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• When your PER is higher than your age, you're Kyrie Irving. Or a short list of other players. Also, free agency has been the bane of Cleveland fans. But now that the Cavaliers have Kyrie Irving, the kind of player anyone would want to play with, free agency could become their friend, writes David Thorpe.
• The Pacers have not gone small much, and don't like to go small. So if the Heat go small ... what happens?
• Timothy Varner on 48 Minutes of Hell: "Chris Paul and Tony Parker finished third and fifth in MVP voting. They share a position. One could make an argument that they were the league’s best two point guards this season. Coming into this series, it will be fun to speculate whether Parker or Paul will win 'the matchup'. ... The problem, of course, is that matchup doesn’t exist -- at least not in the hero ball sense. Paul vs. Parker is not a Hollywood boxing bout. It isn’t even a true blue Castillo-Corrales slug fest. It’s a paper tiger. Within their program, the Spurs prefer to feature wings who can defend multiple positions. Bruce Bowen is the historic standard, but the Spurs regularly use Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Manu Ginobili, and Stephen Jackson to defend multiple positions. Ginobili might be deployed against 1s, 2s, and 3s; Jackson against 2s, 3s, and 4s. And so on. This doesn’t make the Spurs entirely unique, but it does point to one of the more intriguing matchups of the series: Danny Green vs. Chris Paul."
• Something is up with the Lakers' pick-and-roll defense. Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register: "In their previous road game, the Lakers played pick-and-roll coverage incorrectly 92 percent of the time, according to [Coach Mike] Brown's own analysis of the Game 6 loss in Denver. It is hardly shocking that they were shredded by a far more talented, more focused Thunder attack."
• Paul Shirley came across a YouTube video of a big college dunk from his Iowa State days. He writes about it for ChicagoSide: "In this particular play, my college teammate, Jamaal Tinsley, made into fools several members of the University of Colorado backcourt before throwing the ball to me for a one-handed dunk that might even be called ferocious, if you need an adjective. Tinsley’s ball-handling tricks served as the final sentence in a masterful short story; my dunk was the exclamation point. The crowd released its tension in an avalanche of happy noise. For me, it was an incomparable rush; better than the most intense sexual encounter I’ve ever had. (Which might be an indictment of my sex life, but probably isn’t -- sorry, no hyperlinks here.) Even as I watched the video more than a decade later, I felt something similar to sexual release: a chill down my spine, sagging shoulders, relaxation in my lower back. I’ve never done cocaine. But that feeling -- the sense that I had just brought about a palpable crescendo of enthusiasm in 14,000 people, most of whom were paying rapt attention to my every movement -- is exactly what I imagine cocaine would be like: intense, immediate, and incredibly pleasurable. And just as dangerous -- because that feeling was one of the reasons I played basketball."
• A long-simmering debate among athletes: What matters more, the number of miles (or in basketball, minutes played) or age? The New York Times digs into the issue by looking into running research and finds ... science doesn't have a clear answer yet.
• Beware the columnist who has been watching lots of "Law & Order" re-runs.
• College hoops statistics suggest that you can't do much to make your opponents miss 3s. The winning strategy appears to be, especially if you're the favorites, to expend your energy trying to limit the number of attempts.
• Blake Griffin says he is not concerned about being labeled a flopper.
• Losing playoff games by big margins does not bode well for the Lakers.
• Zach Lowe of SI.com: "I am astonished on a daily basis by how many fans, both in Boston and elsewhere, think the Celtics are a good offensive team, and are thus surprised they have struggled to score against the Hawks and the Sixers. The misunderstanding seems to come from the fact that a) Boston has very famous players on its team; and b) the Celtics rank fifth overall in field-goal percentage and eighth in three-point percentage. So let me put this as clearly as I can: The Celtics are a bad offensive team. They were so-so last season and in 2009-10, and have been in continuing decline on offense for three seasons now. It’s wonderful that they shoot with great accuracy, especially from three-point range, but accurate shooting does not alone make a team good at scoring points. Field-goal percentage is no way to judge offense. It does not account for how many shots a team generates, how often it gets to the foul line and what sorts of shots it attempts. And in news that broke three years ago, this is where Boston fails."
• Now online in its entirety, for free: The documentary Small Market, Big Heart, made on a shoestring with the goal of humanizing the plight of Kings fans, who have long done a hell of a job supporting the often-miserable Kings.
• I think this is humor from Kobe Bryant. Or maybe not. (Via Slam.)
• Will James Jones make it back into the Heat rotation as a zone buster?
• Goran Dragic is a sexy free agent name. For perspective, his stats are very similar to Jarrett Jack's.

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.

HoopIdea wants to #StopTheFlop. To spotlight the biggest fakers, we present Flop of the Night. You can help us separate the pretenders from the defenders -- details below.
Forget Flop of the Night. For the Denver Nuggets, this is the Flop of the Year.

Assuming it was a flop at all -- because this one is tricky.

In the final minutes of a 3-point game, Laker big man Pau Gasol set a pick that on some plays would have been called a foul. He leaned a shoulder into the approaching Danilo Gallinari. The contact looked painful -- that Gallinari had a big reaction is no surprise.

However, if you've learned anything from Flop of the Night, it's that in the minds of a lot of players, there's a playbook for how to deal with this kind of contact in the NBA these days: You exaggerate to get the referee's attention. It often works.

(Gallinari is in the Floppers' Club, to be sure. Video shows him to be among those who'll throw back his head in dramatic fashion while driving, for instance. And as it happens, on the Lakers' very next possession, Gallinari took the court again, this time flying 15-feet backward after mild contact from Bryant's forearm -- while Steve Blake hit a corner 3.)

This was not one of the times it worked. Not only did referee David Jones not call anything, but Gallinari also missed one of his team's most important defensive possessions of the season. Playing 5-on-4, the Nuggets scrambled for a few seconds until Ramon Sessions drained an open corner 3, putting the Lakers up three.

All the while, Gallinari writhed on the floor. Could he have gotten up and played on? Hard to say. But what seems clear is that some of what was going on was sales.

Watch the replay, and it’s clear that Gallinari got rocked.

As he bounces off Gasol’s shoulder, he covers his face, causing Marv Albert to exclaim “Gallinari took a shot to the nose!”

But once he’s on the ground, his hands move to his throat.

In super slow-motion -- Gallinari's legs kick out dramatically as he goes to the ground, an embellishment that Steve Kerr, calling the game live, suggested may have cued the official to dismiss the contact.

"I think sometimes when you exaggerate the officials will kind of give you that motion like ‘I'm not buying it, you gotta get up,'" said Kerr.

"So even if he was bumped around the throat I think his demonstrative action may have cost him the call."

When you see an egregious flop that deserves proper recognition, send us a link to the video so we can consider it for Flop of the Night. Here's how to make your submission:

• Alert HoopIdea to super flops with the Twitter hashtag #FlopOfTheNight (follow us on Twitter here).
• Use the #FlopOfTheNight hashtag in Daily Dime Live.
• E-mail us at hoopidea@gmail.com

• LeBron James says he has not imagined himself as a Knick.
• A staggering percentage of the nation's young seven-foot men are in the NBA.
• A lot of how the NBA deals with misbehavior is along the lines of how schools do the same thing. Suspensions, for instance, are the main tool of both. Here's a case, from a school in Washington, suggesting suspensions don't work well at all, and a much better approach is heavy with patience and compassion.
• Kind of related: Our intelligence is not fixed, but changes, and believing that evidently makes it more so.
• Zach Lowe of SI.com: "Through two games, it’s clear Miami is reinvigorated on offense. Good news for the league: It has only been two games against an overmatched Knicks team whose best defender suffered a poorly timed case of the flu and whose second-best defender is out for the season with a torn ACL. Still, the early results are encouraging: Miami is leaning on some basic actions in which its star players work together on and off the ball, rather than having everyone stand around while James or Wade runs a high pick-and-roll."
• The video suggests Nick Collison can guard Dirk Nowitzki far better than Kendrick Perkins, but that's not how Scott Brooks sees it, evidently.
• You think the game is dangerous? Check out the timeouts.
• The last time the Knicks won a playoff game gas was $1.70 a gallon.
• Front-row Grizzlies fan vs. common decency and Marc Gasol.
• John Hollinger (Insider): "Here's an amazing stat: Derrick Favors has played 47 minutes in this series and is a plus-6. The other 49 minutes the Jazz are minus-52."
• Rajon Rondo is teasing an R&B album in which he's performing with an unnamed "female Drake."
• No Pacers have been hurt punching fire extinguishers, and that's not coincidence.
• Accepting the award for Defensive Player of the Year, Tyson Chandler thanks his teammates for making him look like a great defender. He also says that he thinks Tony Allen is the best on-ball defender in the league, with a nod to LeBron James.
• Former Sonics employee Jeremy Ripanich, on Deadspin, with an inside view of the Sonics' departure from Seattle: "Either [Clay] Bennett is an idiot who married into his fortune and lucked into the team, or he's a canny businessman who played the game shrewdly and won. I have to think he's the latter. I need only look at the organization he's put together to know he's running the club better than Schultz -- the media-ordained genius -- ever did. It was Bennett who brought in the architect of the club, Sam Presti, based on their mutual connections with the San Antonio Spurs. It was Bennett who allowed Presti to build slowly around Durant instead of demanding wins immediately. Sure, there was plenty of bad faith on Bennett's part during the sale, but at this point it's silly to expect anything else from a sports owner. Caveat emptor applies to us as much as it does to owners. They are running revenue-maximizing operations, and a fanbase is of use to them only to the extent that it makes them money. All we can hope for is that an owner cares enough about his product to give us something worth watching every year. By all evidence Clay Bennett cares about his product. Howard Schultz never did. Maybe that's the ultimate deception in the Sonics' story: A lot of us had the wrong villain all along."
• Ricky Rubio, from a chair, practicing his shooting touch.

• A few thoughts about the future of televised basketball. High quality cameras are getting tiny, and people are already wearing them while playing hoops. Wouldn't mind seeing the Kevin Durant-view of some of the playoffs' best plays. Also ... I'm willing to bet there will be cameras on remote control helicopters in NBA arenas before too long. They already fly blimps around in arenas, and they already fly little helicopters with cameras over and around snowboarders and the like. This will happen.
• Boris Diaw will once again start, in the playoffs, for one of the best teams in the game. About six weeks ago that same Diaw was let go by the Bobcats, the worst team in the history of the game. Either the Spurs are doomed, or somewhere in there is a lesson about the value of corporate culture.
• Rob Mahoney, on The Two Man Game, with props for Shawn Marion. "Marion has led the Mavericks in rebounding in both games thus far, scored 32 total points on just 23 shots, and also happens to be providing a master class on how to defend Kevin Durant."
• John Hollinger's not a doctor, but he has some smart thoughts about Ray Allen's health (Insider): "Allen is listed as day-to-day, but those bone spurs aren't going to magically go away until he gets surgery to remove them. I'm not a doctor, but I don't know what's going to change by Friday or Sunday or next week, or next month, to make his condition any different. I suspect there's a decent chance he's already played his last game this year."
• On HoopSpeak, Brett Koremenos accuses the Nuggets of stage fright in Game 1: "Kenneth Faried and JaVale McGee are experiencing the NBA’s second season for the first time while Danilo Gallinari and Corey Brewer are only on their second go-rounds. Even Ty Lawson and Arron Afflalo, while not new to the atmosphere, are experiencing it in new and bigger roles." The Nuggets can score in the paint. Also, a memo to Ty Lawson from Roundball Mining Company's Kalen: "The minute Lawson resigns as an active threat, the Lakers have won."
• The Celtics are in a pickle. On the road, missing Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen, after having been outrebounded and outplayed. There seems to be something keeping Kevin Garnett from playing anything like his best. Is this the end of an era we're sniffing? At CelticsHub, they certainly aren't sounding the alarm yet. They're still upbeat, talking about how Paul Pierce will get to the line more without Rondo. That means something.
• David West shall lead them. What a great signing that has been for Indiana.
• If Amare Stoudemire left the arena wearing a sling ... is it really a cut we're worried about? And, it wasn't that long ago Stoudemire was joking on Twitter about punching stuff.
• Chandler Parsons. Not sure what he's doing exactly. But he's doing it hard.
• LeBron's teeth know the score.
• Some very colorful new-breed boxscores show James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Tim Duncan, Reggie Evans and Nick Young have all been even more spectacular than you thought. Also, with Caron Butler injured, Young will need to keep it up.
• Are people still saying Rajon Rondo did nothing but trip? Show them this.
• Where's this HoopIdea thing headed? Hopefully not here.
• Suns fans, how optimistic are you this offseason will restore the glory, or anything like it?
• European buzzer beaters.
• A legal mind weighs in on those Jordan Hill charges.
• Some players are looking younger and fitter, now that the playoffs are here.

Most of HoopIdea works like this: You take the way things always have been done and envision something a little different. Something maybe not that obvious, but hopefully better.

This HoopIdea flips the script. You take the way things always have worked, the most obvious things in the world, and you say: Let's do that.

In many ways this HoopIdea isn't an idea at all. This HoopIdea is to conform to how things always have worked in basketball -- in grade school, high school, AAU, college, the Euroleague, Spain's ACB, the Olympics, the world championships, even at your local health club or rec center.

This HoopIdea is to end the NBA's odd practice of being just about the only basketball league anywhere without a single-elimination tournament.

Where organized basketball is played, there are tournaments where you win or go home, and in every case they are the most meaningful and entertaining games of the season.

Something about this sport simply works with this format. We like the sport for its crunch time, but those end-of-game moments are so much more thrilling when both teams have everything on the line. Surely any league would want to create as many of those moments as possible.

It also works as a business. Increasingly, the NBA's bottom line rises and falls with television revenues. What would this do for TV revenues? We know this: America's other prominent single-elimination basketball tournament, the NCAA's March Madness, is about as big a revenue driver as there is in TV sports. At a reported $10.8 billion for 14 years of 63 games, it's hauling in something like $12 million in TV revenues per game.

NBA games feature a higher level of play, bigger stars and more of what basketball fans like. Yet they bring in a fraction of that per game. During the lockout, the NBA claimed to have annual revenues -- not just TV revenues, but counting tickets and most everything else -- in the neighborhood of $4 billion. That's based on roughly 1,400 games a year, including playoffs and preseason, which computes to a little less than $3 million a game. In other words, all NBA revenue per game is less than a quarter of what a March Madness game is worth just in TV dollars.

What makes those college games so valuable? It's not that national audiences are clamoring to see Colgate or Winthrop. It's largely because teams like Colgate or Winthrop just might make magic. Which could happen only in a single-elimination tournament.

Of course the NBA should have one.

What kind of tournament?

The NCAA, Olympic and world championship tournaments make a convincing case that the NBA should go all the way. That's right: Replace the hallowed, historic NBA playoffs entirely and crown the league's champion with a new, single-elimination tournament.

Before you pop a vein in your forehead, admit this: Radical though it might be, you'd watch every second. We would, too. There are lots of people like us, which is all it would take for it to be a smashing success.

The seven-game series has had a good run ... but an NCAA-style tournament would blow it out of the water.

The argument against single-elimination tournaments is that they are random. They don't do the best job of determining the better team. But who really cares? People accept NCAA, Olympic and world champions as legitimate -- not to mention Super Bowl winners in football -- even though they are selected by single-elimination.

It's not like the current system really proves the better team anyway. Mathematicians have explained that seven-game series aren't nearly long enough to truly determine the superior competitors. Not with the oddities of injuries and nights when shots just don't fall. A series that genuinely proved a team better would be more than 200 games long, mathematicians say.

Meanwhile, maybe more randomness is precisely what's called for. The best thing about single-elimination tourneys is that exact thing. Who knows who's going to win? Maybe the Grizzlies! When people have no idea what's going to happen, it's impossible to look away, and that's a great thing for TV ratings and ticket sales. The NFL is the major American sport with the most random outcomes (as economists have noted time and again), and it's the most popular.

For sports, as a business, the sacred act is appealing to non-sports fans. A tournament would do that like nothing else the NBA has to offer. It also would drive ticket prices to insane heights, create lasting memories and do a powerful job of helping basketball infiltrate the broader culture.

There's even an argument to be made that by shortening the season and reducing players' workloads, it could open the door to players accepting a further reduced percentage of league revenues, potentially making the league a healthier business.

It also would make it possible, for the first time, for regular people to throw a party to watch a big NBA playoff game, like they do for football.

One problem with a seven-game series is that you never know, with much planning time, when the truly important game will be. Maybe it'll be Game 5. Or 6. Or 7. Never can you say with confidence on Tuesday: "Hey, come over to my house next Sunday, bring the kids, and we'll watch." If you know there's going to be a game, it's early in the series and you don't know it'll be big. If it's late in the series, it'll be big, but you can't count on it even happening.

The NFL has many advantages over the NBA as a business. One is that you can plan for it: Next year's Super Bowl will be on Feb. 3. The nachos will be ready.

What the people want

Replacing the playoffs is likely too radical for 2012 thinking. You'd probably get laughed out of the NBA board of governors. Most people have a hard time thinking that far outside the box.

You'd need an interim step first to get people used to the concept.

And people are clamoring for that.

ESPN.com readers want a tournament. The moment we started soliciting HoopIdeas from readers, various inboxes (email, Google+, Twitter) were hammered with this suggestion. Not one person we've heard from is opposed.

Three of the many suggestions:

• Orlando Magic Daily’s Philip Rossman-Reich advocates a midseason tournament for cash and glory that would “make some of those slow months matter.” That’s a bit like what goes on in English Premier League soccer, where thanks to a variety of tournaments and cups, even teams low in the league standings have opportunities for glory.
• Reader Brad Williams from Salt Lake imagines a big tournament, a “Super Bowl-like setting,” with the winner -- imagine it’s held around the All-Star Game -- earning a spot in the playoffs (seeding to be determined later). Or the prize could simply be cash along the lines of the NBA's current playoff bonuses.
• With the right incentives, Chris Sorensen notes in another letter, a tournament for lottery picks could “ensure that [NBA teams] do not benefit from throwing a whole season away” by assembling a roster of NBA detritus.

If you're looking for a non-sacred part of the NBA season to spice up with something new, the midseason is an obvious candidate.

Meanwhile, likely as a testament to the power of Bill Simmons' idea, plenty of readers have suggested variations of his Entertaining as Hell end-of-season tournament. Ideas for how to implement Bill's EAH tourney range from determining draft order for nonplayoff teams to handing out playoff spots.

But most of all, people submitting HoopIdeas have been making the case that it makes sense because it would be all kinds of exciting.

An idea that has been knocking around

Many a March, when NCAA tournament mania engulfs sports fans, NBA thinkers have long wondered, sometimes in public, about bringing such a tournament to the NBA. A sampling:

• Heat forward Shane Battier recently told the Heat Index's Tom Haberstroh that he's all for it, saying: "I like -- and I don't know who came up with this idea -- [having] a tournament with all the teams that didn't make the playoffs. You know what? Winner of the tournament wins the first pick."
• In 2007, David Thorpe suggested replacing the All-Star Game with a single-elimination tournament featuring much of the NBA battling for pride. The same year, Simmons ignited a big national conversation with his Entertaining as Hell tournament, a double-elimination end-of-season tournament. The grand prize would be the last two playoff spots in each conference. Just like March Madness, Simmons loves the potential for a Cinderella run from some unlikely squad, and he also suggests this could address tanking.
• Then-Nuggets vice president Mark Warkentien -- who later would join the Knicks as director of pro player personnel -- circulated an idea similar to Simmons' to NBA executives in 2009, advocating for a single-elimination tournament in which seeds 8-15 in each conference would play for the final spot in the playoffs.
• Then writing at AOL, Brett Edwards thought an end-of-season, single-elimination tournament could be used to halt tanking for teams that don’t make the playoffs. You win, you get more ping-pong balls in the lottery.

Why not?

There's more than one good way to capture the excitement of single-elimination hoops. Picture the world's biggest preseason tournament, in which the top 16 teams from the NBA face the top 16 teams from the rest of the globe. With national pride at stake, viewers would be there in droves, and it would be an incredible way to kick off the NBA season -- and who cares if it cuts into the already-too-long 82-game schedule?

Or what about inviting the two finalists from the Euroleague Championships to round out a 32-team NBA tournament, to replace the playoffs, at the end of the year?

Or why not create a series of tournaments throughout the season? Perhaps three would do the trick: The first tourney could culminate on Christmas, with the second in midseason and the third crowning a champ. The incentives along the way would include financial prizes, scheduling perks and positioning within a two-tier system, with teams trying to stay in Tier 1 and avoid Tier 2. This would be similar to but less Draconian than the soccer relegation system, which many, many fans have recommended to HoopIdea. It also would dramatically increase the frequency of meaningful games during the season.

We don't know exactly how it would work best in the NBA, but there's no denying what a thrill it would be to see a whole tournament of Game 7-level scrapping and battling from the best players in the world. Buzzer-beater upsets, improbable runs to glory ... the only wrong answer is not to try anything.

When Ron Artest changed his name to Metta World Peace it was in honor of world peace. It was to promote world peace. But, upon review, it was also bad for world peace.

He is, or can be, a stunningly and delightfully sincere dude. No doubt he meant it when he changed his name. I don't doubt he loves world peace and wants to do all he can to promote it. I know all about his violent and angry childhood, and I watched him leave the team party on the podium in 2010, where he was to hoist his first championship trophy, to spend time thanking the psychologist who had helped him navigate to smoother seas in his heart. I know he has given his time and treasure to one good cause after another.

His sin is being only intermittently committed to the cause, and that doesn't work for this cause any more than you can "mostly" stand for, say, monogamy. If you are working for peace, or marriage vows, only some of the time, then you are working against them.

You know that song "You Give Love a Bad Name"? The former Ron Artest gives world peace a bad name.

---

When I was a sophomore at NYU, I had my heart set on spending a semester in Africa, and I even filled out an application to go to Kenya. But I couldn't bring myself to send it, because another program in the same catalog screamed to me: Tibetan Studies. Who does that? I couldn't even imagine what it would entail. It sounded dangerous and difficult in enchanting ways. One of the smaller challenges was learning passable Tibetan. The program called for a semester studying and living with Tibetan families in exile in the Dalai Lama's adopted hometown of Dharamsala, India, as well as in Kathmandu. The photos suggested -- it was no lie -- that the saffron robes of monks and nuns would surround us every day. At the end of the trip, we'd do something a lot of young Tibetans living in exile never get to do: Visit Tibet. There we'd meet oppressed religious leaders and cross the high plains accompanied by yaks and their herders.

I still have never been to Africa, sadly. But let me tell you: Tibetan Studies was life-changing in all kinds of ways.

Tibet is mostly a high-altitude plain. A lot of India is also flat, but at much lower altitude. Between lie the Himalayas, a mountain range stretching roughly the distance from New York to Colorado.

The Tibetan family I lived with in India had crossed what is by far the biggest mountain range in the world by foot, out of sheer desperation, to escape the horrors of the Chinese invasion. They didn't really want to talk about what they left behind. Other families couldn't escape together, and so made one of the hardest decisions I could imagine, to send their children to cross those mountains, quite possibly to die, at best to have happier lives without their families. It was not hard to find Tibetan children in Dharamsala who had made such crossings, and they could tell you stories of others who died on the journey.

Stuff was, and is, hard. People who send their kids across the Himalayas to get away from something are desperate people. And so numerous were the refugee children that by the time I was there, in 1993, the biggest and busiest school in Dharamsala then, and as far as I know, now, was the Tibetan Children's Village, designed specifically for children without parents.

Even given all that, however, the Dalai Lama, who is the political and religious leader of the Tibetans, took the position that no, we are not going to be violent. Plenty of young Tibetans quietly advocated things from sabotage to terrorism, but they could get no support from their leader.

It remains to be seen how well that'll work out. The Dalai Lama has been in exile since 1959. Tibetans live all over the globe. It's hard to say things have gotten any better in Tibet. And still he wants nothing to do with violence.

But make no mistake. Out there in this world, world peace is a real thing. Nonviolence is a real thing. There are people who are really committed to the cause, and they are not just Tibetan. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi ... you've heard this before.

---

Even if they didn't make eye contact, it is impossible that Metta World Peace didn't know the Thunder's James Harden was standing there, because they ran into each other first. Only after they were torso-to-torso did World Peace commence the windup, by drawing his left elbow back across his body as far as it could go.

In recent years, NBA players have learned that thrown punches, whether they connect or not, are punished very harshly by referees and the league office. The NBA has done an amazing job of reducing dangerous brawls. Thrown elbows, however, are tougher to police and can look like part of the game, especially in real time. To the extent there's still intentional violence in the game, a disproportionate amount is dispersed with elbows.

An amazing thing about this moment is that neither player was looking. World Peace knew somebody was right there, but his eyes were closed. Harden, meanwhile, was looking past World Peace at the baseline, where the ball was due to be inbounded, unaware that a little spot behind his ear was about to feel the full force of the opposite of peace.

The video shows pure violence. With his arm locked and loaded, World Peace squeezed his eyes shut and unloaded. He's covered in muscles, and this appears to be as hard an elbow as a man can swing. And at the same moment in history that we're learning any blow to the head can cause lifelong brain damage, he rattled a head hard. Harden wheeled over and to the ground where he stayed a long while, and was later declared concussed.

This video will live forever, and forever it will mock the idea that the former Ron Artest is fully committed to world peace.

Later he'd explain that it was "unintentional" and "unfortunate." Harden, allegedly, was the victim of a vigorous celebration, some kind of friendly fire, if you will.

The video laughs at all that, to my eyes. It is impossible to think he didn't know somebody was there. It is impossible to think the windup and incredibly hard swing would have been part of the moment without somebody there. (Edit Harden out of that footage, and it is the strangest celebration you have ever seen.)

Most importantly: He connected.

In the crazy universe where all that was, as claimed, some kind of mix-up or an accident, he still dropped Harden with massive force, which he would have felt with his own elbow. If you are part of that kind of surprise collision, to a hard skull, no less, you would feel it. If it were a surprise, surely World Peace would have looked to have seen what he hit so hard.

But he didn't. He didn't check to see what happened, nor to see if the dude was OK, because it was no "oops."

That video gives anybody chills. Can you imagine being Rudy Tomjanovich watching that?

---

There's a difference between admiring world peace, like the old Ron Artest clearly did when he chose to change his name, and standing for it, like the Dalai Lama long has.

Assaulting people on international TV and then making light of what really happened in the aftermath ... that's not a wobble in the cause, that's moving to the other side. People who work for peace are working against World Peace on this one, even though they have sometimes been friends.

Sometimes, "sometimes" is the problem. Marketing world peace isn't like marketing video games or rock music. Getting mentions for "world peace" in the media is not the same as making the world a more peaceful place. Everybody kind of likes peace. Standing for it means sticking with it even when that's a challenge. To be committed except when it gets hard looks a lot like not being committed at all.

And the player sometimes known as Artest has always been a sometimes guy.

Sometimes he's the most charming and sweet player in the league. Sometimes he's the most violent (he'll likely retire one day holding the record for most games lost to suspensions for violence).

Sometimes he plays harder than anybody else in the league. Sometimes he loafs, breaks plays and takes bad shots.

Sometimes he has been an MVP candidate. Sometimes he has been a bad contract.

Sometimes he speaks truths few players have the courage to voice. Sometimes he tells incredible whoppers.

Sometimes he's Ron Artest, sometimes he's Metta World Peace.

And sometimes, this time, he's a disgrace to the name he chose for himself, which happens to be about as serious as a name can be. For all the jokes about peaceniks, lefties, true believers and all that, nobody in their right mind wants to live in violence. If the Dalai Lama can last from 1959 until now without abandoning that commitment, certainly World Peace ought to be able to find his way through a post-dunk celebration on a Sunday afternoon.

Time has named the most influential 100 people in the world. The list includes Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and the like ... and one NBA player. It's not LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard or even union president Derek Fisher.

That player is injured Knicks guard Jeremy Lin.

Echoing thoughts he shared on TrueHoop in February, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote the accompanying tribute to Lin, which includes this passage:

Contrary to what you might read, Jeremy, 23, is no overnight sensation. In fact, he achieved success the old-fashioned way: he earned it. He worked hard and stayed humble. He lives the right way; he plays the right way.

It's great to see good values rewarded in professional sports because that's not always the case.

It is easy to see that Lin does have tremendous influence, and could have far more should he want it. He is exceptionally well positioned to make powerful use of the platform that comes with international icon status: He builds relationships easily, for instance with teammates, he has a Harvard brain and powerful convictions which, so far, he has only deployed only in measured doses.

One gets the sense that could change, with time.

What's he about, though? Certainly issues of religion and character, which we are reminded of in the same issue of TIME, where Lin penned a tribute to influential person Tim Tebow. Lin writes:

Watching Tim Tebow play football, you can observe many things about his character. You see his fierce competitiveness, his strong work ethic and how he is a leader that his teammates trust and respect.

But it is the qualities that Tim, 24, embodies in his life off the field that truly set him apart. ... As athletes, we pour our hearts into winning games. Tim is a reminder that life is about much more than that.

• Watching the Bulls in overtime on Sunday night I had something of an epiphany. They just played so hard and together on both ends. So many Bulls seem to love that very intense time of the game. The Pistons got the first rebound of overtime, and then no more. The Bulls played very tough defense, and on offense, they created one good look after another. Joakim Noah was everywhere on both ends, even making fabulous passes. Nobody forced anything. And things were chippy and intense and they appeared more than OK with what. The whole thing was just nasty. Shortly we'll be making all kinds of playoff predictions. It'll be tough to pick against Chicago.
• Having left the Kings, J.J. Hickson is back to showing all kinds of promise, like he once did in Cleveland. Kind of weird, huh? He does his best to explain.
• The suggestion that Dwight Howard has his eye on Warriors assistant Michael Malone as his next head coach.
• Bill Simmons, talking tanking on Grantland on Friday: "You can expect David Lee to get shut down any day with 'knee tendinitis' or some equally bogus injury." The Warriors need to lose some games, and Lee is a pretty good player. The end of Lee's season was announced at essentially the same time.
• More charges are being called in the NBA, which could be a sign of flopping.
• It's just possible the Maloofs aren't acting with the city of Sacramento's best interests at heart. It'll be tough for the Kings to stay in Sacramento ... but it'll also be tough for them to move.
• Pau Gasol's 3s are heroic. Andrew Bynum's are dastardly. Is this really a tale of shot selection ... or makes?
• Lots of talk about what it will take for the Knicks to reach their full potential. They have improved mightily on defense, won a lot of big games, endured some injuries and questionable signings. They were never going to be that great anyway. Just wondering if, instead of hand-wringing, it's time for celebrating. A pretty good team is looking pretty damn good. That's no sign of trouble. All that is out of whack is the expectations.
• This is a question that comes up in sports as much as anywhere. Who cares what your gender is? Why does that matter? Why do official bodies need to know that?
• Are the Celtics contenders?
• Rodney Stuckey talking with a lot of poise about the value of seeing a therapist. This is far more macho to me than the traditional macho approach, which is denying you're seeing a therapist. Kudos.
• Jan Vesely gets everywhere on foot.
• A little video of John Wall's blazing speed -- leading to an airballed midrange jumper.
• On Hardwood Paroxysm Jared Dubin notices that the Spurs' best defensive lineups feature Danny Green: "You can do a lot of things with Danny Green. You can ask him to shoot, you can ask him to pass, you can ask him to rebound and you can ask him to defend. You can start Danny Green and you can bring him off the bench. You can yank his minutes around. You can run plays for Danny Green, but you don’t have to. You can ask him to fill in the blanks and you can count on him to make the right play. You can win games with Danny Green. That’s for sure."
• Lakers up and down the roster played well. How often has that been true this season?
• Jamario Moon promises to play his legs off, and pretty much does.
• The Pacers have a shot at emerging as the ultimate winners of all this playoff positioning -- with the potential for homecourt advantage against the compromised Magic. Check it out in the playoff odds. The Pacers play their brains out, too -- kind of emerging as the Grizzlies of the East.
• The Thunder players talk about tornadoes. And on the topic of safety, Royce Young and I have the same first thought on seeing this video: Be careful up there, Kevin Durant!

Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen believe they should.

Allen told Fox Sports' Chris Tomasson that joining a Dream Team and heading off to places like Beijing or London comes with great personal sacrifice:

You talk about the patriotism that guys should want to play for, but you [need to] find a way to entice the guys. ... It's not the easiest thing in the world if you play deep in the playoffs and then you get two, three weeks off and then you start training again to play more basketball where it requires you to be away from home and in another country. It's fun, but your body does need a break.

Everybody says, "Play for your country." But [NBA players are] commodities, your businesses. You think about it, you do camps in the summer, you have various opportunities to make money. When you go overseas and play basketball, you lose those opportunities, what you may make. ... If I'm an accountant and I get outsourced by my firm, I'm going to make some money somewhere else.

If it's licensing ... [the players] are wearing jerseys and [others, but not the players, are] making money off it. Something [should be done] just to say to the guys, "Hey, you guys are spending this much time, 40 days, playing basketball, we're paying for some type service that you provide, that you're getting some kind of kickback." ... I know that you sell unlimited jerseys so I think the players should get some piece of that.

ESPN.com's Michael Wallace bounced Allen's thoughts off Wade, who offered a similar response:

It's a lot of things you do for the Olympics -- a lot of jerseys you sell. ... We play the whole summer. I do think guys should be compensated. Just like I think college players should be compensated as well. Unfortunately, it's not there. But I think it should be something, you know, there for it.

... The biggest thing is now you get no rest. ... So you go to the end of the season, [Team USA] training camp is two weeks later. You're giving up a lot to do it. It's something you want to do. But it's taxing on your body. You're not playing for the dollar. But it would be nice if you would get compensated.

Wade later backtracked, tweeting, "BUT my love 4 the game & pride 4 USA motivates me more than any $$ amount. I repped my country in 2004 when we won the bronze medal and stood proudly to receive our gold medal in 2008 in Beijing. It's always been an honor for me to be a part of the USA Olympic family ... and I'm looking forward to doing it again in London this summer."

Wade, like Allen, also cited the time commitment.

Let's enumerate Allen and Wade's argument:

• Opportunity cost: As Allen argues, every hour devoted to Olympic training, flying overseas and playing as an Olympian is an hour you're not attending to your personal entrepreneurial pursuits, charities and resting your body for the grueling NBA season.
• Fairness: Fans buy Team USA basketball apparel -- lots of it. You see far fewer folks wearing speed-skating gear, Michael Phelps swim caps or even USA soccer jerseys, and that's because the elite players who wear those Team USA basketball jerseys drive merchandise sales. Wade draws the parallel between Olympians and amateur athletes who are prohibited from earning a cent for playing despite earning billions in revenue for the NCAA and its participating schools.

These arguments are difficult to dismiss out of hand, because Allen and Wade aren't incorrect: Committing to Team USA requires giving up a ton of time and generates a load of money for those licensed to sell those jerseys (as well as those licensing them). There's also nothing unpatriotic or unseemly about their comments. What's more American than expressing unpopular opinions even if it offends our collective sense of patriotism?

On Wednesday, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo responded to Allen and Wade (via Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today):

All of the money that is generated from our participation and the competitions the senior teams participate in in effect subsidizes and pays for the entire U.S. Olympic [basketball] programs and that includes all of the junior programs where most of these players came from. ... Most of them all started there, men and women.

When I took over the program in 2005, they were in a terrible losing situation financially. ... During the next four years, I quadrupled the revenue, but that only brought us to break-even. That covers all of the expenses for the men, women, boys and girls, all the way down. We sell sponsorship, sell tickets to exhibition games.

Another reality is, most of the players, and in fact until this comment today, I would have said 100 percent of them, understand that there's some great value to them individually for participating if they so choose to ...

... The opportunity to represent your country is a privilege without anything further said, that's No. 1. ... No. 2, the experience broadens individuals in every regard and every respect because you experience things you would not have under any other circumstance -- the travel, the people you meet.

Thirdly, the brand. We live in a global economy. All of our players have shoe contracts and apparel contracts and they're little mini-business onto themselves and in some cases, they're not mini-businesses, they're quite substantial.

Colangelo's most persuasive point? "... [T]here's some great value to them individually for participating if they so choose to."

It's the part about choice that's most compelling.

Even if Colangelo overstates the value of enhancing an athlete's personal brand in front of an audience of billions (there's no evidence he is or isn't), and even if he places a higher value on the spirit of patriotism than those wearing the jerseys (he might be), the onus is on the players to run the cost-benefit analysis for themselves.

No NBA player is forced to participate -- and not so long ago, Olympians in certain corners of the world were forced to play basketball, despite having serious and legitimate political objections.

In Tomasson's piece, Rajon Rondo candidly said he had no interest in playing for Team USA because he values his time off during the summer. That's Rondo weighing the value of exposure and country against personal time. His priorities may offend the sensibilities of some, but he's made his choice, even if some object to the rationale of his decision-making.

So let's flip Allen's free-market argument on its head: If Colangelo can sign up 12 talented players (and who says they need to be NBA players?) and a coaching staff who are willing to participate for no compensation because they recognize the value of doing so for their personal brands, why should the committee pay those who object?

Allen and Wade aren't wrong, but Rondo is the player talking the most sense.

A recent conversation with Rockets guard Goran Dragic, by phone:

In your win against Chicago, you had 21 points on 12 shots, with five assists, four steals, a block and just one turnover and one foul. How was that?

You know, we had a rough game, one night before we lost against Indiana. We knew that we had to come out huge in that game in Chicago. We did that. Everybody played well. The bench was huge for us. It was a good thing for us that we won that game.

You guys have played very well against some of the NBA's best teams, like the Bulls, Thunder and Spurs. Why do you do so well against those teams?

I don't know. That's a really tough question. I think all these great teams motivate us to play against all these great players. We play well against those teams. We have to play with that every game. We have been playing well at home, but on the road we were not so successful. I don't know. All these teams are great, great teams. They already make playoffs. We try to win as many games as possible.

Do you have a feeling you have a great chance if you can face one of these teams in the playoffs?

Oh yeah, definitely. We are battling now for the eighth spot, with three or four teams. We know that if we're going to make the playoffs, we're going to play against Oklahoma or San Antonio. It's going to be really tough games for us, but still we have our chances. We beat Oklahoma twice. We beat San Antonio twice, so it's going to be an interesting matchup.

I saw you play Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, in Phoenix against the Lakers, in 2010. Do you remember that game?

Yeah, yeah, of course. That was my first time playing in the playoffs. It was a huge win for us. Unfortunately, we lost that series against the Lakers. But was really some special moments for my career.

(Read full post)

Howard Beck in The New York Times on the Knicks' win over the Sixers, which featured Jeremy Lin scoring the last eight Knick points in a close game:

The game came down to defense, grit and Jeremy Lin’s unwavering self-confidence on a difficult night.

Lin had 16 points in the fourth quarter -- after shooting 1 for 11 in the first three periods -- and scored the Knicks’ last 8 points, all from the foul line.

“It’s just a credit to my teammates, how they kept the game close for me,” he said. “Man, the way they defended was unbelievable.”

I read it once. I read it again.

And I simply could not get past it. The kept the game close ... "for me?"

I wasn't there. I didn't here his intonation. I'm not going to pretend I know what he meant by "for me." It may have meant something selfless, like "despite my bad shooting."

But it also sounded just a little bit like a cold-blooded crunch-time killer. A little like Kobe Bryant. A little like: Of course the ball's going to be in my hands at the end kind of way.

Which is not the craziest idea out there.

Ever since he waved off a coach, a teammate and a playcall before hitting the biggest bucket of his life -- that game-winning 3 in isolation in Toronto -- it has struck me that in terms of crunch-time temperament, Lin is as much like Bryant as anyone.

They are both standouts of work ethic. Both, I sense, feel they have worked too damned hard to entrust the results of close games to chance. Each knows he has put in the time and is prepared to do what needs to be done.

At the end of close games, on offense in the NBA, and in defiance of the evidence, that almost always means dominating the ball.

Just to test the idea that Lin and Bryant are similarly ball dominant in crunch time, I fired up NBA.com's fancy secret new stats tool, and found Lin does like to have the ball in his hands in crunch time, almost as much as Bryant, who is an all-timer in that regard.

In the final five minutes of games within five points, Bryant's usage rate is a high 42.4. Lin's is close behind, at 36.6 -- higher than, say, Chris Paul's 33.9, and in the same range as Kevin Durant (40.1) and Carmelo Anthony (43.5). You might say that's heady stuff for a player whose coach keeps reminding people is effectively a rookie.

But also worth noting is that in these short minutes -- Lin has played just 39 that qualify -- he has had the best true shooting percentage of the bunch. He has taken 24 shots in 39 crunch time minutes, and hit only nine of them. The secret to his efficiency has been that he has made three of his five 3-pointers, while getting to the line an impressive 18 times, while missing just two. The result is a true shooting percentage (a measure that accounts for 3s and free throws) of 58, compared to Paul's 57.2, Durant's 53.8, Anthony's 43.5 and Bryant's 42.7.

Such small samples don't predict anything -- I'm not saying Lin's a better crunch-time scorer than anyone, looking forward. But looking back at the scant crunch time minutes he has played this season, thanks to that big 3 in Toronto and all those free throws, Lin has called his own number a ton, and has nevertheless scored efficiently.

Don't be surprised if he keeps putting it on himself to create Knick points late.

Ask any superstar, though, and they'll tell you that would be surprising is if he can maintain that 58 percent true shooting percentage with a high usage rate if and when the whole defense starts tilting his way.

• This is big. John Hollinger (Insider) trots out data showing that while it's hard to find evidence teams consistently perform well in crunch time on offense, there is much more evidence that their late-game defensive performances are not random. In other words, you might really be bad, and not just a victim of small sample size theater, getting late stops. Even more fascinating, one of this year's best defensive teams, the Sixers, is miserable playing defense in crunch time, and was last year too.
• Rob Mahoney of the Two Man Game on Lamar Odom: "Lamar Odom was entirely reduced to being a spot-up guy. Not a spot-up shooter -- just a spot-up guy. He parked himself on the perimeter -- spacing the floor in theory, I suppose -- for entire possessions at a time, and didn’t get all that many touches as a result. I want so badly to take it easy on Odom, but this is getting ridiculous; Rick Carlisle has given him miles of leeway, and yet 43 games into the season we have yet to see any kind of sustained spark. Inconsistency is one thing, but Odom’s lack of effort -- in a matchup in which he had everything to prove, no less – is completely pitiful. I won’t fault another man for dealing with his problems in whatever way he wishes, but I will say that this particular man is playing a brand of basketball so apathetic as to be altogether disrespectful to an organization that had embraced him as one of their own."
• Know where the Grizzlies got the inspiration to sign Gilbert Arenas? According to GM Chris Wallace on Chris Vernon's radio show, from this blog post from TrueHoop Network blog 3 Shades of Blue.
• What a difference a point guard can make for the Lakers.
• Royce Young of Daily Thunder on how the Thunder beat the Clippers: "It helps that the Clippers are a seriously poor defensive team. If you don’t like the Thunder’s defensive sense of urgency on the ball, then shield your eyes from the Clips. Because they seem to give you just about whatever you want."
• The Spurs are fantastic. Consider yourselves warned, again.
• There are all kinds of reasons to love Kyrie Irving's game. One of them has been that "... and he's only 19!" but that reason is going away with his birthday.
• Stephon Marbury is getting closer to his first title.
• Kenny Anderson has a candy strategy.
• I have been wondering the same thing myself: Why does MarShon Brooks sit so much?
• If you find yourself thinking of David Stern as anti-player, realize you are at odds with David Halberstam.
• JaVale McGee wins a game for the Nuggets. Who's laughing now? A few points, though: It was almost illegal for McGee to touch that ball, which is a little crazy. An inch or two here or there, and he has to just watch it bounce around the rim. Surely, we prefer to watch him dunk the game-winner, right? Also, watch Greg Monroe, the Piston who was trying to keep McGee off the glass. What happened there? Something happened, that's for sure.
• The Rockets are the opposite of tanking. Would be fun to see that work.
• Paul Silas is bitterly disappointed in the departed Boris Diaw. But let's be honest, as a player who helped the Bobcats earn a ton of lottery balls, Diaw is, perversely, perfectly in keeping with the organization's longer-term goals. Sad but true.
• The Bulls force the Raptors into a slew of long jumpers, and go on a decisive 20-0 fourth-quarter run.
• Whole mess of Euroleague playoff highlights.
• Mike Dunleavy is tearing it up. He plays for the Bucks, by the way.
• Tristan Thompson likes the condensed schedule, because he is young and likes playing games.

• Why are Warrior fans so fed up with Joe Lacob? Threatening to take the team to San Francisco, boasting but not backing it up, making some silly moves ...
• Been messing with NBA.com's new secret stats tool. There's a way to say this with numbers and everything, but cutting to the chase: Derrick Rose shoots much more efficiently when rested, and his shooting efficiency is a major factor determining whether or not the Bulls win. Also interesting: He shoots quite a lot on short rest, which reminds that I have heard David Thorpe say many times that the easiest play to make is taking a bad shot. Anything else is more work.
• Kevin Garnett denies the existence of any Jeff Teague.
• J.J. Hickson says things were bad from the start with the Kings (although he liked his teammates) and admits he is particularly interested in the Warriors and Suns.
• Too out of shape to play: Andray Blatche.
• A delightfully trippy map of NBA field goal percentage this season from different spots on the floor. At the rim, percentages are high, but just a step or two away, they plummet mightily.
• Qyntel Woods has a five-year plan.
• Why does everybody keep punching this horse?
• Stephon Marbury, going to great lengths to rewrite a happier ending for himself in China, where he's finally winning some postseason games.
• In honor of turning 30, Dwyane Wade allowed vegetables into his life.
• About nine minutes in is one of the most powerfully "dungeons and dragons" moments in NBA history.
• A very smart take on how "The Hunger Games" can teach us about small ball lineups that rebound well.
• Comedian Mike Birbiglia on SXSW: "The strange thing about 'South by Southwest' is that there are just too many bands. There are literally twenty four HUNDRED. You’ll be walking down the street and there’s a band playing next to another band. This morning I woke up to find a band playing in the mini fridge in my hotel. And that was a good slot! They were psyched to be there. The lead singer thanked me for coming out, and handed me a $9 Fresca."
• The book on JaVale McGee.
• Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game on the Nuggets' rotation: "It seems as though Rudy Fernandez (nine minutes, seemingly due to Gallinari and Miller’s injuries) and Chris Andersen (DNP-CD, even with McGee not playing a minute) may be the odd men out of the rotation in Denver. The additions of Wilson Chandler and McGee, coupled with the emergence of Faried, was going to throw some player or another for a loop; George Karl seems to have made the right choices (though one could certainly argue that Andersen deserves playing time over Timofey Mozgov or Kosta Koufos), but it’s a tough break nonetheless considering how important both of those players had been to the Nuggets’ earlier success."
• How Kobe Bryant plays defense, in words, numbers and pictures.
• I doubt the Magic front office will show Dwight Howard these graphs.
• The Thunder really miss Eric Maynor.
• Who will explain the difference between daylight savings in Washington D.C. and the Czech Republic? Jan Vesely will.
• The Bulls are living a dream, in many ways. Since Tom Thibodeau arrived, they almost never lose.