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• Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News: As well as the Spurs played in Game 1, a letdown was almost inevitable. It didn’t happen until the fourth quarter, but happen it did with a 15-2 Memphis run — fueled by Manu Ginobili’s flagrant foul on Tony Allen (see below) — that forced overtime. The collapse prevented them from crushing the Grizzlies’ morale, but the fact remains: They lead the series 2-0, a point at which teams have won best-of-7 series 94 percent of the time, and the Spurs are 19-2. … So how to grade Tony Parker? From the standpoint of shooting, he suffered through a nightmare similar to the one that wakes Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade in cold sweats in that Gatorade commercial: 6 for 20, including misses on his last five attempts. He was otherwise sublime, dishing out a playoff career-high 18 assists against just two turnovers. He was especially good in the third quarter, scoring or assisting on 24 of the team’s 30 points. … It was a generally quiet performance from Tim Duncan, who struggled with foul trouble late in regulation. He still amassed nine rebounds, three assists, four blocks, two steals and 17 points, including the first three baskets of overtime to carry the Spurs home — a driving layup, a putback and a Parker-esque floater that bounced high off the rim and in, , Don Nelson in the 1969 Finals style, for a 91-87 lead.
• Chris Herrington of the Memphis Flyer: The Grizzlies saved Saturday. Wait, I’ve used that lead before? Through two games, this series feels an awful lot like the first-round series against the Clippers: A discouraging 20-plus-point loss in Game 1 followed by a disappointing but ultimately encouraging close loss in Game 2. In that series, the Grizzlies then won four straight. That’s very unlikely here, but the Grizzlies seem to have regained some confidence and made some adjustments and certainly can return home with more hope than seemed possible at halftime of this one. … They couldn’t pull it out, but the Grizzlies really got into the Spurs for the first time in that fourth quarter, giving home fans a reason to believe that the growth pattern the team followed in the first and second rounds may yet be viable.
• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: LeBron James speaks of restraint as if it were a skill he has needed to perfect, little different from his passing, perimeter shooting or post moves. “It took a while, honestly,” James said. “I just think it’s a maturity, leadership. I can’t afford to get out of my game and get unfocused if the play out on the court becomes more than basketball.” That’s because he recognizes his importance. “I have to continue to know what’s the task at hand,” James said. “It’s difficult at times, for sure. There’s times where I want to retaliate, but, you know, I can’t. I just stay the course, and just play the game. I’m here to just play basketball and that’s it.” That’s what he will attempt to do in this series, whatever the Pacers’ intentions or distractions. Last spring, Danny Granger, not known as an enforcer, oddly embraced the role of agitator, repeatedly confronting James and Dwyane Wade following fouls, earning technicals for his antics. James called the ploy “stupid,” adding that “whatever he’s trying, it’s not working.” Granger won’t be working in this series, sidelined after knee surgery. Still, others, notably Tyler Hansbrough and Lance Stephenson, figure to try James’ patience. He must respond as he did in the just-completed series against Chicago, after Nazr Mohammed shoved him or Nate Robinson hit his chin with a hand in transition. … Chris Bosh spoke of being a skinny kid in Texas and accepting the reality that lesser players would try to rough him up, that “if they can’t hold you, they want to make it about everything but basketball. You just continue to play basketball.” Opponents still try to bounce Bosh around. But someone else gets more of opponents’ attention. “I’m not the best player on the floor every night,” Bosh said. “I know that. He is.” He, as in James. The best player, who again must show he has the toughest skin.
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: This does not qualify as any great insight heading into Game 1, but here it is anyway: Hibbert is absolutely central to the Pacers’ chances against the mighty Miami Heat. If he’s as big against the Heat as he was against the Knicks, both defensively and offensively, the Pacers have a chance to scare the life out of Miami. The key is doing what he has done in these playoffs, and that’s to be a defensive force without fouling. Once upon a time, Hibbert was a walking foul. Over the years, he has painstakingly learned how to go straight up and, in the process, he has gained the respect of officials, who now seem to be giving him the benefit of the doubt. That goes for all the Pacers, who were 29th in the league last season in fouls and have improved to 14th. Foul trouble killed them in the last year’s Miami series. Along with the bench. “I think he’s the best in the league in terms of going up with verticality,” Vogel said. “I think he’s been that way the last two, three years.”
• Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer: Yes, the Cavs grabbed the No. 1 pick in the NBA lottery, but it's a lousy draft. OK, it is a lousy draft ... so would you rather have the No. 6 pick in a bad draft? That was the worst the Cavs could have finished in this lottery. Nope, if you're a fan, you should be thrilled that your team has the top pick. Maybe they will end up taking Nerlens Noel, the 6-11 shot-blocking machine from Kentucky. Noel also is a thin 206 pounds, coming off knee surgery that may keep him out of action until Christmas. … The player best suited in terms of need is Georgetown small forward Otto Porter. He's projected as a top three pick. Is there a way the Cavs can trade with No. 2 Orlando, and still grab Porter while adding a future first rounder? You can be sure that will be discussed. Or perhaps the Cavs will think big. Real big. Huge as in the No. 1 pick and a player on the roster for a veteran forward who can score. They have the salary cap room to make that kind of move. At this point, I'm not sure what the Cavs should do. There is a certain appeal to Noel because he won't be 20 until next April. He can gain weight and strength and may keep growing. New coach Mike Brown wants defense, and Noel can deliver that because of his shot-blocking and leaping ability. But I'm positive the Cavs also are thinking trade. They have long liked Minnesota's Kevin Love. Golden State may have David Lee available, although his defense is "challenged," to be nice about it. Nonetheless, he can score. Even in a supposed bad draft, there are good players available. Remember, the Cavs also have the 19th, 31st and 33rd picks.
• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: Here's all you need to know about the quality of this year's draft: The No.1 pick might well be Nerlens Noel, the Kentucky center recovering from a torn ACL who might not even be healthy enough to play next season. For all of you Christmas carolers scoring at home, Nerlens would indeed be the Magic's first Noel, but he is far from a messiah. Who knows, he could be the franchise's next Dwight Howard -- or he could be the franchise's next Grant Hill. Is this really a chance you want to take with an early first pick in the draft? The Magic's young GM Rob Hennigan doesn't seem like the type to roll the dice with the team's future. If he were, he would have traded Dwight for Andrew Bynum and the Magic would be stuck with Bynum, who sat out this entire season with bum knees. … The upcoming draft will be just another way for Hennigan to add another young building block to a team that will most likely be right back here at the draft lottery next year. The fact is, there are no surefire saviors coming in this draft to rescue the Magic from another lackluster season. Unlike the past – when the Magic truly were built on lucky charms and pixie dust -- this overhaul is going to be slower and more methodical. Maybe it's a good sign that the Magic didn't win the draft lottery Tuesday night. Hennigan, after all, doesn't seem like the type who believes championships are built on a wing, a prayer and a bouncing pingpong ball.
• Mike Wise of The Washington Post: The worst thing the Washington Wizards could do at this moment is give in to public sentiment and view their unexpected surprise of a No. 3 pick in the NBA draft lottery as a nameplate above a cubicle in their locker room next season. The Wizards got lucky, moved up five picks from where they were projected to choose in the draft, and drew the third selection Tuesday night for the second year in a row. Their good fortune could allow them to keep a local college or high school kid close to home. But they should resist the temptation. … They have next season. Postseason or bust. That’s it. And as much as I think Porter could be an all-star within three years and Oladipo could be sixth man of the year off the Wizards’ bench in 2015, I’m not sure either one makes their mark next season. And if Ernie Grunfeld can secure an established veteran now for that pick, someone who could even help take this franchise to the second round for the first time since 2005, he’s got to take that chance.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: You can change the name, but apparently you can’t change the Charlotte Bobcats’ lottery luck.Roughly three hours after the Bobcats announced their intent to switch to “Charlotte Hornets,” the team got bad news in the draft lottery. They will pick fourth on June 27 after finishing last season with the NBA’s second-worst record at 21-61. This is the second year the Bobcats slipped in the lottery after a bad season. In 2012 they went 7-59 – worst record in NBA history – but drafted second behind the New Orleans (no longer) Hornets. … Bobcats executives Rod Higgins and Rich Cho met with the media following the lottery selection. They didn’t offer much detail on players available, except to say they’d likely work out at least six or seven for the fourth spot. The Bobcats have no second-round pick this draft. General manager Cho said the Bobcats’ current roster shouldn’t be relevant to who they select. “Ideally you take the best player available – my philosophy has always been you draft for talent, trade for need,” Cho said. Cho mentioned size, rebounding and shooting as the areas that need the most improvement.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: No. 5 is a thrill for new Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough, whose draft work in the Boston front office has not for a pick higher than No. 19 in the past eight drafts. “The guy who goes there might not be much different, or any different, than guys who go in the top three,” McDonough said. This will be the highest the Suns have drafted since 1987, when they took Armen Gilliam with the No. 2 pick after David Robinson had gone first. Like then, the Suns are in dire need of a young talent infusion. “I think generally we need to get more athletic,” McDonough said. “I think we need more shooting. My philosophy is always to draft the best available player. There are some good pieces in place here. But at the same time, we won 25 games here, so we need to get better across the board.”
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Pelicans General Manager Dell Demps hasn't ruled out the possibility the Pelicans could trade the pick in attempt to obtain more veterans. ``You never know,'' Demps said. ``There are trades, there's other opportunities that may present themselves. We're going to look at every angle to give ourselves the best possible chance to make our team better.'' The Pelicans interviewed 15 prospects during last week's NBA draft combine in Chicago, according to league sources. The Pelicans could be looking to improve the small forward spot with Al-Farouq Aminu becoming a free agent this summer. Aminu struggled to be a consistent scorer but improved as a rebounder. Williams said after Tuesday's lottery that any prospect the Pelicans select at No. 6 is capable of providing immediate help to improve their team. "Obviously, the higher that pick is, the better,'' Williams said.
• Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: Last season, five of the top prospects refused to work out for the Kings. New ownership and stability might cause more players to be willing to embrace being a King. Regardless of who the selection is or who makes the final decision, the new ownership group could overhaul the roster, coaching staff and front office. The Kings also own the sixth pick in the second round, 36th overall. Players who could be available at No. 7 include point guards Trey Burke and Michael Carter-Williams and small forward Shabazz Muhammad. After projected top pick Nerlens Noel, Alex Len is viewed as the second-best center. Petrie noted that the draft has its limitations. "The idea that – except in certain cases that the draft is the stairway to success – except when you get that exceptional guy, (the draft) isn't necessarily the most important thing," he said.
• David Mayo of MLive.com: Joe Dumars said he still has no timetable for hiring a new Detroit Pistonshead coach but insisted the search would not extend into the opening of NBA free agency July 1. Dumars made his first public remarks on the coaching search in a conference call with local media Tuesday night, from New York, where the Pistons gotbumped down one spot in the NBA Draft Lottery and will pick No. 8 overall. The Pistons president of basketball operations did not dismiss any of the names reported to have interviewed for the vacancy created by Lawrence Frank's firing but seemed to delight in noting some interviews have escaped public scrutiny. "We've talked to a lot of people," Dumars said. "I'm waiting on you guys to get the names out there but you haven't gotten them out yet." Those known or reported to have interviewed with the Pistons include Mike Budenholzer, J.B. Bickerstaff, Lindsey Hunter, Maurice Cheeks, Nate McMillan and Darrell Walker.
• Tom Powers of the Pioneer Press: Congratulations to Kevin Love, who helped the Timberwolves hold onto their No. 9 position AND didn't get hurt at the NBA lottery. The Wolves now sport a lottery record of 0-7-8. They've never moved up, have drafted right where they should based on their record seven times and have tumbled backward eight times. Love, who on Tuesday represented the franchise at the event, brought enough good karma to allow the Wolves to hold serve at No. 9, which is just where they should be. Yippee. The lottery was created to prevent teams from tanking in order to improve their position in the draft, but it's a flawed system because it penalizes teams that consistently lose without subterfuge. For example, the Timberwolves always have been naturally good at losing basketball games. And for years, we all knew what to expect at the lottery: If there were, say, two impact players coming out of college, the Wolves would end up with the third pick. If there were four impact players, they'd draft fifth. It got to the point where the goal was just to survive the lottery.
• John Canzano of The Oregonian: Good organizations have a congruency of vision, and overcome mistakes. Bad organizations are disjointed, refuse to be accountable and are quick to accept failure as being unlucky. And if the Blazers want to distance themselves from the Kings, Raptors, Pelicans, Wizards and Bobcats/Hornets of the NBA world, the only way to do so is to make a solid series of wise decisions. The selection of Lillard -- No. 6 overall last June -- was a good start. But it can't end there. The burst of confidence Allen has demonstrated this season in allowing Olshey to work some is encouraging, but it must continue. Changing general managers six times in the decade has more to do with the lottery streak than coaching, bad knees or sad-story luck. And it's why Tuesday, a day this city may have wished for the No. 1 pick, instead ended with the sobering reality that a single player in this draft won't turn a flawed franchise into a champion. A change of vision will, though.

It’s a weird kind of party, the NBA draft lottery.

The 2013 version began on the Good Morning America’s repurposed Times Square set (complete with test kitchen) with an NBA staffer welcoming everyone by saying: “For those of you who are new to this, my condolences.”

Then they confiscated our cell phones.

Woohoo!

We were in the secret inner sanctum with the high ceilings, exquisite air conditioning and fake wood paneling. A collection of team representatives and a few others were gathered to witness the drawing of the pingpong balls that would decide who among the NBA’s worst teams got the first few picks of June’s NBA draft. The results would be determined here, but publicly revealed an hour or so later on national TV.

In the interim, we were not free to leave, even for the bathroom, lest we ruin the fun.

Just upstairs, in a different TV studio, the picks are revealed with the celebratory air of a Powerball drawing. But even that room is anxiety-ridden. Sitting in nervous silence is the essential task of the NBA draft lottery. The vibe’s beyond tense.

Once deputy commissioner Adam Silver had revealed the picks, however, at least one corner of the room went bananas.

The Cavs know how to party

The noisy posse in bowties, they’re screeching and hollering and pumping fists in the air. That’s Cavs owner Dan Gilbert and the many spirited people who traveled on his private jet for the occasion.

They won the NBA draft lottery again, they’re color coordinated and they don’t give a damn who knows it.

But even for Gilbert, in this moment of glory, with the TV cameras in his face to collect his acceptance speech, the lottery is bittersweet.

“We were hoping,” he said of his team’s potentially franchise-defining victory, “this would be our last.”

That’s the thing about the lottery. It’s nobody’s idea of perfect, and it's getting less so.

It’s some office building off the Turnpike, by day

Just as a run-of-the-mill Hollywood shopping mall can be transformed into the glamorous home of the Oscars, so did the NBA’s offices in Secaucus, N.J., used to become a wonderland of hoops glitz on the night of the NBA draft lottery. Gloved security men crowded the entrance, welcoming a steady procession of limos and fancy cars pulling up one at a time, dumping out a who’s who of NBA faces: players, owners, GMs.

The NBA, bless them, puts on a lot of buffet meals for the media, but this was the one that was a hell of a buffet. The fish was peppered to taste, the roast beef sliced to order, the gorgonzola crumbled and ready to cascade across your chopped romaine. You have never seen cookies like these, and if you’re not big into cookies, please consider the finest fresh fruits, still shiny with a fresh coating of dark chocolate.

This was how the lottery used to run, back when it was easier to forget the lottery was about losers, not winners.

Sure, it wasn't all showbiz. It was tough to hide some of the workaday details. Most of the party took place in a rented tent out back, the kind you’d more commonly see used for weddings. The walk there from the front door was a long one, much of which bordered a drab cube farm.

But a half-decade ago, say, as then-Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard made the walk, he made it like a prize fighter. People emerged from all angles, offering high-fives and attaboys. Pritchard beamed, a proud man representing a basketball-mad city, entering the ring to do his job saving the Trail Blazers.

Pritchard’s shoulder was one of the few tapped early in the evening that night. Along with a who’s who of NBA front office personnel, he was invited upstairs to witness the pingpong reveal.

Every team in the lottery sent two representatives: One to take care of the real business with the pingpong balls, and another to be the face of the franchise on TV. The back room, as usual, had the power brokers.

Please come with me, sir. Up these stairs. Place your cell phones and all personal electronics in this sealed envelope.

Pritchard had even more pep in his step a couple of hours later, when the pingpong digits delivered him a dreamy choice between Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. (This was before the off-road portion of Pritchard’s freeway-to-the-top career.) Pritchard walked out of that building a front office champion.

Who knows how many times he told the story of what happened in that room, on how many radio shows and local TV shows. Hell yes, he circled up Blazers staff to inspire them with thoughts about the great ride that franchise was about to take. He talked about character, he talked about fortune, and it was hard not to get the feeling some Higher Power was smiling on the Portland Trail Blazers, thanks in no small part to the magic Pritchard mustered in some stuffy Secaucus boardroom.

New York, New York

A couple of years ago, the NBA downsized the Secaucus offices and the draft lottery has packed up for TV studios in Times Square. It’s ostensibly as nice. The roast beef is still delicately cooked, and is accompanied by mild horseradish, but it’s no longer sliced on demand and the chocolate chip cookies in the back room were all gone by 8:15.

The bigger change comes from the crowd. Sure, there’s a Damian Lillard or Andre Drummond here or there to enliven the proceedings, but in the big picture, to put it bluntly, this event is getting less cool by the minute.

My guess is that trend will continue, not because of how anything is run, but because of what everybody knows.

At the highest levels of running a team these days, on smart teams at least, are masters not just of basketball, but of decision-making. It's a different kind of person.

These are people who gather and process information professionally, from all angles, and turn it into strategy. People who read books about optimal decision-making. People who are obsessively connected with reality.

Getting excited about the draft lottery, meanwhile, requires divorcing yourself from reality, in one key way: You have to forget how you got here. To celebrate here means detaching from the fact that the team you’re charged with making great actually stinks.

In the days when NBA brain trusts were thick with grocery store magnates and retired players, maybe that was more doable, especially with a beer or two on board. In the era of smartphones, Twitter and non-stop information parsing, reality thickens the air, even after they confiscate your smartphone.

The NBA draft lottery might have the trappings of a Powerball drawing, but it’s different in a key way. A real lottery is a windfall for some lucky schmuck who happened to buy a ticket.

This?

This is a mindless game of chance open only to losers.

And, increasingly, they know it.

You know who was not on hand? Most of those with the most on the line. Michael Jordan, for instance, who owns the Charlotte “we’re betting the farm on the lottery” Bobcats. Same goes for his GM, Rich Cho, as well as most of the front offices of most of the teams represented.

New Sixers GM Sam Hinkie? Absent. Mark Cuban? Joe Dumars?

It’s not the event to be seen at. Not if you’re into winning.

Many teams sent a PR person. But very few sent the brain trust, because there’s nothing for them here.

Nobody has gotten more from the lottery than Gilbert, whose team just added another top overall pick to a collection that already included LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

He of all people must love this system, right?

“There’s no perfect way to do it,” Gilbert told me, literally minutes after winning. “I think of all ways it’s probably one that is not optimal. But there isn’t an optimal one. It’s probably the best of the worst you can do. You’ve got to give it to the guys at the NBA to even come up with something like this.”

And if all goes well, he won’t be back anytime soon.

There will be plenty of time to project picks as the draft nears, but here is a quick capsule on each lottery team’s biggest needs from an advanced stat perspective.

Charlotte Bobcats
Need: Defensive presence
The Bobcats were the worst defensive team in the league during the regular season, allowing the most points per play. The Bobcats were especially poor defensively in the half court, allowing opponents to score 44% of the time, worst in the league.

Cleveland Cavaliers
Need: One-on-one defender, post defender
The Cavaliers allowed the highest field goal percentage when defending isolations during the regular season. Cleveland’s opponents scored on 44 percent of isolation plays, the highest rate during the regular season. The Cavaliers allowed the highest field goal percentage on post-ups during the regular season.

Dallas Mavericks
Rebounding/transition defense
The Mavericks had a 21.8 percent offensive rebounding percentage (nearly five percentage points below league average). They were also fourth from the bottom of the league with 10.7 second-chance points per game during the regular season.

Despite committing the fifth-fewest turnovers, the Mavericks allowed 17.1 points off turnovers per game, ninth-most in the league.

Dallas’ opponents averaged 1.22 points off each Mavericks turnover, the highest rate in the league. Of the 10 teams that allowed the most points per turnover, eight failed to make the playoffs.

Detroit Pistons
Perimeter defender/playmaker
The Pistons were 29th in the league defending the pick-and-roll ball handler, allowing opponents to score on 40% of such plays.

Pistons guards Brandon Knight, Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum, who faced this play most frequently for the team, ranked in the bottom third among 125 players who defended the pick-and-roll ball handler on at least 100 plays.

The Pistons ranked in the bottom third of the league with 21.2 assists per game this season. Detroit turned the ball over on 20% of its pick-and-roll plays, the fifth-worst rate in the league.

Minnesota Timberwolves
Interior defender
Timberwolves opponents converted 58.1 percent of their field goal attempts from inside 10 feet, the second-highest rate against a team in the league.

New Orleans Pelicans
On-Ball defender
The Pelicans’ defense allowed a league-high 0.90 points per play in isolation during the regular season, allowing opponents to shoot better than 40% on such plays.

Oklahoma City Thunder
Inside scoring
Post-up plays made up seven percent of the Thunder’s offense this season (the NBA average was nine percent).

Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka are the only Thunder players who rank in the top half of the league in post-up points per play.

Orlando Magic
Ball handler/transition scorer
The Magic bottomed out in two notable statistical areas. They averaged 1.01 points per play in transition, scoring on only 49 percent of their transition plays. That ranked last in the NBA. They also ranked third-worst in the NBA in how often their ballhandler scored in the pick-and-roll (34 percent of the time).

Philadelphia 76ers
Transition scorer
The 76ers averaged 1.08 points per play in transition during the regular season, the fifth-lowest rate in the NBA. Philadelphia scored on 51% of its transition plays, the fourth-lowest rate in the league.

Phoenix Suns
Defensive presence
Opposing teams ran plays off screens 449 times versus the Suns this season and scored 1.03 points per play on 45.7 percent shooting, both of which ranked worst in the league from a defensive perspective.

Portland Trail Blazers
Interior offensive and defensive presence
The Trail Blazers scored 38 percent of their points in the paint, the third-worst mark in the league.

J.J. Hickson accounted for nearly one-quarter of those and will be a free agent this summer.

The Trail Blazers allowed the most points in the paint in the league during the regular season –- by 100 points more than the next team. Opponents shot 47.4 percent from this area, second-highest against a team in the league.

Sacramento Kings
Interior defender
Sacramento’s opponents shot 58.5 percent in the paint, the highest opponents’ shooting percentage in the paint in the league.

The Kings allowed the most points and second-highest effective field goal percentage in transition during the regular season.

Toronto Raptors
Playmaker
During the regular season, 33 percent of all Toronto’s made field goals were unassisted.

Despite having the most field goals attempted off the dribble in the league, the Raptors were 20th in both points per play and effective field goal percentage off the dribble

Utah Jazz
Playmaker/post defender
The Jazz used plays involving the pick-and-roll ball handler eight percent of the time, the second-lowest rate in the league (league average was 13 percent).

When using this type of play, the Jazz ranked last in field goal percentage and second-last in how frequently they converted plays into points (score percentage.

Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap, who are both set to be unrestricted free agents, excelled at defending post-ups, limiting opponents to a 43.4 percent shooting. Their two primary back-ups, Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter, combined to allow opponents to shoot 46.5 percent from the field when defending post-ups.

Washington Wizards
Outside shooter
The Wizards struggled to shoot and opponents knew it. Despite being unguarded in catch-and-shoot attempts at the third-most frequent rate, the Wizards made 38.7 percent of such attempts, fourth-worst in the league.

• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: Prepare for the correction: The Spurs left the AT&T Center after Game 1 uniform in their belief that they were unlikely to make 14 3-pointers again this series. “I’m a math guy,” Matt Bonner said. “It’s highly improbable we’re going to shoot that clip again.” The trick for the Spurs in Game 2 will be to generate offense once the Grizzlies have located their perimeter shooters. As per usual, that effort will begin with Tony Parker, who must continue to attack off the pick-and-roll, put pressure on the Memphis defense in the paint and make good decisions from there. Protect ball and boards: With a lack of perimeter shooters, the Grizzlies can often struggle to score in a half-court offense. They generate much of their offense off turnovers and offensive putbacks. The Spurs did a decent job of limiting giveaways in Game 1 (11) and keeping the Grizzlies to a manageable 10 second-chance points. Without either of the above, it will be difficult for Memphis to score with the Spurs, even if its defense reverts back to norm. Adjust to adjustments: It’s no secret Memphis will want to get Zach Randolph going in Game 2. One way coach Lionel Hollins could accomplish this is to give more minutes to Quincy Pondexter and Jerryd Bayless, his best floor-spreading bench shooters, instead of the more offensively limited wings Tony Allen and Tayshaun Prince. That move would likely change the way the Spurs are defending Randolph, making it more difficult for guards to help, but it would also make Memphis a less potent defensive unit.
• Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News: Carving out space for Randolph could be every bit as difficult unless Memphis, which made the fewest number of 3s in the NBA this season, can prevent the Spurs from neglecting shooters in order to collapse on the interior. Gasol described a clear set of tactics from the Spurs: Play tight on him to negate his high-post passing skills, front Randolph and ignore the corners in order to “pound the paint.” It’s nothing the Grizzlies haven’t seen before, he said, but it proved to be highly effective as the Grizzlies made only five 3s and Randolph was limited to one meaningless basket. “We just need to keep moving the ball, keep being patient, get it some other way,” Gasol said. “But we cannot hold the all. Once we hold the ball, we’re allowing them to load up.” Conley said the team’s perimeter corps has to take more responsibility, not only by making the Spurs pay but by getting Randolph — who said he was so distraught over his play in Game 1 that he barely slept — involved.
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: According to several sources close to the situation, LeBron James does not, in fact, put his pants on one leg at a time. That being the case, it’s astonishing that Frank Vogel has “dismissed” the mighty Miami Heat as the “next team” in the Pacers’ way -- not “just another team,” as James misquoted him -- but the next team. Shame on Vogel for not genuflecting when he mentioned the Heat, or for volunteering to kiss James’ ring -- ring singular, not rings -- when the two teams meet up in the Eastern Conference finals beginning Wednesday in Miami. The gall of Vogel, who last year suggested strongly (and expensively) that the Heat were the biggest floppers in the NBA. Doesn’t he know he’s talking about LeBron and the Big Three and a team that has gone 45-3 in its last 48 games? (If you’re not picking up on the facetiousness here, go back to school and enroll in a reading comprehension class). … Of course, this is a non-story that has become a story, which means it’s a nice easy column. Because we love conflict, even when it’s artificial conflict. Because it’s a lot easier than calculating D.J. Augustin’s PER rating in the second round against the Knicks. Because we’re like that kid on the playground who used to try and stage fights, a la Don King. Did you hear what Johnny said about your girlfriend? Silly. But wonderful. Wonderful because there’s still some bad blood after last year’s compelling six-game series between the Pacers and the Heat.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: Much will be different about this year’s matchup between the Heat and Pacers, and it all starts with Chris Bosh being healthy and at the top of his game. But how the Heat’s reserves affect the series might be the most significant key to the game. The Heat’s bench scored 55 points last week in Game2 of its Eastern Conference semifinals playoff series against the Bulls. In last year’s conference semis against the Pacers, it took the Heat’s reserves nearly three full games to reach that total. The major differences between the Heat’s bench now and the rag-tag group that slugged it out the with Pacers in 2012: Ray Allen, who was with Boston this time last year and gearing up for a match-up with the Heat, is averaging 12.2 points per game in the playoffs. … Chris Andersen, who was on his couch in Denver this time last year, has provided much-needed muscle and energy to the Heat’s second unit. … Norris Cole was a minor footnote against the Pacers last year, averaging 2.0 points and less than 13 minutes per game.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: Our next chance to judge the James Harden trade — as if it hasn't been scrutinized enough — has come. The NBA Draft Lottery is Tuesday night. It will reveal this year's draft order and determine whether the Thunder will receive Toronto's first-round pick. It's a selection Oklahoma City received as part of a package that included Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and two other picks. Whatever happens, the team's fan base, as well as close followers of the trade's fallout, likely will be split. If the Thunder lands the pick, it'll be the 12th overall selection and perhaps viewed by most as a disappointment. If the pick remains with Toronto and rolls over into next year, the Thunder seemingly will get criticized for failing to receive an asset in exchange for Harden that could help sooner rather than later. A perfect storm put the Thunder in this position of possibly picking at the back end of the lottery. No way could this have been what the front office had in mind when the powers that be insisted on Houston including Toronto's first-rounder before pulling the trigger on the deal. But here they are, stuck with a worst-case scenario after everything that could go wrong for the placement of this potential pick did go wrong.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Since the regular season ended just more than a month ago, New Orleans Pelicans backup guard Brian Roberts hasn’t paid much attention to the upcoming NBA draft lottery set for Tuesday night. But whether the Pelicans pick up the option on Roberts' contract to retain him could largely depend on where they are slotted for the upcoming June 27 NBA draft. The Pelicans have only an 8.8 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick going into the lottery. But they have a 26.15 percent chance of staying at the fifth spot, where several mock drafts have them selecting Michigan point guard Trey Burke. Most have Burke, 6-feet, 190, being taken no higher than fifth and not lower than seventh. If the Pelicans draft Burke and they already have starter Greivis Vasquez, they could opt not to keep Roberts, especially with Austin Rivers having the ability to play both guard positions. But some of the mock drafts also have Pelicans addressing their need to improve their small forward spot by drafting Georgetown's Otto Porter or UNLV's Anthony Bennett if they can land one of the top three draft spots. ``Right now I’m just trying to see how things play out,’’ Roberts said.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: Will the Bobcats select a long-term keeper? History suggests the odds aren’t great. Since their inception in 2004, the Bobcats have made top-five selections four times. An Observer study last spring demonstrated top-five picks are precious: Thirty-six of the top 100 players in the league, as identified by that study, were top-five picks, including 15 of the top 20 players. … The Bobcats’ draft pick retention history is pretty threadbare. Of the 10 players chosen in the lottery (the first 14 picks) six are gone (two no longer in the NBA). Gerald Henderson will be a restricted free agent and three others – Kidd-Gilchrist, Bismack Biyombo and Kemba Walker – are still playing in Charlotte under their rookie contracts. These next two drafts could provide the Bobcats’ a do-over. Along with the 2013 pick, the Bobcats might have three first-rounders in 2014 and all could be lottery picks. The Bobcats figure to miss the playoffs next season and are owed picks from the Portland Trail Blazers and Detroit Pistons that could come due in ’14.
• Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: As all of the NBA’s non-playoff teams gather in New York tonight for the draft lottery, the Cavaliers have to like the odds they carry into Times Square. The Cavs enter with the third-best chance (15.6 percent) at winning the lottery. The league is celebrating its 20th anniversary of the revamped weighted system, and the team with the third-best odds has won five of the first 19 years. No other lottery position has been more successful. The overwhelming question now is how excited it’s worth getting for a lottery victory when the draft is expected to be so dismal. The projected top pick, Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel, is offensively challenged and isn’t expected to play until close to Christmas while recovering from a knee injury. And that’s the best prospect. It only goes down from there. Nevertheless, the Cavs will follow the same protocol as the previous two years. Minority team owner Jeff Cohen will represent the Cavs in the sequestered room where the numbers are actually drawn and Nick Gilbert, son of owner Dan Gilbert, will again represent the Cavs on the podium during the television broadcast when the draft positions are revealed.
• Peter Botte of the New York Daily News: Iman Shumpert revealed that he will play for the Knicks in the Las Vegas summer league for the first time after missing it last summer while rehabbing a torn ACL and the year before because of the lockout. “They want to see me be more decisive offensively, which I already knew, but that would be big for me to work on this summer…and come in for training camp ready to do that,” Shumpert said.
• Michael Hunt of the Journal Sentinel: Given the NBA's willingness to relocate franchises far more freely than the other big leagues, the decision last week to keep the Kings in Sacramento in lieu of a crazy-money offer from Seattle was surprising. What wasn't surprising was the local reaction. The Bucks-to-Seattle drum was put out there and then beaten by politicians and community leaders who needed the news to throw another log on an arena-debate fire that isn't exactly raging at the moment. Two things: None of this was coming from Seattle. And if it is suddenly convenient to have the nation's 12th largest TV market looming as a bogeyman to jump-start serious arena discussions here, well, that is how the game is played. Of course, there is another way to look at this unexpected turn of events as it applies to the Bucks. Not long after the NBA prevented the small-market Kings from moving, NBA commissioner Stern, for the first time in a decade, began warming to the idea of expansion. In a Sunday story, the Seattle Times portrayed expansion as the city's best chance to reclaim the team that was stolen five years ago in the Oklahoma City rustle. … If Seattle is an imaginary threat to the Bucks, that doesn't mean the pressure is not there to make the organization worthy of a new arena. Since advancing to the Eastern Conference finals 13 years ago, the Bucks have made the playoffs five times, are 7-20 and have not gotten out of the first round. The effort to pull the Bucks from their self-dug pit should be from within, not from without.
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: Bryan Colangelo’s tenure as the top basketball savant at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is at an end. His relationship with the sports conglomerate is not. In a move that should be officially announced as early as Tuesday morning, Colangelo will cede control of basketball operations as the president and general manager within the company and move to some unspecified corporate role, according to multiple NBA sources. Colangelo’s future has been cloudy since the arrival of new MLSE chief executive officer Tim Leiweke; the Raptors held an option on a final contract year for Colangelo and Leiweke seemed lukewarm from the start about picking it up. But the veteran NBA executive, seven years on the job in Toronto after more than a decade with the Phoenix Suns and a two-time NBA executive of the year, has always been a loyal and valued part of the organization, a fact not lost on ownership. Sources suggest minority owner Larry Tanenbaum may have been involved in the process of finding a suitable and significant position for Colangelo, a process that was still being finalized Monday afternoon, according to sources.
• Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: What you are about to read is pure speculation. I feel compelled to declare that up front, unlike so many NBA coaching rumors you read on the internet that quote "well-placed sources," which often is the Ouija board sitting next to the author or, even worse, an agent. So here goes: It wouldn't surprise me if Hawks general manager Danny Ferry, who has been looking for apotential replacement for coach Larry Drew, is waiting to interview Brian Shaw. Shaw is an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers, who just upset the New York Knicks in the second round of the playoffs and now will face (and lose to) Miami in the Eastern Conference finals. … No, I'm not declaring Shaw as the favorite for the Hawks' job. But it would make sense if he's a candidate, especially if Ferry can't land Stan Van Gundy (who figures to have better options) and believes he and Shaw will be on the same page in terms of how to build a team. (This is why I believe San Antonio assistant Mike Budenholzer is a strong possibility.) And if you're wondering, yes, Ferry and Shaw did cross paths once: in Italy. Both played in the Italian League for Il Messaggero Roma in 1989-90. In fact, I've even located NBC News raw video links of the two walking together in Italy.
• John N. Mitchell of The Philadelphia Inquirer: Although he no longer plies his trade here, former 76ers coach Larry Brown still keeps his eyes and ears focused on all things basketball in Philadelphia. Brown, who coached the Sixers from 1997-2003, expressed some skepticism about the direction of his old team. Now the coach at Southern Methodist, he also bemoaned the loss of his chance to coach in the Big East Conference. Brown was one of eight inductees Monday night into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. The 72-year-old Brown is an old-school coach who is not sold on the heightened focus on advanced statistics in the NBA. "I'm not that kind of guy," Brown said when asked his opinion on the hiring of new Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie. "You're asking the wrong guy. This is not baseball. Guys hit better during the day than they do at night. You have lefties and righties. But this is not baseball. In this league, it's about teaching players and making them better." However, Brown said he does not rule out the role of analytics in building a better basketball team. "All the information, I'm sure, helps," Brown said. "But at the end of the day, this is a basketball town. They love kids that play hard, play together, play smart. And the best way to tell that about a kid is to look him in the eye in the most crucial moments of a game. That tells you so much. But you have to give this a chance.”
• Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee: For the better part of three years, they had one of the most thankless jobs in the industry, trying to sell season tickets when their franchise was forever on the move? Good luck. Good night. And break out the suitcase. So imagine how the remaining members of the Kings' depleted ticket sales department felt Wednesday when NBA Commissioner David Stern announced the team was staying in Sacramento and negotiations were under way to transfer controlling interest to a deep-pocketed investment group headed by software entrepreneur Vivek Ranadive? There was relief, and disbelief. There were high-fives, and tears. There were jobs, and more jobs.

• Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: Warriors guard Jarrett Jack was on the verge of tears as he stood at his locker. He couldn't find the words to truly express what he was feeling, so he let his attire do the talking for him. "Usually before I would do any media, I would make sure I was dressed a certain way," Jack said after the Warriors' season ended Thursday with a 94-82 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. "I brought one of my best suits. But looking down at this jersey, it's just a sense of pride I don't think I've ever felt as a professional. ... Nothing in my closet is better than what I have on now." Perhaps it was the disappointing end to a magical run. Perhaps reality had hit him that he may have spent his last minutes in a Warriors uniform. And he didn't want to take it off. … Whether he takes the more lucrative offer else where, or whether the Warriors make a competitive offer to keep him in the Bay Area, that will all be figured out this summer. But Jack was never more clear about for whom he wants to play: Golden State. "I hope so, man," Jack said. "Obviously there are other things that go into seeing if that works -- we all know this is a business at the end of the day. If I could do it, if I could rearrange it, I would definitely be back at this same locker."
• Tony Bizjak, Ryan Lillis and Dale Kasler of The Sacramento Bee: The Maloof era in Sacramento, at times spirited and uplifting, at times dismal, appears to have come to an end. A Sacramento investors group has reached a deal with the Maloof family to buy its controlling stake in the Kings. The deal is expected to be unveiled today. "It's the start of a new era," said Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur Vivek Ranadive, leader of the Sacramento investor group, speaking to reporters after the Warriors game Thursday night. Ranadive added, "We just need to sign some papers and finalize everything." If the NBA approves the deal, a source told The Bee, escrow is expected to close at the end of May. The source, a stakeholder close to the deal, said the Maloof family was eager to "turn the page" and was pleased it was able to sell to a group that will keep the team in Sacramento. The deal would set the team's overall value at $535 million, an NBA record. The source did not say why the price values the team at $535 million, rather than the $525 million figure the local group had offered. The sale price translates into $347 million for the 65 percent of the team controlled by the Maloofs and their business partner, Robert Hernreich. Ranadive confirmed that the reported price was "about right."
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: Following his response, Kevin Durant was then asked what he would say to possible critics who might hear his outlook and question his competitive fire. “I don’t give a damn. I’m going to be who I’m going to be,” Durant said. “I’m not Kobe Bryant. I’m not Michael Jordan. I’m not LeBron James. I’m not Magic Johnson. I’m me. I’m not going to ever compromise myself, my integrity and what I believe in for winning some basketball games and winning a championship. That’s just not I how I was brought up. I’m always going to fight for this game I love. I’m going to claw until the last buzzer sounds. And if that’s after a championship then of course I’ll be happy. I’m not satisfied just being in this league and losing. I’m going to work as hard as I can to try to get to that mountaintop. I enjoy playing the game. I enjoy being here. But I’m never going to come out to the media and say we wasted a year because we lost a championship. Like I said, I don’t have to be Kobe Bryant.”
• Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times: Taj Gibson still is getting ripped by Bulls fans for his ejection in Game 2 against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals. So the reserve power forward couldn’t even imagine what venom has built up toward Derrick Rose, who missed the season while ¬recovering from surgery to his left knee. “That’s what comes with the job we do,’’ Gibson said Thursday, one day after the Bulls’ postseason came to an end in Miami. “I’m still recovering from the Game 2 [ejection]. I still have fans basically ripping me to shreds. But you just have to take it with a grain of salt, keep pushing. “You’ve got a lot of people who want you to do certain things at a certain time that you [don’t] feel is right for yourself.’’ Besides, Gibson has been around long enough to know that once Rose steps on the court next season and scores his first few baskets, all will be forgiven. That’s the nature of sports fans.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: With their second-string point guard slated to become a free agent and their third-string point guard possessing an unguaranteed contract, Orlando Magic officials already have met with some potential backcourt replacements during the 2013 NBA Draft Combine. C.J. McCollum, a 6-foot-3 point guard from Lehigh, and Myck Kabongo, a 6-foot-2 point guard from the University of Texas, said they met individually with Magic officials Wednesday night. McCollum averaged 23.9 points and 2.9 assists per game as a senior before he broke his left foot in early January. McCollum has been compared to 2012-13 NBA Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers. Lillard hailed from a small school, Weber State, while Lehigh plays in the small-school Patriot League. Kabongo's sophomore season was limited to the Longhorns' final 11 games because he was suspended for accepting personal training instruction and taking airfare and not being truthful about it to school officials. But during his time on the court as a sophomore, Kabongo averaged 14.6 points and 5.5 assists per game. … In addition to their top-four lottery pick, the Magic own the draft's 51st overall pick. Jameer Nelson is slated to return as Orlando's starting point guard. But Nelson's backup, Beno Udrih, will be an unrestricted free agent. E'Twaun Moore, the team's third-string point guard, has one more year remaining on his contract at a league-minimum salary of $885,000. But Moore's deal is fully unguaranteed if he's waived on or before June 30.
• Jason Quick of The Oregonian: The player in mock drafts most frequently pegged as going to the Trail Blazers is UCLA freshman Shabazz Muhammad, and sure enough, the Blazers were one of the teams that interviewed the controversial wing at the NBA draft combine in Chicago this week. "They asked me how I liked their team, and I said it was a great team," Muhammad said of the meeting. "I've talked with Damian, I know LaMarcus (Aldridge) is a good guy, and they have (Nic) Batum at the three. I feel like I could really fit well with their program, and I think they are looking for a guy who can do a lot of things like me." Muhammad said he also interviewed with Toronto, Minnesota and Houston. Muhammad (6-foot-6, 220 pounds) averaged 17.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists while sharing the Pac-12 Conference freshman of the year award this season. The 20-year-old was suspended by the NCAA for the first three games of the season and forced to repay $1,600 in impermissible benefits he accepted, and was later shown to be one year older than he initially let on. He said many of the NBA teams he has interviewed with in Chicago have asked him about the circumstances surrounding his suspension. … the Blazers met with Muhammad, Syracuse guard Michael Carter-Williams, Syracuse wing James Southerland, Indiana big man Cody Zeller and San Diego State guard Jamaal Franklin.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: Maybe it’s just being meticulous, but the Charlotte Bobcats seem to be interviewing players in Chicago who wouldn’t fit a top-five draft pick. The Bobcats finished 21-61 last season, second-worst record in the NBA. That means they can do no worse than the fifth pick in Tuesday night’s draft lottery. However, they spent time in Chicago interviewing at least two players – Syracuse point guard Michael Carter-Williams and Gonzaga center Kelly Olynyk – who don’t figure to go before the early- to mid-teens. Carter-Williams, who models himself after New York Knicks veteran Jason Kidd, is interesting, in that he’s a 6-6 point guard who could offer both a contrast and a complement to 6-1 Bobcats playmaker Kemba Walker. The Bobcats played a lot of sets with two point guards last season, pairing Walker with Ramon Sessions and later Jannero Pargo.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: A group of current assistant coaches the Suns are planning to interview includes former Suns player and Utah assistant Jeff Hornacek, Los Angeles Lakers assistant Steve Clifford and two Houston assistants — former Washington State, Oklahoma and Indiana head coach Kelvin Sampson and J.B. Bickerstaff, the son of former NBA head-coaching veteran Bernie Bickerstaff. CSKA Moscow assistant Quin Snyder, a former Missouri head coach and NBA assistant coach, is also in the mix and some here at the combine feel the Suns would be willing to look at collegiate head coaches such as Villanova’s Jay Wright, Butler’s Brad Stevens or Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg. Clifford and Sampson are candidates for vacancies in Milwaukee and Charlotte. Charlotte is also considering Snyder and Hornacek, who also is being interviewed by Philadelphia. Milwaukee and Detroit are looking at Bickerstaff. McDonough and the Suns staff are here for the NBA draft combine but the coaching search presses on to the point that assistant coaches who are tied up with postseason work — Indiana’s Brian Shaw, San Antonio’s Mike Budenholzer, Golden State’s Mike Malone and Miami’s David Fizdale — might become less likely candidates.
• Gordon Monson of The Salt Lake Tribune: With the NBA combine underway this week in Chicago, the Utah Jazz are busy studying their options, working through every possibility, tossing them in the air like a dough slapper at Pizano’s. They have two picks in the coming draft, one in the lottery, a likely No. 14 selection, and another at No. 21. There is both skepticism and sunshine as to whether the Jazz can add to their half-vacant roster a player or two who will actually help them improve what is already a young core. There’s been talk that this draft is weak, that it won’t benefit the club in any meaningful way, particularly at the positions where Utah is most thin. "There will be a player there that, hopefully we draft, but if not, drafted after us, that becomes a good NBA player," he says. "[It’s] our responsibility, our call, our job. … We’ve got to do it right and if we don’t do it right often enough, then we shouldn’t have the job." Those words might sound as though they are selling what the Jazz have said they will sell until the team once again becomes what it used to be — a real contender: hope.
• Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times: The Bucks are expected to draft a guard with their first pick, the 15th overall selection. But they have shown interest in three big men: Rudy Gobert of France, Gorgui Dieng of Louisville and Mason Plumlee of Duke. They have interviewed all of those players and are expected work them out before the draft as well. ... The Bucks also interviewed shooting guards Kentavious Caldwell-Pope of Georgia and Jamaal Franklin of San Diego State. .... Let’s say Franklin is one of the most confident players in camp. He said his offensive game is similar to New York’s J.R. Smith’s — “I can score in so many ways.’’ — and his defensive game is similar to Memphis’ Tony Allen.
• Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press: Even six weeks away from the NBA draft and being a possible top-five selection, Trey Burke remains as composed as ever. Burke adapted quickly to college at Michigan because he was mature beyond his years on the court and now, as the draft approaches, he remains steady. That’s why he didn’t hesitate to choose his father, Benji, and his cousin Alonzo Shavers as his agents. He said today at the NBA predraft combine that he and his father discussed the possibility for the past five to six months. It’s why he’s still working out in his Columbus, Ohio, hometown, as he has for the past five years with the same trainer. … Wednesday in Chicago featured interviews with the Dallas Mavericks, Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Hornets and Indiana Pacers and six more teams were to come tonight. The Pacers threw him the best curveball, asking “why are sewers round?” and Burke hit it right back at them, saying “so people can get out.”
• Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: Former Ohio State forward Deshaun Thomas said he's been working out with ex-Portland center Greg Oden. "Man, he looks unbelievable," he said at the draft combine. "He's running. He's lifting weights. You might be seeing a comeback. He looks like he's ready to go. He's running, getting in shape. I'll tell you one thing. For a big 7-footer that's all he does, running and getting in shape. He's looking right." Thomas said Oden is working out at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Indianapolis. Oden, who helped Ohio State to the NCAA championship game in 2007, has had five knee surgeries in his career. The Cavs had some interest in signing him as a free agent.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Although construction on the New Orleans Pelicans' new 50,000 square foot practice facility is not scheduled to be completed until August, Coach Monty Williams is already predicting that will be a huge selling point when free agency begins on July 1. The new facility, located at the Saints complex in Metairie, will have a 32,000 square foot practice court area, accommodating two courts, offices for coaches and basketball operations staff, bleachers, as well as a theatre for film review. The practice courts will be made of maple that will be easier on the players' feet and legs. There's also a 12,000-foot area housing the locker rooms for players and coaches, as well as the equipment room and training rooms. The price tag for the new facility is $15 million.

There's no arguing: People like Damian Lillard's game.

I'm one of them.

Hell yes I feel the urge to honor that guy, and, as a Blazer fan, to keep him at all costs. Lillard reminds me in different ways of all kinds of amazing young players. One is Kobe Bryant, for perfect work ethic seemingly out of the womb, to pair with unwavering confidence. He reminds me of young Kevin Durant; both were high-scoring Pacific Northwest prospects who basketball people declared to be nearly perfect, even as they posted rookie season PERs barely above the league average. Lillard also has elements of Damon Stoudamire, who did the heavy lifting of bringing hope and buckets as a rookie, all season long, to a team that sorely needed both.

Lillard excels at the things our eyes are best at appreciating -- essentially, highlight scores. He's bad on defense, so-so at seeing the floor and moving without the ball. But those elements of the game aren't exactly putting butts in seats. We tune in for the big makes, and he's a big maker. He is also durable as hell and may well become the first rookie to ever lead the league in minutes played tonight.

Lillard also may have a game that meets the moment. Nowadays referees and the rulebook are generally on the side of protecting high-speed, high-scoring ball-handlers.

I just looked up on Basketball-Reference rookies who, like Lillard, played a lot of minutes and scored a lot of points, but didn't have the highest PERs. I was wondering: Did those guys tend to go on to become much more efficient over time?

And the answer is they almost all had good careers, and especially lately some have been great: Names like Derrick Rose, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are on that list.

Lillard might be on that path. Who doesn't enjoy seeing greatness in the making?

Zach Lowe and Kevin Pelton are among the smart, analytics-based guys picking Lillard.

I'm OK with simply stopping the analysis there. Maybe Lillard does what we want rookies to do, period. Maybe we invented the Rookie of the Year award to give to players like him.

That's fine. Give the man his prize.

But.

Well, you read what Ethan Sherwood Strauss had to say about this (Insider) and explain to Anthony Davis what he should have done better.

You're saying, essentially: PER ain't perfect.

OK, I hear that.

Let's talk about John Hollinger's PER for a second. That's the best-known of the many advanced stats where Davis dusts Lillard. Davis has the 15th-best PER in the NBA, up there around with All-Stars. Lillard is 99th, between Pau Gasol's nightmare season and Will Bynum.

I'm not asking you to take PER, or even stats, as gospel. What I know, though, is that it's exceptional for players to make big leaps in PER. So if Davis is way ahead now, even while he's much younger, Lillard is fighting long odds to think he'll catch up or surpass Davis.

I also know there are ways, but only limited ways, to be an amazing player without showing up well in PER (see Shane Battier).

But those things are almost impossible for someone with a game like Lillard's. PER and the box score know scorers like Lillard -- makes, misses, free throws, 3s -- it's all tidily charted. PER's known limitations, in fact, come more on the things where Davis plays:

• By PER founder John Hollinger's own admission the box score knows almost nothing about defense. Lillard's biggest fans admit he's a bad defender. Davis, interestingly, was drafted to anchor the defense and hasn't really done that yet. But if PER were overhauled to include some magical defensive metric, it would widen the gap in favor of Davis.
• Among stat geeks, PER's most vocal critics are people like David Berri and Wayne Winston, who have both shed copious amounts of ink laying into PER. But at the core of their critique is an accusation that PER perversely rewards players who shoot too much. Players like Lillard, they would argue, are getting artificial bumps from PER.

I've also seen the claim that PER favors big men. This one is tricky, and I'm not sure if it's true. This year's top 10 in PER features eight guards or small forwards and two big men. Certainly Berri's competing measure favors big men far more than PER does. Not to mention: basketball favors big men. There's a reason everyone is bigger in the NBA than at every lesser level of the game.

But that PER omits most defense and omits almost none of a scorer's abilities is irrefutable. That's a stat built to make Lillard look good, which puts Lillard-style players like Westbrook, Dwyane Wade and James Harden in the top 10.

That such a stat is making Lillard look bad compared to Davis is eye-opening.

The real and true evidence-based argument for Lillard would be the sheer weight of his total contributions. Respect the brute power of big numbers! Lillard may not have helped as much per minute, but he helped for about 1,300 more minutes.

All true. And precisely why Hollinger developed a measure called Value Added. This is where you basically take a player's PER and then multiply all that by minutes played.

You can probably see the punchline coming. With fewer than two-thirds of Lillard's time on the court, with a measure that most experts say would favor Lillard's game to his own, Davis still has the better total Value Added on the season. And it's not all that close -- Davis is 35th in the league, Lillard 46th.

If we're talking about which player delivered the most useful work to his team this season, there is no case for Lillard over Davis.

But is that what we're talking about when we talk about Rookie of the Year?

• Phil Collin of the Los Angeles Daily News: One teammate uttered the words "bionic nan." Kobe Bryant has taken to calling Metta World Peace "Logan," the character in "Wolverine." Whatever Metta Madness is flowing through his veins, it looks like World Peace will return to the Lakers lineup tonight, 12 days after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. A medical miracle? Not really, World Peace said. He was itching to play the moment he was asked by Dr. Steve Lombardo if he could put weight on the leg, and he hopped out of bed and did so only hours after the operation ."As long as he didn't have to stitch anything together, I couldn't do anything to (further damage) it," World Peace said Monday after going through 3-on-3 workouts. "I was in great shape. The doc said he was surprised my knee was in such great shape playing 14 years in the NBA and always in a defensive stance. "When I heard all that, it wasn't like I was trying to come back to be a Superman. I figured I've just got to play through pain and it will get better as time goes." … Guard Steve Nash, who was "super optimistic" about a return last Friday, remains doubtful with a hamstring strain.
• Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald: The last thing the Bulls need with six games left in the regular season is to roll back downhill with their health concerns, but that appears to have happened. Joakim Noah returned to the court Sunday against Detroit after missing eight games to rest chronic plantar fasciitis in his feet. Noah played well (13 points, 7 rebounds in 21 minutes), but his feet didn't react well Monday morning, according to coach Tom Thibodeau. "Jo had a little bit of a setback. We'll see. We'll see where he is," Thibodeau said after practice at the Berto Center. There's no telling if or when Noah might be back to normal this season. It seems unlikely he'll play Tuesday when the Bulls host Toronto. While most injuries slowly improve, plantar fasciitis patients often talk about how the ailment is so unpredictable. Thibodeau said Noah felt good after Sunday's game.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: While the rest of the NBA community is busy speculating about the future of LeBron James and how the Heat plans to navigate the new salary cap, Pat Riley is thinking long-term about how special the run of this Heat team can become. Speaking with reporters at the Heat’s “Family Fest” on Sunday, Riley pointed to models of success the NBA considers some the best in its history as the ultimate goal for the Heat while also reminding the city to enjoy this “special time.” “I just want to keep helping them, keep bringing in more pieces that are going to complement them and hope we can have one of those 10-year rides, you know,” Riley said. “You think about every team, through the Celtics in the ’60s and the Lakers in the ’80s and the Bulls and then again the Spurs, those guys have been together eight, nine, 10 years and if we can keep this group together for eight, nine, 10 years, then we’re all going to have some fun.” And then a piece of advice. “So, don’t ever take it for granted,” he said. Already this season the Heat has won 27 games in a row, the most in franchise history and the second most in the history of the NBA. Now the team is on the verge of another milestone. A victory Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks would give the Heat 61 victories, which would tie the franchise’s record for a single season.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: This streak brings its own questions: Is the new, efficient Smith here to stay, or will he revert to bad habits under postseason duress? Can Anthony keep scoring at this rate when defenses target him during the playoffs? Can the Knicks make the finals with a merely average defense? Does their defense have another gear? What happens to the chemistry if Amar’e Stoudemire, Rasheed Wallace and Kurt Thomas return? And most curious of all: After months of mediocrity, where did this Knicks team come from? “It’s April, I guess,” Anthony said. “It’s April. It’s time to go.”
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: The one thing people would never accuse Mike Conley of is being flashy. He tends to appear conservative — on and off the court. But that is starting to change — at least on the floor — where Conley’s offensive game suddenly has a lot of bling-bling to it. The Griz have increasingly relied on Conley to carry a heavier offensive load, particularly late in games, and it’s allowed him to shine. It’s a dramatic transformation for a point guard who had been content with being a passive piece of the puzzle for most of his six-year career. Conley enters Tuesday night’s game against the Charlotte Bobcats having scored at least 20 points in each of the past four games. That’s the longest streak by any Grizzlies player this season. Relatively speaking, Conley is in the proverbial zone as a scorer. “I’m really comfortable right now,” Conley said. Coach Lionel Hollins seems impressed yet not surprised by Conley’s maturation. “He’s just a more confident player,” Hollins said.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Although they got into an apparent shouting match during a timeout in last Friday’s game against the Utah Jazz, New Orleans Hornets Coach Monty Williams and guardEric Gordon both appear to have moved past the conflict. But Williams said he's not going to stop pushing Gordon to improve his overall play, especially during the final five games of the season. Against the Jazz, Williams did not put Gordon back into game after they apparently got into shouting match. Williams was visibly agitated, yelling in Gordon’s direction when he apparently didn’t think Gordon was hustling enough. Assistant coach Randy Ayers stepped in front of Williams to calm him, after Gordon hollered back at him. “He’s a dynamic guard, that’s why I push him,’’ said Williams, who plans to start Gordon for the second consecutive since the incident on Tuesday night when the Hornets play the Lakers at the Staples Center. “I’m not going to allow him to settle for where he is in his career right now. He’s got to get better. If he gets better, he should be an All-Star someday.’’ Gordon admitted the conflict was a heat of the moment situation that shouldn't be blown out of proportion. “It got very heated in the moment, but I’m not letting none of that get to me,” Gordon said. “I’m just out here, still trying to play.”
• Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: As Kyrie Irving continues to shrink away from any public platform, Tristan Thompson is embracing his role as a spokesman — and he’s backing it up with his play on the court, too. “Just being myself, just being a natural leader and speaking up if I see something is wrong,” Thompson said after the victory Sunday against the Magic. “Just recently y’all have been coming to me, and I’ve been speaking, so I guess you can say I’ve been a leader.” Because of the position he plays and his immense talent, Irving remains the floor leader. But twice in the past week Irving has been given the opportunity to take a stand publicly and twice he declined.
• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: If there was any lingering doubt, Timberwolves forward Kevin Love’s season officially is over, but it’s not just because of that healing shooting hand. Love will have arthroscopic surgery to remove scar tissue in his left knee later this week. Love will consult with two surgeons on Wednesday at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery: He’ll see his hand doctor for a checkup on that right hand he has broken twice this season and also will consult with knee surgeon Dr. David Altchek, who probably will perform the operation that same day. Love’s left knee has bothered him much of the season, but it has grown more painful in recent days as he ramped up workouts for a possible return yet this season. He told team doctors after games in December that his hip was hurting him, and Wolves doctors concluded that the problem was connected to his knee pain. David Kahn, Timberwolves president of basketball operations, called the arthroscopic surgery “minor” and said he expects Love to resume his normal summer workouts in Los Angeles by early June after a season in which he has played just 18 games.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: Larry Sanders has plenty of competition for the most improved player honor, and he's also in the conversation for the defensive player of the year award. New Orleans' Greivis Vasquez, Houston's Omer Asik, Philadelphia's Jrue Holiday, Orlando's Nikola Vucevic and Indiana's Paul George are garnering support for the most improved award, voted on by 122 journalists who cover the NBA. … Several detailed analytical studies support Boylan's view. And a mere glance at last season's statistics shows Sanders played in 52 games without any starts and a total of 643 minutes, while this season he has started 53 of 69 games and played 1,892 minutes, an average of 27.4 minutes. This is the second consecutive year the Bucks have put a player in contention for the award. Ersan Ilyasova finished second to Orlando's Ryan Anderson for the most improved honor in 2011-'12. … The Bucks designed a public relations campaign featuring a colorful set of blocks to promote Sanders' candidacy for the most improved player and defensive player of the year awards. Sanders led the league in blocks for much of the season until recently being passed by last year's rejections leader, Serge Ibaka of Oklahoma City. Ibaka is averaging 3.07 blocks to Sanders' 2.9.
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: John Wall was unaccustomed to having a teammate challenge him, but in hindsight, he couldn’t disagree with anything that Okafor told him: Wittman had to go with someone else if he was ineffective and Wall has to trust that the coach is doing what was in the best interest of the team, which should always come first. … What followed after the encounter has been the best basketball of Wall’s young career. Beginning with the next game on March 1 against the New York Knicks – the Wizards’ opponent on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden – the third-year point guard has been on a statistical tear that has changed perceptions of his career and shown that his talents are no longer stagnating. In his past 21 games, Wall is averaging 22.7 points, 7.9 assists and 4.9 rebounds and has recorded 10 games with at least 20 points, three games of 35 or more, and seven double-doubles. In that time, only LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are averaging at least 22 points, seven assists and 4.9 rebounds. “I think I really had to grow. Get my teammates back behind me. Because that’s not the way you’re supposed to come out as a leader and as a franchise guy,” Wall said of his attitude the night of the argument with Okafor.
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: With Sunday's 125-120 victory over the Thunder, New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony is now 11-1 all-time against Kevin Durant in NBA games where both have played. Durant's lone head-to-head victory against Anthony came in a 151-147 double-overtime contest at KeyArena on April 6, 2008, which means Durant has yet to defeat Anthony while with the Thunder. Anthony did not play in OKC's 95-94 victory at New York on March 7 this season. Against Durant, Anthony has averaged 30.2 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals while shooting 50.4 percent from the field, 40.0 percent from 3-point range and 84.8 percent from the free-throw line. Meanwhile, Durant has averaged 26.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 42.2 percent from the floor, 38.3 percent from 3-point range and 89.1 percent from the free-throw line.
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: Dirk Nowitzki doesn’t want it to end like this. Slugging it out for the eighth seed — or more likely missing the playoffs — is bad enough once. Or twice. In the autumn of his NBA career, he wants more. And while he has no problem putting pressure on ownership to find some high-quality warriors to play alongside him, Nowitzki also is OK taking on his share of the workload off the court. He’s ready to hit the recruiting trail. “I’ve said it all year long — this is a big summer for us,” Nowitzki said. “We have to get better. We have to get some guys in that can get us back to the top level. We want to be a top-four seed in the West. That was always our goal, to play for the top. So this is a big summer. If [owner Mark Cuban] needs me to recruit and do all that stuff, I’m more than happy to.” Will it be enough to woo a marquee free agent or finagle a sign-and-trade? Nobody knows for sure. But it can’t hurt.
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: What if? What if the Raptors hadn’t screwed up so many years ago when they had the chance to hire Hammond? What if they hadn’t blown it by going through a ridiculous process of whittling a large group to four only to say they were going to open up the process again only to come back to the same four and eventually picking Rob Babcock. The four — Babcock, Jeff Weltman, Mark Warkentien and Tony DiLeo (remember that Gang of Four?) —were basically underwhelming at that time and that the Raptors — and I am pointing a finger directly at Richard Peddie — didn’t even deign to interview Hammond, who was the No. 1 man to Joe Dumars in Deroit at the time, was a shocking blown opportunity. John wanted the job and deserved to have a shot at it; the short-sightedness of Peddie and his people set the franchise back years, so far that they might still be digging out almost a decade later.
• Dale Kasler, Ryan Lillis and Tony Bizjak of The Sacramento Bee: Beverly Hills billionaire Ron Burkle, a driving force for the past two years in trying to keep the Kings from leaving town, will not invest in the team or the proposed Downtown Plaza arena, Mayor Kevin Johnson announced Monday afternoon. Facing questions over a conflict of interest, Burkle instead will focus on redeveloping other portions of Downtown Plaza. "He's so committed to Sacramento," the mayor said, adding that he spoke with Burkle on Monday. "There's a host of ancillary development opportunities that Ron will participate in." … Johnson insisted that Burkle's new role would not deflate the effort to keep the Kings from going to Seattle, and said other investors would pick up the financial slack. He did not give specifics.
• Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: The Warriors have a get-well game Tuesday against visiting Minnesota, which is 18 games under .500. A win coupled with a loss by Utah or the Los Angeles Lakers would clinch the Warriors' first postseason bid since 2007. But success against the Timberwolves won't answer an emerging concern. If you let Utah, a bad road team on the cusp of missing the playoffs, shut down Curry and the Warriors offense at the most critical of times, will Golden State be able to score in the postseason? Sunday night was less an anomaly and more like a trend. The Warriors have lost seven of their last 10 games against winning teams, including Sunday's home loss to Utah. In those 10 games, the Warriors averaged 22.4 fourth-quarter points. That includes a 17-point fourth quarter in a blowout of visiting New York, but finding offense against stiff defenses has been a major problem. … Jackson likes having Jack on the floor, so the three-guard lineup isn't going anywhere. That makes sense considering the way Jack has played this season. Jack is more secure with the ball than Curry, and defenses have aggressively double-teamed Curry late in games, something harder to do when he's playing off the ball. This quandary will continue into the postseason when the defenses step up a notch and coaching chess matches ensue. Because, no doubt, as goes Curry, so goes Golden State.
• Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune: Well, this ought to be a good story. Jazz forward DeMarre Carroll tweeted Monday afternoon that he broke the rim during a pickup game at Life Time Fitness, an athletic club in South Jordan. There have been plenty of classic backboard breaking moments [this is a solid compendium] but the whole library doesn't quite seem complete without footage of Carroll's. Does anybody have it? Carroll, 26, averages 16 minutes per game in 64 appearances this season. He is a pending free agent, but even if he ends up leaving it's unlikely it will be without recounting the story of the time he broke the backboard at Life Time Fitness. Stay tuned.

• T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times: And a lot of sportswriters, players, coaches and administrators have tried over the decades to make winners out of the Clippers only to fail. I wrote about the immaturity of DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin and problems with Paul that have threatened to sidetrack my favorite team in town, no one more of a Clippers honk than Page 2. Shoot, I went to Memphis with the Clippers a year ago and no one goes to such a rathole unless it's to be there for their family. But then you know what it's like raising children. You can't be their friends. Sometimes you have to lower the boom, and toss in a little discipline even when it might hurt you more than them. So I had to spank the Clippers before we could all come together Sunday and beat the Lakers. … Bringing fun to a locker room is just what Page 2 does. And just as I have preached to the guys all year, if you're going to be successful, you have to feast on the really crummy teams to pad your record. Fortunately, the Clippers got to play the Lakers four times this season, which is like having the Houston Astros on your schedule. And they swept them, of course.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Clippers center DeAndre Jordan shouted across the locker room Sunday to Chris Paul. "I don't like you, Chris," Jordan yelled out. Paul didn't flinch. "I don't care," Paul answered. Meanwhile, Clippers forward Blake Griffin turned to Jordan, whose locker is near his, and snipped: "Get out of my way DeAndre. Move," Griffin shouted. Jordan didn't back down."I don't like you, Blake Griffin," Jordan screamed. Finally, all three players shared a hearty laugh. Turns out it was all in fun. But it also was a message delivered to anyone who thinks the Clippers have a chemistry problem or their star players don't get along. There recently has been talk that Paul, Jordan and Griffin are at odds, but it sure didn't look like they had problems as they joked around in the locker room after beating the Lakers on Sunday to clinch the first division title in franchise history. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro insisted nothing out of the ordinary is going on with his young team. "There's not this big friction thing going on like people think," Del Negro said. "We've got some good guys. We have to manage (personalities) absolutely. But I know the guys want to win."
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: The Knicks thus claimed their 12th straight win and gave the streak an indisputable new legitimacy, taking down the defending Western Conference champions on their home court, where the Thunder (56-21) had lost just five times. “Probably one of the biggest wins we’ve had in a long time,” Carmelo Anthony said. For so many reasons. The Knicks reached 50 victories for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. They now need just one victory, or a Nets loss, to clinch their first Atlantic Division title since 1994. And the winning streak is the third longest in franchise history. The drive for a championship never looked more tangible. “It all goes hand in hand,” said Coach Mike Woodson, who got his 68th win with the Knicks, securing the best 100-game start in franchise history. … The Knicks had gone 20 days without a defeat, and 20 days without facing an elite team at full strength. They were spared the burden of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade last week in Miami. Their only victory over a team with a winning percentage of .600 or better was against the Memphis Grizzlies. “This may be the biggest, considering that’s a healthy team that’s playing with all their guns,” Chandler said. “It’s very hard to come in this building and get a win.”
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: Yet the only consistent thing about the Thunder's defense seems to be inconsistency. Oklahoma City followed up its best defensive performance of the season with one of its worst. After holding Indiana to eight points on 2-for-18 shooting in the fourth quarter Friday, the Thunder allowed a season high for points, yielded at least 30 points in three quarters (and 29 in the fourth) and allowed 19 offensive rebounds. The rebounding was the worst of all evils. That's because Sunday marked the fifth time in the past 10 games that the Thunder has allowed at least 16 offensive rebounds. The Knicks converted their 19 offensive boards into 23 second-chance points. … After out-rebounding the Pacers, the league's best rebounding team, by 22, Sunday's showing was the equivalent of five steps back after one step forward. In its past 10 games, the Thunder has allowed 14 offensive rebounds. By comparison, the league's high mark is Milwaukee's 12.3. So are the players not blocking out enough? “It's a combination,” Brooks said. “Everybody has to think rebound. We're such a high, explosive offensive transition team that we can't think about that until we secure the ball. That's just something that we will brush up on and try to get better at that the last five games.”
• Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune: By the time the Utah Jazz took the floor Sunday, through no effort of their own, they had crept back in the playoff picture. Early arrivals to Oracle Arena sat around the visitors’ locker room, watching intently on a projector as the Los Angeles Clippers ran the Lakers out of their shared gym. "I think everybody knows what the Lakers did today," Jazz forward Marvin Williams said. "We had a golden opportunity to come out and switch places with them." The Jazz took that opportunity and made a golden statement, beating the Warriors 97-90 after Mo Williams made a game-clinching 3-pointer with 13.4 seconds left. With the win, the Jazz moved a half-game ahead of the Lakers. The victory represented the Jazz’s most encouraging road effort of the season. It was just their third road victory over a team with a winning record, and it gave them consecutive road wins for the first time this season. Beating Golden State may have turned the tide of an entire season. The Jazz host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, and Minnesota on Friday, then close out the season with road games at Minnesota and Memphis. "We win out," Gordon Hayward said simply, "we’ll be fine."
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: It’s less than two weeks before the Celtics take the floor for their first-round playoff series against likely the Knicks or Pacers, and during that time they need to find cohesion. The team decided to rest Kevin Garnett (ankle inflammation) for two weeks, and Paul Pierce also needed a break to rest his gimpy ankle. But sooner or later, the Celtics have to get their core on the floor at the same time, and Sunday night was it. The combination of Pierce and Garnett, with the welcomed help of the resurgent Brandon Bass, led to a 107-96 win over the improving Washington Wizards. If only the shorthanded Celtics had played with the same energy Friday as they did on Sunday, they would have made it easier on themselves in their quest for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. This is a critical stretch for the Celtics, who don’t want to match up with the Knicks, winners of 12 straight games after beating Oklahoma City on the road Sunday without Amar’e Stoudemire or Kenyon Martin. Moving up to sixth — they trail Atlanta by 1½ games — likely would set up a first-round series with the Pacers, who were soundly beaten by the Wizards Saturday, and the Thunder the previous night.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: Newcomer Keyon Dooling and rookie Tony Wroten were back with the Griz after playing Saturday for the NBA Development League’s Reno Bighorns. It was a move designed to allow both players to stretch their legs. … Conley recorded his fourth straight 20-point game. The Griz hadn’t had a player score 20-plus points in four consecutive games this season. He’s been efficient, too. Conley took advantage of the Kings’ weak interior defense and attacked the baskets for layups. He’s shot 59 percent (36 of 61 from the field) in the four games. Zach Randolph is having a hard time getting his shot off around the rim because of shot-blocking defenders and he’s missing easy layups as of late. He finished 4 of 13 from the field and attempted just two free throws. Randolph is 11 of 30 in his last two games.
• Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: "We're playing like a team. We look good, man." The Pistons fan seated in the first row behind the media table Sunday night sounded surprised in the waning minutes of his team's 99-85 victory over the Chicago Bulls. That's understandable, since it had been nearly two months since the Palace crowd had witnessed a victory. And it had been over four years since fans had witnessed a victory over the Bulls on any court. But with the Pistons' bench combining for 43 points, and Brandon Knight tallying 20 points and five assists, the Pistons were able to get their first victory at the Palace since Feb. 13 -- a span of eight games. "It feels good just to finish out a game strong against them, where we were the team not to make mistakes and to capitalize on their mistakes," Knight said of the Pistons' 18-game losing streak to the playoff-bound Bulls. Although Pistons coach Lawrence Frank downplayed the streak's significance during three earlier losses this season, he admitted it was a topic of conversation.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: New Orleans Hornets guard Eric Gordon and his teammates have experienced their share of disappointing losses and missed opportunities on the road this season. But for the first time in nearly two months they enjoyed a road victory, defeating the Phoenix Suns 95-92 on Sunday night in front of 16,780 at the U.S. Airways Center. … Eric Gordon frequently drove the lane and maintained being aggressive after halftime, which is something he has not done frequently this season. It was the Suns that extended Gordon a four-year, $58 million contract offer last summer. The Hornets matched the offer, even though Gordon said his "heart was in Phoenix." In a heat of the moment situation during this past Friday’s 95-83 loss to Utah Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena, Williams got into a shouting match with Gordon during a timeout in the third quarter. Williams apparently didn’t think Gordon was hustling enough. But both appeared to move beyond the conflict as Williams kept Gordon in the starting lineup Sunday. Gordon played with intensity and the Suns struggled to stay in front of him. Gordon made all six of his free throws and he also had six assists and two steals 31 minutes of work.
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: Dirk Nowitzki has twisted and sprained his ankles dozens of times. But what happened Sunday night in Portland was different. He said he came down funny after jumping for a rebound in the second quarter. The ankle stiffened up at halftime, when he had it re-taped. He was ineffective in the third quarter, then sat out the entire fourth quarter. The Mavericks limped to the finish line for a 96-91 win. They were ahead by 26 late in the third quarter and by 20 at the start of the fourth. “I said at the start of the fourth it’s a little stiff, and I decided to just sit this one,” Nowitzki said. “Obviously, it got a lot closer than we were hoping for so we had to grind it out down the stretch. I think I jumped for a rebound in the second quarter and must have landed wrong or something. I must have irritated my bone spurs. I got really stiff and couldn’t really move much in the third quarter. I tried, got it retaped at halftime, but it didn’t help much. I said I’m going to sit this one out and the boys will bring it home. It was a lot closer than we hoped, but we got it done.” Nowitzki said he “definitely” will play Wednesday.
• Michael Beaven of the Akron Beacon-Journal: Cavaliers coach Byron Scott turned to an unlikely five-man lineup for a spark in the fourth quarter Sunday night and the decision paid off big time. Starter Wayne Ellington joined reserves Omri Casspi, Kevin Jones, Shaun Livingston, and Marreese Speights to help the host Cavs rally from a deficit to the Orlando Magic and earn a 91-85 victory. “That group I thought played pretty good basketball, especially defensively,” Scott said. “We didn’t score a lot, but they didn’t either.” A crowd of 16,341 witnessed the Cavs (24-52) start off slow against the Magic (19-59), but regain their composure in time to notch a second consecutive win. “It was a good win,” Scott said. “On the defensive end again, I thought our guys did a lot of good things just like we did in Boston [in a 97-91 win Friday night]. That is basically why we got the win tonight.” … Irving was asked before the game about the speculation that Scott could be let go following the season. He downplayed it and said: “Until that time comes, I’m not really worried about it. To even imagine that, I’m not going down that road. I’m focused on finishing the season with him and that’s all that matters right now.”

• Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: LeBron James and Dwyane Wade watched on the locker room television, then burst out to greet their teammates. To use Erik Spoelstra’s phrase, they “tackled everyone.” And if it was possible, David Stern would have parachuted in to join them. Stern had looked foolish the last time, announcing “substantial sanctions” were forthcoming before the undermanned Spurs pressed the Heat. This time? The franchise that’s irritated Stern for more than a decade was hit with something more significant than a fine. Those who believe in the worst of the NBA office probably see signs of a conspiracy again. After all, Joey Crawford showed up, and when is the last time that’s been good for San Antonio? Then there was the call by another official, Jason Phillips, with 32 seconds left. The Miami version of Nando De Colo, Norris Cole, fell on a drive; Kawhi Leonard got the foul because he was the only one nearby. “We got some lucky breaks at the end,” Spoelstra said, and he followed with something as true. “But that’s basketball.” One call didn’t determine this game, not when the Heat played with the kind of competitive joy the Spurs had in November in Miami. Chris Bosh used the word “fun,” because it was for them. Just as the Spurs played loose in Miami, so did the Heat Sunday. … With the Thunder waiting for the second game of a back-to-back in OKC on Thursday, will this be the week that scrambles the Western Conference seeding? Stern wouldn’t mind, since he’s butted heads with the Spurs for years. And while he pushed for an economic model that allowed small markets to compete, he always preferred selling something other than a Spurs franchise that has never moved the television needle. And so there Stern was Sunday, with his final postseason as the NBA commissioner approaching, watching Bosh line up the game-winner.
• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: Could the Heat center imagine playing at such a level at age 37? “I don’t know if I’ll still be playing,” said Chris Bosh, who recently turned 29. “I don’t want to, no. I will if I have to. You can’t tell the future, but I don’t plan to.” If the rest of his career is anywhere near as enjoyable as Sunday night’s 88-86 victory, you’d think he could be convinced to reconsider. With LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers all sitting — due to what Miami coach Erik Spoelstra characterized as nagging injuries but what many suspected was payback for San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich’s ploy in November — Bosh had a rare opportunity to anchor the Heat, and to do so against the Spurs, the West’s best squad. And so there he was, with the Heat down one. There he was, after Spoelstra trusted his team to push the ball without a timeout. There he was, standing open after a screen, 25 feet from the basket, just past the top of the key, after Tiago Splitter failed to switch and three defenders flailed toward Ray Allen. “I saw myself shooting that,” Allen said. “I was about to shoot it, and I felt my guy come up on me, and hey, there’s somebody open, and I found him.” He found Bosh, who had 20 points at that stage, including a couple of 3-pointers. “Fairly decent look,” Spoelstra said. Bosh wasn’t surprised to be that free. “I had to make the shot still,” he said, laughing.
• Harvey Araton of The New York Times: One championship, two finals appearances, and countless clutch shots and defensive stands later, Pierce, at 35, is considered one of the league’s sage big-game veterans, a future Retired Number Celtic, a nearly certain Hall of Famer. His delayed ascension might also reflect the best-case career trajectory for the Knicks’Carmelo Anthony, whose professional years have mimicked Pierce’s 20s far more than they have LeBron James’s. With the Knicks poised to displace the Celtics as Atlantic Division champions after beating them, 108-89, on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, this would be a propitious time to present Pierce as Exhibit A in the case for Anthony’s potential growth into no-questions-asked superstardom. Anthony’s critics, including me, have never underestimated his combustible package of size, strength and first-step speed. But his teams in Denver and in New York have produced poor playoff results, and he has admitted to failing to fully grasp the essence of collective elegance until last summer’s Olympics. Isn’t it fair to say that when it comes to winning at the highest level, Anthony is still an undergraduate student trying to complete a master’s program?
• Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe: As one of three NBA coaches on the league’s competition committee, Rivers, who is joined by Dallas’s Rick Carlisle and Memphis’s Lionel Hollins, is asked to vote on potential rule changes and other competition-related matters. One issue Rivers said he expects to come up this offseason is the idea of coaches sitting star players in games, which Miami did Sunday night against San Antonio. The Heat sat LeBron James, Dywane Wade, and Mario Chalmers against the Spurs, indicating that each had injuries such as a hamstring strain and a sprained ankle. The move caused a stir because Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had sent forward Tim Duncan, guard Manu Ginobili, and guard Tony Parker home before playing the Heat Nov. 19. … “I’ve got a feeling it will come up, probably loudly,” Rivers said. “But I don’t know what you’re supposed to do about it as a coach. It’s a tough one, honestly. From the fans’ standpoint, they pay to see the players play and I get that. From the league’s standpoint, they want to protect that. From a coaching standpoint, you want to do what’s best for your team. It’s a tough one.” However, the Celtics may have an advantage in this area because their star players are pushing 35 and above, so no one really questions why they sit: they’re just old. “I think ‘old’ is an actual injury,” Rivers joked. “You have the ‘hamstring injury’ and you have the ‘old injury.’ ”
• Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner: With a 109-92 victory over Toronto before 14,360 at Verizon Center, the Wizards (27-46) achieved their objective and saw shades of what their starting backcourt hopes to be next year. Bradley Beal matched a career-high with six 3-pointers and a game-high 24 points after missing 11 of the last 14 games with a sprained left ankle. His return was the perfect complement to John Wall's 18 points and 10 assists with a single turnover, the bookend to a superb March played mostly without his rookie teammate. "It's very important, especially to me and especially to the team, because we want to end on a good note, make a run for the ninth seed," Beal said. … Beal checked in with 4:37 remaining the first quarter. His 3-pointer over 6-foot-11 Jonas Valanciunas (18 points, 10 rebounds) broke a 33-33 tie early in the second, starting a stretch in which the Wizards outscored the Raptors by 10 over the final eight minutes of the half. "I think we've seen it in his attitude," Wizards coach Randy Wittman said of Beal. "He's been working, and he wants to get back. That's a good sign. ... I've been in it long enough where I've seen guys say they don't want to get back."
• Cathal Kelly of the Toronto Star: The vogue trend in the league is to shoot three-pointers at every opportunity. On that basis, Gay is a victim of fashion. His three-point shooting is middling overall (33.9 per cent career), and trending like an anvil tipped into a well (26.7 per cent this year). Gay missed his shot. Toronto missed its chance. All the momentum drained away then. It finished 109-92. “You don’t want to question a guy’s decision, but we’d much rather go to the basket,” coach Dwane Casey said. “He made that choice.” Bad choices, large and small, haunt this team. It was a wrong choice to come out looking like they needed a little nap after the excitement of the anthems. ‘We came out with a lax disposition,” Casey said flatly. “(Casey) said that to us also,” Kyle Lowry said afterward, as if relieved to hear that he wasn’t the only one. It was a wrong choice to get into early foul trouble.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: New Orleans Hornets guard Greivis Vasquez said Coach Monty Williams called him out in front of his teammates during halftime for not playing like a leader after committing three turnovers and scoring five points. But Vasquez used it as motivation, dominating the third quarter by making all six shots, distributing three assists and most importantly not committing a turnover for the entire second half on his way to a team-high 25 points. Vasquez not only looked for his shot, but he got the Hornets in their offensive sets quicker and looked specifically for forward Anthony Davis on lob passes coming off pick-and-roll plays. Vasquez and Davis combined to score 29 of the Hornets' 36 points in the third quarter. It was enough for the Hornets to end a two-game losing streak and finish their seven-game homestand at 4-3.
• Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: Kyrie Irving’s return from a sprained left shoulder Sunday provided Shaun Livingston with a welcome break. Livingston is able to return to his reserve role after averaging 32 minutes in the eight games he started. Livingston played well in Irving’s absence, but he now strengthens a bench that has been depleted by the injuries to the starters. “It keeps the second unit a little more intact and it cuts down his minutes, which I think is important,” coach Byron Scott said. “I thought he was running on fumes for a little while because of all the minutes we’ve been playing him. He gets more of a break and can resume his normal position and normal playing time. That definitely helps.”
• Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune: The NBA's decision to upgrade a Gibson foul onLeBron James from a regular shooting foul to a flagrant foul surprised Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. "I guess we have to call the league and get clarification on that," he said. "I didn't see it that way. I still don't have a good understanding of what a flagrant foul is. By rule it's unnecessary, excessive. I thought I got some clarity last year, but apparently I didn't." James complained after Wednesday's game of fouls he deemed "not basketball plays." Asked if James' opinion carries weight with the league, Thibodeau replied: "I guess we have to talk to the league to find out."
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: When a team shoots 50 percent on the road and holds its opponent under 40 percent, it expects to win. But when these two meet, no one stat can guarantee victory for the Pistons. They had a chance to send the game to overtime, trailing by three with 22 seconds left, but Charlie Villanueva's 3-point attempt didn't find its mark. Jose Calderon would've been a candidate to take a tying 3-pointer, but he has a tendon problem in his elbow and when the ball swung to him, he was no threat to shoot, so Villanueva launched a long jumper in a failed attempt to send the game to overtime. Rodney Stuckey hit a 3-pointer on the final possession to cut the lead from four to one. The Pistons (24-50) were already undermanned without Jason Maxiell (eye injury, didn't make the trip) and Will Bynum (hand). The Bulls (40-32) were playing without Joakim Noah, Marco Belinelli, former Piston Richard Hamilton and 2011 MVP Derrick Rose, who's yet to return from tearing his Achilles. Even without those four, especially the pesky Noah, the Bulls made the necessary plays down the stretch to give the Pistons that sinking feeling. "It was some bad bounces, I had a bad turnover," said Greg Monroe, who finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, benefitting from Noah's absence. "Just a half-second late, that might've been the difference. We played with good energy, good effort the whole game. When it counted, we were a step late."

NEW ORLEANS -- First came the game jersey. Then the right wristband, followed by the left. With the fans still begging for more spoils, Chris Paul kicked off his shoes, one going into the scrum of fans crushing the barricade cordoning off the baseline section, the other to a kid in the corner section.

New Orleans is an undeniably permissive city, but Paul now wearing nothing more than an undershirt, red shorts and black socks. With little else to peel off, the strip tease was over. The point guard shuffled through the tunnel of his erstwhile home arena to savor the Los Angeles Clippers’ 105-91 win over the New Orleans Hornets.

Back in the Clippers’ locker room, not one of Paul’s teammates had hit the showers. Everyone was glued to the mounted flat screen, watching the Miami Heat try to preserve their 27-game winning streak against the Chicago Bulls. Aside from a few, ahem, gentlemen’s bets, no Clippers expressed a loyalty either way -- but when there’s a sexy event happening in your industry, it’s impossible not to be captivated.

“You’re not rooting for anyone,” Clippers guard Jamal Crawford said. “It’s just exciting basketball.”

Paul ambled over to his locker at the far end of the room, where he was swarmed by local media. It’s been 15 months since the Hornets dealt their franchise player to Los Angeles, but there’s still mutual allegiance between Paul and New Orleans.

“Just being here, seeing all these familiar faces, I miss it,” Paul said. “No question about it. I miss the people here. My pastor was sitting on the baseline. My old chef, my barber, everybody. This is my family.”

The Clippers came into New Orleans still smarting from their previous night’s overtime loss in Dallas. The team didn’t play poorly against the Mavericks. The process was fairly clean, but the results simply weren’t there.

For most of the season, the Clippers have made defenses pay for the kind of aggressive traps Dallas deployed against Paul. The Clippers have plenty of releases in their offense to counter that kind of pressures -- a pass from Paul to a teammate at the top of the circle, who then quickly hits a shooter along the arc. But few of those open looks fell in Dallas.

That wasn’t the case Wednesday night, as the Clippers lit up the Hornets’ pack-the-paint defense from beyond the arc, draining 13 of 29 attempts from long range.

“Down the stretch tonight they tried to trap,” Paul said. “But tonight we were able to make them pay. Blake [Griffin] found Matt [Barnes] in the corner for the dagger.”

Process, meet result: Barnes had a similarly clean look on Tuesday night during a crucial late possession in overtime that could’ve tied the game, but it didn’t catch rim. On Wednesday, Barnes was able to hush a crowd in New Orleans that heckled him relentlessly.

Paul finished with 16 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals, but his floater during the final two minutes gave the Clippers a 10-point lead and effectively iced the game.

Griffin arrived in New Orleans a little down. Over his previous three games, Griffin recorded as many turnovers as field goals (10) and shot 31.3 percent from the floor. He’d been a reasonably decent facilitator from the high post, but Griffin needs some red meat in his on-court diet (not off, where he’s a stickler for healthy stuff), and the aggressiveness hadn’t been there.

On Wednesday, Griffin stormed back, undeterred by a skilled young defender in Anthony Davis and big man Ryan Anderson. Griffin said he was disappointed with a couple of easy misses, but his output was solid -- 19 points on 6-for-12 shooting from the field and a 7-for-8 night from the stripe.

“I was much more aggressive,” Griffin said. “A lot of times I don’t want to force things. A lot of times, I want to be a facilitator in games. I need to pick and choose my areas a little bit better.”

At times, Griffin sees himself as a finesse player in a power body. It’s a delicate balance, but the power trumped the finesse for much of Wednesday night. When the Hornets showed high on a pick-and-roll in the first quarter, Griffin slipped to the basket without hesitation, catching the pass en route to finish strong. That possession ignited Griffin, who attacked the basket with a renewed commitment to bullyball.

On a night when both the Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets lost, the Clippers moved back into the No. 3 slot in the Western Conference. And while a win over a lottery-bound team shouldn’t beget too much satisfaction, this is a Hornets team that dispatched both Memphis and Denver over the past week.

As the Heat’s winning streak was officially snapped while Griffin addressed the media, the power forward recalled the Clippers’ 17-game winning streak in December and the invincibility a team feels when it’s ripping off wins like that.

“In the middle of it, it just feels like you can’t lose,” Griffin said. “You have confidence that you can win any game you’re in.”

The Clippers head to Texas for a back-to-back with San Antonio and Houston, in search of a restored sense of fearlessness they carried with them less than three months ago.

• Andre C. Fernandez of The Miami Herald: The streak was threatened again. Could have fooled the Heat, which again turned a seemingly precarious situation into a victory in a matter of minutes. Even with Dwyane Wade sidelined for the second game in a row and LeBron James scoring only six points through 21/2 quarters, the Heat’s winning streak hit 27 games Monday night with a 108-94 win against the Magic at Amway Center. The Heat used a 13-0 run after finding itself tied at 68 with 2:59 left in the third quarter and scored 20 of the game’s next 22 points to pull away for good and move closer to the 1971-72 Lakers’ NBA-record 33-game winning streak and the Eastern Conference’s top seed. The Heat can clinch the conference’s top record Tuesday if the Knicks lose to the Celtics or by beating the Bulls on Wednesday in Chicago. The Heat also won its 13th consecutive road game, which is one away from matching its franchise record away from home and three away from matching those same Lakers for the longest road-winning streak in league history (16).
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: Perhaps no one on the Magic roster wanted to play against the Heat more than Arron Afflalo, one of Orlando's most competitive players. But an injury to his right hamstring prevented him from playing Monday and will keep him out the rest of the season. He suffered the injury during the Magic's loss Friday to the Oklahoma City Thunder. "I don't know if my leg was kind of turned inwards as I kind of reached down for the ball, but whatever movement I made caused me to have a slight tear in my muscle down there," Afflalo said. "Obviously, we didn't have that much time left in the season, so there'd be no way I could even get remotely back ready to play for one or two games." Afflalo is the Magic's leading scorer, averaging 16.5 points per game. He's also the team's leading shot-taker, attempting 14.1 shots per game. The team will treat his injury with rest and physical therapy, and on Monday he walked through Amway Center with a pronounced limp. He hopes that his injury will have a silver lining. He hopes the time off will allow other nagging injuries to heal fully, and he said he hopes to begin training for next season in about six to eight weeks.
• Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: New Orleans Hornets guard Brian Roberts may be the best 27-year rookie in the NBA. Robert played three years in Bamberg, Germany before making an NBA roster as a 26-year-old when he stuck with the Hornets following a nice showing in the Las Vegas Summer League. In only his second NBA start Monday night against the Denver Nuggets, who came into the game on a 15-game winning streak, Roberts exhibited the poise expected of a seasoned veteran, or at least one who has been through the rigors a a professional basketball season in the past. Roberts accumulated a career- and Hornets' season-high 18 assists against the Nuggets, drawing praise from veteran Denver Coach George Karl who said "That little kid played great; he passed as well as any one who has passed against us in a long time." That "little kid" might have earned his way back for a second stint next season based on Monday night's effort in relief of injured starter Greivis Vasquez.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: It was over, garbage time, time for the no-names to check in -- when one realized the no-names were already in. The rebuilding Hornets, without their two top players, ended the Nuggets' 15-game win streak abruptly and abrasively, 110-86 on Monday, with guys such as Brian Roberts and Darius Miller having huge nights. Denver was disheartening. By halftime, Denver trailed 59-38 -- the 21-point halftime deficit was the Nuggets' largest of the season. … Folks are learning as much about Ty Lawson's importance when he's not playing as when he is. After a scorching couple of months, the point guard missed his third consecutive game with a heel bruise. In the previous two, Denver barely beat two lottery teams. And then the first half in New Orleans was atrociously abysmal (abysmally atrocious?). Fill-in starting point guard Andre Miller was minus-28, seldom getting Denver into a rhythm. It's been six days since Lawson injured the heel at Oklahoma City. Karl said Monday that it looked "tender." Lawson will get treatment and go through a light workout in San Antonio on Tuesday, as he aims for the big matchup against the Spurs on Wednesday. Sure, the streak was going end at some point. But like this?
• Phillip B. Wilson of The Indianapolis Star: Two more Indiana Pacers were affixed the dreaded “day-to-day” injury tag Monday as the starting backcourt of George Hill and Lance Stephenson sat out against Atlanta at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Hill, the starting point guard, is bothered by a left groin strain. Stephenson has a right hip flexor. The Pacers were also without starting forward David West (back strain) for a fifth consecutive game and 2009 NBA All-Star forward David Granger, who has played just five games as a reserve due to a seasonlong knee problem. “George’s is probably more serious than Lance’s,” Vogel said before the game. “(Hill) still has a good chance of playing on Wednesday, (but) they’re more concerned with his groin than they are Lance’s hip.” The Pacers are about to embark on a four-game trip with the first stop Wednesday at Houston. “David is going to be still day-to-day,” Vogel said. “There’s an outside chance he could play Wednesday, but not 100 percent sure. And Danny as well. Those guys both could see action in Texas.” The Pacers started D.J. Augustin for Hill and Gerald Green for Stephenson. Vogel wanted Orlando Johnson to come off the bench. The plan had Sam Young spelling Paul George and Ben Hansbrough backing up Augustin.
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: This one was over early. Or was it? The Pacers were missing four starters. The Hawks were playing to clinch a postseason berth. All signs pointed to a blowout. That is exactly what happened, at least for much of the game, but it certainly didn’t go the way most would expect. It was the Pacers that led by as many as 28 points late in the third quarter. However, they had to hold on for dear life as a group of Hawks reserves nearly erased the entire deficit. In the end, it was a 100-94 Pacers victory Monday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Hawks (39-32) could have clinched a playoff berth, the team’s sixth straight, with a victory and a 76ers loss at the Jazz later Monday night. The loss dropped the Hawks into a tie with the Bulls, who own the tiebreaker, for sixth in the Eastern Conference. … The Hawks continue a four-game road trip, with a 1-1 mark, at the Raptors Wednesday.
• Brandon Parker of The Washington Post: As John Wall stepped to the free-throw line late in the fourth quarter of Monday’s game against Memphis, his new career high and the Wizards’ sixth straight home win in hand, faint chants of “M-V-P” arose within the Verizon Center. When asked about it later, the third-year guard shrugged off the praise. “Nah, I’m not no MVP, man,” Wall said with a grin. “I’m just glad to finally be able to play good, be healthy, help change things around. Like I said, if this team’s healthy from start to finish, we’d easily be a playoff team. That’s how we feel.” With the way the Wizards have fallen prey to injuries, especially of late, that’s something fans will never know this season (Five players missed Monday’s game with injury or illness). But with the way Wall has played, especially of late, one can’t help but wonder “what if” about this resilient group. After recording a career-high 47 points in Washington’s 107-94 win against playoff-bound Memphis, Wall is now averaging 25 points and 9.3 assists during his past nine games. The Wizards have gone 6-3 during that stint and are now 21-16 since Wall’s return from a leg injury. … Wall has also shown patience with his jumper, steadily working to eliminate the hitch in his shot and add another dimension to a skill set built on speed and flash. By doing so, he also seems to be indirectly addressing the questions surrounding his value as a franchise and max-contract player.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: Grizzlies guard Tony Allen exhaled with disappointment several times while standing in front of his station in the visitor’s locker room. For the second straight game, the Grizzlies didn’t look like themselves. Memphis played fast relative to its standard pace over the weekend and won. But the Griz were rendered defenseless Monday night and that led to a bad result in the form of a 107-94 loss to the Washington Wizards before 17,868 in the Verizon Center. “We need to decide what team we want to be,” Allen said, lamenting a belief that the Griz are beginning to play down to the level of their competition — especially on the road. The combination of Allen’s observation and Wizards guard John Wall’s offensive onslaught defined the Grizzlies in a not-so-flattering way. … The Griz, fifth in the Western Conference standings, are a game behind the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets for third and fourth place, respectively. “They deserved to win,” Hollins said. “They were the aggressors from the get go.”
• Jody Genessy of the Deseret News: Speaking from experience, Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin knows how difficult of a position some of his guys are in right now. Eight Jazz players will be free agents this summer — nine if Marvin Williams doesn’t exercise his player option for 2013-14 — and it's only natural to be affected by the unknown. Though he believes his players are usually able to tune out noise about the future, Corbin admitted it's possible that has played a small role in the team's recent struggles. "With this group, I like to say that they've been tremendous all year," Corbin said. "Right from the beginning of training camp, we talked about the number of free agents we had. Everybody keeps mentioning it. We tried to get the guys — as much as they could — to not worry about it as much, but it's been there." Corbin said it's been more evident since nobody was moved on the final day of player transactions Feb. 21. "Once the trade deadline was over and everybody realized we were going to be this way for the rest of the year, I think we relaxed a little bit," Corbin said of his team that was 3-11 since that deadline before Monday's 107-91 win over the 76ers.
• John Mitchell of The Philadelphia Inquirer: The inability to be consistent, something that has haunted the 76ers all season long, reared its ugly head again Monday night. One night after the lowest-scoring team in the NBA played with bounce in its stride, the sluggishness that has been a hallmark all season returned in an ugly 107-91 loss to the Utah Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena. The Sixers (27-43) shot the ball poorly and never led. They trailed by 19 at the end of the third quarter. Utah, which began the night 11/2 games out of the final Western Conference playoff spot, led by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter. The loss came at the end of a four-game Western Conference road trip for the Sixers. It also came one night after they ended their road losing streak at 15 games.
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: With 0.5 of a second still remaining on the first-half clock Monday night and his team trailing the Warriors by 23 points, Lakers guard Kobe Bryant walked off the court and headed dejectedly for the locker room. The message had been sent. "We've played 72 games, and the survey says that we're the better basketball team," Warriors head coach Mark Jackson said. "That cannot be debated. We were not going to come into this game on our heels. "We respect them. They've got some guys who are going to be in the Hall of Fame. ... But this is a different day, and we're a different basketball team." The Warriors can make those types of claims for the first time in nearly 20 years and now have more proof with Monday's 109-103 victory, during which they generally dominated the Lakers in front of the 25th consecutive sellout crowd at Oracle Arena.
• Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: The Lakers' hope was that Pau Gasol's return from injury would help them develop a consistently solid second unit. The Lakers figured to have enough depth that fill-in starter Earl Clark wouldn't even have regular minutes once Gasol got back to his usual level of conditioning. But the Lakers' depth was woefully lacking Monday night at Golden State with Antawn Jamison struggling to adjust to a sprained right wrist suffered last game and then starting small forward Metta World Peace not playing the second half because of a strained left knee. Welcome back, Earl. Shooting guard Jodie Meeks started the second half in World Peace's place. World Peace did return to the Lakers' bench before the fourth quarter, moving around some on the leg. The Lakers have Tuesday off before a back-to-back set at Minnesota on Wednesday and Milwaukee on Thursday. World Peace has been one of the few Lakers to avoid significant injuries this season, although Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said World Peace wasn't full strength in his lower body earlier this season and struggling to defend small forwards. Aside from the first half Monday night against Golden State exposing Gasol as moving very poorly in his second game back from the torn plantar fascia in his right foot, it showed again that the Lakers' second unit is heavily reliant on 3-point shots.

• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is well-known for his shocking public statements regarding LeBron James. To that end, Wednesday’s latest bombshell should come as no surprise. Hours before the Heat was to play the Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena, Gilbert took to Twitter with a message directed at Cavs fans: “Cleveland Cavaliers young talent makes our future very bright. Clearly, LeBron’s is as well. Time for everyone to focus on the road ahead.” Focus on what road ahead, exactly? The message served two purposes. First, it was a public plea for Cavaliers fans to go easy on James on Wednesday night rather than boo him unmercifully and chant stuff like, “Akron hates you.” Secondly, but more importantly, it was Gilbert’s way of extending an olive branch to James. James can opt out of his current contract in 2014, and it’s never too early to start courting the best player in the league. And, of course, here’s the cynical translation of Gilbert’s tweet: Please, for the love of God and my pocketbook — but mostly my pocketbook — cheer for LeBron tonight.” Don’t forget, that when Gilbert lost James to free agency in 2010, the Cavs’ owner lost bank-vaults worth of revenue potential.
• Bill Livingston of The Plain Dealer: If James does indeed return in 2014, when he can opt out of his Miami contract, it would take on overtones of the biblical story of the prodigal son. To many Cavs fans, it would only be good business to take a shortcut back to contention. To others, because of the way he surrendered on the court before leaving and the ugly tone of the television show in which he announced his defection, it would be the story of another, more sinister family. James would be Fredo, as described, after he betrayed the Corleone family in "The Godfather: Part II" by his brother Michael: "You're nothing to me. You're not a brother. You're not a friend. You broke [our] hearts." To these fans, it will always be personal. Most of all, in the Cleveland way, the way of Red Right 88 and The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, and Jose Mesa, it will always be about the next time. Someday, it will be their time, the time when the last game ends and there is no choice but to shine a light on a city that has waited for its close-up for almost a half-century.
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: This was not accidental death-by-dunk. No, LeBron James confirmed Wednesday that his power slam at the expense of Boston Celtics guard Jason Terry in the second quarter of Monday night's Miami Heat victory at TD Garden was very much with malice intended. Asked after the morning shootaround at Quicken Loans Arena if he had the opportunity to review the dunk, James nodded and said, "Yeah, I have, I have." He wasn't finished. No, not after Terry has taken opportunities while with both the Dallas Mavericks and now Celtics to launch verbal salvos at James' Heat, including when the Mavericks defeated the Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals. "It was one of my better ones," James said. "And the fact that it happened to J.T. made it even that much sweeter. Because I think we all know what J.T. talks, and he talks too much sometimes and I'm glad it happened to him." Asked for comment at Wednesday's Celtics shootaround in New Orleans, Terry told the media, "I'm not even commenting. No comment. Zero. I have none. A basketball play. My reaction was when the fans were cheering and I went up and knocked down the technical. That's a great reaction. Wasn't the first, won't be the last." James received a technical foul for his stare-down of Terry after the dunk.
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: With Tim Duncan again anchoring the show — to the tune of 25 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and four blocks — the Spurs sent the Warriors to their 29th consecutive loss in San Antonio, a string of futility dating to Valentine’s Day 1997. It wasn’t the most talked-about streak around the NBA, but it was one the Spurs (52-16) were satisfied to prolong. Combined with Oklahoma City’s overtime loss at Memphis, it left the Spurs 21/2 games ahead of the Thunder in the Western Conference race. … If there were any doubts whether Duncan could regain the form from before his Feb. 2 knee injury, the past three games have put them to rest. The 36-year-old is averaging 27.7 points, 14.7 rebounds, four assists, and 3.3 blocks over that stretch. “He’s an all-time great for a reason,” Mark Jackson said. After going 11 of 17 for his third straight game shooting above 60 percent, Duncan was asked to assess the state of his revived jump shot. “It doesn’t feel great, but it’s going in a little bit,” Duncan said.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: It didn’t take long to discern the measure of intensity that would fill FedExForum on Wednesday night. Instead of going around a screen Griz center Marc Gasol set near mid-court, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook charged into Gasol and delivered a deliberate hockey-style check with his right shoulder. Gasol took umbrage and so did referee Michael Smith, who whistled Westbrook for a foul while players from both teams engaged in verbal jousting. And the game was less than two minutes old. The rivalry, however, dates back nearly three years when these teams bumped and grinded through a seven-game Western Conference semifinals series. The Griz actually hit first in this one. Memphis jumped out to an early 10-point lead and then Gasol delivered a knockout punch that allowed Memphis to get a 90-89 overtime victory before sellout crowd of 18,119. Gasol extended the Grizzlies’ home winning streak to nine games when he tipped in a Zach Randolph miss with 0.9 seconds left. Westbrook’s desperation heave was way off as the final buzzer sounded. “I just crashed the boards and got lucky,” Gasol said. “What does Tony (Allen) say: ‘Grit, grind?’ We definitely believe.”
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Jeff Teague made his statement. With so much talk about the Bucks’ guard combination of Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings, the Hawks guard had something to say about his game Wednesday night. Teague finished with 27 points and 11 assists as the Hawks held off the Bucks 98-90 at Philips Arena in a key Eastern Conference game. It was one point shy of Teague’s season- and career-high point total. The Hawks (38-30) won for the fourth time in five games and kept hold of the fifth spot in the conference playoff race. Teague was challenged by Player Development Instructor Nick Van Exel at halftime to pick up his energy and play. The guard responded with 12 points in a decisive third quarter. “C’mon,” is what Teague said Van Exel simply told him. “Me and him a little way we talk to each other. I knew what he meant.”
• Richard Walker of the Gaston Gazette: When the Charlotte Bobcats acquired Josh McRoberts last month, he was the throw-in on a no-risk trade deadline deal. When they signed Jannero Pargo last week, they were simply looking for a healthy body to back up starting point guard Kemba Walker. On Wednesday night, McRoberts and Pargo were more valuable than perhaps their team could’ve ever imagined in a 107-101 win over the Toronto Raptors that gives Charlotte its first winning streak since Nov. 19 and 21 – or way back when the Bobcats were off a franchise-record 6-4 start. “The journey’s been a long and tough one for our team,” said Charlotte coach Mike Dunlap, whose team has won three of its last five games, including three straight at Time Warner Cable Arena, to improve to 16-52. “But we’re playing hard and we’re playing together.”
• Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: New Orleans Hornets forward Anthony Davis has some Kobe Bryant in him. It is often said that the Lakers' legend plays best when he's not at 100 percent. Davis was far from 100 percent on Wednesday against the Boston Celtics, but told reporters after the game there was no way he was not going to play with what Coach Monty Williams had described as "a stomach issue." Davis said he nursed his energy throughout the day, sitting out the morning shoot-around, but managing to play 28 minutes Wednesday night. Davis' game-winning tip in of an Eric Gordon miss with 0.3 on the clock helped the Hornets snap a four-game losing streak with a win over a quality opponent. Davis had 9 points and 8 rebounds, along with two blocked shots and a steal. He is the unquestioned future of this franchise. … If there's an indispensible player this year, it's Ryan Anderson. Easily, the acquisition of Anderson over the summer in a sign-and-trade with the Orlando Magic was the Hornets best offseason move. Even though Anderson is just in his fifth NBA season, he plays with a veteran savvy that will help solidify the future of the team for the next few years.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: With a day off and orders to clear his mind, Jeremy Lin took the opportunity to head to the gym. He did change things up a bit. With Alicia Keys taking over Toyota Center, Lin found a different court and a few different teammates. But Lin’s idea of a day off included basketball. “It’s therapeutic,” he said. After Sunday’s 30-point loss to Golden State, he and the Rockets needed the therapy, so Lin spent a chunk of Monday launching jumpers and playing HORSE. When the Rockets reconvened at Toyota Center on Wednesday, Lin spent the night as if still goofing with his brother and buddies far from the cameras and lights. He repeatedly pierced the Utah Jazz defense, helping to drive the Rockets to a 26-point lead. And when the Jazz rallied in the fourth quarter, Lin knifed through them again, with one drive to a layup and another and a pass for a Chandler Parsons dunk that finally closed out the Jazz 100-93. Lin made eight of nine shots in the paint as the Rockets went from launching 3-pointers to beating the Jazz at the rim, and from a series of slow starts to a rapid bolt from the opening tip that set the tone for the game.
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: The visiting locker room at US Airways Center was filled with the usual laughter and playful banter that comes following a victory, but the Washington Wizards’ celebration of a much-needed road win over the Phoenix Suns was tempered some by what was happening behind a glass window leading to the training room. There, rookie Bradley Beal sat with a white towel covering his head, left leg elevated as he received treatment on a troublesome ankle that he aggravated in the fourth quarter of the Wizards’ 88-79 win. “It’s tough for him,” forward Trevor Ariza said, looking back at the beleaguered Beal. “I feel bad for him that he has to go through this.” Beal will likely miss more time after his second gruesome landing this month; the latest coming during a near meltdown in which the Wizards let an 18-point lead get whittled down to just three points with about nine minutes remaining.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: Iman Shumpert said he felt a pop in the knee while pushing off toward the rim. The medical staff later told him it was probably scar tissue. … Doctors will re-evaluate Shumpert on Thursday, but no tests are planned. The Knicks can hardly afford another serious injury after losing Thomas, Rasheed Wallace and Amar’e Stoudemire in recent weeks. Woodson pushed for a veteran-laden roster over the summer, in the belief that experience wins playoff games. Now it appears that two of those veterans — Thomas and Wallace — will never get the chance to prove the point. Another veteran, Marcus Camby, has hardly played because of foot troubles. And Jason Kidd’s production has declined since the fall. But Woodson remains adamant that the strategy was correct. “Absolutely — I will never back off that,” Woodson said, adding: “We’re still sitting where we need to be, at the top of our division. And we just got to get some key pieces back, like Melo tonight, and get Tyson back in a uniform.” For better or worse, this will be the roster the Knicks take into the playoffs next month. They have no plans to sign a free agent, because it would require cutting a player — likely Wallace or Thomas. That is a trade-off Woodson refuses to make. Instead, he is banking on the possibility, however remote, that Thomas and Wallace could return in the postseason.
• Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News: Before the game, Mark Cuban lectured the Nets about why they shouldn’t have signed Deron Williams to such a big, suffocating contract. Then Williams went out and disputed that claim with a soaring second half, leading the Nets to a 113-96 road victory over the Mavs that P.J. Carlesimo rightfully labeled, “one of our best games all year.” Williams finished with 31 points in this bittersweet homecoming, all but five of them in the second half. He also had six assists, most of them to Brook Lopez, who scored 38 points on 15-of-22 shooting and 11 had 11 rebounds. Reggie Evans contributed his usual manic energy and 22 boards. It was an inspiring, entertaining victory for the visitors, and for Williams in particular. During one stretch of the final quarter, Williams buried every shot he attempted – from step-backs to fadeaways. When he nailed a running, off-balance jumper from the right side to give the Nets a nine-point lead with 6:28 left in the game, even Williams broke out in a broad smile at his own ridiculous display.
• Phil Collin of the Los Angeles Daily News: With another wave of injuries hitting the Clippers, and probably a little stung by losses in three of the previous four games, Coach Vinny Del Negro was a little testy prior to Wednesday's game against Philadelphia. His point? The Clippers can't worry about lineup rotations. They have games to win. "It's funny," Del Negro said, not smiling. "I hear a lot of talk out there about rotations, 'I've got to get a rotation.' One, we can't do it because we've had so many injuries. Two, it's hard for us to do because guys are in and out of the lineup and three, guys have minute restrictions. "So people talk about rotations, of course we'd like to get a rotation but it doesn't work like that. So everybody out there talking about it needs to do a little research and understand it doesn't work like that.” … The Clippers played without Chauncey Billups, Eric Bledsoe and Ronny Turiaf available. Jamal Crawford is still working through his ankle injury. Maalik Wayns, on his second 10-day contract with the Clippers, started the second quarter at point guard.

• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: This was a good win. Good because it keeps the Thunder on the Spurs heels. Good because it was anything but the Thunder’s preferred style and yet OKC found a way to prevail. Good because it was a day filled with adversity, which the Thunder overcame and ultimately overpowered Boston. Serge Ibaka was plagued by foul trouble. Russell Westbrook, still nursing a sore right ankle, labored through an off night. The Thunder got bullied on the boards. And OKC struggled to shoot straight. All of that was negated by a dominant defensive effort that spurred the Thunder to its 28th home win, tying OKC for the most in the league. The Thunder held the Celtics to 10 of 40 shooting in the second half, a 25 percent connection rate. For a small measure of how impressive that is consider that the Celtics nearly had as many turnovers (six) as made field goals. … The player of the game just might have been Kendrick Perkins. His defense was suffocating. On old pal Kevin Garnett mostly but also on Paul Pierce at times and even Jason Terry and Avery Bradley at others. Said Brooks: “His defense on Garnett and their pick-and-roll was outstanding.”
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: Dwyane Wade’s wardrobe change at halftime wasn’t about fashion — believe it or not. Wade is one of the most fashion-centric players in the NBA and, yes, he’s trying to sell his new shoes at all times, but Wade said he changed his footwear for the second half of the Heat’s 105-91 victory over the Pacers because he burned through the first pair playing defense. “I went through them in the first half,” Wade said. “I was moving. I wanted some stiff shoes.” Wade finished the game with six steals; Miami had 10 steals as a team. As healthy as he has been all season, Wade said after the game that defensively he’s playing “as good as I have played in a while.” … In somewhat of a surprise strategic move, Wade started the game on defense covering Paul George, the Pacers’ young All-Star. George finished the game with 10 points in 42 minutes. Wade was originally supposed to guard George Hill and said after the game that it was teammateLeBron James’ idea for a defensive switch. James, who would normally guard George, defended Lance Stephenson.
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: For first time in a week, the Lakers hardly offered any late-game theatrics. Kobe Bryant didn't offer any age-defying dunks. The Lakers didn't storm back from a double-digit deficit, either. Instead the Lakers grinded out a 90-81 victory Sunday over the Chicago Bulls Staples Center by simply playing together. The Lakers (33-31) stayed above the .500 mark for two consecutive games for the first time all season. More importantly, they have a half-game lead over the Utah Jazz (32-31) for the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Lakers also are only one game behind the Houston Rockets (34-30) for the seventh seed. "Yippee," Bryant said with obvious sarcasm. Still, there were plenty of signs that could make the Lakers feel good about themselves, even if it lacked the late-game euphoria shown in recent games. Dwight Howard's impact went beyond his 16 points and 21 rebounds. He set screens that set up plenty of open looks for him and his teammates. He also sank a series of hook shots in the lane and threw down a few lobs from Bryant.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Beginning today, when the Lakers' charter flight lands in Orlando, the city Dwight Howard called home for years after arriving as an 18-year-old from Atlanta, Howard will be confronted by demons, memories and the wrath of a city that once loved him but now despises him. "He's going to get an earful," Lakers point guard Steve Nash said. Three weeks ago, maybe Howard doesn't handle the reunion well. Two months ago, with the Lakers struggling and Howard not quite sure who he could trust and lean on in the Lakers' locker room, the psychological toll of returning to Orlando would have been too much. But with the Lakers winning and his health improving, Howard is as prepared as ever to go back. "It's going to be difficult to see things, but I'm happy that I'm in a better place then I was at the beginning of the season," Howard said. And maybe for the first time all year, his teammates will have his back. That includes Bryant, whom Howard's been reported to be at odds with this year.
• Dan Woike of The Orange County Register: Blake Griffin has Timofey Mozgov, Kendrick Perkins and Pau Gasol. And after Sunday night, DeAndre Jordan has Brandon Knight. "That was the best dunk of the year," Griffin said. "It's the best dunk I've seen in person." Jordan caught a lob from Chris Paul, cocked back and turned Knight into a trending topic on Twitter with a vicious slam during the Clippers' 129-97 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday at Staples Center. "It was a great pass by Chris, and honestly, I didn't see Brandon until I caught the ball," Jordan said. "After that, was just, yeah...." Paul described what followed the dunk as "the aftermath." The crowd went nuts as the scoreboard replayed the highlight over and over. The bench nearly rushed the floor, and Paul, usually pretty calm, howled as he slapped Jordan on the chest. "It was pretty impressive," Paul said. "I usually try not to react after all those different types of dunks, but that one was pretty good." Jordan and all four other starters finished in double figures, and Matt Barnes scored 16, hitting all five of his 3-point shots.
• Eric Koreen of the National Post: It is hard to hear his recent words, though, and think he is not speaking for that same reason. He is just speaking honestly, but Casey is obviously intensely aware of the criticism that has been hurled at him as this season has descended into irrelevance. … The criticism, now as ever, centres on the Raptors’ rookies. During a typically heartbreaking overtime defeat to the Lakers on Friday, Terrence Ross did not get off the bench at all, with Casey saying he did not want him matching up against Kobe Bryant. More bewilderingly, Jonas Valanciunas sat in the fourth quarter and overtime in deference to Aaron Gray. Casey said the coaching staff unanimously agreed that Gray should match up against Dwight Howard. The easy counter-argument: If the rest of this season is about learning, then why are the players who have to do the most learning not playing against the players who could provide the harshest but most integral lessons? … Casey is the coach, and it is his right to set the ground rules. Casey’s defence of those rules, as this season fades away, is getting tougher and tougher to justify.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: The Bucks have been relatively healthy most of the season, but they were hit with a trio of injuries Sunday. Starters Ersan Ilyasova and Larry Sanders and key reserve Redick had to miss the game. Ilyasova missed his second straight game with a left knee bone bruise, while Sanders suffered a hyperextended left knee in Saturday's game against Golden State. Redick also was hurt against the Warriors when he landed on Jarrett Jack's foot while drilling a key three-pointer in the fourth quarter of a 103-93 victory. Samuel Dalembert and Ekpe Udoh started on the front line, and Boylan said Dalembert was going to start, anyway, to combat the imposing size of Kings center DeMarcus Cousins (6 feet 11 inches, 270 pounds). Dalembert finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes and Udoh had 10 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. Sanders said he landed on his knee awkwardly while trying to block a shot by Warriors forward Harrison Barnes.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard still appears to be the frontrunner to the win this season's NBA's Rookie of the Year award. But New Orleans Hornets rookie Anthony Davis got another opportunity to close the gap in Sunday's matchup against Lillard and the Trail Blazers. Coming off a sensational 20-point, 18-rebound performance against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night, Davis put forth another solid effort in the Hornets' 98-96 victory against the Trail Blazers. Davis, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft, scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for his 14th double-double of the season. Lillard, who leads all rookies with a 18.8 scoring average, scored 20 points and had eight assists. ``We're just getting better as a unit,'' Davis said. ``We haven't done a great job of closing out games in the fourth quarter, but we're doing a better job and we have to continue doing so.''
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki hopes point guard Dominique Jones won’t be in the unemployment line long. Tired of his inconsistent play and other off-the-court indiscretions, the Mavs waived Jones on Saturday. “I like Dominique, he was my man,” Nowitzki said. “I think he’s got an NBA body, he’s got the NBA strength. “Hopefully he’ll be able to find a job next year and he’ll be able to play.” The Mavs will replace Jones with point guard Chris Wright, who averaged 15.5 points and seven assists in 38 games this season for the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League. Wright, who played in last month’s D-League All-Star game, may be on the roster in time to suit up for Tuesday’s game in Milwaukee. … Besides Nowitzki, Shawn Marion and Rodrigue Beaubois are the only other players with the Mavs who were members of the 2011 NBA championship team.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: The annual Orlando Pro Summer League will undergo at least one significant change this year, expanding to 10 teams to add the Miami Heat and the Houston Rockets. The annual event will remain closed to the public and will continue to take place on Amway Center's practice court, Orlando Magic general manager Rob Hennigan said. But for the first time, there is a possibility the league's structure will resemble a tournament's structure, with pool play and a championship game. In previous years, teams would play one game a day for five consecutive days. But this year, teams might be given one off day. The Magic run the summer league, which, in a sense, competes with the NBA Summer League. The NBA Summer League is held on the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas and is open to the public who buy tickets. Last year the NBA Summer League featured 23 teams and a team composed of NBA Development League players. The Magic's league is popular with some teams' executives because it offers fewer distractions than the league in Las Vegas. The Brooklyn Nets, Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Philadelphia 76ers and Utah Jazz participated in last year's league in Orlando and are expected to participate again.

• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: Former Magic PF Ryan Anderson misses Dwight Howard, too, although he's still thriving without him. There's just a greater degree of difficulty. Anderson came into Monday's night's game against his former club averaging 16.8 points per game. His numbers mirror last season in Orlando: 16.1 ppg. Last season's most improved player in the NBA has continued lighting it up from the outside, shooting 39.4 percent from 3-point land. "My shots are a lot more difficult now. I've had to adjust," Anderson said, sitting by his locker room before tip-off. Anderson is getting his shots off screens, double-teams and in transition, largely thanks to Hornets point guard Greivis Vasquez. Anderson played off Howard in Orlando, saying he'd get shots in Orlando off "Dwight double-teams and Dwight kick-outs. "My situation was made easy because of Dwight … Greivis has done a good job. A lot of my open shots come from him." Anderson was delivered to New Orleans in a sign-and-trade last summer, the Magic unwilling to match the Hornets' four-year, $9-million offer, largely because the trade of Howard triggered a rebuild. After what happened to him with the Magic under new management, Anderson said he wasn't surprised the Magic dealt J.J. Redick before the deadline. "It's business. It's a different game now," he said. "I knew that from last year."
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Monday night's gut-wrenching defeat spoiled what otherwise was a successful return Anthony Davis, who came back Monday after missing two games with a bone bruise. Davis scored 17 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and had four blocks. Although he wore a protective sleeve over his left shoulder, Davis had two of his team’s eight blocks before halftime. “We’re a defensive team and we can’t allow ourselves to fall back like that, especially when we had the game in our hands and momentum going our way,’’ Davis said. ``We have to guard the ball and not over help. We over help a lot.’’
• Candace Buckner of The Columbian: Forget about their ostensibly posh lifestyles for a second, and that their bank account statements read like social security numbers. There's only one true reason why compared to your career, professional athletes have way better jobs. They get to celebrate. They can express their emotions and show unbridled joy during their 9-to-5s. We can't. ... Take for instance Trail Blazer rookie Meyers Leonard. Last week he faced some criticism. His offense? The 7-foot-1 Leonard dunked over Denver's slow-as-maple syrup Andre Miller and acted as if Oprah had just given him a car. Leonard screamed; the excitement coursing through his body like electricity from his tippy toes to his reddened face. He pounded his chest and flexed as the clamor from the crazies in the Rose Garden washed over him. Then, Leonard spread his arms from his sides, held out his palms and stared down Miller, who had engaged him in not-so-pleasant trash talk earlier in the game. But a couple days later Terry Stotts had a message for his rookie center: Chill out, son. … Wesley Matthews salutes his threes. Will Barton and Nolan Smith prance about during pregame introductions. Leonard closes his eyes and shrieks. These guys don't push papers for a living. They work in a highly-emotive environment among the most skilled employees in their profession and passionate reactions happen every time they punch the clock. Leonard, a demonstrative young man anyway, sometimes gets carried away while in the workplace. But fans who spend their hard-earned money and pay the high price of admission for sports entertainment should demand to see revelries, not robots.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: Charlotte Bobcats power forward Tyrus Thomas was told not to accompany the team on its four-game West Coast trip by team management. Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins said Monday that the front office felt Thomas’s time would be better spent in Charlotte, doing some physical rehabilitation and individual on-court work, rather than on the road with his team. Thomas, the Bobcats’ second-highest paid player this season at $8 million, has fallen out of the rotation entirely of late. Monday’s road game in Portland was the 10th straight game that Thomas was designated as inactive and the 12th-straight game in which he did not play. When the Bobcats acquired another power forward, Josh McRoberts, at the trade deadline, McRoberts was activated for his first game before he had participated in a Bobcats practice or shootaround.
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: Back at the Pepsi Center, where the home wins come with the simplicity of a second-grade math equation, the Nuggets were back at it. Running, dunking, blocking shots — and running some more. Their success level depends on pace, and they kept it fast in a 104-88 win over Atlanta on Monday night. To say the Nuggets are dominant at home right now certainly is an understatement. They are a smash success at high altitude, pushing their home record to 26-3 this season. They've won a fraction under 90 percent of their home games, and if that continues to be the case, the Nuggets will finish with 38 wins, not only the best home mark in the George Karl coaching era, but the most home wins in team history.
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Playing short-handed the Hawks fell behind early to the Nuggets and could never fight all the way back. The result was a 104-88 loss Monday night at the Pepsi Center. The Hawks lost for the third straight time to end the season-long trip after starting with three victories. They settled for a .500 road trip that began with so much promise. … The Hawks played with just 10 players as guards Kyle Korver (toe strain) and DeShawn Stevenson (back-to-back games) and center Zaza Pachulia (sore right Achilles) were all out. Rookie Mike Scott was on a D-League assignment. To make matters worse, Jeff Teague (left ankle sprain) and Ivan Johnson (dislocated left middle finger) missed some time in the first-half but returned. … Josh Smith entered the game needing nine points to reach the 10,000-point mark for his career. He surpassed the milestone with a second-quarter layup, on which he was fouled. Smith became the 24th player in NBA history to record 10,000 points, 5,000 rebounds, 2,000 assists and 1,000 blocks. Smith was given the game ball following the game, a gift he needed to be told of its significance.
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson could feel the urgency building as he sat helplessly on the bench with foul trouble for the final nine minutes of the third quarter and Toronto built a seven-point lead Monday night. When head coach Mark Jackson unleashed Thompson at the start of the fourth quarter, he took out that urgency on the Raptors. Thompson scored eight points during a 10-2 run that turned around the game and might have turned around the Warriors' season as the stretch propelled them to a desperately needed 125-118 victory in front of the 17th consecutive sellout crowd out at Oracle Arena. "I thought there was a sense of desperation," said Warriors power forward David Lee, who had 29 points, 11 rebounds and five assists for his NBA-best 40th double-double. "If we lose this game, it's a big hit to us."
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: One of the circumstances to take into account is that the current core group — Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay, Amir Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas — are fully expected to be together next year and the future of Andrea Bargnani is clouded at best. That’s one reason why Lowry expects things not to change too much in the final seven weeks of the season. “(It’s) getting the chemistry together, getting JV (Valancuinas) more minutes with me, DeMar and Rudy on the floor at the same time . . . get on the same page to look forward to every game we have left,” he said. … Coach Dwane Casey is in no way giving up on the season (“We’re still mathematically in the hunt and I’m not giving up until the Fat Lady sings and she’s not singing yet,” he said Monday morning) but he’s enough of a realist to know what needs to be done. … But that’s the key. The worst thing Casey can do is let players stay on the court who don’t deserve it, the veterans will notice and it would be easy for them to get more discouraged. And the fact is, whatever the standings say, there’s no way the players give up until the arithmetic says they’re done.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: It was another wild night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, another overtime thriller. And the Milwaukee Bucks won their fourth in a row and second straight overtime game as they outlasted the Utah Jazz, 109-108, behind Monta Ellis' 34 points and Brandon Jennings' 20 points and 17 assists. And how about J.J. Redick? All the shooting guard did was score eight of the Bucks' 10 points in overtime and drill a pair of clutch three-pointers to finally knock out the relentless Jazz. "The guy's a great shooter," Bucks coach Jim Boylan said. "The thing with J.J., when he shoots the ball, you expect it to go in. So when it doesn't go in, it's like, 'Aw, a big letdown.' “
• Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune: Al Jefferson watched happily as the Jazz point guard made his return to full-contact practices on Sunday, one day shy of two months since undergoing surgery to repair torn ligaments in his thumb. Mo Williams said Monday at the Jazz’s shootaround in Milwaukee that he could return to games as early as Wednesday, when the Jazz play at Cleveland, where he played from 2008 to 2011. "We’ll see," Williams said. "We’ll see. That would be great to play in front of those fans." The 30-year-old point guard had two pins removed from his thumb on Feb. 13, and his rehabilitation began in earnest after the All-Star Break, and if Jefferson were the final judge, Williams would be cleared to play. "He said he was a little winded," Jefferson said. "I told him I couldn’t tell." But the Jazz are being cautious with the veteran. … Corbin said he has not yet decided how to integrate Williams back with the Jazz, whether he would start right away or come off the bench to ease back into his leadership role.
• Shandel Richardson of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Miami Heat guard Ray Allen had simple words to describe the altercation between he and J.J. Barea during Monday night’s game. “It just came out nowhere,” Allen said. That was Allen’s explanation for Barea’s play. It also could be used to describe Allen’s uncharacteristic involvement in a scuffle. Allen and Barea got into a near skirmish in the Heat’s 97-81 victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a moment that surprised just about everyone. The mild-mannered Allen has rarely got into any type of altercation throughout his 17-year career. “It’s uncalled for,” Allen said. “I’ve managed to keep a level head throughout my career. You have your moments where things get heated. When you come down from it, you can say, `That was my fault. I was in a bad situation. I was really frustrated.’ But even in that situation, I wasn’t frustrated. It was just bad judgment, I thought from the other side.” Allen and Barea almost cleared the benches when they nearly got into it with 8 minutes, 9 seconds left in the game. Allen said he was responding to Barea tackling him on a drive. Barea claims he was retaliating to an elbow thrown by Allen earlier. “There was a play where he knocked the ball away and I got it back,” Allen said. “Then he just leveled me. I thought it was uncalled for. There is no place for that in the game."
• Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune: The Wolves must decide Nikola Pekovic’s value and whether the bruising center is worth $12 to $14 million annually. They must figure out what to do with former No. 2 overall pick Derrick Williams. And they likely will own another Top-10 pick in the upcoming draft. Can the team really afford to let David Kahn oversee those decisions? … Kahn’s contract expires after the season, and owner Glen Taylor has offered no public indication of his intentions. Taylor has a track record of showing loyalty to coaches and executives, and he might even sympathize with Kahn being treated as a human punching bag since he’s been in that position, too. But giving Kahn one more chance would be bad business and dangerous to the future of this organization. The Wolves need a smart basketball man sitting in that chair. Someone who brings credibility and likability and an ability to evaluate personnel with a keen eye. Someone everyone believes in — coaches, players, fans and team employees. Basically, they need a front-office version of Adelman. … Taylor picked up Kahn’s contract option last spring because he liked the roster that he assembled and the fact he attracted Adelman to coach it. Injuries stunted this team’s development and ruined another promising season. That’s not Kahn’s fault necessarily, but the focus should be on the future and what’s best for the organization. Big decisions loom this offseason, and the roster could get reshaped again. Kahn had his turn. Now the Wolves must entrust someone else to run the operation.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: Carmelo Anthony’s right knee buckled early in the second quarter, and he headed to the locker room as the Knicks drew a collective gasp. Anthony did not return, but the Knicks collected themselves, erased a 22-point deficit and rode Amar’e Stoudemire’s hot hand to a face-saving 102-97 victory. It was an impressive win under the circumstances, and it helped ease the sting of Sunday’s loss to Miami and the sight of Anthony limping away. “It’s a big win for sure, without a doubt,” Raymond Felton said. “It just shows what type of team we have.” Stoudemire stepped into the void left by Anthony, scoring 22 points in 32 minutes off the bench. He was joined by three other Knicks in double figures, all off the bench: J. R. Smith (18 points), Steve Novak (15 points) and Jason Kidd (12 points), who continued his resurgence. Now the concern turns to Anthony’s knee. The team offered no specifics about the injury, and no tests were planned as of Monday night. Anthony is scheduled to be re-evaluated on Tuesday in Detroit. The Knicks (36-21) play the Pistons on Wednesday.
• Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: Kyrie Irving returned Monday after missing three games with a hyperextended right knee, but said if it was the playoffs or important games near the end of the season, he could’ve played through the injury. “I landed awkwardly. It was just a deep bruise,” Irving said. “When I was playing in Orlando and Miami I could feel it, but I was obviously just trying to play through it. It was really limiting my ability to go to the basket and have that confidence in getting there and jumping off my right leg. I just needed a few days of rest.” Irving said he’s not 100 percent, but he’s close. He did not wear a brace or protective sleeve on the knee and no one expected his minutes to be limited, although Scott said he’d be monitoring Irving closely. After working straight through All-Star weekend, the six days off served as much needed rest for his entire body and not just his knee. “I guess it came at the right time,” Irving said. “I didn’t really ask for it. It just happened, but I got a little rest.”