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

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

The New Jersey Nets have played their last game in the Garden State, and there was a bit of a sendoff.

Sometimes I wonder why people love big, gauzy ceremonies and the like. But I realize one good reason for them is that if the faces of the franchise can show up, grin together, say nice things ... that means something. It means, for instance, that the whole thing wasn't a waste of time. It makes you feel whole.

But the Nets in New Jersey ... something about it just never worked. There will be no whole feeling, and that's reflected in the reality of the Nets' send-off. There is little but "I" in this team. Consider some of the commentary out of the event, especially from Kenny Anderson as quoted by Jake Appelman in the The New York Times.

The presence of the 2002 trophy did not sit very well with Kenny Anderson, a Net from 1991 to ‘96. Anderson played for the Boston Celtics team that lost to the Nets in the 2002 Eastern Conference finals. “They rubbed it in my face,” he said, sounding somewhat peeved. Anderson alternately praised and lamented his time with the Nets, saying they had settled for mediocrity. “They didn’t want to bring in a big-time coach,” he said.

He said of his time leading the team with Coleman: “We joke around, me and Derrick, we used to practice at an APA trucking facility. I had to share a locker next to a trucking guy. You know what I mean? It was something you got used to.”

“We had some good teams, but we could never climb the Knicks because of the tradition,” Anderson said. “For some reason, New Jersey, I guess, is a basketball state somewhat,” he said. “But New York, New York is basketball.”

I live in New Jersey and I love New Jersey. But I can't shake the feeling that this is like the end of a bad marriage. Maybe some other team would be happy here. But this team? It's probably right they move on and try somewhere else. My best guess is the next stop will make people a lot happier.

• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: No James Harden meant no easy buckets. Now, it's anyone's guess when the team's most dynamic playmaker will return. But as the opening weekend of the playoffs nears, the Thunder can only hope Harden's symptoms subside soon. Sunday's game proved that with Harden, the Thunder has a championship-caliber, three-headed monster offensively that can be nearly impossible to stop, and without him, well, OKC could be on upset alert in round one. That's the significance of one swing of the elbow by Metta World Peace.
• Geoff Calkins of The Commercial-Appeal: You want to go to a Grizzlies home playoff game? Then put down the paper and get your butt to FedExForum. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. today. Yes, you could stay at home and get your phone ready and start frantically punching buttons at 9:59 a.m. But if you're truly dedicated, you'll do that while standing in line. That way, you'll cover all the angles. "It's almost here," said Tony Allen. The playoffs, he meant. How awesome is that? The fury and the tension and the mind-altering din. The white outs and the growl towels and the unmistakable civic spring in the step. ... Allen and the Grizzlies took care of another bit of business Monday night, dispatching the Cleveland Cavaliers, 109-101. ... "We did what we had to do," said Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley. "Now the pressure is on them." By them, he meant the Los Angeles Clippers, aka the team you are free to start loathing any day now. The Grizzlies will almost certainly play the Clippers in the first-round of the playoffs.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: Lots of Cavaliers fans wanted to see Kyrie Irving and his sprained right shoulder in street clothes for the remainder of the season for fear of re-injury. Four games into his return, Irving's opponents are once again the ones worrying about damage control. The presumptive NBA Rookie of the Year is shaking off the rust the way he often does defenders in the paint. The 20-year-old point guard scored 25 points Monday night in a 109-101 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. "That's why we wanted him to come back, just to go out there and get his feet wet and keep accepting the challenge every single night," Cavs coach Byron Scott said. "He's done just that, so I'm very excited about the way he's played the last couple of games especially." Irving was terrific for the first three quarters in which he scored all his points, but two rare free-throw misses with the Cavs trailing, 100-98, proved costly in the final minutes as the Grizzlies ended the game on an 11-3 run.
• Dave D'Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: The notion that team ownership is a “public trust” is a laughable anachronism. Maybe it felt that way once. But not since they priced the middle class almost virtually out of the picture. For the first time, the Nets are attempting to join that rat race in earnest. We wish them bon voyage and Godspeed and all that rot. They should do well. Mikhail Prokhorov personally thinks they will be valued at $5 billion in five years’ time, and since that’s the only measure of success he seems to know, we hope he achieves this goal that is so essential to the public welfare. The team itself could be great, or it could be horrid. Much of that depends on whether the point guard stays home, because Deron Williams is a player of extraordinary gifts: He can run and jump like an antelope, he plays hard, he cares about winning. But he’s also an incurable mope, with the personality of a nightclub bouncer, and if that’s the kind of guy you want to root for, help yourself. So embrace these dyspeptic darlings, if you must. But more than likely, you will watch without the emotional investment, because you have outgrown the need for it. You recognized this as a team with a core existential crisis since 2004 — from the moment Bruce Ratner bought them, they were an orphaned franchise with an estranged fan base, and as Jason Kidd belatedly observed four long years ago, “It’s not about basketball around here anymore.”
• Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: Goodbye New Jersey, hello playoffs. While the Nets' organization celebrated its final game in North Jersey after 35 years, as they'll be moving across the river to Brooklyn next season, the 76ers held a mild celebration of their own after beating New Jersey on Monday night, 105-87. The win clinched a playoff berth as the Sixers improved to 34-30 with their third straight win, each on the road. They are tied with New York for the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference, but the Knicks own the tiebreaker, having won the season series. The Sixers will play at Milwaukee Wednesday and at Detroit Thursday. New York will host the Clippers on Wednesday and play at Charlotte on Thursday. The Sixers will play either Chicago or Miami in the first round. Although the effort wasn't as strong as Saturday's at Indiana, the Sixers did jump out to a fast start. That seemed to deflate much of the interest that New Jersey, playing without injured All-Star guard Deron Williams, had in winning.
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: Wrapping up the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference moved Spurs captain Tim Duncan to do some campaigning for Spurs coach Gregg Popovich for Coach of the Year. “Is it time to start the chant?” he said after Monday’s 124-89 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers at the AT&T Center that clinched the top spot in the West. “‘Coach of the Year, Coach of the Year.’” Duncan declared the work Popovich has done this season the best he has observed in any of his 15 seasons playing for him. “I really think so,” he said. “He’s put so many guys into our system. We’ve been playing with two very young guys starting for us the entire year; getting all those guys acclimated on the fly with very little practice time. All those things, he’s done an unbelievable job with it. Yeah, it’s probably the best job he’s done thus far. Obviously, not only the coaching job he’s done, but the rotation he’s given us. He’s kept us fresh. He’s found ways to rest guys when he can. I think our minutes are as low as anyone, and we’re still No. 1 in the West.” Duncan’s minutes are at a career low, 28.2 per game, and he is one of 10 current Spurs who average at least 20 minutes per game on the deepest roster of Popovich’s 16 seasons as head coach.
• Dan McCarney For The Oregonian: As has become the norm in recent weeks, Blazers interim head coach Kaleb Canales opened his pre-game media session Monday in San Antonio with an injury report. Joel Przybilla -- game-time decision. Nicolas Batum -- game-time decision. Jamal Crawford -- game-time decision. Raymond Felton -- game-time decision. Canales didn't need to mention All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge, already lost for the season. Finally, a bemused reporter cut to the chase: "Who's playing?" Even Canales had to laugh. But there was little humor to be found later as the Spurs, gearing up for pursuit of their fifth NBA title, destroyed the depleted Blazers 124-89 at the AT&T Center. ... It was not the homecoming Canales, who grew up two hours south in Laredo, was hoping for. Scores of family members and friends were on hand to witness one of the most lopsided losses of a trying season.
• Mike Wise of The Washington Post: Ernie Grunfeld, judged strictly by what he has done to execute owner Ted Leonsis’s plan the past two years — and not what he did or didn’t do in his six years under Abe Pollin — isn’t going anywhere. Two NBA officials, on condition of anonymity, told The Post that Leonsis and Grunfeld, whose contract expires at the end of this season, have agreed to a new deal that could be announced Tuesday. It is believed to be for more than one season. If that doesn’t make sense, well, it’s time to take a serious look at what Grunfeld has done since Leonsis took over rather than get caught up in How-Can-Ernie-Possibly-Be-Back? rhetoric. ... When the Wizards actually spend big money in the offseason and the mandate is to be a perennial playoff team, that’s when Grunfeld should be properly judged. Until then, disenchanted fans target their ire toward Leonsis’s long-term strategy and whether it’s going to pay dividends. Moan at the moon; Ernie was just doing Ted’s bidding. That’s why he’s staying.
• Tom Sorensen of The Charlotte Observer: The night that matters is May 30. The evening will be the most important in the team’s eight-year history. Across the river from Manhattan, in the NBA’s Secaucus, N.J., studios, the league will place 14 pingpong balls in a drum. If the balls roll right, Charlotte will receive the No. 1 pick in June’s NBA draft. That pick will be 6-foot-10 Anthony Davis, the former Kentucky star. Davis is Manhattan. Compared to him, every other player is New Jersey. The Bobcats have only a 25 percent chance of winning the pick. We like to say that people, and teams, make their own luck. We lie. Good fortune is underestimated in the NBA and every other sport. San Antonio did a great job of packing talent around Tim Duncan, Chicago around Derrick Rose. But without Duncan and without Rose, the Spurs and Bulls are merely a collection of nice players. I wrote on Twitter last week that Davis will be as transcendent a basketball player as Panthers quarterbackCam Newton is a football player. Readers begged to differ, although they didn’t beg. ... You want to know how good Davis will be? This is how good. If the Bobcats get him, owner Michael Jordan will again become a courtside regular at his team’s home games.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: Frank Vogel’s latest move could help the Pacers when they open the playoffs this weekend. He gave Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert and George Hill the night off against Detroit on Monday. Hibbert and Hill will be back in the lineup for the season finale against Chicago on Wednesday because Vogel wants to stick with his normal rotation as much as possible against the Bulls. Granger will sit the game out because he’s been dealing with knee issue. He’d be in the lineup if they were playing Game 1 on Wednesday. ... It’s uncertain how many minutes Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau will play his rotation players on Wednesday. But you can expect Vogel to go with his normal rotation – minus Granger – for as much as possible so come Game 1 on Saturday or Sunday the Pacers continue to look like the team that’s 12-2 this month. Not the team that looks like its out of sync. Vogel is making the right call.
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: Pistons forward Jonas Jerebko sat in his locker, quietly looking around and made a telling, but not arrogant, vow. "I don't want to go through this again," Jerebko said. "We're going to the playoffs next year. We know what it takes. You can't start off a season 4-20 and bounce back." He was asked if he was guaranteeing anything, seeing as how former Piston Rasheed Wallace made headlines years ago with his famous boasts. "Yes, sir," said Jerebko with a smile. "We're a playoff team, with playoff-caliber players."
• Charles F. Gardner of the of Journal Sentinel: The Milwaukee Bucks were reduced to scoreboard watching while trying to beat the Toronto Raptors on Monday night at the Bradley Center. Ersan Ilyasova led a late Bucks rally to overcome the Raptors, 92-86, but that scoreboard gaze revealed the dreaded news: Milwaukee's playoff quest was over for another year. Philadelphia won at New Jersey, 105-87, to clinch the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference and eliminate the Bucks from contention. The Bucks (31-33) chased both the New York Knicks and 76ers in the final weeks of the season but failed to catch either one. Philadelphia (34-30) leads Milwaukee by three games with just two remaining, and Wednesday's game between the teams doesn't mean much now. "It's real disappointing to finish the season and not make the playoffs," said Ilyasova, who had 19 points and 15 rebounds against Toronto. "We started the season really bad. And when you look at our season, we lost a lot of close games. It's really frustrating."
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: Jonas Valanciunas and Linas Kleiza were among 24 players invited to try out for the Lithuanian National team that will attempt to qualify this early this summer in Argentina for the Summer Olympic games in London. Valanciunas, 19, will battle 32-year-old, 6-foot-10 centre Robertas Javtokas and 6-foot-10, 243-pound centre Antanas Kavaliauskas for a spot on the team. While Valanciunas, 7-feet, 240 pounds doesn’t have the track record of either player, he made a huge impression at Eurobask last summer and before that was huge in Lithuania’s win at the FIBA under-19 championships where he was MVP. Lithuania will have to finish in the top three at the July 2-8 tournament to qualify for London.

• Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times: Derrick Rose’s groin and Rip Hamilton’s shoulder aren’t all the Bulls must monitor closely during a nine-game dash to the playoffs. The Bulls have the most victories in the league (43), but it’s not nitpicking to say slow starts and poor free-throw shooting might scuttle their championship hopes. Both areas have plagued the Bulls this season, most recently in their 100-99 loss Sunday to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, and both were primary areas of concern as coach Tom Thibodeau prepared his team for a rematch against the Knicks on Tuesday at the United Center. Thibodeau must find solutions to both problems if the Bulls are to reach their full potential. ‘‘It’s a concern,’’ Thibodeau said after the Bulls again fell behind early Sunday. ‘‘It’s a big concern.’’ When a team that relies on energy comes out flat, it becomes a ship adrift. We’ve seen it again and again with the Bulls this season, especially Sunday, when the Knicks raced out to a 27-6 lead. That’s why those who claim they only watch the fourth quarter of NBA games haven’t been paying attention to the Bulls. The score at the end of the first quarter might be the best indication of whether the Bulls win or lose. They are 31-2 (18-0 on the road) this season when leading after one quarter, 10-12 (3-8 on the road) when trailing after one and 2-0 when tied after one.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: The Knicks were in transition and in need, the floor was open and Carmelo Anthony had that feeling again late Tuesday evening. As if replaying his own highlight reel, he stopped, elevated and launched a 3-point shot that carried the Knicks’ hopes with it. It would be a momentum changer, one way or another. But Anthony could not replicate his Sunday shooting heroics, nor the outcome. The shot missed, and the Chicago Bulls raced the other way and ran off with a 98-86 victory, avenging their defeat in New York two days earlier. ... At the moment, the Knicks (29-28) are not even assured of making the playoffs. The loss dropped them back into eighth place, with a mere one-game lead on Milwaukee Bucks, their opponent Wednesday night. A loss in Milwaukee would give the Bucks the season series and the tiebreaker, dropping the Knicks to ninth and out of the playoff field. They have reached the point of the season where every hiccup rattles the standings. “It’s a must win,” Anthony said, repeating the statement. “It’s probably one of the biggest games of the season for us, and we got to approach it like that. We got to be ready. Forget this game, it’s behind us.”
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: The Celtics not only needed to prove to the basketball public, but perhaps themselves, that their recent stretch of impressive play was good enough to compete with the NBA’s elite. Last Thursday in Chicago, they had nothing to show their audience in a demoralizing loss to the Derrick Rose-less Bulls. Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena, they displayed much improvement. Facing a Heat team promising to atone for a 19-point beating April 1 at TD Garden, the Celtics countered every Miami run with a damaging one of their own, finally quieting LeBron James and his mates in a confidence-boosting 115-107 victory. While moving Avery Bradley into the starting lineup has sparked the Celtics, the rejuvenated Kevin Garnett has been just as critical to their recent success. With Boston holding a precarious 5-point lead with nine minutes left, and the announced sellout crowd screaming for the Heat to go on a run, Garnett (11-of-14 shooting, 24 points) looked vintage, delivering four consecutive midrange jumpers as he torched counterpart Chris Bosh.
• David J. Neal of The Miami Herald: Two ways to look at the Heat’s 115-107 home loss to Boston — a team that looked doddering during a blowout Heat win in December and retro 2008 in dusting the Heat twice this month. One way is to consider it an anomaly. Boston’s 67 first half points were the most they’ve scored in any half and the most the Heat’s allowed in any half this season. Nobody from Boston seemed to miss. Not point guard Rajon Rondo. Not Kevin Garnett, who went 11 of 14 shooting with equal proficiency whether against Chris Bosh or air. When a fan hit a half court shot to win a Kia, you half expected him to plop himself down on the Celtic bench. Boston shot 58.9 percent in the third quarter. It was their worst shooting quarter of a game in which they shot 60.6 percent from the field. ... The other way to look at the loss is it was indicative of a team that’s 5-5 in their last 10 and on search for chemistry and consistency with the playoffs nigh. “To give up 115 points on our home floor, that’s not our style,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
• Martin Frank of The News-Journal: Spencer Hawes didn't really tear up his hotel room, or bust up his TV, or throw furniture around the room, like 76ers coach Doug Collins jokingly said one of his assistants told Hawes to do. But Hawes probably felt like it when he found out Tuesday morning that he had lost his starting job. "Obviously, I wasn't happy," Hawes said. "Anybody who plays the game isn't going to be happy. But there are two ways you can go: You can sit there and sulk about it or be mad, swallow it and try to make the most of it." Hawes made the most of it. He scored a season-high 19 points and added eight rebounds to lead the Sixers to a 107-88 win over the New Jersey Nets on Tuesday. Before the game, Collins replaced Hawes and Evan Turner in the starting lineup with rookie Nikola Vucevic and Jodie Meeks, respectively. Collins said he was trying to provide a spark to a team that had lost four straight and 10 of 14, falling to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. By winning, the Sixers (30-27) moved two games ahead of ninth-place Milwaukee with nine games left. But the spark didn't come so much from the new starting lineup as it did from the bench players.
• Andy Vasquez of The Record: Despite this disappointing season that has seen the Nets dress 22 different players and lose more than 200 man-games to injury, Prokhorov is optimistic about the future. He praised coach Avery Johnson and general manager Billy King, and the team’s young talent. He said he has been impressed specifically with the talent of MarShon Brooks, Gerald Green and Gerald Wallace. “Of course, if it hadn’t been for the crazy injuries this year I’m sure we would have been in the playoffs, that’s for sure,” Prokhorov said. “But we are patient and I hope all our fans will share our approach to the championship.” If it doesn’t work out with Williams, Prokhorov — an avid sportsman — always has the kickboxing backup plan. “He says it because he can do it,” King said with a smile, picking his owner in any kickboxing matchup with Cuban (Cuban did not return an email seeking comment). But the Nets certainly hope it doesn’t come to that.
• Gene Wang of The Washington Post: For a second night in a row, 10-day contract players James Singleton and Cartier Martin contributed significantly as reserves. Not coincidentally, the Washington Wizards won consecutive games for just the second time this season, prompting Coach Randy Wittman to speculate about how to get the most out his other players down the road. “They’ve been big,” Wittman said of Singleton and Martin. “We might have to go all 10-day contracts next year. Some of our guys might not like to hear that.” Wittman got some guffaws from the room with that comment, but the results, including Tuesday night’s 93-85 win against Orlando, are unmistakable. Martin has totaled 31 points in wins against Charlotte and the Magic, and Singleton has combined for 30 in those games. Tuesday night, both were on the court during seminal moments of the game. Martin’s three-pointer with 7 minutes 29 seconds left in regulation broke a 69-all tie and put Washington ahead to stay. Orlando called timeout immediately thereafter, but Singleton’s ensuing field goal was about all the Wizards needed to keep the Magic at bay. “I just come in and do what they ask me to do,” Martin said. “I come in and hit an open shot and will defend.”
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: Ish Smith was promoted to the Magic's back-up point-guard role behind starter Jameer Nelson on Tuesday night against the Washington Wizards. On Monday night against the Detroit Pistons, Smith replaced Chris Duhon, who was suspended for the game after missing shoot-around Monday morning. Smith had seven assists and six points in 25 minutes. "We're going to play Ish," coach Stan Van Gundy said before the game against the Wizards. "Ish played well (Monday night) and Chris missed the game. We're giving him a chance to play." Van Gundy said that Duhon --- who was active for Tuesday night's game – also has a minor foot injury. Smith was signed by the Magic as a free agent on Feb. 2 after being waived by the Golden State Warriors. He has played sparingly, appearing in just 15 games. But he had another chance to impress Van Gundy against the Wizards.
• Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer: After watching newcomer Lester Hudson score 23 points on Friday in Toronto and 26 on Sunday in New Jersey, Cavaliers coach Byron Scott was asked what he expected of Hudson on Tuesday against Charlotte in The Q. The coach smiled and said, "29, I guess." Hudson only had 25, but he led a strong bench effort that enabled the Cavs to rest their starters and cruise to an easy 103-90 victory before a crowd that included Indians manager Manny Acta and players Josh Tomlin, Jason Kipnis, Michael Brantley and Aaron Cunningham, who walked across the street after their game with Chicago was postponed. "I'm a little disappointed that he missed a couple of shots that would have gotten him to 29," Scott said of Hudson after the game. ... All kidding aside, Scott is thrilled with how Hudson is performing.
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: The air seemed fresher and the drama certainly was behind them. In their first game post-Lamar Odom, the Dallas Mavericks put on one of their best offensive performances of the season in racing past the Sacramento Kings 110-100 on Tuesday night at American Airlines Center. It was a game where the Mavericks got 15 points apiece from Dirk Nowitzki and Rodrigue Beaubois and13 points apiece from Jason Terry and Delonte West in one of their most balanced offensive showings of the season. And it all came on the heels on Monday's explosive events, when the Mavericks parted ways with Odom, who was the big-time off-season acquisition they thought would help them win back-to-back NBA titles. So, were the Mavs all-in against the Kings now that they know that the team's biggest distraction is no longer around? "This is a team, we've got a lot of veteran guys in here, so we've dealt with worse," Terry said.
• Marcos Breton of The Sacramento Bee: Substandard ownership has allowed a rabidly followed franchise to deteriorate into a distressed property. I just didn't appreciate how distressed it is until we pulled up on Sunday and I got a good look at this mess in broad daylight. Approaching via the west entrance, you see it on your walk to the turnstiles: A veritable junkyard of discarded arena seats and debris strewn about as if it were a county landfill and not the home of an NBA franchise. Even worse, the building itself is covered in soot. It looks cheap and dingy. How much could it cost to pressure-wash the building so it could look respectable? Like distressed neighborhoods, basketball arenas fall into disrepair when the owners let it happen. This all makes sense if you consider the entire picture here. The owners – the Maloof brothers – do most of their talking through their Los Angeles-based lawyer and spokesman. They've taken an aggressive stance against the city of Sacramento, firing off Public Records Act requests as if the city were the enemy instead of a partner. In this context, the state of the Kings is perfectly understandable. It's the NBA version of a run-down home in a neighborhood where everyone else cares but the absentee owners responsible for the mess.

• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: The Bulls took their recent spate of slow starts to a new low Sunday afternoon, missing 11 of their first 12 shots, committing seven first-quarter turnovers and trailing 27-6 at one point. "It's a big concern," coach Tom Thibodeau said. Thibodeau preaches about readiness to play ad nauseam, which is why he fielded a question about if he has new plans to address an old problem. "We'll see," he said. Thibodeau burned two timeouts before 4 minutes elapsed, but the Knicks kept the pressure on, finishing with 18 first-quarter points in the paint. "We have to play with more urgency," Derrick Rose said. The Bulls also dropped to 2-6 in afternoon games. "I'd prefer to play a few of them at home," Thibodeau said. The Bulls are 1-1 in home matinees, losing to the lowly Nets on Feb. 18.
• Al Iannazzone of Newsday: Carmelo Anthony was hopping around and screaming "This is my house!" after burying the shot that capped his best performance of the season and greatest moment as a Knick. Anthony has been booed at the Garden this season, but he had everyone standing and cheering Sunday after his three-pointer gave the Knicks a 100-99 overtime win over the Bulls. Anthony scored a season-high 43 points, shooting 16-for-31. He sent the game to overtime by drilling a three-pointer with 11.2 seconds left and erased a two-point deficit with 8.2 seconds to play in overtime against a team the Knicks will face again Tuesday in Chicago and could play in the first round of the playoffs. Bulls All-Star Derrick Rose , who returned after missing 12 games with a groin injury, had some costly missed free throws and eight turnovers and was outdueled by Anthony in his house. "It was mine today," Anthony said. "They were talking some trash out there a little bit. In the moment, it's fun times."
• Harvey Araton of The New York Times: Can they count on the officials letting Shumpert play Rose as physically as he did Sunday? Can they expect the Bulls to choke at the line? Are the odds with the Knicks when they must live or die with Anthony unloading the way Johnson did long ago and far away? Yes, there are parallels to be drawn to the season in which Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby joined Johnson, Patrick Ewing and friends in New York — although it was the general manager, Ernie Grunfeld, who was fired that time in an attempt to light a fire under the embattled coach Jeff Van Gundy’s team. ... Teams at the bottom of the conference playoff seeding usually are, and an overwhelming percentage do not survive the first round. So give Anthony and the Knicks credit for accepting Chicago’s generosity at the free-throw line and turning Sunday’s instant Easter classic into a much-needed victory. But if there was a statement to make afterward, it should have been more about the division race than the conference. Trust me, Chicago and Miami are the last places the Knicks want to be when April gives way to May.
• Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News: Ray Allen has accepted his reserve role with the Celtics. That doesn’t mean he’s content with it. Shortly before coming off the bench for the third game in a row — and the seventh time in his 16-year NBA career — the 36-year-old guard said that while he is willing to do whatever Celtics coach Doc Rivers asks of him to help the team, he is not yet comfortable coming off the bench, and is not necessarily looking for that to be his role for whatever remains of his career. “I think my challenge is to be able to compete at a high level every year coming into the season and that means competing for a starting job every opportunity I get,” he said before last night’s game against the 76ers at TD Garden. “That’s my focus. That’s my goal. “If I felt as though I wasn’t playing up to that level, and those standards, then I think there’s going to be a point where I’d have to say it’s time for me to move on."
• Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: On a day when many Christians around the world observed a resurrection, the 76ers' offense remained lifeless. And their playoff hopes are nearing life-support condition. For the 10th time in 14 games, the Sixers lost, this time to the Atlantic Division-leading Boston Celtics, 103-79. Boston has a three-game lead on the Sixers and any hopes of winning the division seemed to get thrown into the nearby Boston Harbor. Holding onto a playoff spot is also close to getting washed away as the New York Knicks, with their win Sunday over the Chicago Bulls, pulled into the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference and dropped the Sixers to eighth. Though both teams have the same record at 29-27, the Knicks own the tiebreaker as they took two of three from the Sixers this season. The Sixers are only one game ahead of the ninth-place Milwaukee Bucks. For now, though, playoff talk should be the furthest thing to come out of anyone's mouth concerning this team. Approaching the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the Sixers appeared to be submerging just as quickly.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: With 10 games left in the regular season, Thunder coach Scott Brooks has no plans on resting any of his players in an attempt to enter the postseason rested and working with a clean bill of health. But if the Thunder plays like it did Sunday night, rest won't be a problem. The Thunder trounced Toronto, 91-75, inside Chesapeake Energy Arena, snapping a three-game skid by using a 24-0 run to turn what was a ho-hum game for 21/2 quarters into borderline humiliation for the Raptors. Thabo Sefolosha was the only Thunder starter who logged any minutes in the fourth quarter, as OKC built its lead to as many as 27 before turning the page to Milwaukee on Monday night. “If we keep winning like this, I'll get a rest,” said Russell Westbrook, who played just 27 minutes. Brooks has never subscribed to sitting players. He has likened the strategy to “cheating the game” and the fans. And on Sunday, he confessed that his team's youth plays a part as well. “If we had a bunch of veteran guys in their 30s, there's no question things would be different,” Brooks said. “But our guys, if you take out some of the guys, they'll think I'm benching them twice a game. They want to play every minute. They love to play and they want to keep playing. It's like pulling teeth to get five or six minutes out of them per half.”
• Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun: The Raptors, who lost Andrea Bargnani for the second half due to a flare-up of his calf injury, battled the Thunder starters tooth and nail early, forcing all kinds of turnovers, but things changed once Harden, the NBA’s premier reserve and the rest of the bench entered in the first half. Even more noticeably, Harden imposed his will during the aforementioned run late in the third, which began with the Thunder up only three points. Then the visitors collapsed, giving up 24 straight — one shy of the team record set twice, most recently, back in 2000 against the Charlotte Hornets. That spoiled all the good work from earlier in the game by the visitors. “Like being hit by a train going from Oklahoma City to Dallas,” Casey said of the run. “We can play them 10 out of 10 times and the results probably wouldn’t be different. But like I told the guys, I’m looking for 10 guys to compete, to fight, to scratch, to claw going down. “I didn’t feel like we were competing. That’s what we’re looking for these last few games.”
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: Beginning the final three weeks of the NBA’s compressed schedule with back-to-back games against the Utah Jazz, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich went with another lineup wrinkle designed to manage the minutes of key players. After starting DeJuan Blair at center for the first 53 games, Popovich went with newcomer Boris Diaw in the middle for Sunday’s game at the AT&T Center. Blair didn’t play at all, and neither did forward Stephen Jackson. Both were healthy and in uniform, but Popovich had told both players before tipoff to not plan on seeing any court time. The coach would not reveal his plans for tonight’s rematch in Utah. Might some players even remain at home when the team’s charter flight takes off for Salt Lake City? “It’s a fair question,” Popovich said, “(but) it’s none of your business. Absolutely a fair question, and a good one. It’s something I need to think about.” Jackson offered a hint as he exited the locker room to head to San Antonio International Airport. “See you when we get back,” he called to guard Manu Ginobili, who scored 23 points in little more than 28 minutes in Sunday’s 114-104 win. Ginobili insisted he had received no instructions to remain behind but also could not say for certain he would be on the plane.
• Brian T. Smith of The Salt Lake Tribune: The Jazz will return home hobbled. More beaten up than they’ve been at any point this season. Possibly down to 10 active players, two of whom are rookies, four of whom are 22 or younger. Needing every ounce of strength and willpower that’s kept them fighting thus far. Utah lost two key athletes Sunday during a 114-104 defeat to the Spurs, and the Jazz’s playoff hopes took another hit. Starting shooting guard C.J. Miles (strained left calf) and backup point guard Earl Watson (sore right knee) left the game during the second quarter and didn’t return. Miles wore a protective boot afterward, Watson was on crutches, and both will undergo MRI exams Monday. "I can’t even walk," said Watson, who initially was placed in a wheelchair. Meanwhile, a Jazz (29-28) team that’s dropped six of nine fell back into 10th place in the Western Conference. Utah’s a half-game behind ninth-place Phoenix — which holds a tiebreaker — and 11/2 games behind eighth-place Denver with just nine contests left in the 2011-12 season. With starters Josh Howard and Raja Bell already out of action, the Jazz exited the AT&T Center knowing their options are increasingly becoming limited.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: Kyle Lowry returned less than two weeks after he said he did not know if he would play again this season, just 10 days after he was cleared to begin any activity. He went through one practice and a light walk-through before convincing coach Kevin McHale he was ready. Eager to return “I wanted to play the last game,” Lowry said after the Rockets’ third straight win on the road. “Coach said no. Tonight, he let me go out there. I said I wanted to play. After the day I practiced (Thursday), I felt great. Coach didn’t want me to play the Lakers game. Tonight, was an opportunity to play, so he let me.” Lowry said that if he had been told March 29 when the antibiotics catheter was removed from his arm that he would be playing against the Kings on Sunday, “I wouldn’t have believed you. Things happened really fast. The training staff did a great job. I committed to getting back sooner than later.” After missing 15 games — with the Rockets going 9-6 — Lowry did not ease his way back. He played 18 minutes off the bench, including the entire fourth quarter. He missed his three shots, but he had seven assists without a turnover or a complaint. “I’m not as fast as I want to be, but I’m going to get back there,” Lowry said. “
• Matt Kawahara of The Sacramento Bee: Marcus Thornton missed his fourth consecutive game Sunday evening with a bruised left calf, though Kings coach Keith Smart suggested the guard could return Tuesday against the Mavericks in Dallas. ... Thornton has not played since last Monday, when he left in the first quarter of the Kings' win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Forward John Salmons, missing his eighth consecutive game with a sore right hip, and swingman Francisco Garcia (concussion) also were out against the Rockets. After staying fairly healthy through the first half of the season, the Kings have seemed more susceptible to injuries since the All-Star break. As of Feb. 29, three Kings had missed a total of 19 games because of injury and illness, the third-lowest total in the NBA at that time, according to information compiled earlier this season by the Philadelphia 76ers. That number had increased to 46 entering Sunday. Thornton and Salmons each have missed a team-high 11 games because of injury or illness.
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: If San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich were filling out Sunday's lineup card, there is a reasonable chance the notation next to Dwyane Wade's name in the box score would have been "DNP-Detroit Pistons." Instead, because Erik Spoelstra would never do what Popovich did last month, listing Tim Duncan as "DNP-old," the Miami Heat merely listed Wade as missing the 98-75 thrashing of the Pistons at AmericanAirlines Arena due to a sore right ankle. OK, whatever. Just as Wade was given the night off last week with a "bruised knee" against the Philadelphia 76ers to be there when needed in the next night's victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Wade this time got a bit of R&R in advance of Eastern Conference showdowns this week on Tuesday night against the visiting Boston Celtics and Thursday night on the road against the Chicago Bulls. As it was, the Heat completed their regular-season sweep of the 76ers without Wade and Sunday did the same against the Pistons, getting more than enough from LeBron James and Chris Bosh. "Right now it's coming into form," Spoelstra said. "Hopefully we can maintain that."
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: There wasn't much time for Pistons rookie Vernon Macklin to re-familiarize himself with his teammates on his return from the D-League but they were waiting on him. Teammates Austin Daye and Ben Wallace led the playful chiding chant of "swag, swag, swag" as he was being interviewed by media Sunday, hours after he landed in Miami from Fort Wayne, where the Pistons' D-League affiliate is located. Macklin, a second-round pick in last June's draft, acquitted himself well in his 10-game stint, averaging 14.3 points and 14.5 rebounds, earning rave reviews from front office personnel and the coaching staff. Pistons coach Lawrence Frank was impressed with Macklin's approach. "A lot of guys look at it as a punishment or demotion," Frank said. "He had a great attitude and positive spirit. The people at Fort Wayne were very complimentary of him. (Spoke well) Not just for himself but for the organization."
• Andy Vasquez of The Record: Through Sunday night’s win over Cleveland, the Nets have lost 211 man games to injury/personal reasons this season. They’ve also used 22 starting lineups in 57 games. In 82 games last season, they used 24 starting lineups. Six players who have dressed for the Nets this season have been ruled out for the remainder of the year; Brook Lopez (right foot surgery), Damion James (right foot surgery) and Jordan Farmar (right groin injury) still are on the roster. Keith Bogans (left ankle surgery) was released after suffering a season-ending injury, and Mehmet Okur (back) and Shawne Williams (left foot surgery) were traded to Portland as part of the Gerald Wallace deal.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: Lester Hudson arrived in Cleveland on March 30 as a 27-year-old journeyman trying to keep his career alive in the NBA's Development League. Ten days later, he is the second-best offensive threat on the depleted Cavaliers. He is scoring points in bunches, making the type of fourth-quarter plays Kyrie Irving often delivers and prompting the team owner to tweet: "Lesanity!" in reference to the phenomenon created by another D-Leaguer who captivated NBA fans about 10 miles from here on the other side of the Hudson River. On Sunday night, as his 10-day contract and the game clock were expiring, Hudson hit a fadeaway 3-pointer to force overtime against the New Jersey Nets in the Prudential Center. The fact the Cavaliers lost, 122-117, is almost immaterial given their place in the standings. The fearless combo guard, a member of the Austin Toros two weeks ago, is at worst making the last few weeks of the season palatable for a fan base growing increasingly more interested in mock drafts. Hudson scored a career-high 26 points two days after he tallied 23 in a win over Toronto. That's 49 points in two games coming off coach Byron Scott's bench. He nearly made it 52, but his 3-point attempt in the final seconds of overtime rimmed out and the Nets salted away victory at the foul line. "I think we're going to sign him to another 10-day [deal], that's for sure," Scott said with a grin. "I'll get a good chance to talk to [General Manager Chris Grant] tomorrow and I'm pretty sure Lester will be in a Cavaliers uniform for the rest of the year."

• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: Coach of the Year? Frank Vogel's got a case. He's got an even stronger case to have that third year, now a team option, fully guaranteed by upper management. What else do they need to see? He has taken a wounded, defeated team and in a short time, first as an interim coach and then in a lockout-shortened year, established himself as the man for the job long term. In 91 games -- the last 38 of last season, the first 53 of this one -- Vogel's Pacers are 52-39. If the Pacers can go on a run here -- nine of their next 13 games are at home -- Vogel may get some play as a serious candidate for Coach of the Year. He came in as Dr. Feelgood, propping up a team that had been beaten down by Jim O'Brien's relentless negativity. And then, about three weeks into his interim season, he started bringing the hammer down. And players who wondered if he could be tough took notice. ... Who has done more with his team than Vogel with these Pacers? The answer, best I can tell, is nobody.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: So much changed for the Knicks in a torrid, dizzying 13-minute span Tuesday night that it may take hours or days before they fully digest the consequences. They lost a 17-point lead, they lost their cool, then they lost the game as their grip on a playoff berth became a little looser. If the Knicks ultimately miss the postseason, they will look back with stinging regret on a stunning 112-104 loss to the Indiana Pacers. Carmelo Anthony was mostly brilliant, scoring a season-high 39 points, only to miss the two most critical shots of the night. The Knicks’ defense was mostly sound, until it allowed a 40-point fourth quarter. As the frustration bubbled over, J. R. Smith lost his head, earning an ejection after throwing Leandro Barbosa to the court in the final seconds — an act that Coach Mike Woodson called “unprofessional.” “We somewhat self-destructed,” said Woodson, who lost for just the third time in his 12 games as the interim coach. “I mean, we kind of lost our composure.” The collapse was so quick and so forceful that it took the Knicks at least a dozen adjectives to describe it as they milled about a dejected locker room.
• Geoff Calkins of The Commercial-Appeal: At a certain point, you had to wonder if Lionel Hollins would summon Jesse Jackson out of the crowd and send him into the game. He had tried everyone else, every other combination he could dream up. “I was searching,” he said. “I was reaching far and wide.” He had tried Hamed Haddadi and Zach Randolph, he had tried Marreese Speights and Quincy Pondexter. And, still, the Golden State Warriors were dropping in shots, pushing the Grizzlies closer and closer to a truly devastating loss. The Grizzlies had just beaten Oklahoma City on the road. They couldn’t lose to Golden State at home, right? So with 10-plus minutes remaining — Memphis down by 12 — Hollins mixed and matched yet again. He sent in Gilbert Arenas and Tony Allen to play with O.J. Mayo, Dante Cunningham and Marc Gasol. There was no need for the Rev. Jackson, as it turns out. Not with that group around to keep hope alive. “It was a great fourth quarter,” said Allen. “It was just another great team win.” The final score was Memphis 98, Golden State 94. The final sentiment was: Whew.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: The Heat played the 76ers on Tuesday. In other words, it was a good time to experiment with the lineup. With guard Dwyane Wade resting on the bench with a sore knee, the Heat inserted Shane Battier and Ronny Turiaf into the starting lineup and defeated Philadelphia 99-93 at AmericanAirlines Arena. It was the Heat’s 16th consecutive victory at home, a league high, and Miami clinched a spot in the playoffs in the process. For the season, the Heat is 22-2 at home. A late scratch Tuesday, Wade is probable for Wednesday’s nationally televised game against the Thunder, which crushed the Heat on March 25 in Oklahoma City. The Heat will need Wade on Wednesday but managed to do without him against the Sixers, especially on a night when LeBron James set a season-high for points. He scored 41, shooting 15 of 25 from the field. “It’s never really mattered to me about scoring,” James said. “[Tuesday] was a good team effort, and I’m happy to get a good team effort against a playoff team.”
• Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: For the first 24 minutes and the final 12 against the Miami Heat Tuesday night, the Sixers put together some of their best basketball in quite some time. Passes were crisp, cuts to the basket were hard and it added up to a three-point lead at halftime. But the inconsistency of which Collins spoke reared its ugly head in the third quarter as the offense grew sloppy and the Dwyane Wade-less Heat picked up the pace and, ultimately, a 99-93 win. The Sixers' third-quarter struggles, in which they scored just 16 points, made six of 18 shots and turned the ball over four times, were exacerbated when forward Andre Iguodala had to leave the game with 4 minutes, 42 seconds left after sustaining a left eye contusion. He went to the locker room and didn't return to the bench the rest of the game. "To start the third, we were careless, we started to turn the ball over," Collins said. "We didn't have the crisp movement that we had during the first half. I was pleased with our game. I'm never pleased that we lose, I don't want anyone to think that there's a moral victory, but I thought there was a lot of good things."
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: What Patrick Mills brought to the Spurs when he arrived March 27 was something rare: a thorough knowledge of most of the team’s plays, right down to terminology and signals, without having played a single game in silver and black. The secret: Mills was the point guard for the Australian national team, called the Boomers, for the last four seasons. That team has been coached by Spurs assistant coach Brett Brown since 2009. Mills’ familiarity-by-proxy was on display Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena when he made 8 of 11 shots, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range, and scored a team-high 20 points in just under 20 minutes of court time. He became the 11th different player, including the recently-traded Richard Jefferson, to lead the Spurs in scoring in a game this season. It was Mills’ third game since joining the Spurs and his longest stint by more than 13 minutes. Against a Cavaliers defense that yielded 23 layups among the Spurs’ 48 baskets, Mills found open shots without needing to create anything on his own.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: Byron Scott is no longer talking about winning, something the Cavaliers haven't done since winter turned to spring. Things have eroded so quickly in the past few weeks the Cavaliers coach is just simply looking for his players to compete, to care. It's gotten so bad one of the team's leaders admitted some players have been joking around in the locker room after losses. "I worry more when me as a coach and my coaching staff want it more than my players," Scott said. "That's when I start to worry. And I'm getting worried." His concern elevated to another level after the San Antonio Spurs embarrassed the Cavaliers, 125-90, on Tuesday. The second consecutive lopsided home defeat -- the Cavs lost by 37 points on Friday night to Milwaukee -- drove many in the crowd of 14,759 fans out of the building long before the final horn sounded. It marked their eighth straight loss overall and 11th in the last 12 games.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: Andrew Bynum walked into the Lakers' locker room at 6:30 p.m., roughly 30 minutes after his teammates were required to arrive. He changed into a pair of practice shorts and took his uniform, still on its hangars, back to the equipment room. Bynum couldn't play in Tuesday night's game against the New Jersey Nets because of a sprained left ankle suffered in Sunday's victory over the Golden State Warriors. He wouldn't talk to reporters before the game, as is his custom. So, it was left to coach Mike Brown to answer questions about him. Brown confirmed Bynum was fined an undisclosed amount last week for blowing off a meeting with general manager Mitch Kupchak that was arranged to discuss his immature behavior, including an ill-advised 3-pointer March 27 against Golden State. A Lakers insider said the team hadn't suspended Bynum for his recent actions. Then he smiled faintly and added the word, "Yet." "Am I concerned with Bynum's attitude?" Brown said, repeating a reporter's question about the 24-year-old center's recent behavior. "No, I'm not concerned. - It's been handled internally. It's an internal matter."
• Tim Bontemps of the New York Post: Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has been missing in action, but that will change next week. That’s when Prokhorov will meet with NBA commissioner David Stern, and Prokhorov may attend the league’s Board of Governors meetings next Thursday and Friday, Stern said at an event in Manhattan Tuesday to kick off NBA Green Week presented by Sprint. At those meetings, the Board of Governors officially will vote to approve the Nets’ impending move to Brooklyn, along with the team’s name change from the New Jersey Nets to the Brooklyn Nets. “I know I have a meeting with him next week,” Stern said. “He’ll be in New York next week. Whether he is going to physically be there for [the Board of Governors] vote, I’m not sure, but I hope so.” Stern also spoke glowingly of the ongoing construction of the team’s new home in Brooklyn, the Barclays Center, which is set to open this fall. “It’s going to be on time, [and] it’s going to be a spectacular addition to the New York entertainment scene,” Stern said.
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: Charlie Villanueva again didn't play and has played only 15 minutes all season, erasing the optimism he had when the lockout-shortened year began — and the reality is beginning to set in. "Mentally it's frustrating and hard because you worked so hard to get healthy and help the team out," said Villanueva, who fought ankle problems that kept him out the first two months of the season. "Then after you work so hard you don't get the minutes that I feel like I should be playing." Villanueva is stuck behind Monroe, Jason Maxiell, Ben Wallace and Jonas Jerebko in the frontcourt and Frank likes the rotation as such, despite Villanueva's diverse set of skills. "Look, it's not a knock on Charlie," Frank said after Monday's practice. "Charlie is working hard and doing what we're asking, but my thing is Greg, Max, Jonas, Body (Wallace) — you know they are all doing basically what we're asking. In order to put Charlie in there, one of those guys has to sit." ... He has two years left on his contract, and is scheduled to make $16.6 million over that span. He could be a prime candidate for the amnesty clause if the Pistons can't find a taker for him. "The fact I'm not being used this season, and we have the same guys coming back (contractually)," Villanueva said. "My mind is, 'What's going to happen next season?' I feel like I can be helping out, but we'll see what happens."
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson sat out Tuesday night's game against the Detroit Pistons with injuries, but Orlando Magic officials believe Howard and Nelson will not be out for an extended period. Howard missed his second game in a row because of back spasms, and Nelson did not play because he has a sore left calf. Ryan Anderson has a sprained right ankle. Coach Stan Van Gundy was briefed about each player's status before tipoff by athletic trainer Keon Weise. ... Howard would not discuss his injury. Nelson said his calf had bothered him for three or four games. Team officials decided to proceed cautiously with Nelson to make sure the injury did not worsen. ... Van Gundy said Anderson likely will be out another five or six days. ... ESPN reported and an NBA source confirmed to the Sentinel that Dallas Mavericks center Brendan Haywood will not be punished by the league. Van Gundy alleged that Haywood caused Howard's injury by punching Howard in the back during Friday's Mavericks-Magic game. The Magic had sent video to the league officials for review.
• Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun: Anyone who watches any game, especially at home and regardless of the quality of Toronto’s opponent, can’t help but be impressed at the way Dwane Casey goes about his business. If his players remotely approached every tip the way Casey approaches every possession, the Raptors wouldn’t be life and death when a team such as Charlotte pays a visit to the Air Canada Centre. In Chicago, there’s much angst as to why the Bulls have yet to extend Tom Thibodeau, the NBA’s reigning coach of the year who took his team to the Eastern final last spring before losing to Miami. In Toronto, there’s no chatter about Casey’s extension when there should be as Casey continues to prove his worth and his impact on a team that is more D-league than NBA-ready against an equally inept Bobcats side. In fact, he’s making such a case that the Raptors should lock him up well beyond next season as more legitimate pieces are assembled. Stability has been so fleeting in Raptorland in what seems like an eternity that a known commodity in Casey simply must be locked up for good. Give him a five-year deal and send a message that a culture that demands defence will always be adhered to and enforced. In Casey, the Raptors have finally found a guy players league-wide respect.
• Scott Fowler of The Charlotte Observer: Anthony Davis as a Bobcat: It would change so much. But first, to keep things realistic, let’s look at some odds. I’m assuming two things – Davis will soon declare he’s coming out after his freshman season and the Bobcats are going to finish with the NBA’s worst record. Both seem safe assumptions. As of Tuesday, the Bobcats were five games worse in the win column than anyone else, and the regular season ends this month. But even with the worst record, Charlotte has only a 1-in-4 chance of getting the first pick – which is absolutely going to be Davis, which is why he’d be foolish not to come out – when the NBA draft lottery is conducted May 30. The Bobcats, in other words, have a 75 percent of not getting Davis. ... He would give the team an identity. But he wouldn’t be an immediate fix, much like John Wall hasn’t really moved the win-loss needle in Washington. Davis would need help, which is where the Bobcats’ cap room comes in. Still, Davis would make the Bobcats a lot better than they are. He would intimidate people inside. His mere presence would allow the Bobcats’ shooters to get more open shots. It would all be a whole lot of fun. But first, those 1-in-4 (at best) odds must pay off.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: The Suns remain unsettled on how to act on Aaron Brooks, although it seems doubtful that he will join a team with three point guards and play at this stage. The Suns could sign Brooks to a multiyear contract while they have exclusive negotiating rights, but that would cut into their July salary-cap flexibility for free agency. They could let him go into free agency and still be able to match any team's offer if they elect to keep him. "It's put us in a situation where we need to have some serious conversations, internally and potentially with Aaron, about the state of where we are and what's going to make the most sense with the organization," Blanks said. "I can't give you A or B right now, but it certainly needs to be discussed. He's a NBA-level point guard and a pretty good one. Does it make sense now or later? Those things need to be talked about, and that's a lot easier to do that when you have spent a week with a guy seeing him live in basketball games and talking to him." Brooks' Guangdong team lost 4-1 in the finals to Stephon Marbury's Beijing team. Marbury scored 41 points in Game 5, and Brooks had 33.
• Marcos Breton of The Sacramento Bee: Sacramento is going to be hard-pressed to build a downtown arena to house the Kings as long as the Maloof brothers are the Kings owners. I wish this wasn't so, but the Maloofs have always found a reason not to pay up when it was their turn. They've always thrown up roadblocks when everyone else was ready to take on the monumental task of building an arena here. ... They are refusing to pay $3.2 million in pre-development costs – chump change for most NBA owners – when Sacramento is paying a much larger share. AEG, the Los Angeles-based arena operators, is ready to pay as well. The Maloofs contend they shouldn't pay for pre-development costs when they won't have an ownership stake in the arena. They'll just be renters. ... How curious that this whole story first broke in the Los Angeles Times, the market where the Maloofs wanted to move the Kings last year but were blocked by the NBA. Am I accusing the Maloofs of leaking this story? Heavens to Betsy, no! It's just very curious, wouldn't you say? Now the Maloofs' Los Angeles-based lawyer is firing off letters raising doubts that Sacramento can complete an arena on time. Think about that for a minute.

Last night was a big one for the New Jersey Nets, they took down a playoff team and not one but two of their players vying for Flop of the Night honors.

The winner is Jordan Williams, attempting to draw a charge without absorbing any contact. He does a great job of getting his feet in position, but instead of actually defending the Pacers' Tyler Hansbrough, he elects to have a seat under the basket. Hansbrough looks up, realizes that his previously perfectly positioned defender is now lying down, and dunks. (It turned out to be a horrid night for Williams, who left with concussion-like symptoms.)

DeShawn Stevenson earns honorable mention for high theater, and getting the call. The theatrical quality of this flop is truly breathtaking. It's unclear whether Danny Granger actually makes contact at all. Nonetheless Stevenson writhes in agony holding his cheek, even though the replay shows that Granger's elbow grazes either air, or the chin. It's reminiscent of soccer players being carted off the field only to be sprinting around the field a few minutes later, after securing the call.

Thanks to Jared Wade (@8pts9secs) for alerting us to that last one.

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

• Al Iannazzone of Newsday: Carmelo Anthony winced and grimaced because of his strained right groin, but also smiled and bounced around as if pain free as he and the Knicks were putting a hurting on the Magic. Anthony had 25 points in one of his best all-around games of the season last night, providing an emotional lift that sparked the undermanned Knicks to an improbably lopsided 108-86 victory at the Garden. "It definitely fires everybody up to see your star player sacrificing his body and playing defense and doing all the little things, the intangible things," Baron Davis said. "It's definitely an inspiration to the guys." For the second straight game, the Knicks were minus Amar'e Stoudemire (bulging disc in his back and Jeremy Lin (sore knee). Stoudemire is out 2-4 weeks, but two games into his rehab the Knicks seem to be doing fine. They're getting contributions from everyone. Their defense remains solid and Anthony, despite his condition, looks like his old self.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: It doesn't add up. The Orlando Magic own the fifth-best record in the NBA, and yet on too many nights this season, they have played terribly. They played without any passion Wednesday night and they paid an all-too-familiar price. The New York Knicks administered a 108-86 drubbing in which the Magic trailed by as many as 39 points and looked inept on offense. "What's shocking to me is that a team that's playing over .600 basketball can get absolutely rocked as many times as we have been," coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Boston, New Orleans, Chicago, tonight — that's what's mind-boggling to me. It'll happen every once in a while if you're a bad team. To be a .600 team and get crushed like that as many times as we have? That's shocking." On Wednesday, nothing worked from the middle of the second quarter onward.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Not all compliments are created equal. Some even come disguised as a slight. So when the Clippers went through their little funk through the beginning of March, dropping successive games, losing to teams they should beat and tumbling backward in the standings, the calls for coach Vinny Del Negro's job and cries of panic from the fan base weren't so much criticisms as they were flattery. It meant people were paying attention and invested. "Last year we'd lose two games in a row and no one cared," Clippers center DeAndre Jordan said. It meant actual expectations for this once despondent franchise were not being met, which led to anxiety among the fans and probing analysis from the media. That's growth. ... The real key to change, though, is how the Clippers responded. To the losing, the added pressure and the adversity. Could have been the same old Clippers if they caved in. But it looks like the dawn of a new day for this franchise, evidenced by the Clippers' 103-86 win over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday at Staples Center to push their winning streak to three games.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Suns forward Grant Hill arrived at the office Wednesday night with optimism that the improvement in his right knee would be enough to let him get back to work. As doubtful as Hill was about playing before Tuesday's game, he felt good about his chances Wednesday night until he tested the knee and became a pregame scratch for the second consecutive night. Hill missed consecutive games for the first time since January 2011 because of soreness in his right knee, on which he had surgery in September. The knee was hit Sunday while he was taking a charge at Cleveland. Hill, 39, left the game early, but he had progressed to the point that shooting was comfortable Wednesday evening. Moving laterally was the issue. ... Hill has missed five games this season, but two were for rest in the middle of back-to-back-to-back sets. Hill missed three games in the previous three seasons combined.
• Colin Stephenson of The Star-Ledger: After all the mind-numbing losses they’ve had this season, and particularly over the past couple weeks, this was perhaps the last thing anyone could have expected. A double-digit victory over the Indiana Pacers? Really? Really. Deron Williams had 30 points and nine assists and the Nets, who started the game with 10 players in uniform and finished with only eight, stymied the Pacers, 100-84, tonight before a delighted crowd of 10,817 at the Prudential Center. The 16-point margin of victory, in the Nets’ final game before leaving Thursday on a four-game West Coast trip, was their largest of the season. ... The Nets finished with eight players in uniform after Jordan Williams left the game in the third quarter with concussion-like symptoms, and Shelden Williams left in the second quarter with an eye injury. Shelden Williams was poked in the right eye by Hansbrough. “We’re really concerned about Shelden,” Avery Johnson said.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: Many of the Indiana Pacers traveling party, including most of the coaching staff, took in the bright lights of Broadway on Tuesday night in New York. They attended "Magic/Bird," a play about Magic Johnson and Larry Bird's fierce rivalry during their playing careers. "I loved it. I thought it was great," coach Frank Vogel said. "I loved how they portrayed Larry because I know him the best of anybody in the show. But the whole story, the racial issues they were involved with in the '80s(, was great)." The Pacers had about 15 people, including six players, attend the play. Several of them took pictures with the actors who portrayed Johnson and Bird in the six-member cast. "It was cool because for me, Larry is new to me," forward Jeff Pendergraph said. "A lot of the stuff in the play the guys got, but it kind of went over my head a little bit because I haven't really hung around with him." Vogel grew up outside of Philadelphia watching Julius Erving play for the 76ers, but he admired Bird's Hall of Fame career with Boston.
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: Ever since the July 8, 2010, day the Bulls traded Kirk Hinrich essentially for extra salary-cap space to pursue the greatest free-agent class in NBA history, a segment of the fan base has clamored for his return. Hinrich, who still spends offseasons in the north suburban home he kept, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer for the first time in his nine-year career. So what about a Bulls return? "I wouldn't be opposed to it," Hinrich said. "It's still a ways away, and a lot can happen. We'll see. I have no preconceived thoughts on what will happen." He might have some financial ones, though. The Bulls will be hard-pressed to sign Hinrich unless he accepts a hometown discount. Because they're over the salary cap, the Bulls will have only cap exceptions at their disposal. And there are luxury-tax concerns, as well, when Derrick Rose's five-year, $95 million extension begins next season.
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It’s a dangerous game the Hawks are playing of late. After falling behind by large first-half margins the past two games, the Hawks rallied only to fall short. The latest came Wednesday night in a 98-77 loss to the Bulls at Philips Arena. The Hawks trailed the Bulls by 18 points in the first half. The used a 16-2 run to cut the lead to four points, 56-52, but would get no closer. The Bulls used an 18-4 run of their own in the third quarter to push the lead back to 18 points. Luol Deng provided the final nail in the coffin with a 3-pointer to cap the run. It came on a pass from Taj Gibson, who gathered the rebound of his own miss when Ivan Johnson failed to box him out. From there the Bulls' lead only increased. On Tuesday, the Hawks trailed by 17 points to the Bucks. They battled back to take a three-point lead before succumbing in the fourth quarter. They wouldn't get that close against the Eastern Conference-leading Bulls. ... The Bulls took the season series from the Hawks, 3-1. The Hawks (30-22, 16-8 home) lost for the second straight night, losing the final two games of a streak of five games in six nights.
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: Jimmer Mania wasn’t all hype. This, Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard firmly believes. Immersed in his own rookie season, Leonard admits he hasn’t seen Jimmer Fredette play much this season with the Kings. But he remembers how Fredette lit up the Mountain West Conference — and his own San Diego State squad — last season at BYU, led the NCAA in scoring and won national player of the year honors. Fredette, a 6-foot-2 shooter the Kings are hoping to remake as a point guard, has struggled to find a foothold his first season in Sacramento. Heading into Wednesday’s game against the Spurs, Fredette was averaging 7.2 points and shooting 38.3 percent in 18:23 per game. “It’s his first year,” said Leonard, selected 15th in the June draft, five spots lower than Fredette. “Everybody’s struggling as rookies coming in. With the lockout, you didn’t get to practice with your teammates. He’s a hard worker. I believe he’ll get better as time goes on.” For both rookies, life has changed since their epic battles in the Mountain West (BYU has since left the conference). In one meeting last season, Fredette had 43 points in a BYU victory, while Leonard had 22 points and 15 rebounds.
• Matt Kawahara and Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: Allowing opposing teams to shoot for high percentages has been a problem all season for the Kings, who entered Wednesday night's game against the San Antonio Spurs ranked 29th in the league in that category. Now that the Kings are playing at a faster pace, creating more possessions per game, there is even more of an emphasis on bringing that percentage down. Coach Keith Smart said the Kings ideally want to limit opponents to shooting 41 percent or 42 percent. Opponents were shooting 47.5 percent against the Kings before Wednesday. In their previous seven games, the Kings had averaged 111.7 points but lost four of those games in which their opponents shot 47.3 percent or better and averaged 112.3 points. Smart said lowering that percentage means working harder to contest shots and eliminating easy buckets that result from allowing second-chance opportunities under the basket or turning the ball over above the foul line.
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: When asked if he would give his veteran players extra rest during the final month of the season in preparation for the playoffs, Doc Rivers said yes. But there may be an exception. “The problem without saying a name is one of the guys you would suggest sitting, it’s not fun to get him to do that. The conversation is no fun,’’ Rivers said, likely alluding to Kevin Garnett. “Maybe he’ll see that, maybe he will not. But that will be an interesting discussion.’’ Garnett contributed his 16th double-double of the season Wednesday with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
• Brian T. Smith of The Salt Lake Tribune: Gordon Hayward doesn’t just have the talent to be a game-changer. He’s becoming one. The No. 9 overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft was the Jazz’s best player Wednesday during a 94-82 loss to the Celtics. He scored a team-high 19 points, while being second in rebounds (seven) and assists (five).Then there were his two blocks. When Boston suddenly turned a 66-all fourth-quarter tie into a 73-66 lead, Celtics guard Keyon Dooling stole the ball at midcourt and raced home for an easy layup. Until G-Man started flying. Hayward smoothly tracked Dooling’s path, perfectly timed his leap, then coldly swatted away a gimme shot that would’ve given Boston a nine-point advantage. Five seconds later, the just-turned-22-year-old from Butler was flying again. This time, a greedy Avery Bradley was the victim. Ray Allen’s replacement collected Hayward’s initial block and tried to toss in a quick putback. The Jazzman hit the replay button. Hayward destroyed Bradley’s layup, and Utah still had life.
• Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: Seldom-used reserve Austin Daye was going to get a little time with sixth man Ben Gordon sidelined with a sore right groin against the Cavs on Wednesday night. But when Rodney Stuckey (pulled left hamstring) left the game almost seven minutes in, the third-year swingman ended up with almost 30 minutes of playing time. Daye finished with eight points, two rebounds and two steals in the Pistons' 87-75 victory. It's the first time the Pistons (18-32) have won back-to-back road games this season. The team is 2-1 on its latest trip with the finale Friday night at Eastern Conference-leading Chicago. And with the nature of Stuckey's and Gordon's injuries, Daye can probably count on more playing time. "I thought Austin Daye really helped us because defensively he was very good," Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. "He was in good position where he forced guys to make extra passes." Daye has been open about his displeasure at a lack of playing time -- he has played in 31 of the team's 50 games.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: The easy thing for Anderson Varejao to do -- and some might say the smart thing -- is to forget about returning this season. The Cavaliers' center could spend the summer healing up, doing nothing more strenuous than working on his tan on some Brazilian beach. Not Varejao. As soon his broken right wrist heals, he wants to rejoin the Cavaliers. And as long as he's healthy, he also plans to represent Brazil in the Summer Olympics. Varejao has been out of the lineup since Feb. 10. According to the latest medical update supplied by the team, he won't begin to practice until early April. With the team falling out of the playoff race and the season ending on April 26, he was asked, why rush back? "Because I am part of the team and I want to help even if we don't have any more chance at the playoffs," Varejao said. "I want to play, that's what I get paid for. Last year, I was hurt [torn tendon in ankle] and this season I got hurt too. I want to play. This is what I love to do."
• Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune: In an 88-83 victory over a Charlotte Bobcats team that played with more energy than one would expect from a seven-win team, Love, as it has been since March began, led the way. Love attempted a career-high 31 shots, but never forced one. He made 14, four from three-point range. He scored 40 points and grabbed 19 rebounds. (When informed of that number, Wolves coach Rick Adelman joked that Love must have missed a shot late hoping to get to 20). With Charlotte hanging around, Love scored 14 of his points and grabbed six of his rebounds in the fourth quarter as the Wolves secured an important victory. For a team still hanging on the edge of a playoff chase, coming off Tuesday's loss in Memphis, this had to happen. ... It was Love's 10th game with 30-plus points and 15 or more rebounds, the 19th time he has scored 30 or more this season. It was also the third time he has scored 40 or more points this month. And it's a tribute to the Bobcats that the Wolves, playing without Michael Beasley, J.J. Barea and Nikola Pekovic, needed all of that to win.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: The NBA wants to know in advance which Silas is the Charlotte Bobcats’ head coach for any single game. Coach Paul Silas told me at shoot-around this morning that the league has asked the Bobcats for a heads-up whenever lead assistant Stephen Silas is taking over the team for a game. With the front office’s blessing, Paul Silas is having his son coach about once a week the rest of the season as a training exercise. The likely next game Stephen Silas will coach is Saturday, on the road against the Detroit Pistons. It makes sense that the league office wants to inform that night’s officiating crew in advance that Stephen Silas is in charge. Referees give head coaches more latitude – to stand throughout the game, to argue calls, to ask for interpretations – than they do assistants. So it makes sense for refs to know how to delineate between Paul’s and Stephen’s roles. What Paul Silas is doing with his son isn’t unprecedented. Former Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson used to let assistants Avery Johnson and Keith Smart coach games on occasion. Johnson now coaches the New Jersey Nets. Smart now coaches the Sacramento Kings.
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: Mark Jackson says he's coaching the NBA's version of the Bad News Bears. If the Warriors are the Bad News Bears, then Brandon Rush is Kelly Leak - the neighborhood's best athlete who was once considered a troublemaker off the field. Rush has been quite the find for the Warriors, who got the 6-foot-6 swingman in a December trade after he wore out his welcome in Indiana. He tore his ACL during an illegal predraft workout in 2007, was suspended five games for violating the league's substance-abuse policy last season, and says anti-gay slurs on his Twitter account were posted by someone else. Rush has been a model citizen with Golden State. He consistently has been one of the Warriors' top perimeter defenders, their best rebounding wing and a knockdown three-point shooter. He backed up a season-high 23 points the night before with a 12-point performance in a 102-87 loss to New Orleans at Oracle Arena on Wednesday night.
• Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: In many ways, Wednesday night’s game between the Hornets and Warriors was a matchup of two teams with similar problems. New Orleans was playing with nine players, and Golden State was once again without their starting point guard, Stephen Curry, who earlier in the day was ruled out for another two weeks with an ankle injury, and without two potential starting centers, Andris Biedrins and Andrew Bogut. The Hornets won this war of attrition, 102-87 in Oracle Arena, making a continued statement to the rest of the league, and themselves, that quitting on a season heading nowhere was not an option. The Hornets get right back at it tonight when they travel to meet the Trail Blazers in Portland, the third in this five-game West Coast road swing. Each of the clubs Wednesday night has dealt with adversity, primarily because of injuries.
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: The 105-96 final was the first Toronto win against Denver since a 121-94 win at the ACC back on March 23, 2007. It was just the second win against Denver since the 2004/05 season. Offensively, the load was carried by Andrea Bargnani, who had that “pep in his step” back from before he was injured according to Casey. Bargnani, who had hit just five three-pointers in 31 attempts since returning to the lineup a dozen games ago, went 2-for-4 from beyond the arc in this game, both successful threes coming late in the fourth quarter and neither one of them the easy, wide open variety. “It was fun because in this stretch I have missed so many wide open threes and then I hit the two hardest I have had maybe,” said Bargnani who wound up with 26 on the night.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: So, when is Danilo Gallinari coming back? That's the question Nuggets fans are asking, as the budding star remains sidelined with a left thumb fracture. "I don't think it's going to be this week, but we'll try to push him sometime next week to get on the practice court and then push it a little bit more," Nuggets coach George Karl said Wednesday. "We have a couple of practice days (between the games Sunday and Wednesday), so that's what we're shooting for." The small forward is averaging 15.2 points per game, second on the team to Ty Lawson's 15.6. Gallinari had strung together some good games in March before injuring the thumb against Dallas on March 19. In his place, Karl has started Wilson Chandler, who is averaging 11.5 points in his six games since rejoining the Nuggets.

• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: The Pacers didn’t hide their feelings about Monday’s game against the Miami Heat. They didn’t use the standard cliché often heard from athletes, “It’s just another game.” It wasn’t just another game for the Pacers. It was a game they had been looking forward to for more two weeks. They wanted prove they could truly beat the Heat and that their collapse during the final 90 seconds in South Beach wouldn’t happen again if they faced a similar situation. The Pacers made sure they weren’t in the position to choke this time. They led by double digits for all of 1 minute and 25 seconds of the fourth quarter. The Heat really only made two runs on the Pacers and the blue and gold withstood them both to move 10 games over .500. “We needed to get over this hump,” Roy Hibbert said. “We feel like we can play with anybody and when we have intensity like that from start to finish, we can beat anybody. There’s a chance we could see them in the playoffs and we wanted to let them know we weren’t going to roll over and it’s not going to be easy.” The Pacers didn’t have one player carry them. They did it with a complete team effort, which is what it takes to beat the Heat.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: It’s a good thing the Heat plays most of its games at home during the final month of the regular season. Miami has been downright awful on the road since the All-Star break. While the Heat has won 13 in a row at AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami has played like a different team entirely away from Biscayne Bay — a much worse team. On Monday, the Heat lost its sixth game on the road since the season’s midway point, losing to the Indiana Pacers 105-90 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. All five of the Pacers’ starters scored in double figures while the Heat’s lineup continued to struggle with its offense for the second night in a row. “It’s that time of year for us to hit a little pothole in the road,” said Heat guard Dwyane Wade, who finished with 24 points, six assists, five rebounds, and four blocks. “We have to make the adjustment before we get back to playing on Thursday.” The Heat is 8-6 since the All-Star break and has lost two in a row. ... The Heat is playing its worst basketball of the season with a month remaining until the playoffs.
• Jill Painter of the Los Angeles Daily News: Clippers star Blake Griffin was whistled for a flagrant foul against New Orleans forward Trevor Ariza, less than a week after Hornets forward Jason Smith was called for a flagrant foul that sent Griffin sprawling to the court. The difference was the Clippers won this game against New Orleans, 97-85 on Monday at Staples Center. And yet, the Clippers' win got lost in that foul, which less than an hour after the game already was on YouTube. Usually, Griffin's posterizing dunks dominate highlights, and he had some of those as well. Griffin fouled the former Laker and UCLA player with both arms extending over him as he was driving to attempt a layup. Ariza lost his balance and fell on his backside but quickly hopped to his feet to voice his displeasure with the foul. Players started jawing, and Ariza received a technical foul, too. Smith - not here because he was serving a two-game suspension - fouled Griffin so hard he was knocked to the ground, and Smith served a two-game suspension for it. Afterward, Griffin brushed off talk of retaliation and discussed the game plan to not allow layups. Griffin's hands were situated deep in the pockets of his jeans, so perhaps his fingers were crossed. "No, I don't think that was a flagrant foul," he said.
• Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: There’s apparently going to be a certain edginess every time the Hornets and Clippers play now, if Monday night was any indication. The hard-feelings that came out of last Thursday night’s win — Jason Smith’s hard-foul against Blake Griffin that brought about Smith’s two-game suspension — spilled over into the stands and on the floor in the Clippers’ 97-85 victory. One fan was ejected for throwing a peanut at Hornets Coach Monty Williams, and Griffin exacted a bit of revenge with a flagrant 1 foul on Trevor Ariza in the third quarter, which also resulted in a technical on Ariza when he whispered something to Griffin within earshot of an official. Griffin scored 20. The Clippers toyed with the Hornets until Chris Paul put up 15 third-quarter points — he finished with 25 — as the short-handed Hornets, playing without Smith and Chris Kaman (illness), couldn’t stand up to Los Angeles’ punishing inside attack. ... Williams, an old-schooler in his thoughts about how the game is played, said Griffin is just going to have to become accustomed to being pushed around. “He knows; he’s no fool,” Williams said. “He knows he’s making people look crazy, and guys don’t like that. He’s got to expect some of that. It’s just going to happen.”
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: JaVale McGee hasn't done everything right, but he had accomplished being a significant enough presence in his first three games with the Nuggets that he was in the starting lineup Monday at Chicago. McGee is averaging 12.3 points (on 62.2 percent shooting), 8.0 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots since being traded to the Nuggets. In his time in Denver he has been a more imposing, intimidating, effective presence in the middle than normal starter Timofey Mozgov has been of late. "You've got to experiment," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "He played well in the second half (at Minnesota). There's an energy there. ... JaVale is not the most experienced guy in the world, but I think he has more of a starting mentality to his game. We've got to experiment to see who plays well with who." McGee had his first double-double with the Nuggets on Sunday against the Timberwolves with 13 points and 11 rebounds. On Monday at Chicago he finished with 10 points and eight rebounds in nearly 24 minutes.
• Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times: Everything’s good, right? Who needs a 34-year-old who can’t seem to stay healthy? Who needs a guy who wears an invisibility cloak over his uniform? The Bulls do. They need a rickety, sharp-shooting Hamilton, even if their NBA-best 40-11 record would seem to scream down the very idea of it. The reasons the Bulls signed Hamilton in December haven’t gone away. They still need another element to throw at the Heat. They still need somebody with more offensive skills than Keith Bogans gave them last season. This is where the more enthusiastic Bulls fan says, “Have you seen John Lucas III lighting it up lately?’’ Yes, I have. And I also can’t help but think that Lucas will be lucky to get a few minutes a game in the postseason, when coaches rely more heavily on starters. ... If you’re a fan of doing things the right way, you want that to count for something. It should count for something if life were fair. But life isn’t fair. Some teams coast in the regular season and find an extra gear in the playoffs. Not to get too philosophical on you, but what does it all mean? What does all the regular-season success mean for the Bulls? Very little if they come up short of their expectations. Mr. Hamilton? Any time you’re ready.
• Frank Dell’Apa of The Boston Globe: Mickael Pietrus has not started baseline testing after the concussion be sustained at Philadelphia Friday. “There is no update, nothing, we’re just talking to him on the phone,’’ Rivers said of Pietrus. “Last I heard, they want to try this week. I think you have to start the baseline tests. They haven’t gotten to that. “He’s having too many symptoms. I don’t think we’re going to see him for a while.’’ Former Celtic Brian Scalabrine had a concussion during the 2008-09 season, returned quickly, and sustained another concussion. The Celtics are being more cautious now. “He’s great, he’s back home and he’s talking,’’ Rivers said of Pietrus. “It’s funny, we had it with Scal. You talk to them on the phone, they sound normal. But, obviously, it’s still a factor. “The first thing he said: ‘I’ve got to get back on the floor.’ Take your time.’’
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: Charlotte Bobcats big man Byron Mullens must have big ears. Before Monday’s 102-95 home loss to the Boston Celtics, coach Paul Silas said he sees 7-footer Mullens’ future at power forward because Mullens hasn’t been physical enough at the center spot. As Silas put it, “I just don’t know if you can make a tough guy out of somebody who is not.” Mullens sure looked like a guy making a statement, coming off the bench for 18 points, seven rebounds and two shots blocked. He even traded taunts and the occasional shove with Boston Celtics center Kevin Garnett. The Bobcats were down 18 at the end of the first quarter when Mullens revved up. He hit a 3-pointer over Garnett’s outstretched arms, then beat Garnett to the rim to catch and dunk an alley-oop pass from rookie Kemba Walker. Silas liked what he saw. “We did play tough more than early on this season,” Silas said. “I like what Byron did and Derrick Brown (16 points) was tough, too.”
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: Bucks guard Monta Ellis has been thrown into the mix without much preparation time. That's what happens when you make a deal at the trade deadline. "He's made some really good plays," Bucks coach Scott Skiles said before the game. "He's made some plays on the pick-and-roll; he's passed the ball well. We're a better-than-average passing team and he's fit right into that. "But there's also moments where we're going to need him to step up and exert his will on the game a little bit and score the ball. It's tricky. You make a trade with not a lot of games left, and a guy deserves a period of time to adjust. “And we deserve a period of time to adjust to him, especially a guy as talented as Monta. At the same time, we’ve got to win the game.” Ellis was 2 for 14 from the field against the Knicks was extremely frustrated. He scored on a tip-in in the first quarter and did not score again until 6:03 remained in the game on a fast-break dish from Brandon Jennings. “It will fall,” Ellis said. “Hopefully it will turn around soon."
• John Branch of The New York Times: The latest rash of ailments tainted the enthusiasm over the Knicks’ seventh victory in the eight games since Woodson replaced Mike D’Antoni this month. “It just seems like it’s not stopping,” center Tyson Chandler said. “You get that bug and it seems like it transfers from one guy to another.” The game with the Bucks had enough intrigue without the injuries. With about one-quarter of the shortened regular season to play, the Eastern Conference appears to be a nine-team game of musical chairs for eight playoff seats. The victory moved the Knicks, with 16 games to play, two and a half games ahead of the Bucks for the final slot. The slight cushion may come in handy. While nagging injuries to Lin and Anthony are a concern, Stoudemire’s long-range health is by far the most worrisome. The Knicks hope his injury is not a repeat of last season, when Stoudemire pulled a muscle in his back during warm-ups for Game 2 of a playoff series with the Boston Celtics, and the Knicks hobbled meekly to an early vacation. It took Stoudemire about seven months to fully recover.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: The Orlando Magic have tried to address their turnover troubles by focusing on the problem. Now, Stan Van Gundy will try another remedy. He'll try to let his players play. "We're gonna have to play the game better," Van Gundy said before the Magic faced the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre on Monday night. "We spent a lot of time talking about it. We showed film on it. Now we're gonna go the other way a little bit and just sort of harp on other things and let 'em play a little bit." Orlando had committed at least 19 turnovers in four of their previous five games.
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: The tragic number going in was nine. Raptors head coach Dwane Casey felt his team would at least give themselves a good shot at a win if they could limit the Orlando Magic to eight or fewer three-pointers. The fact that Orlando already had nine, six of them by Ryan Anderson alone, and there was still 1:26 to go in the first half pretty much told the tale. If the pre-game message was “We’re going to chase these guys off that three-point line,” it got lost in translation somewhere as the Magic rolled to a 117-101 win. Casey’s post-game mood was one of abject disappointment. “We came out as flat as a pancake against one of the top teams in the league and it’s disappointing,” Casey said.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: Rockets guard Kyle Lowry shoveled a basketball to Goran Dragic with his left hand, unable to use his right because of the antibiotics PICC line in his right arm. The effort was not much greater than passing the peas at dinner, but it was as much as he has been permitted in weeks or is likely to undergo for several more weeks. He laughed when Dragic hit the shot Lowry told him would be his last. He celebrated not just his first morning around the Rockets since he was hospitalized March 8 with a bacterial infection but the understanding that if not for an alert technician and luck his serious condition could have been worse. Lowry, 26, said he might not return this season from his infection and its treatment, but he was happy just to be back at a morning shootaround. “It was very scary for a while,” Lowry said. “I had a temperature of 104 for a couple days. It’s not a good feeling. It’s very scary, but it’s something that you learn from and you have to deal with and do what you have to do to get better. If I waited a little bit longer I could have been (in danger). I could have been in a real bad situation if I waited a day longer to go in. They don’t have a clue how it happened or how this situation came about.”
• Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: Terrence Williams said facing his old team provided no extra motivation. ... The Rockets waived the seldom-used Williams on March 16, and the Kings signed him to a 10-day contract Wednesday. In both of his appearances with Sacramento, he has been on the court at crunch time. "I don't care where we were playing (Monday)," Williams said. "I wasn't going to let the last game happen again. I just tried to be focused and be ready to play basketball." Williams committed a turnover with 15.6 seconds left in the Kings' 111-108 loss at Golden State on Saturday. On Monday, he had 10 points, three rebounds and two steals. Coach Keith Smart said Williams is "moving up the charts" and earning the right to play earlier in games. "He's playing well. He's playing within himself," Smart said. "He's shown he can make some plays and be a playmaker defensively, so he's moving at the right pace for our basketball team." Williams likely will stay for the rest of the season.
• Colin Stephenson of The Star-Ledger: It has gotten to the point where the Nets lost tonight for the sixth time in seven games — to a team playing its fourth game in five nights, and coming off a four-overtime game the night before — and no one on the team seemed particularly surprised or terribly disappointed. “They’re a good basketball team,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said of the Utah Jazz, who came into the Prudential Center and beat the Nets, 105-84. “This (Utah) is a team that’s vying for a playoff spot in the Western Conference, and they have a lot at stake right now. So even if you’re a little tired, you try to dig a little deeper.” The Jazz have been digging deep for the past couple weeks, at least. The win tonight was their seventh in eight games. At 27-23, Utah is in the thick of the playoff race, currently in a three-way tie with Houston and Denver for the final two playoff spots. The Nets (16-35), on the other hand, have lost eight of their last 10. Johnson said the group that finished the game — Sundiata Gaines, MarShon Brooks, DeShawn Stevenson, Jordan Williams and Johan Petro — let the game get too far out of hand.
• Brian T. Smith of The Salt Lake Tribune: This is Deron Williams’ NBA life 13 months after being traded by the Jazz. The former face of Utah’s franchise was part of another professional embarrassment Monday during the Jazz’s 105-84 victory at the Prudential Center. Just 10,310 fans were announced, and the mark was generous. The only time Williams looked like D-Will came during the third and early fourth quarter, when the Nets (16-35) finally started caring, erasing a 17-point halftime deficit to pull within 72-69 after the All-Star point guard sank an 11-foot turnaround jumper with 11:02 to go. It was as close as Utah (27-23) allowed New Jersey to get, and as good as Williams looked. The man who owned Salt Lake City finished with 17 points, a co-game-high 11 assists and four rebounds in 40:18.
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: As Jordan Crawford walked through the tunnel, following yet another fourth-quarter collapse, he pulled at the drawstrings on his shorts, lifted his head toward the rafters, shook it and rolled his eyes. It couldn’t have happened again. Not like this. Not at home. Not against the Detroit Pistons. But as Rodney Stuckey and the Pistons giddily hugged and celebrated a 79-77 victory at center court, the Washington Wizards had to deal with completing an improbable home threepeat on Monday night, as they allowed their third straight opponent to rally back from a double-digit second-half deficit to pull out a victory at Verizon Center. “It’s mental. It’s mental for sure. You think about it all the time,” Crawford said after scoring a team-high 20 points. “We’re playing to not lose and that’s why we’re not winning. It’s frustrating. We got to play to win the game.”
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey went through Monday's morning shoot-around and declared himself ready to play against the Wizards on Monday. Stuckey, who admittedly hates missing games because of injuries, said electronic stimulation and treatment he has been receiving have eliminated the swelling, which was the most difficult part of the injury. When he played against the Clippers on March 18, Stuckey was laboring, unable to plant his feet. He missed the last three games with a sore left big toe and had to watch the Pistons muddle through the last two games offensively. The one thing Stuckey isn't concerned about is re-injuring the toe. He was asked if he was worried about making his sore toe worse, and he smiled. "We'll find out if I re-aggravate it," Stuckey said. "If not, I'll be fine."

• Howard Beck of The New York Times: The Philadelphia 76ers are lording over the Atlantic Division after years of misery. The Knicks, bound in a cycle of perpetual dysfunction, are charging hard down the I-95 corridor, becoming a legitimate threat to the throne. The power shifted a bit Wednesday as the Knicks outhustled and out-scrapped the 76ers for an 82-79 victory, cutting the 76ers’ lead to three games with their fifth straight win. 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.” Amar’e Stoudemire, whose resurgence has been a huge part of the Knicks’ turnaround — and been simultaneously overshadowed by it — was energetic and demonstrative all night, leading the Knicks with 21 points and 9 rebounds. A defensive battle once would have favored Philadelphia. But the resurgent Knicks (23-24) have taken on the persona of their interim coach, Mike Woodson, who considers defense the highest virtue. They held the 76ers to 38.7 percent shooting and had a 47-39 rebounding advantage. The Knicks have not lost since Woodson took the reins, and Wednesday’s victory was certainly the biggest of the bunch. Despite speculation that Woodson might move away from Lin as a featured player, Lin continues to provide critical scoring and playmaking.
• John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News With gas in the Big Apple running around $4 a gallon, it's probably a $40 to $50 car ride down the Jersey Turnpike to Philadelphia and back. You're looking at up to $20 in tolls and parking at the Wells Fargo Center runs at least $15. Then you still actually had to purchase tickets for Wednesday night's Sixers-Knicks game, and I doubt a lot of the $12 seats in the upper level were available. Add in concessions, and it was easily a $150 to $200 night for each Knicks fan. Funny thing is, that was still probably cheaper than taking the subway to Madison Square Garden for a real Knicks home game, assuming you could actually get access to a ticket. Average New Yorkers can't afford to go to a Knicks game, but they love their basketball team. That's why they think little of traveling the I-95 corridor to New Jersey, Washington and, yes, Philadelphia, where tickets are always available. That was not really a home game for the Sixers. At least half of the sellout crowd of 20,470 was cheering for New York, and at times it seemed like the entire building was. This was a hostile takeover of South Philadelphia - the type of invasion of somebody else's house that Eagles, Phillies and Flyers fans proudly brag about doing. The Knicks rode the love they got to an 82-79 home, um, road win.
• Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman: Even though he’d been in Oklahoma City less than 24 hours and been through zero practices with the Thunder, he played 19 minutes against the Clippers. He scored five points, grabbed one rebound, dished one assist and even blocked one shot. “He fit in well,” reserve center Nazr Mohammed said of Fisher’s time with the second unit. “It helped that they played a lot of zone, but he’s played a long time. All the sets are the same, just different names.” Still, if Fisher can play that well cold, imagine what he’ll do after a practice or two. He’s more of a set-up guy in the mold of a traditional point guard, and that will be a lot easier once he has a chance to play a bit with these guys. “I think he’ll bring stability,” reserve forward Nick Collison said after one game with Fisher. “He’s good at handling pressure, at getting into offenses ... and being able to knock down open shots.” ... Today, the Thunder is closer to being a championship team because of the different things that Fisher can do. Yes, he’s going to be a great locker room guy, a fantastic community ambassador. But more than anything, he’s an upgrade in talent. The Thunder made the deal and spent the money because it expects big things from him on the court. “He’s not going to be this guy that’s going to be sitting down with our young players and saying, ‘I remember when we did this,’” Brooks said. “He has to be able to get out on the court and play and be a big part of what we do.”
• Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News: Bruce Bowen got a little choked up when he talked about the Spurs organization Wednesday night as he became the seventh player in team history to have his jersey retired. “I thank you all for allowing me to be share this moment with you all,” Bowen said at the end of his 15-minute speech, his voice cracking just a tad. Looking resplendent in his customary bowtie, Bowen watched the action from courtside midcourt seats throughout the game. And it was fitting that his team took control of the victory over Minnesota in the second half with the kind of defensive effort that earned him five selections on the NBA’s All-Defensive first team. ... Bowen was joined on a makeshift stage at center court of the AT&T Center by former teammates Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, David Robinson, general manager R.C. Buford, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and many family members. Most of the sellout crowd of 18,581 stayed around more than an hour after the Spurs’ victory over Minnesota to watch the ceremony.
• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: Wolves coach Rick Adelman compensated Wednesday at San Antonio by starting rookie Derrick Williams alongside Kevin Love in a small lineup, while 7-foot Darko Milicic remained on the sideline and out of favor. Milicic was inactive for Monday's victory against Golden State and its smallish lineup after he started Sunday at Sacramento but played only the first six minutes. He did not play in the two games before that and was inactive the game before. This season, he has missed games some nights because of a variety of injuries and other nights because Adelman has chosen not to play him. "He hasn't done anything to really give you a lot of faith that he's going to go out and do the job," Adelman said of Milicic. "He's gotten himself out of shape. He hasn't been as driven as you'd like so when a situation like this happens, it's time for someone to have their opportunity and get back in there. Today, [Williams] going to get his chance and Anthony Randolph is going to get his chance and we'll see if any of those guys can step up." Adelman then went out and relied on a small lineup that featured Love, Williams and Anthony Tolliver.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: It figures to be only a matter of time before Ramon Sessions moves into the Lakers' starting lineup, returning Steve Blake to a backup role at point guard. That time wasn't Wednesday night, however. Blake started for the fourth consecutive game since the Lakers traded Derek Fisher to the Houston Rockets and acquired Sessions from Cleveland in a multi-player deal at the trade deadline last Thursday. Sessions' impact has been difficult to miss, with his speed and ability to get into the paint among the chief reasons the Lakers traded for him. He isn't comfortable with either the Lakers' offensive or defensive schemes, however. "I'm definitely not up to speed yet," Sessions said. "I'm not comfortable like I would like to be just because I don't know exactly where everybody is supposed to be out on the floor. I'm starting to know more plays for myself as where I'm supposed to go. "But being a point guard, I want to dictate where everybody else goes and tell them where to go. I'm going to get it sooner or later. It's a little different than in Cleveland. I'm definitely trying to get all the concepts down as soon as possible." As for moving Sessions into the starting lineup sooner rather than later, Lakers coach Mike Brown said it's not a pressing concern at the moment.
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Shawn Marion missed his third consecutive game Wednesday night when the Dallas Mavericks hosted the Los Angeles Lakers. Marion is suffering from a sore left knee that has been bothering him for some time. His absence left the Mavs in a difficult position to try and contain Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, who was just 11 of 37 from the field with 29 points in two previous meetings this season with Marion shadowing him. Marion, one of the game's best defenders, wanted to play in the worst possible way. "It's not so much about playing against Kobe," he said. "It's just going out there and fighting with my team. "Other than that, it is what it is." Marion hopes to be back in time for Friday's game in San Antonio.
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: Sometimes words don't do an event justice. The Pistons' found a way to lose a game they had no business winning. After the Pistons came back from a 25-point deficit, two crucial mistakes in the final five seconds left to a demoralizing 116-115 defeat to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday at Pepsi Center. Flint native JaVale McGee dunked in a Arron Afflalo free-throw line miss with 5.6 seconds left, after Ben Gordon fouled Afflalo on a layup that cut the lead to one. It negated a historic comeback from the Pistons and a similar night from Gordon, who scored a season-high 45, three away from his career high. Gordon missed a contested fadeaway as time expired. "Sometimes you have to experience a little bit of hell to get to heaven," said Pistons coach Lawrence Frank, whose team's last two losses were heartbreaking.
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: About 20 minutes after the Nuggets' great escape, George Karl sat down in front of the media for a postgame Pepsi Center news conference and flashed the grin of a coach who knew his team had gotten away with something. Detroit's Ben Gordon scored 45 points. The Nuggets blew a 25-point lead. The Pistons outran the running Nuggets, 24 fast-break points to 14. Detroit hit 14 3-pointers and almost as many free throws (21) as the Nuggets took (22). And yet, on Wednesday night, this happened: Nuggets 116, Pistons 115. In regulation. In hair-raising fashion. "I don't know if we were the best team," Karl said. "But I thought it was a (darn) good played game."
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: For the first time in nearly 10 years, Nene stepped into an NBA arena and he wasn’t representing the Denver Nuggets or wearing the No. 31. The last week has been an emotional and reflective one for Nene, with him being uprooted from the only NBA franchise he has known and being thrust from a team with playoff aspirations to another headed toward the lottery. Surrounded by an unfamiliar set of teammates, in an unusual red uniform with a horizontal stripe and with hip-hop mogul and New Jersey Nets co-owner Jay-Z seated courtside, Nene didn’t waste any time settling in. On the first possession of the Washington Wizards’ 108-89 win over the Nets on Wednesday night at Prudential Center, Nene caught the ball at the foul line and sprinted around Nets center Shelden Williams for an easy layup. The rest of the evening, Nene showed why the Wizards added him to the roster at the trade deadline in a three-team deal. He set solid screens to get his teammates open looks, played effective defense in the low post, and finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot in the decisive victory.
• Andy Vasquez of The Record: For the second straight game Deron Williams left Prudential Center without speaking to reporters; his locker was empty when the Nets’ locker room was opened to media. Johnson questioned his team’s effort for the first time in more than a month. “I’m always one that’s tried to be really, really positive, at all times with our team,” Johnson said. “But [the effort] could have been better.” It was all part of one of the most frustrating nights in a season full of frustrating nights. The Nets would have to win their remaining 18 games to finish at .500. The team has lost six out of seven in a stretch that all but guarantees the team’s final month in New Jersey will be completely irrelevant. “Demoralizing,” Anthony Morrow said of the loss.
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: By toning down their feelings to scattered boos, it’s nice that Magic fans either have 1)forgiven Hill for not re-signing 2) simply recognize an old, worn-out storyline. ... The Magic won their 30th game, although they’ve been inconsistent this season. The view on the other side of the glass is different. “They’ve won 30 games. I don’t know what everybody is complaining about here,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. ... Magic’s offense flamed out late in Miami and scored just 59 points all game Monday against the Bulls. Nothing like the arrival of the Suns’ defense to lighten the mood.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: If the Suns need a reminder of how far they have come this season, they just replayed how dismally they started the season. To find a game in which Steve Nash and Marcin Gortat were simultaneously askew as they were Wednesday night for a 103-93 loss at Orlando, rewind to the second game of this season against Philadelphia. The Suns never competed with the Magic anywhere nearly as well as the final margin indicates. Nash had two assists, nine fewer than his league-leading average, and five turnovers while Gortat had a scoreless first half and finished with four points, 12 fewer than his team-leading average. It was like Dec. 28, when Nash had one assist and six turnovers and Gortat had his other season-low four-point game.
• Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: The rarity of it isn't lost on Klay Thompson. The Warriors rookie took 24 shots in Wednesday's 101-92 win over the New Orleans Hornets. Sure, he made only 11, which isn't a percentage worth bragging about. But the bigger point is he got to take 24 shots. Dorell Wright hasn't taken 20 in a game this season. Stephen Curry, though he's played only 26 games, tops out at 21. David Lee, a seventh-year vet, has taken that many shots just five times -- in his career. "As a rookie, to put up 24 shots is really rare," said Thompson, who set a career high with 27 points. "I'm really thankful Coach (Mark) Jackson has the confidence in me to let me take those shots and play my game." The Warriors have no doubt shown confidence in Thompson, anointing him the successor to guard Monta Ellis, the team's star shooting guard for years before being dealt to Milwaukee on March 13. But it's already obvious why Golden State is willing to stake its future on the rookie. In the six games since the Ellis trade, Thompson is averaging 20 points in 37 minutes. He's shooting 40.9 percent in those games, but that's probably more because he's working on his repertoire and learning how to be a reliable scorer. The fact that he's taken 24 shots -- and no one on the team is griping about it -- is a sign of his potential as a scorer.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Center Emeka Okafor remains the lone injured Hornets player without a clear timetable on his return with 20 games remaining in the regular season. He missed his 19th consecutive game on Wednesday with a sore left knee. “When you get injured, you have to make sure you take care of it,” Okafor said. “That’s the process here, I’m working hard and being diligent. I’m rehabbing.”
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Hawks coach Larry Drew often describes it as a seduction. When the Hawks, a good defensive team, take the court against a bad defensive team, they just can’t help themselves. Instead of clamping down and dominating the weaker foe, the Hawks are content to run up and down the court trying to trade baskets. The Hawks tried that plan against Cleveland on Wednesday, and it nearly backfired. They needed some big shots from Joe Johnson to save them. Johnson’s 25-foot 3-pointer forced overtime, and his basket provided the winning margin in the Hawks’ 103-102 victory at Philips Arena. The Hawks (27-20) won for the third time in four games. Johnson had struggled shooting all game, but made amends at the end.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer Some high draft picks do not want to attend the NBA's summer leagueafter they have established themselves. Irving is not in that category. "Even if Coach Scott didn't want me to go, I was going to be there anyway," Irving said. Scott believes it would be good for rookies Irving and Tristan Thompson to play together, even if it's only for a few games. Irving went a step further: With as many as four draft picks joining the team in July, the newbies will have a chance to play with the starting point guard. Due to the lockout, neither Irving nor Thompson took part in last year's summer league in Las Vegas. Irving said he knows it can be an anxious time for young guys trying to make a favorable impression. "I'm going there to cool everybody down," Irving said. "[I'll] be the cool guy down there."
• Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times: C.J. Watson missed all eight of his shots from the floor in Monday night’s 85-59 wipeout of the Magic in Orlando, but that doesn’t mean he played a lousy game, according to Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. “I don’t necessarily judge him by his shots,” Thibodeau said. “I measure him more on how he runs the team and how the team is functioning and how he’s playing defense. He can play well when he doesn’t shoot well. That’s what he did in that game.” The Bulls were 10-4 without MVP Derrick Rose heading into Wednesday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors, which says a lot about their depth at point guard. John Lucas III and Mike James also have played key roles. “C.J. has played very well whenever he has started,” Thibodeau said. “He’s been solid. John has been terrific. The bench has been very good. Then our starters have done a good job.” The Bulls will need continued solid play from Watson, Lucas III and James because Rose might not return from a strained groin for several more days, if not longer.
• Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun: Stop if you've heard this one before: The Raptors played a solid three quarters before wilting in the fourth to lose a basketball game. It has happened a number of times this season and on Wednesday, the Chicago Bulls used a final frame flurry to disappoint the Raptors 94-82 at the ACC. After surrendering a disappointing 69 points through three, the league's second-stingiest defence buckled down and scored the first 10 points of the fourth and 16 of the first 19, to turn around a seven-point deficit and take complete control. "Chicago is not chopped liver. We competed for three and a half quarters of the game," summarized Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, who said he is still looking to see his club put four good quarters together against a quality team.

• Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: It started as a growl, probably a few dozen fans intent on booing Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob as he finished the ceremony to retire Chris Mullin's jersey number. Just a growl. Loud, unruly, but not overwhelming. Then Lacob started to talk -- and the boos grew louder and angrier. Then Lacob stopped talking and frowned, and the boos built and built and kept going. Then he said "now that we've got that over with." and the boos cascaded on him and kept cascading until some kind of Warriors history was made. By the time Mullin walked back to center court to hug Lacob and urge the "best fans in the league" to channel their passion towards positivity -- and to have faith in Lacob's new regime -- it turned into theater. When Rick Barry grabbed the mike to lecture the fans about "class," that was the night venturing far into the reaches of infamy. It will never be forgotten -- surely not by Lacob, not by Mark Jackson, not by the Warriors staffers who all seemed stunned, not by the handful of players who were on the court at the time. ... The initial indication: Lacob did just fine. He didn't quail. He got visibly mad, but he didn't duck for cover. He went back out to his courtside seat in the second half. He kept clapping and cheering for all to see. He was joking about it not long after the game. Heroic? No. But stern and determined. OK, yes, Lacob probably shouldn't have chosen that moment to speak; he was again grabbing center stage when it was better left to others, and I believe that led to some of the crowd's anger. But Lacob didn't deserve THAT treatment. He's not Cohan, and if fans were torturing him for the Monta Ellis trade, he really didn't deserve that, because it's a good far-sighted trade.
• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: The Timberwolves moved on Monday night at Golden State from Sunday's convincing loss at Sacramento and from that sideline tiff involving Kevin Love and J.J. Barea during a fourth-quarter timeout. The two players did so with a first-quarter exchange Monday when they smiled and patted each other on the head after Barea threw a pass a mile over Love's head and out of bounds. Of course, it helped that the Wolves were leading by 12 points at the time rather than getting thumped like they were Sunday. "I talked to both of them and they said all the right things, I don't think it's an issue," Wolves coach Rick Adelman said. "I don't think it happens all the time and I don't think it's something that should happen, especially on the bench. You can have people get upset. It's more emotion that went over the top. I'd rather see us with that type of emotion during the course of a game trying to do something."
• Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: If you're a shooter and a scorer, Doug Collins is the coach for you. He was that type of player when he played, and he understands the ups and downs of being a player who is relied on to fill the scoring column each and every game. It is why he and Lou Williams possess such a unique relationship. Williams leads the team in scoring despite coming off the bench, despite averaging about 26 minutes a game. There are times when he carries the team and there are times when his misses pile up quickly. In the three games before Monday night's against the lowly Charlotte Bobcats at Time Warner Cable Arena, all losses, Williams had made only 10 of 35 shots. So just before the pregame introductions, Collins quietly strode out to Williams on the court and handed him a note. Without a word he walked away, and Williams, quickly glancing to make sure no one saw him, unfolded the piece of paper and read it before tucking it into his shorts. Shortly after, when he made his way over to the bench, the two shared a meaningful, strong hug. Whatever the note said, it worked as Williams scored 19 points off the bench, making eight of his 12 shots, including all three three-pointers, in the Sixers' 105-80 win over the 7-37 Bobcats. "That's just a little something between me and coach," Williams said. "We've got a little insider going on. It's unbelievable between me and him. Something very personal. They [teammates] don't even know." Collins declined to talk about the note after the game. What is known is that Williams' scoring is vital to this team's success, but so are a lot of other things. Most of them were on display in front of a paltry crowd that was announced to be 12,792, but there might have been half that many in the building.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: Nothing new yet on whether Boris Diaw and the Bobcats will work out a buyout arrangement. Diaw would have to be waived by Friday to be eligible for another team’s playoff roster. Interesting development on the waiver wire, with the Sacramento Kings cutting former N.C. State star J.J. Hickson. The Bobcats wanted Hickson in the 2008 draft, when they eventually drafted Frenchman Alexis Ajinca. He’s a skilled low-post scorer, and that’s an area where the Bobcats are lacking. Claiming Hickson off waivers wouldn’t be particularly expensive; the pro-rated remainder of a $2.3 million salary. Seems like giving Hickson an extended audition here the rest of the season might be a good risk.
• Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: The trade last summer that sent J.J. Hickson to the Sacramento Kings for Omri Casspi hasn’t worked out as planned. The Cavs have to be viewed as the clear winners today, since they acquired a future draft pick and the Kings released Hickson on Monday with a month left in the season. But Casspi failed to hold down the starting job at small forward and is averaging just 7.1 points and 3.5 assists. Scott said Casspi’s biggest problem is he still doesn’t know the whole playbook. “I still don’t think he knows everything we’re doing offensively or defensively,” Scott said. He wasn’t trying to call Casspi out, but was asked a question specifically about Casspi in light of Hickson’s release. In fact, Scott said “four or five” players still don’t know the playbook 42 games into the season. “The four or five that it is are the four or five that are playing, so that’s still too many,” Scott said. “Then they wonder why their minutes go down.” Casspi said he knows the whole playbook, but agreed he hasn’t played his best basketball yet this season. Asked why that was, Casspi responded: “I don’t know. That’s probably a longer conversation than 10 minutes before a game. I would have to think about it a little more.”
• Colin Stephenson of The Star-Ledger: Nets coach Avery Johnson was asked if he felt the team needed to mend any fences with center Brook Lopez after Lopez did not have his contract extended in January, and who was the season-long trade bait the Nets used to try acquire Dwight Howard. “I think it’s already been mended,” Johnson said. “If your name is mentioned in trade rumors, we tell our guys, ‘Look at it as not so much an insult, but a blessing that other teams want you.’ It’s part of the nature of this business. It’s Billy’s job and ownership’s job and my job to continue to improve this product from where it was June 10th of 2010; we’re not there yet. It’s just part of the process. It’s not really an insult.”
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Things have changed for both teams since Boston outlasted Atlanta on the way to the 2008 NBA title. The Hawks are a perennial playoff team trying to break through to the next level and the Celtics now are among those in the pack chasing the Heat and Bulls in the East. But Monday reminded that some things haven't changed when it comes to the Hawks and Celtics. They engaged in a typical grinding, physical contest until the Celtics broke it open late with a barrage of 3-pointers and won 79-76 at Philips Arena. The game featured hard fouls, heated confrontations, and some blood. It's what Hawks coach Larry Drew expected considering the recent history of the series and also because the teams are bunched together in the East standings. "I told the guys it's going to be playoff intensity," Drew said. "If it was going to be an ugly game, we we had to make make it an ugly game. Any time we play against the Celtics those are the type of games that should be expected." The Celtics (24-21) won the latest skirmish to end their losing streak at two games. They locked down the Hawks (26-20) and made big shots in the fourth quarter to open up a 15-point lead and then turned back Atlanta's rally.
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: Kevin Garnett collected his 5,000th career assist Saturday night in Denver, then offered some rare reflection on his 17-year career. Garnett became the third NBA player with 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, and 5,000 assists. The others are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. “To be honest man, I’m not a stat guy,’’ Garnett said. “But any time you’re able to meet accomplishments in the league or reach milestones, you got to be grateful. I’m praising the man upstairs for giving me the ability, and management, Doc, coaches, [former Timberwolves coach] Flip [Saunders], and those coaches who have given me the opportunity to show my talent, the platform, so I can come out here and show many fans my craft. Lord knows I worked hard enough on it. Countless teammates I’ve played with, you just don’t reach milestones by yourself, you need help. I not only wanted to give thanks to coaches but former players that I played with, former teammates, great friends. So the milestone is a great one. I am very appreciative of it; someday it will be a big deal to me. I wish it could have transpired into some wins.’’
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: Derrick Rose doesn't crave the spotlight even when he's playing basketball at a most valuable player level. So the weeklong silence that Rose broke Monday morning shouldn't have surprised anyone. Beyond being bummed by a sore groin that sidelined him for a fourth straight game Monday night and likely will keep him out for all three games this week, Rose believes attention should be focused on active teammates that he might not be joining for a while. "They say with an injury like this, they don't know how long it's going to take," Rose said at Amway Center. "I thought I was going to be back sooner. I'm missing big games that I hate to miss, like the one (Monday)." ... Rose detailed that he suffered the injury during the Bulls' March 12 victory over the Knicks when Jeremy Lin blocked his shot on a first-quarter drive. ... "After the game, I remember walking back into the locker room and I told the trainers immediately that I wasn't feeling right, that my leg was really messed up." Rose said he had never had a groin injury and remains frustrated he keeps missing games. Monday marked the 14th game Rose missed this season. He missed six games total in his first three seasons.
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: He has next season left on his contract with the Magic before he can become a coveted free agent. Without signing him to an extension, there will be doubt about the franchise's direction. And some distractions. For once, we're not discussing Dwight Howard, although his name surely will surface in these talks. The Magic need to make a decision about their coach, Stan Van Gundy. A fairly easy call, right? Look at Stan's body of work and you sign him to another two years at least. The Magic surely don't want Van Gundy to enter the last year of his contract in limbo, right? That's not good for Stan or the team to have a lame-duck coach. But cut doesn't meet dry in this case. Next season could also be Howard's last in a Magic uniform. After a reprieve, the club is determined to keep him long term, and Dwight's five years with Stan have been rocky at times. This is where it gets tricky. Stan and Dwight have a working relationship, but they aren't buddies. They are polar opposites. ... Van Gundy has changed about as much as his DNA allows. He's tried to be more positive and limit his barking at players, but you can only ask a coach to alter who he is just so much. What do you do in Orlando, a smaller market desperately clinging to Dwight's coattails? The reality: A coach can be replaced easier than a franchise player. My guess is that Stan just wants the Magic to decide where this thing might be headed.
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: J.J. Hickson and Derek Fisher are among the top players who collected buyouts and are available to be signed. However, guard Jason Terry doesn't believe the Mavericks are in the market for any new players. "We're not doing anything over here," Terry said Monday. "That's been proven. We're not signing anybody." The Los Angeles Lakers traded Fisher to Houston last week after he helped them win five NBA titles. The Rockets bought out his contract. Meanwhile, the Sacramento Kings bought out Hickson's contract. Both Fisher and Hickson conceivably could help the Mavs, but at what cost to the tedious chemistry going into the last month of the season? "You do see those solid veterans that are out there," Terry said. "Do you want that to affect your chemistry or not? "I think we've got enough here to accomplish our goal, but you never know. With [owner Mark Cuban], he may jump out there. There's a champion out there [in Fisher] that I know of."
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: The Nuggets entered Monday night's home game against Dallas ranked first in the NBA in scoring (averaging 103.7 points) but only 28th in points allowed (101.3). In theory, Denver's defense has improved with the acquisitions. "I like playing both sides of the court. It's better for the team," said the 6-foot-8, 225-pound Chandler. "I just try to play hard. The more stops we get, the easier it is to run. Defense creates more opportunities on offense. ... I like playing defense." Chandler cherishes the defensive matchups. And he has something to prove too. Last year, he played hurt during the first round of the playoffs against Oklahoma City and didn't have his best series. But he is refreshed after sitting out the past month since returning from China. Sure, he has spent only a few hours actually getting coached by the Nuggets this season. But he will happily play defense, regardless.

• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: Actually, it was a horrible business decision. All the ESPN insiders and NBA numbers geeks and incredulous sports agents just could not comprehend what Dwight Howard did Thursday. They couldn't grasp the concept that he would actually waive his right to become a free agent and agree to play at least another season with his team and in his town. And that's why this was such a powerful and wonderful thing. Because it wasn't business. It was personal. It wasn't about the bottom line. It was from the bottom of his heart. ... It should be noted Dwight walked into the news conference at the Amway Center, but it would have been more fitting if he had rode in on a white stallion. No, he didn't sign a long-term deal, but he at least gave the Magic the rest of this season and all of next season to try to win a championship and attract another superstar to Orlando. This was the best news Magic fans have received since Gilbert Arenas shut down his Twitter account. When Dwight's name is introduced Friday night at the Amway Center before the Magic's game with the Nets, it will be a travesty if there isn't a massively raucous standing ovation.
• Dave D'Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: Gerald Wallace can play on our team anytime, anywhere, even if he is likely to suit up with a twisted ankle, a thigh contusion, a chip fracture in his wrist, a cracked rib, and a dented cranium -- which, come to think of it, is a circumstance he usually refers to as “Tuesday.” There is no better hustle player in the league, period -- he is scary-fearless, absolutely demented in desire to pursue the ball, disruptive at every defensive station, and nothing stops him from his appointed rounds, not even the absurd abuse he takes to that Gumby body. He is the crash-test dummy of small forwards. Once he entered the locker room in Charlotte to find an orange sign taped to his stall. “No diving,” it said. Trainer humor. Rick Adelman, who had him in Sacramento, once said that Gerald “falls on the floor harder than anyone I’ve ever seen.” It’s what makes him uncommonly lovable, even though it will probably shorten his career by a few hundred games. He’s the most selfless guy you can have on your team, and he always somehow manages to get his 15 and 8 even though nobody ever runs a play for him. Yes, it’s a risk. If the pick the Nets just gave up lands at 4, and Wallace breaks something -- knock wood -- they’ll have fumbled another building block. But we’ll take a chance on heart anytime.
• John Canzano The Oregonian: Nate McMillan probably won't ever expose which of the Trail Blazers he wanted gone from his toxic locker room. But he told me in a pregame chat 12 days ago that he looked down his bench during a recent game and saw Marcus Camby, legs crossed, arms folded, sitting back in his chair with a "What are you going to do, sucker, bench me?" expression. McMillan was ticked about it. And grumbling too about what he perceived to be a faction of passive-aggressive players who were undermining him as the season spiraled out of control. He said he was doing what he could (film sessions, pep talks, holding back minutes) trying to get control of things. Same night, I spoke to a veteran player who believed Camby and Raymond Felton were trying to get McMillan fired. I later learned that Felton's off-court sidekick, Gerald Wallace, could also be back-biting and subversive. Anyone who paid close attention knew McMillan lost his team weeks ago. So when the Blazers traded Camby and Wallace on Thursday -- two guys McMillan wanted gone -- it looked like a curious vote of confidence for McMillan. A real, "Dance with the one who brung ya" moment for owner Paul Allen. Agree or disagree, the organization was apparently taking a strong stand. The kind the New York Knicks failed to do in picking Carmelo Anthony over coach Mike D'Antoni. The Blazers were sticking with their coach. Then, the deadline passed and Allen promptly fired McMillan. I called around the league during the final hours of the trade deadline, and after talking about the Blazers trades and roster issues, the conversation always turned to McMillan's future. ... Portland got rid of a pair of players who were part of the problem. The Blazers fired their coach. They're making a harsh acknowledgement that things aren't working out. They're starting over. The Blazers didn't necessarily get better on Thursday.
• Mike Wise of The Washington Post: An immediate reaction after hearing JaVale McGee and Nick Young had been traded: “Great. Beautiful. Now no one from the Wizards will make ‘Sports Center’ at 11.” One Nene for essentially two knuckleheads is a bit harsh, especially considering neither player left over from the Gilbert Arenas years in Washington ever got into any real trouble off the court. The truth: Whether McGee was inexplicably sprinting back on defense when his team was still on offense or Young was missing a layup by throwing the ball over the stanchion while impossibly missing the rim and the glass, they were almost blissfully unaware of how comically bad their misdeeds came across. In Nick and JaVale’s alternate universe, they can’t believe they were shipped out of town for anything less than Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in their primes. That’s why the Washington Wizards are making a stab at a change in culture by acquiring Nene, Denver’s 29-year-old Brazilian center, for McGee in a three-team deal that also sent Young to the Clippers. It’s a culture change as much as it is a change in the pivot. Plain and simple, a swap by two teams with equal concerns over the futures of their franchise centers brings Nene from the Nuggets to the Wizards.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: As the season progressed — the injuries, the inconsistencies — some wondered if Nene should beware the Ides of March. Thursday was the NBA's trade deadline and the Nuggets decided to make a major move, sending the 6-foot-11 Nene to the Washington Wizards in a three-team deal that "came out of the blue," according to Nuggets executive Masai Ujiri. The Nuggets received center JaVale McGee, forward Ronny Turiaf, a $13 million trade exception and a future second-round pick, while Nick Young went to the Clippers and Brian Cook headed to Washington, in addition to a future second-rounder. The plan, Ujiri said, is to waive Turiaf to make a roster spot for Wilson Chandler, who said he expects a deal to be done on Sunday or Monday. ... Naturally, there was an onslaught of emotions Thursday at the Pepsi Center as word spread about the big trade. "I can't deny that my head has felt like it's ready to burst a little bit," Denver coach George Karl said. "Trades of guys who have been with you for a long time always cause some turmoil. Nene has been a heck of a part of what we've done here. He's been through some tough situations with the cancer — there's a connection there that I hopefully will always have with him. His family was very good to me through my cancer situation. So there's more than just a basketball friendship there. There's more of a friendship with humanness, mindfulness and soulfulness. I have a lot of love for Nene. I wish I had time for a walk; I guess that's the best way to phrase it."
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Nick Young says he was waiting on pins and needles the past few days, waiting to learn his fate as the NBA trade deadline approached. However painful that was, the outcome more than made up for it. Young, the former Cleveland High of Reseda and USC standout, is returning home to play for the Clippers, who acquired the 6-foot-7 forward from the Washington Wizards in a three-team deal with minutes to spare before the deadline Thursday. Young was reached before the deal had even been made official, but he was already excited about the prospect of coming home. "This is just a great feeling. I can't even tell you how excited I am," he said. "To be coming home and to be playing on a great team." As anxious as Young was in the closing moments of the deadline it was nothing compared to what the Clippers were going through. Neil Olshey, the Clippers general manager, began conceptual talks with Washington about Young nearly two weeks ago. By the time he went to sleep late Wednesday night, Olshey thought the deal was dead. But at 11:15 a.m. Thursday - 45 minutes before the deadline - Olshey got a call from Washington general manager Ernie Grunfeld and the deal was being revived.
• Mark Whicker of The Orange County Register: Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are the only holdovers from the '09 championship. That, of course, was the real news from Thursday: Gasol and Bynum are indeed holding over. They survived the deadline of 2012. That should please Bryant. Few occurrences do. One can safely assume the Fisher trade was not one. "I'm concerned, yeah," Kupchak said. "I don't want to make it too simple, but as each day goes by it'll get easier and easier. "There will be a void that exists for X amount of days. I would hope someone steps up. A lot will fall to Kobe, but a lot of it falls to our coach. At the end of the day he's the leader of our locker room." Fisher called the team meetings. He was the only one who could tell Bryant inconvenient truths. ... The Lakers' peace, love and understanding will be determined by scoreboards and scoreboards alone. On Thursday, Kupchak & Co. bet on Ramon Sessions to win more of those scoreboards than Derek Fisher could. The odds are with them.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: Shortly after the deal for Camby, the Rockets sent Jordan Hill to the Los Angeles Lakers to acquire Derek Fisher and the Mavericks’ first-round pick. The Dallas pick will go to the Rockets the first season it is not in the top 20 picks, but if the Rockets do not get it in the next five drafts, they would in 2017 regardless of the Mavs’ position. The deal could have been made primarily to get the pick. Later on Thursday, the Rockets reached out to the agent for free-agent point guard Anthony Carter about signing Carter, according to a person with knowledge of those talks, a possible indication they intend to buy out the remainder of Fisher’s contract. Fisher, 37, has an option for one more season worth $3.4 million. According to an individual familiar with the trade negotiations, the Rockets had been in talks with Portland for forward Gerald Wallace, who ultimately went to New Jersey. On Monday, the Rockets were involved in talks with Milwaukee for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson, but the Bucks preferred the offer from Golden State that sent Monta Ellis and Ekpe Udoh to Milwaukee. In Camby, however, the Rockets got a player who could bring immediate help in an area of need.
• Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: An overlooked perk to the Cavaliers' trade with the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday was the ability to swap draft picks next season. The Cavs own the Miami Heat's first-round pick in 2013. They also have their own first-rounder next year. "Next year, we have the ability to swap our least favorable pick with (the Lakers' first-round) pick," Cavs general manager Chris Grant said. "Hypothetically, if Miami finishes at No. 27 and the Lakers at 16, we can move from 27 to 16." The Lakers' first-round pick in 2012 is lottery-protected. If they don't make the playoffs — a long shot — they'll keep their pick this year. It would then roll over to 2013 and would still be protected from Nos. 1-14.
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: Many among the sellout crowd at the AT&T Center on Wednesday night believed one key player on the floor was likely making the final appearance for his team. They were right, but probably had the wrong player in mind. It was Spurs forward Richard Jefferson, not Dwight Howard, the Magic’s All-NBA center, who changed teams at the NBA’s trade deadline. The Spurs sent Jefferson, point guard T.J. Ford and their 2012 first-round draft pick, protected if the Spurs should be in the lottery, to the Golden State Warriors for Stephen Jackson, a 6-foot-8 small forward who was with the Spurs from 2001-03. Spurs general manager R.C. Buford called Thursday’s deal the culmination of several years worth of attempts to get Jackson back with the team. The 33-year-old, who has been with five teams since leaving the Spurs, has remained a favorite of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and is still close with the vital pieces who remain from that 2003 title team: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. “We’ve had discussion with people about Jack before, just making people aware we had interest and followed him since the time that he left,” Buford said.
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: Joe Lacob, who maintains that his ownership group is among the league's richest, has put his money where his mouth has been churning. In taking on the hefty contract of Jefferson, who is owed about $10 million next season and has an $11 million player option for 2013-14, the Warriors were able to get San Antonio's pick - so long as the Spurs don't miss the playoffs. Jefferson, 31, is a swingman who has averaged 16 points on 46.7 percent field-goal shooting and 4.9 rebounds in 11 seasons with New Jersey, Milwaukee and San Antonio. He's averaging 9.2 points and 3.5 rebounds in 28.5 minutes a game this season, and is shooting 42.1 percent on three-point attempts. He has played in 94 playoff games, including two trips to the NBA Finals with New Jersey. "Richard Jefferson has played a key role and has been a solid contributor on some very successful basketball teams during his career," Riley said. "He has won a lot of games and will certainly provide our team with some veteran leadership and perimeter shooting skills."
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: Did they acquire a starter in Leandro Barbosa? No, they improved their bench and also gave coach Frank Vogel the option of moving George Hill into the starting lineup at point guard if wants to at some point. Did the Pacers improve by acquiring Barbosa? Definitely. The Pacers weren’t looking to be a heavyweight during trade talks. They just wanted to continue to add pieces. They had the financial ability to take on all of Barbosa’s $7.6 million contract because they’re under the salary cap and had two roster spots available. The Pacers aren’t going to leap ahead of Miami or Chicago in the Eastern Conference standings. Shoot, they probably won’t pass Orlando now that the circus surrounding Dwight Howard ended with him deciding to continue to play in the land of Disney. The Pacers want to get homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs and hopefully advance to the second round.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: The Griz entered the fray at the NBA’s trade 2 p.m. deadline Thursday when they shipped Young to the Philadelphia 76ers for the draft rights to 2005 second-round pick Ricky Sanchez. Young, 6-6, was not in the Grizzlies’ rotation and had requested a trade. The deal helped both parties. Memphis moved below the NBA’s luxury-tax threshold by getting rid of Young’s $948,000 salary. Young played 21 games for the Grizzlies this year, averaging 3.5 points. He started twice, including in Tuesday’s loss to the Lakers. He averaged 6.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in his career, which began in 2009. The Griz have no interest in Sanchez, a 6-11 forward. He is playing in Argentina and will never wear a Grizzlies uniform.
• Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News: The Sixers risk the same playoff danger posed by the talented Knicks, who this week purged themselves of a sideshow coach. As soon as the real point guard takes over - Baron Davis - the Knicks could make a run at a No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. Which means the Sixers can win a round in the playoffs, maybe two if the matchups work out for them. Regardless, they will remain several steps from matching the sort of basketball played in the West by Oklahoma City, the Clippers, the Mavericks, the Spurs and even the Lakers. Fine. The Sixers cannot be about this season. Turner, Holiday and Young need to be allowed to mature into the sort of players who draw contact at the rim and finish; who turn other team's mistakes into quick points; and, yes, into players who relish the chance to beat the clock at the end of possessions, and quarters, and games. This time next year, one or all of them could have developed those skills. Adding a player who would unrealistically raise expectations in this moment simply would have been unwise. Sam Young, on the other hand, is perfect.
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Hawks, as expected, didn’t make any major trades by today’s 3 p.m. deadline. Instead, they sent a second-round pick to Golden State for cash to help offset their first-ever luxury-tax bill that will be due at season’s end. The Hawks owned two second-round picks after acquiring one from the Suns in the Josh Childress sign-and-trade last summer. The Warriors will receive the lesser of the two picks and, since the Suns likely will finish with a worse record than the Hawks, Atlanta probably will keep that pick.

New Jersey is engaged in serious discussions with the Portland Trail Blazers on a deal to bring Gerald Wallace to the Nets, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.

The deal as currently constituted, sources say, would send the expiring contract of Nets forward Mehmet Okur and either Shawne Williams or Johan Petro -- along with a protected future first-round pick -- to the Blazers for Wallace.

Wallace is a player long admired by Orlando and was part of the three-team trade construction lined up by the Nets in December that nearly brought Dwight Howard to the Nets before the season even started. In that three-team scenario, Orlando would have received Wallace, Nets center Brook Lopez and at least one future first-round pick, while also shedding the contracts of Hedo Turkoglu and Chris Duhon.

To push this latest deal through involving Wallace, New Jersey and Portland must submit a trade agreement to the league office before Thursday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline.

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