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• ESPN's Michael Wallace quotes LeBron James calling Derrick Rose this season's MVP. It does not impress John Hollinger, however, who is determined to stop the runaway train of the Derrick Rose candidacy, and says the real MVP of the season is Dwight Howard.
• Sam Amick of NBA Confidential cites sources saying that the Kings' current TV deal in Sacramento is worth $11 million a year. A move to Anaheim would multiply that number. That could well be the math that matters most.
• Wayne Winston assesses the idea that you may want to foul for possession near the end of a tied game, and finds it's a close call.
• Jimmer Fredette, in hip hop tribute from his brother T.J.
• You've got to watch Suns players on video bewildered at their interactions with referees last night. They would not go into detail, for fear of league fines, but for instance Marcin Gortat said (before his teammate Josh Childress reminded him to shut up) that in his four years in the NBA "I've never seen something like that." Referee Ken Mauer ejected Zabian Dowdell with about a minute left, and Dowdell said after the game that he feld Mauer had disrespected him in a manner that he had not seen before from a basketball referee. I'll say this: I know Dowdell a little, as he used to write for TrueHoop. Not in a million years would I believe that guy -- fresh out of the D-League, and years into being as professional as could be -- would pick a fight with an NBA referee.
• Older teams tend to win titles, but that may be less true than it was a few years ago.
• A little shift in the NCAA's position on paying athletes.
• Sekou Smith's Twitter feed is hopping with insight about the man who attacked, and was reportedly punched in the face by, Dominique Wilkins. There are photos said to be of the injured man, but the news story concludes "Wilkins was not injured in the incident" which does not hurt Wilkins street cred one iota. Apparently the issue was something to do with some finery, and the hilarious Twitter account NotWaltFrazier responds: "Dominique, my man, if you wanted some flyer attire you could have just asked. Borrowin' could have prevented this sorrowin'!"
• If you watch the scuffle leading to John Wall's ejection, it's not Wall and Zydrunas Ilgauskas who really seemed liable to go overboard, but instead the peripheral JaVale McGee vs. Juwan Howard. Howard elects himself mayor of all hostile zones. Michael Lee of the Washington Post on Wall's coach, Flip Saunders: "Saunders was right in the middle, cursing at Howard. I told Saunders afterward that I thought he was going to wind up hanging on Howard’s leg the way former New York Knicks coach and current ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy latched onto Alonzo Mourning when Mourning and Charles Oakley got tangled during the first round of the 1998 Eastern Conference playoffs. 'I wouldn’t go for the leg. I’ve seen that on TV before,' Saunders said with a laugh." (Via the D.C. Sports Bog)
• Kevin Love is a lot of great things, but he is not a skywalker.
• I'm sure the Lakers are thrilled to hear that Ron Artest has balanced his devotions to basketball and a music career. Wouldn't an imbalance, in favor of hoops, be better?
• Will Leitch on the Sports Section on Carmelo Anthony's defense: "Boy, is he ever handsy. If he weren't Carmelo Anthony, he'd be called for about fourteen fouls a night."
• Donald Sterling's attorney wins a trial against Elgin Baylor, and the post-game trash talk.
• The Nets, Rockets and Knicks are reportedly vying to host a massive, 30-team predraft workout.
• David Berri notes that changing the coach of the Knicks, but keeping the same players, is unlikely to improve things.
• Lawyer Michael McCann talks about the potential for a lawsuit to eliminate the NBA's age restriction.
• Lots of Houston fans thought the team picked the wrong guy in the Aaron Brooks vs. Kyle Lowry debate. Do they still think that?
• Get to know Othyus Jeffers.
• Ronnie Brewer, Tim Duncan, Shaun Livingston, Josh Smith, C.J. Miles, Eric Maynor, Kyle Lowry, Ronny Turiaf, Darrell Arthur and Nick Collison are the players who are on the court when teams play their best defense.

• Shandel Richardson of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Heat forward LeBron James took criticism from fans for skipping the pregame introductions Tuesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Many felt James was avoiding facing the fans of his former team, but Heat spokesman Tim Donovan said James had done it a few times this season. The last time it happened was before Sunday's game against the Houston Rockets. James did not address the subject Wednesday, but did respond to questions after the Cleveland loss. 'I was just using the restroom,' James said. 'Am I allowed to do that?' James disappeared during the national anthem before resurfacing after the introductions were completed."
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "In the past two weeks the Hawks had suffered blowout home defeats against Miami and Chicago while losing 14 of 21 games. Now they've won three consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 5, following victories against struggling New Jersey and Cleveland by beating the fourth-place team in the Eastern Conference. 'I guess it was a switch that went off,' said Hawks forward Josh Smith, who scored a game-high 26 points. 'I'm glad it did, especially at this time. We can't keep getting punked by teams and not answering the bell.' The Hawks have made a turnaround against the Magic since the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals. Orlando swept the four-game series with an NBA-record winning margin of 101 total points. The Hawks have won three in row against the Magic in low-scoring, physical games."
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: "Dwight Howard didn’t sound worried after the Orlando Magic lost to the Atlanta Hawks 85-82 on Wednesday. But he did sound frustrated. Frustrated with the officiating. Frustrated with the talk that the Hawks may have found their groove against the Magic. And frustrated with the Magic’s lack of rest. The Magic’s all-star center felt that Jason Collins deserved to receive a flagrant foul instead of a personal foul when Collins wrapped up Howard around the upper shoulders with 3:33 remaining in the second quarter. '[On] anybody else it would’ve been a flagrant,' Howard said. 'But against me, it’s a regular foul.' Howard expressed no concern that the Magic lost their regular-season series to the Hawks, their likely first-round opponent. 'It’ll be a different animal in the playoffs,' he said."
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: "Say this for the Heat this season: The team somehow always figures out a way to keep things interesting. The four-game trip appeared like a yawner on paper, but two games in it has been anything but boring. On Tuesday, the Heat lost to the worst team in the league, the Cleveland Cavaliers. One day later, the Heat got physical, flagrant and downright vulgar with the Washington Wizards and their fans. The Heat defeated the lowly Wizards 123-107 on Wednesday in a game marred by ejections to Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Juwan Howard of the Heat and Wizards guard John Wall. The Heat began Wednesday’s game with 11 available players and ended it with nine. It was a physical game from the beginning but things got dirty in the second quarter. That’s when Wall, the star rookie, punched Ilgauskas in the ribs after Ilgauskas elbowed Wall in the mouth. 'It’s part of the game,' said Dwyane Wade, who had 33 points on 11-of-17 shooting. 'Aggressiveness, hard fouls -- sometimes they escalate a little more than others. We had a similar situation last night in Cleveland.' "
• Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner "John Wall didn’t back down after he was hit by Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ elbows, and he didn’t duck the incident afterward. Given that his little scuffle took place early in the second quarter, Wall had plenty of time to bolt from Verizon Center. But similar to the way he’s fought on despite the adversity that the team has faced this year, he stood in front of the cameras and microphones afterward and took on the incident head first. 'I just got hit by his elbow and reacted to it,' Wall said. 'I’m disappointed in the way I reacted. I let my teammates down, let my organization down, but I’m glad to see that my teammates fought hard and tried to compete tonight and come away with a win… There were two elbows. I got hit with the first one, and I stopped, and then the second one, I got hit, and I just reacted.' When asked about Wall’s potential to be suspended an additional game, Wizards head coach Flip Saunders gave his prized rookie point guard the benefit of the doubt. The video evidence might say otherwise. 'From what the referees said, I don’t think it warrants [a suspension] because it was just elbows that were thrown, not punches,' Saunders said. 'I’m assuming that it’ll be okay.' The problem is, it was a punch to Big Z’s ribs."
• Tim Smith of the New York Daily News: "If it wasn't apparent against the Magic on Monday night, it became crystal clear against the Nets Wednesday night: Anthony is now the leader of the Knicks. He is The Man, and it didn't take a 128-foot billboard a few blocks from the Garden to tell us that. It took him putting together back-to-back 39-point, 10-rebound games during which he was spectacular at both ends of the court. All of this was done while a tired Amar'e Stoudemire was saddled with foul trouble and watched most of that third-quarter comeback from the Knicks' bench. 'It feels good, especially right now,' Anthony said. 'It's a good time that it's happening, must-win situations, games we really need coming down the stretch to get into the playoffs. It's almost the perfect time for me to get into a groove like this.' Coming in, the game was shaping up as a showdown between two highly valued trade commodities - Anthony and Deron Williams, who was traded to the Nets from Utah on the day Anthony made his Knicks debut. But a wrist injury that Williams has been nursing all season (he's missed eight of 11 games since the trade) blunted some of that enthusiasm. It was a nice tease for the future, but this was Anthony's stage and his night."
• Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times: "The Derrick Rose MVP campaign continued gaining momentum, this time with a blessing from the King. Before the reigning two-time Most Valuable Player took the court in Washington on Wednesday, Le-Bron James all but crowned the Bulls point guard with the 2010-11 honor, telling reporters, 'I think [it’s] Derrick Rose. What he’s done for that team, with all the injuries they have and them being first in the Eastern Conference -- they’re playing some really good basketball.’ Rose was asked about the comments made from the Heat star and admitted he was 'speechless.’ 'Yeah ... I’m speechless right now, to tell you the truth,' Rose said. 'It’s great to hear that, but you know me. Right now, I could care less about what people are saying.’ Good thing, because not everyone shares the opinion of King James."
• Geoff Calkins of The Commercial-Appeal: "Mike Heisley took off the T-shirt. That could have been the key to this one. He'd been wearing a Tony Allen T-shirt throughout the first half. When he came out for the second half, no T-shirt. Yes, Allen noticed. 'When he took it off, I had to turn it up a notch,' said Allen. Allen turned up a notch is something to behold, isn't it? The man swooped in for a layup. Then he stole the ball and went between his legs before finding Zach Randolph for a layup. Then he stole the ball again. Then he went 360 for a bucket. Then he flew in from the right side and threw down a one-handed jam over David Lee. All that after the Grizzlies trailed Golden State early in the second half by double digits. 'I thought Tony was the key,' said point guard Mike Conley. To the game or to the season? Tony Allen and the Grizzlies wound up blasting Golden State at FedExForum on Wednesday night, 110-91. Combined with Houston's loss to Philadelphia, the Grizzlies are now three games up on the Rockets with just seven games to go. Not to say the Grizzlies are a lock to make the playoffs at this point, but John Calipari would have a hard time blowing that kind of cushion."
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: "Watching Wednesday night's fourth quarter -- the harmonious flow, the unselfish sensibility, the nasty oh-no-he-didn't dunks -- it's easy for one to forget, as Denver's Wilson Chandler said afterward, that 'there are a lot of plays we don't know.' It was just Feb. 21 when the Nuggets acquired three new rotation players, but these guys make it look easy, thanks to their fearless leader. And their other fearless leader. In the Nuggets' 104-90 win against the Kings, point guards Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton took over in the pivotal fourth, tallying six assists without a turnover, not to mention a handful of 'hockey assists,' as folks call them. 'Our playbook isn't going to be deep enough to be running cute stuff,' said Nuggets coach George Karl, whose team led by just three after three. 'We just got to keep doing what we do well, and most of that means Ty and Raymond pushing us, spacing the court, not settling for 3s and keep attacking. Their defense wore out a little bit, and we got to the rim more in the second half.' "
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: "I feel for Paul Silas, because he’s coaching his butt off in a situation where trades and injuries decimated his depth. Add Gerald Wallace to this mix and they’re in the playoffs (yeah, I’ve heard all the spin about sacrificing the present for the future – we’ll see). You don’t think Nazr Mohammed would be useful? There’s no such thing as a backup center right now. When Kwame Brown leaves the game, they have the size of a quality college team. I’ve used the analogy in the past that Silas approaches the game like a baseball manager (Dusty Baker, minus the toothpick). Wednesday was like using up all your pitchers at the last out, but it worked."
• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: "The Celtics’ recent offensive woes have affected everyone, though, as always when the ball stops moving, Ray Allen may be a little more handcuffed than anyone else. His 11-point first half during Monday’s loss in Indiana included an 0-for-1 first half. Overall, Allen has shot 10-for-53 (18.7 percent) over the last five games, including 7-for-25 (28 percent) from downtown over the same stretch. Asked about regaining his rhythm, Allen pinned responsibility squarely on the larger team picture. 'I won’t press,' he said. 'In Indiana I saw I was 0-for-1 for the half, and I was trying to remember the shot that I took. Man, when it rains it pours. We have to create for ourselves great rhythm. Kevin (Garnett) is great at it. He’s always aware when the ball moves through me, so he’ll always make the extra pass. We just have to all be aware of it -- making that extra pass. When I come off screens I know I can pull up and shoot it most of the time, but the most sensible play in this offense is dropping down to Glen (Davis), or Nenad (Krstic) or Kevin, because they can get those easy layups and they work so hard for it. It has to be consistent with everybody.' "
• Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times: "A considerable streak ended at 7:09 of the fourth quarter when Dirk Nowitzki missed a free throw, ending the longest streak in the NBA this season. He had made 74 straight free throws and the streak had started in the fourth quarter against Indiana on March 4. After missing, he looked slightly amused and then promptly made his next one."
• Paola Boivin of The Arizona Republic: "The Oklahoma City Thunder guard, who showcased his skills against the Suns on Wednesday night at US Airways Center, is generating NBA buzz and finds himself in discussions for Sixth Man of the Year. It is a role some might not embrace. He has. 'James is someone that values and is willing to be a part of something,' Thunder General Manager Sam Presti said. 'He has accepted a role and really focused on how his contributions will help the overall group. A lot of people verbalize this, but it is not often acted on.' Harden agrees that Oklahoma City 'is a great fit.' 'From the front office on down, guys work hard,' he said. 'There's been such a good relationship with everyone on and off the court and I think it's what has made us successful.' "
• Mike Bresnahan and Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times: "The Lakers didn't appeal to a higher power Wednesday, though Archbishop Jose Gomez was at their practice, as was Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani from Peru, taking in a scrimmage from folding courtside chairs. Gomez used to be a San Antonio Spurs supporter but switched allegiances after taking over leadership of the L.A. Archdiocese this month. 'A lot of people were praying and telling me to switch from the Spurs to the Lakers. Prayers work. Now I'm a Lakers fan,' Gomez said. 'I'm also praying for the Spurs, but a sign from God is that the Lakers are playing much better.' It's been that kind of a run, the Lakers 15-1 since the All-Star break. Kobe Bryant spoke to both Catholic dignitaries after practice. Coincidentally or not, the Lakers play their biggest game of the regular season Thursday at Staples Center against Dallas. The Lakers lead the Mavericks by half a game for second place in the Western Conference. The season series is tied at 1-1."
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: "Reserve guard Nate Robinson said he 'still has some work to do' before his game is back to form following arthroscopic surgery on his right knee March 4. He was activated Tuesday. During his time on the sideline, Robinson said he quickly built an appreciation for his new teammates. 'They play so hard it reminds me of going to a gym and playing in a pickup game,' Robinson said. 'You don't want to lose. You want to stay on the court all day, have the bragging rights, and that's how they play every night. That's special. That's something a lot of teams in this league don't have.' "
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: "There is much discussion about the Sacramento Kings moving to Anaheim and the city this week struck a deal with the owner of the Anaheim Ducks to contribute $75 million to the moving expenses if the Kings relocate and for upgrades to the Honda Center. The Anaheim Royals, as they would be named (hearkening back to their Cincinnati Royals roots), still are a long way from setting up shop in Anaheim, but it appears the chances of it happening are good. That would be good for the area, said Tyson Chandler, who grew up in LA and still spends his time there in the off-season. 'I've always said that if a team gets to Anaheim, they're going to clean up because it's two different worlds,' Chandler said. 'People that are not from LA don't understand it. It's two different worlds. People in Orange County do not like coming to LA and people in LA do not like to come to Orange County. And they almost compete against each other.' "
• Eric Carpenter of The Orange County Register: "The Sacramento Kings move to Anaheim is not a done deal -- but that hasn't held back a wave of excitement among local NBA fans. As of early afternoon Wednesday, more than 500 fans had sent e-mails to the Honda Center to be included on a priority waiting list for tickets, according to Merit Tully, an arena spokesman. Many say they want season tickets. Honda Center officials set up the waiting list Tuesday afternoon, hours before Anaheim officials unanimously approved $75 million in bonds to make the city-owned arena the Kings' home."
• Ryan Lillis and Dale Kasler of The Sacramento Bee: "The Sacramento Kings may be headed for the exit, but their threatened departure has energized the effort to build a new sports arena. A grass-roots campaign emerged Wednesday to raise money for a new facility in Sacramento. Within hours, the movement spread through social media and billboards along area freeways. At the same time, Sacramento city leaders vowed to press ahead with their years-long, frequently frustrating effort to find an arena financing plan that works. A city-sponsored development team continues to analyze the economics of a new building, with a report expected in late May. 'Our community realizes we need to build a new entertainment and sports complex whether the Kings are here or not,' Mayor Kevin Johnson said Wednesday. 'It's about our city and proving we can get big things done.' "
• Alexis Stevens of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Rashan S. Michel, 36, was arrested and charged with one count of simple battery following the incident, Officer K.Y. Jones with Atlanta police told the AJC. Michel, who told police he was owed money for suits purchased several years ago, hit Wilkins in the chest and also hit a security guard, Jones said. Michel, of Atlanta, has worked as an NBA and college basketball referee and previously owned his own clothing store. 'The fan was promptly arrested and was taken into custody by the Atlanta Police Department,' Hawks spokesman Arthur Triche said in a statement to the AJC. 'At this time the Hawks have no additional information or comment regarding this situation.' Wilkins, 51, serves as the Hawks' vice president and as a television analyst. Wilkins played for the Hawks from 1982 until 1994. Wilkins was not seriously injured in the incident."
• Terry Foster of The Detroit News: "One of the greatest rebounders and defenders in NBA history has turned into a sideshow for a new generation because of his wild antics, wild parties, relationships with Madonna and others, meltdowns on reality television and takedowns on the professional wrestling circuit. On Friday at The Palace, however, people who know Dennis Rodman expect the emotional, thoughtful player to show up when his No. 10 jersey is retired during halftime of the Bulls-Pistons game. A number of his former teammates are expected to be on hand, including John Salley, Isiah Thomas, Rick Mahorn and James Edwards. Whether he was in a wedding dress or short shorts, Rodman was one of the all-time characters of the NBA. He electrified Palace crowds for seven seasons and was a key component to the 1989 and 1990 championship teams. His stats (8.8 points and 11.5 rebounds) did not match the emotions, both good and bad, he injected into the franchise. 'He is a minority of one and that is not always easy to be,' Pistons announcer George Blaha said. 'There is nobody else like Dennis Rodman.' "
• Jeff Rabjohns of The Indianapolis Star: "Indiana Pacers radio voice Mark Boyle is accustomed to calling the action during a game, not being in any way part of it. But on Wednesday night, the veteran play-by-play man was honored for calling his 2,000th Pacers game, receiving a commemorative basketball from team president Larry Bird. 'Longevity is something that's important to me and it's been fortunate for me,' said Boyle, who has been with the franchise for 23 years. 'It's only through a set of circumstances you end up in a good place. 'When I got here, I knew nothing about it -- whether it was good, bad or indifferent -- except it was the NBA, and I was glad to be here. As the years went by, I found out how lucky I was to be here. We have great owners and (former general manager) Donnie Walsh was a great guy to work for all those years.' "

The Denver Nuggets won their fourth straight game Wednesday night as Ty Lawson led six Nuggets in double figures with 20 points. The win bumped the Nuggets to 13-4 since trading Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to the New York Knicks on February 22, the first day after the All-Star break. Denver, in seventh place in the Western Conference at the All-Star break, has quietly climbed to fifth and is arguably playing its best post-break basketball since 2005, when the Nuggets led all teams with a 25-4 record in the second half of the season.

One key to the Nuggets second-half surge has been their ability to protect their home court. Denver is 9-0 at the Pepsi Center after the All-Star break and is outscoring its opponents by 19.7 points per game over that span. Earlier this month, the Nuggets became the first team in NBA history to record three straight home wins by 30 more or points.

They have now topped the 100-point mark in each of their last seven games at home (all wins). The only other teams to win seven straight home games while reaching triple digits in each this season are the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Hosting a 1st Round playoff series is not out of the question for the Nuggets, who trail the Oklahoma City Thunder by five games with eight games remaining in the race for the four-seed out West. Denver would need some help from Oklahoma City to catch the Thunder, but head-to-head matchups against Kevin Durant and crew on April 5 and April 8 could make things interesting.

Elsewhere in the NBA on Wednesday:

• The Atlanta Hawks knocked off the Orlando Magic by three in a meeting between teams likely to meet in the 1st Round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Hawks finish the season 3-1 vs the Magic, the first time they’ve won the season series vs Orlando since 2006-07.

• The Miami Heat beat the Washington Wizards 123-107 to stay two-and-a-half games behind the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference. The Heat are now 14-4 when playing on zero days’ rest this season. Only the Los Angeles Lakers (10-2) have a better record on no days’ rest.

• Carmelo Anthony scored 39 points to lead the Knicks past the New Jersey Nets. It was Anthony’s third straight game with at least 35 points. That’s tied with LaMarcus Aldridge and Monta Ellis for the longest streak of 35-point games in the NBA this season. It’s also tied for Anthony’s longest streak of 35-point games in his career.

There's some concern about hip hop mogul -- and minority Nets owner -- Jay-Z's appearing in the Kentucky locker room to congratulate various Wildcats on their tournament win. The notion that Jay-Z may have been recruiting lottery picks would be tough to prove, for a few reasons. For one, do lottery picks need to be recruited at all? More importantly, though, the Nets don't have a high pick this year having traded theirs to the Jazz as part of a package for Deron Williams.

Jay-Z has spent some time as a basketball recruiter, however, and the evidence is that he's pretty good at it.

In the summer of 2003, Jay-Z was hell-bent on assembling a team to defeat Fat Joe's Terror Squad at New York's Rucker Park. His roster included Lamar Odom, Sebastian Telfair, Eddy Curry, Jamal Crawford and, at times, LeBron James. For the title game, they also had Shaquille O'Neal on hold.

The whole enterprise was filmed by Fred "Fab 5 Freddy" Brathwaite to become part of a documentary -- but that video has never been released, because owing to a power outage, a schedule change, and a high-wattage romantic opportunity, his team fell apart and forfeited the game that might have won them the coveted championship. And without the title, Jay-Z wants no part of promoting the tale.

Zack O'Malley Greenburg describes the summer in his book "Empire State of Mind," excerpted on the Sports Illustrated website:

Jay-Z had guided his team to the precipice of victory after a summer of scheming, schmoozing, cross-marketing, and testing his skills as a manager.

A few hours before the game, Fab met up with Jay-Z to prepare in the air-conditioned cool of the studio, as usual.

"But this day it was special," remembers Fab. "Because now LeBron was going to play ... and Shaquille O'Neal was in New York in a hotel as a secret weapon that was going to be brought into the park solo to play for us."

"And while I'm up in the studio, I have my guy plugging in some lights, he was going to interview one of the players, and all the lights go out in the studio. I go, 'What happened?' Then I hear some people upstairs saying there's no lights. I'm like, 'What's going on in the building?' "

The disturbance wasn't unique to the studio. High electrical demand had forced a power plant near Cleveland offline, straining high-voltage rural power lines into a failure that cascaded across the entire electrical grid. The ensuing blackout left some fifty-five million citizens in the United States and Canada without electricity for nearly twenty-four hours. As traffic lights shut down, gridlock engulfed Manhattan.

A deluge of wireless activity briefly rendered cell phones useless. Crawford and Curry were stuck in their hotel rooms. Fab and Jay-Z were stranded downtown, and the other players were scattered across the city. Telfair, who'd shown up early at the Rucker, had to walk home across the Brooklyn Bridge. Without electricity, there was no way to light the nighttime asphalt at the storied courts.

"It was havoc. There was confusion," says Fab. "Bottom line, no game."

The game was re-scheduled for the next week, but Jay-Z was in the early stages of dating Beyonce Knowles, and the two had little time together owing to their busy schedules. The day after the canceled game, the pair was due for a European vacation, and ... despite all the work in setting up the big game, and the documentary ... they took the trip.

"The team showed up but none of the ringers," Brathwaite explains, "because it's only Jay that can make those calls and put those guys on flights. There was a whole confrontation between the manager, the team, and the park guys ... they decide that the game has been forfeited, and by default Fat Joe wins."

Remember the Rockets who gave the Lakers all that trouble in the playoffs a while back? They're just about all gone.

At the trade deadline, the Rockets traded away Aaron Brooks and Shane Battier. They had already lost Yao Ming to injury. What's left of Tracy McGrady is in Detroit, and after a stint in Sacramento, Carl Landry is filling in for an injured David West in New Orleans.

In return they got long-term investments: draft picks, a prospect who's in the D-League (Hasheem Thabeet) and a benchwarmer (Goran Dragic).

And yet, the Rockets are suddenly one of the NBA's best teams, on an 11-4 tear.

In the five weeks since the trade, the Rockets have literally the best offense in the NBA. Their defense for most of the season has been bad, but over the same period they are just outside the top ten.

Thanks to this incredible run, the left-for-dead Rockets are now breathing down the necks of the Grizzlies and Hornets for the West's last playoff spot -- and they could make it too. They're playing better than those teams, and the Hornets have a tougher schedule and a key injury.

How is this happening?
It's undeniable that those midseason trades changed everything for the Rockets -- but as much as Dragic is a promising young NBA guard, it's not about the new guys. Based on conversations with scouts, insiders and front office people around the NBA, here is some of what's happening:

• Kyle Lowry has been playing out of his mind. He used to play behind Mike Conley in Memphis, and more recently split minutes with Aaron Brooks. Now he's running the show, and evidently he ought to have been doing that all along. Plus/minus numbers suggest playing him long minutes helps the Rockets' defense significantly. Also, his shooting, particularly from 3-point land, has been exceptional of late, which can't be expected to last, but has led to his outplaying the likes of Chris Paul in recent weeks. And to reiterate, now that he's playing long minutes, the team's offense is the most efficient in the NBA.
• The Lowry/Brooks competition is over. As much as they talked nice about sharing time, it was evident to many observers that Lowry and Brooks both felt pressured to prove their worth in short minutes -- especially after Lowry but not Brooks got an offseason contract extension. The result was some ballhogging and bad shots, even as Brooks' efficacy was reduced by a nagging ankle injury. Now Lowry is free to run the team as he sees fit without worry about losing his starting job.
• Kevin Martin is as efficient as ever. His PER is around 22, along with the likes of Amare Stoudemire, Zach Randolph, Manu Ginobili and Blake Griffin, making him one of the most efficient wing scorers anywhere.
• Removing Shane Battier from the offense helps. Remember the heyday of the Sacramento Kings under Rick Adelman? There was a ton of passing and movement. Movement is not Battier's thing at this point in his career. Now, when Lowry initiates the offense, there are cutters at nearly every position. Chase Budinger, who has been mopping up most of Battier's minutes, has made the Houston offense more efficient most of the season, even though he endured a wicked shooting slump to start the year.
• Players know they'll play. The Rockets often get productive minutes from young players like Courtney Lee and Patrick Patterson. But before the trades, those guys never knew how much they'd be playing. Now, Lee's minutes have stabilized, and Patterson at least knows he'll get into just about every game.
• The schedule. Over the five weeks, the Rockets have had a fairly easy schedule with a lot of road games. In addition, post-Battier they have been punished somewhat by elite wing scorers, but they have been lucky not to face too many of those lately. (When they have, for instance against the Heat, they have had trouble.)
• Something to prove. Sources say the players left on the roster after the trade deadline felt a little disprespected -- by the media, by the fans, even by their own front office which had evidently made a bet on the future at the expense of the present. The result was a collective commitment to prove the doubters wrong.

Exciting as the last few weeks have been for the Rockets -- arguably, this team right now is the greatest evidence to date that Daryl Moreyball works -- it is still a long shot. John Hollinger's playoff odds give the Rockets just about a 30 percent chance of making the playoffs. The Hornets have a tough upcoming schedule, though, and Hollinger's odds don't know the Hornets are missing their second-best player in David West.

There are many different ways to project this race, from Hollinger's great tool to manually looking at every game all three teams have remaining. Both approaches suggest the West's last playoff team will finish with 45, or more likely 46, wins.

That means the Rockets almost have to run the table -- at 39-35 they can lose just one of their remaining eight to get to 46. And the challenge is acute tonight, when they play the tail end of a back-to-back against a surprisingly tough Philadelphia team that has been a Rocket nemesis: The Sixers have won six of the last seven meetings.

As the season started, a late March Rockets at Sixers probably didn't look like such a hot ticket, but it looms large now. For Houston -- with the Spurs, Hawks, Hornets and Mavericks remaining on the schedule -- it's basically a must-win to keep this fairy tale run alive.

• Should NCAA players be paid? Frontline digs deeply. You can watch producer Lowell Bergman's 21-minute report online, featuring Sonny Vaccaro on "the complete fraud of amateurism" and Joakim Noah on exploitation he saw with his own eyes. For instance, Noah says he he had Florida teammates who starred in a multibillion dollar enterprise but couldn't afford to bring their families to watch them play in the Final Four. Writer Michael Lewis says, tongue-in-cheek "you shouldn't care unless you have some weird obsession with justice." An economist says the NCAA is in a "fraudulent position." It's all going to come before a judge with Ed O'Bannon's court case. HBO's Real Sports is also on the topic.
• Kevin Garnett twists metaphors like a green squirrel. Honestly, just read this thing. If you don't enjoy it thoroughly, come on back for a full refund.
• John Hollinger (Insider) once again not getting invited to hang out backstage next time James Dolan's blues band performs: "The Knicks are an average team, or at best a slightly above-average one, and are likely to continue in that orbit until Stoudemire's knees give out. Melo will be blamed for this, but it's not his fault. The Knicks made a superstar trade for a player they should have known darn well wasn't a superstar, and denuded the roster in the process. As a result, they'll have trouble winning a single playoff series, either this year or in future ones."
• More class from Dan Gilbert. Being a stickler for your team's parking garage ... fine. But crowing about it on Twitter?
• Nothing about being a billionaire guarantees happiness. In related news, one of the richest owners in sports, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is publishing a book laced with bitterness about his relationship with Microsoft and Bill Gates.
• Dallas has a better road record than home record.
• A promo for an upcoming Golden State Warriors TV documentary. "It's going to be a great feeling and your'e going to feel it," says Monta Ellis. If Kevin Pritchard is any precedent, a lot of the NBA will be bitter at Joe Lacob and the Warriors for taking credit for anything before the wins really start rolling in.
• Knuckle sandwich. That's what John Salley says he got for trying to place peacemaker among his Pistons teammates.
• Might the Pistons sale actually go through soon?
• Shawn Marion's pinky and his jumper are both clearly not right, but good enough.
• The D-League is a strange beast. You kill it all season to earn the top playoff seed, and by the time of the playoffs most of your good players are off in the NBA.
• Doug Collins is coaching his brains out, but does it really make sense to play Andres Nocioni?
• Missing David West.
• How the Heat helped the Cavaliers shoot like Ray Allen.
• Is it wrong to want your team to lose? What about if you're a Wizards fan? Now, I'm going to juxtapose that idea with a quote from Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, way out of context, just to create drama: "If a brand is going to rebuild, it has to first realize a reset is necessary. Once that is agreed upon, everyone in the organization needs to understand the philosophy, strategy, goals and metrics. Realize it won’t be easy, and be cognizant that deviation from the plan, while it may appear to be a short-term gain, likely will have long-term negative ramifications. Once you have established strategy, you rely on your various organizational leaders to execute the plan." (Via Ted's Take)

ESPNChicago's Nick Friedell tells of the time Carlos Boozer rented his Beverly Hills mansion to Prince:

Boozer's former Duke teammate Jay Williams described Tuesday some of Prince's redecorating.

"Booz told me how he had this massive house ... blue fountain waves kind of came down streaming water that led to the front door and all this great stuff," Williams said on "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000. "And I remember him calling me, 'Dude, you will never guess, I rode past my house like three times, I had no idea it was my house.'

"Supposedly, Prince changed the front gate to the Prince sign, he changed the master bedroom to a hair salon, he changed the streaming blue waters that led to the front door to purple water, he knocked out walls, he changed the molding on top of the ceiling. Booz was livid. So pissed off, so angry ... He put his Purple Rain stamp on it ... Booz was like, 'I was getting ready to go over there and beat this little man down.' And dude was just like 'Here, Boozer, here is a little check for about a million, it'll take care of everything, get it back the way you want it.' And Booz was like , 'This little man is cool as hell.'"

• Bill Livingston of The Plain Dealer: "In the last two minutes Tuesday night, the fans weren't in their seats at The Q. They were standing in front of them, yelling until they were hoarse, red-lining the scream machine. The din rattled memories of when it was like this every night. The last time the Cavaliers played the Miami Heat here, the fans weren't even in the building in the last two minutes. The dispiriting 28-point loss on Dec. 2 razed every expectation for competitiveness that had been raised. The Cavs' 102-90 victory in the rematch was change Cleveland could believe in. 'You guys deserved this,' Anthony Parker, who scored 20 points on nine shots, shouted into the wall of sound engulfing him after the game. The 'guys' were the fans, the MVPs (Most Valuable Patrons). But it was also karma. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said his team lost its defensive identity two games ago and could not change the bad habits. So this was also for Miami, payback to the thief team that is built on Cleveland's false savior, LeBron James."
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "The NBA announced Tuesday night that the referees at Tuesday's Miami Heat-Cleveland Cavaliers game at Quicken Loans Arena erred in a allowing a 3-point shot by Heat forward LeBron James at the third-quarter buzzer. While James' three-quarters-court heave in the 102-90 loss did not beat the buzzer, the officiating staff, after consulting video replay, allowed the shot on the basis that the clock had started too early on the play in question. NBA Vice President Stu Jackson announced after the game that the officiating crew had erred in their approach. Had the Cavaliers lost, it is possible a protest could have been granted, forcing a replay from the start of the fourth quarter, if the game had an impact in the playoff race. As it is, James will remain credited with the three points."
• Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman: "On a night when Oklahoma City defeated Golden State 115-114 with some bonus basketball, Kevin Durant broke out of his self-proclaimed slump. He scored 39 points. He hit 13 of 23 shots and 10 of 12 free throws. But most importantly, he carried the freight in overtime, scoring eight of the Thunder's nine points. 'Felt good,' Durant said, smiling. And you could see that it really did. This was only the third time that Durant has scored at least 30 points in a game this month. By comparison, he had four 30-point games in the All-Star Break-shortened month of February and seven in the month of January. Durant has struggled with his shot this month, had nights when he was 3 of 14 and 6 of 21 and 5 of 18. Ugly. No one has been more frustrated by it than the man himself. He figures he works too hard to struggle so badly. He's the guy, after all, who's at the far end of the practice gym working on things that he might actually use in a game while his teammates are horsing around shooting trick shots at the end of practice. He's been annoyed. He's been angry. He's been through his own version of March Madness. 'I've been working hard,' Durant said. 'I was in a little slump, but I stuck with it, kept working hard and shots started to fall.' "
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: "The Rockets have made their run since the All Star break for a lot of reasons. The offense has been the NBA's best in that stretch. The defense has been much improved. They have learned how they can be their best, with roles well defined not only in the rotation, but on the floor. More than anything, they have been determined to make something of this season. That might seem like a small thing, even a given, but it has been so strong, it has driven them much further than seemed possible when they headed to the break. That determination is not about any one individual, but no one typifies it more than Lowry has since then or than he did again on Tuesday. With Rick Adelman watching closely, believing Lowry would not admit if he was "hurting" too much to perform, Lowry scored 14 first-quarter points, setting the tone for the rout. He likely would have had his second triple double in four games if he was needed to play the fourth quarter."
• Frank Isola of the New York Daily News: "As big as Carmelo Anthony played for the Knicks in Monday's crucial overtime win over the Orlando Magic, he loomed much larger Tuesday when Boost Mobile unveiled a 128-foot billboard of the All-Star two blocks from the Garden. The endorsement deal with the wireless provider is Anthony's first since being acquired from the Denver Nuggets last month. But it's not his first Manhattan billboard. His ad for Brand Jordan is on 34th and Seventh Ave., the same spot where there was an ad for LeBron James last season. 'It was crazy for me to see the Jordan one,' Anthony said. 'It was right there in the middle of everything. Then to see this one, I can't really put it into words.' "
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: "Suns guard Vince Carter came off the bench for the 10th time in his career Tuesday night at Sacramento. Prior to Sunday's demotion in favor of Jared Dudley in the starting lineup, Carter last came off the bench in November 2009. 'I'm good,' Carter said with his reserve role. 'There is nothing to talk about (with coach Alvin Gentry). JD's playing great basketball so he should be in the lineup now. It's a different approach to the game. You're playing in a different time of the game. It's an adjustment. I know that first game was going to be different because of that. I always prepare myself for starting. It's a new challenge.' "
• Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News: "After streaking through much of the season with the best won-loss record in franchise history, the Spurs’ recent four-game losing streak has slowed their record pace considerably. The Spurs now have the second best record in franchise history to this point of the season. The Spurs’ current 57-17 record is behind the pace of the 2006 team, which charged to a 63-19 record for the best single-season winning record in franchise history. With eight games remaining, the Spurs must finish 6-2 to match that franchise record. Coach Gregg Popovich has always shown he’s more interested in resting players late in the season to prepare them for the playoffs rather than winning games. It will be interesting to see how Popovich approaches the rest of the season. I would suspect he will try to keep winning games until the top seed in the league is settled. After that is done, we might expect some lineups like the one that the Spurs employed in their loss Monday night to Portland when four starters were rested."
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: "John Wall has handed out at least 10 assists twice this month, getting 12 assists on Sunday in Golden State and 10 in an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers last week. He also had a career-high 32 points against the Clippers, becoming the first rookie to record those numbers for the franchise since Earl Monroe had the same line for the Baltimore Bullets on Feb.24, 1968. He ranks sixth in the league with 8.6 assists. And, with nine games remaining, the possibility of Wall joining Mark Jackson, Oscar Robertson and Damon Stoudamire in the nine-assist-per-game-as-rookies-club is becoming more remote. Wall has 527 assists in 61 games this season and would have to get 103 assists -- or average 11.4 -- the rest of the way. Unless more of the Wizards’ top offensive weapons return, that would be difficult. And even if Blatche and Young come back, they would still have to shake off some rust to work their way back. Wall said a few weeks ago that he always tries to think pass first, unless he is rolling offensively, and in the first half against the Utah Jazz on Monday, he couldn’t be stopped. He scored 24 on 10 of 11 shooting as he ran circles around Earl Watson and Ronnie Price, making them look silly with his dizzying drives to the basket. ... Wall likely won’t get nine assists per game, but 8.5 or more is still not bad."
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: "Don't simply call him an Energizer Bunny. Grizzlies guard Tony Allen brings not just energy but an eccentric vibe, an animated style -- and an outside-the-box-score impact like nothing this franchise has seen. 'I've never played with anyone quite like him,' Griz forward Shane Battier said, 'and I mean that in a good way. He's 100 percent energy and you have to respect his passion and emotions.' To Battier, he's 'our emotional beacon.' To the chanting fans near the end of Allen's 23-point, five-steal performance in Sunday's 111-104 victory over San Antonio at FedExForum, he was 'TON-Y! TON-Y! TON-Y!' Allen is fifth in the NBA in steals per game despite averaging just 19.7 minutes off the bench. But he may lead the league in style points -- if manic energy, unbridled emotion and head-scratching quirks are your style. 'Some people are like, 'Man, he needs to calm down sometimes.' But that's how he is,' forward Leon Powe said. 'He's hyped during the game, before the game, at practice, and he's just getting himself going. He plays with a lot of energy. That's his game.' "
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: "In these final two weeks of the NBA's regular season, the Nuggets' toughest competition is a team they don't even play. 'Portland,' Nuggets coach George Karl said Tuesday after practice, 'is not going to make it easy on us.' Pesky Portland is on the heels of the Nuggets' Nikes. Denver (44-29) is No. 5 in the Western Conference standings, but only 1 1/2 games ahead of the No. 6 Trail Blazers (43-31). For now, No. 4 Oklahoma City is still within reach for the Nuggets -- they meet twice next week -- but after its overtime win Tuesday against Golden State, the Thunder (49-24) is five games ahead of Denver. That's an all but impossible margin to close in two weeks. So the Nuggets will chase the Thunder. But realistically, they need to be concerned about holding off the Trail Blazers, because one would surmise that Denver has a better chance of beating Oklahoma City in the playoffs than defeating Dallas, or even the Los Angeles Lakers. 'The playoffs begin right about now,' said Karl, whose team hosts Sacramento tonight. 'There's going to be a game almost every night that has a playoff intensity to it because of the playoff ramifications.' "
• Terry Foster of The Detroit News: "Scottie Pippen opened up old wounds recently when he called the Pistons a dirty team. Those words coincided with what Jordan said in 1991 after the Bulls went up 3-0 against the Pistons in the series. Jordan sat in the risers behind the visitor's basket and blistered the Pistons for 20 minutes. He called them bad champions and said they were bad for basketball. That's why the Pistons walked out. But everybody forgets that. They simply believe the Pistons were poor sports and sore losers. I applauded them for walking out then and I applaud it today, and I'm sorry to see that Thomas apologized to someone who had no respect for the Bad Boys."
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: "About the only thing more in abundance than losses as the Raptors close out the 2010/2011 season is uncertainty. From who will eventually own the team to who will manage or even coach it, just about everything seems up in the air. And that doesn’t even begin to address the likelihood of there even being a 2011/2012 season with a lockout looming in July. There are a few certainties within the organization, like the fact that DeMar DeRozan will be back along with rookie Ed Davis. Even the return of Andrea Bargnani is now in question with at least one published report stating the Raptors are open to trading the former first-overall pick. Of course how can a report like that be believed when the GM himself has a contract that expires June 30th and to date the team has not announced an extension."
• Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press: "What they don't tell you is that when a college player seeks professional input regarding his strengths and weaknesses, he becomes an individual and no longer a teammate. It becomes more about impressing NBA scouts with his skills and less about the tools that helped his team win. That's the dilemma facing Michigan and its improving point guard Darius Morris. It's not as clean and simple as should he stay or should he go. There's little evidence from recent drafts that suggests a guard -- specifically a point guard -- significantly improved his draft stock after going through the evaluative process, uncovering his flaws, pulling his name out of the draft and returning to college for another season. ... I hope Morris realizes after talking with the advisory committee that it's best to keep his name out of the draft this year. But if he feels it's worth taking the chance, Michigan would be better off next season if Morris stayed in the draft rather than risk him spending another season in Ann Arbor second-guessing himself."
• Jill Painter of the Los Angeles Daily News: "Jerry West, the former player and general manager, had a hole-in-one at the Lakers Celebrity Invitational at Riviera Country Club on Monday. He aced the 138-yard, par-3 16th with an 8-iron. Two of the par-3s in the charity event showcased cars for anyone who aced the hole. Ironically, the prize on the 16th was Lakers season tickets, and of course, West already has those and rarely goes to games anyway. 'I didn't think I'd make another one,' West said in a phone interview from his office at Riviera. 'I was pretty lucky. Actually, it was a good shot. It was going real close to the hole, and it kind of spun in the hole. It's the first time I'd played in a while. The caddie pointed his finger down to the hole, and I had no idea what the heck he was talking about. Any time you do something like that, you're not as thrilled as everyone else you're playing with. It's a unique thing to happen. A lot of people play for a lifetime and are very accomplished golfers and never have one.' West, 72, was playing with Lakers vendors and corporate sponsors. He now has four career aces."
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: "The Bulls' only trip to Minneapolis uncovered this nugget: Carlos Boozer once rented his West Hollywood mansion to none other than Prince, Minnesota's Purple Rain musical icon. 'My realtor was like, 'Yo, there's this guy who wants to rent your house. He saw it before you bought it,' ' Boozer recalled of the 2004 transaction. 'I was like, 'I'm not leasing my house. I've never done that.' The amount of money he was willing to pay made me reconsider. And that's how Prince rented my house out.' Multiple media outlets reported Prince paid $70,000 per month for the 10-bedroom, 11-bath home. The same reports said attorneys for Boozer filed suit against Prince/MPG Music for violating the eight--month lease because of 'painting the exterior with purple striping, 'prince' symbol, and numbers 3121' -- one of Prince's albums. The suit also cited a purple monogrammed carpet was installed in the master bedroom and plumbing 'for water transfer for beauty salon chairs' was added. 'He made it purple,' Boozer said. 'He wanted to put his personal touch on it because he wanted to make it feel like home. I was kind of worried about that when I saw the house. But Prince was great. I had a conversation with him. He changed everything back the way it was before he moved out.' "
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: "Add another bizarre incident to the list of strange events that have befallen the Magic this season on the road. After the team lost in overtime to the New York Knicks on Monday night in Manhattan, a bus carrying General Manager Otis Smith, Director of Player Development Adonal Foyle, Magic broadcasters and team support staff barely avoided an accident as it traveled southbound on the New Jersey Turnpike to Newark Liberty International Airport. A car ahead of the bus spun out of control. But the Magic's bus driver reacted quickly and managed to avoid a collision, said Magic spokesman George Galante. The bus stopped safely on the Turnpike's right-hand shoulder, but the car came to a rest in the left-hand shoulder, and the car's front was jutting out into the highway. The bus driver backed the bus up, and heroically ran across the dimly lit Turnpike and extracted the car's occupant from her vehicle. They ran across the Turnpike again and into the safety of the bus. Then, about 30 seconds later, a limo traveling southbound hit the woman's car, Galante said. Fortunately, no one was injured. ... It was just the latest strange incident for the Magic this season. In October, a slippery court forced an exhibition game in Tampa against the Miami Heat to be canceled. In early November, the Magic's first road game against the Knicks was postponed after debris fell from Madison Square Garden's ceiling, creating asbestos concerns. In late December, one of two Magic buses became stuck in a snow drift as it traveled from the team hotel in Hoboken, N.J., to the arena in Newark, N.J."

Tuesday night offered more evidence that whenever some incredible on-court feat leaves you asking "when is the last time an NBA player did this?,” the answer is often simpler than it seems. If it’s not Wilt Chamberlain, he's at least somewhere on the list.

LeBron James recorded 27 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in the Miami Heat‘s 102-90 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday. James’ 32nd career triple-double came against a franchise whose uniform he wore for 619 games, a franchise he led to the 2007 NBA Finals, a franchise he was a member of when he won back-to-back NBA MVP Awards.

After the obvious questions of where James ranks among this season’s triple-double leaders (first, with four), where he ranks among active players in triple-doubles (second) and his team’s record when he has a triple-double (24-8), the following question was posed: “when was the last time a player recorded a triple-double against a team he won an MVP Award with?”

As you’ve undoubtedly figured out by now, the answer is Wilt Chamberlain. In fact, the Elias Sports Bureau tells us he’s the only other player to satisfy that criteria. But Wilt didn’t dominate a team he had previously won an MVP with just once. Chamberlain was traded from the San Francisco Warriors to the Philadelphia 76ers during the 1964-65 season, a move the Warriors would come to regret. On four separate occasions, Chamberlain posted a triple-double against the Warriors, with whom he won his first NBA MVP Award in 1960.

Despite LeBron’s historic effort, the Cavaliers beat the Heat by 12 to earn their first double-digit win this season. Every other team has at least four wins by 10 or more points. Should Cleveland not win one of its nine remaining games by double-digits, the Elias Sports Bureau says the Cavaliers would be just the second team ever to have fewer than two double-digit wins in a season. Cleveland would join the 1997-98 Toronto Raptors (one). It’s quite a drop-off from last season, when LeBron led the Cavaliers to 32 double-digit wins.

Elsewhere in the NBA on Tuesday:

• The Houston Rockets pulled within two games of the Memphis Grizzlies for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with a 112-87 win over the New Jersey Nets. It was the Rockets' second 25-point win of the season and first in more than four months. Houston beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 120-94 on November 7.

• Kevin Durant scored 39 points to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder over the Golden State Warriors in overtime. It was the Thunder’s eighth overtime win this season, three more than any other team.

• The Sacramento Kings improve to 10-27 at home this season with a win vs the Phoenix Suns. Sacramento is the only franchise in the NBA this season with more road wins (11) than home wins (10).

Indiana University professor Wayne Winston is a pioneer of plus/minus who has long advised NBA teams including the Dallas Mavericks.

I've written about him many times, and he never fails to rile people up with his unconventional findings.

But for the record, in my experience, Winston is not wacky or anything else. He's just a guy who passionately believes in adjusted plus/minus -- even when sample sizes are fairly small.

Would you have it any other way? Would you hire me as a blogger if I were tepid on blogging? Would you hire a point guard who headed into the lane thinking "I'm probably going to miss this"? A lot of people believe in their work, and while I honestly still haven't grasped exactly how to use plus/minus, I'm certain it's one part of a good, broad analysis of a team or a player. (I'm also sure that, limited though it may be, for the time being it's just about the only way to measure individual NBA defense in any meaningful way, so it simply can't be ignored.)

So, with that as a backdrop, here are Winston's most recent NBA power rankings, based on the last 30 days, which he just e-mailed over. I honestly don't know his secret sauce, but I'd put good money on it being based on margin of victory and strength of opponent -- so take this as a measure of who has been playing well against tough competition lately:

1. Denver Nuggets
2. Chicago Bulls
3. Los Angeles Lakers
4. Miami Heat
5. Oklahoma City Thunder
6. Dallas Mavericks
7. Portland Trail Blazers
8. Houston Rockets
9. Orlando Magic
10. San Antonio Spurs
11. Memphis Grizzlies
12. Philadelphia 76ers
13. Boston Celtics
14. New Orleans Hornets
15. Phoenix Suns
16. New York Knicks
17. Atlanta Hawks
18. Los Angeles Clippers
19. Sacramento Kings
20. Golden State Warriors
21. Milwaukee Bucks
22. Detroit Pistons
23. Indiana Pacers
24. Minnesota Timberwolves
25. New Jersey Nets
26. Utah Jazz
27. Charlotte Bobcats
28. Toronto Raptors
29. Cleveland Cavaliers
30. Washington Wizards

Watch this and tell me you don't wish you had a player on your team who was so inventive: There's Kobe Bryant, repeatedly using passes to himself off the backboard to befuddle the defense and get himself nice, easy looks.

It's just fun, and if you're smart (like Harrison Barnes) you'll add it to your arsenal.

But try it in your pickup game and they'll either call you for a travel or burn you for witchcraft.

At a moment like that, you really want to know your stuff. So: Is passing to yourself off the backboard actually legal, or is it one of those things that's hard to police so they just kind of let it go?

The answer is fascinating. Google up the NBA rulebook, and you'll find there's really just one rule that might apply:

A player who attempts a field goal may not be the first to touch the ball if it fails to touch the backboard, basket ring or another player.

Of course, that's no help, really, because those are not field goal attempts. Those are passes.

So I asked the NBA for clarification, and they pointed me to two rules -- the one above, and a new one:

A player may not be the first to touch his own pass unless the ball touches his backboard, basket ring or another player.

Why did I miss that rule when I checked? Because it wasn't there. Google had taken me to a version of the NBA rulebook (still on NBA.com) that was originally published in 2001. But you won't find this rule about passing there. Instead, you have to find the PDF of this season's rules as posted in NBA.com's officiating section.

The officiating page outlines recent rule changes, but doesn't mention the several recent changes to the traveling rules, including this one.

In any case, know for your pickup game, or for watching the professionals, that this is now undeniably entirely legal in the NBA.

• A few hours before LeBron James' re-return to Cleveland, it's still not a sellout. Last time around, tickets went for record prices, but plenty has changed.
• Ethan Sherwood Strauss on HoopSpeak: "Some would say that we should have a separate award for the most statistically dominant player. I respond: Would you like to have a dumber MVP debate than the current one? Also, isn’t the single honor straight forward to the sentient? Any reinterpretation of 'Most Valuable' confuses my English-loving brain. When I hear, 'Look, BEST is different from MOST VALUABLE,' it sounds a lot like, 'Look, I think the tone of my voice can render basic words irrelevant.'"
• Seth Johnston of Portland Roundball Society: "The MVP is an opinion award, remember? There is no clear definition. If there was there would be no debate, which would end all of the fun, all of the frustration, and most of the interest. There are qualities that many previous winners share, but the exceptions are evidence that these are not hard and fast rules. There is no single correct answer. Nobody can be right and nobody can be wrong. Rose is the top scorer on a team that has won a lot of games. He is hardly a radical candidate. Perhaps you think an MVP should have a higher PER, more Win Shares, play better defense, or do something else. All of that is only as right and as wrong as any reason used to vote for Rose."
• Eddy Rivera of Magic Basketball goes long explaining why Derrick Rose is, to him, not the MVP, and concludes: "The same numbers that showed Michael Jordan should have been MVP nearly every year he played in the NBA are the same numbers that show Rose shouldn’t win the award."
• John Hollinger (Insider) says the Bulls could be the next coming of the 1977 Blazers -- a playoff-green team that takes home gold: "To find a precedent, we have to go all the way back to 1977 and the Portland Trail Blazers, who won the title in their first playoff appearance as a franchise, despite having virtually no playoff experience at all on the roster -- a combined six rounds of ABA playoff action for Dave Twardzik and Maurice Lucas and 12 games by backup guard Herm Gilliam. So Chicago fans can cling to the fact that teams with an outspoken, long-haired center who won a championship in college seem to be an exception to the rule."
• Yahoo's Dan Wetzel lays down an amazing tale. It's about hoops, kind of. But it also has this which makes everything else nearly irrelevant: "Elizabeth Boone was 26 that day, mother of three, and had broken nearly every part of her 4-foot-8 body. Her legs were a snarled mess, bent behind her shoulders. Her back was off-kilter, her arms snapped in half. She gurgled blood. But she was conscious. Alive. A 6½-story free fall from a housing project was not enough to kill her. Thabiti stood over her, realized she was going to make it and did the first thing that came to mind: He yelled at his mother. 'Once I figured out she was alive, the anger in me came out,' he said. 'It was like, ‘Damn, what more can a little kid take?’ And so I asked her, ‘Why did you do this? How could you do this?’ I already knew what I was going to have to deal with. Not just the body casts and mental hospitals for my mother, the social workers and the uncertainty for my sister, brother and me. I knew I’d have to deal with the laughter and the ridicule. You know kids. Here would come the jokes, ‘I heard your Mom thought she was Superman and tried to fly; your mom is crazy.’' By the time he heard the ambulance sirens, he had said, and seen, enough. So he took off, running from the crowd down the block and off into his own thoughts, a 12-year-old almost no one thought would survive."
• So, here I was writing about the collective bargaining agreement when Black Star's "Respiration" came on with some surprisingly relevant Talib Kweli lyrics: "Look in the skies for God, what you see besides the smog/is broken dreams flying away on the wings of the obscene/Thoughts that people put in the air/Places where you could get murdered over a glare/But everything is fair/It's a paradox we call reality/So keepin it real will make you casualty of abnormal normality/Killers Born Naturally like, Micky and Mallory/Not knowing the ways'll get you capped like an NBA salary/Some cats be emceeing to illustrate what we be seeing/Hard to be a spiritual being when s--- is shakin' what you believe in/For trees to grow in Brooklyn, seeds need to be planted."
• Holy cow. You see Jordan Crawford? Kyle Weidie of Truth About It: "When the Wizards were desperate for offense, Crawford was there. When Utah fans were propelled alive by their team’s attempt to steal the game back from Washington late in regulation, Crawford was pouring ice water down his veins and hitting a tough baseline jumper in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 85. When extra basketball came calling, Crawford was there for two steals that led to four points in the first minute of overtime."
• Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are part of one of the best offenses in the NBA, but the synchronicity is not all there.
• Paul Pierce, gum chucker.
• Ooh, that was an all-time Hollinger Power Rankings game for the Blazers. An eight-point rare road win in San Antonio and those rankings don't know that Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were all in street clothes.
• Playing "fact or fiction" with Ricky Rubio.

Joe and Gavin Maloof, the brothers who own the Sacramento Kings, are hopping mad that the city of Sacramento has interfered in "their business."

Their business, in this instance, is removing their team from Sacramento.

On Cowbell Kingdom, Kings blogger Zach Harper takes exception to the phrase, pointing out that the city, and its basketball fans, have loved and supported the Kings more than they deserved. It's a must read. Harper writes:

At the end of the day, you’re going to do what’s best for “your business” in terms of financial success. This isn’t really about basketball. It’s just about making money, and that’s your right as a business owner.

Making money is indeed the issue. And how you feel about this probably comes down to how well you think the Maloofs are doing right now.

If you think they're rolling in cash, then why the heck would some richies cleave a team from a city just to make even more money? Cruel.

If, on the other hand, you think they're struggling to keep afloat, well then most people understand that desperate times call for desperate measures.

Forbes digs into this now and again, and based on the publicly available information and some guesswork they suggest the Kings have lost about $13 million over 2009 and 2010 after several years of profit, and that the team is now worth $293 million.

It's tough to know the real truth. The NBA has a model which is built for good times: Owners keep their finances a secret, and every few years they squabble with the players over how to divvy the profits.

But that's a good times approach. Playing those cards so close to the vest is brilliant when they're good cards, and you're not asking for help. Now, however, an increasing number of owners are approaching the world with a "no really, we're totally losing money and need your help" kind of approach.

There have long been trouble signs. Sacramento is not nearly as big and rich as most NBA markets, for starters, and their arena is outdated and lacks both the amenities that drive the NBA's biggest profits and the big corporations to buy them. Since buying the team the Maloofs have showed signs of financial distress. They folded their WNBA team, the Monarchs, for instance. They laid off a number of team employees in 2009. They lost their arena's title sponsor, Arco, and before that other customers like Southwest Airlines and Quest communications. Thanks to their Palms Casino and Resort, the Maloofs are among the highest profile investors in Las Vegas, which has been one of the recession's most severe victims. (In the Sacramento Bee, Dale Kasler and Tony Bizjak write that "while their finances are private, a minority shareholder in the Maloofs' Palms Casino in Las Vegas said the casino is now worthless. Bloomberg news said the Palms could be taken over by creditors.")

They have tried many things that have failed. In 2006, their major play to get public support for a new stadium failed miserably at the polls. In the intervening years, even David Stern has washed his hands of the process, calling it unworkable.

The Maloof family fortune has long derived from a company that controlled a huge chunk of the beer sales in New Mexico, but they sold Maloof Distributing in 2010.

I can't help but wonder if the best move might be to radically increase transparency. Whether it's seeking help to build an arena in Sacramento, or explaining away their departure, the Maloofs will be forced to get some broad buy-in for whatever Hail Mary play they're going to call next. Hail Mary plays never make sense to people who don't realize it's fourth-and-long.

And realize that how you see the Maloofs has more than a little to do with how you'll see the looming lockout. The NBA will swear on a stack of tax returns that the bottom lines of the 30 teams are, taken together, not pretty. The annual losses, combined, are around $350 million, they say. And the Players Association does not exactly dispute those numbers, but says that those balance sheets don't tell the whole story, and that there are vast other benefits to be had.

Are those other benefits worth more than $350 million league-wide? Or might NBA owners, like the Maloofs, really be feeling the pinch? It's a big question, with real answers. Too bad those answers are secret.

• Randy Youngman of The Orange County Register: "NBA Sacramento Kings co-owner Joe Maloof, in his first public comments related to ongoing negotiations to move the Kings to Anaheim, reacted angrily Monday night after learning a Sacramento city official had sent a letter to an Anaheim city official advising Anaheim officials to 'cease negotiating with the Kings.' 'It's not for the mayor or anybody (in the City of Sacramento) to interfere with our business. That's what I think they're doing, and it's not right,' Maloof told The Orange County Register. 'We would appreciate that they not interfere with our business.' John Dangberg, Sacramento's assistant city manager, sent a letter earlier Monday to Anaheim City Manager Thomas Wood, expressing concern that actions taken by the Anaheim City Council tonight might cause 'irreparable harm to the City of Sacramento.' ... 'That letter is completely wrong, and it was uncalled for -- below the belt -- and it's a shame it had to come out of his office,' Maloof said. 'We tried to be classy and not get in arguments in the media, but I (have to) make this comment. We will continue on with our business and do what is best for the viability of the franchise -- what's best for the franchise and what's best for the league.' "
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: "The Heat’s commitment to physical play will be tested Tuesday when it plays at Cleveland for the second time this season. The first trip there was a watershed moment for the Heat, which rallied together amid the harshest of environments. A repeat of December’s vitriolic atmosphere isn’t expected, but the Heat again is preparing for the worst. 'We’re expecting shenanigans,' Chris Bosh said. The Heat arrived in Cleveland on Monday, giving LeBron James time to visit family and friends in nearby Akron, his hometown. 'It can’t get any worse than it was Dec.?2,' James said. 'I know that. I know that for a fact.' "
• Alan Hahn of Newsday: "Desperation turned into inspiration. And inspiration produced Carmelo Anthony's most impressive performance since he arrived in New York more than a month ago. Anthony, who earlier in the day called the game a must win, scored 39 points to lead the Knicks to a 113-106 overtime win over the Magic Monday night at the Garden. It snapped their losing streak at six games and was their second win in 11 games. 'It was definitely a must win for us,' said Anthony, who had 10 rebounds. 'We showed from the first play of the game, just with the intensity that we had, everybody, the starters, the bench. We did a great job, especially on the defensive end.' ... When the buzzer sounded, Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire enjoyed a happy embrace. 'Winning,' said Stoudemire (20 points, nine rebounds), 'always cures all problems.' "
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: "The mounting odds and the New York Knicks were too much to overcome for the Orlando Magic – or what was left of them. The Magic had only eight players available in the second half, and fell to the struggling Knicks 113-106 Monday night in overtime at Madison Square Garden. They also lost Dwight Howard in the extra period after he fouled out and picked up his 17th technical foul (one more tech and he will be suspended for a game). 'It was tough after that,' coach Stan Van Gundy said. Howard protested his sixth foul on an offensive rebound with one minute, 17 seconds left, and Orlando behind 108-106. He angrily flung the ball to the other end of the floor. 'It was one of those crazy games,' Magic point guard Chris Duhon. How crazy? Duhon injured his right thumb and was unable to play in the second half, leaving the Magic (47-27) with only one point guard -- Gilbert Arenas -- and just eight players."
• Gerry Callahan of the Boston Herald: "Teams go through bad stretches. It happens. Even America’s team, Virginia Commonwealth, lost 11 times this season. The Celtics are going through an ugly stretch right now -- they have lost 6-of-11 and scored 90 points just three times in that span -- and there are more theories for their tailspin than tattoos on Delonte West’s torso. The new guys are still learning. The old guys are pacing themselves. Everyone is waiting for one O’Neal or the other to show up. The top spot in the East means everything to Chicago and to Miami, and not so much to the Celtics, who went to Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals after finishing fourth in the regular season. The Celtics can blame their slump on any number of factors, but there is one thing they definitely cannot, they must not, attribute it to: The Trade. Sorry, but The Trade isn’t the reason for the slide. The Trade is just an excuse, and a lame one at that. When he played, Kendrick Perkins [stats] was an average player for this team — good defender, decent rebounder, and not much more than a compulsive moving picker on the offensive end. All in all, a good role player who was surrounded by stars who made him look better every night. If the loss of that guy is the reason for this funk, then maybe general manager Danny Ainge did make a mistake. He assumed the four stars could carry on without Kendrick Abdul-OlajuEwing. Maybe he gave them too much credit. Maybe they’re not as mentally tough as he thought."
• Jason Quick of The Oregonian: "It wasn't pretty, it wasn't dominating, and it wasn't against the full cast of the San Antonio Spurs, but the Blazers' 100-92 victory over the league leaders counted just as much as any other win, which pushed the Blazers (43-31) closer to the playoffs. 'We won,' said Andre Miller, who led Portland with 26 points. 'That's all that matters.' ... Less than an hour before the game, a buzz started circulating among the Blazers when they saw Parker on the court in a business suit. Eventually, Blazers forward Nicolas Batum went over to talk to Parker, a friend and fellow Frenchman. Parker told Batum that he was being held out along with starting power forward Antonio McDyess because Popovich wanted to prevent Parker from joining the injured ranks of Duncan (sprained ankle) and Ginobili (thigh bruise). Only small forward Richard Jefferson was among the normal starters for the Spurs, who sent out two rookies (Tiago Splitter and James Anderson) and two efficient reserves, sharp-shooting Matt Bonner and high-scoring George Hill. Immediately, Blazers coach Nate McMillan said the contest became 'a trap game' because of the way the mind works, thinking the game was suddenly going to be easier."
• Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: "There were plenty of blunders earlier this season -- and, yes, some as recently as last month -- but the Lakers finally see something ahead of them. It's not the finish line. It's the staggering San Antonio Spurs. The Lakers suddenly have a Texas-sized carrot in front of them for their final nine games: San Antonio is down to a 31/2 -game lead atop the Western Conference after another loss Monday. ... Not all the Lakers are showing interest in the Spurs. 'It doesn't matter to us whether we catch them or not,' Kobe Bryant said. 'We try to win every game. If we catch them, so be it. If we don't, so be it.' Before the Lakers took the court Sunday against New Orleans, Derek Fisher walked past a TV in the locker room just as Memphis was finishing off San Antonio. Fisher showed no expression. In fact, he didn't even stop. For what it's worth, the Lakers trail the Spurs in the season series, 2-1."
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: "As far as Tom Thibodeau is concerned, the Bulls lost their first home game since Jan. 18 on Monday morning as much as they did on Monday night. A sluggish, unfocused shootaround led to a sluggish, unfocused start and double-digit first-quarter deficit, and the 76ers held on for a 97-85 triumph. That snapped the Bulls' home win streak at 14 and dropped them to 32-5 at the United Center. 'There are really no excuses,' Joakim Noah said. 'It's a wake-up call. We don't have anything figured out. People are telling us, 'Oh, you're going to win this game. It's easy.' Nothing is easy in this league. We didn't start this game with the right mindset. And it bit us in the ass.' About the only saving grace came when the Celtics lost again, this time on the road to the Pacers."
• Frank Isola of the New York Daily News: "Mike D'Antoni's decision not to hold game-day shootarounds isn't about rest or X's and O's. Instead, it comes down to rush hour traffic. 'New York's a little bit different than other places,' D'Antoni said Monday. 'I just don't know if Amar'e being in a car for two hours in the morning of a game is the way to go. If we can get a shootaround the day before, if we can get our work done, then I don't think that's the way to go. If we can't get our work done then yeah, we'll do this.' Monday, the Knicks held their first home morning shootaround, which is standard operating procedure for most teams. D'Antoni does conduct game-day shootarounds on the road but has passed on holding them for home games. It's a questionable decision since the Knicks went 18-23 at home last year and were 19-17 entering Monday night's game against Orlando. ... Donnie Walsh suggested that getting the team out of bed for an early game-day workout isn't such a bad thing. 'When you're losing a lot you change something,' Walsh said. 'We'll see if the change helps us.' "
• Herb Gould of the Chicago Sun-Times: "Derrick Rose’s whirling-dervish moves to the basket are the talk of the town as well as the NBA. But the MVP front-runner points to something else when asked about the Bulls’ hopes of making good on their NBA championship promise. Tough defense. 'If you want to win, to separate yourself from all other teams in the NBA, you’ll do it,’ Rose said. 'We have good guys on this team. They’re winners. They do extra stuff. You don’t want to be the one who messes up a practice because other teams are having great practices. That could put you back a little bit. We just try to come in and work hard every day, especially on the defensive side.’ That has added up to a defense that -- before Monday’s games -- ranked first in opponents’ field-goal shooting (42.8 percent), opponents’ three-point shooting (32.7 percent) and second in points allowed (91.1 a game) and rebounds per game (44.4) and fifth in blocks per game (5.72)."
• Tom Enlund of the Journal Sentinel: "Bucks guard Michael Redd, coming back from a major knee injury, played in his first game since Jan. 10, 2010, and went scoreless with four assists in 15 minutes. He missed all three of his shots. Forward Drew Gooden, coming back from a foot injury that had sidelined him since late January, returned and had two points, eight rebounds and four fouls in 16 minutes. Redd had looked forward to playing in a game again for a long, long time. 'One of my greatest games ever,' said Redd. 'To come back from two ACLs. Just to be back on that court tonight. I put up a doughnut but was productive and had a blast being out there with the guys. I hate that we lost, but just to be out there was probably one of the best nights of my career.' Redd got the call early, first entering the game with 9:54 left in the first quarter after John Salmons picked up two quick fouls. 'I sprinted (to the scorers' table) as if I was a rookie,' said Redd."
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: "I’ll ask this question for the second time in as many games: Have you seen a more confusing team than the Pacers? They looked bad in losses to Sacramento and Detroit, but then they go out and beat the Boston Celtics on Monday. Go figure. ... 'When I’m old and gray I’m going to look back and wonder what was wrong with us, why we couldn’t beat teams like Sacramento and Detroit, but we can beat Boston and Chicago,' Pacers forward Danny Granger said. 'I don’t know, we’re going to have to figure it out at some point.' The Pacers have to figure it out because four of their final seven games are against teams with a losing record."
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: "Consider it good news that the Mavericks' next three games on this road trip are against Pacific Division teams. After they overwhelmed Phoenix at the finish line Sunday night, the Mavericks now own a 12-1 record against the Pacific Division. The lone loss was against the Lakers a couple weeks ago in Dallas. The Mavericks are 3-0 against Golden State, 2-0 against the Clippers, 1-1 against the Lakers, 3-0 against Sacramento and 3-0 against the Suns. Their next three games: Clippers, Lakers, Warriors. Of course, the Pacific Division is looking more and more like a one-hit wonder. The Lakers are among the championship favorites, of course. But the other four teams are all lottery bound."
• Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: "Because of ongoing misinformation from a variety of sources and skeptics, let me clarify again as the Mavericks-Lakers big game nears: In case of a tie with Dallas in the regular-season standings, the Lakers are positioned in this case to have the first tiebreaker, which would be if one team is a division champion but the other is not. Yes, I did clarify this with the NBA office. I really, really did. The Lakers have already clinched the Pacific Division, and the Mavericks continue to trail the slumping Spurs for the Southwest Division. So even if the Mavericks beat the Lakers on Thursday night to win the season series, 2-1, that would not be the primary tiebreaker in this case. Head-to-head record would be the second tiebreaker if Dallas winds up passing San Antonio and still finishing tied with the Lakers. The NBA tweaked the rule in 2008 to give division champions a little extra pull primarily to avoid a situation where in a three-way tie a team that didn’t win its division could wind up the conference’s No. 1 seed (based on head-to-head records against the other teams)."
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: "In two games against OKC this season, Stephen Curry has averaged 42.0 minutes, 31.0 points, 9.5 assists, 2.0 steals and is shooting 63.2 percent from the field. As a rookie last season, he averaged 21.0 points, 4.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds. General manager Sam Presti and coach Scott Brooks obviously won't discuss what the Thunder might be with Curry on its roster, which would be disrespectful to Curry, James Harden and all teammates. However, Presti and Brooks freely confirm Curry and Harden are superb fits precisely where they are. Harden particularly has excelled since the Thunder's trades 16 games ago with Boston and Charlotte. The 21-year-old Harden is sandwiched between a pair of 22-year-old All-Stars in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on the league's third-youngest roster. The 23-year-old Curry plays alongside a should-be All-Star in fellow guard Monta Ellis. To those longing for a Curry-Harden swap, a reality check: You can't simply swap stats. Statistically, Curry dwarfs Harden. But this is the NBA, not a fantasy league. Players have to blend, feed off each other and make each other better. It's about chemistry, not raw numbers. ... Would Curry also have spurred a 27-win improvement? Maybe, maybe not, but it's hard to argue with what has transpired without him. The Thunder is 98-56 (.636) with Harden on its roster and will advance to the playoffs for a second straight season."
• Monte Poole of The Oakland Tribune: "The music has stopped, the snacks are gone and the party is over. Any euphoria felt by Warriors fans with the fall of the Chris Cohan era has given way to anxieties and debate over the capability of the new regime. Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, the men now atop the organizational chart, haven't been instant saviors. They haven't delivered miracles or engineered dramatic improvement. And with the new Warriors looking a lot like the old Warriors, impatient fans are growing restless. Moreover, clouds of skepticism are forming above Oracle Arena -- directly over the head of Lacob, the managing member of ownership. It's much too early to conclude that Lacob won't find the right answers. That wouldn't be fair to a man who has been on the job since November. It's not reasonable or rational to expect him to so quickly repair and redirect a vessel adrift for all but a few moments over the past 16 years. It's not unfair, however, to wonder if he can repair and redirect the thing at all. By all accounts, Lacob already has influenced the culture at Warriors headquarters. He's asking questions, prodding and probing. It's apparent he wants everyone on the payroll working to improve the product. He projects energy. He said he'd be an active owner and he has been precisely that. But action isn't always productive or effective. Some of Lacob's words and actions suggest he might perceive himself as not just the managing owner but the unofficial general manager. That's perilous territory. ... Clueless or genius is a game fans play with their GM. They don't want to play it with the owner. Ever. And Lacob would be wise to avoid it altogether, no matter how much he trusts his instincts."
• Stephenson of The Star-Ledger: "Anthony Morrow has quietly become the Nets’ top offseason acquisition. He is averaging 13.2 points and shooting 42.4 percent from 3-point range in 43 starts, the most of his career. His career 3-point shooting percentage trails only Steve Kerr (.454) in NBA history. 'I’ve only played with one other shooter similar to him and that’s Kyle Korver, a guy that’s just a dead-eye 3-point shooter,' Nets point guard Deron Williams said. 'Guys like that are a point guard’s dream, because you’re pretty much mad when they miss.' "
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: "Kevin Drurant already taken seven more 3-pointers this year than he did last season. And there's still 10 games left to play. AND if he plays each of the remaining 10, he'll still be four shy of last year, when he played all 82 games. The numbers have been shocking. He seems to have diversified his game much more in his fourth season. But his 3-point attempts are staggering."
• Kaye Fagan of The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Let's just take a minute to address this drama surrounding Saturday night's Lil Wayne concert. The details are simple: Lou Williams and a few others 76ers attended Saturday night's concert despite having a noon game the following day vs. the Sacramento Kings. After the loss, Lou, believing their attendance at the concert had already been brought up, commented on it, saying that some guys who went to the concert played well (Jrue Holiday, Spencer Hawes), while other guys didn't play so well (Lou himself). Pretty quickly, this became a very big deal with folks saying the Sixers were being unprofessional and immature, staying out until 3:30 a.m. in the morning, and jeopardizing their preparation for the game -- an overtime loss to the Kings. Before tonight's game against the Chicago Bulls, we went straight to Lou himself to get an explanation about exactly how all of this blew up on them. Later, I went back to Lou to ask him if he really was out until 3:30 a.m. and he denied that, saying he has a kid now and he can't be out all night like that. He seemed exasperated by all of this and didn't want to keep talking about it."
• Bob Young of The Arizona Republic: "Gary Bender announced his retirement from broadcasting Monday, effective at the conclusion of the Suns season. He will return to Kansas, where he attended graduate school and once served as voice of the Jayhawks, to serve as a consultant for the KU Alumni Association. 'It's going back to my roots,' Bender said. Bender has called Suns TV games for nearly two decades. 'Gary defines the word 'professional' in the broadcasting industry,' Suns President and CEO Rick Welts said. 'His class, talent and character have combined to give Suns fans 18 years of great memories and unforgettable moments lived through his words.' In addition to the Suns, Bender has been the TV or radio voice of five pro football, basketball or baseball teams. And as a network broadcaster for CBS and ABC he called some of the more memorable sports moments in history, including Michael Jordan's game-winning shot for North Carolina in the 1982 NCAA Tournament title game and North Carolina State's 1983 upset of Houston that sent coach Jim Valvano running onto the court looking for someone to hug."
• David Rowell of The Washington Post: "When head coach Flip Saunders emerged from the tunnel before tipoff against the Milwaukee Bucks, he had the pained expression of a teacher who had just been assigned to teach summer school. Now Terrance Briscoe, 6 feet 2 inches tall, was stepping onto the court to stretch, gripping the toe of his size-15 sneaker. The shrill whine of Guns N’ Roses’ ubiquitous “Welcome to the Jungle” blasted over a crowd still finding their seats. As if hit with an electric bolt, Briscoe’s knees collapsed, and his arms began to flail to the chainsawlike grind of the guitars. As his hips swung from side to side, he had the look of a scarecrow trying to get out of the path of a hurricane. And then just as quickly, his body snapped back into place, and he sprinted up the closest aisle and waved his hands, which are as big as cutting boards, to see if he could get a few fist pumps in the air. And he did: a few. The Wizards reject the term male cheerleader, and they don’t like male dancer, either. They describe Briscoe as a Hype Guy. But he does dance, and he does cheer, and his smile, which he flashes all night long, is as wide as the backboard he frequently dances behind. And as a man doing these things for thousands of fans every home game, he occupies an exceptionally rare position in all of professional sports. Can we all be okay with that?"