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Some key moments of Game 4 between the Clippers and Spurs were not basketball at all. And with bricklayers like DeAndre Jordan and Reggie Evans parading to the line, it was a decent reason to change the channel.

"I hate it," says Gregg Popovich, the Spurs coach who made the whole thing happen. "It's ugly. But it's something that's available."

What he's talking about is what used to be called "Hack-a-Shaq," where, instead of playing defense, or grabbing a rebound to get the ball back, a team simply fouls a horrible free throw shooter, often with the ball nowhere in the vicinity, and forces them to struggle through the freebies.

It should probably be called "Hack-whoever-Gregg Popovich-says-to-hack," these days, though, as the Spurs dominate this field.

And yet the coach who does it most hates it. Fans hate it. Players, surely, prefer to play, not hack. Surely this is no referee's idea of a game well played. Even David Stern is on record against it. In 2008, Stern railed against hack-a-Shaq tactics to ESPN.com's J.A. Adande, saying he didn’t like "the idea that, 'Hey, look at me, I'm going to hit this guy as soon as the ball goes into play, even though he's standing under the other basket.'"

If everybody hates it ... why would it ever happen?

Because -- as an unintended consequence of the current rules is that in certain situations -- breaking the rules in this precise way can give a team an advantage.

In other words, the rules made Gregg Popovich do it.

Imagine if the penalty for robbing a bank was that you had to give half the money back. The rules, in that situation, would essentially beg people to rob banks.

Change the rulebook, though, and you can say goodbye to this forever. Nobody will miss it.

How to change the rulebook?

We're open to ideas. But here's a basic principle to consider: Breaking the rules should never help your team. If teams are breaking rules to gain an advantage, clearly the penalties are out of whack.

Now in basketball, there's something odd, that most sports don't have. We have a longstanding tradition of fouling intentionally to get the ball back. It happens late in almost every close game. Some of you might be thinking that any rule that eliminates Hack-a-Whoever would need to somehow preserve that.

To which we'd say: You sure about that?

One simple solution: Let fouled teams decide if they'd rather have the free throw, or the ball out of bounds. After any foul, Hack-a-Whoever or otherwise. You'd quickly have no reason to foul to get the ball back, because fouling would not get you the ball back. Then you'd also get a lot more games ending with a lot more basketball being played. And who's against that?

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LOS ANGELES -- This season didn’t truly begin until Chris Paul got involved in it. After countless days of long, closed-door meetings and rhetoric-soaked addresses, the announcement of a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement in the wee hours on a cold, late-November night was hailed across the Internet-tethered league instantaneously. But not until trade talks centering around shipping Paul out of the Bayou started up did it really feel like we had returned to the NBA we know and love, where the rumor is far mightier than the jumper.

After the splash, the Los Angeles Clippers never quite made the wall-to-wall-coverage-inducing impact some may have expected, never truly followed in the Miami Heat's footsteps and became the next great microwaved title contender. But almost every step of the way, Paul seemed to be there, even if it wasn’t always at the forefront.

There was Paul in the center of MVP discussions. There was Paul rising up out of nowhere to throttle Twitter feeds with his fourth-quarter explosions. There was Paul when his new team burst out of the gates. There was Paul having to fend off questions about his new team possibly imploding. There was Paul holding his adorable son in the postseason news conference.

But now here we are, just midway through May and with weeks’ worth of basketball left to play, watching Paul walk out of Staples Center one last time in his crisp designer wear, watching him glide away from the NBA for the summer without doing the one thing that, through it all, he ever expressed to give a damn about (besides his adorable son).

“Not really,” Paul said when asked if he took solace in any of the strides the Clippers had taken in his first year much farther west. “It’s cool in order to --. … I mean. I don’t know. I wanna win.”

They came as close as as they have to doing just that in the fourth of four games against the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs, an organization Paul, a master game manager, has lauded for their machine-like efficiency. After being blown off the court in two games in Texas, and having a monster run volleyed right back at them in Game 3, here the Clippers were, down one with 23.1 seconds left, with everything on the line, with the ball in the hands of the player that the team has orbited around since this whole Lob City Experience was set in motion.

After three straight rough outings, through dings and dents to most of his lower half, Paul finally looked like himself (23 points on 9-for-18, 11 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 turnovers), and looked to finish this off like he has so many times before to leave, if not a lasting impression, at least a reminder of his place in the league, his impact on a single team or game.

But after setting himself up at the top of the key and winding the clock down to just 16 seconds left, Paul sped in the paint, Danny Green suctioned to his right hip, barreled into the circle where two more defenders were waiting, lifted into the air, spun the ball around and around to avoid the limbs all over him and effectively finished his wild season-long ride with a Chris Paul cardinal sin: a turnover.

Not another crunch-time bucket or a pass to an open teammate, but a no-shot and a pass to no one in particular.

After one of two Green free throws extended the lead to two, Paul lofted up a runner in the left side of the paint before falling flat on his back, but this was off the mark too.

No trip back to San Antonio or reason to put Paul in the spotlight any longer. Just a 102-99 defeat, a 4-0 sweep, and another impressive victory by the seemingly unstoppable Spurs.

“I think that’s the toughest thing for me, as far as this game goes, to know that I had two opportunities,” Paul said. “We’ve been in that situation all season long. A lot of times I was able to come through. To let my team down in that situation is probably the toughest part of this season and something I’ll think about for a while.”

For the first time this series, Paul looked spry -- his cuts were sharp, his handle was careful (two turnovers after 16 through three games), his ability to wiggle and weave his way through traffic as on-point as it has ever been. Paul, who some say saves his best for the end, just let everything out.

“He has not had that extra burst that he usually has, that extra pop,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. “[But] we are not in the second round of the playoffs without Chris Paul. He gives you everything he has, all the time; he is as competitive as they come. I cannot say enough about everything he has brought to the team, the organization, to the city, and the fans in terms of competitiveness and what he brings on and off the court.”

But even the fiery point guard didn’t have enough in him. And even if he did, the Spurs and his injured legs had already done a number on his series: 3-for-13 shooting in Game 1, 8 turnovers in Game 2, 5-for-17 shooting in Game 3. Even if he had pulled a win out of a hip pocket, the odds of turning it all around, to turn the league upside sound again with a four-wins-in-four-days comeback were too big for even a star of Paul's stature.

Yet while Paul wasn’t up for a moral victory, is never up for a moral victory, the impact on teammates, on the franchise, on the NBA will surely have a lasting impact, even in the loss.

“Not only from the way he plays on the court -- that’s a given. Everybody sees how good he is and the things he does. But it’s when he comes and talks to you about a certain situation, you learn the game through his eyes and see what he sees," Blake Griffin said. "He’s constantly in communication with all the guys and that’s the way you get better, especially with somebody that’s going to have the ball in his hands for your team.

“He’s the quarterback out there, so for us to be on the same page is great. I learned a lot from him this year. Not only on the court, but the way he thinks about the game and how to approach certain situations.”

It’s not a win now, but, with a year-wiser Griffin by his side again, the odds of an even more Paul-centric season grows the closer we get to next fall.

LOS ANGELES -- The dais here in the bowels of Staples Center has lately served more as a stage for a budding stand-up routine than a postgame news conference.

In each of the Clippers’ two home wins in their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul dolled themselves up, sometimes in suits with more pieces than a Lego pack, and with Paul’s adorable son on his dad’s lap, they would begin rolling out yucks like they were auditioning for a buddy comedy.

But the vibe for Saturday’s postgame greeting with the media was about as funny as a funeral. A banged-up Griffin, who didn’t rise from his seat afterward so much as he slowly detached himself from it, even came dressed in a black jacket.

Paul, however, was nowhere to be found this time.

Just another time that CP3 has gone MIA in the Clippers’ second-round series with the Spurs.

“I don’t know what Chris will say, but I don’t know if he’s 100 percent Chris Paul,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after the Spurs took a commanding 3-0 series lead with a 96-86 victory.

Paul -- who skipped the bright lights and cameras for a good, old-fashioned media scrum in the Clippers’ locker room after another very non-#podiumgame (12 points on 5-for-17 shooting and 11 assists) in Game 3 -- swatted any concerns that the strained right hip flexor suffered over a week ago in Memphis, on top of other dings and dents he might have collected along the way, limiting his game.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Paul said. “I’m all good and well.”

But in general, he doesn’t disagree with Pop -- something’s not quite right.

“I’m just missing, I’m just missing,” he said. “It’s the toughest thing right now, but I’m fine [physically].”

While Griffin has gotten better offensively by the game, scoring 26 points on 62 percent shooting this time around after a 20-point performance in Game 2, Paul is averaging a very mortal-looking 9.3 points and 8.3 assists in 37 minutes per game. But Paul, who averaged 19.8 points and 9.1 assists a game in the regular season, isn’t one to always wow with his raw numbers. The proof that the league’s pre-eminent game manager is struggling can be found in his middling efficiency.

While he shot only 46 percent from the field in Round 1, Paul’s shooting percentage has dipped to 31 percent after a second game in the 20s. And while his showed more care of the ball after coughing it up eight times in Game 2, Paul already has totaled 16 turnovers.

Even in the fourth quarter, when he is supposed to be at his best, Paul hasn’t had much go right, as he’s shot just 2-for-8, with both makes coming in Game 3.

(Then again, there hasn’t been much to play for that late in the game these days.)

“Trying to, trying to,” Paul said when asked why he hasn’t made a Paul-like impact on the series. “But a lot of those shots in the lane and stuff like that, they're just coming up short, and missing.”

San Antonio was particularly effective limiting Paul’s impact on the pick-and-roll, the bread and butter of the point guard’s game. Paul was the ball handler on the pick-and-roll nine times in Game 3, according to data logged by Syngery Sports, and the Clippers came away with points on only three of those possessions.

The Spurs easily collapsed on Paul when he ran it early on with DeAndre Jordan, one of the team’s biggest offensive black holes among a patchwork post rotation. And while he had more success with Griffin as his partner, it often came off Paul pull-up jumpers from midrange, a shot the Spurs are likely OK with conceding.

Paul also struggled in isolation, missing all four attempts, perhaps a telling sign that the burst and quick-cutting ability that his game thrives on aren't where they should be.

“Chris is battling,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. “Chris is giving us everything he has. … We’re not in this position without Chris, in terms of being in the playoffs and everything he means to the team and this organization. He gives you everything he has.

“I’ll go to battle with him every day of the week.”

He’s still battling. Soon, though, there may not be much left to fight for.

“Devastating,” Paul said. “We had an opportunity to put this thing [to] 2-1. We let it get away. I’ve gotta play better. At the end of the day, I’ve got to play better. If not, we’re gonna be in trouble.”

The San Antonio Spurs extended their win streak to 17 games (dating to the regular season) in historic fashion.

In Game 3, San Antonio trailed by 22 points after the first quarter, 33-11. That deficit after the first 12 minutes of play is the largest overcome to win a playoff game in NBA history. The previous record was held by the 2008 Celtics, who trailed by 21 against the Los Angeles Lakers after the first quarter (35-14) in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Like Saturday, that game was also at the Staples Center.

The Spurs trailed by 24 points in the second quarter (40-16), making this the second-largest comeback win this postseason. In the first round, the Clippers erased a 27-point deficit in the third quarter of Game 1 against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Spurs comeback was highlighted by a 24-0 run in the third quarter. The Spurs made 10-of-15 field goals and did not commit a turnover in turning a 57-45 deficit into a 69-57 lead. The Clippers went 0-for-12 from the field during the Spurs run and were scoreless for eight minutes.

Four different Spurs scored during the run, led by nine from Tim Duncan. On the other side, five different Clippers missed at least one field goal attempt, including four by Blake Griffin.

The Clippers jumped out to a 24-point lead less than 15 minutes into the game, shooting better than 65 percent from the field (17-26). But over the final 33:17, the Clippers made just 20 field goals and missed nine of 14 free throws.

Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have played 52 minutes together in the series, and the Spurs have outscored the Clippers by 44 points.

Duncan finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds, the 134th double-double of his postseason career. Duncan now is three shy of Bill Russell for fourth on the all-time list.

The Spurs now are 7-0 this postseason, the first time in franchise history they have won their first seven games to start a postseason.

The lone bright spot for the Clippers was Griffin, who scored 20 of his game-high 28 points in the first half. He’s only the second different player to score at least 20 points in the first half of a playoff game in franchise history. Elton Brand did it twice during the 2006 postseason against the Phoenix Suns.

• A 12-year-old kid was suspended from school for having Matt Bonner's likeness shaved into his head. Bonner responded by giving him and his folks free tickets to Game 2 of the Spurs-Clippers series at the AT&T Center on Thursday night.
• There's a ton of insight to glean from Chris Ballard's tremendous profile on Tim Duncan in Sports Illustrated titled, "21 Shades of Gray." You can read about how Duncan isn't much of a Kevin Garnett fan, how Duncan first bonded with Gregg Popovich on the beach at St. Croix and how Stephen Jackson is "humbled" to count Duncan as a friend. Ballard also offers this very telling portrait of what happens when the Spurs call timeout: "When the Spurs call a timeout and you see the San Antonio coaches huddle a few feet from the bench, it's not to hash out strategy. Rather, Pop is giving Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker time with the team. 'You'll see Timmy over there with a young kid, talking about how he should do this or that or what we meant by such and such,' says Popovich. 'I'll come back to the timeouts sometimes and say, "Are we square?" and Timmy will say, "Yeah, we got 'em."' Popovich pauses. 'He commands that type of respect because he doesn't demand it, if that makes sense.'"
• Should Tim Duncan have been a more public celebrity over the course of his legendary career? Would the NBA and the Spurs been enriched had Duncan given us a deeper glimpse of both his interior and external life? Alex Dewey of Gothic Ginobili grapples with these questions and more.
• For years, Popovich has rationed the minutes of his most important players, readily sitting Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker during tough stretches of the schedule. In doing so, Popovich has raised eyebrows around the league and the ire of basketball populists who feel that the Spurs owe it to the ticket-paying public to put the best players on the floor. History sides with Popovich and you don't have to look much farther than the Spurs' current series with the Clippers -- a younger, sprightlier team -- to appreciate Popovich's strategy. But there's also an ancillary benefit to sitting Duncan, Parker and Ginobili periodically: It means that secondary guys get the ball in meaningful spots during games that matter.
• As Zach Lowe of The Point Forward documents in pictures, the Spurs' ability to stretch the floor, mastery of the misdirection, and constant movement have the Clippers' young big men twisted in knots.
• Bill Simmons at Grantland, on the Spurs: "Thank God for the Spurs, an offensive powerhouse that has single-handedly saved the playoffs from turning into a rockfight. They're headed for a second sweep while pacing the league in points per game (103.7), shooting (49.1 percent) and 3-point shooting (42.7 percent). It's the best version of international basketball we've ever seen -- the Spurs might as well be Argentina or Spain, only with superior players. Everything revolves around their slash-and-kick guys (Parker and Ginobili), their 3-point shooters (too many to count) and their versatile big men (Duncan, Diaw and Splitter, all of whom know where to go and what to do). And unlike Nash's high-scoring Suns teams from back in the day, San Antonio can also rebound and protect the rim, which makes them our single most dangerous playoff favorite since the 2001 Lakers. They aren't just beating teams, they're eviscerating them."
• Boris Diaw might best illustrate the strength of the Spurs' system and culture. Here's a guy who, as recently as 12 weeks ago, was a punch line for his conditioning and an irritant to Bobcats coach Paul Silas. Now he's the starting center for the title favorites. When you watch Diaw dig in defensively for the Spurs, it’s a reminder of what a dominant role effort plays in defensive makeup. Prior to landing on the Spurs' doorstep, Diaw hadn't played much defense in years, but here he is grinding away for Popovich in May. On the offensive end, Diaw passes with so much confidence, and his high-low deliveries to Duncan are a reminder of his refined skill set as a big man. Yet another instance of the R.C. Buford telling the league, “If you’re not going to use that guy, we’ll take him.” At 48 Minutes of Hell, Jesse Blanchard has more on Diaw.
• Timothy Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell: "You’ve heard me say it before, but the Spurs’ ability to attract a championship supporting cast was fueled by veterans who signed on for an opportunity to chase a championship alongside Tim Duncan. Duncan was the draw. Not the city of San Antonio. And never the promise of more money. It was always Tim Duncan. Not anymore. The draw is the opportunity to play in Gregg Popovich’s system. It’s Tony Parker. It’s Spurs culture. It’s Pop himself. It’s the confidence that the front office can always shore things up by adding a Gary Neal, Tiago Splitter or Kawhi Leonard. It’s the confidence that the front office will manage its books and never the saddle the team with a cancerous contract. It’s the confidence in the ability to improve through the internal development of guys like Danny Green. The Spurs have it figured out. Players understand this."
• Paul Garcia of Project Spurs on the quiet professionalism of rookie Kawhi Leonard, about whom Popovich once said, "He just does his work and goes home."
• Steve Perrin of SB Nation on Gregg Popovich, the Alchemist.
• Jordan Heimer and I shower the Spurs with much love on the most recent episode of The Clippers Podcast, presented by ESPN LA.

David Thorpe said from before The Decision that the Heat have three of the fastest players at their positions in the league, something they should exploit with inexpensive big men who can really run from rim to rim and athletes who can shoot 3s. You can find those guys in the D-League and Europe, and the Heat have a good environment to develop them. (Along those lines, Mario Chalmers and Joel Anthony have been very useful alongside the Heat's stars.)

But the Heat did nothing of the sort. Instead, they used one roster spot after another on guys who are old, slow or both. Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Juwan Howard. Mike Miller. Eddy Curry. James Jones. They all have redeeming qualities, but when you're shopping in the bargain bin, and err on the side of "old and proven," you get what you pay for. Mostly, you get "old."

Which hurts when youth, in this context, could be so valuable.

Now that Chris Bosh is hurt, the Heat have started Shane Battier. The negative effects of that go far beyond his missed 3s.

Consider an exchange in the second quarter.

First Battier had a lane to the hoop on the fast break. He was so unexplosive, however, that a trailing George Hill had time to catch up to him, run around him to get in position, and then jump and crush the layup right out of Battier's two-fisted grip before he could even get to rim height.

There are players in junior college right now who could have dunked that.

Meanwhile, Battier soon had an opportunity for revenge -- starting with good position as the Pacers' Paul George sailed to the rim. The best defense the Heat would offer the high-flying George came from a trailing Dwyane Wade. As you can see in this photo, if Battier did jump, he should probably tell people he didn't.

None of which is to say that Battier is to blame for the loss, because just about every Heat player had his bad moments. But that the Heat are at such an athletic deficit is striking and need never have happened. Roy Hibbert need not so dominate the paint. Dwyane Wade, pressing to find buckets, need not find so many seams closed down by longer, faster Pacers.
Indiana, meanwhile -- loaded with athletes, despite the ground-bound David West -- is well-built to expose Pat Riley's over-reliance on old guys.

Which led me to wondering: Are the Pacers the most athletic team around these days? I'm not really talking about how high a guy can jump or how fast he can run, or who'd win a draft combine. I'm talking about teams that deploy explosive athleticism -- like Hill circling Battier for the stuff -- the most. It's about how frequently in a game a team succeeds with explosive speed, jumping ability and the like.

I present my hastily assembled, entirely subjective rankings of the eight remaining teams:

1. PACERS With Wade less explosive last night, among Heat players it's possible only LeBron James could have hung with Hill, George, Danny Granger, Darren Collison and Leandro Barbosa in a footrace. Tyler Hansbrough and Louis Amundson never stop moving. Even Roy Hibbert is active for a player of his size. Other than David West, the entire team is a blur.

2. THUNDER Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka are off-the-charts. They are athletic as hell and show it almost every play. Kevin Durant, Thabo Sefolosha ... youth is handy. This team is not at the top of the list, though, because they also feature Derek Fisher.

3. SIXERS Andre Iguodala is a ridiculous athlete. Jrue Holiday, Louis Williams and Thaddeus Young are up there. A knock on Evan Turner at draft time is that he is not athletic, but he is young, strong and feisty. This team could play more athletically and top this list. But, alas, there is a price to pay for playing a brutally slow pace and starting Elton Brand.

4. HEAT When the big three are healthy, it's a different story. But now that the bench is on parade, it's compromise city.

5. SPURS I know! They start Tim Duncan and Boris Diaw, both of whom prefer to never jump. But Tony Parker uses speed play after play, and Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Gary Neal are high energy. There's a reason this is the highest-paced team of the bunch.

6. CLIPPERS Healthy, this is all different. Blake Griffin could eat this contest for breakfast. But he's not 100 percent, and neither is Chris Paul. Few centers do what DeAndre Jordan can do athletically. Kenyon Martin is still plenty active, and Eric Bledsoe can fly.

7. CELTICS Kevin Garnett doesn't look old. Rajon Rondo is a blur and has the ball constantly, which creates a lot of chances for speed to matter. Avery Bradley helps. But by and large these are players who win without too much running, jumping and winning physical challenges.

8. LAKERS If you accept David Thorpe's assertion that Metta World Peace has lost all lateral quickness, then not even the role players are helping the athleticism deficit created by building a team around skill, size and veteran moxie.

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:

Today we bring you not one, not two, but three egregious flops from two of the game's finest players.

LeBron James is the most dominant athlete in the NBA, capable of leveling an entire team with an inspired run of unstoppable drives to the rim. So his willingness to exaggerate contact tends to drive fans nuts. Last night James found himself trapped against the sideline with David West and Danny Granger closing in on him. Out of any other options, and unprompted by contact, he essentially fell out of bounds (video) to preserve possession.

It happened right in front of ESPN's Mike Tirico, who called LeBron's performance "an extraordinary swan dive."

Not to be outdone, Tony Parker proved to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin that when it comes to flopping they still have much to learn. Parker's first flop came when a nudge from Chris Paul sent him careening to the floor (video).

The call was a big one -- it put Paul on the bench with three first half fouls.

But his best flopping work (Video) of the night came just 20 seconds later, and at the expense of Blake Griffin.

After chasing down a loose ball in the back court, Parker had only a handful of seconds to recover possession and get off a shot before the shotclock expired. Wary of this fact, Griffin chased him along the sideline to force Parker to use up the clock.

Instead, Parker used Blake's effort to draw a foul and rescue the possession.

With the benefit of replay, ABC play-by-play man Dan Shulman explained that instead of being fouled, "Tony Parker initiated that contact. He grabbed the arm of Blake Griffin, and made it look like he was being grabbed."

But the official who made the call was trailing the play, and only saw Parker's "reaction," not the shenanigans that prompted his wild flailing.

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

• Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News: Tony Parker made the most of his birthday with an impressive offensive and defensive effort in the Spurs’ 105-88 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Not only did he produce a game-high 22 points and dish off five assists, but his defensive effort against Chris Paul was his most impressive of the playoffs. Parker’s harrassment limited Paul to 10 points and forced him into a career-worst eight turnovers. ... The major reason was Parker’s defense. ... Parker credited his teammates as much for containing Paul as any individual effort. “I’m trying to just do my best, to contain him and make him take hard shots,” Parker said. “It’s not just me, it’s team defense and it’s everybody being focused on Chris and making sure he doesn’t get going.” The Spurs’ defense on Paul is the biggest reason the Spurs have jumped to a quick 2-0 lead. And the major cause has been their 30-year-old point guard, still looking as spry and athletic as he did when he was a teenager.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Now the Clippers return to Los Angeles down 2-0 to a Spurs team that finished with the best regular-season record in the NBA and has now won 16 straight games - including six in the postseason. "We can't put our heads down," Clippers guard Chris Paul said. "We're not playing a bunch of scrubs. They're a good team. They've been here before." And right now they are schooling the Clippers, who return home for two games on successive days at Staples Center hoping to avoid a sweep. But knowing they face a experienced, championship-winning team well-versed in how to suffocate a staggering opponent. And yes, the Clippers are staggering right now. No one more so than Paul, who has been forced into 13 turnovers in two games - including a career-high eight in Game 2. He refuses to blame the right hip flexor and right groin injuries he's dealing with as an excuse - "I just have to make better passes," he said - but it's obvious he isn't close to 100 percent. Worse, the Clippers inability to run an effective pick-and-roll - they lack a big man who can consistently hit a 15-footer - allows the Spurs to drop back defensively and limits what Paul can do in the half-court game. "Everyone knows we're not a pick-and-pop shoot team," Paul said. "So they're just packing it in." And the Clippers have yet to figure out a way to pry the Spurs out of the paint. No, the Clippers aren't completely down, but they are clearly reeling.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: The Pacers removed any doubt that there would be a letdown in the third quarter. Paging Wade. Paging Wade. Has anybody seen Dwyane Wade? And that might have been the best crowd I’ve seen at the fieldhouse in my seven-plus years of the covering the Pacers. I know I said that last round, but the crowd continues to get better. The third quarter is the magic quarter for the Pacers. They’ve outscored Miami 54-26 in that quarter in the past two games. Wade was brutal Thursday. He finished 2-of-13 from the field and also had a nasty exchange with his coach. The Heat are starting to come apart. It’s time for the Pacers to pounce on them and not let them get up. The Pacers and the crowd have to be just as good in Game 4 on Sunday afternoon as they were in Game 3. Do that, and the Pacers will be one win away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2004. Something tells me coach Frank Vogel will remind his team that once they step on the court for practice Saturday afternoon.
• Greg Cote The Miami Herald: Coach Erik Spoelstra approached Dwyane Wade during a timeout, as if to place his hand on the player’s shoulder. “Get out of my [expletive] face!” Wade snapped. This is the state of the Heat today — angry, beaten and wondering what to do now — after Thursday night’s 94-75 loss that gave the Indiana Pacers a 2-1 lead in this best-of-7, second-round series. Spoelstra downplayed the outburst by Wade, like you knew he would. “That happens,” the coach said. “That really is nothing. That’s the least of our concerns.” If so, that, too, is indicative of a team reeling and seemingly at a loss for answers. Wade’s frustration was understandable after perhaps the worst night of his stellar career. Has anyone seen Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr.? Black male, 6-3. D.O.B 1-17-82. No visible tattoos but often seen wearing a No. 3 basketball jersey. Mr. Wade is missing. His shots are, anyway. And largely because of that, it now looks as if his team is in jeopardy of disappearing from these playoffs as surely as his shooting touch has. ... If LeBron James were shooting as awfully as Wade is in this series, he would be on a national rotisserie, being turned slowly by a hungrily salivating media brandishing sharp knives. Wade tends to get a pass because even he is eclipsed now by the shadow of James, the league MVP. But Wade’s shoulders are broad enough and his skin thick enough to take the truth: His poor shooting is costing Miami about as dearly right now as the injury absence of Chris Bosh.
• Tom Moore of phillyBurbs.com: Lost in the midst of the 76ers’ 107-91 Game 3 drubbing was a fine performance from reserve forward Thaddeus Young. Young, who had been mired in a seven-game playoff slump since a solid Game 1 against the Bulls, scored a team-high 22 points on 10-for-16 shooting in 26 minutes versus the Celtics on Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center. ... Young hadn’t scored more than eight points in his previous seven postseason games, averaging 5.6 points on 12-for-36 shooting (33.3 percent), after he contributed 13 points in the opener against Chicago. Young had difficulty with the athleticism of the Bulls’ Taj Gibson in the first round and wasn’t a factor in the two one-point contests against Boston after spraining his ankle in Game 1. On Wednesday, Young looked much more like the guy who averaged 12.8 points and shot 50.7 percent in the regular season. ... The task for the Sixers on Friday (8 on ESPN) is to play better than in Game 3 so another Young outing like Wednesday’s could potentially make a difference in the outcome and even the series at 2-2.
• Frank Dell’Apa of The Boston Globe: Rajon Rondo is not sure what the 76ers are going to throw at him in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Friday night. But he is prepared for the unexpected. “I’m sure they’ll make their adjustments,’’ Rondo said. “Evan Turner’s been checking me - that’s not a normal matchup. So I’m sure they’ll make a change - maybe, maybe not. Not necessarily the matchup between Evan Turner and I. But maybe the defense will shrink a lot more. “Who knows? But we’ll be ready. I’ll be ready.’’ Stopping Rondo, or at least slowing him down, is becoming a major obstacle for the Sixers. In the last two games, Rondo has produced 27 assists with two turnovers, a ratio that indicates he is approaching these games with greater focus. Before Game 2 of this series, Rondo had 76 assists and 25 turnovers in the playoffs. Sixers coach Doug Collins noted that Rondo seems able to take the ball wherever he wants on the court and that “he controlled the game’’ as the Celtics took a 107-91 victory in Game 3 Wednesday.
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: The Thunder scored 42 more points in Game 1 (119) than in Game 2 (77), and astonishingly was victorious both times against the Los Angeles Lakers. How does OKC return to triple-digits Friday at 9:30 p.m. in Game 3 of the Western Cofnerence semifinals at Staples Center? Better shooting is an obvious place to start: The Thunder shot 53.0 percent from the field in Game 1, but 42.0 percent in Game 2. Taking care of the ball is another: OKC had just four turnovers in Game 1, but 13 in Game 2. Second-chance points add up: The Thunder had 21 second-chance points and 13 offensive rebounds in Game 1, but managed just four second-chance points and six offensive boards in Game 2. Getting to the free-throw line helps: OKC made 24 of 29 free throws in Game 1, but 13 of 16 in Game 2. The Lakers also dictate what the scoreboard reads.
• Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: If the Lakers wanted to leave the end of Game 2 in Oklahoma City behind them, it wasn’t made any easier by people getting nasty toward Steve Blake, who missed the team’s last shot while down by one point. Blake’s wife, Kristen, posted to her Twitter account one message that said, in part: “I hope your family gets murdered.” “It’s pretty disappointing,” Steve Blake said Thursday. “There’s a lot of hateful people out there.” Blake said he has gotten plenty of support within the team for his missed shot. For his part, he said it was “time to move on” and “make up for it.” Kobe Bryant said, “Of course!” in response to a question Thursday about whether he wanted to take that last shot. But he also agreed with a reporter, saying Metta World Peace made a “sound decision” to pass to the more open Blake. “Nobody else was open,” World Peace said. “Steve was the only one open. … I trust everybody on our team.” After watching the replay several more times, Lakers coach Mike Brown wavered from his postgame take that Bryant was “wide-open” on the far side of the court on the play. Brown said Thursday that World Peace “made the right decision” despite pointing out that perhaps Andrew Bynum could’ve been fed as he cut toward the basket in the paint, having gotten in front of Kendrick Perkins.

• Isn't it time for James Harden to get his own shoe? And should it be modeled on this?
• Video of the 9-0 run that sealed Game 2 for the Thunder.
• John Hollinger argues that R.C. Buford should have been Executive of the Year (Insider). The trade Buford made with Larry Bird (who won the award) that sent George Hill to Indy for Kawhi Leonard is just one example of Buford's unappreciated brilliance: "That's a solid move for Indy, and for the chunk of the league's GMs that just throw stuff at the wall and hope something sticks, that's about as deeply as they saw it. But for San Antonio, I don't think people realize what a spectacularly good trade this was. Not just because it gave the Spurs a defender at the 3 who proved better than people expected, but because of the cap ramifications. Leonard is on a rookie contract and will make $1.8 million, $1.9 million and $2.9 million in the coming three seasons; Hill, meanwhile, will re-sign a somewhere between $5 and $7 million a pop as a restricted free agent. Over the next three seasons the Spurs will save about $12 million as a result of making this trade, without losing anything on the court."
• Meanwhile, ClipperBlog's Charlie Widdoes doesn't understand why Clippers GM Neil Olshey didn't win EOY: "The Clippers made a bigger improvement this year than the Pacers, and no one can question that they did so because they got Chris Paul. When you get a player of that caliber and the move works as planned, history says you get rewarded with the Executive of the Year award. It doesn’t matter how it happened, when LeBron James signed with the Heat, Pat Riley won the Executive of the Year award. In my mind, when you get Chris Paul, every other executive has to top that."
• Even after Duncan retires, the Spurs will be good for as long as Gregg Popovich and his system are in place.
• The Celtics clamped down on their pick-and-roll defense in Game 3.
• Chris Bosh's absence puts a strain on LeBron James, and reveals just how terrible the Heat's top role players have been.
• Do fans in Indiana have the swag to pull this off?

• Mike Meister, founder and head coach at the Thunder Sports Institute, e-mails a question some stat geek may be able to address: "Looking at how the Thunder made their comeback reinforces what I teach my teams: Players love to practice halfcourt shots or running 3s, but mine get chewed out for it all the time. My experience with almost 70 teams and my own playing experience is that you win more games with layups and free throws than you will with jumpers, especially 3s. I don't have access to Synergy or Elias, but I scanned through articles and tend to find more instances of this trend. My question, which maybe will be something you would look into anyway, is: Are more NBA games won on free throws and layups than on jumpers? Especially deeper mid-range and 3s. I know overall for the game, yes, but just looking at crunch time scoring and maybe especially the last two minutes."
• What can the Clippers do to slow down the Spurs offense? Perhaps they'll try to make Boris Diaw a scorer.
• So Bill Laimbeer and Isiah Thomas walk into a diner ...
• We noted on Wednesday that the Lakers and Thunder don't draw a lot of charges. (TrueHoop reader Michael's great point: Teams with quality rim protectors, like these two, don't have to resort to charges to stop layups and dunks.) Charges are not the same as flops. But they are prime opportunities to flop. And sure enough, there won't be a Flop of the Night today, for the simple reason that after a night of Sixers, Celtics, Lakers and Thunder, we can't find clear video of an obvious flop. Now, if history is any precedent, tonight's action, which includes the Heat, Clippers and Spurs, will feature plenty.
• The Brooklyn Nets logo has roots in old New York City subway signs.
• Has Sebastian Telfair found a home in Phoenix?
• Grantland's Michael Kruse digs deep into why we don't have ads on jerseys: "Tradition is an incomplete explanation. That $370 million sits fat like a hanging curve. It takes a special kind of credulity to think owners of teams in major American sports who are so resolute in all manners of revenue extraction simply shrug their shoulders here because of some particular reverence for convention. Ads on jerseys will unsettle the fans? They will not. It'll be like new Facebook or something, when everybody bellyaches for about 10 minutes and then it's just Facebook. We'll get used to ads on jerseys, and fast, and the owners know this. Because we always do. Because we get used to things like the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl and extra points getting kicked into not just a net but an Allstate ad. That's a Coors Light Cold Hard Fact. So what's really the reason for this country's faux-prudish reluctance to put ads on jerseys?"
• How one man learned to love the Spurs.
• Chris Paul and Eric Bledsoe have been a tremendous combination in the playoffs, and were in the regular season too ... so why don't they play together more?
• Rashard Lewis made $23,336 per minute of basketball played this year.
• SI's Zach Lowe on James Harden's role in Oklahoma City's end-of-game offense: "Oklahoma City players attempted 120 shots in the regular season during games in which the scoring margin was three points or fewer in the last three minutes of regulation and overtime. Durant and Westbrook took 103 of those shots, per NBA.com. Harden took five. He made one. James Harden, Sixth Man of the Year and likely All-Star next season, made one basket the entire season in the last three minutes of a close game. He has already taken five such shots in six postseason games, compared to six attempts for Durant. This is a sea change happening instantly, a strategic switch so dramatic you almost wonder if Scott Brooks has been waiting all season to unleash Harden on unsuspecting defenses.
• Thunder fans react positively to their Game 2 win. (Via @Okastro)
• Wait, left-handed Greg Monroe is actually right-handed?

• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: What Oklahoma City did in those final 120 seconds was nothing short of sensational — especially given the style of play this ballgame had been in the first 46 minutes. The Thunder stormed back from a late seven-point deficit to steal a 77-75 win in Game 2 on Wednesday night inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. With the narrow victory, the Thunder preserved home-court advantage and took a 2-0 series lead as this Western Conference semifinal now shifts to Los Angeles for Games 3 and 4. Maybe by the time the team lands in L.A., the Thunder will have regained a morsel of its offensive rhythm from Game 1. Wednesday was nothing more than a slugfest, and it was Kevin Durant who delivered the final haymaker, getting a friendly roll on a baseline runner for the go-ahead bucket with 18.6 seconds remaining. Durant's favorable bounce was reminiscent of the shot he willed in against Dallas in the opening game of this playoff run. It was a fitting end to a fabulous final stretch for Durant and the Thunder.
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times: The Lakers can't recover from this loss. ... the Lakers threw their season away by missing a prime opportunity to steal Game 2. The Lakers won't get swept. They provided a good blueprint moving forward on how to beat the Thunder. But it's not going to matter. Oklahoma City has this series locked up now that it's leading 2-0. The psychological disappointment in squandering a seven-point lead with two minutes remaining will be too overwhelming. It's presumptuous to think the Thunder will shoot 42% from the field and score only 12 third-quarter points again. And Oklahoma City has even more confidence now that it can have its way with the Lakers even in an ugly game it should've lost.
• Ron Borges of the Boston Herald: Long before anyone was in the gym last night, Paul Pierce shot alone. His eyes were locked on the rim, his jaw set. He spoke to no one. He was a professional preparing to make a point. After 14 minutes he let loose one last bomb from out of bounds and it dropped through the net without touching the rim. He turned and walked away silently, sure of what was to come, which turned out to be a savage beating of the Philadelphia 76ers and a reminder to his critics that while his left knee may be aching he can still be a pain to deal with. By the end of the night the Celtics had gone up 2-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 107-91 win at the Wells Fargo Center that was nowhere near that close, a victory that snatched back homecourt advantage less than 48 hours after it had been lost at the Garden. ... “I just wanted to be aggressive and that’s it,” Pierce said after scoring 24 points, launching 17 shots, grabbing 12 rebounds and going 11-of-14 from the free throw line. “When I’m getting limited to seven shots, nine shots, that’s not me. Whether I was shooting well or not, I was going to be aggressive.” ... Pierce is smart enough to know the leg he’s dragging around isn’t going to be suddenly rejuvenated so he denies the problem, saying last night, “I feel good. I felt good all series.” Then he plots alone, searching for something that will free him not from the pain but from its repercussions, especially the mental ones that can take away your aggressiveness until your game is unrecognizable. That’s the truth these days for Paul Pierce but the consequences may yet be paid by the 76ers, as they were last night, because he’s still fighting for his shot ... and for his team.
• Phil Sheridan of The Philadelphia Inquirer: The Celtics may have knee problems and foot problems and ankle problems. They may be sore and achy and stiff-legged. But they are still a team with a championship pedigree, a team with legitimate superstars. They were not about to panic after two close games in Boston. If anything, they looked annoyed as they swatted the Sixers, 107-91, Wednesday night. It was just one basket among many. But everything about this game was in a dunk by Paul Pierce in the first quarter. The Celtics' mainstay had missed a couple of layups. His sore knee had left him looking slow and old through the first two games. Now he came driving down the lane, fire in his eyes, and slammed the ball angrily. "That's who he is," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. From that dunk on, the Celtics outscored the Sixers by 20. There is no way to know from Game 3 whether the Celtics have awakened, realized the Sixers could actually win this series and snatched control, or whether Boston emptied its fuel tanks Wednesday night. Game 4 will be the acid test. If the Celtics can rebound with another effort like that in 48 hours, the Sixers are in trouble. Big trouble.
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: Clippers forward Blake Griffin jumped over a car to win the dunk contest at the 2011 All-Star Game. Spurs forward Boris Diaw would be hard-pressed to jump over a bicycle. Somehow, the relatively earthbound Diaw managed to minimize Griffin’s effect on Game 1 of the Spurs-Clippers Western Conference semifinal. Griffin needed 17 shots to score 15 points. He had only two offensive rebounds among the nine he grabbed in 28 minutes and 24 seconds. Diaw, who grabbed a playoff career-high 12 rebounds, did his best to keep Griffin from getting close enough to the basket to dunk. “Well, it’s not easy, of course,” Diaw said. “Everybody knows him, the way he’s playing. He’s very athletic, so I try to take some stuff away from him. The main thing with him is to try and keep him outside the paint because as soon as he’s in the paint, he can dunk from anywhere. So try to keep him out.” Griffin is nursing a strained ligament in his left knee, so his edge in athleticism over Diaw has diminished, but he acknowledged Diaw’s bulk made it difficult for him to maneuver in Tuesday’s game.
• Dan Woike of The Orange County Register: After the Clippers lost by 18 points to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night, Chris Paul’s two-year old son told his father that he played a good game. Paul didn’t waste a minute correcting him. “No, bad game,” he said. “Daddy had a bad game. Daddy couldn’t make a shot.” After an extensive film session and a short practice Wednesday, Paul’s assessment of his Game 1 performance didn’t change. “We played hard last night, but we didn’t play effective. That’s probably me,” he said. “I didn’t play effective. I’ve got to come out and have a better game.” Paul finished with just six points on 3-of-13 shooting as the Clippers lost, 108-92. Paul did have 10 assists, but he turned the ball over five times. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said Paul’s strained right hip might be hampering the point guard, but Paul insists he is “fine.” ... While Del Negro wants Chris Paul to be “Chris Paul,” the hip injury probably won’t allow for that to happen every time down the court. “He’s got to pick his spots, I think,” Del Negro said. “He’s not healthy enough to be as aggressive as he would like on either end of the floor.”
• Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post: There were plenty of hot topics to debate as the Heat-Pacers series shifted to Indiana for Thursday night's Game 3, ranging from whether Miami was relying on LeBron James too much or not enough. There also was plenty of talk about how no one on the Heat other than James and Dwyane Wade managed to score more than five points Tuesday night, but that was so damning it wasn't up for debate. Too much LeBron James. Or not enough. A "taxing" amount of energy spent by James battling the big men. Too much energy spent by the Indiana Pacers celebrating a big win. Those were some of the hotly debated talking points as the Heat-Pacers series, which is tied at 1-1, shifted from Miami to Indianapolis for Thursday night's Game 3. Oh, there also was plenty of talk about how no one on the Heat other than James and Dwyane Wade managed to score more than five points Tuesday night, but that is so damning it wasn't up for debate. Neither, however, is this: If the Heat's shooters stay as cold as they've been in the series, which is tied 1-1, the speedway won't be the only Brickyard in Indianapolis. The Heat's scoring average has plummeted by 8.4 points per game from the regular season, down to 85.0 against Indiana, and Miami's field-goal percentage has dropped from 43.2 to 37.7.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: The Indiana Pacers could be satisfied right now. They beat the Heat in Miami in Game 2 on Tuesday to gain home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Pacers don't look at it that way, though. Their sights are set on higher things. They know that Tuesday's win that evened the playoff series at one game each won't mean anything if they don't protect their home court, starting tonight in Game 3 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Game 4 is Sunday afternoon, also at the fieldhouse. "Now the pressure is on us, I think," Pacers forward Danny Granger said. "Two games on our home court. Home-court advantage is switched in the seven-game series." It only takes a monster scoring game from LeBron James or Dwyane Wade or a poor offensive showing for the Pacers to lose that edge. But if they hold court, the Pacers know -- even though they won't talk about it -- that they'll be on their way to the Eastern Conference finals. If they get past Miami, they would start the next round with home-court advantage, too. The Pacers are 25-11 at home this season, including 2-1 in the playoffs.

• SI's Chris Ballard on Tim Duncan: "O.K., it's a toss-up as to how this will make you feel about Duncan: Did he once invite a bunch of teammates to a paintball course even though most had never played paintball? Perhaps. Did Duncan then stack his team with ringers and bring his own high-powered paintball gun? Maybe. Did he give certain players such as Danny Ferry guns that, according to Ferry, were bent and shot six feet to the left every time"? There's a chance. And did Duncan then take great delight in hunting down his teammates, chasing the pale, balding, shorts-wearing Ferry until he was in close range, at which point Duncan unleashed a hail of water-soluble hellfire upon the man? It's possible." The story appears in the May 21 issue of Sports Illustrated.
• Congratulations to Larry Bird on winning Executive of the Year. Things looked bleak in Indiana for a while, but he has helped build a very dangerous team in a small market and without a top-9 draft pick that has a real chance to get all the way to the NBA Finals. Impressive.
• John Hollinger (Insider) on the 76ers dynamic bench: "Philly is a sneaky team because its starters aren't the ones that beat you. The Sixers' first five is a big fat plus-2 for the playoffs; it's when Allen (plus-23) and Lou Williams (plus-27) come in that the Sixers have been able to gain an advantage against opponents' subs, and with Boston's weak bench that figures to continue." This post also includes a few points about some very un-veteran decisions by the C's in crunch time.
• A small lineup could give Rajon Rondo more scoring opportunities. The Celtics certainly need the points.
• President Obama was at my favorite sandwich shop today, but missed out when he didn't order the chicken cutlet.
• A picture of Mario Chalmers being hit on the shooting elbow during his last-second shot.
• Andrew Han of ClipperBlog with a great description of what the Spurs can do to a defense: "Do you know how Clipper fans have fallen in love with watching Chris Paul probe a defense all season? That probing is basically engrained in the design of the Spurs offense. It stretches and manipulates the Clippers defense until it yields a breakdown. Jordan Heimer mentioned as much on last night’s ClipperBlog Live. At one point he paused the game after a wide-open Spurs 3-pointer to see who had failed to rotate to the shooter. Except that the defense had so thoroughly been torqued that almost every Clipper defender was out of position."
• Some crave the rough and tumble atmosphere of playoff hoops. But it doesn't always make for the most exciting games.
• LeBron James stacked up the stats playing power forward in Game 2, but on Heat Index Tom Haberstroh wonders about the cost: "James amassed 28 points, nine rebounds, six steals and five assists in 40 minutes in Game 2 while also playing significant time at power forward guarding David West. As impressive as that stat line may be, James was noticeably passive in the final minutes, not to mention that he missed two critical free throws. Was he tired? That's a question only he knows the answer to, but before Tuesday's game James expressed some reservations about playing power forward full-time in Bosh's absence. He stopped short of saying he had concerns about fatigue. "I wouldn't say 'concerned'," James said. "But hopefully I can get a few minutes here, a few minutes there (to rest), especially in the playoffs. I understand that 40 minutes in the playoffs is different than 40 minutes in the regular season. It's just how it is."
• When the Heat go small, Danny Granger needs to play big.
• It sounds like Ramon Sessions is going to be spending time checking Russell Westbrook in Game 2. That's fine, but it doesn't really matter who guards Westbrook if the Lakers big men don't improve their pick-and-roll defense.
• Dwyane Wade to Paul George: You reach, I teach.
• It doesn't look good for the Clippers against the Spurs, but that doesn't keep Eric Bledsoe from shining.
• Seattle is one step closer to getting a new NBA arena.
• SI's Zach Lowe doesn't want anyone pointing fingers at Erik Spoelstra for the Heat's inability to execute late in games: "Every team tends to look better on offense coming out of timeouts, but the gap in quality between Miami’s out-of-timeout offense and the rest of its stuff is significant. The Heat need to be better when Spoelstra and the coaching staff aren’t there to baby-sit every play."
• Speaking of which, here's a positive review of the Heat's crunch time plays from HoopSpeak and one from Grantland.
• Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan wearing their serious faces.
• Kevin Pelton does a good job of getting both feet outside the restricted area.
• The Spurs disarmed the Clippers favorite plays in Game 1.

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:

It was a rough night of flopping for Manu Ginobili. First, he was unable to inspire the referees to tweet -- though Twitter was noisy enough -- when he flailed on a first quarter 3-point attempt (Video).

It was the type of call Ginobili is famous for getting -- which might be why he couldn't sell it this time. As Eric Bledsoe reached in, Ginobili ripped the ball to his shot pocket and struck a distorted pose, like he wanted to shoot the ball but forgot how.

The officials' response: Silence.

Later in the game, Ginobili was even burned by one of his old tricks (Video) when Caron Butler drew a charge by stepping into Manu's path as he released a kickout pass. This sneaky play -- where the defender takes the charge after the driving player has already passed off -- is a pet peeve of many fans and has even shown up in a HoopIdea Five for Friday care of @ShotDrJr.

By the time Manu makes contact with Butler -- who appears to still be moving when he gets the call -- he has almost entirely stopped his forward momentum. But that doesn't stop Butler from flying backward and earning the call instead of flying out to the 3-point line to close out Kawhi Leonard. And that's your Flop of the Night.

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

As Dave McMenamim reported on ESPN LA, Kobe Bryant says he is against flopping and does not intentionally take charges.

"We got a couple guys that take charges, but for the most part, the one guy that took a charge is now playing in Oklahoma," Bryant said of his longtime teammate Derek Fisher, who is now with the Thunder. "I don't take charges. Metta [World Peace] don't take charges. Steve [Blake] will take a charge every now and then, but most everybody else just stands up and plays."

Let it be noted that Pau Gasol has been known to take to the court in the name of drawing an offensive foul. But all in all, the Lakers are very much wallflowers in the NBA's flopping party.

"I don't flop," continued Bryant. "We all know what flopping is when we see it. The stuff that you see is where guys aren't really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water. That's kind of like, where are your balls at?"

Although Bryant makes clear charges and flops are not always synonymous, block/charge collisions are a particular hot spot for flopping. Bucks forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute recently estimated that "40 to 50 percent" of NBA charges are flops -- calls made based on the defender staging a theatrical reaction to minimal contact.

In fact, it’s worth questioning whether the entire concept of the block/charge call needs to be rethought: When a strategy leads to lots of collisions, lots of falling down (legitimate and illegitimate), lots of faking, lots of whistles, lots of stoppages of play, lots of arguments and lots of real and potential injuries, and is designed mostly to prevent our most dynamic scorers from making exciting plays, is that something basketball needs?

Hoopdata shows that the Lakers join the Thunder as the two teams taking the least advantage; they are 29th and 30th on the season, respectively, in drawing charges. With charge-taker Fisher in Oklahoma City, it's likely the current incarnation of the Lake Show is dead last. (And true to his word, Bryant takes very few charges -- according to Hoopdata, just two in as many years.)

This is great news for anyone who is eager to see an NBA with less flopping. Here we see that a team that has won lots of titles and a team projected to do the same are showing the game can be played in a fan-pleasing and effective way without manufactured theatrics. That's fantastic and strong support for the argument that curtailing flopping won't hurt basketball.

One concern, however: David Thorpe points out the Lakers are the worst team in the NBA, by a wide margin, when it comes to creating turnovers. Defensive flops are, of course, designed to do just that. It would take some in-depth analysis to make a case that the Lakers would be better if they flopped more, but it could be so -- which would send a disturbing message.

Indeed, despite what the Lakers and Thunder show us, it might be that flopping does pay for some teams, with Miami (fourth in charges drawn this season) near the top of the list, and the Spurs and Clippers undeniably in the mix.

It will take more than resolute players, those willing to "stand up and play," to stop the flop.

It's the NBA's move. The only wrong answer is doing nothing, especially with one of the NBA’s greatest superstars, the commissioner and fans all speaking out against flopping. Only the rulebook, implicitly, is for it.

But that can change.

• Greg Stoda of the Palm Beach Post: LeBron James can't keep doing this. It's too much to ask of even of him. Much too much. James has an incredible engine, but it's going to give out running at the rpm it's generating. James won't admit to fatigue - so, never mind admitting to exhaustion - and he'll give all he has to give to the Heat ... but he'll risk overheating in the process. And that will cook Miami. Indiana tied the second-round playoff series at a win apiece with a 78-75 victory Tuesday night in AmericanAirlines Arena, and in no manner was the Heat loss James' fault. He led Miami in points (28), rebounds (nine) and assists (five). He was a monster. But he played almost 43 minutes after having played a bit more than 43 minutes in a Game 1 victory - when he also led the Heat in points, rebounds and assists - and that won't work in the long term. The cumulative burden will get to be too much. And don't forget the mental strain and pressure under which James operates as a superstar without an NBA title nine years into his professional career. Know what Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told James late in the series' opening game, a 95-86 win? Here's what: "You can't get tired!" That's too harsh a demand.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: Dwyane Wade had to be kidding. No, really, tell me Wade was joking when he made a comment about the Pacers’ supposed celebration at the end of Game 2? “I heard they wanted to be like the Dallas Mavericks,” Wade said. “I saw their little celebration at the end of the game.” Celebration? I didn’t see a celebration. What I saw was a group of players congratulating each other on the court, then David West telling them to get off the court and head to the locker room because he knows they’ve still got some unfinished business. “We can’t get too excited because we won one game,” West said. “That is not our goal in this series. We can’t overreact because we were able to get one game down here.” Wade has no room to talk about anybody celebrating. Wade and LeBron are no doubt two of the best players in the world, but the Heat are at the top of the list of celebrating. They had a ceremony with smoke and everything else during a ceremony before the Big Three even played a game together in 2010. LeBron predicted the Heat would win numerous championships.
• Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News: Kawhi Leonard went for 16 points and six rebounds in 28 productive minutes in the Spurs’ 108-92 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, flashing his all-around skills that have been present throughout the season. “Yeah, I’m just having fun,” Leonard said. “It’s competitive basketball and I love the game and play hard every possession. I’m having fun with it.” For Leonard, Tuesday’s game was just an extension of the regular season. He hit shots from the perimeter, was a disruptive force on defense with three steals and even drew several turns defending Chris Paul as Gregg Popovich looked to confuse the Clippers’ best offensive player. “He seems to have a pretty good knack for the ball,” Popovich said. “He makes a steal here and there. He’ll get an offensive rebound here and there. He’ll get a block now and then.” Those are the kind of talents that could make for a long NBA career. Bruce Bowen flashed those skills well enough to have his jersey hoisted into the rafters of the AT&T Center. Leonard isn’t there yet, but Tuesday’s big game is why he’s made a good start in his first season. "Obviously, he’s a rookie and he’s still figuring out what his game is,” Popovich said. “But he does things that help win basketball games.”
• T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times: Here we are in the NBA playoffs, the second round ever played by Blake Griffin, and how often do the Clippers ever advance to the second round? Our kid Griffin deserves some credit for that. But the columnist in San Antonio, whose first name is Buck and of course it is, ripped into Griffin before Game 1 as if Griffin had spat on the Alamo. "Griffin, healthy or not," concluded Bucko, "isn't ready for this yet." Griffin just turned 23. When Bucko was 23, and I checked with him, he was a ski bum lost somewhere in Europe. Bucko is now one of the best negative columnists in the country, but it took him only 40 years or so to nail it. Is there no patience when it comes to a young guy playing in only his 156th game? "Nobody is giving me time to develop," Griffin said without complaint while both knees were wrapped in ice after the Clippers' 108-92 Game 1 loss to the Spurs. "I have years to improve, but for some reason everyone talks now about what I can't do." Look across the living room and imagine your own uncoordinated blob of a kid getting pounded for not developing fast enough or read this about him as he travels to a far-off city. ... And here's where the negative and positive columnists separate themselves. How much fun have we already had in Lob City with the kid learning on the job, knowing some day he will be the one schooling everyone else? Or as he put it, Bucko: "Don't underestimate the power of someone who works hard."
• Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Everybody always focuses on the last play of the game, but that's not really what games come down to. It's everything else that happens before, too," Doug Collins said. Coaches are sensitive to that point, because the final moments of games are where second-guesses live. It's easy to pick apart a decision about when to foul or when to try a three-pointer. What's hard is figuring out a 48-minute scheme that gets your team to those final seconds with a chance to win. Collins and Boston's Doc Rivers are more than capable of that task, and they have teams that can be either manipulated (Sixers) and massaged (Celtics) toward the finish line. After that, it's up to the bounce of the basketball or the capricious sound of the whistle. That's how narrow this series appears to be. Whether the Celtics are descending to meet the Sixers or whether the Sixers are ascending to reach the level of the Celtics hardly matters. It is probably some combination of those, as Boston ages before our eyes like Dorian Gray's portrait, and the Sixers seem to be leaving behind their awkward teenage years. The only factor that could really change the close nature of the series would be if Boston regains its normal shooting touch. The Sixers are playing pretty much the way they usually play at both ends of the court, but the Celtics are way off on their shooting percentages, particularly from behind the three-point line.
• Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: It is taken as an article of faith that the Celtics are a team of wise veterans. They are regularly celebrated for their “basketball IQ,” and if maybe they can’t run all night with the youngsters like they used to, well, history tells us the tortoise is above .500 against the hare. Or so the story line goes. But then there are times like Game 5 in Atlanta and Monday night’s Game 2 loss to Philadelphia when you’d swear the Celts need to be watered twice a day. Times when they are not smarter than a fifth-grader. ... The Sixers are deriving great benefit from the fact that there are times the Celtics take the court and leave their brains back in the huddle. In what has been a recurring theme for this crew over the last few years, they go away from their strengths. They stop running their stuff. Whether through ignorance or arrogance, they feel it unnecessary to do what they know works. Or maybe you have another explanation for why Kevin Garnett was largely ignored for three quarters Monday? And the effect is more than just a loss. It is what said loss requires the Celtics to do: play more basketball. A team with age and injury issues should know better, just like it should have when it gave away Game 5 to the Hawks in Atlanta in the previous series and gave away some therapeutic off time.
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: Thunder center Kendrick Perkins, who aggravated a right hip muscle strain early in the third quarter of Game 1 on Monday night, once again will be a game-time decision as to whether he will start against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Perkins initially was injured in Game 4 in a series-clinching victory at Dallas on May 5. Perkins rested for eight days awaiting this second-round series and reinjured the hip at the 10:18 mark of the third quarter in Monday's 119-90 romp over the Lakers at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Thunder coach Scott Brooks said Perkins did not participate in Tuesday's practice because of soreness. Perkins received treatment in the afternoon and will again on Wednesday. He will be re-evaluated before the game. A final decision must come at least one hour before tipoff.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: The Lakers said all the right things Tuesday after getting picked-and-rolled to pieces during their 29-point loss Monday to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series. Game 2 is tonight, and the Lakers said they must play with a greater understanding of the oldest play in the game if they hope to steal a victory and send the series to Staples Center with momentum on their side. Games 3 and 4 are Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles. The Lakers haven't rebounded from a 2-0 deficit to win a best-of-7 series since storming back to defeat the San Antonio Spurs 4-2 in the 2004 conference semifinals. The last time they were down 2-0, the Dallas Mavericks swept them last May. "We're all pretty edgy, but still pretty loose at the same time," Kobe Bryant said after Tuesday's film session and workout. "We're just looking forward to our next opportunity. We're a team that doesn't get down when we get blown out. We've been blown out a bunch of times." In fact, the Denver Nuggets smoked them by 17 points in Game 6 of the conference quarterfinals last week only to see them regroup to win Game 7 and advance to the next round. The Thunder should not be confused with the Nuggets, however.
• Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News: Just got off the phone with Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, who earlier today agreed to terms on a new four-year contract. Mavericks president of basketball operations used the words "proud and relieved" to get the deal done, so what were Carlisle's emotions? "I'm very grateful," Carlisle said. "My biggest emotion is gratitude. To have the opportunity to do another contract, in this city with this franchise, this owner and GM, is a big deal to me. I don't take the responsibility lightly." Much was made this season about the fact that Carlisle, coming off an NBA championship with the Mavericks in 2010-2011, was in effect a free-agent-coach-to-be. It's customary, and deserved, to lock in coaches to new contracts immediately after championships. But 2011-2012 was no ordinary season. I believe throughout the year that the reason Carlisle and Cuban had not come to terms on a new deal was that about three-fourths of the players on the roster were either in the final year of their contracts or on one-year deals. What kind of message would it have sent to, for instance, Jason Terry, if the head coach was given longterm security when the player who scored 27 points in Game 6 of the 2011 Finals was not extended. Carlisle today seemed to confirm my suspicion.