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George Mikan. John Kundla. Fred Schaus. Pete Newell. Bill Sharman.

And, of course, Jerry West.

Those are some of the names of the general managers who filled that highest of high-profile posts with the Los Angeles Lakers before Mitch Kupchak built a championship team of his own.

And then there's Shaquille O'Neal.

The same Shaq who used to tell anyone in Lakerland who would listen: I'm better than all of 'em.

In the same shameless manner he's prone to proclaim his boundless greatness several nights a week from the TNT set, Shaq used to say it all the time back in the day: Convincing Gary Payton and Karl Malone to play for the Lakers almost for free in the 2003-04 season made him the best GM they've ever had in L.A.

So if you find it beyond-belief outlandish that Shaq would be campaigning for the suddenly vacant GM job in Orlando -- where his NBA career began and where he still lives -- you haven't been paying much attention for, uh, roughly two decades.

Not that I'm going to get too worked up about the possibility. Not that I can foresee Shaq, with roughly zero front-office qualifications, coming anywhere close to getting the job.

The Magic aren't talking publicly about their GM or coach search and refused comment Wednesday night when asked specifically to respond to my ESPN The Magazine colleague Chris Broussard's report on "NBA Countdown" that Shaq and Orlando officials could meet as soon as next week to discuss the opening.

But here's my best read on the subject with the help of a few observers plugged into the league's front-office grapevine: Shaq has been lobbying behind the scenes to be considered for the position, and the Magic -- in spite of the nastiest of divorces with O'Neal in the summer of 1996 -- are willing to at least sit down with the 40-year-old and give him the courtesy of hearing what he has to say.

That's a long way from actually hiring Shaq. A L-O-N-G way, to borrow from Larry Bird's spelling technique, from letting Shaq come back to a franchise he leveled as a free agent to be the guy who either convinces Dwight Howard to finally commit to the Magic long-term (after feuding with Dwight for years) or immediately takes on the monster responsibility of trying to find a sensible trade for Howard before next season (as rookie GM).

The mere mention of Shaq, even if he turns out to be something more than a courtesy candidate, surely (and sadly) overshadows the most interesting part of Broussard's notebook-on-TV report, which revealed that the Magic's secret dream is trying to find a way to convince Doc Rivers to leave the Boston Celtics to come back to Central Florida.

Now THAT makes sense. It's the longest of long shots with Doc only just finishing Year 1 of a new five-year, $35 million contract to coach the Celts, but Orlando's thinking there is steeped in sound logic. If they could somehow convince Rivers to rejoin the Magic -- even if Doc insisted on a management-only role -- Dwight would surely be wowed. And the number of true stars in the Magic Kingdom would instantly double.

Don't have a clue how the Magic plan to convince Boston to let Doc out of his contract, but why let details get in the way? The mere idea is the smartest we've heard out of Orlando in years.

I still tend to think that hiring Donnie Walsh to replace Otis Smith will wind up being the best available move for the Magic as they launch the post-Stan Van Gundy era, but there's no reason not to aim high. Go for it, Magic.

Chase Doc. Ask for permission to speak with him when Boston's season ends. Better idea than anything we've heard so far. Better than all of 'em.

• Greg Cote of The Miami Herald: Alternate alliterative slogan now fitting for this Heat-Pacers playoff series: No blood, no bling. It’s getting nasty in here. The team that gets through this second-round series — and that’s looking unmistakably like Miami now after Tuesday night’s 115-83 home rout — will have the scars and bruises to prove it. They handed out stickers made to look like Band-Aids to fans arriving at Tuesday night’s Game 5 in honor of Udonis Haslem needing nine stitches above his right eye from a flying Pacers elbow in the previous game. Before long, Dwyane Wade would himself need a Band-Aid, and not a pretend one, bleeding from above his right eye after a flagrant foul by Indiana’s Tyler Hansbrough. (Payback was swift with Haslem’s ensuing flagrant foul to Hansbrough’s face — an obvious retaliation that might have gotten him ejected from the game by a less tolerant set of referees.) OK, all of the above is true. But don’t get the idea the narrative of this Heat team and postseason has changed and that Miami suddenly is a blue-collar bunch embodied by Band-Aids and rebounds and role players rising. As much as Miami as a franchise likes to embrace a defense-first identity personified by a guy like Haslem, whom coach Erik Spoelstra incessantly calls a “warrior,” this team’s championship hopes don’t live in the trenches. Miami’s hopes live way up in the air, where the stars are, where the high-flying LeBron James and Wade are doing their acrobatics and their dunks and all the other stuff that fill highlight reels and that made Tuesday’s home crowd swoon and roar. And they just did it again.
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: This series isn't over. The Pacers still get to come home, and while a Game 7 in Miami is a daunting task, winning there is not impossible. But this didn't look good. It didn't feel good. For the first time in this series, there was a faint whiff of surrender in the heated Miami air. As tough and as strong as the Pacers have been, pushing it to at least a six- and maybe a seven-game series, they looked for the first time like they were just happy to be here. At the very least, they allowed themselves to be reduced to passengers along for the Miami Heat's wild ride. Did you know that Vogel is a magician? He's made a seven-footer, Roy Hibbert, disappear. And his players haven't helped, repeatedly failing to find ways to get the ball inside to the big man, who has one of the biggest mismatches in the series. And now, it gets worse. Or might get worse. Danny Granger twisted his ankle when James got under him on a three-point try, and Granger's availability in Game 6 is questionable. This is a deep team, but without Granger, the series is a no-hoper.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird doesn’t do a lot of interviews. He prefers to stay in the background and let his players get the attention. But when Bird talks, you listen. That was the case about two hours after the Pacers suffered the worst playoff loss in franchise history – 115-83 – in Game 5 against the Miami Heat. “I can’t believe my team went soft,” Bird said on the phone. “S-O-F-T. I’m disappointed. I never thought it would happen.” When asked to elaborate on those comments, an obviously frustrated Bird said, “That’s all I have to say.” Those are the strongest words I’ve ever heard Bird say about his team – good or bad – in my seven-plus years of covering the Pacers. ... Bird has spoken. Now we’ll see if his players respond to being publicly embarrassed – on the court and by their president – or if they’ll curl up in the fetal position in Game 6 on Thursday. If they do, the Pacers can go ahead and start their summer vacation now to avoid another embarrassing loss.
• Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer: Every stop along the way in the playoffs, every new situation, every game this group of 76ers team had never faced before - all of these new experiences are things Doug Collins has cherished for his team as it has maneuvered in the current postseason. Regardless of the individual result, it's all good for the future, according to the coach, even if the present remains an unfinished work. Now, after all that fresh exposure, the Sixers face a challenge they have seen before ... a potential elimination game. It arrives in the 12th game of the postseason, later than most expected, but it arrives nonetheless, in the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night when the Boston Celtics look to close out an Eastern Conference semifinal series that has brought out the best and worst in both teams. Last season, the Sixers lost their first three playoff games to the Miami Heat, staved off elimination once and then fell in Game 5 of that opening-round series. Not being swept was a small consolation perhaps, but there was no sense that surviving the one elimination game was because of nothing much more than a brief attention lapse by the Heat. This time around, however, much more is at stake. If the Sixers are able to hold serve at home and force a Game 7, they will have a real chance to advance to the conference finals for the first time in 11 years and just the second time since 1985. That would be a heady accomplishment for a team that limped to the end of the regular season, barely qualified for the playoffs, and looked like an easy out.
• Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: Logic would seem to dictate that the Celtics will take full note of their injury issues and launch a surgical strike that ends the series tonight. The need to get rest and rehab — even an extra day or two — is clear, and a good effort would keep the Celts from an extra game that could further strain their health. But logic has taken a severe beating from the Celtics of late. It appeared the Celtics would keep their act in order and take out the Atlanta Hawks in Game 5 after winning three straight in the opening round. When they raced out to an 11-3 lead in Atlanta, it seemed the C’s could put the hosts out of their misery with a few good defensive stands in a row. But the visitors seemed surprised when the Hawks came out of a timeout and played as if they were trying to avoid an embarrassment that would be sitting on the Celtics bench by the end of the night. The last two games against Philadelphia have come down to one team gathering some energy in the third quarter and flustering the other. But when you consider the Celtics’ talent and experience, they should be expected to keep their heads in such situations. How confident are you that they will? Exactly.
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: In a sense, this series sets up as a battle between the league’s old guard against its next wave. The Spurs are a grizzled four-time champion eager for one more shot at the crown during the Tim Duncan era. The Thunder are a young and hungry challenger impatient to assume the throne now. In order for the up-and-coming Thunder to take the next step, they must first overcome a savvy, veteran team that has successfully navigated this road before. ... As much as the Spurs believe they have their hands full with Oklahoma City, the Thunder are equally wary of the surging Spurs, who are riding a franchise-best 18-game winning streak. ... If there is a secret to handling OKC, the Spurs seem to hold the key. Over the past three seasons, since the Thunder became playoff regulars in 2009-10, the Spurs have gone 8-2 against them. That includes a 107-96 affair in Oklahoma City’s last trip to the AT&T Center on Feb. 4, when Tony Parker erupted for a season-high 42 points at Westbrook’s expense. ... With Durant, the 23-year-old former collegiate player of the year at Texas, locked up until 2016 and the 23-year-old Westbrook under contract until 2017, an NBA Finals appearance seems only a matter of time for the Thunder. The Spurs’ goal, starting Sunday: Delay Oklahoma City’s much-anticipated coronation for at least another year.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: The series could be decided by Russell Westbrook and Tony Parker. That's how significant of a matchup this is. But don't expect Westbrook and Parker to cancel out each other. Both are much too good and far too dominant for that. Neither will be able to defend the other. So the key will be which player can consistently make others better while contributing in other areas. Because the Spurs' offense is much more pass-oriented than the Thunder's, it seems Parker will have the advantage in that department and Westbrook will have his work cut out for him. Westbrook will have to be locked in while defending Parker in the pick-and-roll and try to limit Parker's penetration. If Parker can blow by Westbrook it will break down the Thunder's entire defense and lead to layups and open 3-pointers. So Westbrook needs to focus on defense first and offense second. He doesn't have to be great. He just has to be solid.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: No disrespect to the Thunder, World Peace pointed out. They took advantage of the Lakers' mistakes late in Games 2 and 4 and won the series. "They seized it, they grabbed it and hung on to it." World Peace said. Nevertheless, World Peace could not ignore the part about the Lakers' mistakes and how they opened the door for the Thunder to take advantage. "We underachieved. The best team in the NBA lost in five. The best team in the NBA should be up 3-2 and playing tomorrow," World Peace said. The way World Peace sees it, one of the problems the Lakers faced was their reliance on Kobe Bryant late in games, especially some of the younger guys who haven't played on the big stage before. As a result, some guys may have deferred too much to Bryant rather than having confidence in themselves. His advice to them is simple. "Guys have to trust themselves more. Sometimes guys rely on Kobe too much," World Peace said. "Mitch (Kupchak) brought you here. Mitch also assembled teams that won championships. He knows what he's doing and he brought you here for a reason because you're good. So believe in yourself."
• Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle: I'm not saying the Warriors won't draw in San Francisco. This is an astonishingly fine location, and the sheer novelty would pack the joint for a couple of years. But say the next five seasons bring a playoff drought, the type we've endured forever. There's no chance that S.F. arena would sell out. It's a different crowd, a different vibe, lacking that pure Oakland soul. Not that such concerns bother Lacob or Guber. They're onto something big here, and you can't blame them. These guys aren't Skyline High graduates, or veterans of the Rick Barry-Bernard King-Chris Mullin days. They don't remember Sonny Parker, Purvis Short or the smell of marijuana on an arena ramp in the anything-goes 1970s. These are Hollywood guys, essentially (and literally, in Guber's case). They're out to put the Warriors on a plane of sophistication with Chicago, New York, Boston and Philly. I wouldn't bet against them, either. And I don't think Stern would take the time to visit San Francisco, delivering a few cursory remarks on the podium, if he didn't think this would fly.
• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: Be honest: Does this sound like a man who is confident that his franchise player is going to sign an extension in Orlando? Which is why Martins and the soon-to-be-named new general manager must get an answer from Dwight by the draft. The Magic must begin the process of planning for the future — with Dwight or without him. This is best thing for everybody involved — the Magic organization, Magic fans and Dwight, himself. If he wants to stay, then call a mega-news conference before the draft, make the big announcement, sign the extension and become a civic hero once again. If he wants to leave, make it as quick and painless as possible, say goodbye and leave. This fiasco has been going on for far too long. Fans are disenchanted, teammates are in limbo, the organization is in disarray. The draft is more than a month away. It's time to make a decision and move forward. Haven't there already been enough hurt feelings, divided allegiances and lost jobs?

• Trailer for a very cool-looking documentary on New York City pick-up basketball. Kenny Anderson, Fly Williams, God Shammgod, Homicide, Kenny Smith, Smush Parker, Headache, Julius Erving, Pee Wee Kirkland and others. What you might already be thinking.
• A very rough scene, including multiple shootings, in Oklahoma City after the Thunder win. Royce Young of Daily Thunder: "There were an estimated 10,000 people outside the arena Monday watching the game in Thunder Alley. It’s a question now as to if Thunder Alley will continue after this incident."
• John Hollinger (Insider) on JaVale McGee: "Turns out he's not just a punch line. McGee showed more development in two months in Denver than he had in four years in Washington, particularly on the offensive end where he showed some refinement with a sweeping hook shot. McGee still takes ridiculous chances on blocking shots he has no hope of reaching and leaves his feet constantly on the defensive end. On the other hand, he went for 21-14 against an elite frontcourt to key a close playoff road win, rejected a phenomenal 22 shots in 181 minutes, and had three 14-rebound efforts in seven games. In other words, while he's still something of a project, he's a productive project. Which makes him one of the league's most interesting names in restricted free agency. We know he's an athletic freak who probably has the highest leaping reach in basketball, so if he can just get halfway decent on the mental aspects he'll be a star. That tantalizing possibility, as the first round made clear, may cost Denver a lot more now that he's shown signs of possibly achieving it."
• Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register on the Lakers' season: "All the meanings could be seen in the final game: The Lakers were too slow, failed to defend consistently, had virtually no bench help, didn't get a team game from Bryant, couldn't depend fully on Bynum and had to accept excuses afterward from Gasol about what a tough year it was. 'He always wants me to be aggressive,' Gasol said of Bryant, 'but it's been tough for me. I've been in a facilitating role most of the year, pretty much the third option most of the year.' Then one of the last things Gasol said for the season was simply this: 'A lot going on this year.' Yes, more than enough to keep the Lakers from making that leap they've made look so seamless before ... from talented players to championship team. 'We just weren't doing it together,' Bynum said."
• This is turning into another one of those years ... if the NBA is rigged to favor big markets, they are terrible at rigging things. Out: New York, both Los Angeles teams, Chicago. In: Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Boston (bear with me), Philadelphia (likely not for long) and Miami.
• Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor on KFAN, when asked about the "one and done" rule that allows players to join the NBA after one year of college or equivalent: "My wife writes the checks. And she would not like to write a check if I told you what I thought about the whole thing. Because the NBA would calling up ... and saying to send a check."
• Idea from a Blazer fan's active imagination. How about hiring both Van Gundys in Portland, to take over jobs as coach and GM as they see fit? Would eliminate trust issues, dramatically improve the defense and create one hell of a sitcom.
• The owner of the Warriors and mayor of San Francisco making very strong comments, loaded with certainty, about the Warriors moving to San Francisco.
• Kevin Garnett has some thoughts about Philadelphia fans.
• Heat superstars wonder aloud what Danny Granger is up to with his tough talk, which is probably a decent sign Granger's tactics have been effective.
• Is Shaquille O'Neal in position to make fun of Metta World Peace for having too many names?
• Time lapse video of Staples Center's busy weekend, with a thumpin' rock beat.
• Kevin McHale gets a C+ for his coaching.
• Holy Italian league playoff buzzer beaters.
• A while ago, I got very excited about Ian Levy's pretty charts showing team's offensive plays and how often they use them. Now he has them for all 30 teams. There is a lot to glean from them. But also ... the lines of the charts, like clouds in the sky, luck into recognizable shapes at times. Can't help but notice that the chart of the Lakers' offense looks like a dead bird. The Heat's looks like a little singing cartoon dude. The Thunder's is a fighter jet. The Hawks (work with me on this) resembles the head of a Great Dane.
• Russell Westbrook had four turnovers in the whole series.

• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: The Thunder is moving on to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight season after closing out the Los Angeles Lakers 106-90 in Game 5 on Monday night. And in the clincher, it was Westbrook and fellow All-Star teammate Kevin Durant who carried the Thunder. Westbrook scored a team-high 28 points, while Durant chipped in 25. None, however, were bigger than the three by Westbrook that caused that passionate celebration. The play started with Westbrook intercepting a Ramon Sessions pass to Kobe Bryant at the top of the key. As Westbrook raced the other way, Sessions intentionally fouled Westbrook, wrapping him up in an attempt to prevent a shot attempt. But Westbrook powered through the contact and banked in 15-foot runner, sparking pandemonium inside The Peake. “That was an amazing play,” said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. “Obviously, there was a lot of luck to that. But he put himself in that position to get a little lucky there.” Luck or not, it was a message-sending shot. It confirmed, once and for all, that the Lakers indeed can not guard the Thunder. It showed, once again, that this team, in this round, would not be stopped.
• Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times: What happened here on a strange and sad Monday night felt like the end of an era. Kobe Bryant's window to win a sixth championship in Los Angeles may have officially shut, and who knows whether he will want to stick around to spend his final years pressing his nose against the glass? In the two seasons since they won the fifth championship of the Kobe era, the Lakers have lost their famed head coach, their celebrated locker room leader, and the powerful influence of their aging owner. Now they have been dragged to the curb of two consecutive postseasons like bags of old clothes, this time in a 106-90 loss to Oklahoma City that gave the Thunder a 4-1 series victory in the second round. What now? The Lakers flew home late Monday night with the raucous boos from the Chesapeake Energy Arena fans ringing in their ears while their future looked silent and brooding. Combine this loss with the four-game sweep by Dallas in last year's second round, and this is a team that has gone 9-13 in the last two postseasons. Combine Monday's four-rebound game from Andrew Bynum with his inconsistent playoffs and turbulent regular season, and this is a team whose brightest young star is a dim bulb. When Coach Mike Brown was asked late Monday where the Lakers go from here, he shook his head.
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: Monday night in Game 5 against the Sixers, when the Celtics offense needed a boost after Philadelphia dominated the first half and threatened to take control of this stunningly competitive series, Brandon Bass produced one of the best quarters in Celtics playoff history, proving relentless and unstoppable during a critical stretch. His 18 points in the third quarter (and 27 overall) helped the Celtics fight off a valiant 76ers team, his outburst the primary reason why Boston cruised to a 101-85 victory at TD Garden. Bass ruled the paint in the third quarter, and the Celtics depended greatly on his production as they shook off a lethargic first half, finally gaining a semblance of momentum in the series after the Game 4 debacle. “To be honest with you, I wasn’t really frustrated,’’ Bass said about missing all but three seconds of the fourth quarter of Game 4. “I trust Doc and his coaching ability. For me, I just stay ready, and a night like tonight I was able to help.’’ The Celtics needed an athletic boost that was apparent from the tip. Kevin Garnett was forcing jumpers, trying in vain to get into a rhythm. Paul Pierce was again timid against the defense of Andre Iguodala. Ray Allen is obviously slowed by his sore right ankle and is shooting just 27 percent from the 3-point line in the series.
• Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: It wasn't youth that played the biggest role in the 76ers' not putting the hammer down on the Boston Celtics and coming back to Philly with a 3-2 series lead. And it wasn't the wise, old vets in the green and white just tapping into their playoff experience, either. What did the Sixers in, what allowed Boston to take a 101-85 victory and a 3-2 lead out of TD Garden on Monday night, was simply bad and, at times, stupid basketball by the visitors. The youth excuse can be thrown out there, but when passes are thrown with minimum velocity and with all the precision of a North Korean test missile and a player such as Brandon Bass torches you for 18 points in the most important quarter of the season, while you're turning the ball over six times, that's just bad, bad basketball. And after 11 playoff games this year, on top of the five last year, youth really can't be a crutch anymore.
• Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald: Shane Battier, the Heat’s new starting power forward, is giving up 30 to 35 pounds to the man he’s guarding, David West. The Heat’s starting center, Ronny Turiaf, is four inches shorter than Indiana’s 7-2 Roy Hibbert, and the Heat’s backup center, 6-9 Joel Anthony, is five inches shorter. Then there’s Udonis Haslem, who was draining clutch jumpers Sunday while playing with nine stitches and an irritating bandage hanging above a bloody cut over his right eye. Such is the demanding and difficult predicament that most of the Heat’s power forwards and centers have faced in this playoff series in the absence of Chris Bosh. And it’s a plight that will continue indefinitely, with Bosh continuing to do rehab on his abdominal strain. ... Tuesday’s critical Game 5 at AmericanAirlines Arena will hinge, in good measure, on whether LeBron James and Dwyane Wade can approach their extraordinary efforts of Game 4. But the outcome also will rest, in part, on the work of the Heat’s patchwork crew of power rotation players — a group that left an imprint on Sunday’s critical win.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: The Pacers find themselves in a best-of-three series against championship-minded Miami, with two of the potential three remaining games set for South Florida. It doesn't matter that nobody outside the Pacers organization thought they had a chance against the Heat. The Pacers must put everything on the table so that there's no second-guessing any decisions that are made. Vogel found himself thinking twice about leaving Hibbert and West on the bench with four fouls each in the fourth quarter of Game 4. If the Pacers eventually come up short, it needs to be with their best low-post players on the court, even if it means they eventually foul out. As Vogel found out Sunday, they will do more good on the court than on the bench.
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: It was already after 1 a.m. San Antonio time Monday when Tim Duncan at last made his way out of the locker room at the Staples Center and began the long, slow walk down the tunnel toward the Spurs’ bus. It was then, at the end of a short series but a long day, that Duncan finally permitted himself a smile. “It feels a lot like some of the championship teams,” Duncan said after the Spurs administered their second consecutive sweep of this postseason, this one to the Los Angeles Clippers. “In saying that, we haven’t done anything yet. We’ve won two rounds. That’s it.” The Spurs are headed back to the Western Conference finals now, a place that used to be a routine stopover for Duncan en route to his summer home in the NBA Finals. His return has been a long time coming. This will be Duncan’s first trip to the pro version of the Final Four since 2008, and for a while it looked like that would be the last of his Hall of Fame-bound career. ... Players get older. Dynasties fade. New contenders emerge. It is the circle of life. And yet there Duncan was early Monday morning, walking out of the Staples Center and toward another conference final four years after his last, wrapped in an old familiar feeling. “We haven’t done anything yet,” Duncan repeated, as if to remind himself. Between now and the end of June, Duncan hopes to make at least eight more triumphant walks like it, step by step toward the NBA mountaintop.
• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: It's now up to you, Dwight Howard. Not anybody else. You got what you wanted. The Magic fired Coach Stan Van Gundy on Monday. They parted ways with general manager Otis Smith. You are now the de facto coach and general manager of the team. You are calling the shots now. The flagging franchise is in your hands. You can either heal it and bring it back to life by signing a contract extension or you can squash it by abandoning it to go play for Jay-Z's team in New York. What's it going to be, Dwight? ... Let's not forget, it was just a couple of months ago when Dwight decided to put off free agency for a year and professed his love and loyalty for Orlando. Remember what he said at that news conference? He said, "I'm very loyal and I've put loyalty above anything else. … I've got everything I've wanted right here in Orlando. All of that other stuff will come. But the first thing we have to do is win a championship. Right now we have a great opportunity to do that.'' Now we find out if Dwight is ready to live up to those words and show as much loyalty to the Magic as they've shown to him. They drafted him No. 1 out of high school when many of the experts said they should have drafted Emeka Okafor. They helped him develop into the most dominant center in the league. They have the second-highest payroll in the NBA and have spent gobs of money — sometimes foolishly — to try to surround him with the talent to win a championship. And now they have parted ways with the best coach in franchise history to try to keep him happy. It's now up to you, Dwight. Not anybody else. So when are you coming home from Los Angeles to sign that extension?

It will likely be argued that Stan Van Gundy is a product of his star players. After all, he has only coached teams that included either Dwyane Wade or Dwight Howard. And Howard especially anchored a defensive unit that, in the Van Gundy era, has certainly been one of the best in the league.

For four straight seasons, the Magic ranked in the top five in defensive efficiency -- including first in 2008-09 and second the following season.

Over the five season span that Van Gundy coached the team, the Magic ranked second-best in the league in defensive efficiency, second in defensive field goal percentage and first in points in the paint allowed.

All because of Dwight Howard, you say? Consider that in Howard's three seasons before Van Gundy became head coach, the team ranked 15th, 11th and seventh in those categories.

That could be a product of Howard simply coming into his own and developing into a dominant force as an NBA player. But though Howard reportedly wanted the coach out of town, Van Gundy leaves with several impressive items on his coaching resume.

He reached the playoffs in all five seasons with the Magic and racked up 31 playoff wins. That's more playoff wins than the franchise had in its previous 18 seasons of existence.

Since Van Gundy took over, he led the Magic to a better regular-season record than all but three teams. The only franchsies who were better are the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs.

He's not likely to get mentioned in the same breath as Phil Jackson when discussing the greatest NBA coaches, but there is something big that Stan Van Gundy and Jackson have in common: neither coached a losing season.

Jackson coached 20 seasons and never had a losing record, while Van Gundy's total was just eight seasons. Five with the Magic, three with the Heat. And yes, that includes the year with the Heat where Van Gundy was 11-10 before being replaced with Pat Riley.

But Elias tells us that Van Gundy is in rare company. Along with Jackson, the only others who coached at least eight seasons and never had a losing record are former Knicks coach Joe Lapchick and former 76ers coach Billy Cunningham. Both are in the Hall of Fame.

And Van Gundy's .641 career winning percentage puts him in another elevated group: coaches with a winning percentage that high who have coached at least 500 games. Counting Van Gundy, that group is only six members and includes Jackson, Gregg Popovich and Red Auerbach.

But since the 2009 NBA Finals appearance, Van Gundy's Magic teams just haven't had similar success. They had 13 playoff wins that year, beating LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers, the Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers on their way to the Finals.

Since then, they've tallied just two series wins and been bounced by the Atlanta Hawks and Indiana Pacers in consecutive years.

The Orlando Magic have made the first two moves they had to make to have any chance at persuading Dwight Howard to sign the contract extension he's balked at until now.

The Magic announced Monday that coach Stan Van Gundy and general manager Otis Smith have left the building, which removes the two prime personalities whom Howard -- rightly or wrongly -- had lost faith in.

Those changes alone don't guarantee that Howard will stay, according to sources familiar with his thinking, but the prospect of Orlando hiring a proven team builder like Donnie Walsh to mentor in-house favorite Adonal Foyle -- then going out and getting a coach who could try to build a better bond with Howard than Van Gundy had -- at least gives Orlando fresh hope.

Ditto for the idea that Howard, as some rival executives believe, might be increasingly interested in locking in some long-term security after season-ending back surgery that represents the first major injury of his career.

The biggest factor when it comes to convincing Howard to sign an extension, of course, will be the moves that the new GM can swing with a roster short on tradeable commodities.

The coaching hire, though, is plenty significant in the wake of Howard’s well-chronicled resistance to Van Gundy’s guidance, so expect to hear all kinds of names as possibilities to fill the Van Gundy void, ranging from the experienced (such as Nate McMillan and Mike D'Antoni) to the unproven but up-and-coming (like Mike Malone and Brian Shaw).

And rest assured that Van Gundy won't have to wait long if, unlike brother Jeff, he wants to jump straight back into the game. Orlando had become untenable for SVG after the unforgettable shootaround in April when he told reporters that he knew Dwight wanted him out, but he remains highly regarded as a bench strategist.

Too highly regarded to stay unemployed for long ... even if some owners out there are bound to be a bit gun-shy about Stan's, shall we say, bare-his-soul openness with us media pests.

If it turns out that Howard continues to reject the extension, presumably forcing the Magic to trade him before the start of next season, they might eventually come to regret having ousted Van Gundy, who until Monday ranked on this scorecard as the only other star that Orlando had besides Howard. But Magic officials, after everything they’ve witnessed in this circus season, undoubtedly see this house-cleaning as risk they have to take.

Since there’s only one Dwight Howard in the basketball universe. Like him or not.

• D.J. Foster on ClipperBlog, giving Blake Griffin an "A" for effort: "It started on an individual level, and it started with Blake Griffin. Over the season, Griffin developed his own reputation throughout the league. He was a flopper and a villain, an entitled superstar who had little interest in anything else but dunking and scoring. That all may be rooted in some form of reality, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of any of that in Game 7 in Memphis. Griffin may have played the ugliest, prettiest game of his career. There is nothing glamorous about battling with Zach Randolph. At one point, Randolph quite literally saddled Griffin and rode him to the ground. He clocked him with an elbow. Battling for every inch of space is something that rarely earns you money, recognition or stats -- just respect. Griffin was willing to sacrifice everything for a win -- bum knee, pride, whatever -- by finally engaging in the little battles that he’s often declined to take part of. If there was a scrum in the paint, you could guarantee Griffin was in the middle of it."
• From the Clippers team plane: Chris Paul is a big baby. Related: Marc Gasol and Blake Griffin making hilariously dramatic faces during Game 7. (Via @jailblazin)
• Greg Monroe makes all us perfectly adequate children look terrible on Mother's Day.
• John Hollinger (Insider) doesn't like the Lakers chances against Oklahoma City: "At first glance, this series pits three Lakers stars versus three Thunder stars, and seems like it should be a pretty even fight. Glance closer and the advantages tilt the Thunder's way. For starters, Durant is a much better player than Bryant at this point in their respective careers. And looking deeper, Oklahoma City's fourth-best player, Ibaka, is dramatically better than anybody else on the Lakers, and most of their role players are a bit better than their counterparts on the Lakers."
• Kobe Bryant is better suited to defend the speedy Russell Westbrook than the crafty James Harden.
• Royce Young, on an ESPN 5-on-5, with an interesting take on the "rust versus rest" issue: "I don't necessarily think it'll be a rust issue for the Thunder, but more an overeagerness to play. These are guys that are starved to play basketball. They absolutely live for it. And waiting nine days to get at it again, especially with the way the last game against the Mavs went, has to make the Thunder a bit anxious to get on the floor. It probably won't affect anything other than maybe the first 15 minutes of Game 1, but that might be enough to get in an early hole."
• Hornets fans are dreaming of Anthony Davis in a Hornets hat on draft night. Here is that dream, true already, in a way.
• Jared Wade of Eight Points Nine Seconds investigates whether the Heat got the benefit of the whistle an undue amount in Game 1. He also brings this sharp analysis: "More than anything, however, the last sentence in Granger’s quote is what stood out to me: 'I’ve never been in a situation like that.' This reminded me of something Granger said after Game 4 of the Magic series, during which the Pacers lost a 19-point lead in the final eight minutes of regulation before eventually beating a bad team in overtime. About the raucous crowd in the Amway Center, Danny said the following: 'It was a hostile environment -- one of the craziest environments I’ve played in.' Even though the 28-year-old Pacers’ captain is a seven-year NBA veteran, he has neither played in many hostile playoff environments nor played through foul trouble in the playoffs. This is revealing. And it’s not just him. Lest we forget, many of this team’s key players have very little playoff experience."
• Over at HoopSpeak, Ethan Sherwood Strauss explains, with helpful pictures, why today's defenses make it so much harder to be a high-scoring big man in 2011 than it was in 1998: "There is a reason why Rik Smits -- in his prime -- had a higher usage rate than even today’s best centers, and it’s not that we stopped producing tall people of notable skill. Speaking of Pacers and the 1990s, I believe Roy Hibbert would be an ever better All Star in that era. He’s certainly much larger than Robinson, Olajuwon and Ewing pretended to be. His post moves are refined and when given the chance, he drops ball-in-hoop like an automated arcade prize claw. But there is a problem, an obstruction to the plan that was salient on Sunday. It just wasn’t mentioned by the many who lamented how Indiana failed to press their frontcourt advantage in Game 1. Simply put, the Heat don’t want Hibbert to get the ball.
• Regret in Philadelphia after losing a golden opportunity to steal home court advantage against Boston. In Game 2, Brett Koremenos advises them to let Andre Iguodala direct things far more than he did on Saturday.
• With Chris Bosh sidelined due to injury, expect LeBron James to soak up a good portion of those power forward minutes. Can the Heat run away from the Pacers with this lineup and negate Indiana's size? Will the Pacers force James into foul trouble and limit his minutes? Will battling David West leave James too worn down to take over late, as he did in Game 1? It's a fascinating development.
• A Q & A with ESPN's Stephania Bell on Chris Bosh's abdominal strain reveals something you probably could have guessed on your own: you don't want any muscle tears near the pubic bone.
• Brandon Jennings is becoming just good enough to be a real headache in Milwaukee as the Bucks decide on his future with the team.
• How shot location data can serve as an accurate guide to the Spurs-Clippers series.
• The Spurs lit up the Clippers in two of three regular season matchups, but Aaron McGuire notes on 48 Minutes of Hell San Antonio didn't exactly shut them down on the other end: "While the Spurs were hardly a wonderful defensive team in the early going this season, the Clippers consistently picked apart the Spurs defense like few other teams did this season. They were overall relatively competitive in their three game gauntlet against the Silver and Black this year, losing by only 3 points on a fluke overtime-forcing miscue by Chris Paul in Los Angeles and serving the Spurs one of their five home losses."
• A Thunder fan and a Sonics fan exchange open letters about the complicated relationship between their respective fan bases.
• Hey Rajon Rondo, your swag is showing.

• 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.

• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: Give Bird and his front office credit. Give Frank Vogel, who needs to have the third year of his contract guaranteed (and now) credit. And give these players credit for turning themselves into the type of team -- emphasis on team -- that this city and region can embrace without hesitation. With a bit more than a minute left in the Pacers' 105-87 series-clincher over the Orlando Magic, the chant went up from Area 55: "Beat the Heat! Beat the Heat!'' Then the rest of the crowd joined in. "There have been a lot of nights when it's been kind of silent in here,'' Roy Hibbert said with a smile. "But not tonight. Not this series. I think we're giving fans something to be proud of. We didn't do this the easy way. It took time. But Larry Bird and (general manager) David Morway drafted well. We got D(avid) West. We got George Hill, Leandro (Barbosa) and Lou (Amundson) for almost nothing. We didn't do this by signing a couple of superstars.'' ... What's next? The Pacers are taking their talents to South Beach.
• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: Thank you, Indiana Pacers. Thank you for what you did Tuesday night. Thank you for beating the Magic 105-87 and doing what should have been done long ago. Thank you for putting an end to the suffering of Orlando players, coaches and fans. Thank you for closing the book on this distressing, depressing season. It is over. Finally. Convincingly. Mercifully. Now we wait … wait to see what happens with Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy, who said after the game he wants to come back but has no idea if Magic management wants him back. Judging by his body language, I believe Van Gundy has a pretty good idea he will be sacrificed as the Magic desperately try to convince Dwight Howard to sign a long-term extension. ... If Van Gundy were being completely candid, he would admit that there is a part of him that will be ecstatic if he is fired and his Magic tenure is over. He likely feels much like Magic fans feel about this season. Seriously, has there ever been a playoff team where its fans seemed more relieved than bereaved that the season was over? Let's face it, the Magic had no chance in this series — none. The Pacers had the advantage at virtually every position. And that is a clear indictment of a roster that general manager Otis Smith has put together. Even with Dwight, the Magic would have been ousted in the first round by the Pacers, much like they were by the Hawks last year. ... Thank you, Indiana Pacers, for the incredibly humane gesture Tuesday night. Thank you for putting the Magic out of their misery. But the saddest part of all is this. The season may be over, but another Dwightmare is just beginning.
• Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: But hey, the Hawks won 87-86. They live to play another game. That’s probably more than most saw coming after self-immolation two days earlier in Boston. The Celtics still lead the best-of-seven series 3-2. They certainly will be favored to close this out Thursday night. But speculate at your own risk. As for Drew’s lineup decisions, try this: Horford, back from a torn pectoral, finished with a team-high 19 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots. Williams made three of six three-point attempts — the rest of the team was 4-for-10. On a night when Smith and Joe Johnson started dreadfully but finished strong, Horford was the difference. Horford was expected to play 15 to 20 minutes. He ended up playing over 41. “I didn’t want to bring him back that early in the fourth, but it was a close game and you could feel the momentum shifting,” Drew said. “He was a superman for us down the stretch.” So was this: After making only 4 of 16 shots to open the game and shooting 35.7 percent in the first half, the Hawks shots 61.3 percent in the second half.
• Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: Rajon Rondo has had better games than last night. You need only go back two nights to find one. But he actually came within a breath of single-handedly winning Game 5 at Philips Arena. In the final seconds, however, Rondo wasn’t able to pull the Celtics [team stats]’ keister from the fire one last time, and the lasting image of this one will be of the point guard coming up empty. The Hawks inbounded the ball with an 87-86 lead and just 10.9 seconds on the clock, and Rondo intercepted Josh Smith’s pass for Joe Johnson at 9.9. But with no timeouts left, he couldn’t find another moment of magic, or even another shot for the Celtics. Rondo dribbled up the left sideline, guarded by his friend Smith. Kevin Garnett set a pick, and the 6-foot-10 Al Horford switched onto him. Rondo was caught in the corner, and the clock ran out as he tried to get the ball back out to Garnett. Too nothing, too late. “I felt awful that the game ended the way it ended, because I thought Rondo willed us back into the game,” said Doc Rivers, whose team will try again to close out the Hawks in Game 6 tomorrow night at the Garden. “He really did at the end of the third quarter in that little stretch. It kind of gave us life again.” Had the Celtics been able to come up with a final bucket — or had they made one fewer silly mistake earlier — the focus today would have been on Rondo’s nine-second barrage late in the third quarter, nine seconds that nearly clinched the series.
• Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post: During a 102-99 victory that saved Denver from NBA playoff elimination, the great Nuggets' experiment in team basketball worked to perfection. Kobe Bryant scored 43 for the Lakers, but Denver stole the show. ... Patience is a virtue in Ujiri's mind. But there's something even a smart Nuggets executive probably can't fully appreciate after fewer than two full years on the job. The fatigue and frustration of the Denver ticket-buying public extends back more than a decade, before the time when first-round playoff exits became the norm to a time when Denver was laughably inept as an NBA franchise. As the Nuggets built a 15-point lead early in the fourth quarter, it wasn't funny to comedian Larry David and the beautiful people in the Staples Center who came out looking for a celebration but had to curb their enthusiasm. The crowd booed the home team. The Lakers responded with a furious rally. Bryant and Ramon Sessions both missed field-goal attempts from three-point range that could have tied the score in the final seconds. "Thank God," said Karl, appreciative for the divine intervention. Without superstars on the court, the Nuggets will take help anywhere they can get it.
• Jill Painter of the Los Angeles Daily News: Mike Brown was using his big smile to denounce a popular theory that's going around. It seems ridiculous, the prospect of the Lakers throwing Game 5 on Tuesday to push the series to six games so Metta World Peace could play in Game 1 against Oklahoma City in Western Conference playoffs. Brown's reaction? A smile, followed by laughing. "I thought it was funny," Brown said before Tuesday's game. Actually, Brown would rather get through the series quickly, even though that would mean Metta World Peace has to sit out the first game - serving the final of the seven-game suspension - of the next series. The Thunder is resting after their sweep over Dallas, and the San Antonio Spurs are waiting following their sweep over Utah. More rest would be beneficial for Kobe Bryant, who surely would have fresher legs after a five-game series than seven.
• Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times: The United Center was all abuzz Tuesday night as the weary Bulls fought to remain among the living. It shouldn’t have been easy to watch for anyone, but when the Fan-O-Meter starts encouraging the crowd, Omer Asik dunks and the 76ers can’t hit an open shot on a rim lowered to 5 feet, people have a hard time helping themselves. They cheer. Wildly. Others are still trying to decide between denial and anger in the Derrick Rose grieving process. It’s why watching the Bulls beat the 76ers 77-69 brought on shrugs among those of us who like their basketball to be, you know, good. Yes, there will be a Game 6 in Philadelphia on Thursday and, yes, the 76ers might be feeling just a tad nervous with their 3-2 series lead. But is it asking too much for there to be one high-level basketball game in this playoff series, with two teams showing skill and will? If you can get high off the fumes of any kind of Bulls victory, even one as offensive as Tuesday’s, bless you. You’re a better person than I am. You see hope. I see a team that still has fight, doesn’t have much to fight for and might want to think about taking up pacifism. ‘‘Nobody wants to get eliminated at home,’’ forward Taj Gibson said of the Bulls’ resolve.
• Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer: Perhaps it was just the last gasp of a team that didn't want to leave the season with a loss on its home floor. Tuesday night's 77-69 win by the Chicago Bulls to avoid elimination by the 76ers could have been nothing more than that. The Sixers better hope so, and they better hope their offense returns from the land of the missing when the series continues Thursday in the Wells Fargo Center. It wasn't as if the Bulls were terrific in narrowing the Sixers' lead to three games to two. They were the same crippled team that lost three straight to the Sixers to get themselves into this predicament. But the Sixers were just awful. They took bad shots, didn't take care of the ball and couldn't match the Bulls' muscle in what became a very physical contest. The only question now is whether the game was a harbinger or merely the final act of defiance by a team that would prefer to end its injury-induced misery somewhere else. Whichever is the case, the series has changed. We find out Thursday night how much.

On a night when four teams could have ended their first-round playoff series, only the Indiana Pacers claimed a spot in the Conference Semifinals.

After losing the series opener, the Pacers dominated the series against the Orlando Magic. In the clinching game, they outscored Orlando 18-0 in fast-break opportunities and 46-22 in the paint. For the series, they held a 69-13 advantage in fast-break points and outscored the Magic by 76 points in the paint.

Darren Collison dished out 23 assists and committed just one turnover during the series. Since individual turnovers were first tracked by Elias in 1978, he is only the fourth player with 20 or more assists and one or fewer turnovers in a playoff game. The others were John Paxson (1990 Bulls), Fat Lever (1988 Nuggets) and Eddie Johnson (1987 Sonics).

Dwight Howard's injury doomed the Magic before the series started. Including the playoffs, Orlando finished 5-12 without their starting center and 33-21 with him in the lineup. This was the fifth time in the last 20 years that a team was missing its leading regular-season scorer in the playoffs – all five teams lost in the first round.

The Boston Celtics had a chance to eliminate the Atlanta Hawks, a team against which they had won nine of 10 previous playoff series. According to Elias, that .900 series winning percentage is the highest for any team against another in NBA history (with a minimum of six series played).

This was the 12th time under Doc Rivers that the Celtics had a chance to close out a series on the road; they have only succeeded twice. They return to the comforts of TD Garden on Thursday, where they are 7-3 under Rivers in potential close out games.

The key for the Hawks on Tuesday was Al Horford. In the 41 minutes that he was on the court, the Hawks outscored the Celtics by 10 points and grabbed eight more rebounds. While he rested, they were outscored by nine.

With a chance to finish their series against the Chicago Bulls, the Philadelphia 76ers couldn’t even match their nickname in the point column. Philadelphia was held under 70 points in a playoff game for the second time since the shot clock was introduced in the 1954-55 season. The franchise low was 68 points against the Magic in the 1999 playoffs.

With the win, the Bulls avoided becoming the first No. 1 seed since the playoffs were expanded to 16 teams in 1984 to win fewer than two games in the playoffs. The four previous top seeds to lose in the first round all won two games before they were eliminated.

The Los Angeles Lakers were looking to win their ninth-straight potential series-clinching game, but lost at home to the Denver Nuggets. It was their first loss in a potential close out game since Game 6 of the 2009 Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets. According to Elias, that was the fourth-longest such streak in NBA playoff history. The Lakers also own the longest, 12 straight from June 2000 to May 2004.

Kobe Bryant scored 43 points in the loss, the 84th time in his career that he reached 30 points in a playoff game. The only player with more was Michael Jordan, with 109. It was the 12th time that he reached 40 in the playoffs and first since the 2010 Western Conference finals.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Those who look at the box score will never know how hard it was. Casual observers will never understand how important it was. The Indiana Pacers rode their starting-turned-backup point guard Darren Collison and a 36-16 fourth quarter to a 105-87 win. With it, came a 4-1 first-round series win over the Orlando Magic, and Indiana moved on to the second round for the first time since Reggie Miller wore the blue and gold.

“A huge step for our franchise,” Pacer coach Frank Vogel said after the game. That it is.

The clock wound down, and a sellout crowd chanted “Beat the Heat." Something more had been accomplished than just a playoff series win. A beleaguered franchise with attendance problems finally re-established a connection with its fan base that had been broken by so many misdeeds so many years ago.

“It was amazing when they started the chant,” Danny Granger said with a laugh. “We couldn’t hear. The other team couldn’t hear. I think the floor was shaking.”

It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t pretty. Heavily favored against a Magic team without Dwight Howard, the Pacers spent sizable portions of this series looking both young and flawed. Tuesday night’s win was no different. A 10-0 Magic run late in the second quarter left the Pacers up by only three points heading to half. Then, when Jameer Nelson’s 15 points usurped Indiana’s series-long third-quarter dominance, the Pacers entered the final stanza trailing 71-69.

Enter Darren Collison.

Collison, who had lost his starting job to George Hill late in the regular season, delivered an absolutely stellar fourth-quarter performance.

With the score tied 73-73, the third-year point guard scored or assisted on the Pacers’ next 12 points in a 12-5 run that left Indiana up 87-80. From there, the Pacers continued to push as the Magic seemed to finally run out of bullets. By the time Collison stole the ball and went in for an uncontested dunk with just less than the two minutes left, the Pacers' run was 27-12 and their lead was 100-85. Collison finished the quarter with 15 points on a perfect 7-for-7 from the floor, three assists and a steal.

“I just thought he had a different gear,” David West said. “Everybody else wasn’t at that gear he was tonight. I thought it powered us down the stretch.”

For Indiana, this win meant something.

"You’ve got to feel good about this, because there are a lot of guys who never make the playoffs," West said. "There are a ton of guys that never won a series. From that regard, you’ve got to be thankful.”

But not satisfied.

“There is an eagerness,” West said of his teammates, “because of the youthful nature of the group, to test the unknown.”

While Vogel and others weren't willing to assume that the Miami Heat, up three games to one on the New York Knicks, would be their next opponent, there's a strong possibility that it will be. And with the Heat, the Pacers will face a much stiffer challenge. No doubt, many will be predicting the “gentleman’s sweep” or worse. If that happens, it happens. For this franchise, in this time, there are stakes that aren’t measured in wins and losses.

“You just don’t know what’s going to happen," West said. "You don’t know what the next step or phase could be. While we’re in this moment, we’ve just have to take full advantage of it. Prepare to the best of our ability. Give it our all.”

Tim Donahue covers the Indiana Pacers for 8 Points, 9 Seconds, part of the TrueHoop Network.

• Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: Coaches torture themselves over success, and Gregg Popovich has been lately. He’s been wondering out loud among his staff that, well, wouldn’t it be better to lose a game? “That’s why,” one of his assistants kidded him, “you are coach of the year.” Popovich wasn’t laughing. He’s felt the winning streak has become a burden, and he didn’t like the feel that a relaxed first round was giving his players. It’s the same reason he also dislikes 20-point leads in the first half. So what happened Monday, when the Spurs coughed and sputtered toward a sweep, gave him hope. Popovich can treat the latest win like a loss, and he will take the Spurs into the film room to see a few things. Or, as Stephen Jackson put it with a smile, “Pop’s got something to teach on.” The broader picture should include a few positives. The Spurs did what the best teams do, which is take out an opponent as quickly as possible to minimize injuries. The Spurs were healthy going into the playoffs, and they are still healthy. Ask Chicago, among others. This isn’t something to complain about.
• Gordon Monson of The Salt Lake Tribune: And so, it has ended for the Jazz. An ugly game that got away in the second half, and then, remarkably, was almost reeled back in. A playoff series that was dominated by a better team. A season that even in the disappointment of four straight losses to the Spurs, the final one an 87-81 defeat at home that simply refused to be coerced into a win, could and should be recorded as a success. Not a raging success, but a success nonetheless. "I wouldn’t consider it a success," Gordon Hayward said. "I consider it improvement. It’s not a success unless you win the whole thing." That was never in play. It was hard for the Jazz to see the positives in the throes of defeat, a defeat that went from a 21-point margin down to a 4-pointer near the end. But the sun that set on them Monday night will also rise Tuesday morning. And a whole lot of mornings in the future. Is that too charitable? Too optimistic? No.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Anyone with kids understands the ambiguity of growth spurts. See, when you're around your kids day after day after day, you don't quite realize how much they're actually spouting. They're literally growing right before your eyes, but it's occurring at such a gradual pace you don't even notice. But then a moment comes along when it hits you. Maybe they're standing alongside a friend they once stood eye-to-eye with but now tower over. Or maybe the jeans that once hung too long on them no longer cover their ankles. And you think to yourself, `Wow, when did that happen?' That kind of moment occurred Monday with the Clippers. Maybe we weren't paying close enough attention or perhaps we've been too close to them to truly notice. But their 101-97 overtime victory over the desperate Memphis Grizzlies in Game 4 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs showed us just how far they've come over a short period of time, just how much they've sprouted over the last four months. The Clippers took a decisive 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and can close things out Wednesday in Memphis. Make no mistake, the Clippers have grown up. In mind, spirit and body.
• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: Perhaps the most remarkable part of Ray Allen’s return from a month of inactivity has been his consistency during the past two games against the Hawks. The Celtics guard, finally slotted in the sixth-man role coach Doc Rivers has envisioned for him at least since the All-Star break, has put up classic sixth-man numbers, including a 12.5 scoring average and 11-for-21 (.524) shooting. Only his 3-point shooting (2-for-7) has been a tad slower to take off, but there’s always time, especially now with the Celtics taking a 3-1 first-round series lead into Game 5 tonight in Atlanta. Though there’s always the threat of a day-after setback — a constant concern for someone who admits he’ll need surgery on the bone spurs in his right ankle this summer — Allen looked resolute Sunday night. “I feel surprisingly great,” he said. “I’m really managing my off days really well. And you have a tendency when you get back off of an injury (to) kind of let it slide a bit, (but) I haven’t been. And it’s important to me to rest up. I know once I get in the game, my body’s going to require a little bit more, so I’m trying to move and shoot around on days before games. When I get my shots up, I’m trying to move and mirror what I’m going to do in the game, so there’s no surprises.” It’s unlikely that there’s another player in the league with a more scientific approach to preparation than Allen. Few players work harder to refine their mechanics, and fewer still have such a consistently fluid stroke.
• Mark Bradley of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It took barely a week, but the industrious Hawks have done it. They’ve thrown away a 1-0 series lead and an 11-point advantage in a Game 2 for which the best Celtic was suspended, and they’re back where they feel most accustomed — being given no chance to do anything except embarrass themselves further. Surely more folks would grant them a chance if they gave any indication they’d know what to do with one, but these are, for better and worse, the Hawks. In Boston they managed an improbable double, even by their crazy-quilt standards: They played a strong Game 3 without Josh Smith and Al Horford and a terrible Game 4 with both on the floor. ... Nobody knows why, though theories abound. They’re weak-willed. (I can see why people say it, but I also know that a weak-willed team wouldn’t have won Games 6 and 7 against Milwaukee in 2010.) They lack a big man. (And who’s that playing center for Boston? Bill Russell?) They don’t have a superstar. OK, that’s legit. ... Despite the Hawks’ best efforts, this series isn’t yet lost. But the Hawks cannot wait for Joe Johnson to win it for them. As good as he can be, he’s not that good.
• Tom Moore of phillyBurbs.com: The clinching game of a playoff series tends to be difficult. Doug Collins called it “the hardest game to win in sports.” The opposing team’s desperation for its season to continue is perhaps the most significant factor. With a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series against the Chicago Bulls, the 76ers can advance with a victory in Game 5 on Tuesday night (9:30 on Comcast SportsNet/NBA TV) at the United Center. Having won three in a row and with Chicago missing all-star guard Derrick Rose (torn ACL) and center Joakim Noah (sprained ankle), the Sixers seem to have a lot going for them. But the Sixers lack playoff close-out experience. Only one Sixer in Collins’ regular rotation (Elton Brand, 2006 with the Clippers) has been on a team that won a postseason series. Those nine players have appeared in a total of just 16 series, meaning 15 ended with the other team closing them out. Eighth-year pro Andre Iguodala has lost in the first round four times.
• Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times: The Bulls hoped to benefit from Rip Hamilton’s playoff wisdom, but they didn’t expect his experience of once being down 3-1 in a first-round series to come in so handy. If the Bulls can’t match what Hamilton’s Pistons did in 2003, when they won three in a row to eliminate the Magic, their season will be over. “It’s been a crazy year, from beginning to right now, so we know that,” Hamilton said. “We know that nothing’s easy. It hasn’t been easy for the whole season, with injuries and guys being out, so we know it’s going to be tough. We’ve just got to come out and be ready to play.” If the Bulls are to extend this series, they’ll need to play with more energy in Game 5 Tuesday at the United Center than they did in the first quarter of Game 4. They must offset what has become a huge 76ers advantage at the free-throw line. The 76ers have shot 30 or more free throws in three of the four games. They only did that four times all season. They’ll need to play better down the stretch. “The thing they’ve done that has hurt us is they’ve gotten timely offensive rebounds late,” coach Tom Thibodeau said.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: Entering tonight's Game 5 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with the Lakers ready to close things out on their home court, it's obvious what the Nuggets need to do to keep this best-of-seven series going: Be tougher and rebound better. In their only victory in this series, the Nuggets won Game 3 by controlling the offensive boards. But the Lakers had 10 more rebounds Sunday, including 19 on the offensive glass. That's a killer for the Nuggets because they thrive off points in transition. With the Lakers able to slow the game by controlling the boards, their brawny bigs stole opportunities for Denver to keep the tempo at a fast pace. The Lakers outscored the Nuggets in second-chance points 28-18. ... Tonight brings Game 5, with the Nuggets staring at another first-round exit. They have never come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series. Denver will have to play Laker-tough to get back in the game.
• Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: The Lakers will have to keep pushing for more in the next round in the face of ever-snarling Kendrick Perkins, whom Bryant calls the best post defender in the game, and Serge Ibaka, who blocked 100-plus more shots than any other player this season. They'll have to go into that raucous Oklahoma City gym and seize at least one game from people who believe it is now their time. They'll have to take it from the amazing Kevin Durant, the onrushing Russell Westbrook, the underrated James Harden and the clutch Derek Fisher. You don't accomplish any of that while sitting down. Bynum trained in a boxing ring over the summer, so he has a heightened respect for taking a punch and still standing your ground. He is also a budding soccer aficionado (although Bryant alleges that Bynum learned everything he knows from playing the FIFA soccer video game), so you know Bynum doesn't really mean to denigrate the world's game. What he means to do is mock Gallinari ... and anyone who expects to become the best by lying down on the job instead of doing the hard work. What Bynum needs to know is that no one will remember, ultimately, that the Lakers did not stoop to Gallinari's level. It's only the first round. This is about who will be the last men standing.
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: I play this little game with Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel, even if he's not completely aware he's a participant. About every 10 games or so, I ask him if he wants Paul George to be more assertive offensively. And every time I ask, he looks at me like I'm half nuts (I get this look a lot from people) and talks about all the other good things George does -- like defend, rebound, pass the basketball. There are two reasons Vogel does this: One, he really does like all the other things the second-year player brings to the floor, and he should. Two, Vogel rarely -- OK, never -- criticizes or even mildly chides his players in a public forum. That's not to say he doesn't hold them accountable privately, but in stark contrast to Orlando's Stan Van Gundy, who will happily call out players in the media, Vogel would rather stroke his players than slap them around publicly. Larry Bird, though, doesn't have that problem. Ask a question, you get brutal honesty. "He's got to pick it up," the Pacers president said after Monday's practice. "This isn't the time to feel sorry for yourself. Sometimes players lose their shot, and they lose all their confidence. As he gets along in his career, we think he can be a pretty good scorer. But just because you're not making shots doesn't mean you can't do the other things. Disappointed? No. I mean, he's so young (just turned 22). Last year he was in five playoff games, and it's just the first round this year. These young guys, they're going to learn, each playoff game gets harder as you go along. Not each series, each game. These guys don't understand that yet."
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: Stan Van Gundy knows that speculation is rampant that this playoff series against the Indiana Pacers will mark the end of his tenure as the Orlando Magic's coach. But Van Gundy maintains the rumors don't bother him. "I've been around coaching my entire life — literally, my entire life," Van Gundy said after the Magic finished practice Monday at Amway Center. "I really think, for all coaches, I don't think that's disconcerting at all. You sort of know when you go into it — and, for me, I knew long before I went into it because I'd been around it — that's all part of it. You don't worry about that. "I think the only thing you worry about is winning games, and you're not happy being down 3-1. I'm upset about losing Game 4 and the whole thing. But the rest of it, I don't have any control over that. I do have some control over getting our team ready to play." The Magic will face the Pacers in Game 5 at 7 tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Van Gundy owns a 259-135 regular-season record and a 31-27 postseason record as the Magic's coach

• 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."

ORLANDO, Fla. -- There’s a chance Stan Van Gundy just coached his last game in the Amway Center as coach of the Orlando Magic.

But while he’s here, he’s coaching his tail off for the overmatched, undersized Magic -- and his team nearly tied its series with the Indiana Pacers on Saturday thanks to a pivotal lineup adjustment and inspired play from a team with a built-in excuse to quit.

The Magic lost 101-99 in overtime after erasing a 19-point fourth-quarter deficit against a Pacers team they're inferior to in almost every area, especially center, where Dwight Howard's absence is felt on every Roy Hibbert hook shot, on every contested 3-pointer not opened up by Howard's post presence.

That’s why the Magic, if put in the situation, will pick Howard over Van Gundy, the most successful coach in franchise history. Howard’s obviously a once-in-a-generation talent it takes pingpong balls to acquire, and he plays a bigger role in the outcome of a playoff series than any coach.

But Van Gundy is proving his worth to the Magic -- and to the rest of the league -- by holding together a once-broken locker room and squeezing every ounce of talent from a roster whose leading scorer was the fifth-best player on the Boston Celtics last season.

It would’ve been easy for the Magic to lay down Saturday when David West sunk a jumper to put the Pacers up 80-63 with a little more than eight minutes left in the game.

The building was dead. Orlando’s players slumped back down the court in frustration.

Van Gundy didn’t let up.

On the next dead ball, Van Gundy made an adjustment that led to a 14-0 run and almost prompted a monumental comeback victory.

Van Gundy took out Ryan Anderson -- who was honored before the game as the league’s most-improved player -- and moved Hedo Turkoglu to power forward, a lineup the Magic used for only 13 total minutes in the first three games.

The Pacers scrambled.

“That was a lineup we hadn’t seen a whole lot of, and it took us a while to adjust to it,” Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. “We tried going small at first and I think they scored about four straight layups on us. So we went back to our starting lineup and that challenged them to go our style of play.”

Danny Granger said the Magic “picked up their intensity and got out on the break more” in the smaller lineup, which the Magic stuck with for the rest of regulation.

The Magic cut the lead to single digits, and then another 8-0 run tied the game at 89-89 in the final minute before Jameer Nelson missed a buzzer-beating jumper that would’ve won the game.

The Magic stuck with the lineup until the middle of overtime, when West really began to wear down Turkoglu. Anderson reentered the game and then, down 101-99, the Magic had another chance to extend the game on Glen Davis’ fadeaway.

“Nothing’s good that doesn’t’ work,” Van Gundy said when asked about his team’s two time-expiring shot opportunities. “I take account. I’m the one who draws up the plays, so if they don’t work, it’s on me.”

Does Howard make that shot? Probably not.

But the Magic are almost certainly not down 3-1 heading back to Indiana with Howard in uniform.

The Magic are built on Howard. Everything they do, from their offensive playbook to their defensive philosophy, is predicated on the impact of the world’s best big man. Without Howard, they’re a lost, starless team with no identity.

“He would’ve made a tremendous difference,” Vogel says. “I don’t know how else to put it.”

But everything’s being held together by Van Gundy and a cohesive group of guys who’ve all had their season taken hostage by Howard’s ongoing trade drama.

Teams are always going to side with the superstar.

In this case, they’re likely going to lose a superstar coach because of it.