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You may have heard something about the Miami Heat's win streak, which has lasted since February 3.

As the Bulls prepare to face the Heat in Chicago tonight, there's another trend to consider: The Bulls' defense has fallen off a cliff.

Once among the league's very best (and still top five in the NBA on the season) over the period of the Heat's streak, the Bulls' defense has ranked just 20th in the NBA, worse than teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Prior to February 3rd, the Bulls had the third ranked defense and gave up just 97.3 points per 100 possessions. Over the last eight weeks, they're giving up 104.9.

What’s going on?

A look at the tape shows that Chicago is still protecting the paint and closing out to 3-point shooters with typical fervor. They aren’t suddenly giving up tons more layups -- though they have slipped marginally in this area. They remain the best in the league at taking away the precious corner 3.

Fouls and free throws have been fairly constant.

The one area where Chicago’s defense has dramatically changed is in defending the mid-range. Coach Tom Thibodeau’s defense is designed to limit the most efficient shots (at the rim and from 3) while encouraging teams to shoot a ton of inefficient mid-range jumpers. Only the Pacers force opponents to take more long 2s.

Just as impressive, the Bulls have historically done a fantastic job of contesting these jumpers with long, aggressive defenders.

But since February 3rd, a heck of a lot more of those shots are falling, and it's making a big difference.

One reason is simple: in the last eight weeks, three of Chicago’s best defenders have been battling injuries.

• Taj Gibson missed 10 games with a sprained MCL.
• Joakim Noah missed a few games in February and continues to play through debilitating plantar fasciitis in his right foot.
• Kirk Hinrich, a long defender capable of clogging passing lanes and smothering pick-and-rolls, missed most of February with an elbow injury and most of March with a toe injury.
• Tonight, Marco Bellinelli will be a game-time decision due to an abdominal strain.

Then there are questions of fatigue. Luol Deng leads the league in minutes per game, at a mighty 38.9. And these are hard minutes -- Deng is in constant motion on both ends of the court. Meanwhile, even battling injuries, Joakim Noah’s playing more minutes per game than any other center, at 37.7.

Could fatigue also be dragging down the Bulls defense?

Thibodeau has been criticized for riding Noah and Deng, but he may feel he has no choice. After shedding contracts in the off-season, Chicago has less defensive depth than in previous years. Instead of Omer Asik and C.J. Watson, the players who replace Noah, Gibson and Hinrich are Nazr Mohammed and Nate Robinson.

After Derrick Rose’s injury, the Bulls front office cut salary and assets in a series of moves that seemed to signal they were essentially punting this season. What was the point in paying guys like Kyle Korver and Omer Asik for a Rose-less team that couldn’t compete with the Heat?

But the team’s struggles this season suggest that prophesy of non-contention may have been self-fulfilling. They played well to begin the year even without Rose. With a bit more depth, to keep good players on the floor even in the face of injuries, and to keep the likes of Deng and Noah fresher, perhaps they could have maintained that defensive intensity all season.

Stephen Curry was leading the Warriors on a 3-on-1 fastbreak as the Wizards scrambled to get back. Advantage: Golden State.

Until Cartier Martin, trailing the play, made what has become a fairly routine, if constantly dangerous, NBA play. Rather than concede the offense the advantage, he grabbed Curry around the waist.

Curry is crafty, however, and initially eluded Martin with a nifty behind the back dribble. Except Martin wasn't just reaching for the ball. He wasn't really playing basketball at all. His intent was to stop the play. Instead of a touch foul, he held on to Curry who -- in a scene all too familiar to Golden State fans -- rolled over his surgically repaired right ankle (VIDEO).

Curry stuck around to hit his free throws, then went to the locker room to be examined by medical personnel. He would not return to the game.

With all those huge players moving at high speed, injuries like rolled ankles are bound to happen. But the Curry-Martin incident was in a different category of blatantly intentional fouls that never would have happened if the rules didn't encourage players like Martin to prevent likely scores with drastic fouls.

The mission of HoopIdea's Working Bodies campaign is to maximize player safety. Although a number of dangerous plays and injuries are very tough to prevent, intentional fouls are different. There's no mystery about why they occur. They are the result of conscious decision-making, not random chance. On TrueHoop in the days to come, we'll explore this overlooked but important (ask a Warriors fan!) part of the game, and what can be done about it.

 

The NBA began the season with a new rule against flopping, and the early indications were it made a difference.

Since 2013 began, however, the NBA has cited a mere four flops, out of close to 25,000 minutes of live ball play. Here they are, with video:

• Corey Brewer (March 9)
• C.J. Watson (Januar 25)
• Kevin Martin (January 23)
• J.J. Barea (January 22)

Considering that the league issued a total of 12 warnings and fines in the first two months of the season, that could be a sign the rule is doing its job, and players are flopping less.

But on the other hand, it's not that hard to find examples of flops that are going unpunished. A sampling:

• Chris Paul (March 19)
• Kyle Lowry (January 16)
• Blake Griffin (January 19)
• Chris Bosh (January 30)
• Gordon Hayward (March 13)
• Lance Stephenson (March 15)

Subjective observations suggests that the league, as a whole, on the season, has less flopping. But there's also evidence that the NBA is becoming increasingly lax in its policing.

The playoffs, when flopping rates are usually at their season-high, are just around the corner. Teams value every possession more in the playoffs, and therefore the incentive to flop will be high. And the league's flopping policy has always had the flaw that fines and sanctions are only handed down after the game, so a key flop still might win some team or another a playoff game.

Now seems like the right time to make clear the best game plans should not involve flops.

Also, the way the league has punished flopping has not helped to combat the perception that superstars are largely immune. The biggest name on the list of floppers this season is Tony Parker. Meanwhile the player with one of the greatest flopping reputations, Paul, has gotten off entirely, despite video evidence that he hasn't changed his style much. The league has an excellent opportunity right now to prove stars like Paul can get in flop trouble, too.

Knicks guard J.R. Smith received a Flagrant 2 and was ejected for a two-armed swing (VIDEO) at Golden State's Harrison Barnes' head during Monday night's game.

Bravo, Joey Crawford. It was the right call for a league that is placing new emphasis on preventing head injuries. The evidence has been mounting that head injuries are a surprisingly common part of the game , and in recent years the league launched a multi-faceted program to reduce concussions.

And the damage can happen on plays like that one. Anthony Davis was forced to miss a week's worth of action after teammate Austin Rivers inadvertently caught him with a similar blow.

Smith caught Barnes before either was airborne. This is the kind of foul that has often been called a Flagrant 1 in the past. Knick fans might point out that Smith hit the ball, which is often incorrectly seen as a free pass to engage in other contact, too. In fact, the league's guidance to players and referees on this issue specifically says that's not so. Not playing the ball makes it more likely a flagrant. Playing the ball, however, doesn't mean it's not a flagrant.

If the league is serious about protecting players' heads, this is exactly the kind of play the league should prevent. It's good for everybody if players try not to hit each other in the head.

What do the rules say? The NBA rulebook has little guidance at all about what makes a Flagrant 1 or 2, based on the vague phrase "unnecessary and excessive contact." But the league has been somewhat more specific in memos to players and teams. There they stress that a blow to the head, even if there is a play on the ball, is a factor to be considered in determining what is and is not a flagrant foul. They also mention that potential for injury will be factored into the ruling. The full list of flagrant criteria, from the NBA's memo:

1. The severity of the contact;
2. Whether or not the player was making a legitimate basketball play (e.g., whether a player is making a legitimate effort to block a shot; note, however, that a foul committed during a block attempt can still be considered flagrant if other criteria are present, such as recklessness and hard contact to the head);
3. Whether, on a foul committed with a player’s arm or hand, the fouling player wound up and/or followed through after making contact;
4. The potential for injury resulting from contact (e.g., a blow to the head and a foul committed while a player is in a vulnerable position);
5. The severity of any injury suffered by the offended player; and
6. The outcome of the contact (e.g., whether it led to an altercation).

Crawford and crew made a call that reflects a modern understanding of the dangers of head injuries.

Smith's play has no place in the NBA. It might take time for players, fans and commentators to catch up to a new emphasis on these kinds of fouls, but the sooner everyone adjusts, the better.

UPDATE: In a fluke of timing, an international panel of concussion experts just released guidelines for sports, and found that "rule changes aimed at reducing concussions" are the right strategy.

UPDATE: After video review, the league has downgraded Smith's foul to a Flagrant 1.

Whether or not you agree that the level of play in the NBA is at an all-time high, there's no question that the amount of data available to coaches and teams has never been greater.

The digitalization of scouting through services such as Synergy allows coaches and players to watch playlists of the most granular detail. If Gregg Popovich wants to tweak his team's defense on Steve Nash pick-and-rolls, he can instantly pull up a series of clips focused on instances in which Nash dribbles left after splitting the initial coverage. SportVu can help them find the optimum number of dribbles for Tony Parker over the course of a game.

All this information leaves many to wonder if the way teams play basketball will become, as Ethan Sherwood Strauss described the Houston Rockets' offense, like so much "savvy accounting." Crunch the numbers, program the players to avoid scenarios with low probability of success, repeat ad infinitum.

That's not exactly a new process; coaches have sought maximum efficiency since the day the league began. But we also want improvisation, grace and athleticism, and the worry seems to be that increased data and scouting will lead to increased control from coaches.

Instead we're seeing something a bit different. A few of the teams that have invested seriously in analytics are playing the most exciting and free basketball. Nuggets coach George Karl appeared on the Dan Patrick Show to talk about his team's thrilling, up-tempo style (via Grantland's Brett Koremenos).

Karl said that the smarter teams become, the more important it is to encourage the kind of athletic, aggressive open-court style that just so happens to be the most entertaining style of play.

Coaching has now gotten so technical and scientific and there's so much of it and there's so much video and and there are so many statistics, that basically the reality of coaching is when you play 5-on-5 basketball it's very difficult to beat the defense and the scouting reports and the preparation and the tendencies that we know teams have. So what we're trying to do is play before those things can be settled in to.

We want to play early. We want to play before the defense sets. We want to play when there's mismatches running up and down the court. And to do that it takes a little extra work on working on your spacing and working on your commitment to run and play fast. I mean very few players want to play fast because you don't get rewarded all the time. You have to run maybe 10 times to get 2 shots, maybe 15 times to get 2 shots.

It's like offensive rebounding. A lot of big guys don't like to offensive rebound because you got to go all the time to get a few reinforcements. Our big guys here have done a great job the last few years. They really do run the floor well which helps the beginning of the spacing and gets the freedom of the ball. And then the other sport aspect of it is I just watch football. They're playing quicker, they're getting faster. They don't want the defense to get set, they don't want the defense to rotate in and match up their strength against your strength.

We're kind of trying to play not against the strength of a good defensive team, and the weakest part of the defensive team is normally in transition. I watch a soccer team like Spain play and so much of what they do is they don't hold the ball. They ping the ball around and make quick decisions. And I'm sure they have great plays and great actions, but it's basically don't let the defense feel like they can zone in on you because you're making quick decisions.

Translation: The analytics tell us the best way to play is in transition, and with maximum ball movement. That is, to give the fans what they want.

That's why the Nuggets lead the league in attempts at the rim by a wide margin and score in transition more than any other team. It's also great news for NBA fans who prize creativity and athleticism.

For teams like Denver, more data equals more fun.

This HoopIdea comes from the world of Rugby.

Recently Fox Sports debuted "Ref Cam," which is pretty much just what it sounds like. Official Chris Potter strapped a HD GoPro camera to his head and wore a low profile vest under his uniform that transmitted the video, and sound, to the broadcast.

Check the video here to see how it works.

This isn't the first attempt to get a camera angle that can capture the close-quarters intensity of the scrum on the expansive rugby pitch. Sky Sports in the UK also did something similar back in December 2012. The Guardian describes it here:

The trial will involve a three-inch square HD camera being secured to the shirt of the referee Matt Carley. The footage, with audio, will be available to Sky's directors, and the RFU will use it for training match officials.

The same technology was used by the US broadcaster HBO at an Amir Khan bout, with a camera sewn into the referee's bow tie – footage that the RFU's head of elite referees, Ed Morrison, called "quite incredible".

"I was spellbound," Morrison said, emphasising the value of being able to screen the referee's view "down the tunnel" during scrums.

"This is an exciting development and one that we're excited to trial. Not only will it offer a new perspective for viewers but it will also provide us with an additional tool which can be utilised within the ongoing development of our referees."

How incredibly cool would it be to get a ref's view of the action -- in HD -- during NBA games?

Unlike NFL and soccer officials, NBA referees don't wear any head gear while they call games. Part of the reason is that the court is so small that they can usually communicate just fine without an earpiece. It's also true that the NBA, with the small size of the court, can get various camera angles during a telecast.

But those options are still a bit different than getting the exact point of view of a person running around on the court. And as the Guardian article notes, it could be a useful tool for training referees.

HoopIdea, for one, would love to see the NBA experiment with this technology.

Thanks to Riley Yurk for alerting us to the world of ref cams via Twitter!

What innovation would you like to see in how the game is recorded and broadcast? Give us your suggestions here:

• Twitter: Go to @HoopIdea and tweet to us with the hashtag #hoopidea
• TrueHoop: Write your suggestion in the comments sections below
• Email us at hoopidea@gmail.com

• A nice roundup of stories written about the late Jerry Buss.
• Which teams should be buyers at the trade deadline? History, and Kevin Pelton, tell us it's those teams just outside the playoffs (Insider): "Where trades have really made a difference is among buyers on pace for 35-45 wins. Six of the eight teams in this group played better after making a deadline deal, and on average they improved their winning percentage by 7.6 percent the rest of the way -- an average jump of slightly more than two wins over the final 30 or so games. One of these teams, the 2009-10 "Fear the Deer" Milwaukee Bucks, made the biggest post-trade jump of any team in the past five years, going from winning 47.1 percent of their games before adding John Salmons at the deadline to 71.0 percent thereafter -- a run that nearly culminated in a playoff upset against the Atlanta Hawks."
• Derrick Rose is participating in 5-on-5 drills.
• Video highlights of the top 10 plays from the first half of the NBA season.
• John Wall is producing more than he did as a rookie, but is that enough without a bump in efficiency?
• Former 11th overall pick Terrence Williams is back in the NBA, with the Celtics.
• Good luck finding understated footwear at the All-Star Game.
• A Pistons starter wants to play as fast as Detroit's bench.
• The leader of the Suns' famed training staff, Aaron Nelson, shares a story of player generosity in this fun interview with AZ Central's Paul Coro: "(Charles) Barkley, (Danny) Manning, (Joe) Kleine. Those guys would always give out their per diem to the staff. When it was a few hundred dollars (players got $35 per day when Nelson started in 1993), they would give it out. Players in the past used to do it a lot more. (Jason) Kidd and Rex (Chapman), too. When you’re young and an assistant not making barely anything, sometimes when they gave me per diem, it was more than my salary then, so it was nice."
• How Matt Bonner got to be in the 3-Point Shootout, as told by Dr. Seuss.
• Did anyone have as much fun as Joakim Noah in the All-Star Game?

Chris Kaman isn’t the first person in the NBA to sound off on the league’s concussion policy this season; early in the season New Orleans coach Monty Williams complained that the league's policy treats players "like they have white gloves and pink drawers."

But Kaman might be the first to provide testimony for both the prosecution and the defense.

A week after he hit his head on the floor during practice on Jan. 28, Kaman called the league-mandated cognitive functioning test "the stupidest test ever" and bemoaned how the NBA's policy changed treatment for concussions.

"For so many years in the NBA," said Kaman, "they never had to do that stuff, and now they come up with all that concussion protocol crap. It’s not cool, but it is cool, I guess. It keeps people safe."

Now three weeks since he was first injured, Kaman has passed the cognitive test but has also experienced setbacks that have prevented him from practicing with the team. He shared some details of his recovery with 104.1 FM The Ticket in Dallas:

"It’s been progressing a little bit every day, then I tried to work out a little bit and had a minor setback where I had a really bad headache, so they told me to slow down. Now, I’m trying to do the same thing. I’m staying in Texas for the All-Star break. I’m trying to get my workout in and get myself ready to play when the break comes back.

"I’ve never had that before. Sometimes you can’t control everything. It never really made it into my head. It kind of sucks because it’s not like any injury where your ankle is hurt -- well toughen up and play.

"This is your brain. If you ruin that, you’re pretty much toast."

• Forbes: Michael Jordan still earns $80 million per year.
• David Thorpe goes in-depth to break down whether LeBron James or Kevin Durant is better (Insider). His analysis of James' defense includes this: "If a team wants to run a shooter off multiple screens, LeBron is the best guy in the league to defend that action. Watching hundreds of his defensive possessions shows something else: He is far more disciplined than most defenders at knowing when to help and how much to commit. He rarely risks fouling guys he knows are unlikely to make the shot they're taking, and he intuitively flows to where he thinks the top threat is, rather than just to the guy with the ball."
• Watch the video of Kawhi Leonard's game winning 3. Dion Waiters, moments after hitting a tough jumper to put the Cavs up 2, is watching Tony Parker's drive and standing completely upright, 18 feet from Leonard. Waiters is not really helping on Parker and he's not taking away the pass to Leonard. Rookie mistake.
• Bradford Doolittle ranks Joakim Noah as the league's best center (Insider), and notes how much the position has changed: "The numbers certainly suggest that Noah has been the league's most valuable center this season, and he does it with an overstuffed tool belt of skills. However, one of them is not low-block scoring. According to Synergy Sports Technologies, Noah has posted up just 84 times this season. That's fewer than Arron Afflalo."
• A picture of how Matt Barnes treats his hand injury conveys 1,000 words about the marvels of modern medical science.
• Magic rookie Andrew Nicholson is playing some great basketball -- at least on offense -- since Glen Davis got hurt.
• The margin of error for injury-plagued Minnesota is small, and unforgiving.
• Jeremy Schmidt takes an uncompromising look at the Bucks: "If you think the positive results of the first half are replicable in the second half if the Bucks don’t make significant changes to their process, I’d love to make a wager with you. Letting 40% shooters control an offense can only work with a fantastic defense. Without Larry Sanders, the Bucks do not have a fantastic defense and no one seems sure when he’s coming back. There’s been very little evidence that the Bucks know what they do well on offense and can keep doing it well. The process is not there folks. And with Milwaukee’s second half schedule, wins could be hard to come by at some point. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news."
• Are Rudy Gay's game-saving shots a sign he's Toronto's savior?
• The Bulls held the Celtics to 71 points ... and still lost. Chicago needs a break.
• Before and after video reveals the improvements Jeff Teague has made. Now if only the Hawks would play a little faster!
• Appreciating David West's excellent offense from the high-post.

• Bradford Doolittle notes that Kevin Garnett has been great since Rajon Rondo went down (Insider): "In the five games since his point guard went down, Garnett is averaging only one minute more per game, up to 31.2. But he's shot 57.4 percent during that span while taking more shots, getting more rebounds and handing out more assists. His offensive rebound rate, which over the season has easily been the lowest of his career, has nearly doubled. For the season, nearly one-third of Garnett's field goals have come from Rondo assists, most of them via the pick-and-pop. Over the last five games, that number is obviously zero. Instead, Pierce has assisted on 38 percent of KG's buckets. This is the way it was way back in 2007-08. We're not saying that this is going to lead to another title, but for now it's working well."
• Three All-Stars whose teams have been better when they are off the court: James Harden, Luol Deng, Rajon Rondo. (via John Schuhmann)
• The Wizards have had the second-best defense in the NBA in the 15 games since John Wall returned.
• Brandon Roy can't play, so he's been giving his shoes to his teammates.
• Thing you won't often see: an NBA player airball three straight shots.
• Suspended director of the players union Billy Hunter defends his record to the New York Times and explains that he fired his family members from union staff because he "didn’t want that to be a distraction."
• 18-year NBA vet Jerry Stackhouse talks to Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News about his desire for wholesale changes within the leadership of the players union: "With All-Star Weekend looming to shape up as Hunter's last stand, since it appears his ouster will come sooner rather than later, Stackhouse is making a trip to Houston to let his voice be heard. 'I plan on going to make my point. I won't be surprised if Billy was there, with all he's done he'll try to show his face and act as if business as usual,' Stackhouse said. 'The same thing with Derek. They can't operate as if business as usual. They've shown their flaws too much to still continue in their positions.' Stackhouse wants the current players to be educated about what's happening now, and is even taking a more extreme stance since he clearly believes in wholesale change. He wants the executive committee — which includes superstar Chris Paul — gone too. 'The important thing is, it's nothing pressing as far as collective bargaining,' said Stackhouse, as the current CBA isn't up for another five years. 'We should take this time and figure out the best direction for our union. I don't think the way it is set up now is really what it should be. Everything (should change).'"
• David Thorpe makes a sharp point about the Pacers on TrueHoop TV. They're winning by playing harder and being tougher than their opponents, but that advantage becomes less important when everyone starts playing with more desperation in the playoffs. Seems like the same principle would apply to the Bulls.
• Some great Hakeem Olajuwon stories from former NBA player Jim Petersen on HoopSpeak Live.
• Rob Mahoney builds his dream dunk contest field and includes spectacular video evidence.
• Brandon Jennings wants a max contract. Bucksketball's Jeremy Schmidt writes, "If he’s able to convince someone to sign him to that, more power to him. If the Bucks sign him to a contract that pays him that much, you might no longer have a Bucksketball to visit any more."
• Toronto found some success with small ball Wednesday night. A shooting big man like Bargnani can be a nice complement to slashers like DeMar DeRozan and Rudy Gay.

The Memphis Grizzlies have lost three of their four games since trading Rudy Gay, and in that time the offense has struggled. Because Gay led Memphis in scoring and shots per game, it's easy to connect their issues with Gay's absence. But the truth is that the Grizzlies' offensive woes are more systemic than they are rooted in personnel. For example: In January, when Gay was still on the roster, they went through a seven-game stretch in which they failed to score more than 85 points.

When you watch Memphis, you might notice a relative lack of movement on the offensive end. But a lack of spacing is a big problem too, and one that stems from problems besides a lack of 3-point shooting.

• With Memphis trailing Phoenix 88-86 and 2:30 left Tuesday night, Mike Conley drove the lane and was apparently fouled by a Phoenix big man coming over to help. Except the foul was on Marc Gasol, who backed his way into the defender and caused the contact with Conley. This is something Memphis' two starting bigs, Gasol and Zach Randolph, do regularly, presumably to establish good position for an offensive rebound. Though both Gasol and Randolph can shoot, they spend most of their time on the low block, jockeying for position. As a result, there's very little space to drive in the first place, and when a player does drive, both Memphis bigs have a habit of crowding toward the paint rather than floating to the short corner. This allows the help defender to bother the driving player without leaving his man. The problem facing Memphis is that offensive rebounds constitute a vital part of their offense. The Grizzlies must find a way to open space without completely abandoning their effective rebounding.
• When Gasol or Randolph isolates in the post -- something Memphis really likes to do -- keep an eye on how many Grizzlies are beyond the 3-point line. On many occasions, that number is one. Memphis doesn't have many shooters, but just because a player doesn't intend to shoot a 3 doesn't mean he can't stand out there. It's a much better place from which to start a cut to the basket and opens up passing angles out of the post.
• Generally, the Grizzlies seem unsure of the plan when they get into those post isolations. This could be a result of Tayshaun Prince's unfamiliarity with the offense, but the timing and routing of their cuts often seem improvised. That can work, but often two Grizzlies will cut at the same time or, in anticipation of a teammate's cut, no one at all will cut. In addition to complicating the post-up player's job as a passer, it also prevents Memphis from quickly moving into secondary actions on the weakside when the post player passes out.
• Prince has played two full games (66 minutes) without shooting a 3-pointer. You can't be the small forward alongside Tony Allen and not shoot 3s. This is related to the previous bullets: Prince doesn't hunt 3-point shots by waiting a stride behind the line so that he can step into a 3. He either waits with his toes on the line or creeps toward the paint, where a long 2-pointer is his only option. This should be an easy fix for Memphis.
• The second unit runs a lot of double pick-and-roll action early in the shot clock in which the point guard, either Tony Wroten or Jerryd Bayless, comes off two screens in the middle of the court. One of the screeners will pop for a 18-footer, the other will dive to the rim. This movement takes advantage of one of the fundamental principles of basketball movement: You have to go away from the space you want to use. For most teams, and certainly in Memphis' case, that space is the paint. Sets that begin with both bigs away from the paint might sacrifice some offensive rebounding opportunities, but they also create space to post up for the big who rolls to the rim. This is a dynamic the San Antonio Spurs take full advantage of, even when they play Tiago Splitter and Tim Duncan at the same time. Neither can shoot 3s, but they are so disciplined in their spacing that they keep out of each other's way.

• David Thorpe's breakdown (Insider) of how Andre Drummond can become a great player includes this note: "The conditioning aspect of the game is typically as much a mental hurdle as it is a physical one. Being able to run, spring, push, pull, jump and shoot for three quarters of the game and still have the energy to produce late in games certainly takes a finely conditioned athlete. In time, Drummond can get to that level. But he must be able to think for that amount of time, too. And that is more often the problem with young players, and possibly a reason why he averaged only 22.2 minutes in January."
• Get lost in The Best NBA .gifs tumblr. Here's a personal favorite. (h/t Myles Brown)
• Nash's role and time with the ball has decreased significantly with the Lakers. But Amin Elhassan, who worked for the Suns while D'Antoni was there, says the Lakers have stuck with D'Antoni's playbook (Insider): "Against Oklahoma City and New Orleans this week, the Lakers ran a D'Antoni staple known as "Fist Up Short" numerous times, where Bryant and Dwight Howard go into a high pick-and-roll and Pau Gasol moves from the weak side to the strong side of the lane as Nash fills in on the weakside wing as the shooter, creating the space necessary for the play to develop in the middle of the floor. As Howard rolls to the basket, Bryant passes to Gasol, who can hit the rolling Howard or pass it to Nash on the wing if his defender has sagged to help."
• Playing Rudy Gay as a power forward could open things up for the Raptors.
• As Evan Dunlap points out, Blake Griffin has not been warned for this flop on Jan. 19, although C.J. Watson was warned for his flop on Jan. 23.
• The Warriors give their rookies a lot of leeway. It's paying off.
• Two-man lineup data is by no means conclusive, but these numbers provide food for thought when it comes to how the Lakers should apportion their stars' minutes. Lineups featuring Steve Nash and Pau Gasol have minus-2.1 plus/minus while the Kobe Bryant-Gasol pairing is plus-6.5, Nash-Dwight Howard is plus-6.6, Bryant-Howard is +4.6 and Nash-Bryant is minus-0.4 (from NBA.com). Do the Lakers need to separate Nash and Bryant more?
• Would Josh Smith be a sure-fire max contract player if he just shot less?
• The Nets have a hole at power forward, can Gerald Wallace fill it?
• Video: A little John Wall has gone a long way for Washington's offense.
• Appreciating the role Tayshaun Prince filled for the Pistons, who repeatedly sought to replace him.
• Golden State's Kent Bazemore will help you celebrate your wedding and/or the birth of your child.
• Marc Gasol was going to pass, right up until the moment he heard a whistle.
• The Mavericks still need help at point guard.