ESPN NBA

• Trailer for a very cool-looking documentary on New York City pick-up basketball. Kenny Anderson, Fly Williams, God Shammgod, Homicide, Kenny Smith, Smush Parker, Headache, Julius Erving, Pee Wee Kirkland and others. What you might already be thinking.
• A very rough scene, including multiple shootings, in Oklahoma City after the Thunder win. Royce Young of Daily Thunder: "There were an estimated 10,000 people outside the arena Monday watching the game in Thunder Alley. It’s a question now as to if Thunder Alley will continue after this incident."
• John Hollinger (Insider) on JaVale McGee: "Turns out he's not just a punch line. McGee showed more development in two months in Denver than he had in four years in Washington, particularly on the offensive end where he showed some refinement with a sweeping hook shot. McGee still takes ridiculous chances on blocking shots he has no hope of reaching and leaves his feet constantly on the defensive end. On the other hand, he went for 21-14 against an elite frontcourt to key a close playoff road win, rejected a phenomenal 22 shots in 181 minutes, and had three 14-rebound efforts in seven games. In other words, while he's still something of a project, he's a productive project. Which makes him one of the league's most interesting names in restricted free agency. We know he's an athletic freak who probably has the highest leaping reach in basketball, so if he can just get halfway decent on the mental aspects he'll be a star. That tantalizing possibility, as the first round made clear, may cost Denver a lot more now that he's shown signs of possibly achieving it."
• Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register on the Lakers' season: "All the meanings could be seen in the final game: The Lakers were too slow, failed to defend consistently, had virtually no bench help, didn't get a team game from Bryant, couldn't depend fully on Bynum and had to accept excuses afterward from Gasol about what a tough year it was. 'He always wants me to be aggressive,' Gasol said of Bryant, 'but it's been tough for me. I've been in a facilitating role most of the year, pretty much the third option most of the year.' Then one of the last things Gasol said for the season was simply this: 'A lot going on this year.' Yes, more than enough to keep the Lakers from making that leap they've made look so seamless before ... from talented players to championship team. 'We just weren't doing it together,' Bynum said."
• This is turning into another one of those years ... if the NBA is rigged to favor big markets, they are terrible at rigging things. Out: New York, both Los Angeles teams, Chicago. In: Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Boston (bear with me), Philadelphia (likely not for long) and Miami.
• Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor on KFAN, when asked about the "one and done" rule that allows players to join the NBA after one year of college or equivalent: "My wife writes the checks. And she would not like to write a check if I told you what I thought about the whole thing. Because the NBA would calling up ... and saying to send a check."
• Idea from a Blazer fan's active imagination. How about hiring both Van Gundys in Portland, to take over jobs as coach and GM as they see fit? Would eliminate trust issues, dramatically improve the defense and create one hell of a sitcom.
• The owner of the Warriors and mayor of San Francisco making very strong comments, loaded with certainty, about the Warriors moving to San Francisco.
• Kevin Garnett has some thoughts about Philadelphia fans.
• Heat superstars wonder aloud what Danny Granger is up to with his tough talk, which is probably a decent sign Granger's tactics have been effective.
• Is Shaquille O'Neal in position to make fun of Metta World Peace for having too many names?
• Time lapse video of Staples Center's busy weekend, with a thumpin' rock beat.
• Kevin McHale gets a C+ for his coaching.
• Holy Italian league playoff buzzer beaters.
• A while ago, I got very excited about Ian Levy's pretty charts showing team's offensive plays and how often they use them. Now he has them for all 30 teams. There is a lot to glean from them. But also ... the lines of the charts, like clouds in the sky, luck into recognizable shapes at times. Can't help but notice that the chart of the Lakers' offense looks like a dead bird. The Heat's looks like a little singing cartoon dude. The Thunder's is a fighter jet. The Hawks (work with me on this) resembles the head of a Great Dane.
• Russell Westbrook had four turnovers in the whole series.

Sometimes being an NBA official is tough. But this time, referee Michael Smith had a gimme.

About five feet in front of him, the Celtics' Kevin Garnett delivered an offensive foul combination platter to Sixers swingman Andre Iguodala: One part moving pick, another part flying elbow.

Now that's a foul.

Replays only made things clearer. Later, even Charles Oakley -- a high priest of physical play -- would take to Twitter to chastise anyone who'd question the call.

Smith did the obvious thing: He blew his whistle.

And that surprised the hell out of everybody.

---

Broadcasters could scarcely hide their astonishment. It was a matter of seconds before the Boston crowd was apoplectic, chanting in unison a word that begins "bull" and ends unprintable. Even back in the TV studio, where the mood was less partisan, there was little support for Smith's call, which was said to have been to the letter of the law, but not the spirit.

The reason? The game was on the line.

The Celtics were trailing by three with 10 seconds left. With Smith's whistle, the Celtics went from living on the prayer of a tying 3 to doomed.

It was one of the more obviously correct calls imaginable. But it befuddled so many because there's an idea out there that referees ought not decide games.

Even Iguodala was surprised. Garnett hit him so hard the Sixer said his ribcage still hurt a day later. Iguodala said on the NBA Today podcast that when he heard the whistle, in that pressure-packed moment, he assumed it had nothing to do with the blow he had suffered, saying he "actually thought the whistle was for something else."

Which is amazing, if you think about it. Iguodala knows the rules, and he knows Garnett broke them. He also knew Smith was standing right there.

But Iguodala also knows this: "In that situation, they always say you can't have a call determine the game."

The NBA would insist playcalls are the same all game long. And the NBA is a decade into going to some trouble -- inspired, sources say, by a private and public campaign by Mavericks owner Mark Cuban -- to make it that way.

But it's a stretch to say that's what's happening on the court. Players certainly believe they have more leeway late in games, and there's evidence referees swallow whistles. For instance, the 2011 book "Scorecasting" found offensive fouls are 40 percent less likely to be called in overtime, compared to the first 48 minutes -- a trend that would explain the broad surprise at Smith's call.

---

In 2008, the NBA's independent investigator Lawrence Pedowitz published his report on refereeing in the wake of the Tim Donaghy scandal.

He included a section on "old" vs. "new" refereeing styles:

In an effort to improve both actual and perceived referee performance, the NBA, during the past six years, has tried to move toward a clearly articulated refereeing philosophy that adheres strictly to a literal and consistent interpretation of the rules. Previously, referees were inclined to employ an approach that allowed for more discretion. That approach -- which was also aimed at getting calls right -- varied somewhat with the circumstances of the game.

The approach has been described to us as the “art of refereeing” or “game management,” and has aspects of common sense, a desire not to interrupt the flow of the game (thereby showcasing the talent of the players), and rough justice.

Then Pedowitz listed examples gleaned from his interviews with every official, including:

Referees might avoid calling a foul on a play with significant contact at the end of a close game, consistent with the view that players rather than referees should determine a game’s outcome.

We all get what this means -- referees want to tread carefully, to have light impact. But even that is not real. When there's a hard foul late in a close game, referees don't really have an option of not deciding the game. They can essentially call it by the book and decide the game for the fouled team, or call something less and decide it for the other team. (The band Rush knows all about this: "If you choose not to decide you still have made the choice.")

For instance, referees decided for the Sixers and Celtics in getting those teams out of the first round.

---

If any two teams know the power of the old way of refereeing, where referees issue only small punishments late, it's these Sixers and these Celtics. Both teams won their first-round series with some old-fashioned crunch time referee timidity.

On video, Spencer Hawes' foul of Omer Asik at the end of the Sixers' series-clinching Game 6 was inseparable from all kinds of plays that have been whistled flagrant. It took a massive amount of force to keep the massive, open and full-speed Asik from even attempting a shot. Hawes put everything he had into yanking Asik sideways from the base of his neck, throwing him to the ground with no hope of scoring.

But even though referees were there with a great view of everything, only a regular foul was called. The city of Chicago isn't the only place people believe that decision wasn't rooted in the rulebook -- which would support the flagrant -- but in the reality that there were seven seconds left in a game the Bulls led by one. A flagrant would have given the Bulls the lead, free throws and the ball. A flagrant would have "decided the game," or darned close.

Letting players decide the game has a dark counterpart in these situations, too: A less violent foul would not have worked. That close to the hoop, with an offensive player that open, any normal foul would have let Asik win the game by finishing at the rim, putting the Bulls up three with a free throw still to shoot. This oddity of NBA rules, and their enforcement, forced Hawes to make his attack a particularly violent one.

It's odd that breaking the rules by fouling ever helps a team win. It's nuts that there are cases like this where throwing the opponent wildly off balance is the only way to win.

Of course you know what happened. It worked beautifully. Hawes' foul was, arguably, the play of the Sixers' season. Asik couldn't get a decent shot off. He missed both free throws. The Bulls didn't get the ball back, because no flagrant was called. Iguodala got the rebound, drove hard to the hoop, was fouled by Asik and won the game for the Sixers at the line.

But the story doesn't end there.

The Sixers retreated to their locker room to savor the win and gather their belongings for a trip to the second round. On the locker room television, the Hawks and Celtics were fighting for the right to face the Sixers next.

The Celtics were up two points with 3.1 seconds left -- the Hawks were inbounding under their own hoop, praying to tie the game. In Philadelphia, Hawes was watching.

Two things happened. First Celtic Marquis Daniels held Hawk Al Horford, rather blatantly. It's to referee Bill Kennedy's credit that he called anything. But replays show the hold happened before the ball had been inbounded, and the NBA would later admit the call came late. This was a particular point of emphasis from the league to the referees a few years ago. When the foul occurs before the ball is inbounded, as this clearly did, the correct call is one free throw for the Hawks, and then the ball out of bounds again. That would have been a huge help to the Hawks' chances, in a game they really lost by one point (before an intentional foul). Instead it was ruled the foul was after the ball had been inbounded, giving the Hawks no relief at all: Once again they got the ball out of bounds.

Whether Kennedy didn't see the sequence of events, or didn't want to have too big an impact, is unknown.

But what is known is that he had a front-row seat for the next play. The bigger, stronger Horford caught the ball by the hoop, and Daniels was faced with the same no-brainer of a choice Hawes had. He was beat, with no way of winning by following the rulebook, or making a basketball play.

So Daniels grabbed Horford around the shoulders and hurled him earthbound. The Hawes foul looked more like a flagrant than this one, but it was certainly not a play on the ball. Kennedy called a regular foul. Horford missed one of two free throws and the Celtics advanced to meet the Sixers.

Credit both Daniels and Hawes with great, game-saving plays that are in the interest of their teams -- but not their league.

---

There is only one alternative to referees deciding games. Iguodala: "That means anything goes."

That's what Garnett, Hawes and Daniels were all counting on.

Otherwise, why would Garnett -- one of the NBA's most respected veterans, a champion and a professional who knows all the little particulars of winning -- put his team in jeopardy with such a reckless play, right in front of a referee, in such a moment?

It's not like he tripped. He took a calculated risk even though, as he'd later admit, he had been warned in the same game about such plays.

Imagine the outrage if, say, JaVale McGee had done the same thing in the second quarter. A chorus of pundits would sing of his ignorance. But this was Garnett, and it's clear he wasn't being dumb at all. He was being brilliant. He was playing with the assumption Smith simply would not doom the Celtics with his whistle, which gave him a special way to get his teammate Paul Pierce wide open for a game-tying 3.

Garnett is not being called a fool. Instead, the referee is being questioned.

Garnett was playing very well under the old way of refereeing. But the new way is better. Way better, in fact, because it rewards the best basketball plays, as opposed to hardest fouls.

EIGHT THINGS TO WATCH IN THE SECOND ROUND



1. LeBron’s Post Game

I think LeBron James learned from the Finals last year against Dallas that he needs to find a way to get inside and not just settle. He likes to drive, but a lot of it has to do with him having a halfway post-up game now. He gets the ball on that right block, closer to the basket and he’s able to post up and make a decision to either find a shooter or make a play himself.

The three times we played Miami, that’s one thing I noticed about LeBron. He’s making a consistent effort now to get the ball in the post. He’s such a good ball handler, almost like a point guard, that it’s tough to have him in the post all the time. He definitely added that to his game.

2. The Bosh-less Heat go small

When Miami features LeBron at the four, I think it can cause a lot of problems. It’s going to force Indiana to change the way they play defense and possibly take David West or Roy Hibbert out of the mix for long periods of time. It’s going to force David West into a huge role and we’ll see how big he can play.

On offense, Indiana likes to play inside-out with those two guys, but if Miami takes that away with a small lineup, forcing the Pacers to play on the perimeter, Indiana will play right into their hands. The way Miami rotates to shooters on defense is second to none. They trap the ball really hard on the pick and roll. LeBron, D-Wade and Mario Chalmers are very athletic guys. You could see it against the Knicks, guys like Steve Novak really didn’t have chance to shoot the ball even when it was rotating. They always had someone closing out to him and making him drive or pass.

3. Philly’s Backcourt

The Sixers guard the ball really well and their on-ball defense makes a difference. They did a good job in the first round of switching between Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner and giving the Bulls different looks. They made Chicago run a lot of sets instead of individuals taking over the game. That will be useful against Rajon Rondo, because he sets everything up for the Celtics. But they’ll be able to impact his decision-making by playing tight on the ball.

Both players are solid offensively as well. Turner is coming around really well. He’s turned into the player that they expected when they drafted him. Jrue is a very capable scorer, but he’s still able to control the game and run the team. He can shoot from the perimeter, but he also has a game where he can drive and make plays. What I like most about him is he’s very under control in his decision-making. He’s still young, but I think he has an advanced ability to make the decisions a point guard needs to make, whether it’s shoot the ball, pass or attack the basket. Playing against Rondo will be a great matchup. They’re both good on-ball defenders. I think they’ll both find ways to impact the game.

4. KG’s Renaissance

Kevin Garnett has really turned his game up this postseason. Offensively, he’s been able to get down in the post and they can get him the ball in a spot where he can make his turnaround jump shot. He’s also been great picking and popping off screens. He’s playing a full offensive game. Defensively, he just brings that intensity on every play. He took it to Josh Smith in the first round, took him out of his spots. He’s a smart defender so he knows where his man is going to get it and what he wants to do with it.

I think he can have the same impact against Philly. He has the size to impact Elton Brand in the post. Brand is a really a good player, but I don’t think he’s as athletic or versatile as Josh Smith, so I think it’s going to be easier for KG to have that defensive impact. Offensively, his ability to move around the floor and hit shots will be important. He can go inside against the younger guys like Thaddeus Young and just shoot that turnaround jump shot. Or if it’s Brand he can pull him out and hit some in the mid-range.

5. Tim Duncan and Blake Griffin

The matchup of power forwards in the Spurs vs. Clippers series pits two very different players against each other. Tim Duncan has always been a great offensive player. He has a patient game and as a defender it freezes you up. When he gets the ball, you really don’t know what he’s going to do with it. For one or two seconds he’s just looking at the basket and you don’t know what he’s thinking or what’s going to come. That’s why when he goes for that up-fake, guys go for it, because you have to guard against everything with him.

Tim has a great feel for the game around the basket and plays great with his back to the basket. He can turnaround and hit you with that bank shot, he can drive and he’s developed that jump shot to the point where it’s consistent. On the other end, he’s just a smart defender. He can guard guys in the post because he knows how to position himself and how to throw guys off their game.

Blake Griffin plays at a high level. On the offensive end, he finds his way in there. It’s not always pretty, but he’s finding opportunities to score. As soon as he gets the ball he’s trying to drive and he uses his quickness to drive past guys. He’s been doing well at that, but he’s still not a dominant power forward at this stage of his career. He can get out in transition or use the pick and roll and get to the basket, jump high and get the ball up. That’s what’s effective for him.

Going against Tim Duncan will be tough for Blake. Duncan is going to expose Blake’s weakness, which is jump shooting, whenever he can. Duncan will force him to take jump shots. And when Blake does get around him, San Antonio will use help defense to try and minimize his impact at the rim. Boris Diaw might spend a lot of time on Blake too because he’s laterally quicker than Tim at this point and can stay in front of Blake.

6. Pop’s Coverage on Paul

The Clippers go as far as Chris Paul can take them. Offensively they rely heavily on Paul coming off screens and making play. They have other guys who can score, but that’s their go-to. He can come off a screen and make a play for himself or for Caron Butler on the outside or DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin with a lob. Containing Chris will be the number on priority for San Antonio.

Defending the screen isn’t Parker’s strongest suit, but he’s a good enough defender that he’ll find a way to compete and do his best. San Antonio’s system won’t leave him on an island. Coach Gregg Popovich and his assistants will work up a coverage from their defense to limit Paul, make him go left instead of right, trap the pick and roll, or whatever they have to do. It has to be team defense that stops Chris Paul.

7. Westbrook Breaking Out

Russell Westbrook has been more aggressive this season and the Thunder have played well with him controlling the game. In the past, the I remember Russell tended to be passive. But now I just see him being aggressive and trying to score for the whole game.

He’s developed into a better shooter, but I think his bread and butter is driving to the basket. He’s physical and explosive in his drive. He’s one of the best players in the league at getting to the rim. The only guys that are better in my opinion are Derrick Rose, LeBron James and D-Wade. Russell is on that level and he should use that ability whenever he has the opportunity. He has the physical advantage over any point guard. Sessions is a bigger point guard, but he’s nowhere near as athletic and explosive as Russell. He has a clear advantage there.

8. The Kobe Show

If there’s one team that can matchup well with the Lakers bigs this postseason it’s the Thunder. OKC also plays more of a team defense. They execute their coverages very well. It’s one thing to say “we’re going to trap the pick and roll” but it’s another to go out and do it. They have a mobile big like Serge Ibaka who can go out and do it. Kendrick Perkins has always been a good defender and Serge has been tremendous this year. I think they’ll be able to guard Bynum and Gasol.

Once you take that away from the Lakers it’s all about Kobe Bryant. Kobe has been great this postseason. What he’s doing right now, at his age, it’s amazing. You look at the other guys in his class, most of them aren’t playing anymore and none of the guys that are playing are playing at his level. The hardest part about guarding Kobe is how hard he competes. He makes so many tough shots and he just keeps at it. Even when you have him missing five or six shots, he’s coming back with another one. He’s not as explosive and athletic as he used to be, but he’s a smarter player and he knows how and when to take his shot. You can play the perfect defense and he’ll still make the shot more than any player that I’ve seen since I’ve been around basketball. That’s Kobe for you right there.

Bucks forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is spending his offseason in Los Angeles rehabbing from surgery, watching the NBA on TV, and helping me learn the proper French pronunciation of his name.

All three are works in progress -- especially the last one.

For the record, he's fine with your calling him "Luke Richard," with the total American pronunciation of both. But ohhhh, no, that's not good enough for me. I'm going for the real thing out of respect.

And mangling it.

But he has agreed to come on many times through the playoffs, so I'll keep practicing.

He crowns the NBA's defensive player of last night, admits to flopping, describes good hard playoff fouls, talks about how to stop James Harden, picks winners in Lakers vs. Nuggets, Heat vs. Pacers, Sixers vs. Celtics and much more.

And then we're joined by David Thorpe, who shares Lakers vs. Nuggets insight (he picked Denver before the series began, is he sticking with that?) before we argue about whether or not last night's games would have been better with more timeouts.

The NBA Today with Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and David Thorpe.

• Ron Borges of the Boston Herald: In sports you often don’t know when a game is being decided. While some things are obvious it is most often the little things that separate those going on from those going home. A critical but mostly unnoticed case in point came with 9:29 remaining and the Celtics leading 71-65. Atlanta’s Josh Smith got into a silly beef about whether or not he could enter the game and was hit with a technical that cost the Hawks a point. Seconds later he had his shot blocked. While he was gesticulating toward his shoulder and refusing to run up the floor, the Celtics fled the scene. Had he trailed the play he might well have knocked the ball loose because his teammates stopped the Celts charge, but Smith was nowhere to be found. Instead of getting into the game defensively, Smith was pleading his case down court, even though no one was listening. ... Smith’s selfishness cost his team three points when it seemed unimportant, which only goes to show you never know when the game will be won or lost. You only know it will be, and it often happens when you don’t even realize it just did. At this level, every play counts. You may not make them all and you may have your own mental lapses and when you do you’ll lose, too, as happened in Game 5 when Rajon Rondo [stats] failed to bring the ball up the middle of the floor with seconds left and ended up trapped on the sideline with nowhere to go but where the Hawks went last night: home. But when it counted, the aging Celtics knew how to win and so they move on to play the 76ers tomorrow night while the Hawks move on to play golf. “We’re playing like this is it,” Pierce said of the fierceness of the Celtics’ approach in the twilight of the New Big Three’s time together. “This could be our last chance together so we’re going to give it one last run and see what happens.”
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Kevin Garnett on Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr.’s comments: “First off, I want to say ‘Thank you’ to their owner for giving me some extra gas tonight. My only advice to him is next time he opens his mouth, actually know what he’s talking about, Xs and Os versus checkbooks and bottom lines. . . . We’re not dirty. We’re firm, we’re aggressive. We’re not dirty. You have to understand the word ‘dirty’ in this game is very defined. Going under guys, trying to hurt guys, ill intent–is not they way we play basketball. ... We play with a lot of passion, play with force. It’s the playoffs but I’m not trying to hurt anybody, nor has my teammates. I just found that comment to be a little rude and a little out of hand and I wanted to address it. Just because you got a bunch of money don’t mean you can open your mouth.”
• John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News: I DON'T KNOW WHETHER two free throws can change a legacy, but for one night, at least, Andre Iguodala was finally what Philadelphia had begged him to be - the leading man, the guy who made the plays that carried the team to victory. It hasn't been too much to ask. After all, he is the Sixer with the biggest contract, the one who has been sold as the face of the franchise. Now, let's be real, because sinking two free throws with 2.2 seconds left isn't exactly like draining a long jumper the buzzer to win. That's the realm of the Michael Jordans, Larry Birds and Kobe Bryants. Still given Iguodala's star-crossed history as a Sixer, Philadelphia will gladly take what he delivered Thursday night. And make no mistake, because by sinking those two free throws against the Chicago Bulls, Iguodala, the other A.I., the man who could not be king, sealed the most significant victory this organization has had since the Allen Iverson-led Sixers blew out the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 7 of the 2001 Eastern Conference finals. No, these Sixers did not advance to the NBA Finals, but their 79-78 victory over the Chicago Bulls did advance the franchise to the second round of the NBA Playoffs for the first time since 2003. ... This is the fifth time he has gone to the playoffs with the Sixers. This is the first time he will play more than six games. "Iguodala has gone through a lot here," Collins said. "I told him, 'Nobody deserves this moment more than you did.' "
• Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune: The ending of Game 6 was as frustrating and painful as this series had been, so it's just as well. This Bulls team was going nowhere. Not like this, anyway. So, now what? Rose needs to get healthy. Duh. It can’t come soon enough. But one convincing argument this series made was the Bulls’ lack of a reliable second scorer. Wait, isn’t this how last season ended? You can hope the Bulls amnesty Boozer and make Taj Gibson the starter. I doubt it will happen, but a man can dream. Injured or not, Gibson was a stud when the Bulls needed one. He turned Game 5 before suffering that gruesome-looking ankle injury and had a similar impact on Game 6 with 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Hamilton showed a bit of what the Bulls needed -- what the Bulls will need more of going forward -- but the Bulls have to look at that position. He gave the Bulls 19 points and 8 rebounds in Game 6, but Hamilton hasn’t shown he can stay healthy or play consistently. And please, address backup point guard, because that’s now a starting position without Rose to start next season. Yeah, next season. It’s here.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: The braggadocio echoed. Just minutes before Thursday's tipoff of Game 6 at the Pepsi Center, the rapping voice of The Notorious B.I.G. was heard over the loudspeaker. The song? "Goin' Back To Cali." This opening-round playoff series was supposed to be over Tuesday night. But, after the Nuggets won in Los Angeles in Game 5, they came out with a rapper's swagger in the first quarter of Thursday's Game 6. And now, they're indeed goin' back to Cali for Game 7 with the Lakers, after Denver's 113-96, wire-to-wire victory Thursday night. "I planned to play that as the last song," said Cassidy Bednark, also known as D.J. Bedz, the Nuggets in-house D.J. "Then, I got slipped a note that said, 'Big Al Harrington wants to hear "Goin' Back To Cali." ' Obviously, it was meant to be." Game 7, Denver's first since 1994, will be Saturday night at the Staples Center. Denver trailed 3-1 and now has a chance to pull out a historic victory against the No. 3-seeded Lakers. Before Thursday's game, on the locker room dry-erase board, the first thing written was: "Hit first — hit hard. We must be the physical team." Hit first? Hit hard? The Nuggets came out like Mike Tyson in his heyday. Ty Lawson, 3! Danilo Gallinari, 3! Lawson, layup! Lawson, 3 again! And then, when Kenneth Faried unleashed a two-handed slam, Denver was up 13-0 before the Lakers knew what hit them.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: The Lakers were toast from the start, after Kobe Bryant came down with a stomach ailment that weakened him and after Andrew Bynum missed three early point-blank shots in a matter of seconds Thursday night at Pepsi Center. Now the question is: Do the Lakers have what it takes to win Game 7 on Saturday night at Staples Center? They sure didn't have it during a dispiriting 113-96 loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series. "No way I thought what happened tonight was going to happen," Denver coach George Karl said after the Nuggets scored the game's first 13 points, led by as many as 28 in the second half and tied the best-of-7 series at 3-all. The Lakers' inability to match the Nuggets' energy cost them dearly again. Bynum went up for a layup in the opening moments and Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov blocked it. Bynum grabbed the ball and tried again and point guard Ty Lawson blocked it. Bynum rebounded again and then missed a hook shot. The sequence offered a tidy summary on what followed.
• Geoff Calkins of The Commercial-Appeal: Give Blake Griffin credit. He came up with a pretty good line. Leaving the hallway media scrum after Game 5, he compared the Grizzlies-Clippers series to "The Hunger Games." ... Beating the No. 1 seed as a No. 8 seed was harder. Making the playoffs after devastating injuries to Randolph and Gay was harder, too. The Grizzlies keep saying they're tough-minded. We'll see how tough-minded tonight. The contest at Staples awaits them. The lurid people of Los Angeles will be assembling soon. The DJ is ready to offer more helpful cheering instructions. The backup columnist is poised to call us "dumb" or "hicks." It's not a pretty picture, I realize. But you can take comfort in this: I actually read the book and saw "The Hunger Games" movie. Turns out, the kids from the small market win.
• Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times: In the eyes of Kenyon Martin, it is pretty simple for the Clippers. "We've got to go home and win," Martin said. "It ain't a two-game series for us. It's a one-game series."

• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: The Indiana Pacers are coming this way, for a second-round series that starts at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The Heat will try to reverse a trend that, during the season, went the wrong way. Over the course of four games against Indiana, Miami played four very different variations of coach Erik Spoelstra's squad. The Heat shot worse and scored fewer points in each successive game of the matchup, while each time allowing more. The 118-83 win on Jan. 4 was the Heat at its best, even without Dwyane Wade; LeBron James scored 33 with 13 assists, and the Pacers shot 34.8 percent. The 105-90 win on Feb. 14 was the Heat at its most resilient, romping out to a 35-point lead on the third night of a back-to-back-to-back. The 93-91 overtime win on March 10 was the Heat at its most cohesive, with James and Wade taking turns making critical plays. And the 105-90 loss on March 26 was the Heat at its weariest and sloppiest, as Indiana capitalized on a letdown – after Miami's loss to Oklahoma City – and six James turnovers to pull away in the third quarter. Now Miami will encounter a Pacers team that has gained confidence and experience from its first series victory as a group, even if that victory came at the expense of a depleted Magic team. Indiana will also be a relatively rested team, having finished its first-round work a day earlier than Miami, and having routinely spread minutes throughout a 10-man rotation. "This next series will feel like it's played in a cage, rather than a basketball court," Spoelstra said.
• Neil Best of Newsday: In a season that defied logic, notably when a young guard named Jeremy Lin came from nowhere to revive the team, it made sense for a bench-warming guard who turns 34 Sunday to outscore everyone in the first 12 minutes, from Melo to Stat, from LeBron to D-Wade. All of which, much like Linsanity, was fun while it lasted, but didn't last for long. Then another season-long theme kicked in, and kicked the Knicks out of the playoffs: They simply were not quite good enough to be as good as they had hoped to be. That realization had sunk in long ago, but now that there are no more games after last night's 106-94 clunker, the Knicks are free to admit it and to talk out loud about what needs to happen next. "I think we have to have a better mindset going into the season,'' Amar'e Stoudemire said. "We definitely have to have a consistent season. This season has been up and down, coaching changes and so on and so forth.'' Said Tyson Chandler : "We need to have a nice flow in which everyone touches the ball. We've got to make sure we get other guys involved.'' Hmm. There is a lot to chew over in those comments, seeing as how they address two much-discussed issues: The Knicks' lack of a consistent roster and the propensity of their biggest star, Carmelo Anthony , to dominate the offense.
• Ron Higgins of The Commercial-Appeal: The Grizzlies should be ecstatic that they won game five on Wednesday in FedExForum, 92-80, to stave off elimination and advance to a game six on Friday in Los Angeles trailing 3-2. But here's the problem. A Clippers' team, even with point guard Chris Paul being "held" to 19 points, with Blake Griffin sustaining a sprained knee in the fourth quarter, with the team shooting 37.1 percent from the field and getting outscored 48-26 in the paint, cut the Griz lead to six with 55.7 seconds left. A Memphis team that scored 57 points in the first half, thanks to rediscovering that center Marc Gasol and forward Zach Randolph can score with enough touches, had just 35 points in the second half. Gasol and Randolph scored 23 points and 19 points respectively, but in the second half they combined for just nine points on 0-for-7 shooting after going a combined 14-of-18 from the field in the first half. When asked why the disparity between halves, why didn't the inside duo touch the ball as much the second half, Griz coach Lionel Hollins pointed to the fact Gasol and Randolph didn't make a second-half basket. That's an off-the-cuff answer with no meat to it. ... The Grizzlies' biggest concern for game six is getting some sort of outside shooting. Once the Clippers cut off the passing lanes to Gasol and Randolph, the Grizzlies didn't get enough offense elsewhere to win comfortably. Rudy Gay made some huge plays in the final minute, including an impossible drive with 19.2 seconds left to give the Griz an 88-79 lead. But his offense was stagnant most of the game. If the Griz want to get to a game seven on Sunday in FedExForum, that has to change.
• Dan Woike of The Orange County Register: The Clippers know they're going back to Los Angeles for Game 6 in their first-round series with the Memphis Grizzlies. They just don't know how healthy their two best players will be Friday evening. Blake Griffin injured his left knee and Chris Paul strained his right hip flexor in the Clippers' 92-80 loss to the Grizzlies on Wednesday at the FedEx Forum. Both Griffin and Paul returned to the game but looked visibly uncomfortable. Griffin's injury occurred when he drove the lane on Marc Gasol, drawing a foul before landing awkwardly on his left leg, which flexed backward. The Clippers called the injury a hyperflexed knee before diagnosing it as a sprain. Paul, who missed the final game of the regular season, was noticeably bothered by the injury. Griffin will have an MRI today in Los Angeles. "The pain scares you most," he said. "It's not because it hurts; it's because you don't know why." Griffin said the knee stiffened on the court after he returned, but the pain felt different than the left patella fracture that kept him out his rookie season. Paul vowed to be on the court Friday for Game 6. "I'll be ready," he said, adding that both he and Griffin are "tough guys."
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The AJC’s D. Orlando Ledbetter was at the event and reported the following Hawks-related highlights from Michael Gearon Jr.'s speech. On media coverage of Hawks’ playoff series against the Celtics. “Did you see what Al Horford did last night? The timeline for recovery for his injury is another three months. He’s not even supposed to be playing and Josh [Smith] should not be playing. Zaza [Pachulia] can’t stand up, but if we can get past this round there is a chance that we can get him back. So this is a team that is overcoming adversity. I wish . . . some of the national media or even some of the local media, more the paper than the TV guys, recognize how hard these guys are playing based on how injured they are. On top of all that, we don’t get any calls, which I know everybody always hears. But I’ll give you a stat. Last night, we are playing this old physical team. They are old. I know what happens when you play basketball, old guys foul. [Kevin] Garnett is the dirtiest guy in the league. We are playing Boston last night and they had two fouls the whole first half. We had five times that and we’re athletic.”
• Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News: With Johnson starting in the backcourt instead of the 6-foot-4 Kirk Hinrich, the Celtics faced a matchup dilemma long feared when the 6-foot-1 Rajon Rondo and 6-foot-2 Avery Bradley were first paired as Boston’s starting guards. The result in Game 5 was Bradley, who has been playing with a sore left shoulder, logging just 18 minutes as Celtics coach Doc Rivers was forced to rely heavily on the bigger Ray Allen and Mickael Pietrus in the backcourt. The problem Rivers is faced with when making moves in this type of chess match is that the board looked best if Boston could have kept it just like it was. The Celtics have been strongest with Bass and Bradley on the floor alongside Paul Pierce, Garnett and Rondo. It was when Rivers made Bass the starting power forward and moved Garnett to center that the team began its turnaround from a 15-17 record heading into the All-Star break. The Celtics are 23-10 this season, including the playoffs, with Bradley in the starting lineup, and were just 19-19 when he wasn’t. But if playoff series are about adjustments, Drew made one that worked for Game 5, and Rivers and his staff had to think long and hard about how they intended to counter it during yesterday’s day off. The Celtics are still in command of the series with the chance to end it on their home court tonight. But the Hawks changed the complexion of it on Tuesday night by presenting Boston with a big problem that doesn’t look like it is going to go away easily.
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: Less than 24 hours after his team's odds-defying win over the Lakers, Nuggets coach George Karl was still smiling. But he also was ready to move on. Karl has been here before, and as the coach in these NBA playoffs with the second-most postseason victories (78), he understands the Nuggets have plenty of work left to do. So Wednesday morning he went about the business of reeling in any players who had the look of letting euphoria take over and cause too much satisfaction. "We've got to worry about just controlling our happiness," Karl said, sitting in a conference room at the team hotel before flying to Denver. "The real serious games are coming up (tonight), and if we're fortunate to figure out how to win that game, then we get an opportunity to play an incredible seventh game." According to center JaVale McGee, Tuesday's 102-99 victory, which cut the Nuggets' series deficit to 3-2, was already a distant memory. "That game is forgotten," said McGee.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: Closing time: the sequel. The Lakers got it all wrong in Game 5 on Tuesday at Staples Center, which is why they must play a Game 6 tonight in Denver as they make a second attempt to close out the Nuggets in their Western Conference quarterfinal series. Since they are still ahead 3-2 in the best-of-7 series, they have a margin for error. It's a small consolation, however. The Lakers' frustration was evident after they stormed back from a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter only to fall short in the closing seconds, tumbling 102-99 to the Nuggets and setting up match point No. 2 tonight. Game 7, if necessary, would be Saturday at Staples Center, but the Lakers weren't thinking about a winner-take-all game after squandering their first try at eliminating the Nuggets and advancing to play the Oklahoma City Thunder in the next round. ... For openers, the Lakers need to shoot better than the 33.3 percent (15 of 45) they shot during the first half of Game 5, when they didn't take advantage of the Nuggets' 41.3 percent shooting (19 of 46) and trailed 49-43. What's more, the Lakers must ditch their customary languid style of play in favor of a more frenetic approach to Game 6. The Nuggets have won twice in this series just by outhustling the Lakers to rebounds and loose balls.
• John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News: Each time you fail; the task seems to grow more difficult. A team that had jumped to a 3-1 lead does not want there to be a Game 7. If the Sixers think winning a close-out game is tough, they have no concept of what it would be like to face a re-energized Bulls team on the road in an elimination game. "I don't like the word desperation," Collins said when asked if that was his team's attitude going into Game 6. "Sometimes guys when they think desperate get out of their nature. I want there to be a real sense of focus about what we have to do. We have to meet their challenge . . . They imposed their will [in Game 5]. We hung around but they imposed their will, our guys know that. Collins has talked all season about how he wanted to "manage the extremes" of the highs and lows of his young team. Inherent in that is the understanding that players learn from experiences and use that to move forward. We find out Thursday night how much this squad learned from Tuesday.
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune They have been called soft, overpaid and busts. They have heard criticism from countless corners outside the Bulls' locker room. By tuning such noise out, what Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer have done serves as a microcosm of this Bulls' season. Both players have overcome adversity not just to persevere but succeed. "One thing about Carlos: He doesn't let that stuff bother him. He shrugs it off," Taj Gibson said. "That's what I admire about him. It falls off his shoulder and he gets ready for the next game. And he's the same every game. He's solid. He never worries about the negative. He's always consistent." A repeat of Tuesday night's performance would serve the Bulls well in Thursday's must-win Game 6, as their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals shifts back to Philadelphia.

• J.A. Adande telling a great Kobe Bryant story.
• Al Horford played 41 minutes in just his second game since returning from shoulder surgery. In that time he grabbed 11 rebounds, made a game-saving defensive play on Rajon Rondo and, according to John Hollinger, really lubricated the sputtering Hawks offense: "The telltale sign: Open corner 3-pointers. They'd been as rare as chowder in these parts, but Atlanta got several Tuesday night and converted 7-of-16 from distance. Marvin Williams, instated as a starter to guard Boston's Paul Pierce, made three of them, tripling his total from the first four games."
• I love this: The Nuggets are using a laptop in the huddle at the end of games to help predict what plays the Lakers might run. Don't be surprised if in a few years, each assistant has a iPad-like tablet, instead of a clipboard, in hand.
• Kobe Bryant's sweaty, game-worn mask garnered $67,100 in a charity auction.
• Kevin Durant's top 10 plays, which remind you that he's a very under-appreciated dunker.
• Facebook's massive IPO might help bring a new arena to Seattle.
• Basketball Value with a data on how every five-man lineup has fared thus far in the postseason.
• It turns out the Dream Team did lose a game -- to a squad of collegiate players lead by Bobby Hurley and Chris Webber. That footage will be a part of a Dream Team documentary coming to NBA TV.
• The Celtics are still up 3-2 against the Hawks, but Brian Robb of Celtics Hub is worried about Paul Pierce. The hobbled vet didn't attempt a single free throw in Game 5.
• No reason for Jeremy Lin to play if that knee isn't 100 percent.
• This story (Insider) is about LeBron James's historic season and how it compares to Michael Jordan's best years. But I can't help noticing this other bit: The numbers say no great player turned it up in the playoffs like Hakeem Olajuwon.
• The Bulls needed some bailout shooting from Luol Deng to survive Game 5. On By the Horns, Matt McHale isn't exactly thrilled: "Deng’s threes were also a red flag. The Bulls needed all three of them in the fourth quarter. Lu repeatedly beating the buzzer with contested threes isn’t something the team can count on consistently, especially not on the road in Philadelphia on Thursday. When Philly’s defense turns up the pressure in the fourth quarter, the Bulls cannot seem to generate good looks. Or even average looks. You can check out the shot chart. Philly’s D is either forcing long jumpers or intimidating the Bulls at the rim. In the fourth quarter last night, Chicago went 1-for-6 in the paint."
• The Lakers want to exploit their advantage in the post, but the Nuggets are making it awfully crowded down on the low block. Forum Blue and Gold's Darius Soriano has sage advice: "The Lakers need to move the ball more, cut and screen more, and then look for quick duck ins from their big men where they can catch the ball on the move or sliding into position where they’re more of a threat to score. By incorporating more ball and player movement before post entries are made, it should also afford the Lakers that extra beat of time they need to make a quick move to try and get a basket. Cross screens can also be utilized both in “horns” actions and in more simple sets that don’t involve the double high post look to begin a possession."
• Apparently, playing defense in the playoffs requires some blatant shoving.
• Aaron McGuire, writing about the Spurs on 48 Minutes of Hell: "The Spurs have managed to win six games this season while shooting 40 percent or lower from the floor (meaning that we shot less than or equal to 40 percent in 11.1 percent of our wins). Last season, despite their insane record, the Spurs won only once while shooting that poorly from the floor. This isn’t a matter of luck. The Spurs’ defense this season has played significantly better than last season’s, and while they certainly had their periods of lesser performance akin to last season, the Spurs we’re watching in this year’s playoffs are currently playing better defense than anyone in the Western Conference."
• Shawn Kemp (on stage!) will bring you some beef, but only if you'll have it with mustard.
• If it was his last game with the Magic, Jameer Nelson went out with a bang.
• It's not your fault if you don't know how good the Indiana Pacers are. Jonathan Auping writes on 8 Points 9 Seconds: "The Indiana Pacers played a grand total of one game on national television this season. (Side note: I do not consider NBA TV to qualify as national TV. I am talking about games played on ABC, ESPN or TNT. There’s something about having either Kenny and Charles or Magic and Wilbon talking about your first-half performance that feels like validation). The only chance that the country had to watch the Pacers was a 111-94 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on ESPN back on March 14. The Charlotte Bobcats had exactly as many nationally televised games as the Pacers."

The Clippers are winning a reputation as some of the league's most consistent and spectacular floppers, which might lead you to suspect they're gaining some kind of unfair referee advantage over their first-round opponents, the Memphis Grizzlies.

But if that's so, there are other factors in play, too.

Take a look at which teams are shooting the most free throws -- per possession -- in the playoffs as of today:

1. Memphis Grizzlies
2. Miami Heat
3. Los Angeles Clippers
4. Philadelphia 76ers
5. Dallas Mavericks
6. Utah Jazz
7. Oklahoma City Thunder
8. New York Knicks
9. San Antonio Spurs
10. Denver Nuggets
11. Indiana Pacers
12. Los Angeles Lakers
13. Boston Celtics
14. Orlando Magic
15. Chicago Bulls
16. Atlanta Hawks

In other words, yes the Clippers are high on the list, but the Grizzlies lead the league in getting to the line so far.

Meanwhile, the other team that has been accused of getting all the calls -- at least by Danilo Gallinari -- is the other L.A. team. In fact, the Lakers trail all but four playoff teams, including Gallinari's Nuggets, when it comes to shooting freebies.

Statistical support provided by NBA.com.

JaVale McGee and the power of suggestion

It was undeniably the most important game of JaVale McGee's young career, and among his very finest performances. 21 points on 12 shots, many of which were jaw-dropping rim attacks. 14 rebounds. Two blocks, both in the fourth quarter ... including sending back a Pau Gasol dunk with less than two minutes left. As McGee stood on the court, post-game, doing a hero's interview with TNT's Craig Sager, Sager noted that McGee was rightly holding the game ball. As the conversation wound up, Sager advised McGee -- a wonderful player with a reputation as a kook -- to hang onto that ball. The camera lingered on McGee as he thanked Sager and made his way along the edge of the largely empty post-game Staples Center stands and into the tunnel. The last thing McGee did before disappearing from view? He heaved that game ball, baseball-style, into the great beyond of the arena.

Good thing Sager didn't say "hang onto those shorts."

The Celtics, Heat and reputations

In a great article about the prowess of Rajon Rondo, it was pointed out that the Celtics are incredibly efficient in crunch time, especially as compared to the Heat.

I cringed as I read it.

The Celtics have created a huge bundle of great late-game plays, and run some of the league's most beautiful sets. But our eyes deceive us on these things all the time, and though people hate to hear it, the numbers almost never support the persistent idea that the Heat are terrible at much of anything.

Sure enough, as it happened the Celtics closed a game last night with some of the poorest execution imaginable.

Which, it turns out, is not as out of character as you might think. NBA.com's new stats site, tells us, essentially that the Heat crush the Celtics by every relevant measure late in games. In games either team was tied or trailing closely with 3 minutes left, the Celtics finished this season with a 5-11 record, which is not good by any measure, even compared to the Heat, who were 9-8. The Heat had the league's fifth most efficient offense, with the second-best true shooting percentage late in those games. The Celtics, meanwhile, had the 26th most efficient offense, with the 27th best true shooting percentage.

And as it happened, with the game on the line against the Hawks, Boston's big opportunity ended with the opposite of efficient execution. Rondo went on a dribble-odyssey to nowhere, capped by a too-late desperation pass that was tipped and sailed out of bounds at the final horn.

None of that proves anything, other than that every team, even the veteran Celtics, has miscues late. So why do the Heat seem to have no clue? Just maybe people make a bit bigger of a fuss out of the Heat's flaws, not because they are more common, but because they fit a certain narrative.

Kobe Bryant and hotness

Speaking of certain narratives, Kobe Bryant hit four straight late 3s to turn a blowout into a squeaker, which had the broadcasters and everybody else saying the words "on fire" again and again. And four 3s ... that is a "wow" moment. I wonder how many players have ever done that, let alone late in a close playoff game.

But we also see what we want. Nobody, for instance, described JaVale McGee or Andre Miller as "on fire" in this game, because they take easier shots, I guess, and because that's not what we expect from them.

The truth, however, is that Miller and McGee finished the period a game-changing, scorching eight of 11 from the floor in the fourth quarter. Bryant's fourth included that stretch of four big makes, but in keeping with the bigger odds -- he's a pretty average 3-point shooter, and nobody is very good shooting with hands in their faces -- he ended the game with three straight misses. His final fourth quarter tally was five makes, seven misses, and still, somehow, a monopoly on claims of a hot hand.

Pick one: Andre Miller or Ty Lawson

The Nuggets have a problem. Arguably their best player is Ty Lawson. But so many of their other good players, especially the freakish athletes -- McGee, Kenneth Faried, Corey Brewer -- get so much out of playing with Andre "lob" Miller. There is simply no way McGee could have had his great Game 5 without Miller looking for him. George Karl has been playing Lawson and Miller late in games, but that seems to be more of a concession to the team's pecking order -- both "deserve" to play -- rather than the best possible lineup. Without the ball, neither is terribly useful. On late defensive possessions, although it happens Miller was guarding Bryant for his key late miss, it's a cinch to make the case that either or both should sit for defensive standouts Arron Afflalo or Brewer. Not to mention the magnificent Faried sat for the entire final period.

Short rotations

In the playoffs coaches shorten their benches. Play your best players. And for all I know it's right. But watching players like Andrew Bynum and Spencer Hawes, it's undeniable to me that fatigue plays a role in the playoffs. You sure you don't want Jordan Hill in there a bit more? Is it a lock that Nikola Vucevic would be of no use?

There are spells of the game when it seems anyone who had had a cup of coffee in the last 24 hours would do better than those exhausted players -- players who are blatantly excellent when not so tired.

And then consider players like the Bulls' Ronnie Brewer, who played 13, 13 and zero minutes in the first three games of the playoffs. A year ago, he got consideration as an all-NBA defender. But he was the odd man out as the Bulls shortened the rotation for the playoffs. In Game 5 he finally got some meaningful time, 29 minutes, and was blatantly fantastic, bringing precisely the kind of high-energy toughness the Bulls have been lacking since injuries to Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.

And as it happens, Brewer's in a crew of three Bulls bench players, along with Taj Gibson and Kyle Korver, who are the only Bulls with positive plus/minus numbers in the playoffs. Even on the most injured playoff team, all three have seen their minutes drop compared to the regular season.

Statistical support provided by NBA.com.

• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: Give Bird and his front office credit. Give Frank Vogel, who needs to have the third year of his contract guaranteed (and now) credit. And give these players credit for turning themselves into the type of team -- emphasis on team -- that this city and region can embrace without hesitation. With a bit more than a minute left in the Pacers' 105-87 series-clincher over the Orlando Magic, the chant went up from Area 55: "Beat the Heat! Beat the Heat!'' Then the rest of the crowd joined in. "There have been a lot of nights when it's been kind of silent in here,'' Roy Hibbert said with a smile. "But not tonight. Not this series. I think we're giving fans something to be proud of. We didn't do this the easy way. It took time. But Larry Bird and (general manager) David Morway drafted well. We got D(avid) West. We got George Hill, Leandro (Barbosa) and Lou (Amundson) for almost nothing. We didn't do this by signing a couple of superstars.'' ... What's next? The Pacers are taking their talents to South Beach.
• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: Thank you, Indiana Pacers. Thank you for what you did Tuesday night. Thank you for beating the Magic 105-87 and doing what should have been done long ago. Thank you for putting an end to the suffering of Orlando players, coaches and fans. Thank you for closing the book on this distressing, depressing season. It is over. Finally. Convincingly. Mercifully. Now we wait … wait to see what happens with Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy, who said after the game he wants to come back but has no idea if Magic management wants him back. Judging by his body language, I believe Van Gundy has a pretty good idea he will be sacrificed as the Magic desperately try to convince Dwight Howard to sign a long-term extension. ... If Van Gundy were being completely candid, he would admit that there is a part of him that will be ecstatic if he is fired and his Magic tenure is over. He likely feels much like Magic fans feel about this season. Seriously, has there ever been a playoff team where its fans seemed more relieved than bereaved that the season was over? Let's face it, the Magic had no chance in this series — none. The Pacers had the advantage at virtually every position. And that is a clear indictment of a roster that general manager Otis Smith has put together. Even with Dwight, the Magic would have been ousted in the first round by the Pacers, much like they were by the Hawks last year. ... Thank you, Indiana Pacers, for the incredibly humane gesture Tuesday night. Thank you for putting the Magic out of their misery. But the saddest part of all is this. The season may be over, but another Dwightmare is just beginning.
• Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: But hey, the Hawks won 87-86. They live to play another game. That’s probably more than most saw coming after self-immolation two days earlier in Boston. The Celtics still lead the best-of-seven series 3-2. They certainly will be favored to close this out Thursday night. But speculate at your own risk. As for Drew’s lineup decisions, try this: Horford, back from a torn pectoral, finished with a team-high 19 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots. Williams made three of six three-point attempts — the rest of the team was 4-for-10. On a night when Smith and Joe Johnson started dreadfully but finished strong, Horford was the difference. Horford was expected to play 15 to 20 minutes. He ended up playing over 41. “I didn’t want to bring him back that early in the fourth, but it was a close game and you could feel the momentum shifting,” Drew said. “He was a superman for us down the stretch.” So was this: After making only 4 of 16 shots to open the game and shooting 35.7 percent in the first half, the Hawks shots 61.3 percent in the second half.
• Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: Rajon Rondo has had better games than last night. You need only go back two nights to find one. But he actually came within a breath of single-handedly winning Game 5 at Philips Arena. In the final seconds, however, Rondo wasn’t able to pull the Celtics [team stats]’ keister from the fire one last time, and the lasting image of this one will be of the point guard coming up empty. The Hawks inbounded the ball with an 87-86 lead and just 10.9 seconds on the clock, and Rondo intercepted Josh Smith’s pass for Joe Johnson at 9.9. But with no timeouts left, he couldn’t find another moment of magic, or even another shot for the Celtics. Rondo dribbled up the left sideline, guarded by his friend Smith. Kevin Garnett set a pick, and the 6-foot-10 Al Horford switched onto him. Rondo was caught in the corner, and the clock ran out as he tried to get the ball back out to Garnett. Too nothing, too late. “I felt awful that the game ended the way it ended, because I thought Rondo willed us back into the game,” said Doc Rivers, whose team will try again to close out the Hawks in Game 6 tomorrow night at the Garden. “He really did at the end of the third quarter in that little stretch. It kind of gave us life again.” Had the Celtics been able to come up with a final bucket — or had they made one fewer silly mistake earlier — the focus today would have been on Rondo’s nine-second barrage late in the third quarter, nine seconds that nearly clinched the series.
• Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post: During a 102-99 victory that saved Denver from NBA playoff elimination, the great Nuggets' experiment in team basketball worked to perfection. Kobe Bryant scored 43 for the Lakers, but Denver stole the show. ... Patience is a virtue in Ujiri's mind. But there's something even a smart Nuggets executive probably can't fully appreciate after fewer than two full years on the job. The fatigue and frustration of the Denver ticket-buying public extends back more than a decade, before the time when first-round playoff exits became the norm to a time when Denver was laughably inept as an NBA franchise. As the Nuggets built a 15-point lead early in the fourth quarter, it wasn't funny to comedian Larry David and the beautiful people in the Staples Center who came out looking for a celebration but had to curb their enthusiasm. The crowd booed the home team. The Lakers responded with a furious rally. Bryant and Ramon Sessions both missed field-goal attempts from three-point range that could have tied the score in the final seconds. "Thank God," said Karl, appreciative for the divine intervention. Without superstars on the court, the Nuggets will take help anywhere they can get it.
• Jill Painter of the Los Angeles Daily News: Mike Brown was using his big smile to denounce a popular theory that's going around. It seems ridiculous, the prospect of the Lakers throwing Game 5 on Tuesday to push the series to six games so Metta World Peace could play in Game 1 against Oklahoma City in Western Conference playoffs. Brown's reaction? A smile, followed by laughing. "I thought it was funny," Brown said before Tuesday's game. Actually, Brown would rather get through the series quickly, even though that would mean Metta World Peace has to sit out the first game - serving the final of the seven-game suspension - of the next series. The Thunder is resting after their sweep over Dallas, and the San Antonio Spurs are waiting following their sweep over Utah. More rest would be beneficial for Kobe Bryant, who surely would have fresher legs after a five-game series than seven.
• Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times: The United Center was all abuzz Tuesday night as the weary Bulls fought to remain among the living. It shouldn’t have been easy to watch for anyone, but when the Fan-O-Meter starts encouraging the crowd, Omer Asik dunks and the 76ers can’t hit an open shot on a rim lowered to 5 feet, people have a hard time helping themselves. They cheer. Wildly. Others are still trying to decide between denial and anger in the Derrick Rose grieving process. It’s why watching the Bulls beat the 76ers 77-69 brought on shrugs among those of us who like their basketball to be, you know, good. Yes, there will be a Game 6 in Philadelphia on Thursday and, yes, the 76ers might be feeling just a tad nervous with their 3-2 series lead. But is it asking too much for there to be one high-level basketball game in this playoff series, with two teams showing skill and will? If you can get high off the fumes of any kind of Bulls victory, even one as offensive as Tuesday’s, bless you. You’re a better person than I am. You see hope. I see a team that still has fight, doesn’t have much to fight for and might want to think about taking up pacifism. ‘‘Nobody wants to get eliminated at home,’’ forward Taj Gibson said of the Bulls’ resolve.
• Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer: Perhaps it was just the last gasp of a team that didn't want to leave the season with a loss on its home floor. Tuesday night's 77-69 win by the Chicago Bulls to avoid elimination by the 76ers could have been nothing more than that. The Sixers better hope so, and they better hope their offense returns from the land of the missing when the series continues Thursday in the Wells Fargo Center. It wasn't as if the Bulls were terrific in narrowing the Sixers' lead to three games to two. They were the same crippled team that lost three straight to the Sixers to get themselves into this predicament. But the Sixers were just awful. They took bad shots, didn't take care of the ball and couldn't match the Bulls' muscle in what became a very physical contest. The only question now is whether the game was a harbinger or merely the final act of defiance by a team that would prefer to end its injury-induced misery somewhere else. Whichever is the case, the series has changed. We find out Thursday night how much.

On a night when four teams could have ended their first-round playoff series, only the Indiana Pacers claimed a spot in the Conference Semifinals.

After losing the series opener, the Pacers dominated the series against the Orlando Magic. In the clinching game, they outscored Orlando 18-0 in fast-break opportunities and 46-22 in the paint. For the series, they held a 69-13 advantage in fast-break points and outscored the Magic by 76 points in the paint.

Darren Collison dished out 23 assists and committed just one turnover during the series. Since individual turnovers were first tracked by Elias in 1978, he is only the fourth player with 20 or more assists and one or fewer turnovers in a playoff game. The others were John Paxson (1990 Bulls), Fat Lever (1988 Nuggets) and Eddie Johnson (1987 Sonics).

Dwight Howard's injury doomed the Magic before the series started. Including the playoffs, Orlando finished 5-12 without their starting center and 33-21 with him in the lineup. This was the fifth time in the last 20 years that a team was missing its leading regular-season scorer in the playoffs – all five teams lost in the first round.

The Boston Celtics had a chance to eliminate the Atlanta Hawks, a team against which they had won nine of 10 previous playoff series. According to Elias, that .900 series winning percentage is the highest for any team against another in NBA history (with a minimum of six series played).

This was the 12th time under Doc Rivers that the Celtics had a chance to close out a series on the road; they have only succeeded twice. They return to the comforts of TD Garden on Thursday, where they are 7-3 under Rivers in potential close out games.

The key for the Hawks on Tuesday was Al Horford. In the 41 minutes that he was on the court, the Hawks outscored the Celtics by 10 points and grabbed eight more rebounds. While he rested, they were outscored by nine.

With a chance to finish their series against the Chicago Bulls, the Philadelphia 76ers couldn’t even match their nickname in the point column. Philadelphia was held under 70 points in a playoff game for the second time since the shot clock was introduced in the 1954-55 season. The franchise low was 68 points against the Magic in the 1999 playoffs.

With the win, the Bulls avoided becoming the first No. 1 seed since the playoffs were expanded to 16 teams in 1984 to win fewer than two games in the playoffs. The four previous top seeds to lose in the first round all won two games before they were eliminated.

The Los Angeles Lakers were looking to win their ninth-straight potential series-clinching game, but lost at home to the Denver Nuggets. It was their first loss in a potential close out game since Game 6 of the 2009 Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets. According to Elias, that was the fourth-longest such streak in NBA playoff history. The Lakers also own the longest, 12 straight from June 2000 to May 2004.

Kobe Bryant scored 43 points in the loss, the 84th time in his career that he reached 30 points in a playoff game. The only player with more was Michael Jordan, with 109. It was the 12th time that he reached 40 in the playoffs and first since the 2010 Western Conference finals.

• Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: Coaches torture themselves over success, and Gregg Popovich has been lately. He’s been wondering out loud among his staff that, well, wouldn’t it be better to lose a game? “That’s why,” one of his assistants kidded him, “you are coach of the year.” Popovich wasn’t laughing. He’s felt the winning streak has become a burden, and he didn’t like the feel that a relaxed first round was giving his players. It’s the same reason he also dislikes 20-point leads in the first half. So what happened Monday, when the Spurs coughed and sputtered toward a sweep, gave him hope. Popovich can treat the latest win like a loss, and he will take the Spurs into the film room to see a few things. Or, as Stephen Jackson put it with a smile, “Pop’s got something to teach on.” The broader picture should include a few positives. The Spurs did what the best teams do, which is take out an opponent as quickly as possible to minimize injuries. The Spurs were healthy going into the playoffs, and they are still healthy. Ask Chicago, among others. This isn’t something to complain about.
• Gordon Monson of The Salt Lake Tribune: And so, it has ended for the Jazz. An ugly game that got away in the second half, and then, remarkably, was almost reeled back in. A playoff series that was dominated by a better team. A season that even in the disappointment of four straight losses to the Spurs, the final one an 87-81 defeat at home that simply refused to be coerced into a win, could and should be recorded as a success. Not a raging success, but a success nonetheless. "I wouldn’t consider it a success," Gordon Hayward said. "I consider it improvement. It’s not a success unless you win the whole thing." That was never in play. It was hard for the Jazz to see the positives in the throes of defeat, a defeat that went from a 21-point margin down to a 4-pointer near the end. But the sun that set on them Monday night will also rise Tuesday morning. And a whole lot of mornings in the future. Is that too charitable? Too optimistic? No.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Anyone with kids understands the ambiguity of growth spurts. See, when you're around your kids day after day after day, you don't quite realize how much they're actually spouting. They're literally growing right before your eyes, but it's occurring at such a gradual pace you don't even notice. But then a moment comes along when it hits you. Maybe they're standing alongside a friend they once stood eye-to-eye with but now tower over. Or maybe the jeans that once hung too long on them no longer cover their ankles. And you think to yourself, `Wow, when did that happen?' That kind of moment occurred Monday with the Clippers. Maybe we weren't paying close enough attention or perhaps we've been too close to them to truly notice. But their 101-97 overtime victory over the desperate Memphis Grizzlies in Game 4 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs showed us just how far they've come over a short period of time, just how much they've sprouted over the last four months. The Clippers took a decisive 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and can close things out Wednesday in Memphis. Make no mistake, the Clippers have grown up. In mind, spirit and body.
• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: Perhaps the most remarkable part of Ray Allen’s return from a month of inactivity has been his consistency during the past two games against the Hawks. The Celtics guard, finally slotted in the sixth-man role coach Doc Rivers has envisioned for him at least since the All-Star break, has put up classic sixth-man numbers, including a 12.5 scoring average and 11-for-21 (.524) shooting. Only his 3-point shooting (2-for-7) has been a tad slower to take off, but there’s always time, especially now with the Celtics taking a 3-1 first-round series lead into Game 5 tonight in Atlanta. Though there’s always the threat of a day-after setback — a constant concern for someone who admits he’ll need surgery on the bone spurs in his right ankle this summer — Allen looked resolute Sunday night. “I feel surprisingly great,” he said. “I’m really managing my off days really well. And you have a tendency when you get back off of an injury (to) kind of let it slide a bit, (but) I haven’t been. And it’s important to me to rest up. I know once I get in the game, my body’s going to require a little bit more, so I’m trying to move and shoot around on days before games. When I get my shots up, I’m trying to move and mirror what I’m going to do in the game, so there’s no surprises.” It’s unlikely that there’s another player in the league with a more scientific approach to preparation than Allen. Few players work harder to refine their mechanics, and fewer still have such a consistently fluid stroke.
• Mark Bradley of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It took barely a week, but the industrious Hawks have done it. They’ve thrown away a 1-0 series lead and an 11-point advantage in a Game 2 for which the best Celtic was suspended, and they’re back where they feel most accustomed — being given no chance to do anything except embarrass themselves further. Surely more folks would grant them a chance if they gave any indication they’d know what to do with one, but these are, for better and worse, the Hawks. In Boston they managed an improbable double, even by their crazy-quilt standards: They played a strong Game 3 without Josh Smith and Al Horford and a terrible Game 4 with both on the floor. ... Nobody knows why, though theories abound. They’re weak-willed. (I can see why people say it, but I also know that a weak-willed team wouldn’t have won Games 6 and 7 against Milwaukee in 2010.) They lack a big man. (And who’s that playing center for Boston? Bill Russell?) They don’t have a superstar. OK, that’s legit. ... Despite the Hawks’ best efforts, this series isn’t yet lost. But the Hawks cannot wait for Joe Johnson to win it for them. As good as he can be, he’s not that good.
• Tom Moore of phillyBurbs.com: The clinching game of a playoff series tends to be difficult. Doug Collins called it “the hardest game to win in sports.” The opposing team’s desperation for its season to continue is perhaps the most significant factor. With a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series against the Chicago Bulls, the 76ers can advance with a victory in Game 5 on Tuesday night (9:30 on Comcast SportsNet/NBA TV) at the United Center. Having won three in a row and with Chicago missing all-star guard Derrick Rose (torn ACL) and center Joakim Noah (sprained ankle), the Sixers seem to have a lot going for them. But the Sixers lack playoff close-out experience. Only one Sixer in Collins’ regular rotation (Elton Brand, 2006 with the Clippers) has been on a team that won a postseason series. Those nine players have appeared in a total of just 16 series, meaning 15 ended with the other team closing them out. Eighth-year pro Andre Iguodala has lost in the first round four times.
• Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times: The Bulls hoped to benefit from Rip Hamilton’s playoff wisdom, but they didn’t expect his experience of once being down 3-1 in a first-round series to come in so handy. If the Bulls can’t match what Hamilton’s Pistons did in 2003, when they won three in a row to eliminate the Magic, their season will be over. “It’s been a crazy year, from beginning to right now, so we know that,” Hamilton said. “We know that nothing’s easy. It hasn’t been easy for the whole season, with injuries and guys being out, so we know it’s going to be tough. We’ve just got to come out and be ready to play.” If the Bulls are to extend this series, they’ll need to play with more energy in Game 5 Tuesday at the United Center than they did in the first quarter of Game 4. They must offset what has become a huge 76ers advantage at the free-throw line. The 76ers have shot 30 or more free throws in three of the four games. They only did that four times all season. They’ll need to play better down the stretch. “The thing they’ve done that has hurt us is they’ve gotten timely offensive rebounds late,” coach Tom Thibodeau said.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: Entering tonight's Game 5 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with the Lakers ready to close things out on their home court, it's obvious what the Nuggets need to do to keep this best-of-seven series going: Be tougher and rebound better. In their only victory in this series, the Nuggets won Game 3 by controlling the offensive boards. But the Lakers had 10 more rebounds Sunday, including 19 on the offensive glass. That's a killer for the Nuggets because they thrive off points in transition. With the Lakers able to slow the game by controlling the boards, their brawny bigs stole opportunities for Denver to keep the tempo at a fast pace. The Lakers outscored the Nuggets in second-chance points 28-18. ... Tonight brings Game 5, with the Nuggets staring at another first-round exit. They have never come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series. Denver will have to play Laker-tough to get back in the game.
• Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: The Lakers will have to keep pushing for more in the next round in the face of ever-snarling Kendrick Perkins, whom Bryant calls the best post defender in the game, and Serge Ibaka, who blocked 100-plus more shots than any other player this season. They'll have to go into that raucous Oklahoma City gym and seize at least one game from people who believe it is now their time. They'll have to take it from the amazing Kevin Durant, the onrushing Russell Westbrook, the underrated James Harden and the clutch Derek Fisher. You don't accomplish any of that while sitting down. Bynum trained in a boxing ring over the summer, so he has a heightened respect for taking a punch and still standing your ground. He is also a budding soccer aficionado (although Bryant alleges that Bynum learned everything he knows from playing the FIFA soccer video game), so you know Bynum doesn't really mean to denigrate the world's game. What he means to do is mock Gallinari ... and anyone who expects to become the best by lying down on the job instead of doing the hard work. What Bynum needs to know is that no one will remember, ultimately, that the Lakers did not stoop to Gallinari's level. It's only the first round. This is about who will be the last men standing.
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: I play this little game with Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel, even if he's not completely aware he's a participant. About every 10 games or so, I ask him if he wants Paul George to be more assertive offensively. And every time I ask, he looks at me like I'm half nuts (I get this look a lot from people) and talks about all the other good things George does -- like defend, rebound, pass the basketball. There are two reasons Vogel does this: One, he really does like all the other things the second-year player brings to the floor, and he should. Two, Vogel rarely -- OK, never -- criticizes or even mildly chides his players in a public forum. That's not to say he doesn't hold them accountable privately, but in stark contrast to Orlando's Stan Van Gundy, who will happily call out players in the media, Vogel would rather stroke his players than slap them around publicly. Larry Bird, though, doesn't have that problem. Ask a question, you get brutal honesty. "He's got to pick it up," the Pacers president said after Monday's practice. "This isn't the time to feel sorry for yourself. Sometimes players lose their shot, and they lose all their confidence. As he gets along in his career, we think he can be a pretty good scorer. But just because you're not making shots doesn't mean you can't do the other things. Disappointed? No. I mean, he's so young (just turned 22). Last year he was in five playoff games, and it's just the first round this year. These young guys, they're going to learn, each playoff game gets harder as you go along. Not each series, each game. These guys don't understand that yet."
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: Stan Van Gundy knows that speculation is rampant that this playoff series against the Indiana Pacers will mark the end of his tenure as the Orlando Magic's coach. But Van Gundy maintains the rumors don't bother him. "I've been around coaching my entire life — literally, my entire life," Van Gundy said after the Magic finished practice Monday at Amway Center. "I really think, for all coaches, I don't think that's disconcerting at all. You sort of know when you go into it — and, for me, I knew long before I went into it because I'd been around it — that's all part of it. You don't worry about that. "I think the only thing you worry about is winning games, and you're not happy being down 3-1. I'm upset about losing Game 4 and the whole thing. But the rest of it, I don't have any control over that. I do have some control over getting our team ready to play." The Magic will face the Pacers in Game 5 at 7 tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Van Gundy owns a 259-135 regular-season record and a 31-27 postseason record as the Magic's coach

• Pop quiz: Which NBA team had the best offense in the NBA this season, by a healthy margin? Answer. John Hollinger is a little salty (Insider) about how the Spurs have been ignored: "Don't let San Antonio's 27-3 mark in its past 30 games with the Big Three and near-certain home-court advantage for every remaining series distract you. And by all means, feel free to ignore the fact the Spurs are 19-1 on the road in their past 20 games the Big Three have played. After three methodical beatdowns of Utah, including one of the sweetest last-second plays you'll ever see to get a Matt Bonner 3 at the end of the first half of Game 3, the scary thought is that San Antonio's defense is catching up to its offense. The thought entering this series was that Utah's bruising post game was the perfect attack to face San Antonio, especially after Zach Randolph beat them up in the playoffs last spring. Instead, a spry-looking Tim Duncan has completely bottled up Al Jefferson, Boris Diaw has provided a much-needed post defender at the 4 and the Spurs are fourth in playoff defensive efficiency -- a mark that would be even better were it not for the copious amounts of garbage time in the first three games. So keep ignoring them. They'll just be quietly chuckling while they await their next overmatched opponent, standing 13 wins from one of the greatest closing kicks in league annals."
• People are all upset that Al Jefferson said the Spurs are fantastic, and better than the Jazz. I don't think people should ever get in trouble for telling the truth.
• It was suggested that Utah's "big" lineup, which features Derrick Favors, Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson, might give San Antonio trouble. But the Silver and Black Machine has sliced and diced every combination of Jazz players they've faced. Just like in the regular season, they've spread the floor, attacked the weakest link in the defense and drilled open 3s.
• Let's give some credit to Scott Brooks for this: he knows how to let James Harden do his thing.
• Why are ACLs so vulnerable? Turns out even NBA superstars can't overcome genetics.
• NBA tickets for one dollar. From a Bobcats press release: "Under the promotion, season tickets could be priced as low as $43 for an upper-level seat, with the cost per game equaling the draft pick the team receives in the lottery. For example, if the Bobcats get the No. 1 pick, the price would be $1 per game, or $43 for the season (41 regular season games and two preseason games). Even if the Bobcats receive the No. 4 pick, the $4-per-game cost would amount to $172 for the season. This is a price point that has not been available in the past, inviting customers who may not have been able to become Bobcats season ticket holders previously." NOTE: This promotion is over ... those super cheap seats are sold out.
• Don't look now, but Jrue Holiday is starting to cash in on his star potential.
• Nick Flynt with a two part breakdown of the Clippers defense that rarely broke down in Game 3.
• Among the many things the NBA should take pride in: Very few games interrupted by chickens. Although there was that Hawk incident.
• Carmelo Anthony hung most of his 41 points on the Heat when matched up against Shane Battier. Brian Windhorst wonders why Spoelstra didn't put LeBron James on Anthony down the stretch, and I'm wondering whether it's time to officially retire Battier's "Stopper" label.
• Not enough rebounds. Too many turnovers and long jump shots. The problems facing the Bulls are the same ones they usually pose to their opponents.
• The Celtics are banged up, especially on the wings.
• Nets Are Scorching blogger Devin Kharpertian got a familiar feeling watching James Harden slice through the Mavericks defense.
• It's almost certain that they won't come back and win the series, but that shouldn't stop New York fans from feeling good about the Knicks' thrilling Game 4 win.
• A lot of what happens on the court is a competition for some kind of swagger. All that working out, and running around, though ... and just eating some yogurt might have done the same thing.
• Be careful using something you see in one playoff game as insight into what will happen in the next playoff game. They're all different.
• Reggie Evans knows how to stop Marreese Speights from setting a good pick.
• A frame-by-frame look at Miami's airtight defense.
• The Pacers have had some odd lapses against the Magic. Jared Wade has some critical feedback, "Stan Van Gundy has been drawing up excellent out of bounds plays all series. This was one of them. But it really only worked because it was a quick-hitter to be executed against a defense that forgot the basic fundamentals of guarding a player you learn in second grade. Fortunately for Van Gundy, Paul George complied."

• Harvey Araton of The New York Times: Knicks fans will wait three days with bated breath. They will interpret Wade’s inability to exploit the defensive switch that left the vulnerable Stoudemire on him — “I lost control of the ball and had to take it out for 3,” Wade said — as a sign of something, anything, that might bring them back to the Garden on Friday night. Maybe the Heat will start to hear footsteps or have a player go down; that seems to be in the air this playoff season. Wade, for one, had his ankles in ice after Sunday’s game. Bottom line: don’t tell Knicks fans — that ever loyal band of wishful thinkers and Anthony worshipers — that no N.B.A. team has ever recovered from a 0-3 playoff deficit. Not after they finally left a playoff game without having to curse the fates while finding the rationalization to still care. “It was a great win for us and our fans to get over the hump,” Stoudemire said. “To finally get over the hump now and win a game today is great.” It was now or not until next year for the Knicks, several of whom won’t be back, and their fans, most of whom certainly will return just as they have season after deflating season. They all earned the win Sunday. But all things considered, the paying sufferers in the stands deserved it more.
• Greg Cote of The Miami Herald: The perception was that thanks largely to key injuries to opponents’ star players Miami might not face a real challenge until the anticipated NBA Finals against Oklahoma City. Heck, LeBron was even asked the other day if he thought Miami’s championship would be “tainted,” and require the mythical asterisk, because of all those opponents’ playoff injuries combined with the lockout-caused shortened season. “I don’t think that’s right to say,” James replied. Something else that isn’t right to say is that Miami will waltz through the postseason unchallenged because awe-struck opponents are curtsying and bowing out of the way. Or that Miami can expect to always get by on sheer star power even on nights when it misses 16 three-point shots and 11 free throws and its bench players might as well have stayed on the team bus. “There’s a lesson for us,” ventured Bosh. “We’re going to have to be more attentive and relax a little bit.” Here’s another lesson from this loss: This season might well end for Miami like that book James is reading — with three young men who made a promise fulfilling a dream — but if so it will be hard won, no disclaimers needed, no asterisk required.
• Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News: The Bulls lost their heart when Derrick Rose ruined his knee in Game 1. The Bulls lost their soul when Joakim Noah turned his ankle in Game 3. Sunday, the 76ers stepped on their necks. As a franchise, the Sixers took a giant step forward. Their 89-82 win gave them a 3-1 first-round lead over the top seed in the Eastern Conference. As an emerging franchise, anything but a win would have created a different image; one having to do with the Sixers' throats, and their inability to breathe and swallow. As it stands, to borrow and to alter a phrase, this is not a choking situation. That was averted. "Absolutely accurate. Absolutely accurate," said veteran Elton Brand, who in his reconstructed career has turned into Dennis Rodman. "If we lost today, it would affect our mentality. Our organization. Our franchise. Our talent level. Just all we're doing here. We still have to fight to win this series. But this game, at home, to really take the driver's seat - we had to have this. For the growth of the young guys."
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: The 89-82 deficit on the scoreboard hurt the Bulls badly enough. The 31-14 discrepancy in free-throw attempts felt like piling on. "Listen, we're not going to blame the referees for our loss," Carlos Boozer said. "It was our fault we let up 25 points in the fourth quarter. But the discrepancy was huge and I thought we were being pretty aggressive." Several critical plays down the stretch rankled the Bulls. Trailing 82-80, Boozer drove hard and appeared to draw contact from Elton Brand, who blocked his shot. "It was a great pocket pass by C.J. (Watson)," Boozer said. "I was trying to go to the hole strong. Obviously, I wanted a layup or dunk. I thought I had some contact. I thought I got fouled to be frank. The fouls they were calling on the other side, I thought that call could've been made. But they didn't call it. We just kept playing on." On the ensuing possession, veteran official Dick Bavetta called Watson for a bump on Jrue Holiday as the Bulls' bench exploded in anger. "It was a key sequence," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "It kind of went against us."
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: Spending the first three games of this first-round series in a slow grind, the Celtics were anticipating a breakout performance Sunday in Game 4. They spent the regular season as a shoddy offensive team, unable to score consistently, but looking dominant when they did. If the Celtics ever blended their sparkling defense with an offense that executed and made shots, they would emerge as a legitimate Eastern Conference contender. They were such a team in a 101-79 demolition of the Hawks at TD Garden, looking as if they finally had peaked for the postseason. As the East playoffs take shape, with the eighth-seeded 76ers one win from eliminating the Derrick Rose-less Bulls, the Celtics appear primed for another long playoff run if they can knock off the Hawks one more time.
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: I could sense the anguish among tweeps over this one. Just when they thought they could at least expect the Hawks to compete, they do this. So much for management’s boasts about being in the same league as the Celtics and the Lakers. Now comes the mockery from Charles Barkley and every other critic who said the Hawks would eventually go belly up. The Hawks never really surrendered like this all season. So why did it happen now, when they were healthier and the stakes were so high? ... On a day when Mike Woodson finally managed to end his streak of playoff embarrassments, Larry Drew delivered one of his own. His rotations were out of whack again. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if he’d made all the right moves considering his team wasn’t ready to play, but we didn’t get to find out.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: Andrew Bynum showed up ready to rumble. So did Pau Gasol. Kobe Bryant didn't need to put the Lakers on his shoulders. The Lakers absorbed all the Denver Nuggets could deliver and still walked away with hugs and high-fives after a gritty 92-88 victory in Game 4 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series Sunday night at Pepsi Center. There would be no repeat of their Game 3 meltdown. The Lakers can eliminate the Nuggets from the best-of-7 series with a victory in Game 5 on Tuesday night at Staples Center. A win also would set up a much-anticipated conference semifinal matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Ramon Sessions' 3-pointer from the right corner and Steve Blake's 3 from the left one gave the Lakers the breathing room they needed in the final minute to seal the deal and take a commanding 3-1 lead over Denver in the series. Sessions broke an 86-all tie with a 3 with 48.1 seconds remaining, after Gasol freed him with a hard pick on the Nuggets' Danilo Gallinari and then made an alert pass. Gallinari didn't do his team any favors by falling to the court and lying there. "He's a big guy," Bryant said of Gallinari. "He can't flop on the screen-and-roll."
• Bemjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: Game 5 is Tuesday night at Staples Center, with Denver needing to win to bring the series back home on Thursday. "I think everybody knows why we lost the game - we didn't rebound and we didn't make them miss enough shots," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "They asserted their size." L.A. won the rebounding battle 48-38. It's a powerful challenge," Karl said of winning the next three games. "I don't think it's an impossible challenge." It was a devastating loss for the Nuggets, who led at the half and were in the game to the end but could not get a bucket when they needed it most late. And, it was a heartbreaker for the Pepsi Center crowd, which was riled up all night. It was an eerie evening. L.A. had a huge following of its own fans, a couple of fights broke out and, pecularily, a woman wandered onto the court in the first half (she was detained by police and escorted out of the arena).
• Dan Woike of The Orange County Register: While Caron Butler was grinding through injuries for the Washington Wizards, his teammates started calling him “tuff juice.” Butler took the nickname, made it his Twitter handle (@realtuffjuice), and Saturday, he showed the Clippers why. “I’ve got to live up to it,” Butler said. Sunday after a short practice, Butler talked about the decision to try and play with a broken bone in his left hand, and how it really wasn’t much of a decision at all. “It’s not going to get any more broken,” he said. “…I’m not going to be denied.” Butler scored four points in 23 minutes, but he provided an inspirational lift to his teammates and did a good job trying to slow Memphis’ top scorer, Rudy Gay. “We need Caron out there, a big guard who’s been in the league and been around,” Nick Young said. “And that’s somebody who can give Rudy Gay some problems.” Butler said he has no problems with making Gay his top priority in Game 4 Monday and beyond.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: The Grizzlies clearly weren't in any hurry to attend a film session devoted to making improvements from their Game 3 loss. "I ain't no Xs and Os guy," Griz guard Tony Allen said. "I just know we have to win." The Grizzlies face a 2-1 series deficit in their Western Conference first-round playoff duel with the Los Angles Clippers as Game 4 looms tonight in Staples Center. It's right in many respects to wonder just how powerful film sessions can be at this point. The Griz suffered a pair of one-point losses mainly because of being outworked down the stretch of those games. The Clippers have executed better with the game on the line because they have proven to be the more mentally tough team. "It's a shoulda, woulda, coulda deal when you look at the film," Griz point guard Mike Conley said. "Sometimes you just don't know how we lost. We've got to find a way to correct our mistakes because we're right there. We can still win this series." One of the last things Griz coach Lionel Hollins said Sunday afternoon was short and apropos. "We have to fight," he said.
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: For three games in the Western Conference playoffs, Utah center Al Jefferson has seen his team beaten every which way, and by a combined 58 points. Finally, he has seen enough. Before Sunday’s practice, Jefferson essentially declared the Spurs to be NBA champions-in-waiting. “I just think we’re playing against a team that is at its peak,” Jefferson said. “I don’t see nobody beating them.” Jefferson’s comments were striking, considering Utah’s series with the Spurs is still in progress. Game 4 is tonight in Utah. Apprised of Jefferson’s prediction after their own practice session at EnergySolutions Arena, the Spurs seemed flattered, but deemed it premature. “The best team out there won’t be decided for a while yet,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to be that team, and we’re trying.”
• Kurt Kragthorpe of The Salt Lake Tribune: Just once, Jazz fans deserve a good ending. While there’s not much hope of the Jazz’s extending this series beyond a Game 5 in San Antonio, winning Monday’s Game 4 at EnergySolutions Arena would be meaningful. That’s true for two reasons: Through three games, the Spurs have dominated them like no other opponent in the Jazz’s postseason history. And whether they were facing elimination or just trying to catch up in a series, the Jazz have not won their final home playoff game since 2000. This farewell had better be different. Otherwise, the Jazz’s being swept by the Spurs would undo much of the good they’ve done this season. Those 36 victories in the shortened, 66-game season and all the effort it took to make the playoffs would be obscured by four straight defeats. This team has come too far to have it all end this soon. The 2011-12 Jazz deserve to be remembered for more than a first-round playoff disaster. Of course, that legacy is entirely up to them — and the Spurs. Even one Jazz victory in this series would require some cooperation from San Antonio. The Spurs were primed for the playoffs; the Jazz were geared just to get here.