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There is a lot of playoff talk in this NBA Today podcast. Predictions about who will win Saturday's Game 7 and both conference finals. There is talk of hard fouls, great coaching, elite defenders, free t-shirts and LeBron James. Luc Richard volunteers to play one-on-one during All-Star Weekend, if they'd have that event. And more.

Then there's more insight than some Suns fans might want into 2007, which is the year Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns thought they would win a title, but lost to the Spurs in a horribly controversial suspension-riddled second-round series. The Suns, as we knew them, would never be the same again.

Jalen Rose was on that Suns team, which he brought up after I asked him about Rick Carlisle, whom Rose once played for:

He made sure we ran hard at shootaround. He made sure we broke a sweat. He made sure we're prepared for the other team's sets. We knew if we were doubling the post. We knew how we were playing pick and roll. Are we hedging on this player, going under on that one. Are we double-teaming? How are we going to play those down screens certain players are coming off ...

We knew everything.

When you've played for a coach like that, it must be hard to play for a coach who doesn't have those same qualities.

I played for the Phoenix Suns. 2007. My last season. As were playing against the San Antonio Spurs. And I remember us coming to our first practice before Game 1. And we brought it in. And we were excited about our playoffs getting started. And Coach D'Antoni put in some film. It was Steve behind the back. Amare slam dunk. Shawn Marion with the block. Raja Bell with the charge. It was a highlight film of our team. They have showed me making a shot on there, and I was barely even playing.

So after that he as like all right, we're going to run and down, go through our set plays and whatnot, and we're going to get out of here.

And I looked at Kurt Thomas. I hit him with an elbow. I'm like hold on. I gotta say something.

So I did my Arnold Horshack from "Welcome Back, Kotter."

I'm like "ooh, ooh, ooh, hey coach. I gotta ask a question. Are we going to talk about how we're going to defend Tim Duncan on the post? Are we going to talk about Manu Ginobili in pick and roll? Keeping Tony Parker out of the paint?"

He looked at me in front of the entire team and coaching staff and said: "We're not worried about what they do. If we play to the best of our abilities, and do what we're supposed to do, there is no way they can beat us. We don't mind if Tim goes off. If Tim goes off, that means everybody else is quiet."

So, people gave us a pass. And we were a great team. And Robert Horry did knock my guy Steve Nash into the scoreboard. And Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw got up off the bench and I should have been paying attention and being a vet, and grabbed Amare -- maybe I'd have a ring to this day.

They walked out on the floor, they get suspended late in the series, and we did lose that game.

But we really lost the series in Game 1. When the guy that couldn't beat us by himself -- Tim Duncan -- he only had 40 and 20 in Game 1. [Ed. note: Actually 33 and 16.]

So that's really when we lost the series.

You're saying that if Rick Carlisle coached that team ...

Breeze through. I have a 'chip. I would have a 'chip.

That's gotta be a bad feeling.

It is what it is.

During the great lockout of 2011, ESPN.com's NBA team put together a fun little project, which was ranking every player in the NBA.

We did the #NBArank project, as far as we know, in an entirely new way: We crowd-sourced it. More than 100 voters participated; all kinds of staffers at ESPN.com and the local sites, as well as nearly all of the TrueHoop Network. (We have used the same technique, by the way, to predict how many games every NBA team will win, before the season starts, and beat Vegas. It's an interesting system, but not a perfect one.)

It was a little tricky to figure out precisely whom to include -- at the fringes, in the summer, it's hard to know who is in and who is out of the league. We settled on some rules that left us with, as it happened, precisely 500 players.

As soon as that was decided, well, somebody had to be good ol' Mr. 500.

Hold that thought.

---

John Hollinger (Insider) says that for the Sixers to win Game 7, they need to play a lot of Lavoy Allen.

He's been the one player that seemingly can neutralize Kevin Garnett's otherwise massive plus-minus advantage. Garnett is plus-55 for the series -- that's plus-58 when Allen is off the court and minus-3 when he's on it. One much-discussed key is Allen's ability to push Garnett further out and contest his shots, and the numbers back that up -- Garnett is 6-of-17 inside 15 feet against Allen and 19-of-26 when he's off the court. The regular-season numbers, albeit in a smaller sample, support this trend. Garnett was 1-for-7 from the field when Allen played, 21-for-34 when he sat.

But in terms of plus-minus, the impact has been just as great on the offensive end. The change in Philly's production based on the Allen-Garnett dynamic has been jarring: If Allen plays and Garnett doesn't, the Sixers score 121.2 points per 100 possessions; if both play, it's 103.2; and if it's just Garnett, Philly nets only 78.2.

Obviously, it's ridiculous to assign that big a swing to two players, but the data backs up the idea that Allen has made a huge impact (in fact, he quietly leads the team in playoff PER at 18.70, given his ability on the boards and around the basket), and he needs to play a major role in Game 7 if Philly wants to pull the upset.

(Statistical support for this story from NBA.com.)

Also worth noting: The Celtics get 48.5 rebounds per 48 minutes when Allen is on the bench. When Allen plays, that number falls all the way to 31.7. Big difference.

Lavoy Allen is young, big and making his presence felt.

---

I recently visited the Sixers' locker room on a mission to talk to Allen. It went like this:

We ranked NBA players 1 to 500 last summer. Somebody had to be Mr. 500. I can't imagine that felt great.

I didn't really worry about it too much. I got a little publicity. That's what I liked about it. People didn't know who I was before that. So I didn't really worry about it too much.

You didn't look at the people ahead of you and think, Come on!

No. No. Not really.

All right, look, that was us. ESPN.com.

That was you?

We had 150 or so voters, and we ranked all the NBA players. I'm here to apologize. We were wrong.

It's all good.

If I asked you who 482 was, do you know who that was?

I have no idea.

But you know who number 500 was, though, right?

I do. I do.

I should thank you guys.

You're very big about this. But I'm telling you, we're watching you play, and emailing each other and saying, Man, we did a bad job on that.

I don't blame you guys. A lot of guys on the list hadn't played an NBA game yet. Someone had to be at the bottom.

The truth of the matter is, there are a lot of players we hadn't seen play much. We did a bad job. But you're killing it out there now. We couldn't have been more wrong. You're going to be ranked much higher next year, I promise you that.

Thank you.

There are 100 reasons to buy an NBA team. I'm sure some people will tell you it's a good business, and for some people it probably is. There are tax advantages. In places like Salt Lake City and Oklahoma City, owners talk convincingly of civic duty.

For Bruce Ratner, a team offered a sophisticated real estate pay, because a stadium was a key to using eminent domain for his sprawling downtown Brooklyn Yards development. For Mikhail Prokhorov, it made him an internationally recognized name, which did wonders for his domestic political career.

Some owners presumably just love basketball.

But there's another reason, one that is blatantly real, but that owners will seldom acknowledge: It's the ultimate fan experience. If you're the owner, you get to hang out in the locker room. You get to hang out in press conferences. You get to sit courtside, within earshot of timeouts. You get to slap five with players in key moments of games. You get to invite people like Julius Erving to hang out with you -- and they show up.

There are not a lot of ways to get into that exhilarating swirl of sports and celebrity. There are not a lot of ways to look so cool.

How much would you pay for that? In the case of some number of owners -- a number that's bigger than you'd think -- I'd argue the number is millions upon millions.

In Myles Brown's ongoing, must-read Jimmy Goldstein Chronicles for GQ, Goldstein tells that he once considered buying a team. Pay particular attention to the reason he's no longer interested:

I've always had ownership in the back of my mind and never quite had the financial assurances to do it on my own. Many of these teams are bought with groups of investors. Sometimes a general partner has a very small financial stake, but is still considered the owner. That would have been a way that perhaps I could have done it, but I'm not good with partners. I like to do things on my own. As my financial resources increased over the years, the prices increased at an even more rapid pace. So it never worked out for me to buy a team by myself.

David Stern, a few years back, was twisting my arm to buy the Milwaukee franchise when it was for sale because I'm from Milwaukee and one of the conditions of the sale from Herb Kohl would be that the new owner would have to agree not to move the team. So I'm sure that David figured because I'm from Milwaukee that would be a perfect fit. But at the time when I first started exploring that, Michael Jordan stepped in and was a more attractive buyer, obviously. That didn't go through and then Herb Kohl took it off the market. Since then, I haven't really seriously considered it. Right now, I have such terrific access to everything that goes on in the NBA that I don't feel I need to be an owner at this point if I could afford it.

It's great, it's fine. Buy a team for whatever reason you want!

But if you look at the kinds of bad decisions teams have made through the years, one of the trends is certainly overvaluing celebrity. A disproportionate number of bad general managers are famous former players. A disproportionate number of overpaid players are the kind of big-name, crowd-pleasing high-scorers owners love to be around.

No small chunk of how owners do business is about the very wealthy creating cool experiences and cool public images for themselves.

The owners even set policies (revenue sharing, draft picks for bad teams) that I would argue do far more to keep incompetent owners from looking foolish than they do to make the league any better for players, coaches or fans.

The title of owner works like the best backstage pass in the world, with some public cachet to boot.

Hats off to Jimmy Goldstein for getting himself an all-access pass through his charisma, ability to build relationships, time commitment and love of the game -- instead of just his millions.

On the first day of the 2012 TrueHoop Stat Geek Smackdown -- where some of the world's finest basketball analysts compete against a crowd of bloggers and my mom for glory, fame and perhaps an off-beat prize or two -- Matthew Stahlhut predicted the Denver Nuggets would lose to the Lakers in seven games.

It was an unremarkable pick; two others chose the exact same thing.

But Benjamin Morris, last year's winner, picked the Lakers in five. And as it happens, that's the difference, for now, between first and second place.

Morris and Stahlhut both came new to the Smackdown last year. Both have worked in sports gambling professionally. And, in a trend that's emerging, both make very similar, and very good, picks.

Last year Morris won. Stahlhut came in third, a victim of underestimating the Mavericks not once, but twice.

This year, consider their many identical predictions:

• Bulls in five over the Sixers
• Heat in five over New York
• Pacers in five over Orlando
• Celtics in six over the the Hawks
• Spurs in five over Utah
• Thunder in five over Dallas
• Clippers in six over Memphis
• Heat in five over the Pacers
• Spurs in five over the Clippers
• Thunder in five over the Lakers

All identical.

But how many games it would take the Lakers to move on against the Nuggets, that, so far, is the difference between first and second place. Two points, the bonus for correctly picking the number of games.

And another looms: Both picked the Celtics to beat the 76ers, but again Morris (who tells us he has evidence picking the home team in five or the road team in six is a best practice, regardless of talent discrepancy) chose five. He won't be getting the two bonus points, as that series is tied 3-3.

Stahlhut chose seven, and could gain a further two-point advantage if the Celtics hold court in Saturday's Game 7.

If the 76ers win, however, both leaders get no points at all, like almost all of the rest of the field. It would be a meaningless series, in terms of the Smackdown, other than that last year's runner-up, Stephen Ilardi, would be saved from one of the lowest scores in Smackdown history.

Meanwhile, most of the rest of the field feels let down by either the Nuggets or the Grizzlies. Those close-fought series both went to Los Angeles teams. Had things gone differently, neither Stahlhut nor Morris would be at the top, and Hollinger, Galletti or "the crowd" would be the ones with something to brag about.

As for my mom ... she's just three points behind former champion Jeff Ma and two points ahead of Ilardi. She's also essentially pointing at the left-field fence as she steps to the plate for the final three series. So that making picks won't interfere with a trip to visit family, she has already predicted the whole rest of the season.

Coming tomorrow: Western Conference Finals picks from the entire field.

Wow. This is a Laker fan playing Gotye, singing his pleas for Kobe Bryant to end the Hero Ball approach to crunch time. Of course it's set to the tune of "Somebody that I Used to Know."

You didn't have to take that shot.
Just drive the lane and dump it off to either Pau or Bynum.
Those two guys are really tall,
And when you keep it for yourself we never score enough.

You didn't have to hog the ball.
You're triple-teamed so kick it out to either Blake or Sessions.
I know that they don't shoot so well,
but you're really not the Kobe that we used to know.

In retrospect, the referees lost control of the game early in the second quarter. Tyler Hansbrough fouled the daylights out of Dwyane Wade. Some would point out he "made a play on the ball," as if first hitting the Spalding mitigated a karate chop to the face of the mid-air guy. In slow motion ... wow. With a menacing scowl, Hansbrough met the Heat star in the sky. The fouling begins not with the right hand but with the left -- a forearm to the base of the neck that would have been a hard foul all by itself. Then the right arm windmilled through the ball, Wade's arms, and -- changing paths now, evidently to ensure maximum effect -- veered directly to Wade's eye and temple. Both, of course, are part of an athlete's head, which scientists are increasingly sure can sustain permanent brain damage from seemingly minor impacts like this.

Wade fell to the court, and stayed face down for a while.

Hansbrough slapped a cool low-five with his teammate Lou Amundson -- mission accomplished.

What mission could that have been? What page were they on together, exactly? A clue came from the post-game comments from the franchise's most respected voice. After that game, physical to the point that the fun plays have almost all been forgotten, Pacers president Larry Bird declared how disgusted he was with how "soft" his team had been. Could it be taken any other way than Bird was ordering up more of the same, and harder, in Game 6 -- just like he once did as a Celtic player, precipitating Kevin McHale's clotheslining of Kurt Rambis?

Game 5 had plenty more in store. In real time, commentator Steve Kerr mused about a Flagrant 2 for Hansbrough, which would have resulted in his ejection. It seemed a bit harsh at the time, but in retrospect, it would have been brilliant. In failing to eject Hansbrough, the referees whiffed on their last chance to control the game, took a pass on fulfilling the NBA's mission to prevent the spread of violence and set a precedent that would encourage one dangerous foul after another, all game long.

Moments later, Hansbrough had the ball and room to roll. The only thing between him and the hoop was ... Udonis Haslem -- Wade's avenging angel since they were rookies together.

Uh-oh.

Hansbrough slowed. Instead of a power dunk, now he was thinking jumper. Haslem swung two arms right through Hansbrough's shooting arm and -- oops! -- caught a whole bunch of face. Hansbrough's head ricocheted. In slow motion he looked like a crash test dummy at the moment of impact. (If you're a mom or a dad or somebody who loves Tyler Hansbrough you'd hate to watch it.)

That hardly ended it. Before the final horn, one had no choice but to wonder if the Heat had held a team meeting about the value of hitting people in the face. David West would be bitter about Shane Battier's knocking him down. West would bash LeBron James on the top of the head with an elbow. Mario Chalmers would snuff out a Paul George drive with a play to the face much like Haslem's, only without Haslem's force. The most violent play of the bunch would come in garbage time, when Heat reserve Dexter Pittman presented his high-speed forearm to the neck of a sprinting Lance Stephenson, which was reminiscent of the ugliest play of last year's playoffs: Andrew Bynum's assault on J.J. Barea.

Despite a rare playoff game filled with beautiful fast-break moments, the story of the NBA would transform, thanks to all those hard playoff fouls, to a story of violence as the league office in New York decides how many players to suspend for Game 6.

And none of it had to happen.

---

The NBA has it exactly right: The game is better when it's not violent.

There are business reasons for that: Although some fans will tell you they're thrilled by the no-extra-charge sprinkling of mixed martial arts, by and large the league operates with the fear of riling a finicky general sports audience that is terrified of the spectacle of these players -- predominantly black -- behaving violently. In baseball and hockey it's "boys will be boys" but in this sport it's treated like the end of civilization as we know it when they start taking swings. Harsh penalties have essentially eliminated not only bench-clearing brawls but also punches and even most blatant elbows. There's a reason the Wests and Haslems have learned to attack using the elbow of a straight arm.

There are also basketball reasons to police rough play more in this sport than others. This sport is at its best when the action is free-flowing. Both of those hard fouls were designed in part to keep the Wades and Hansbroughs of the world from finishing at the rim with power dunks. But, of course, those power dunks are exactly what the league and its fans rightly want. That is the sport at its best. Two guys knocking each other in the noggin -- you can get that from all kinds of dumber, less skilled, less athletic games.

This is the sport where people fly to the hoop, and the vast majority of "hard playoff fouls" are designed to scare players from even trying to take off.

It's like using a jet fighter as a battering ram. Nothing dumber.

Old-timers tell fish tales of a game that was both vastly better and far more violent years ago. But the video reveals the truth: Through the NBA's "glory days" players had almost no muscle, didn't run nearly as fast or jump as high, didn't take defense anywhere near as seriously and endured precious little contact. Not to mention, the scores in those days were through the roof compared to today, precisely because so very many of those offensive players were entirely unmolested by defense. The most famous hard foul of yesteryear, Kevin McHale's clotheslining of Kurt Rambis, was such a big deal because it was such a massive departure from the norm. A few years ago Jason Kidd threw Jannero Pargo the court every bit as hard, and nobody remembers it because players go down that hard all the time.

Nowadays bigger, stronger bodies collide play after play, at elevations off the court few could imagine three decades ago. The forces in play are vastly greater, the knowledge of brain damage that much more acute. The league does far more than ever to prevent the escalation of violence, because it has to and should.

That is why referees are lectured again and again about keeping control of games, and dealing harshly with the kinds of fouls that might lead to escalation. This is why the work of Game 5's referees, Derrick Stafford, Greg Willard and Jason Phillips, is being second-guessed by the league as we speak.

---

Of all the dumb moments of Game 5 -- and there were several, including Danny Granger injuring his own ankle while trying to put a hard foul on James (the second time he twisted his ankle, when he had to leave the game for good) and Mike Miller playing an extended period with a Nike on one foot and a sock on the other -- none was dumber than the referees' huddle moments after Hansbrough's foul.

Everyone at home with or without a DVR, every fan in the seats and the people at league offices in New York all had replay of the video to watch. And they did. Miami fans who reacted mildly in real time saw it on the arena's big screen and were suddenly livid. It was a lot worse in replay, which made Hansbrough's intentions clear as something beyond blocking a shot.

The poor referees were just about the only people in the world who could not see it again, and they were the only people in the world who got to decide Hansbrough's penalty.

In retrospect, a Flagrant 2 would have been the right call, for two reasons. The first is, we now know with the unfair benefit of hindsight, that it would have prevented several more blows to the head. The second, though, is that thanks to the oddities of NBA rules, that call would would have triggered a video review, finally putting the referees on an equal information footing with Joe and Jane Fan in the tenth row.

Some say the league does not want to have everything decided by video. But they are deciding it that way right now, today, in New York, where league officials are watching nothing but video. From the rules:

League will review every flagrant, called or not. The League Office will consider the following factors (as well as any other relevant facts and circumstances) in determining whether to classify a foul as Flagrant “1” or Flagrant “2”, to reclassify a flagrant foul, or to impose a fine and/or suspension on the player involved: how hard the foul was; the outcome of the foul (e.g., whether it led to an altercation); and the level of the injury sustained by the player who was fouled.

It is great that the league is using video to get to the bottom of these things. It's the best available tool for investigating flagrant fouls, flopping, and a hundred other kinds of calls.

But why so slow? Here the NBA is losing a battle with the information age. On these tough-to-get-right-in-real-time calls, the league is fooled nightly, and everybody knows it.

Meanwhile, whole wars are being fought, missiles fired, bombs dropped, combat teams deployed based on real-time decisions, based on video beamed around the world. Barack Obama oversees Navy Seals by television, and gets Osama bin Laden as a result.

The NBA is no war, at least it's not supposed to be, but the same kinds of information can be processed just as fast. Which means where there used to be three options there are now four:

1. Get things blatantly wrong now and again and deal with the fact there will be a certain error rate.
2. Stop games almost constantly to review video, making the game a horrible TV product just as TV replaces tickets as the biggest revenue source.
3. Review video in New York and hand down punishments a day or two after the game.
4. Review video in real time.

No. 4 is, to me, obviously where the league is headed. There can't be blatant mistakes every night -- not the way people consume the game now. They can't make us wait while referees watch. And waiting for the real people to review the tape ... how could that possibly take so long? It's a few seconds of video. It's impossible to watch for more than a minute or two. Make up your mind and move on.

Here's my HoopIdea: The reviews in New York must happen instantly, mid-game, so that a player can be ejected or not while it still matters, and can still prevent a game from getting out of hand. Alternately, and better: Have a fourth, video-enabled referee on the sidelines, reviewing everything all the time. That referee would have started reviewing on video the moment the play was whistled dead, and could have easily had a good, lasting decision in the interim before Wade stepped to the line. That referee could also quickly and permanently solve flopping, traveling, out of bounds and so much more.

It's not how things used to be done, but it didn't used to be that every fan had better information than the referees. It's where this is headed, and it'll make a better game, one where it will make little sense for players to try to fool the referees with hard fouls, flops or anything else.

In his exit interview, Metta World Peace was asked about coach Mike Brown.

Compared to Phil Jackson, he said, it was a "drastic change."

But then World Peace went to some trouble, apparently to make clear he was not blaming his coach for the Lakers' playoff departure.

"Mike wasn't out there guarding Kevin [Durant]," he explains. "That was me. Kevin scored on me. Mike didn't miss that 3-point shot. I missed it. Mike didn't come into camp out of shape."

Then he paused.

"Wait ... he did come in out of shape. Mike is a fat ass."

• 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.

• Jeff Green was nearly the victim of a deadly sneaker avalanche.
• James Jones would be embarrassed if he missed a 3-pointer by as much as he missed this dunk.
• Philadunkia's Tom Sunnergren on the ageless Kevin Garnett: "The careers of professional athletes end, as a general rule, about the way Hemingway described going bankrupt: slowly, then all at once. An injury — say a knee sprain that happens in a February 2009 game in Utah — occurs, never fully heals, becomes a chronic, lingering source of discomfort, then, as the player fights through it, adjusts, maybe unconsciously to mitigate the pain, a host of other maladies spring from the adjustment: calf strains, tendonitis of various stripe, back pain. Bio-mechanical breakdown ensues. Eventually, they’re a shell of themselves. A copy of a copy; like that Michael Keaton movie, but even harder to watch. A season later they’re on a golf course. Kevin Garnett, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, is not on a golf course right now.
• Mike D'Antoni, from his interview with SI's Jack McCallum: "Could you use the word 'resign?' It hurts when I even hear the word 'quit.'"
• Lovely visuals illustrating that Kevin Durant has surpassed Kobe Bryant as a crunch time player.
• Neil Paine (Insider) points out that even if Kobe Bryant outplays Kevin Durant, Durant's supporting cast has the advantage: "Bynum and Gasol have been good in their own right during the postseason, but neither can give Bryant the kind of secondary scoring punch that Westbrook brings to Durant and the Thunder. Then there's Harden, not only the game's best sixth man, but one of its top players, period. During the regular season, he took on a similar possession load as Gasol and Bynum and was far more offensively efficient, averaging a staggering 1.254 points on possessions he was involved in ending. In the playoffs, he has ramped up his usage while still maintaining a sky-high efficiency, one of the big reasons the Thunder have the NBA's No. 1-ranked offense during the postseason. That's why the numbers are so clear-cut. Whether you're a PER proponent (Westbrook/Harden 22.1, Bynum/Gasol 21.6) a Win Shares per 48 Minutes guy (Westbrook/Harden .193, Bynum/Gasol .173) or an Adjusted Plus/Minus guy (Westbrook/Harden plus-2.6, Bynum/Gasol plus-1.8), all the advanced stats say the Westbrook/Harden combination is a better and more productive duo than Bynum and Gasol."
• Gonzaga's Robert Sacre, a legitimate 7-footer with good hands and decent athleticism, says all the right things at the Nets 2012 Draft combine.
• An inspiring bench is a beautiful thing.
• Is Andrew Bynum's best season ever tied to his revamped running form? Ethan Sherwood Strauss, writing on The Classical, investigates:" When I asked Lakers trainer Garry Vitti about the foot strike change, he explained that although this had indeed taken place, the evolution of Bynum’s movement 'was much deeper.' Vitti elaborated, 'Because of his gluteus medius weakness he had is known as a trendelenburg gait where his glute med couldn’t stabilize his pelvis … with increased strength of his glute he was able to control his pelvis better which translated to him being able to get his body over his forefoot which would allow him to propel himself more efficiently.'”
• Daily Thunder's Randy Renner with a statistical nugget that is as much a condemnation of the Lakers' passive defense as OKC's steady offense: "The Thunder has produced a turnover turnaround in the playoffs. During the regular season OKC led the league by averaging 16.3 givebacks a game. In the playoffs that number is down to 10.5 and that’s the best in the league. During this series with the Lakers the number is even better as the Thunder has averaged just 8.3 turnovers a game."
• USA Basketball releases its roster for the 2012 Select Team, which is sort of the Dream Team junior varsity.
• What was Roy Hibbert thinking?
• Brett Koremenos digs into Evan Turner's struggles for HoopSpeak. You have to wonder: If Turner wasn't a top 2 pick, would this be the case: "Currently, Turner’s 9.97 playoff PER ranks 114th amongst players who’ve seen a postseason minute. 114th. That’s out of 155 players who have seen the court in the postseason. This would be fine if he were one of the human victory cigars at the end of the bench, but Turner is playing 34.3 minutes per game in the postseason."
• It's funny what matchups end up being consequential in the playoffs. For instance, the Celtics are really having trouble with the Lavoy Allen-Thaddeus Young front court combo.
• Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol can combine to create some beautiful basketball, but this year they've drifted apart on the court.
• Without Chris Bosh, the origami paper-thin Miami Heat are proving that the "Big Three" model is dangerous, right? Not so, writes Heat Index's Tom Haberstroh: "Of course, the San Antonio Spurs offer a compelling counterargument. They actually have more of their payroll wrapped up in their trio than the Heat, but they seem to be doing just fine. Interestingly enough, the Spurs have taken the opposite approach to surrounding their Big Three: find younger diamonds in the rough and develop them in their system. While the Heat went wild for veterans on the wrong side of 30 years old, the Spurs plucked Gary Neal, Kawhi Leonard, DeJuan Blair, Tiago Splitter and Danny Green. The Spurs might not have gone the safe route with veterans, but their players have higher ceilings and a greater chance to provide more bang for the buck."

• There is plenty of video footage out there of Kevin Durant playing in summer leagues, rec ball and, most memorably, at Barry Farms in Washington D.C. over the last few years. One thing that has long made an impression on me is that in these games, when Durant has no real coach, no real offensive sets and nothing stopping him from doing whatever he wants, he has shown a powerful tendency to do one thing: Shoot 3s off the dribble. It is kind of his thing. You can see why: Because of his sweet stroke and extraordinary length, he makes that shot more than just about anybody. When Durant takes that shot, it is seldom under real duress from a defender. But it's just about never the best shot any team can get. Almost no player shoots as well off the dribble as compared to catching and firing. There's very little chance to draw a foul. And finally, he's not giving the defense an opportunity to make a mistake that might lead to something easy -- he's more than capable of either getting a layup or drawing a double team and kicking to an open teammates -- both better options. But it's Durant's pet move, and in Game 4 it worked, as it has in others. But I hope the Thunder don't come to believe they don't need an actual offense late in close games. They do.
• Lots of people are talking about how Kobe Bryant has whiffed a few times in these playoffs. People are noticing this, which is good and new, if you're interested in an honest assessment of what's going on. But these misses aren't so different from what has always happened. It's all on video. By far the most common thing in any Laker late game possession, for the last decade-plus, is that the Lakers run an isolation play for Bryant, and he makes something like a quarter to a third of the shots. He's right in step with that in these playoffs. These are tough shots, and always have been. What's not true is that he used to make them all the time. Bryant's true shooting percentage -- which includes 3s and free throws -- in the last five minutes of games within five points in these playoffs is at 51.3 percent, better than he shot in the regular season. What's changing, I'd wager, is that people are more aware and starting to notice the misses more.
• Calling an isolation -- a play where, essentially, four Lakers watch -- is the antithesis of telling Laker bigs Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum to get more involved. In other words, if you want them involved, run a play that involves them. As it was, the two almost never touched the ball, even when they did try to get position, and finished with a combined two shots in the fourth quarter.
• I'm always pining for Bryant to hit the open Laker. He did, to great effect, down the stretch of Game 4, passing to Steve Blake in the corner. Blake put the ball on the floor and nailed a runner. Score one for team ball. (For all the Heat's stars, wide-open Udonis Haslem from nine feet is still a great option.)
• John Hollinger (Insider) points out the Lakers have been amazing in crunch time all year ... on defense. And that's exactly where they fell apart late in Game 4: "We have a great crunch-time defense that can't get stops, and nobody is talking about it because they're focusing on the entirely predictable fact that Bryant took a lot of forced shots late in a close game. Moreover, nobody is talking about what the defensive decline signifies -- and one could argue that Bryant's shooting failures fall into this category as well. Put simply, I strongly suspect the Lakers are out of gas. They've used too much energy getting to this point, playing Bryant, Bynum and Gasol maximum minutes to compile regular-season wins and a good playoff seed, and then needing to do it again in both playoff rounds, with no rest in between. Bryant played 40 minutes Saturday; Bynum played 43 and Gasol 39. That's nothing unusual; for the postseason they've averaging 39.5, 38.5, and 36.0, respectively. Against a team full of fleet 23-year-olds on a back-to-back, you can see how that might take a toll. And that it might take a toll, in particular, toward the end of a game in which the best players all played heavy minutes."
• Fans from outside L.A. obsess about how the referees treat the Lakers. For all I know, there's nothing to it, and it's a waste of time to speculate without real evidence. However, if there's a person on the planet whose war stories I'd love on that issue, it's Derek Fisher. He has been on both sides many times. Would be fascinating for us, and potentially expensive for him, if he'd talk about it.
• When I went to his "Train Like a Pro" session years ago, David Thorpe taught us that a lot of people, when they intend to explode forward, initiate that move by taking a step backward. He calls it the "negative step." Try standing in your triple-threat position with the ball, looking at the hoop, only with an empty pop can placed on the court just behind each heel. Then explode forward. Likely, you'll kick one of those cans half across the gym with a flying backward heel. This is something you can quickly learn not to do, and when you do, you are that much faster getting where you want to go. In any case, I'm telling you all this because Durant has one of the most enormous and obvious negative steps in the game. Called fairly, it would have cost the Thunder a key backcourt call this weekend. I suspect he could learn not to do that easily, which would make him a little faster going past his man, and prevent those awkward calls from stepping out of bounds when driving from the side.
• Late in Game 4, Steve Kerr said "you know the Lakers are going to continue to go at Harden with Kobe." Which is true, you do know that. But the weird part is why is that so set in stone? Bryant finished the game 3-for-12 when guarded by Harden. (And 0-for-4 when guarded by Kevin Durant, per ESPN Stats & Info.) For the record, against Thabo Sefolosha, the player with the better defensive reputation, Bryant was 6-for-7, with 18 points. That's not to say Harden is the better defender, but there's certainly no reason for either coach to think Bryant-on-Harden in isolation is a mismatch that favors the Lakers.

Statistical support for this story from NBA.com.

Why can't Dwyane Wade score? Are the Heat done? If they lose to the Pacers, will they break up the team? Who's going to win the West? Who's going to win the East?

And, most importantly, who are the best NBA players who can't jump?

Serious playoff insight from Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and David Thorpe on NBA Today.

The NBA's most distinctive super fan says he uses different tricks to get good seats in every city. Most of the tricks have to do with who he knows, Jimmy Goldstein says in GQ.

In San Antonio, Goldstein tells Myles Brown (whom you may know from the TrueHoop Network's A Wolf Among Wolves) he knows everybody, and when he's in town they simply add an additional amazing seat just for him.

Other news of his friendships from around the league:

Tony Parker and I have been good friends. We run into each other in France and we always have a little chat before the games. He opened a nightclub in San Antonio now that he wants to take me to after the games, that kind of thing.

I have friends on every team and every team thinks I'm there to root for them. I try to put on a neutral stance as much as possible when I go to the games, with the exception of the Lakers games. The Lakers players are all aware that I root for the other team. With the exception of Kobe, they seem to take it pretty well.

Every now and then Kobe surprises me by walking up to me shaking hands and giving me a nice smile. But for the most part, he ignores me. He doesn't look at me and even went to the extent of telling Pau Gasol not to say hello to me. He's never explained why.

Pau and I were very good friends before he got traded to the Lakers. After he became a Laker, he's standing at the baseline during the Lakers warm ups and he would never say hello. Finally, during the All Star Weekend a couple years ago, when I ran into him and he wasn't putting on his "Laker face" so to speak, he gave me a big hug and apologized for not being friendly to me at the games, but told me that it was because Kobe asked him not to be friendly to me.