant plays out of timeouts, many NBA timeouts result in dead simple plays, like a high pick-and-roll or an isolation where most of the players watch the ball-handler.

Battier would prefer to “take it in, rush it up and get it to your best attacker going to the hoop,” he says. "I'm surprised at how many times coaches call a timeout to draw up an ISO. It's like, ‘Really? You took a timeout to draw up an ISO?’ That's my pet peeve as a player watching the game."

Worst of all, it doesn't seem to work.

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One month ago, on Jan. 21, the Knicks had lost five straight games heading into a Saturday matchup with the Nuggets. Razor thin, hobbled and without a true point guard at the helm, most believed the showdown would come to be a judgment of sorts on Carmelo Anthony and his long snake-bitten franchise. Jim Cavan, a writer for TrueHoop affiliate KnickerBlogger, covered the game.

More than anything, it felt like I was headed to an execution.

Losers of five straight, the Knicks’ already fragile, lockout-shortened season had -- by late January -- morphed into a dire downward spiral. Weeks away from the most unlikely of athletic ascensions, hope had given way to Hell in the Garden. As such, their Jan. 21 showdown with the Nuggets had assumed a level of intrigue at odds with your run of the mill, dead-of-winter, cross-conference NBA game.

Nearly a full year on from one of the most drawn-out and controversial trade operas in recent memory, the combination of Denver’s endearingly scrappy success (29-12 since the Melo trade, at that point) and the Knicks’ mesmerizing struggles had suddenly transformed the meeting into something resembling a capital punishment trial. Seldom purveyors of patience and perspective, Knicks fans, if they couldn’t get a W, would likely settle for heads.

For perhaps the first time in his eight-year career, Carmelo Anthony -- on this stage, anyway -- was the defense. He asked for this. He was the one who forced his way to Manhattan. Some would say clumsily, given the depth and flexibility sacrificed and square-peg-to-round-hole logic of pairing two stars so redundant in both beauty and moles. Now, facing the team that had so seamlessly moved on from the era Melo in effect defined, the chickens were coming home to roost -- one, seven-foot rooster (Danilo Gallinari) in particular.

I’d attempted more than a few mettle-mauling seven-hour drives into the city (it’s supposed to take four and a half) over the preceding few months, so this time I decided to drive to New Haven and take the train in from there. Even though I was coming from New Hampshire, making the 3:50 train -- slated to arrive at 45th Street a little after 5:30 -- was a given, near blizzard conditions be damned.

But, as with the Knicks themselves, even the best-laid plans often end poorly, albeit predictably so: An accident outside of Worcester on I-495 -- and the subsequent two hour, cigarette-heavy delay -- made me 10 minutes late for the 4:50. I had no choice but to hop the 5:50, which would put me into Grand Central right around tip-off. Sandwich angrily inhaled, I bided some time with my editor, KnickerBlogger founder Mike Kurylo, wondering over the phone whether being late to pick up my credentials would be grounds for refusal of entrance. He laughed.

I was going to watch the Knicks. Why would anything go right?

With the train docked -- on time for most, sickeningly late to one -- I double-timed it through the ice-packed Manhattan streets to the MSG media entrance along 8th Avenue. Now inside, the press pass gatekeeper held the lone remaining credential -- mine, and my first ever -- aloft the way a marathon volunteer would hoist a lukewarm cup of water for the guy in dead last. Wielding it like a cross between an FBI badge and a firearm, I blew past half a dozen ushers and security guards until I found myself directly behind the first section of courtside seats.

Mired in apoplectic rage for most of the last five hours, I stopped to absorb the moment. I’d been to my fair share of NBA games. But I’d never been so close to the squeaking shoes, the sweat, the voices and movements and flailing limbs. Like a child, I stood there motionless, mouth agape and mind fast-forwarding through endless hours of memory tape, while the stage, flush with ghosts and footprints, played its act. In the 90 seconds before security politely asked me to escort myself up to the 300-level press box, I felt closer to a genuine meditative state than I ever have in any attempt at actual meditation -- a moment made all the more surreal by Bill Walker tossing eight of his 13 first-half points directly into what felt like my eyeballs.

I trudged up to find the northern press section, at this point mostly vacant. Before long, LoHud.com blogger extraordinaire J.R. O’Grady sought me out, promising he’d do his best to show a noob the ropes. KnickerBlogger hadn’t given me anything resembling a set assignment. As such, it was extremely difficult to pull back from a fan’s natural mechanics and focus on getting a story down.

The Knicks -- playing their fourth in five -- managed to stave off what many believed would be an inevitable blowout. But an ankle and wrist-hobbled Carmelo Anthony struggled, forcing the issue early and often, each ill-advised hoist kicking up the arena’s angst another couple decibels. Meanwhile, Gallinari was in full payback mode, which only added to the Garden’s already tense, uneasy atmosphere.

To someone who questioned the wisdom of the Melo trade as much as anyone, Gallo’s performance was equal parts lament-filled and maddening: “Where the hell was this the last three years?” I thought. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t alone. Everywhere you looked, jaded fans sported Gallo’s once omnipresent No. 8 with equal parts pride and nostalgic protest. Here he was, the 18-year-old kid D’Antoni had once called the greatest shooter he’d ever seen, assuming a degree of leadership and murderous instinct once enjoyed only in flashes.

Regulation gave way to overtime, and overtime to a second. The Knicks' offense -- its lack of consistent point guard play by now a fatal flaw -- was putting up points almost in spite of itself. Noticeably drained, the ‘Bockers eventually succumbed. Anthony would finish with 25 points on 30 noticeably pained chucks. The crowd, eager for a scapegoat, had $80 million of them wearing No. 7. In contrast, Gallo, in perhaps the finest overall performance of his young career, poured in a career-high 37 on 19 shots, to go along with 11 rebounds.

The trial was complete; the judgment laid down in persistent boos. The 20,000-strong jury marched down and out and into the streets and subways, while O’Grady and I headed down to the lower press room, where stale brownies and sandwiches lined the foldout tables and reporters waited idly for Mike D’Antoni’s requisite Q&A. Never one for demonstrability, the Knicks coach -- recognizing as he must the heat beneath his seat -- answered the pointed questions, almost all of them relating to Anthony’s poor performance, in as measured a manner possible. Ditto the inconsistent defense; the poor shooting; the lack of true leadership. Really, it’s all he could do.

We dozen or so scribes filed towards the locker room, by then occupied by but two Knicks: Josh Harrellson -- whose third quarter wrist injury would result in the Knicks making the most fateful D-League call up in league history two days later -- and Carmelo Anthony. Naturally, all flocked to the Knicks’ supposed savior, seated in a slight hunch facing his locker, slowly peeling pieces of tape from wrist and ankle. For what felt like an hour, Melo said nothing.

Finally he stood, lower torso toweled, and cut through the confused mass towards the showers. Apparently, this kind of behavior was rather unusual, as it constituted most of the conversation in the lull before Tyson Chandler and Amare Stoudemire’s respective arrivals. Never ones for curls, my forearms and shoulders ached from holding the voice recorder over the mass of heads, a string of platitudes -- some expected, some candid -- ringing forth from both.

We’ll figure it out. I refuse to be part of a losing team. We’ll get ‘em next time. We just need more time.

Anthony eventually returned to dole out a string of confessions -- Am I shooting too much? Am I doing something wrong? Am I not being a leader? -- theretofore unspoken. Maybe he’s finally getting it, we all thought. Which says more about the state of the team that weekend than perhaps any of us were willing to admit -- that we’d been reduced to hanging hopes and prospects on words, and mere suggestions of change.

Nearly four decades removed from the last Knick title, the team seemed perhaps further adrift than it ever had from the ethos that anchored those teams: Play together, and find the open man. That was a team. This? This was a collection of 13 guys who, despite playing in a system more conducive to any to those halcyon principles, were far too often charting their course to one flawed, hazy star.

Afterwards, a few fellow Knicks writers met up with O’Grady and me at a nearby bar, where beer and bourbon turned bloggers briefly into GMs.

Shumpert’s just not a point guard, and I don’t even know if he should be starting.

We need Baron back, like, yesterday.

If Melo shoots 30 times in a game again, I might move to Brooklyn.

I knew it might be rough, but who thought it would be this rough?

That’s the third Bon Jovi song in the last 15 minutes.

Around 1:45 a.m. I made my way back to Grand Central with the aim of catching the next available train back to New Haven. The night’s events still had me fully wired -- why not use the 90 minutes ride back to get some words down, I thought. I knew there was a 2:10 train because I’d looked it up no less than an hour before. Since when does the Internet lie?

When I reached Grand Central’s 45th Street entrance, only to find its doors had closed mere minutes before, the day’s events hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt suddenly exhausted, no longer capable of dealing with failure of any kind. I’d failed getting to the game on time; my team had failed to ward off the ghosts of its own making; and I’d failed -- apparently -- to read Grand Central’s fine online print. I traced my steps back to a Holiday Inn Express, footed $100 for what would amount to a five-hour stay, trudged up to my room, opened the door, and collapsed on the bed. My right heel sore from so much walking, I removed my loafers, only to find the back of my right sock caked in blood. I took off the sock, hit the light, and passed out in less than five seconds -- the next five hours dreamless black.

Not long after Saturday’s demoralizing marathon, the Knicks put in a call to the Erie BayHawks. With Harrellson’s injury further thinning an already depleted squad, and determined to save their cap room for one of two China-stranded stars (J.R. Smith, ultimately) they needed reinforcements. Cheap ones. Jeremy Lin -- fresh off a triple-double in his first and only D-League start, undrafted the year before and cast aside by both the Warriors and Rockets in the interim -- would have to be that.

Sunday morning, showered but hardly clean, I limped back to Grand Central in time to catch the 10:07 back to New Haven. Seated facing backward, we ascended North through the city, past Midtown and Harlem and eventually out of Manhattan. As the train slowly gained speed, that unique feeling of reverse acceleration -- a kind of horizontal rapture through man’s concrete idols -- struck me as apt: Like the Knicks, I was moving faster and faster in what felt like the wrong direction.

Like the Knicks, I sensed the gravity of the city dissipating, its pull and passion fading; my hope for timely arrival had given way to that for simple survival.

Like the Knicks mere days later, I just hoped I bought the right ticket; that the train would take me where I needed to go.

Little did we know.

Follow Jim Cavan on Twitter at @JPCavan

While we may not see many trades occur before the week of the March 15 deadline, discussions are taking place in front offices throughout the league.

Here's some of the scuttlebutt I've heard:

The Lakers' front office knows Kobe Bryant is looking for it to improve the roster, and GM Mitch Kupchak has been working the phones. He's spoken to Minnesota about Michael Beasley, and sources say the Lakers are intrigued by the Timberwolves' small forward. The Lakers were actually in discussions with Minnesota about a potential trade for Beasley before the season started. If they would have been able to pull off the deal for Chris Paul, there is a good chance that a trade for Beasley would have followed.

It's not clear what the Lakers would give Minnesota for Beasley (if indeed the talks get that far), but the Lakers could absorb Beasley into their $8.9 million trade exception while giving up a draft pick or cash. I'm told the teams have not spoken about Pau Gasol since the preseason. Minnesota is looking to move Beasley, who they feel has matured very little (if at all) since he's been there, according to sources. The Lakers believe they can handle a player like Beasley because of their winning culture and the leadership of Bryant.

Of course, the Lakers need a point guard even more than a small forward. While they worked out Gilbert Arenas last week, they have not come to a decision on him. They want to see if they can get another point guard, such as Cleveland's Ramon Sessions, before making a play for Arenas. There's a good chance they can get Sessions for a first-round draft pick before the deadline, sources say. If they don't get Sessions or someone else, they may bring Arenas aboard.

There are a few other PGs who could be available. While the Lakers would love to get Houston's Kyle Lowry, the Rockets plan to build around their vastly-improved point guard. But either of their two backups, Goran Dragic or Jonny Flynn, would be an improvement over what they currently have.

Lots of teams are calling Toronto about Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani. The Raptors aren't likely to part with Bargnani, and if they move Calderon, they'll need to get a point guard in return. That would seem to make a trade for Calderon unlikely.

Sources say Dallas is about ready to move on from the Roddy Beaubois experiment. The Mavericks have thought for years that the talented young Frenchman could be another Tony Parker, but he has not been able to master the move from shooting guard to point guard. Nor has he been able to fill the void left by J.J. Barea. If they don't move him before this year's deadline, he could be gone over the summer.

The feeling among some in Atlanta is that the Hawks' rotation was thrown out of whack by the return of Kirk Hinrich. The Hawks started the season 13-5 but have gone just 6-8 since Hinrich returned from shoulder surgery. Though he's struggled this season, one would think Hinrich could help a club if made available.

Frustration abounds in Atlanta right now, and sources say Marvin Williams wants out because he wants to play somewhere where he'll have an increased role offensively. Williams is averaging just 9.6 points per game, his lowest since his rookie season.

They're frustrated in Portland too, and Raymond Felton said as much in a report last week. But Felton, who's averaging a career-low 10 points on 36 percent shooting, knows he's at least partly to blame as well. He recently had talks with the Blazers' coaching staff and the idea of bringing him off the bench to stir things up was broached. Felton would be amenable to that, but only as a short-term solution.

• Jeremy Lin is having much success while racking up the turnovers. So is Kyrie Irving. Turnovers are bad, but turnover-prone rookies often have brilliant careers. What gives? Ian Levy of Hickory High explores what high TOs mean per a young player’s development, giving you what to take away on give-aways.

• From the Economist, what does Linsanity mean in China? It’s more complicated than you think.

• Okay, maybe Tom Haberstat isn’t the best name pun, but the man deserves some kind of properly reverential moniker. He stops me mid jog with this: “Wade's 1st-half PER: 36.3, Wade's 2nd-half PER:16.5.“

• After you click this link, he’ll no longer be the best coach you’ve never heard of. Well, you could possibly count “reading” as different from “hearing.” But still.

• Zach Harper with a delightful HoopSpeak piece on an oft-used hoops term. The “puzzle” of building a contender is so different from an actual puzzle that the metaphor’s popularity is puzzling.

• Screen usage is an under explored aspect of basketball. Jared Dubin puts on the Jacque Cousteau wet suit and dives deep on how Lou Williams converts picks to points.

• This is probably as good a time as any for an amusing Knicks podcast.

• I’ll take it easy on the Nuggets, who were down a few horses in last night’s loss to OKC. RBMC is not so forgiving of a less than stellar defense.

• From the venerable James Ham of Cowbell Kingdom: Can Keith Smart un-brash the young Kings?

• Who dares compare Chris Paul to Steph Curry?

• Tim Kawakami asks, “Why don’t the Warriors play Ekpe Udoh more?” and adds some trenchant analysis to the question.

• From Zach Lowe's analysis of a potential Pau Gasol trade: "I have not read a single Gasol trade rumor that makes any real sense, unless the Lakers are punting this season for (long-term) salary purposes or end up moving Gasol in conjunction with a Howard deal. And punting this season is problematic, since the Lakers, even with the amnesty clause still in their pockets, cannot work their way to any cap room until the summer of 2013."

Follow @SherwoodStrauss

The Philadelphia 76ers are the best defensive team in the NBA this season, but fell short of that distinction against Ricky Rubio and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.

Rubio scored a career-high 22 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field, including 2-of-4 on 3-point attempts. He added five assists with only one turnover.

Rubio scored in a variety of ways on Sunday -- long jumpers (eight points), mid-range jumpers (four points), off the ball (eight points), pick-and-roll plays (eight points), and drives to the basket (eight points).

The 76ers are allowing the fewest points per play in the league this season. One of their biggest strengths on the defensive end is defending pick-and-rolls including passes, where they also rank better than all other teams in points per play allowed.

But on Sunday, Rubio shot 4-of-6 for eight points with one assist and no turnovers on seven pick-and-roll plays.

Both of Rubio's spot-up 3-pointers also came in pick-and-roll situations. Both plays came when Luke Ridnour came off a pick-and-roll on the right wing and threw a skip pass to an open Rubio on the left wing.

Jrue Holiday had trouble stopping Rubio, who scored 18 of his 22 points and dished out four assists with one turnover against the 76ers point guard.

Holiday particularly had trouble defending Rubio on pick-and-roll plays, where Rubio shot 4-of-5 for eight points and dished out four assists with only one turnover on six plays when being defended by Holiday. Such a defensive performance is atypical for Holiday -- only Raymond Felton ranks better this season at defending pick-and-roll ball-handlers among those with at least 150 plays.

Rubio displayed his offensive versatility while matched up with Holiday with 3:51 left in the fourth quarter, when Rubio came off a pick-and-roll and knocked down a 16-foot jumper to give Minnesota an 88-87 lead. That jump shot helped lead the Timberwolves to their third straight victory.

Rubio's performance against the 76ers Sunday was one of his most complete performances of the season. It's the fifth time he has had at least 10 points, five rebounds and five assists, and the Timberwolves have won all five of those games.

Among players with at least 150 plays this season, Rubio ranks 222nd out of 251 players in points per play. There is certainly plenty of room for improvement in that regard.

If his offensive scoring output continues to improve, he will be even more of an all-around threat. Over the last two games, Rubio has 40 points, 13 field goals and four 3-pointers -- the most he's had in any two-game stretch.

A couple weeks ago, we asked you to help HoopIdea come up with some ways to make the last few minutes of NBA games more exciting and fast-paced. Henry Abbott proposed using FIBA's internationally adopted rules that restrict timeout opportunities to dead ball situation. You responded through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and regular ol’ email with more than 1,000 other suggestions. The ideas ranged from the reasonable to the patently absurd (these may be my favorites), but readers overwhelmingly focused on a few situations at the end of games that could use improvement: timeouts, free throws and replay.

While timeouts are handled by coaches, free throws by players and replays by referees, in each case there is a prolonged pause in the action. Here are some of the most sensible fixes that can make the closing moments of NBA games even better:

TIMEOUTS:

• Julian Thomas emailed with the observation that many end-of-game timeouts are used primarily for substitutions or to advance the ball, “So why not take away a timeout or two from what is currently allotted and give teams a couple timeouts that do nothing but advance the ball?”
• Many, many others echoed Emmanuel Espina, who wrote on Facebook that simply reducing the number of available timeouts per team in the final two minutes (the current rule allows for a maximum of three in the final two minutes).

INSTANT REPLAY REVIEW

• The NBA’s replay-review system is awkward and far from comprehensive, just ask LaMarcus Aldridge and the Portland Trail Blazers. Often plays need to be reviewed because the officials on the court don’t have a good angle on the play, so any time there is a review all three officials meet to discuss what they saw then look at the monitor. This takes time and often delays and defuses the gratifying rush of late game action. Rick Clough explains it well in an email: “Have one official stationed in a booth for the entire game with access to multiple monitors and every camera angle. He or she could watch replays as quickly as we do at home (or faster) and could signal down to the sideline whether it is a good call or not. A dedicated replay official with continuous access to monitors could render judgment before the floor refs even get to the sidelines. Although I am in favor of instant replay, I am frequently appalled that the home viewer has usually seen two or three replays before the refs even get to the replay monitor. So inefficient.”
• ESPN commenter lsd423 captured the sentiment of many commenters on Twitter and Facebook: “Why not have a ref booth of 2 retired refs to monitor close calls? It seems that they take too long sometimes under the hood to get the call right. Instead, have refs in a booth that monitor [the action in] real time." This certainly seems like a place where the NBA and broadcasters can work together to streamline the review process.

FREE THROWS

• ESPN.com's Larry Coon: “Give teams the option to decline free throws and instead take the ball out of bounds.” The problem he’s addressing here is that teams can break the rules by fouling, and it works out to their advantage because the fouled team forfeits the opportunity to retain possession of the ball and can only score two points whereas the fouling team can score three points on the next possession. This incentivizes the flood of fouls and dreary procession of free throws at the end of games.
• FIBA rules give shooters five seconds per foul shot, half the time allowed in the NBA. Jason Feldman thinks that’s a good start “From the time the official signals to the scorekeeper, there should be 30 seconds to get both free throws up. If the team shooting free throws cannot get it done in that time, they lose the opportunity to shoot and the ball. If the defending team is in violation, the team shooting is automatically awarded both points.”
• How cool would this idea be? From Steve Hall, “to prevent fouling in the backcourt to stop a 3-pointer by a team down three when a team is shooting 2-FTs, the shooting team has the option of shooting one three-pointer instead.”
• Dan Nejak suggests that “Any foul committed outside of the three-point line within 2 minutes left to play should translate into an automatic three free-throws (provided that the team is within the bonus).” On the surface, it looks like this would only further slow things down, but it would also remove the incentive to foul in order to prevent a game-tying three, one of the more exciting plays in all of basketball.

Have an idea of your own? Join the conversation!

You can give us your ideas and talk with us and other fans in the following places:

• Facebook: Go to our NBA on ESPN page and talk it over
• Twitter: Go to @HoopIdea and tweet to us with the hashtag #hoopidea
• Google+: Go to our HoopIdea Google+ page and discuss
• TrueHoop: Read our HoopIdea posts here and contribute on the conversation page
• Email us at hoopidea@gmail.com

• Howard Beck of The New York Times: J.R. Smith was born in Freehold, N.J., and played at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, so he knows a little about the intensity of New York basketball. It took him little time to get acclimated Sunday, as he scored 15 points off the bench in a 104-97 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Smith signed with the Knicks on Friday, after playing a full season with the Zhejiang Golden Bulls in China. He arrived in great shape but had no time to practice with the Knicks or even familiarize himself with the playbook before pulling on his No. 8 jersey. Coach Mike D’Antoni had hedged about even playing Smith on Sunday, but he used him for 30 minutes, including the final 17, in part because of Iman Shumpert’s foul trouble and ineffectiveness. ... “The first five minutes was really mind-blowing,” Smith said. “The whole time in warm-ups, I’m just sitting here thinking to myself: ‘This is crazy. I’m at the Garden. I’m wearing a Knick uniform. This is crazy. I never imagined this in a million years.’ ” Smith was also pursued by the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers, but he chose the Knicks because of the chance to play in front of friends and family and the chance to rejoin Carmelo Anthony, his former Denver Nuggets teammate. Anthony and the Clippers’ Chris Paul are the godfathers to Smith’s two daughters, and both lobbied him. But Smith said that playing in New York, in D’Antoni’s high-powered offense, “was really a no-brainer.”
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Jason Terry was assessed a flagrant foul after intentionally running into New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin with 4:45 left in the first quarter and the Dallas Mavericks clinging to an 18-15 lead. From there, the Knicks scored the next 15 points to complete a 17-0 run on the way to a 104-97 victory over the Mavericks. Terry, though, is hoping the NBA will rescind the flagrant foul when they review it today. "I don't think it was a flagrant foul," Terry said. "The league will look at it and rescind it if they want to, and if not, I'll just take the hit. Even Lin said it wasn't a flagrant foul." Terry was asked if Lin was receiving special treatment from referees. "I don't necessarily think it was a special treatment," Terry said. "I just think they called it on emotions. Once they heard the reaction of the crowd, then they made the call. That call didn't necessarily win or lose the game for either team, and that's just part of the game." Coach Rick Carlisle, however, said the call played a significant role in the outcome. "I thought the two things that did us in were the 17-0 run in the first quarter after the flagrant foul," he said. "We went from up five to down 12."
• Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: Kobe Bryant said the limbo of the Lakers possibly trading Pau Gasol has gone on enough and requested a decision be made. “I wish management would come out and either trade him or not trade him,” Bryant said after the Lakers’ loss in Phoenix on Sunday night. Bryant said his preference is the Lakers do not trade Gasol, citing the team’s “foundation” is in place with Bryant, Gasol and “the emergence of Andrew (Bynum).” Can’t have one of our pillars not knowing if he’s going to be here,” Bryant said. Although Bryant said Gasol has “been the consummate professional” in maintaining loyalty to the Lakers and desire to stay, Bryant said: “It’s just tough for a player to give his all when you don’t know if you’re going to be here tomorrow.” Upon being told of Bryant’s comments, Gasol said: “Obviously it’s not the best-case scenario for anybody, as a team. It’s always nice to have security and reassurance, but again, I understand. … Obviously it would be nice to know one way or the other for my mind’s sake, but I don’t know if I’m in a position to really demand that at all. I understand that things are not as easy as they appear at times.” ... Gasol said he believes the Lakers are “listening” to offers as opposed to taking him off the trading block. “It seems it’s not that way,” Gasol said. “That’s the feeling that I get, and I haven’t really confirmed it, but from the situation and all the talks, that’s what I perceive.” Bryant was not outwardly angry about the situation despite a couple of profanities he dropped in while saying the Lakers should trade Gasol or say they’re not trading him. He was aware of the newsworthiness of his opinion, however, half-smiling to reporters as he said: “You got some bulletin news for your story?”
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Suns guard Steve Nash entered Sunday night's game shooting 55.1 percent from the field and 41.8 percent from 3-point range. The only player in NBA history to shoot 55 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range for a season was Chris Mullin, who did so for Golden State in 1996-97.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: Serge Ibaka swatted Afflalo's driving layup attempt and rebounded it in one motion to prevent the basket, secure the ball and help the Thunder pull out a 124-118 overtime victory on Sunday night inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. It was the last of Ibaka's career-high and franchise-record 11 blocked shots. On a night in which Durant and Russell Westbrook stuffed the stat sheet with mind-numbing numbers not seen since the early '80s, they nearly had the show stolen from them by Ibaka, who added 14 points and 15 rebounds to register the franchise's first triple double with blocked shots. It was Ibaka's third game this season with at least 10 blocked shots — the third time in 11 games that Ibaka's had double-digit rejections. The last player to record three games of at least 10 blocked shots was Shawn Bradley, who had five during the 1996-97 season. “He's been phenomenal, man,” said Durant, who scored a career-high 51 points. “It's just fun to watch.” Ibaka recorded eight of his 11 blocked shots in the second half and overtime. But he earned his triple double in regulation, rejecting his 10th shot, a layup by Ty Lawson, with 2:32 to play in the fourth quarter.
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: Somewhere in jam-packed Chesapeake Energy Arena, Nuggets executive Masai Ujiri sat, his heart ripped out in every bit the same fashion as the players and coaches he watched in person Sunday night. Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant was inflicting the kind of pain only a career-high 51 points could provide, making play after play after gut-wrenching play down the stretch. Russell Westbrook tacked on 40 points for good measure, and the Nuggets were left wondering when all of this will turn around, losing another nail-biter, 124-118 in overtime. "We were kind of laughing, saying,, 'When's the last time he missed a shot in the fourth quarter against us?' " Nuggets coach George Karl said of Durant. "He makes everything. An offensive rebound, OK, why does he come wide open? Why doesn't somebody else come wide open?" It was the second consecutive game the Nuggets thought they had a victory in hand ... and then didn't. ... The Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook 51-40 game was the first set of teammates to score 50-plus and 40-plus points since Nuggets Kiki Vandeweghe (51) and Alex English (47) did it against Detroit on Dec. 13, 1983, a triple-overtime game.
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: So who's better? Who's the Heat's best player? "I'm not a huge fan of co-MVPs, but in this case it's perfect," reserve forward Shane Battier said, running away from the question as fast as he was in closing out Sunday on Orlando's 3-point shooters. "But the way they're doing it, Dwyane first every game and then LeBron, no, that's not be design. "They're good and playing well. But I don't know if they're good enough to call which quarters they're going to be doing it." It just seems that way. "I've got to keep the scoring going," James said of his consistent emergence after halftime, after Wade sets the scoring tone. "It's just a comfort level for both of us." For the Magic, Sunday's comfort level was minimal, with the Heat playing with a sizable lead the entire second half. To Wade, the game and the ongoing success has been a product of the Heat's defense, a defense that Sunday limited the Magic to 36.5-percent shooting. "I think right now we're playing the defense we wanted to come into the season playing," Wade said.
• David J. Nealby of The Miami Herald: Oh, you thought the above concerned the Heat’s point guard-shooting guard-small forward-power forward, who rolled up 25 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as the Heat whipped Orlando 90-78? Nah, I meant FC Barcelona marvel Lionel Messi, scorer of four goals against Valencia around the time Sunday that Dwyane Wade started pouring in points and James started tossing around assists. The twin masterful performances made me wonder: Who is the best team sport athlete in the world right now? The best player in the world’s most popular team sport, Messi, or the acknowledged best player in the world’s second most popular team sport, LeBron? “Messi’s … Messi’s something special,” Heat forward Shane Battier said when I posed the question to him after Sunday’s game. “Man, both of them are doing it on the main spotlight. It’s hard to compare. Soccer’s a little different. You get someone threading you with some pretty deft passes. LeBron has the ball in his hand a little more, so he controls his destiny a little more. So in some regards, that’s more amazing, but in some regards, it’s more amazing what Messi does. It depends how you look at it.”
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: Glen "Big Baby" Davis returned to the team after missing a game to attend his father's funeral in Louisiana. "I'm at rock bottom," Davis said. "My grandmother's death, my father's death. I use basketball as a coping mechanism so I just tried to focus on playing…I just got to be mentally strong right now. I have to leave that stuff out there." Davis said this season has been a struggle. "I'm at the bottom of my game and I'm really struggling tremendously," he said. "I know what I can do and I have the potential. It can only go up from here." Davis' father, John Greer, died last Sunday and was interred in Baton Rouge, La. He lost his grandmother, who practically raised him, earlier this season. Davis missed Friday night's game against the Milwaukee Bucks at Amway Center.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: It's Linsanity in New York, no doubt. But across the river in New Jersey on Sunday night the Milwaukee Bucks served up a dose of "Ersanity" while halting a four-game losing skid. Forward Ersan Ilyasova pulled down a career-high 25 rebounds and scored a career-best 29 points in leading the Bucks to a 92-85 victory over the New Jersey Nets at the Prudential Center. When he fouled out with 2:01 remaining the entire Bucks bench stood up and applauded Ilyasova's effort. The 6-foot-10 Ilyasova grabbed 13 offensive rebounds on the way to tying the NBA season-high rebound mark of 25, set by Orlando's Dwight Howard in an overtime game against San Antonio on Jan. 18. And Ilyasova became the first Bucks player since Swen Nater in 1976 to have a 25-25 game (Nater had 30 points and 33 rebounds against Atlanta that year). "It's Ersanity, man," said Bucks center Jon Brockman. "That's a special game. He needs to take this (the box score) home and frame it. "He's been bringing effort like that every night. It's great to see that from a guy who has been working his tail off."
• Mike Vorkunov of The Star-Ledger: Anthony Morrow will use the All-Star break as an opportunity to honor a pivotal figure in Nets history and a superstar lost too early. Morrow will participate in the three-point shooting contest this weekend wearing a Drazen Petrovic jersey. Petrovic was a Net for two-plus years, from midway through the 1990-91 season until 1993, and left a large impression on the franchise. He died in a car crash at 28 years old that summer. His No. 3 jersey is one of five retired by the organization after he spent his only two full seasons with the team averaging more than 20 points-per-game in each. He was posthumously enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, not only for his play but also for being a pioneer in the sport for Eastern Europeans. Morrow has had the idea since he saw Petrovic's jersey hanging in the Nets' practice facility. After seeing the documentary, "Once Brothers" -- about the broken friendship between Petrovic and Vlade Divac -- he thought that if he had the chance to participate in All-Star weekend, he would honor the fallen hero. "I just remember -- I don't remember a whole lot -- but I remember he could shoot real, real good," Morrow said.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: LeBron James said last week he might consider returning to Cleveland in two years. J.J. Hickson made it clear Sunday night he never wanted to leave. The former Cavalier forward was at The Q with his new team and sounded like a player who would rather be almost anywhere except Sacramento. Even Anaheim. Hickson is struggling to adjust to a new team and a return to his natural position of power forward. He is averaging 5.2 points and less than 20 minutes a game all the while costing himself significant money in a contract year. "I'm not having the year I wanted to have, not just personally but we're not winning," said Hickson, an unrestricted free agent as season's end. "But after going through the season [the Cavs] went through last year, I didn't want to come to a situation like this. I wanted to rebuild here, but I got traded and things happen." The Cavaliers shipped Hickson to the Kings for Omri Casspi and a much-protected, first-round draft choice on June 30, 2011. They no longer needed to worry about whether to commit long-term to Hickson, who averaged 13.8 points and 8.7 rebounds last season, but irritated coaches with his mental lapses and inconsistency.
• Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune: Rookie Derrick Williams continues to prepare for the All-Star weekend dunk competition, but he's not talking much about his preparation. Williams said he's getting a lot of input for dunk possibilities from friends, family and teammates. "Every day," he said. "We have three dunks. I have two down that I want to do, I'm waiting on one more." But Williams isn't about to let on what those two dunks are, wanting to keep the element of surprise. He practiced -- and pulled off -- an off-the-backboard, between-the-legs dunk after practice last week. But even then he didn't say that would necessarily be a part of his repertoire. His strategy for getting out of the first round? "You have to start strong, but you don't want to do your best," Williams said. "But you want one that will get you through to the next round. So I'll probably do one of my best ones first." Williams has been lobbying Ricky Rubio to help him in the contest. Rubio said he will.
• John N. Mitchell of The Philadelphia Inquirer: When they tally up the wins and losses at the end of the season, the joy or disappointment that factors into each game in the NBA season is meaningless. But if it did mean something, the 92-91 setback the 76ers suffered Sunday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center would rank way up there. The lead changed hands 11 times in the fourth quarter, the last time coming with one-tenth of a second to play. Fouled by the 76ers' Andre Iguodala, who had gone over to help defensively, Minnesota all-star Kevin Love sank a pair of free throws - tying the game and securing the victory - to extend the Sixers' losing streak to a season-high three games.
• Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: Last week, Pistons coach Lawrence Frank talked about the importance of maintaining focus as the All-Star break approaches. He said to look for eye-opening results as you peruse the nightly results from around the NBA. Call Frank a prophet. On Friday night, the 7-23 Hornets temporarily halted the Linsanity when they won against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden; Saturday, the 9-23 Nets beat Eastern Conference power Chicago at the United Center. You have no way of knowing if the Knicks and Bulls were caught looking ahead to a three-day break that begins Friday -- especially since the Knicks rebounded to beat Dallas on Sunday. But the results emphasize the importance of staying in the present. "Once you lose sight of the task at hand, that's what happens," Frank said before the Pistons stayed on point by beating the Celtics on Sunday. "It has nothing to do about talent or anything. It's really about being locked in and staying in the moment."
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: Jermaine O’Neal believes it’s time for a meeting. Captain Paul Pierce doesn’t believe it’s that time quite yet. They both agree that something has to change if the Celtics are going to make any impact on the playoffs in eight weeks. ... O’Neal said that with 36 games left and a demoralizing .500 record, the Celtics should discuss matters. “I think at some point over the next 48 hours, I’m sure we’ll have a conversation just amongst our team in terms of where we’re at mentally,’’ he said. “Because that’s the key, mentally for us right now. I don’t care what’s going on, we shouldn’t lose to Detroit twice in a five-day span. They’re playing good basketball but they shouldn’t beat us twice.’’ When asked if he will organize the players to meet, Pierce said: “I don’t see me calling a meeting right now. I’m not going to use the excuse that we didn’t have [Rajon] Rondo for the second half or missing out on [Kevin Garnett] or Brandon Bass. We just have to be more competitive. It doesn’t take calling the guys in for that.’’
• Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times: Derrick Rose took a big step forward in his rehabilitation from a back injury during practice Sunday at the Berto Center. He participated in the kind of physical workout coach Tom Thibodeau wants to see if he can endure before letting him return. If Rose feels no ill effects Monday morning, he could play against the Hawks in the afternoon. ... Even if Rose returns against Atlanta, or if he waits until the Bucks come to town Wednesday, is it in his or the organization’s best interest to risk a setback in the All-Star Game on Sunday? That’s the conundrum the Bulls and Rose are facing. “When he’s ready to play, he’s ready to play,” Thibodeau said when asked if he preferred Rose play in a game before the All-Star Game in Orlando, Fla. “Whether it’s [Monday] or later, I’m not going to base it on anything other than him being ready to play, not the opponent, not the All-Star Game, not anything. If he’s cleared medically and is ready to play, he’ll play.”
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: Rookie center Greg Smith, who signed with the Rockets on Feb. 8, went from the development league to the Rockets’ rotation Sunday, joining the roster with Jordan Hill out. Smith played 12 minutes, blocking four shots all in the first half. “He remembered what we did,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “I was shocked. I barely remembered what we did in training camp. He asked, ‘are we still running this.’ He’s sharp. That helps a great deal. “He did a nice job. He’s smart. He knows what he’s doing. A practice, probably would not hurt him, but he’s just another big body. He set some really nice screens, which is good.” Smith’s return to the Rockets was not unexpected. “When I got cut, we talked about me re-signing,” Smith said. “They wanted to see me play in the D-League. When I played in the D-League, I showed what I could do. I showed I’m a player who could be with their franchise for a couple of years."

In one of the most entertaining games of the season, the Oklahoma City Thunder got an unprecedented performance to beat the Denver Nuggets 124-118 in overtime. Kevin Durant scored a career-high 51 points, the most any player has scored in a game this season.

Russell Westbrook added a season-high 40 points, making Durant and Westbrook just the third pair of teammates in NBA history with a 50-point game and a 40-point game in the same game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Don’t forget about Serge Ibaka, who had his first career triple-double with 14 points, 14 rebounds and a Thunder/SuperSonics-record 11 blocked shots. Elias tells us the Thunder trio is the first set of teammates in NBA history with a 50-point game, a 40-point game and a triple-double in the same game.

Ibaka owns three of the five 10-block games in franchise history and they’ve all come this month. He’s the only player with 10 blocks in a game this season and the first player since Shawn Bradley (5) in 1996-97 with three such games in the same season.

Durant recorded just the sixth 50-point game in franchise history and only Fred Brown, Ray Allen and Dale Ellis have ever scored more in a SuperSonics or Thunder uniform.

Durant and Westbrook are the first pair of teammates to each score at least 40 points in the same regular-season game since Michael Jordan (44) and Scottie Pippen (40) did it on Feb. 18, 1996.

Durant and Westbrook combined to score or assist on 60 of Oklahoma City’s 71 points in the second half and overtime. The Nuggets -- as a team -- scored 60 points in the same three periods.

The Thunder have won nine straight home games, their longest home winning streak since moving to Oklahoma City. The last time they won nine in a row at home was the 2004-05 season when they were in Seattle. They last won 10 consecutive home games from Feb.-April 1998.

The Nuggets are in a free fall, having lost three straight and eight of their past 10 games.

Jeremy Lin scored 28 points and added career highs of 14 assists and five steals as the New York Knicks defeated the Dallas Mavericks 104-97, their eighth win in their past nine games.

Lin is the first player this season to reach those totals in a game and just the second Knicks player to do it since steals were first tracked in 1973-74.

The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that only four players since the NBA-ABA merger -- Bernard King, Shaquille O’Neal, Brandon Jennings and Michael Jordan -- have scored more points in their first eight career starts than Lin’s 200.

He also had seven turnovers -- six in the second half -- his sixth straight game with at least six turnovers, setting an NBA record (according to Elias).

Despite the turnovers, Lin makes a huge difference for the Knicks. New York outscored the Mavericks by 14 points during the nearly 46 minutes Lin played Sunday. When he was on the bench, the Knicks got outscored by seven points in just two minutes.

The Knicks are also much better in the paint with Lin on the court. This season their field-goal percentage in the paint is nearly seven percentage points higher with Lin on the court than off.

New York takes more than half of its shots (51 percent) and scores nearly half of its points (47 percent) in the paint when Lin is on the court, compared to just 43 and 40 percent, respectively, when he’s on the bench.

Sunday, the Knicks went 22-for-37 and scored 44 points in the paint with Lin on the floor.

Lin himself has attempted 64 percent of his field goals in the paint this season, the fifth-highest percentage by a guard (min. 100 FGA). He’s scored or assisted on 58 percent of the Knicks’ points in the paint when he’s been on the court.

In the past nine games, since first getting meaningful minutes, he’s averaging nearly 39 minutes per game, which would be second in the league if he qualified.

In the past eight games -- the first eight starts of his career -- he’s averaging 25.0 PPG and 9.5 APG. According to Elias, since the NBA began recording starts in 1970, Calvin Murphy for the 1970-71 San Diego Rockets is the only other player to average at least 20.0 PPG and 7.0 APG in the first eight starts of his career.

Lin still has plenty of his career in front of him, but his first eight starts stack up nicely when compared to the best point guards of the past 30 years.

None of them scored more points and John Stockton is the only one with more assists than Lin in the first eight starts of his career.