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• Ramona Shelbourne with a great profile on Kobe Bryant and the Lakers at the end of another disappointing season: "The circle of people Kobe Bryant trusts is small and getting smaller. In the last year, he has lost too many of them. Phil Jackson retired and is reachable only by phone now. Lamar Odom lost his way. Derek Fisher was traded. Pau Gasol has faded. Andrew Bynum isn't worthy yet. Only general manager Mitch Kupchak remains. Kupchak's place with the Lakers is different now. Everything is. The team let many of its longest tenured employees go during the lockout. Scouts, equipment managers, strength coaches, front office personnel. All discarded for unsatisfying reasons. Like Bryant, Kupchak's job is harder now. He has fewer resources. His options are limited. He took his big shot by trading for Paul, but it was taken away before it became a reality. After that, there was almost no way to make it right. At least not right away. But knowing and accepting are different things."
• Ric Bucher reports more bad news for Billy Hunter and the National Basketball Players Association, which is under investigation from the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan.
• Carlos Boozer is easily the worst frontcourt defender on the Bulls, and probably shouldn't have received an All-Defense vote. But his teammate Joakim Noah, the best defender on a top-3 defense, should have been a first- teamer.
• On the New York Times, Rob Mahoney takes a good hard look at the rebounding matchup in the Western Conference Finals: "No team closes out defensive possessions more effectively than the Spurs, and few are more capable of capitalizing on the offensive boards than the active and athletic Thunder. But the offensive rebound isn’t merely an end in itself. By extending possessions, the Thunder have the potential to derail San Antonio’s early offense, even if also has the potential for great risk, should the Spurs secure a defensive rebound quickly and cue the break. It’s a gambit that could go either way, making success all the more important."
• Courtside fashion icon Jimmy Goldstein on Russell Westbrook's duds: "I smile when I see Russell Westbrook's fashion choices. Wearing glasses without any lenses in them I don't think is something I admire, but if the players want to look like mirrors, that's their prerogative."
• Latrell Sprewell wasn't old school, he was Old Testament.
• Ben Wallace drives WHAT?
• Even when he misses, Ray Allen helps the Celtics just by being out on the court.
• The Thunder won't be showing their games outside the arena anymore, following a shooting after their Game 5 win over the Lakers. It's understandable, but a shame; that seemed like a very cool scene.
• On The Classical, Danny Chau argues Russell Westbrook has an organizing presence, in his own way: "Westbrook, with no discernible system in place in Oklahoma City, makes his teammates better by streamlining his duties on the floor. A traditional point guard is entrusted with the duty to create and reset plays. For the Thunder, that trust is dispersed three ways. On any given possession, Westbrook, Durant, or Harden are handed the reins to the offense. With three different styles of attack, there is no one identity to fall back on. Westbrook, by ceding some control to other playmakers, reinforces his structure of trust. It’s the closest Westbrook comes to molding the offense in his image. Tradition dictates the importance of maintaining control. For Westbrook, success relies on letting go."

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

• Trust me, you want to see Kyrylo Fesenko's "SPACE MOUNTAIN IS TERRIFYING" face.
• Speaking with SLAM's Tzvi Twersky, Allen Iverson recalls his first game with Michael Jordan: "Like, you’re just out there with him, and he’s your idol. You look up to him; he’s the reason you play basketball. And, then, you’re just standing beside him, waiting for the jump ball. I just remember I couldn’t stop looking at him, like, the way he had his uniform on, I’m looking at his socks -- he didn’t have the NBA socks on, which we’d get fined for not wearing them (laughs). He didn’t have the NBA socks on, and I’m just looking at him. He didn’t even look real."
• Here's how the Heat-Pacers regular season series went: Heat win in a blowout. Heat win by a little less. Heat win in overtime. Pacers win in a blowout.
• John Hollinger (Insider) expects a competitive series between Miami and Indiana, at least when Roy Hibbert is on the court: "To see how much of a factor Hibbert might be, check out this stat: When LeBron James was on the court against Hibbert in the four regular-season games, Miami was plus-17 in 128 minutes -- not good for the Pacers, obviously, but manageable. When LeBron played and Hibbert didn't? The Heat were plus-30 in 31 minutes."
• ESPN's Israel Guttierez brings you a series prediction from Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: "This next series I'm sure will feel like it's played in a cage rather than a basketball court. It will be extremely physical."
• Chris Paul channels his inner John McEnroe.
• At the end of playoff games, the Grizzlies are suffering from bad-shot fever. The only prescription is more Marc Gasol, writes Rob Mahoney on Court Vision.
• Remember when JaVale McGee threw the game ball into the stands after Denver took down the Lakers in Game 4? He was throwing it to his Mom.
• PopcornMachine gives us a look at what the Heat did to the Knicks at the end of the first three quarters of Game 5.
• Arron Afflalo hasn't found his shooting stroke in the playoffs, but he's still making smart moves off the ball, writes Brett Koremenos.
• Having won a title in the last five years is a surprisingly powerful predictor of winning another, as Stat Geek Smackdown champion Benjamin Morris has explained. On Skeptical Sports, he digs into why that might be, and suggests it could be the result of the playoff format conveying big advantages to the best teams, whereas the regular season is more random: "In stark contrast to other team sports, the NBA Playoffs are extremely deterministic. The best team usually wins (and, conversely, the winner is usually the best team). ... This is pretty much a function of design: A moderately better team becomes a huge favorite in a seven-game series. So even if the best team is only moderately better than the 2nd best team, they can be in a dominant position. ... On the other side of the equation, regular season standings and leaderboards—whether of wins or its most stable proxies—are highly variable. Note that a 95 percent confidence interval on an 82-game sample (aka, the “margin of error”) is +/- roughly 10 games. If you think of the NBA regular season as a lengthy 30-team competition for the number one seed, its structure is much, much less favorable to the best teams than the playoffs are."
• Wizards blog Truth About It isn't feeling any regrets about letting JaVale McGee go
• Scary times for Clippers fans. When Blake Griffin went down clutching his knee, lots of people didn't know how to react. After all, he has that habit of making fouls look worse than they are. Which is too bad, because Griffin has spent this series repairing his on-court image, in minds of many. He's attacked the rim fearlessly, shelved that herky-jerky jumper and accepted the thankless duty trying to push the Grizzly big men, all of whom are bigger than Blake, away from their comfort zones. And he's done it all with solemn intensity rather than theatrical scowling. Here's hoping he comes back strong in Game 6.
• SI's Lee Jenkins on HoopSpeak Live, talking about the Lakers and Nuggets and how much George Karl enjoys not coaching Carmelo Anthony.
• Michael Schwartz's thorough postmortem on the Phoenix Suns contains this gem: "The Suns were also significantly better offensively with Frye on the floor, scoring 107.7 per 100 with him but just 98.8 without him. If Channing were a team, he would have ranked second in offensive efficiency this season. Phoenix also shoots better from every distance and floor area with Frye in the game, pretty crazy considering Frye himself shot just 41.6 percent from the floor. One would not think that would be the case for a streaky shooter who was so bad to start the season, yet his spacing ability really is that important to the Suns’ offense, and it has been the last three seasons." (Via Valley of the Suns)
• It's nowhere near Los Angeles, but Stephon Marbury has a statue before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
• Ryan Hollins joins McGee as an oft-ridiculed 7-footer making a difference in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Kevin Garnett is still the player who makes the Celtics great.
• Like Star Wars? The commenters of Daily Dime Live (which starts tonight at 7 p.m.) will make you smile.
• Anthony Davis, King of the Fry-o-lator.

• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: The Indiana Pacers are coming this way, for a second-round series that starts at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The Heat will try to reverse a trend that, during the season, went the wrong way. Over the course of four games against Indiana, Miami played four very different variations of coach Erik Spoelstra's squad. The Heat shot worse and scored fewer points in each successive game of the matchup, while each time allowing more. The 118-83 win on Jan. 4 was the Heat at its best, even without Dwyane Wade; LeBron James scored 33 with 13 assists, and the Pacers shot 34.8 percent. The 105-90 win on Feb. 14 was the Heat at its most resilient, romping out to a 35-point lead on the third night of a back-to-back-to-back. The 93-91 overtime win on March 10 was the Heat at its most cohesive, with James and Wade taking turns making critical plays. And the 105-90 loss on March 26 was the Heat at its weariest and sloppiest, as Indiana capitalized on a letdown – after Miami's loss to Oklahoma City – and six James turnovers to pull away in the third quarter. Now Miami will encounter a Pacers team that has gained confidence and experience from its first series victory as a group, even if that victory came at the expense of a depleted Magic team. Indiana will also be a relatively rested team, having finished its first-round work a day earlier than Miami, and having routinely spread minutes throughout a 10-man rotation. "This next series will feel like it's played in a cage, rather than a basketball court," Spoelstra said.
• Neil Best of Newsday: In a season that defied logic, notably when a young guard named Jeremy Lin came from nowhere to revive the team, it made sense for a bench-warming guard who turns 34 Sunday to outscore everyone in the first 12 minutes, from Melo to Stat, from LeBron to D-Wade. All of which, much like Linsanity, was fun while it lasted, but didn't last for long. Then another season-long theme kicked in, and kicked the Knicks out of the playoffs: They simply were not quite good enough to be as good as they had hoped to be. That realization had sunk in long ago, but now that there are no more games after last night's 106-94 clunker, the Knicks are free to admit it and to talk out loud about what needs to happen next. "I think we have to have a better mindset going into the season,'' Amar'e Stoudemire said. "We definitely have to have a consistent season. This season has been up and down, coaching changes and so on and so forth.'' Said Tyson Chandler : "We need to have a nice flow in which everyone touches the ball. We've got to make sure we get other guys involved.'' Hmm. There is a lot to chew over in those comments, seeing as how they address two much-discussed issues: The Knicks' lack of a consistent roster and the propensity of their biggest star, Carmelo Anthony , to dominate the offense.
• Ron Higgins of The Commercial-Appeal: The Grizzlies should be ecstatic that they won game five on Wednesday in FedExForum, 92-80, to stave off elimination and advance to a game six on Friday in Los Angeles trailing 3-2. But here's the problem. A Clippers' team, even with point guard Chris Paul being "held" to 19 points, with Blake Griffin sustaining a sprained knee in the fourth quarter, with the team shooting 37.1 percent from the field and getting outscored 48-26 in the paint, cut the Griz lead to six with 55.7 seconds left. A Memphis team that scored 57 points in the first half, thanks to rediscovering that center Marc Gasol and forward Zach Randolph can score with enough touches, had just 35 points in the second half. Gasol and Randolph scored 23 points and 19 points respectively, but in the second half they combined for just nine points on 0-for-7 shooting after going a combined 14-of-18 from the field in the first half. When asked why the disparity between halves, why didn't the inside duo touch the ball as much the second half, Griz coach Lionel Hollins pointed to the fact Gasol and Randolph didn't make a second-half basket. That's an off-the-cuff answer with no meat to it. ... The Grizzlies' biggest concern for game six is getting some sort of outside shooting. Once the Clippers cut off the passing lanes to Gasol and Randolph, the Grizzlies didn't get enough offense elsewhere to win comfortably. Rudy Gay made some huge plays in the final minute, including an impossible drive with 19.2 seconds left to give the Griz an 88-79 lead. But his offense was stagnant most of the game. If the Griz want to get to a game seven on Sunday in FedExForum, that has to change.
• Dan Woike of The Orange County Register: The Clippers know they're going back to Los Angeles for Game 6 in their first-round series with the Memphis Grizzlies. They just don't know how healthy their two best players will be Friday evening. Blake Griffin injured his left knee and Chris Paul strained his right hip flexor in the Clippers' 92-80 loss to the Grizzlies on Wednesday at the FedEx Forum. Both Griffin and Paul returned to the game but looked visibly uncomfortable. Griffin's injury occurred when he drove the lane on Marc Gasol, drawing a foul before landing awkwardly on his left leg, which flexed backward. The Clippers called the injury a hyperflexed knee before diagnosing it as a sprain. Paul, who missed the final game of the regular season, was noticeably bothered by the injury. Griffin will have an MRI today in Los Angeles. "The pain scares you most," he said. "It's not because it hurts; it's because you don't know why." Griffin said the knee stiffened on the court after he returned, but the pain felt different than the left patella fracture that kept him out his rookie season. Paul vowed to be on the court Friday for Game 6. "I'll be ready," he said, adding that both he and Griffin are "tough guys."
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The AJC’s D. Orlando Ledbetter was at the event and reported the following Hawks-related highlights from Michael Gearon Jr.'s speech. On media coverage of Hawks’ playoff series against the Celtics. “Did you see what Al Horford did last night? The timeline for recovery for his injury is another three months. He’s not even supposed to be playing and Josh [Smith] should not be playing. Zaza [Pachulia] can’t stand up, but if we can get past this round there is a chance that we can get him back. So this is a team that is overcoming adversity. I wish . . . some of the national media or even some of the local media, more the paper than the TV guys, recognize how hard these guys are playing based on how injured they are. On top of all that, we don’t get any calls, which I know everybody always hears. But I’ll give you a stat. Last night, we are playing this old physical team. They are old. I know what happens when you play basketball, old guys foul. [Kevin] Garnett is the dirtiest guy in the league. We are playing Boston last night and they had two fouls the whole first half. We had five times that and we’re athletic.”
• Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News: With Johnson starting in the backcourt instead of the 6-foot-4 Kirk Hinrich, the Celtics faced a matchup dilemma long feared when the 6-foot-1 Rajon Rondo and 6-foot-2 Avery Bradley were first paired as Boston’s starting guards. The result in Game 5 was Bradley, who has been playing with a sore left shoulder, logging just 18 minutes as Celtics coach Doc Rivers was forced to rely heavily on the bigger Ray Allen and Mickael Pietrus in the backcourt. The problem Rivers is faced with when making moves in this type of chess match is that the board looked best if Boston could have kept it just like it was. The Celtics have been strongest with Bass and Bradley on the floor alongside Paul Pierce, Garnett and Rondo. It was when Rivers made Bass the starting power forward and moved Garnett to center that the team began its turnaround from a 15-17 record heading into the All-Star break. The Celtics are 23-10 this season, including the playoffs, with Bradley in the starting lineup, and were just 19-19 when he wasn’t. But if playoff series are about adjustments, Drew made one that worked for Game 5, and Rivers and his staff had to think long and hard about how they intended to counter it during yesterday’s day off. The Celtics are still in command of the series with the chance to end it on their home court tonight. But the Hawks changed the complexion of it on Tuesday night by presenting Boston with a big problem that doesn’t look like it is going to go away easily.
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: Less than 24 hours after his team's odds-defying win over the Lakers, Nuggets coach George Karl was still smiling. But he also was ready to move on. Karl has been here before, and as the coach in these NBA playoffs with the second-most postseason victories (78), he understands the Nuggets have plenty of work left to do. So Wednesday morning he went about the business of reeling in any players who had the look of letting euphoria take over and cause too much satisfaction. "We've got to worry about just controlling our happiness," Karl said, sitting in a conference room at the team hotel before flying to Denver. "The real serious games are coming up (tonight), and if we're fortunate to figure out how to win that game, then we get an opportunity to play an incredible seventh game." According to center JaVale McGee, Tuesday's 102-99 victory, which cut the Nuggets' series deficit to 3-2, was already a distant memory. "That game is forgotten," said McGee.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: Closing time: the sequel. The Lakers got it all wrong in Game 5 on Tuesday at Staples Center, which is why they must play a Game 6 tonight in Denver as they make a second attempt to close out the Nuggets in their Western Conference quarterfinal series. Since they are still ahead 3-2 in the best-of-7 series, they have a margin for error. It's a small consolation, however. The Lakers' frustration was evident after they stormed back from a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter only to fall short in the closing seconds, tumbling 102-99 to the Nuggets and setting up match point No. 2 tonight. Game 7, if necessary, would be Saturday at Staples Center, but the Lakers weren't thinking about a winner-take-all game after squandering their first try at eliminating the Nuggets and advancing to play the Oklahoma City Thunder in the next round. ... For openers, the Lakers need to shoot better than the 33.3 percent (15 of 45) they shot during the first half of Game 5, when they didn't take advantage of the Nuggets' 41.3 percent shooting (19 of 46) and trailed 49-43. What's more, the Lakers must ditch their customary languid style of play in favor of a more frenetic approach to Game 6. The Nuggets have won twice in this series just by outhustling the Lakers to rebounds and loose balls.
• John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News: Each time you fail; the task seems to grow more difficult. A team that had jumped to a 3-1 lead does not want there to be a Game 7. If the Sixers think winning a close-out game is tough, they have no concept of what it would be like to face a re-energized Bulls team on the road in an elimination game. "I don't like the word desperation," Collins said when asked if that was his team's attitude going into Game 6. "Sometimes guys when they think desperate get out of their nature. I want there to be a real sense of focus about what we have to do. We have to meet their challenge . . . They imposed their will [in Game 5]. We hung around but they imposed their will, our guys know that. Collins has talked all season about how he wanted to "manage the extremes" of the highs and lows of his young team. Inherent in that is the understanding that players learn from experiences and use that to move forward. We find out Thursday night how much this squad learned from Tuesday.
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune They have been called soft, overpaid and busts. They have heard criticism from countless corners outside the Bulls' locker room. By tuning such noise out, what Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer have done serves as a microcosm of this Bulls' season. Both players have overcome adversity not just to persevere but succeed. "One thing about Carlos: He doesn't let that stuff bother him. He shrugs it off," Taj Gibson said. "That's what I admire about him. It falls off his shoulder and he gets ready for the next game. And he's the same every game. He's solid. He never worries about the negative. He's always consistent." A repeat of Tuesday night's performance would serve the Bulls well in Thursday's must-win Game 6, as their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals shifts back to Philadelphia.

After extending the series with Sunday's win, the New York Knicks lost Wednesday to the Miami Heat, losing the series in five games and making it 12 straight seasons since last winning a playoff series.

The winless stretch is the second-longest in Knicks franchise history, succeeded only by a 15-season span from 1954-68.

Sunday's win only seemed to temporarily stave off the inevitable. It was a series almost entirely dominated by the Heat.

In their four losses, the Knicks lost each by double digits and were outscored by a combined 70 points. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the negative 14-point average scoring margin is New York's second worst in a best-of-7 playoff series in postseason history.

The Knicks struggled to move the ball in Game 5, recording just 13 assists on 36 made field goals (36.1 percent), their worst team assist percentage this season.

They struggled to get easy baskets all series, with three of the games ranking among their worst assist percentage games of the season.

Additionally, the Carmelo Anthony/Amare Stoudemire project continues to produce mixed results.

In the past 2 seasons, including the playoffs, the Knicks have gone just 31-40 with both Anthony and Stoudemire in the lineup, including 1-7 in the postseason. When it's just been Stoudemire, the Knicks are a .500 team; they're 13-7 in games where just Anthony has been in the lineup.

Helping expedite the Knicks' playoff exit was LeBron James, who led the Heat with 29 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in Game 5. James improved to 7-0 all-time in first-round playoff series.

James inched his scoring average in potential series clinchers up to 28.3, the fifth-best mark in NBA history (minimum 10 games).

Awaiting the Heat are the Indiana Pacers, against whom the Heat had success, taking three of four regular-season meetings. Indiana struggled offensively in those games, averaging 92.3 points in the four games, shooting 40.4 percent from the field.

The Heat and Pacers have met just one other time in the playoffs: the 2004 Eastern Conference Semifinals, which the Pacers won in six games.

• J.A. Adande telling a great Kobe Bryant story.
• Al Horford played 41 minutes in just his second game since returning from shoulder surgery. In that time he grabbed 11 rebounds, made a game-saving defensive play on Rajon Rondo and, according to John Hollinger, really lubricated the sputtering Hawks offense: "The telltale sign: Open corner 3-pointers. They'd been as rare as chowder in these parts, but Atlanta got several Tuesday night and converted 7-of-16 from distance. Marvin Williams, instated as a starter to guard Boston's Paul Pierce, made three of them, tripling his total from the first four games."
• I love this: The Nuggets are using a laptop in the huddle at the end of games to help predict what plays the Lakers might run. Don't be surprised if in a few years, each assistant has a iPad-like tablet, instead of a clipboard, in hand.
• Kobe Bryant's sweaty, game-worn mask garnered $67,100 in a charity auction.
• Kevin Durant's top 10 plays, which remind you that he's a very under-appreciated dunker.
• Facebook's massive IPO might help bring a new arena to Seattle.
• Basketball Value with a data on how every five-man lineup has fared thus far in the postseason.
• It turns out the Dream Team did lose a game -- to a squad of collegiate players lead by Bobby Hurley and Chris Webber. That footage will be a part of a Dream Team documentary coming to NBA TV.
• The Celtics are still up 3-2 against the Hawks, but Brian Robb of Celtics Hub is worried about Paul Pierce. The hobbled vet didn't attempt a single free throw in Game 5.
• No reason for Jeremy Lin to play if that knee isn't 100 percent.
• This story (Insider) is about LeBron James's historic season and how it compares to Michael Jordan's best years. But I can't help noticing this other bit: The numbers say no great player turned it up in the playoffs like Hakeem Olajuwon.
• The Bulls needed some bailout shooting from Luol Deng to survive Game 5. On By the Horns, Matt McHale isn't exactly thrilled: "Deng’s threes were also a red flag. The Bulls needed all three of them in the fourth quarter. Lu repeatedly beating the buzzer with contested threes isn’t something the team can count on consistently, especially not on the road in Philadelphia on Thursday. When Philly’s defense turns up the pressure in the fourth quarter, the Bulls cannot seem to generate good looks. Or even average looks. You can check out the shot chart. Philly’s D is either forcing long jumpers or intimidating the Bulls at the rim. In the fourth quarter last night, Chicago went 1-for-6 in the paint."
• The Lakers want to exploit their advantage in the post, but the Nuggets are making it awfully crowded down on the low block. Forum Blue and Gold's Darius Soriano has sage advice: "The Lakers need to move the ball more, cut and screen more, and then look for quick duck ins from their big men where they can catch the ball on the move or sliding into position where they’re more of a threat to score. By incorporating more ball and player movement before post entries are made, it should also afford the Lakers that extra beat of time they need to make a quick move to try and get a basket. Cross screens can also be utilized both in “horns” actions and in more simple sets that don’t involve the double high post look to begin a possession."
• Apparently, playing defense in the playoffs requires some blatant shoving.
• Aaron McGuire, writing about the Spurs on 48 Minutes of Hell: "The Spurs have managed to win six games this season while shooting 40 percent or lower from the floor (meaning that we shot less than or equal to 40 percent in 11.1 percent of our wins). Last season, despite their insane record, the Spurs won only once while shooting that poorly from the floor. This isn’t a matter of luck. The Spurs’ defense this season has played significantly better than last season’s, and while they certainly had their periods of lesser performance akin to last season, the Spurs we’re watching in this year’s playoffs are currently playing better defense than anyone in the Western Conference."
• Shawn Kemp (on stage!) will bring you some beef, but only if you'll have it with mustard.
• If it was his last game with the Magic, Jameer Nelson went out with a bang.
• It's not your fault if you don't know how good the Indiana Pacers are. Jonathan Auping writes on 8 Points 9 Seconds: "The Indiana Pacers played a grand total of one game on national television this season. (Side note: I do not consider NBA TV to qualify as national TV. I am talking about games played on ABC, ESPN or TNT. There’s something about having either Kenny and Charles or Magic and Wilbon talking about your first-half performance that feels like validation). The only chance that the country had to watch the Pacers was a 111-94 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on ESPN back on March 14. The Charlotte Bobcats had exactly as many nationally televised games as the Pacers."

The Clippers are winning a reputation as some of the league's most consistent and spectacular floppers, which might lead you to suspect they're gaining some kind of unfair referee advantage over their first-round opponents, the Memphis Grizzlies.

But if that's so, there are other factors in play, too.

Take a look at which teams are shooting the most free throws -- per possession -- in the playoffs as of today:

1. Memphis Grizzlies
2. Miami Heat
3. Los Angeles Clippers
4. Philadelphia 76ers
5. Dallas Mavericks
6. Utah Jazz
7. Oklahoma City Thunder
8. New York Knicks
9. San Antonio Spurs
10. Denver Nuggets
11. Indiana Pacers
12. Los Angeles Lakers
13. Boston Celtics
14. Orlando Magic
15. Chicago Bulls
16. Atlanta Hawks

In other words, yes the Clippers are high on the list, but the Grizzlies lead the league in getting to the line so far.

Meanwhile, the other team that has been accused of getting all the calls -- at least by Danilo Gallinari -- is the other L.A. team. In fact, the Lakers trail all but four playoff teams, including Gallinari's Nuggets, when it comes to shooting freebies.

Statistical support provided by NBA.com.

• John Hollinger (Insider) says the Bulls can get back into their series against the Sixers -- playing without Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah in the regular season they were much better than this. "The Bulls have to start Taj Gibson -- who is one of their best players anyway -- and play long stretches with Luol Deng at the 4. This frees up minutes for Korver, spaces the floor for everybody, and may even allow some small looks with C.J. Watson and sharpshooter John Lucas on the court together."
• Not too long ago, the Pacers were entirely unsure about Frank Vogel as a head coach. Tonight, they might be headed to the second round.
• Things are just getting brutal for Kings fans. Rob McAllister on Cowbell Kingdom: "With this public relations campaign already heading toward its own death bed, the Kings owners are going to need a tougher strategy to be granted relocation. Insert the lawyers. The family has someone with forty years of experience in anti-trust suits waiting to strike. Attorney Barry McNeil is no slouch and may be a formidable foe to Commissioner Stern and the league’s legal team. The Maloofs’ lawyers have sought email and phone conversations between the NBA and Sacramento all in an effort to build a case against the league if the owners attempt to block the move to Anaheim. There is no doubt this will get much uglier before it gets prettier."
• An overseas report of Danilo Gallinari saying, essentially, that everyone knows the Lakers get all the calls.
• You know how Metta World Peace elbowed James Harden? Could happen to anyone at work.
• Steve Kerr makes the case for raising the age limit to 20. And it all makes sense ... in theory. But in practice ... it simply doesn't work like that. Lawyer Michael McCann explains this best.
• 19-year-old 6-7 athletic French shooting guard, anyone?
• Charles Barkley says LeBron James is the best player in the world, has been closing games well for a long time, and was probably just tired at the end of the Finals last year. Also, he says Michael Jordan has texted him, angry that Barkley has said Jordan has not been a good owner.
• Of all those teams trailing 3-1, Memphis might have the best shot at getting to Game 6. Neil Paine's analysis (Insider) shows they have two edges that matter in regression models: Homecourt in Game 5, and an opponent that didn't play great defense in the regular season.
• Jan Vesely's famous kiss gets kind of meta.
• Wow. If you live in New York and want to see the Knicks play the Heat, the prices are similar whether you buy tickets to Madison Square Garden or similar seats in Miami -- along with airfare and hotel.
• Is a Brandon Roy comeback still theoretically possible? Also, a year into the Blazers' GM search comes news that one interview has been completed. It's a little more complicated than that, but the upshot is that they have some candidates they like and expect to make a hire before the draft.
• Uni Watch readers come up with new looks for New Orleans.

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

• Harvey Araton of The New York Times: Knicks fans will wait three days with bated breath. They will interpret Wade’s inability to exploit the defensive switch that left the vulnerable Stoudemire on him — “I lost control of the ball and had to take it out for 3,” Wade said — as a sign of something, anything, that might bring them back to the Garden on Friday night. Maybe the Heat will start to hear footsteps or have a player go down; that seems to be in the air this playoff season. Wade, for one, had his ankles in ice after Sunday’s game. Bottom line: don’t tell Knicks fans — that ever loyal band of wishful thinkers and Anthony worshipers — that no N.B.A. team has ever recovered from a 0-3 playoff deficit. Not after they finally left a playoff game without having to curse the fates while finding the rationalization to still care. “It was a great win for us and our fans to get over the hump,” Stoudemire said. “To finally get over the hump now and win a game today is great.” It was now or not until next year for the Knicks, several of whom won’t be back, and their fans, most of whom certainly will return just as they have season after deflating season. They all earned the win Sunday. But all things considered, the paying sufferers in the stands deserved it more.
• Greg Cote of The Miami Herald: The perception was that thanks largely to key injuries to opponents’ star players Miami might not face a real challenge until the anticipated NBA Finals against Oklahoma City. Heck, LeBron was even asked the other day if he thought Miami’s championship would be “tainted,” and require the mythical asterisk, because of all those opponents’ playoff injuries combined with the lockout-caused shortened season. “I don’t think that’s right to say,” James replied. Something else that isn’t right to say is that Miami will waltz through the postseason unchallenged because awe-struck opponents are curtsying and bowing out of the way. Or that Miami can expect to always get by on sheer star power even on nights when it misses 16 three-point shots and 11 free throws and its bench players might as well have stayed on the team bus. “There’s a lesson for us,” ventured Bosh. “We’re going to have to be more attentive and relax a little bit.” Here’s another lesson from this loss: This season might well end for Miami like that book James is reading — with three young men who made a promise fulfilling a dream — but if so it will be hard won, no disclaimers needed, no asterisk required.
• Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News: The Bulls lost their heart when Derrick Rose ruined his knee in Game 1. The Bulls lost their soul when Joakim Noah turned his ankle in Game 3. Sunday, the 76ers stepped on their necks. As a franchise, the Sixers took a giant step forward. Their 89-82 win gave them a 3-1 first-round lead over the top seed in the Eastern Conference. As an emerging franchise, anything but a win would have created a different image; one having to do with the Sixers' throats, and their inability to breathe and swallow. As it stands, to borrow and to alter a phrase, this is not a choking situation. That was averted. "Absolutely accurate. Absolutely accurate," said veteran Elton Brand, who in his reconstructed career has turned into Dennis Rodman. "If we lost today, it would affect our mentality. Our organization. Our franchise. Our talent level. Just all we're doing here. We still have to fight to win this series. But this game, at home, to really take the driver's seat - we had to have this. For the growth of the young guys."
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: The 89-82 deficit on the scoreboard hurt the Bulls badly enough. The 31-14 discrepancy in free-throw attempts felt like piling on. "Listen, we're not going to blame the referees for our loss," Carlos Boozer said. "It was our fault we let up 25 points in the fourth quarter. But the discrepancy was huge and I thought we were being pretty aggressive." Several critical plays down the stretch rankled the Bulls. Trailing 82-80, Boozer drove hard and appeared to draw contact from Elton Brand, who blocked his shot. "It was a great pocket pass by C.J. (Watson)," Boozer said. "I was trying to go to the hole strong. Obviously, I wanted a layup or dunk. I thought I had some contact. I thought I got fouled to be frank. The fouls they were calling on the other side, I thought that call could've been made. But they didn't call it. We just kept playing on." On the ensuing possession, veteran official Dick Bavetta called Watson for a bump on Jrue Holiday as the Bulls' bench exploded in anger. "It was a key sequence," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "It kind of went against us."
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: Spending the first three games of this first-round series in a slow grind, the Celtics were anticipating a breakout performance Sunday in Game 4. They spent the regular season as a shoddy offensive team, unable to score consistently, but looking dominant when they did. If the Celtics ever blended their sparkling defense with an offense that executed and made shots, they would emerge as a legitimate Eastern Conference contender. They were such a team in a 101-79 demolition of the Hawks at TD Garden, looking as if they finally had peaked for the postseason. As the East playoffs take shape, with the eighth-seeded 76ers one win from eliminating the Derrick Rose-less Bulls, the Celtics appear primed for another long playoff run if they can knock off the Hawks one more time.
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: I could sense the anguish among tweeps over this one. Just when they thought they could at least expect the Hawks to compete, they do this. So much for management’s boasts about being in the same league as the Celtics and the Lakers. Now comes the mockery from Charles Barkley and every other critic who said the Hawks would eventually go belly up. The Hawks never really surrendered like this all season. So why did it happen now, when they were healthier and the stakes were so high? ... On a day when Mike Woodson finally managed to end his streak of playoff embarrassments, Larry Drew delivered one of his own. His rotations were out of whack again. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if he’d made all the right moves considering his team wasn’t ready to play, but we didn’t get to find out.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: Andrew Bynum showed up ready to rumble. So did Pau Gasol. Kobe Bryant didn't need to put the Lakers on his shoulders. The Lakers absorbed all the Denver Nuggets could deliver and still walked away with hugs and high-fives after a gritty 92-88 victory in Game 4 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series Sunday night at Pepsi Center. There would be no repeat of their Game 3 meltdown. The Lakers can eliminate the Nuggets from the best-of-7 series with a victory in Game 5 on Tuesday night at Staples Center. A win also would set up a much-anticipated conference semifinal matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Ramon Sessions' 3-pointer from the right corner and Steve Blake's 3 from the left one gave the Lakers the breathing room they needed in the final minute to seal the deal and take a commanding 3-1 lead over Denver in the series. Sessions broke an 86-all tie with a 3 with 48.1 seconds remaining, after Gasol freed him with a hard pick on the Nuggets' Danilo Gallinari and then made an alert pass. Gallinari didn't do his team any favors by falling to the court and lying there. "He's a big guy," Bryant said of Gallinari. "He can't flop on the screen-and-roll."
• Bemjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: Game 5 is Tuesday night at Staples Center, with Denver needing to win to bring the series back home on Thursday. "I think everybody knows why we lost the game - we didn't rebound and we didn't make them miss enough shots," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "They asserted their size." L.A. won the rebounding battle 48-38. It's a powerful challenge," Karl said of winning the next three games. "I don't think it's an impossible challenge." It was a devastating loss for the Nuggets, who led at the half and were in the game to the end but could not get a bucket when they needed it most late. And, it was a heartbreaker for the Pepsi Center crowd, which was riled up all night. It was an eerie evening. L.A. had a huge following of its own fans, a couple of fights broke out and, pecularily, a woman wandered onto the court in the first half (she was detained by police and escorted out of the arena).
• Dan Woike of The Orange County Register: While Caron Butler was grinding through injuries for the Washington Wizards, his teammates started calling him “tuff juice.” Butler took the nickname, made it his Twitter handle (@realtuffjuice), and Saturday, he showed the Clippers why. “I’ve got to live up to it,” Butler said. Sunday after a short practice, Butler talked about the decision to try and play with a broken bone in his left hand, and how it really wasn’t much of a decision at all. “It’s not going to get any more broken,” he said. “…I’m not going to be denied.” Butler scored four points in 23 minutes, but he provided an inspirational lift to his teammates and did a good job trying to slow Memphis’ top scorer, Rudy Gay. “We need Caron out there, a big guard who’s been in the league and been around,” Nick Young said. “And that’s somebody who can give Rudy Gay some problems.” Butler said he has no problems with making Gay his top priority in Game 4 Monday and beyond.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: The Grizzlies clearly weren't in any hurry to attend a film session devoted to making improvements from their Game 3 loss. "I ain't no Xs and Os guy," Griz guard Tony Allen said. "I just know we have to win." The Grizzlies face a 2-1 series deficit in their Western Conference first-round playoff duel with the Los Angles Clippers as Game 4 looms tonight in Staples Center. It's right in many respects to wonder just how powerful film sessions can be at this point. The Griz suffered a pair of one-point losses mainly because of being outworked down the stretch of those games. The Clippers have executed better with the game on the line because they have proven to be the more mentally tough team. "It's a shoulda, woulda, coulda deal when you look at the film," Griz point guard Mike Conley said. "Sometimes you just don't know how we lost. We've got to find a way to correct our mistakes because we're right there. We can still win this series." One of the last things Griz coach Lionel Hollins said Sunday afternoon was short and apropos. "We have to fight," he said.
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: For three games in the Western Conference playoffs, Utah center Al Jefferson has seen his team beaten every which way, and by a combined 58 points. Finally, he has seen enough. Before Sunday’s practice, Jefferson essentially declared the Spurs to be NBA champions-in-waiting. “I just think we’re playing against a team that is at its peak,” Jefferson said. “I don’t see nobody beating them.” Jefferson’s comments were striking, considering Utah’s series with the Spurs is still in progress. Game 4 is tonight in Utah. Apprised of Jefferson’s prediction after their own practice session at EnergySolutions Arena, the Spurs seemed flattered, but deemed it premature. “The best team out there won’t be decided for a while yet,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to be that team, and we’re trying.”
• Kurt Kragthorpe of The Salt Lake Tribune: Just once, Jazz fans deserve a good ending. While there’s not much hope of the Jazz’s extending this series beyond a Game 5 in San Antonio, winning Monday’s Game 4 at EnergySolutions Arena would be meaningful. That’s true for two reasons: Through three games, the Spurs have dominated them like no other opponent in the Jazz’s postseason history. And whether they were facing elimination or just trying to catch up in a series, the Jazz have not won their final home playoff game since 2000. This farewell had better be different. Otherwise, the Jazz’s being swept by the Spurs would undo much of the good they’ve done this season. Those 36 victories in the shortened, 66-game season and all the effort it took to make the playoffs would be obscured by four straight defeats. This team has come too far to have it all end this soon. The 2011-12 Jazz deserve to be remembered for more than a first-round playoff disaster. Of course, that legacy is entirely up to them — and the Spurs. Even one Jazz victory in this series would require some cooperation from San Antonio. The Spurs were primed for the playoffs; the Jazz were geared just to get here.

Rajon Rondo is making it clear how important point guard play is in the NBA playoffs.

Rondo is the first player with at least 20 points and 16 assists with no more than one turnover in a playoff game since Tim Hardaway for the Golden State Warriors in 1991, who had 27 points, 20 assists and one turnover against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals. Rondo, Hardaway and Magic Johnson are the only players to accomplish this feat in the last 25 years.

In the last 25 seasons, a Boston Celtics player has had at least 16 assists in a playoff game eight times. Rondo has seven of those performances (Larry Bird had the other in 1990).

Rondo consistently gets it done in the playoffs. Among players in NBA history with fewer than three turnovers per game, only John Stockton (10.1) averages more assists per game than Rondo (8.6).

With Rondo on the court in the playoffs, the Celtics are 14 points better per 100 possessions than they are when Rondo is off the court.

Their offense is significantly better with Rondo, scoring 21 more points per 100 possessions. They're shooting 10 percentage points higher from the field and 13 percentage points higher on 3-point attempts, and they're averaging nine more assists with 5.5 fewer turnovers per 48 minutes with Rondo on the court.

A popular definition of a great point guard is one who makes his teammates better. There’s no better example of that in the playoffs than Rondo with Kevin Garnett. When Rondo is on the court in this series, Garnett is averaging eight more points per 48 minutes and shooting 25 percent better from the field.

Garnett, Avery Bradley and Brandon Bass are all scoring more, shooting better and have a better plus-minus when Rondo is on the court.

How important is a reliable point guard in the playoffs? Just ask the Bulls, who lost Derrick Rose to a torn ACL and went from an NBA title favorite to a First Round underdog.

Or how about the New York Knicks, who were outscored by a combined 60 points in their first three games against the Miami Heat before barely staying alive in Game 4?

Certainly, injuries to Jeremy Lin and Iman Shumpert have hurt the Knicks at point guard. No team has fewer assists (12.5) or more turnovers (19.5) per game in the playoffs than the Knicks. Their starting point guard, Baron Davis, who exited Game 4 with a dislocated patella, has 13 assists and 13 turnovers in the series. Every single other playoff team has at least one player with more assists per game in the playoffs than Davis, who leads the Knicks.

Still not sure how important strong point guard play is in the playoffs? Over the last three seasons, point guards with at least 12 assists are 19-6 in playoff games.

• Playing alongside Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire got very few touches, and punched a fire extinguisher.
• Chris Bosh works for great post position, with a matchup advantage, but it's all for naught as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade fire "heat checks."
• Winning, putting up great numbers, Andrew Bynum often looks as frustrated as any player in the league 'cause he can't get the ball much from a Kobe Bryant-dominated offense.

It can be tough to be a really good player, playing with players who shoot the ball a ton.

Kurt Rambis on NBA Today.

Also, he picks a winner in the expected second-round matchup between the Thunder and Lakers.

• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: On a night like this, you simply want to sully yourself less than your opponent, and the Heat managed that much, taking Game 3 by an 87-70 count to grab a 3-0 lead in the first-round Eastern Conference series. That extended the Knicks' playoff losing streak to a record 13, which wiped the Memphis teams of Shane Battier and Mike Miller out of the record books. Sunday, Miami figures to tack on a 14th, end New York's misery and advance to the second round. Simply, the Knicks don't have enough to seriously compete right now, not with Amare Stoudemire in a sling, Jeremy Lin in a suit, Iman Shumpert sidelined for several months, and the Heat's talent gap significant even before all those absences. And so, the Heat, at less than its best, is still sufficient. "Coaches like those kind of wins, where you're not necessarily playing well," Erik Spoelstra said.
• Roderick Boone of Newsday: Carmelo Anthony didn't need great hearing to decipher the chatter among a few Heat players, not since he was essentially already in tune with their rock-'em, sock-'em game plan. Still, Anthony knew he was in for it when some guys on Miami's bench basically paraphrased 50 Cent's new single "I Beat It Up" and kept imploring the Heat to pound on him all game long. "I heard the bench yelling, 'Keep beating him up, keep beating him up,' '' Anthony said after the Knicks ' 87-70 loss to Miami in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series last night at the Garden. "They throw everything at you. Shane Battier , LeBron . "When you drive, they make it harder for you. But when you can't score the basketball, that makes the game extremely hard regardless of how much defense we go down there and play." If this keeps up, Anthony may start taking a beating from Knicks fans, too.
• Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman: The Thunder routed Dallas 95-79 Thursday night – it was 95-69 when Scotty Brooks grounded his fleet – and took a 3-0 lead in this Western Conference playoff series. Many are the reasons the Thunder won with ease. Kevin Durant opened the game hot. Russell Westbrook opened the second half hot. The Boomers took care of the ball. But reason No. 1 is because Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins claimed the two most precious pieces of real estate on the court. The rim and the paint. The Thunder big men contested every close shot, grabbed every grabbable rebound and didn't let Dirk Nowitzki and friends have anything easy. Ibaka blocked four shots and it seemed like 40. “He's a presence in there,” Mav coach Rick Carlisle said. “They have a presence at the rim that's effective.” Said Nowitzki, “Serge Ibaka took a step forward. He's the best shot blocker in the league.” Perkins bullied any Mav who dared enter the lane; Dallas center Brendan Haywood had four shots in the first six minutes, all from dunk range, and made just one. Carlisle was so exasperated, he took Haywood out of the game and never put him back. ... The Mavericks shot just 34.2 percent from the field. Nowitzki, alternately guarded by Perk, Ibaka or their partner, Nick Collison, made just six of 15 shots. Shawn Marion, who had several shots in the paint, went 1-for-8.
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: If this is all they've got, the Mavericks should do everybody a favor and fall on their sword Saturday night in Game 4. Don't bother with the show of resolve. Too late for that now, because it's just a matter of time until the Mavericks are dethroned and vacation begins. Getting humiliated on their home court while trying to fall back on a steady diet of jump shots against a team of better jump-shooters than they have, the Mavericks were pitchforked, 95-79, Thursday night by the Oklahoma City Thunder that showed they are the new beasts in the Western Conference. At least on this end of Interstate 35. The Mavericks built their playoff slogan around the catchy phrase: "All In.'' The irony in that is thick, since management didn't exactly go all-in when it came to retaining (or replacing) a championship team. And now, they are one game from being all-out.
• Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: Rajon Rondo was asked about the appreciation he showed to his teammates — he ran down the tunnel at Philips Arena and hugged Kevin Garnett — and whether he felt he let his teammates down by missing the game. “I didn’t feel like I needed to say thank you for getting this win,” Rondo replied. “We’re trying to get as many wins as possible. You know, they’ve won without me before, so it’s not the first game I’ve missed. I’ve missed (for) injuries and suspensions. It’s just a big win because this is the playoffs. You know, every win counts.” And about the letting them down thing? “No,” he told the TV reporter. “Do you feel like I let them down?” There followed an exchange of “I’m just asking you” before the conversation moved on. And you know what? It just doesn’t matter if he wants to be that way with us — if Rondo wants to act as if it’s no big whoop that he wasn’t there for his teammates in a playoff game. There would, however, be an issue if he were taking the same attitude with his teammates. And while there are reports that was the case after his two-game suspension for throwing a ball at an official in February, Rivers said Rondo was a different hand grenade this time. Hence the thanking of mates.
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Hawks may have to score in Game 3 without forward Josh Smith, who leads the team with a total of 38 points in the series. He suffered a sprained left knee and strained his patella tendon late in Game 2 and is doubtful to play Friday. Smith said he planned to test the knee at the team’s light practice Friday morning. He said the knee had improved and he has a “high threshold for pain,” but doesn’t want to push it too far. ... The injuries have chipped away at the Hawks’ depth, and their reserves have not filled the void, especially on offense. Hawks scoring droughts have generally coincided with the times Drew uses a lineup that doesn’t include Johnson, Smith or point guard Jeff Teague. The Hawks have been outscored 19-7 during the 17 possessions those three players have been on the bench at the same time, according to basketballvalue.com. Boston’s bench scoring hasn’t been much better, but coach Doc Rivers has compensated by always having either Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett on the court. Before Rajon Rondo was ejected near the end of Game 1 and suspended for Game 2, Rivers always had two of Pierce, Garnett and Rondo on the floor.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: In Game 2, Danilo Gallinari got to the paint but couldn't get the shots to drop — and couldn't get to the line. The result was a subpar shooting performance for Denver's potent forward — 13 points on 5-for-18 shooting in the loss. He actually missed seven of his nine attempts from inside the paint and attempted only two foul shots, making both. Heading into Game 3 tonight, Gallinari said after Thursday's practice: "You have to find the right balance and right emotions for you, so you don't come out too emotional or too energized. We all need to find the right energy, and I know we're going to find it tomorrow." This balance will be important for Gallinari, who has struggled for much of the season against the Lakers. He did, however, have a pretty good Game 1, scoring 19 points on 7-for-14 shooting. "As long as we bring energy and play more aggressive on the defensive end," he said of Game 3, "I like our chance to win."
• Janis Carr of The Orange County Register: After holding off Denver to take a 2-0 series lead, Kobe Bryant said having time off helped him tremendously. The eight-game layoff not only allowed his sore shin to heal, but it gave the Lakers star a chance to rest his body from the pounding and wear-and-tear of games. Yet, two days later, Bryant discounted the unexpected rest at the end of the season. He said Thursday that outside of the shin injury, his 34-year-old body was in fine shape, despite logging 2,232 minutes in 58 games. “I was feeling fine,” he said. “Outside of the injury, I was OK.” It’s just like Bryant to shake off any talk of fallibility. He has played through broken fingers, sprained ankles, broken noses, torn wrist ligaments and sore necks, so it’s no wonder he refused to say he was tired from the heavy minutes Coach Mike Brown laid on him. But Brown will say it. “I thought the break was good for him,” Brown said. “Obviously, he knows his body better than anyone else does, but I thought the break was good for him because I had been playing him a lot of minutes."
• Tom Moore of phillyBurbs.com: With Spencer Hawes (seven points, seven rebounds, six fouls) struggling in the first two games, Lavoy Allen has been the team’s most effective center. “He can definitely play,” said Elton Brand. “We knew he’d be a big help, but he really surprised some people at that game (Tuesday).” One of the 6-foot-9, 255-pound Allen’s most impressive attributes is he’s effective as a starter or reserve. He started Game 1, then Collins switched him to the second unit for Game 2 so he’d provide frontcourt rebounding with backup Thaddeus Young. ... Allen’s role has been ever-changing. He didn’t play in 25 regular-season games, yet started 15. When he’s on the court, he gives quality low-post defense, hits the boards and can knock down mid-range jumpers. Collins said Allen has the potential to be like Pacers power forward David West, a two-time all-star when he was with the Hornets. But even Allen admitted Thursday that he wondered how much of a first-year impact he’d have after joining a team with nearly its entire roster returning in a lockout-shortened season — and with first-round pick Nikola Vucevic, who hasn’t played in the first two games, also a power forward/center. “There weren’t really a lot of minutes to go around,” Allen said. “I didn’t really expect to be playing big-time minutes in the playoffs. It’s a great experience.”
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: As their latest test shifts to Philadelphia for Friday's Game 3 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinals series against the 76ers, the Bulls also know their top overall seed will mean nothing for the second straight year unless they rally. The prospect of falling behind 2-1 in a playoff series, especially without Derrick Rose, has them in an uncomfortable spot. "We've been through tougher things than this," Luol Deng said following a 90-minute practice. "I know how everyone feels. We've got a lot of guys who are fighters. We're going to fight our way out of this." The blueprint to do this has been espoused by coach Tom Thibodeau all season: Defend. Rebound. Limit turnovers. Play inside-out offensively. Share the ball. Better transition defense and more scoring from starters would help as well. The 76ers scored 25 fast-break points off just eight Bulls turnovers in Game 2, which suggests poor shot selection and floor balance offensively.