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• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: These days — on the nights he plays — he waits out warmups on the midcourt line, intensely staring at the floor. Over the past few weeks, however, four of his teammates have resurrected his ritual, tossing the powder together as they gather underneath. “I think it was mostly J.J.,” Ray Allen said of James Jones. “We just started doing it,” Jones said, also referring to Mike Miller and Rashard Lewis. “I had never used it. Nothing special.” “It’s part of the routine now,” Lewis said. And there’s one part that never fails to make Lewis laugh. “Let me tell you the funniest thing,” Lewis said. “Before we do the powder toss, watch Ray and Mike. They run into the ref every time. Watch ‘em. Just watch ‘em.” Allen smiled when told of Lewis’s suggestion. “We set it up,” Allen said. “First, it started where Mike will shoot the little sticky tape over the thing, so then I started trying to block it.” Allen found that, as he did this, an official was always in the way. “So now he tries to fade away to where I go into the official,” Allen said. “We always find one to bump into. One official, he stepped in, and he was like, ‘Charge!’”
• Tim Bontemps of the New York Post: Deron Williams looks ready for the playoffs to start. Williams was spectacular against the Celtics last night, finishing with 29 points and 12 assists as the Nets came away with a 101-93 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 18,624 inside TD Garden. With the win, the Nets moved closer to wrapping up fourth place in the Eastern Conference and clinching homecourt advantage in the first round. They own a 3 '/‚ -game edge over idle Chicago with four games left to play in the regular season. … The reason the Nets (46-32) were able to get the win, more than anything, was the continued excellence of their star point guard. Williams was sensational from start to finish, slicing and dicing his way through Boston’s typically stingy defense with ease. Williams even was able to make Avery Bradley, one of the league’s elite on-ball defenders, look silly. Bradley, Boston’s starting point guard, managed to play just 10 minutes after Williams saddled him with four fouls, and none of Bradley’s teammates fared much better. It’s the kind of virtuoso performance the Nets have come to expect from Williams in recent weeks, as he continued his dramatic resurgence since the All-Star break. Williams came into last night’s game averaging 22.5 points and 7.8 assists a night.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Worse, there was speculation their best two players - Blake Griffin and Chris Paul - were at odds. And Paul and Griffin both sensed it, which is why they decided to sit down and talk to each other. The gist of the conversation being the Clippers fate rested on their shoulders, and that their actions from that point on would set the tone for the entire team. "We talked about how we always need to be on the same page. We always need to be communicating," Griffin said. "Even if we might not have a good offensive game we can still contribute defensively and by passing the ball and in how we talk and how we lead during timeouts. Things like that, we can always do well. We always have control over those things." Paul agreed. "It definitely starts with me and Blake," Paul said "On the offensive end and the defensive end. When me and him are on the same page everyone else has no choice but to fall in line. Me and Blake realize we have to bring the energy every night and everyone else will feed off on it." The Clippers have won three straight games since the meeting, their defense picking up and their offense playing smoother and at a more up tempo pace in the process.
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: The Lakers' 113-106 victory Wednesday over the Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden cemented a one-game edge over the Utah Jazz (41-38) for the Western Conference's eighth playoff spot with three games remaining. The Lakers also swept their first back-to-back set this season after 15 unsuccessful attempts despite playing in a venue where they have gone 5-17 since 2002. It all started with Bryant scoring 47 points on 14 of 26 shooting in 48 minutes, an output that eclipsed the Rose Garden record held by LeBron James. "He's just determined to get us into the playoffs," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "That's what happens when you open your mouth and guarantee we'll get in the playoffs. Now he's got to do it." Bryant became the first player in NBA history to record 47 points, eight rebounds, five assists, four blocks and three steals in a game. … Bryant converted on two free throws, thanks to a clear-path foul from Lillard. Bryant then followed that up with a 23-foot jumper that put the Lakers up 106-100 with 4:09 left. Once Bryant stepped to the free throw line with 28.2 seconds remaining, Lakers fans drowned out the Rose Garden with "MVP" chants. "That's very unexpected, particularly in this building considering all the history that we have," Bryant said. "But I appreciate it especially at this stage of this career."
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: Milwaukee's Larry Sanders blocks a lot of shots. And what came in the mail Wednesday? Larry Sanders blocks. See, the Bucks made wooden children's blocks that spell out LARRY SANDERS on one side and DEFENSIVE POY on another. Adorable. NBA teams like to send out these cutesy things to get award voters to consider their candidates. Nice gesture, but I believe the Nuggets' Andre Iguodala is the league's defensive player of the year — based on statistics, advanced statistics and the old-fashioned eye test. But it would be hard for the Nuggets to do something with "Andre Iguodala," short of sending out "dala" bills. That would be creative, though unethical. (That being said, my crowning achievement this season was the creation of the Iguodala nickname, in the spirit of a particular Wu Tang Clan song: "Andre Cash Rules Everything Around Me C.R.E.A.M. Get The Money Iguodala Dala Bills Yall.") The last time a perimeter player was the NBA defensive player of the year, Iguodala wasn't even in the league. That year, the former Ron Artest won the award. And since then, there has been a litany of big-man shot blockers, be it Ben Wallace, Marcus Camby or Dwight Howard. Could this be the season the trend shifts? Well, this should be the season the trend shifts. Iguodala has transformed Denver's defense, and for all players with at least 100 possessions, he has the fifth-best points allowed per possession in one-on-one scenarios, according to Synergy Sports.
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Hawks got the energy — and the result — they needed. A day after a meeting between coach Larry Drew and three team leaders, the Hawks snapped a three-game losing with an impressive effort. Josh Smith, Al Horford and Jeff Teague, the addressees, combined for 77 points in a 124-101 victory over the 76ers on Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center. “That is where this whole game began,” Drew said. “… The way we played against this team the last time we played them I thought was just a total embarrassment from an energy standpoint. The point I made to all of those guys are they are the guys we fuel off of. They can’t come out lethargic. They can’t come out just going through the motions. They have to come out on top of their games, particularly with their energy. That is where everything begins.” … Drew wrote two words on the white board in the team locker room before the game. Energy. Purpose. “Forget about our coverages,” Drew said. “Forget about our matchups. Forget all that. If we bring those two things, we’ll put ourselves in good position.”
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: A creature of habit who lives by a day-planner, J.J. Redick didn't want anything to throw him in his return Wednesday night. "I need to be in the moment," he said. But Redick was caught off guard, learning only 90 minutes before the game that the Magic had prepared a video tribute in his honor. It was a classy gesture by the club and fans rose to give J.J. a standing ovation midway through the first period. Hmmm, don't remember the Magic showing a single Dwight Howard highlight when he came back a few weeks ago. Probably just an oversight. A fan held a sign that read, "Thank You J.J. We miss you." Redick teared up and waved to the crowd, his coolness having melted away. There was a shot of Redick's wife, Chelsea, on the Jumbotron, wiping her eyes, retouching her makeup. A nice, bittersweet moment of a forgettable season, a season of rebuilding and reunions. No need for anybody to shed any tears for Redick, though. J.J. is fine. He hated to leave Orlando, have his routine broken, his comfort zone detonated. But after the initial shock waves wear off and the annoying change of address forms are filled out, players adjust. J.J.'s adjustment has just included playing with a few ball hogs and waiting for Lake Michigan to thaw so he and Chelsea could take a walk around a park in Milwaukee. This is merely the business of the NBA, but a loud, unnerving wake-up call for guys like J.J. who are moved for the first time.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: The Suns’ youth movement has frequently included a pair of 30-somethings. Luis Scola, who turns 33 in 19 days, returned to the starting lineup for the past 10 games, including a 38-minute outing Tuesday night at Houston. Jermaine O’Neal, 34, entered Wednesday night having taken at least 10 shots in his previous four games off the bench. In Tuesday’s loss at Houston, O’Neal and Scola closed the game on the floor together as they often have. The potential game-winning play was drawn up for O’Neal, who got it blocked, setting up Scola for a potential winner that he missed. “We kind of just go with the guys who are playing well,” Suns interim head coach Lindsey Hunter said. “Our young guys contributed really well throughout the game. Whoever’s playing well, you let them play. They root for each other.” Hunter said that he has felt the Suns needed O’Neal and Scola in the games at times for their steadying veteran influence, particularly on offense to bail the team out of extended ruts. “That’s important because you don’t want them to get in a situation where they’re trying to carry too much,” Hunter said. “You want them to learn and have as many positive things to build off than negative.” Scola and Markieff Morris are the only Suns to appear in every game this season.
• Vincent Goodwill of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Each time he was intentionally fouled, Andre Drummond calmly stepped to the free-throw line, ignoring Cavaliers coach Byron Scott's intimation he couldn't make free throws and the raucous Cleveland crowd jeering at him. Drummond, a 34 percent free-throw shooter, merely went about his business in his career-best night, and the strategy wound up working against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who fouled Drummond one time too many, leading to a 111-104 Pistons win at Quicken Loans Arena. Drummond finished with 29 points and 11 rebounds in 34 minutes, the best night of his young NBA career. Drummond was intentionally fouled seven times between the 5:20 and two-minute mark, when it's well within the NBA rules to send bad free-throw shooters to the line. He split each time except for the last trip, when he made both. Most players take the move as disrespect, but the 19-year old Drummond playfully looked at it as an opportunity to pad his stats, which is why he didn't flinch when Cavaliers players told him, "I'm about to foul you." "It gives me more points, puts us in the lead," said Drummond. "At first I tried to avoid it but there's no point because they're gonna see the fear. What are you going to run for? I tried to build confidence and that's what I did today."
• Tony Bizjak, Ryan Lillis and Dale Kasler of The Sacramento Bee: The Maloof family has given Sacramento an ultimatum: Come up with a solid bid to purchase the Kings by 5 p.m. Friday, or we won't even entertain your overtures. A source close to those negotiations told The Bee on Wednesday that the Maloofs have given the ultra-wealthy investors seeking to keep the team in Sacramento two more days to submit a written, binding "backup" offer that matches the deal the family has in place to sell the franchise to a group in Seattle. If the Maloofs receive a matching offer by the end of business Friday, they will consider it as a serious backup proposal should the NBA nullify their tentative deal with Seattle, the source said. If the offer doesn't arrive in time – or falls short of matching the Seattle bid – the Maloofs said they wouldn't negotiate with the Sacramento group. The source, who was not authorized to speak about the deal, said the NBA a few weeks ago forwarded a "statement of interest" in buying the team to the Maloofs from Sacramento-based investors. … State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said in an interview Wednesday that the Sacramento offer is "strong and fully competitive." "I don't want to get too precise here, but it is as strong as the Seattle offer," said Steinberg, who took part in Sacramento's presentation to the NBA in New York. "It is equivalent to the Seattle offer." Steinberg declined to reveal the value of the Sacramento offer.
• Hillel Kuttler of The New York Times: For the eclectic Stoudemire, who has also written children’s books and is the subject of a documentary that will have its premiere April 19 on EPIX, the coaching role is new, but the destination will not be. He visited Israel in 2010, shortly after signing a free-agent contract with the Knicks. That trip, he said then, was spiritual in nature. The coming visit promises to be uplifting, too, especially ifCanada earns the gold medal, something it last accomplished in 1997. Canada has scored a coup just by getting a star of Stoudemire’s magnitude to Israel, notably a star who professed in his previous trip that he believed he might be part Jewish. That Stoudemire is coaching rather than playing does not disappoint the Canadian organizers, who see his involvement as spurring interest in their team and in the international Maccabi sports movement. “It was a bit of a dream scenario to reach out to Amar’e because of his discovering his Jewish roots and his playing basketball,” Alex Brainis, the head of Maccabi Canada’s delegation, said. “We figured that if he said yes, this would be a big recruiting tool.” When offered the post, “Amar’e was nothing but enthusiastic,” Brainis said. Stoudemire, who is recovering from knee surgery and may be able to return to the Knicks in the first round of the N.B.A. playoffs, will be one of the most recognizable faces at the Maccabiah, as the event is known.

• On Land O' Lakers, Brian Kamenetzky learns interesting stuff about Pau Gasol's mindset: "'I’m reading books about the Zen philosophy and mindset. Zen’s Mind, Beginner’s Mind,' Gasol said. After Sunday’s loss, I asked Pau what motivated him to start exploring Zen in more depth (keeping in mind he used to have a coach into that sort of thing). 'Well, just by reading other books about leadership and self-organization and to have a happy and fulfilled life,' he said. 'All of them pretty much mentioned meditation, self-awareness, live in the present, keeping your mind calm, and emptying your mind.' The last couple years have been tough for him, I noted. 'True,' he replied. And the study, he believes, has been beneficial. 'It’s helped me,' Gasol said. 'It’s helped me, reading these books I think has helped me deal with a lot of stuff that I’ve been through.'" (Pau's Zen mind could come in handy while reading this, in which he is lampooned for failing to play adequate defense against Bill Murray.)
• The flashiest game in the NBA is from the suburbs. Is that a problem?
• There is no such thing as a game-winning shot. There is no such thing as crunch time. There is also no Santa Claus. All three are totally true and totally untrue, and I'm okay with that.
• Larry Sanders' blocks, the website.
• Cole Patty of Hickory High breaks down video of Bradley Beal. Conclusion: "The way Beal moves should be considered one of the finest illusions in the entire NBA."
• Jovan Buha of ClipperBlog on the Clippers sweeping the Lakers: "Make no mistake: this is no moral victory. It’s a real victory, in every sense. The Clippers won the division on their own; nothing was handed to them. They kicked the Lakers’ butts four times spread throughout the season. They deserve all the credit, respect and praise that should be coming their way. For the first time Sunday afternoon, it felt as if there were almost as many Clipper fans as Laker fans at Staples Center. Laker fans have traditionally dominated the crowd in the match-ups, even at Clipper home games, but that’s changing. You could hear Clipper fans booing and fighting back whenever Laker fans would cheer, and there a was a level of off-the-court animosity unbeknownst to the rivalry. L.A. may never be a Clipper town, or even open to the idea, but if the Clippers keep winning, enough fans will flop sides. It happened at the inception of Lob City, and it can happen again. No one loves a winner quite like Los Angeles. The key, of course, is to win."
• Clipper worry: Team was much better before New Year's. (Although, against a tough recent schedule, not bad.)
• Be honest: How'd your NCAA bracket turn out?
• The Warriors' tough new opponent: The idea they're the weak link in the tough West playoff picture. Also, they're good when Carl Landry plays.
• George Karl, Erik Spoelstra, Gregg Popovich, Mike Woodson ... let's talk about coach of the year.
• What's wrong with Gerald Wallace?
• In New York this Thursday, a reading from We'll Always Have Linsanity: Strange Takes on the Strangest Season in Knicks History, which I'm super-excited to read.
• At times a bit PG-13, but thoroughly entertaining. Larry Bird cartoons by an American professional basketball player working Down Under.
• On Hardwood Paroxysm, Alex Wong imagines a different DeMarcus Cousins: "On slower days, he’ll take a larger binder out of the bottom drawer of his desk, and comb through them in detail. He uses a yellow post-it to mark where he last finished. They are the fine print of the company’s travel policy. He wants to suggest changes at the next annual summit meeting with the executives."
• The Rudy Gay trade did good things for Jerryd Bayless.
• Happy Birthday, 48 Minutes of Hell.
• With the season almost over, Blazer scrub Will Barton busted out career highs in almost everything. Danny Nowell of Portland Roundball Society: "It’s a funny idea, that NBA players should shock us by being effective. It’s as if fans imagine a practice wherein the starters win every scrimmage they play 80-0. Fans, I think, and certainly I myself fall into a trap: we think of 'quality' as either a duality or a simple sliding scale. A player is 'good' or 'bad;' a starter is an '8' while his backup is a '4'. Even where we introduce some subjectivity into the idea of player comparison—the numerical scale—we tend to treat player quality as a fixed role rather than a set of attributes unique to individual players. Really, games like the one Will just had are windows into the players’ experience, a night where we see what they do every day. In practice, Barton doesn’t sit on the bench and think about defensive responsibility, he cuts to the rim for lobs from Eric Maynor. How odd it must be, to be a player with such a dynamic style that you work on most days behind closed doors while fans on the other side talk about your ability in the future tense. Let me make an analogy a little closer to my own experience: being Will Barton would be like writing every day, and storing my writing away where no one would see it. My improvements, my present qualities, none of them would get seen. Every NBA scrub, then, is a basketball Kafka."
• The Magic are bad. But Jacque Vaughn has some coaching moves.

• NBA hopefuls, and LaMarcus Aldridge, take note: An above average NBA 3-point shooter is far more valuable to his team than an above average 2-point shooter. Ian Levy writes for Hardwood Paroxysm about how we are funny in how we perceive 3s: "Corey Brewer is routinely lambasted for being such a willing and inaccurate 3-point shooter. But while his 3.7 three-point attempts per game generate 1.3 negative blog posts per week, rarely is Joe Johnson criticized for the 9.5 2-point shots he attempts each game, even though they generate essentially the same number of points per shot."
• Magic Johnson tells the tale of his son coming out of the closet.
• The inspiring tale of Ray King, playing for North Carolina Central despite cancer, bathing in bleach every night to ward off staph infections.
• Is the Rockets re-build -- keep a bunch of cap space around for a star who'll come somehow or other -- a road map for post-Josh Smith Hawks?
• Mark Jackson's "next level boldness" has the power to rearrange your thinking.
• Watch for "Millionaire Mama's Boy," a reality show starring JaVale McGee. Not kidding.
• The many ways Carmelo Anthony can kill you.
• Does Manu Ginobili remember the moment he was drafted? He does not, because he wasn't there, nor watching, because he didn't even know it was draft night. He had to be woken up.
• To recover faster from concussion, doctors told Nikola Vucevic not to read, watch TV or text. So what did he do?
• Jim Cavan for The New York Times on the Wizards' freakish recent defense: "Over the last 42 games, the Wizards are third in defensive efficiency (98.6), fourth in opponent field-goal percentage (43.3 percent), second in opponent 3-point percentage (33.1 percent) and second in defensive rebounding percentage (75.6 percent)."
• The sports fans perennial task: to imagine what a player might be.
• Kobe Bryant's off-ball defense really perked up against the Mavericks.
• Things have gone badly for the Suns. But does that mean a change is in order? Suns bloggers chew on Lon Babby's extension.
• LeBron's best game.
• The restaurant that thrives in the building owned by the Players Association, which has offices upstairs.
• Lawrence Frank, candidate to coach Rutgers?
• Not into Jay-Z: A.J. Price.

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

The Heat's winning streak -- 23 and counting, second longest in NBA history -- has touched off a parlor game for NBA fans and Vegas bettors.

Which team will finally beat them?

The schedule would seem to be a logical place to seek answers, and the Bulls and Spurs stand out as tough upcoming opposition.

But the first good team pops up a whole week from now. The Heat just beat a staunch opponent in the Celtics. For now, it's all cupcakes:

• Wednesday: At the Kyrie-less Cavaliers.
• Friday: Hosting the muddled Pistons.
• Sunday: Home against the 15-52 Bobcats, a year removed and little improved from being the worst team in NBA history.
• Monday: On the road against the not-much-better Magic, who famously got little in return for Dwight Howard in the name of rebuilding through the draft.

I'm here to tell you that every single one of those teams is as likely as the Bulls or Spurs to end the Heat's streak. It matters way less than you think who the Heat play. That's not because the Heat are so good it doesn't matter who they play. (The Spurs are a handful!) That's because the Heat's next loss will likely be in deference to the team of exhaustion and injury concerns, a combination that threatens to cost every NBA team a game at almost any time.

All through this streak, the Heat have been mailing in portions of games, letting inferior opponents hang around. It's a dangerous game, as far as the streak is concerned, that could go wrong at any time.

It has almost cost them games already. Even during the streak, the Heat have almost lost to the Bobcats, Cavaliers and Magic, winning by five, four and one, respectively. The mighty Sacramento Kings took the Heat to double overtime. The broken-spirited 76ers had a lead in the closing minutes.

Those teams couldn't touch Miami when it's playing at its best, but the Heat can't afford to do that very often.

This is no criticism of the Heat. Rather it's a criticism of the NBA, whose schedule has never allowed coaches and players to do their best work night in and night out. It's physiologically impossible for the best players to perform their best all season long. We'd like this game to be about bringing your A-game every night. But that's really not how it is done. Never has been. Steve Nash's Phoenix years are a case study in this. He went hard every single night, and despite amazing training and diet, was gassed by the playoffs. The schedule simply won't allow full effort all season.

They used to say you can't "turn it on." This was offered as a reason for teams not to play it cool throughout the season, expecting to rise above in the playoffs. But they don't say that anymore, because in recent years teams have been doing just that, most notably Kevin Garnett's Celtics and also Kobe Bryant's Lakers. Research suggests teams that have recently won titles have a long history of taking it a bit easier in the regular season, then playing much better when it matters in the playoffs.

The truth appears to be that you simply must ration effort one way or another. The best coach in the NBA, Gregg Popovich, knows this and brilliantly leads the league in keeping his players off the floor, even while they're healthy. Sometimes for entire games. That's a big part of why the Spurs have long had the best records in the NBA.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has pecked at the edge of Popovich's approach -- nowadays he sits James for a few minutes to start most fourth quarters, in the name of a fresher player. (The Heat organization is convinced that the story of LeBron James' poor performance in the 2011 Finals against the Mavericks was one of exhaustion from a player who had played insane minutes all season.)

James and Dwyane Wade honor fatigue and injury risk less by sitting for long stretches, and more by taking it easy on the court. Watch Wade as he fluctuates between vigorous and serene. Watch how James metes out his forays to the rim, which are taxing both in the explosive movements and the dangerous fouls. When the team has a lead, James and Wade tend to spare themselves that punishment -- as, research shows, NBA stars tend to do. When the team trails and needs a bucket, however, they attack viciously.

It's not such a dangerous game from the point of view of a playoff series, in which a team can afford to lose a game or two. But for keeping a streak alive, when no losses can be tolerated, it's a ticking clock. Against weak opponents, the Heat offense is at its very best for only a few possessions per game.

Even in a streak like this, it's important to think about the long term. You can't win a marathon at Mile 16.

Very sophisticated research in elite soccer has shown that just two competitions a week, as opposed to the traditional one per weekend, ramps up the injury risk significantly. It removes entirely the ability for a player to do a real conditioning workout and recover in time for the next contest. Getting the same exercise in games comes with vastly higher injury risks. Conditioning and rest have real benefits that professional basketball players know too little.

The cost is that we seldom get to see the best NBA players -- who play far more than twice a week -- performing at their very best.

I have asked several players recently at what time of year they're at their physical best. So far, to a man, they answer: training camp.

(How messed up is that, from the league's point of view? They're at their physical best, and nobody is even watching.)

From there, no matter how tough your spirit or inspired your workout plan, it's an athletically degrading league-mandated saga of long travel, short sleep, minimal conditioning and a growing collection of injuries, bangs and bruises. One injury expert told me he thought almost every NBA injury was an overuse injury.

"When you get down to those late months and the playoffs, you know that guys aren't at their peak physically," says the Heat's James Jones. "They're gutting it out. You're seeing performances in spite of injuries, in spite of fatigue, in spite of nicks and bruises. And that's where the greatness is revealed."

Where it's not revealed, at least not intelligently, is in a Monday night in March, on the road against the lottery-bound Magic.

The Heat could lose at any time, because any team can lose at any time. Because in this league, it's about fatigue and injury risk as much as it is about the other team. To win that contest, you've got to ration your A-game.

• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: Dick Vitale whispers louder than Andre Miller screams. But in the pregame locker room, the Nuggets' veteran guard delivered a powerful, passionate speech, channeling the oration of, say, Jesse Jackson, who just happened to be at Tuesday night's Nuggets-Thunder game. "One amazing speech — guys were just amped up, ready to play," Denver forward Kenneth Faried said after the Nuggets' 114-104 win, Denver's 13th consecutive, a franchise-NBA record. "He said it doesn't matter that we're coming off a back-to-back, it doesn't matter that we went to overtime — we're going to play this game hard and with pride. We don't have any excuses. Andre Miller is a guy who doesn't really say much, but when he talks, everybody listens, nobody's playing around. "Everybody locks in." And sure enough, it was Miller who was locked in the most when it mattered. In just nine fourth-quarter minutes, he scored 13 points with six rebounds and three steals. Unreal. And he made two tough shots late. The second, a leaner in the lane with 1:29 left, gave Denver (47-22) a 10-point lead. What a night.
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: Of the 13 teams the Nuggets have disposed of consecutively, eight currently are bound for the playoffs. “We're not beating up on the little guys,” Karl said. “I don't think our team is going to let up. I think they enjoy what's going on right now.” Denver (47-22) trails OKC (50-18) by just 3 1/2 games for second in the Western Conference playoff race and owns the tiebreaker with its 3-1 series edge over the Thunder thanks to winning the last three meetings. Eight of the Nuggets' 13 remaining games are at home and only five games are against playoff teams. The Thunder has 14 games remaining, with eight on the road and seven against playoffs teams, beginning with Wednesday's 7 p.m. game at Memphis.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: It’s real simple what happened here tonight. The Thunder got sucked into the Nuggets’ style, succumbed to it and suffered its first loss in 21 home games against Western Conference opponents. That was the story of the game, and it has to be a disappointing result for a team that should be past the point of playing its opponent’s style of play. For a team that likes to talk about how it prides itself on defense, the Thunder sure didn’t play much of it tonight. Instead, when the high-octane Nuggets came to town and the Thunder looked awfully interested in turning the contest into a run-and-gun affair. That much was evident from early in the first quarter. OKC pushed the pace, apparently trying to out-quick Denver’s quick, and jacked shots early and often. Some of the first quarter wasn’t so bad. But about halfway through the opening period, and for all of the second, the Thunder had embraced the track meet. Kevin Durant: “It’s easy to fall into that trap. That’s what they do. They get up and down the court. Our game is a little different. We want to run, but we want to run off of our defense.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: The Bucks know they have a chance to pick up ground in the Eastern Conference race. Atlanta is one of the three teams they are chasing along with Boston and Chicago. Milwaukee trails all three teams by two games in the loss column after Tuesday's victory. "Everyone knows it," Dalembert said. "We talk about it and it's enough talk for us. We just have to beat teams we are capable of beating and let it be known it's going to be a fight. "Who knows? In the next five or six games, we might end up being No. 6 (seed). We lost some games we were supposed to win. But they're NBA players. I think we learned our lesson. Games we should win we have to go out there and let it be known." Atlanta (37-30) currently is seeded fifth while Chicago (36-30) is sixth and Boston (36-30) seventh.
• Joe Freeman of The Oregonian: Different city. Different arena. Different opponent. Same old maddening Trail Blazers. The team that wowed and surprised for so much of the season before eventually breaking your spirit was up to its usual tricks Tuesday night in Milwaukee, simultaneously playing some of the worst basketball and some of the best en route to a 102-95 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center. After a head-scratching start that included their worst offensive performance in any quarter this season, the Blazers mounted a furious second-half rally that ultimately came up short. Sound familiar? It should. It’s a similar script to the one the Blazers showcased during Monday night’s loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, during their first loss to the Bucks in January and, really, in so many games this season.
• Phillip B. Wilson of The Indianapolis Star: George Hill says he meant no disrespect to fans. He just insists more Indiana Pacers fans should be in the stands at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. And he’s not going to budge on that point. In his first home game since making critical remarks about seeing too many Los Angeles Lakers fans at the Pacers’ venue, Hill received the usual round of applause when the starting lineup was announced Tuesday night. Before that, he sat at his locker and tried to expound upon his comment, which received negative fan responses on Twitter; local sports-talk radio shows; and in emails sent to The Indianapolis Star. One fan tweeted: “I’ll be real sure to boo the (crap) out of you now on.” “I’m not saying you can’t be somebody’s fan,” said Hill, an Indianapolis native who went to Broad Ripple High School and IUPUI. “I was a Michael Jordan fan growing up, but when I did go to the games, I always rooted for my hometown team. You root for who you want to root for, but I know one day that we’re going to get it like it used to be at Market Square Arena. That’s my dream, that’s my goal from when I first got here, to help bring fans back. That’s all I’m trying to do.”
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: For almost two seasons now, David West has been the anchor, the backbone of the Pacers. He’s the lead-by-example veteran the team has needed. West gets injured, heads to the sidelines, Tyler Hansbrough steps in, has two good games and all of sudden some people are saying West should come off the bench when he returns. Are you serious? Is that an early April Fools Day joke? I thought people were really joking about it when they mentioned it during and after the Cleveland game. But a few people brought it up again after Hansbrough had 14 points and 14 rebounds in Tuesday’s victory over Orlando. Put a stop to it. There’s no way in hell it’s going to happen. There’s no way in hell it should happen. How quickly some people forget, it wasn’t that long ago that Hansbrough was struggling so bad that an argument could be made that Jeff Pendergraph should back up West at power forward.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: During the first two and a half quarters Tuesday night, Jacque Vaughn saw Tobias Harris absorb a shot to the mouth, Nik Vucevic receive an elbow to the face and the Indiana Pacers' defense stymie the Orlando Magic at every turn. Vaughn couldn't hold in his frustration any longer. When one of his rookies was whistled for a questionable technical foul, Vaughn complained to the referees. Vaughn earned the first and second technical fouls of his head-coaching career, resulting in automatic ejection. But not even Vaughn's uncharacteristic outburst could snap the Magic out of their offensive funk. Facing a suffocating defense keyed by Roy Hibbert's shot-blocking presence, Orlando shot a season-low 31.8 percent and lost 95-73 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. "I guess it was just an accumulation of the game," Vaughn said afterward. "I got a player who was hit in the mouth. It's just part of the game. I'm not going to lose any more money, but [it was] a tough game." Vaughn became upset when referees whistled rookie Kyle O'Quinn for a technical foul along with a technical foul on Hibbert as they jostled for position as a Pacers free throw sailed toward the hoop with Orlando trailing 57-44 with 4:47 remaining in the third quarter. From Vaughn's perspective, it appeared that O'Quinn had established inside position in the lane and that Hibbert had initiated the contact.
• Ryan Lillis, Tony Bizjak and Dale Kasler of The Sacramento Bee: The frantic process of hammering out a financing plan for a new downtown sports arena has reached its most pivotal day. Sacramento city officials said Tuesday night they remain on track to release a plan Thursday that will lay out how they intend to pay for an arena at the site of the Downtown Plaza. City Manager John Shirey said he believes "we'll still make that deadline" of releasing a proposal Thursday, but that "it will take every minute between now and then to achieve that." "We're still on track," Shirey told the City Council, adding "it's still a work in progress at this moment." It has been an intense effort. Shirey's office has been negotiating with billionaire Ron Burkle over the financing plan for less than a month. … A price tag of the development has also not been released, although sources close to the deal have previously told The Bee the project would cost roughly $400 million.
• Marcos Breton of The Sacramento Bee: It's going to take leadership and follow-through to make the abstract a reality. Quite frankly, it would be very easy to poke holes in this effort. But years of recession have taken a huge economic and emotional toll on the Sacramento region. The possible departure of the Kings coincides with hopes of a new economic cycle in the next five years. The difference between wallowing in the past or creating a new future is the choice before the Sacramento region now. What are we going to do?
• Dan Woike of The Orange County Register: Eric Bledsoe has missed the Clippers' past four games, covering a span of nearly two weeks. Bledsoe said his sore left calf is feeling better, but better isn't good enough to get him back on the floor. "It's definitely something I couldn't let linger on," he said Tuesday. "I had to rest it at some point before it got worse." The team's patience with Bledsoe's recovery, though, could be tested. In the first half against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, Chauncey Billups had to leave the game because of a strained right groin muscle. He didn't return to the game. The injury leaves Maalik Wayns as the only healthy true point guard available to back up Chris Paul. Wayns was re-signed to a second ten-day contract by the team earlier in the day. The team slid Jamal Crawford over to play point guard minutes briefly in the fourth quarter, though Crawford's not a natural playmaker who the team prefers to play off the ball. The best scenario would be to have Bledsoe return healthy, playing at the level he did before the All-Star break. Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro said he hopes to have Bledsoe back sometime over the weekend.
• Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: Dwight Howard is growing all on his own, single-mindedly focused on who he wants to be, and he has taken another major step forward in his career by leaving the business manager who has been Howard's primary advisor his entire career, Kevin Samples. "We had nine great years together," Howard told me late Monday night. "Just time to go separate ways." For all the intangible growth Howard has discovered recently, breaking away from Samples is a concrete gesture that the past is the past – and Howard is confident in calling his own shots in the future. "I know what I want to accomplish," Howard said. "I've always written down my goals and everything I want, and I want to make sure I get 'em. Everything I've lost, everything that's gone away, I'm going to get it back." Samples came to Los Angeles with Howard after the trade to the Lakers, and it was hard to envision him not being around considering they're actually first cousins – and Howard's parents dispatched Samples to live with Howard in Orlando right after the 2004 NBA draft as a big brother/guidance counselor/business manager. Their relationship grew into Dwight Howard Enterprises, which had two and only two officers: Howard and Samples. For Howard to sever the tie is no small statement.

• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: On a night he enjoyed one of his most productive offensive games of the season, the Spurs’ Tim Duncan spent the final 8.7 seconds of a 92-91 victory over the Mavericks in the worst possible position: Sitting on the bench, helpless to do anything but watch as Dallas’ Vince Carter launched a potential game-winner at the buzzer. Opting for a smaller, quicker defender, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich replaced Duncan with Boris Diaw, with the Mavericks down by one. “It’s always tough to sit in that position,” Duncan said. “It is what it is. He’s got a game plan, a system in those times to go smaller. If they go smaller or have a shooter in there, he likes to put someone a little more mobile in. “You’ve got to respect it. You’ve got to sit there and cross your fingers.” After missing seven of his first 10 shots Thursday, Duncan made nine of his final 10 and finished with 28 points. He was one rebound shy of his second 20-20 game of the season, finishing with 19. It was his most productive game since returning Feb.13 from a left knee contusion suffered on Feb. 2. “It’s finally starting to come back,” Duncan said. “My shot’s not there like I want it to be. Other than that, I feel great. I feel healthy. The pain is gone. I’m starting to feel like I can actually play the game.”
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Coach Rick Carlisle said Chris Wright, the Mavs’ newest point guard, cleared a big hurdle when Dallas signed Wright to a 10-day contract. “He just got here [Wednesday],” Carlisle said. “That’s the biggest challenge.” Indeed it is a big challenge for Wright, who, on Wednesday, became the first player with multiple sclerosis to be on an NBA roster. And what perfect timing for Wright — it’s MS Awareness Week. Wright agreed with Carlisle that making the team was his biggest challenge thus far. “I’m just trying to make the team and get on the team,” Wright said. “I’m honored to be here and be in front of Dirk Nowitzki and guys like that.” Wright averaged 15.5 points and seven assists in 38 games this season for the Iowa Energy of the D-League. Carlisle likes what he’s seen thus far from Wright. … Carlisle said he’s “not qualified” to answer any questions about MS. But, “he’s been playing at a high level in the D-League and now he’s on an NBA roster, so he’s fine.”
• Joe Freeman of The Oregonian: With a chorus of boos echoing around the Rose Garden every time Felton touched the ball and the Blazers cruising to a convincing 105-90 victory over the Knicks' junior varsity team, basketball turned into a secondary form of entertainment Thursday night. And one of the few to leave the fiasco disappointed was Felton, the critical component behind last season’s monumental Blazers collapse. He sauntered into the Rose Garden loading dock about 75 minutes before the scheduled tip wearing a determined scowl and headphones, breezing past a throng of reporters to the visitors locker room. … An electric sellout crowd of 20,636 flashed gigantic posters with enlarged pictures of donuts and hamburgers and R-rated messages aimed at a player who last year challenged his detractors to visit his Pearl District apartment building if they had a problem with him. Felton was heavily booed during pregame introductions and every time he touched the ball, from the moment the Knicks won the opening tip to the final horn.
• Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News: Last spring, the Heat’s Dwyane Wade also had his knee drained during the playoffs, but didn’t need to take a game off. But he’s another playoff virtuoso, with championship jewelry. What’s in store for Anthony, normally a first-round ouster waiting to happen, is anyone’s guess. Anthony should have learned a lesson from these past few days: He never should have returned on Monday in Oakland, hoping that the fluid would somehow magically disappear. It’s kind of funny that a guy with all those tattoos didn’t want to deal with a needle. So he missed the third straight loss on this trip when he got the fluid removed, while questions about how it got there still had not been sufficiently answered. “There comes a point where you’ve got to figure it out,” Anthony said, explaining why he finally addressed the knee. “Got to get to the bottom of it and move on.” The Knicks’ season only depends on it.
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: The reaction in the Mavericks’ locker room was mixed about the play former teammate Dahntay Jones had against Kobe Bryant on Wednesday night. Jones, who was traded to Atlanta for Anthony Morrow last month, stepped under Bryant at the end of the Hawks’ win. Bryant said it was a dangerous and dirty play. Jones said it was good defense. “It was a 50-50 play,” said Brandan Wright. Added Darren Collison: “Tough play. That’s all I can say about it.” There also were a few jokes that it was Jones’ best play for the Mavericks all season. But coach Rick Carlisle didn’t want to hear about the possibility of Bryant being out for an extended period and the Mavericks having a chance to overtake the Lakers in the playoff race. “I didn’t see the play,” Carlisle said. “And I’m not going to get involved with anything having to do about saying anything happening with Kobe Bryant. I think our owner showed what can happen with that 10 days ago.” That comment ellicited laughter from the coach and the media assembled before Thursday’s game against the Spurs. When Mark Cuban suggested the hypothetical scenario where the Lakers could amnesty Bryant, he came back with 38 points against the Mavericks.
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The NBA reviewed video of the play Thursday and found that referees missed a foul call on the play. The league said Jones failed to give Bryant the opportunity to land cleanly on the floor, and he should have been granted two free throws. … Jones sent several Tweets of his own Wednesday night after learning of Bryant’s comments. On Thursday, he appeared on the ESPN program “First Take” to further defend his actions. “The play, I don’t think was dirty because all I was trying to do was contest a jump shot,” Jones told the network. “Yes, it was a fadeaway, but when you deal with shooters or high-profile scorers, you have to try to get as close to them as possible to contest jump shots. So, even though he faded away, you still don’t give up on a play. You try to still contest it. That’s all I was trying to do. I wasn’t trying to do anything dirty. We played 48 minutes of basketball before that. There were not issues before that. And I wouldn’t take him out on the last play of the game.”
• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: Ray Allen has had conversations with teammates that put into context the relative age of the Heat’s roster, age that renders some of their seasonal trends, and especially those over the course of the current 20-game winning streak, all the more remarkable. “You look down our bench, and you don’t see some young guy you don’t know,” said Allen, whose team takes on the Bucks on Friday night. “I look down some NBA benches, and some of these guys, I do not know who they are. … Cole, at 24 years and five months, is the Heat’s youngest player, and one of only five – along with Jarvis Varnado, Mario Chalmers, LeBron James and Chris Bosh – still in their 20s. Nor is Pat Riley trying to infuse the roster with youth: Recent additions Chris (Birdman) Andersen and Juwan Howard are 34 and 40, respectively. “It’s crazy, because I was talking to Bird the other day, and I was like, ‘Bird, how old are you?’ ” Allen said. “And I was like, ‘I’m 37.’ And he just fell (down)! He was like, ‘Really?’ Normally he’d be the oldest guy on most teams in the NBA.” Normally, a squad with so many grizzled veterans might be expected to struggle in two areas in which the Heat have fared at least as well as any team in the league – staying healthy and finishing strong.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: We've arrived at the point where the only true measure of success for this Thunder team is postseason results. The regular season no longer matters. For better or worse, that's what a trip to the Finals, even one that ends in defeat, brings. To some, a popular predictor of future playoff success can be found in a team's scoring differential. After the team's winning percentage, it's the next best basic indicator of what we can expect from a team in a playoff run. To that extent, OKC is outscoring opponents on average by 3.4 points more than last season. It's the best scoring margin in basketball. Many other metrics suggest the Thunder is a sounder team. The team's scoring is up, both in raw averages and efficiency. The Thunder has evolved into a better defensive team, both in points yielded relative to the rest of the league and per 100 possessions. Oklahoma City also has gotten better in the categories of assists, steals and turnovers, historically some of the Thunder's biggest bugaboos. Many, however, fear that the Thunder isn't as well-equipped for a title run.
• Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times: After an afternoon practice at Oracle Arena, coach Tom Thibodeau almost set off a media frenzy when he was asked about the likelihood that Derrick Rose would make his season debut Friday against the Golden State Warriors. “We’ll see [Friday],’’ Thibodeau said. “With him, it’s just day-to-day. He had a good day [Thursday], went hard, did a lot of stuff, but we’ll see.’’ … When warned that his open-ended answers would ignite a fuse of speculation, Thibodeau tried to clear things up. “It hasn’t changed,’’ Thibodeau said. “It could be in a couple of days; it could be in a week. I don’t know when it is; he doesn’t know when it is. As I said to you guys [Wednesday], I think he was very forthcoming with [the media]. That’s where he is. He’s got to feel real comfortable; he’s got to feel the explosion is there. He’s made great progress, and we don’t know when that time is.”
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: Rob Hennigan made one of the most important decisions of his life here, just a short walk from where the Orlando Magic will play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night. He made that decision with Sam Presti, a friend and mentor, by his side. It was 2008, and Presti, the Thunder's general manager, offered Hennigan a job in the Thunder front office. They walked through downtown, discussing the type of team Presti wanted to build, talking about the meaningful connection Presti wanted to create between the franchise and the city. They eventually reached the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the site where, 13 years earlier, Timothy McVeigh detonated explosives in front the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. … That belief and confidence in Presti helped lead Hennigan to where he is today, the general manager of the Magic. Presti gave Hennigan two of his big breaks: a coveted internship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2004 and a position as director of college/international player personnel with the Thunder four years later. As Hennigan worked his way up the NBA ladder, he and Presti developed a close friendship that still endures.
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: Andrea Bargnani says he hasn’t given up on playing again this season, but that’s certainly the way it looks. “What I know is what you guys know, what came out (Wednesday)” Bargnani said Thursday when he faced the media for the first time since his latest injury was confirmed. “I just do therapy and we see how it evolves.” The lastest injury is an avulsion sprain to his right elbow. The affected ligament is the same one that Bargnani tore in December costing him 26 games of the season, but a different injury. Bargnani sounded as frustrated with his season as his detractors have been. “It was a very unlucky season,” Bargnani said. “I don’t even know if I played like 10 straight games because every time I played I got an injury. It was very frustrating. I’ve just got to stay positive, try to get back in shape and be back and play very good.”
• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: So Wednesday night’s win over Toronto wasn’t the first time it occurred to Jason Terry that he’s now part of a living museum. The sights and sounds of the Garden crowd acknowledging Garnett, who had just passed Jerry West to become the 15th all-time scorer in NBA history, and Pierce, who moved past Charles Barkley into 20th place in scoring and past Allen Iverson into 10th spot all-time in made free throws, simply heightened the experience. “When you’ve been around as long as Paul and Kevin, and play at a high level like they have, you’re going to be amongst greatness,” Terry said. “That’s what all of those milestones mean. They’re two of the chosen few who are great. “No question this whole ride has been special,” he added.
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: After Klay Thompson was fined $35,000 for his involvement in the scrum between the Warriors and Indiana on Feb. 26, his father said he was going to increase the penalty.Mychal Thompson, who was the No. 1 overall pick in 1978 and is currently a radio broadcaster in Los Angeles, said he handled his son's finances and would allocate less than his usual $300 stipend that week. The comments were taken seriously and landed on a variety of blogs, but Klay Thompson said he maintained his own accounts and his father was just having some fun. "Come on, man," Klay Thompson said. "Some people took it really seriously, but that's all right. That's my dad. He jokes a lot. ... Since I grew up, he's been a jokester. I just read it and thought it was funny. It's fine. It's a good story. He had some fun with it. It's his job to entertain, so I don't blame him. "But I do make my own allowance."
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: With the Lakers (34-32) visiting the Indiana Pacers (40-24) tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Brian Shaw said he's moved well past the initial frustration he felt two years ago when the Lakers passed him over in favor of Mike Brown to coach the Lakers following Jackson's retirement. Instead, Shaw said he's relishing the changed circumstances with his eyes still set on the big picture. "My ultimate goal is to be a head coach," Shaw said. "But I'm not going to take or go after the wrong job just to get the experience of being a head coach. I'm in a great situation here."

• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: Chris Bosh, occasional actor, has mastered the deadpan delivery — and he put those skills on display Tuesday night, shortly after the streaking Heat displayed their basketball skills on the court. Would 20 straight wins, a total that will be on the table Wednesday night in Philadelphia, be sufficient to excite him? “Ten is enough for me,” Bosh said. What about 20? “Twenty’s cool,” Bosh said. “I’ll take it. We’re going to have to earn it, I’m sure.” They will, even if as much of the challenge will come from the circumstances — a late-night flight followed by a 7 p.m. road tip — as from an opponent they’ve defeated 12 straight times. Yet what was apparent again Tuesday, in a 98-81 workmanlike hammering of the Hawks, is that there’s little that can fluster the Heat of late, including when they get little offensively from LeBron James.
• Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald: Friday’s meeting with Milwaukee — the Heat’s second game on a five-game road trip — could end up being a preview of a first-round playoff series. And at least one Bucks player believes that would be the preferable matchup for Milwaukee, which entered Tuesday in the No. 8 seed. “The two games that we played Miami so far, we matched up well against them,” guard Brandon Jennings told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “If you ask me, that’s who I would want to play first round, Miami. “Right now we haven’t really played well against the Knicks. I just feel better if we play Miami first round, just the fact we have good games against them.” Chris Bosh said Jennings’ comment doesn’t bother him. “That’s great,” Bosh said. “I hope people want to see us. Milwaukee is a good team. It would be great games.” But Rashard Lewis said: “Be careful what you ask for.” The Heat beat Milwaukee in overtime in Miami in November but lost 104-85 Dec. 29 in Wisconsin.
• Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: Dwight Howard killed 'em with paint dominance, half-decent free-throw shooting and his usual kindness. Howard rode the positive energy he often preaches through his return game in Orlando on Tuesday. With Howard making 25 of 39 shots from the free-throw line – tying the NBA record for attempts he set a year ago – the Lakers beat Howard's old Orlando Magic team, 106-97. He smiled from pregame warmups to the victorious end – even as Orlando fans wore his old jerseys with the "H" on the back changed into a "C," one fan interrupted the national anthem to insult him and Magic coach Jacque Vaughn deliberately probed time and again at Howard's free-throw weakness. Despite a cold-shooting night from Kobe Bryant, the Lakers won because Howard left Orlando center Nik Vucevic likening him to "the Dwight that dominated the league the past few seasons." Howard finished with 39 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks – and Bryant said the Lakers' 17-6 run has sprung from Howard "just buying in to what we need him to do – him excelling at it."
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: There was plenty of Hack-A-Howard, even more Hate-A-Howard. The entire night was just another sad, bittersweet reminder of the Magic's legacy. For the city of Orlando. For the franchise and its fans. And for Dwight Howard, the guest of dishonor. The leather-lunged booing, caustic commentary and contentious Dwightmosphere turned Amway Center into a venting session first and a sporting event second. These engagements merely have become an embarrassing tradition for the Magic and the faithful, even if some circumstances are out of their control. They lead the NBA in this unfortunate ritual: Their once-beloved superstars return to the city of Orlando for the first time, only to be buried in boos and belligerence. Shaq, Penny, T-Mac, Grant Hill and now Dwight have all had similar toxic reunions here. … Howard put the Magic through the ringer – and the Magic tried to embarrass him as well. They sent his notorious free-throw form to the free-throw line by fouling intentionally – and it backfired.
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: Even though the two went through a verbal back-and-forth in the media, Magic guard Jameer Nelson insists Dwight Howard "isn't a bad guy." But Nelson made it clear he's no longer close with the Lakers center. … The relationship strains stem partly from comments Howard made in an interview that aired last week on CBS2/KCAL9 in which he said, "My team in Orlando was a team full of people who nobody wanted. I was the leader and I led that team with a smile on my face." … Still, it appeared the two made some inroads in restoring their relationship. Howard and Nelson talked on the court following the Lakers' 106-97 win Tuesday over the Orlando Magic at Amway Arena. Nelson also prevented Howard from taking a nasty fall on a drive in the second quarter by holding him. "Jameer is my brother," Howard said. "I have no bad feelings toward him." But with Nelson expressing offense to Howard's interview, the Lakers center said he texted the Magic guard to clarify his comments. Did Howard apologize? "I guess publicly," Nelson said. "I'm not looking for an apology."
• Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News: Deron Williams has reached that comfort zone, the same one he enjoyed during the height of his days in Utah. It’s not just his rejuvenated body and rediscovered explosiveness. It’s also his approach. It’s his awareness. He has become the unquestioned leader of the Nets since the All-Star break, the point man calling out plays and taking control of a flowing offense. … For all of the 40 minutes he played Tuesday night at Barclays Center, he was the best player on the court in a 108-98 victory. He had 21 points and 13 assists, picking up the slack while Joe Johnson was inactive because of his sore left heel. It has been a similar story since the break for Williams, who has regained his All-Star form since dropping weight and undergoing another round of cortisone injections into his inflamed ankles. His leadership had been called into question the last two years, mostly because he sulked his way through losing seasons and was blamed for two coaches getting canned. But the last three weeks have undoubtedly represented Williams’ best stretch as a Net. It’s still a small sample size, but also an encouraging trend for the Nets.
• Ray Richardson of the Pioneer Press: In this season of aches and pains, short-handed lineups and overall misery, the Timberwolves were due for some type of feel-good moment. It finally happened with a blowout win over the San Antonio Spurs, the team with the NBA's best record (49-16), and Ricky Rubio's first NBA triple-double. There was even an inspiring second quarter in which the Wolves outscored San Antonio 29-10 to set up a 107-83 victory in front of an impressed crowd of 14,219. Some might want to put an asterisk in front of the victory, given that injured Spurs starters Tim Duncan (sore left knee), Tony Parker (ankle) and Kawhi Leonard (sore left knee) did not make the trip to the Twin Cities. The night, however, belonged to Rubio, who finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists to cap the best performance in his comeback from a major knee injury last season.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: This is how Gerald Henderson describes what he hears from coach Mike Dunlap these days: “He wants me to shoot it every time. He wants me to think, ‘SCORE’ every time.” It doesn’t always work out that way. Henderson is a reluctant ball hog. But Tuesday he was on a preposterous roll that led to a preposterous score: Charlotte Bobcats 100, Boston Celtics 74. Suspend your disbelief; this really did happen for a Bobcats team on a 10-game losing streak and an NBA-worst 14-50 record. This was Charlotte’s widest margin of victory since January of 2010, when the Bobcats beat the Miami Heat 104-65. Many contributed, but none came close to shooting guard Henderson, who finished with a career-high 35 points.
• Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: After the Cavaliers claimed Shaun Livingston off waivers from the Washington Wizards on Christmas Day, Livingston’s first game as a member of the Cavs was against the Wizards. Now that Livingston is the starting point guard for the foreseeable future given Kyrie Irving’s injury, it only makes sense that Livingston’s first start also came against the Wizards on Tuesday. … It’s clear Livingston didn’t enjoy his time in Washington. He had been there once before, but when the Rockets released him at the end of training camp, the Wizards again inquired early in the season. With few other options available, Livingston agreed to return to the Wizards. “Probably one of the worst spots I’ve been in my career,” Livingston said of his time in Washington. “At the same time, it’s been a godsend here.” Livingston said he’s a cerebral player who didn’t have the right pieces around him in Washington, and the lack of structure within the Wizards didn’t help him. It’s why he never thought his career was over after the Wizards released him in December.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: Tony Allen lunged for a steal and missed as momentum took him toward midcourt and out of the play. His Grizzlies teammates then began to scramble to cover the potential gaps in their defense. And they did just that until Allen recovered, flew toward the basket and recorded a block on a would-be layup. Whenever the Portland Trail Blazers thought there was daylight on offense Tuesday night, the Grizzlies pulled a shade before leaving the Rose Garden with a 102-97 victory. Hardly anything was rosy for the Blazers against a Grizzlies’ defense that didn’t seem to relax on many possessions. Just ask the Blazers and their incredibly shrinking shooting percentages from quarter to quarter. Portland began the night shooting 45 percent in the opening period. The Blazers made 39 percent of their shots in the second and only connected on 22 percent in the third.
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: Center Chris Kaman started Tuesday night, but was pulled from the game after just 2:14 had elapsed off the clock. Coach Rick Carlisle took blame for putting Kaman in that situation, but it didn’t make it any easier for Kaman to understand. He was clearly not happy to get yanked that quickly. He never re-entered the game. … Carlisle said he realized quickly this game was not going to be one in which Kaman could prosper. … Carlisle said he had talked with Kaman about the situation immediately after the game. With a bigger set of centers and power forwards looming in San Antonio on Thursday, it would seem logical that Kaman would be back to his normal minutes against the Spurs.
• Marc Berman of the New York Post: The Melodrama continues. The most important d-word tonight wasn’t about Denver but drainage. Carmelo Anthony said he expects to play tomorrow in his first homecoming in Denver but admitted his sore right knee is not getting better and if this continues, he may have the fluid in his knee drained. Mike Woodson listed him as “probably probable’’ and Melo indicated he would play and then possibly reevaluate after the contest. So tomorrow’s showdown game vs. the Nuggets could conceivably be his last of the West Coast trip. “We’re talking about it,’’ Anthony said after practicing on the Nuggets practice court at Pepsi Center. “The doctors will sit down and talk about it and see my options. I think that’s the last option - to get the knee drained. I have to weigh all the options - how much time I’d have to take off.’’

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

• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: The Los Angeles Clippers fell apart in the second half at the Pepsi Center, losing 107-92 to the scorching Nuggets, winners of seven consecutive games. The Nuggets were airborne all evening. The game's first basket was a Gallo breakaway dunk. Kenneth Faried swatted Chris Paul's layup in the first quarter. Kosta Koufos, normally known for the lay-in, hammered home a dunk early. JaVale McGee stuffed Lamar Odom with the scorn of an angered Kardashian. … The Clippers played Wednesday on the West Coast and Thursday in Denver, which meant things probably wouldn't go well for them. Check out this info courtesy of the stat guys with Clippers TV — since 2007-08, teams that play a game on the West Coast and then come to Denver for a back-to-back are 3-41 in the Denver game. Unreal. And Nuggets PR calculated that the Nuggets are 44-10 since 2009-10 when facing an opponent at home in second game of back-to-back, no matter where that team is coming from.
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: Thursday’s victory completes four straight games against quality teams, three of which are bound for the playoffs and another that should be. OKC finished with a 3-1 record against these teams, which is more than acceptable. The Thunder’s victories came on two of the biggest stages in the world – Staples Center and Madison Square Garden against the Los Angeles Clippers and New York Knicks, respectively. The other victory came at home against the underachieving, but undeniably talented, Los Angeles Lakers. The lone loss was at Pepsi Center, where the Denver Nuggets own a 27-3 record, tied with the world champion Miami Heat for the best home mark in the NBA. Had Denver’s Ty Lawson not drained a 20-footer with 0.2 seconds left, the Thunder might have been able to win in overtime and made it a clean four-game sweep. Had that transpired, OKC (45-16) would be riding a seven-game winning streak. Instead, winning six of its last seven will have to do.
• Tim Smith of the New York Daily News: If the Knicks were going to have any shot of beating OKC, they needed to put the clamps on Kevin Durant, who entered the night leading the NBA in scoring at 28.6 points per game, and Russell Westbrook, who had averaged 32 points in his last five games. Durant finished with 34 points and Westbrook had an erratic 21. And Woodson decided to put Kenyon Martin in the game to guard Durant. It seemed like a risky move, considering Durant is about as fluid a scorer as you will find in a 6-foot-9 body. … In the third quarter, when Durant went slashing through the lane, Martin went all Charles Oakley on the OKC forward, hitting him with a cross-bodycheck that sent Durant to the floor hard. At first officials called Martin for a flagrant foul, but they reversed it after a review. “I am not trying to hurt anyone,” Martin said. “It is a contact sport. I want to let them know it is not going to be easy. That’s always how I’ve approached the game.” Woodson called it “old school” and said that’s what Martin, Kurt Thomas and Rasheed Wallace bring to the Knicks. “They don’t believe in guys coming to the rim getting layups,” Woodson said. Without their star scorer and with only one player who caught fire, the Knicks needed to grind one out. They fell just short against one of the best teams in the NBA. There’s no shame in that. But they better hope Anthony gets back in a hurry so they don’t lose too much ground in the Eastern Conference standings.
• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: Congratulations, Dwight Howard. You have now done the impossible. You have pretty much alienated everybody you ever knew in Orlando. The fans who once poured their hearts, souls and disposable income into you are irate because you lied to them about your "love" and "loyalty" to the city. The kids who once idolized you can't stand you because you stiffed them by blowing off your own youth basketball camp before bailing out and high-tailing it to the West Coast. Your former coach Stan Van Gundy and former general manager Otis Smith -- two decent men who had your back at every turn – are surely disappointed in the way you threw them under the bus and cost them their seven-figure jobs. And, sadly and pathetically, you've even lost the respect of your former Magic teammates – a bunch of good guys who you once called your "family" but now have denigrated and minimized into a "a team full of people nobody wanted." … Do you notice anything missing from Dwight's extensive explanation of his "team full of people who nobody wanted" comments? Never once does he take responsibility for what he said.
• Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: After Wednesday's game at Quicken Loans Arena, Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving admitted his right knee is not 100 percent. "I'm trying not to let it bother me," Irving said. "It's still bruised. The only way it'll get better is to the sit out the rest of the season, and I'm not doing that." Irving played 38 minutes in the 104-101 victory over the Utah Jazz. It was a rough-and-tumble game, and the point guard took several hard falls. Cavs coach Byron Scott said he found out Irving's knee was bothering him by reading the daily media clips on Thursday morning. He said after practice, if Irving's knee gets any worse, he would have no hesitations about shutting him down. The news caused a furor on Twitter. A Cavs spokesman clarified the team has no plans to rest Irving. "If he said it was bothering him again to the point that he can't perform like I know he's capable of, yeah (I'd considering shutting him down)," Scott said.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: Charlotte Bobcats rookie Michael Kidd-Gilchrist says he’s not going to use a concussion as an excuse. Others who care about him say mentioning the concussion Kidd-Gilchrist suffered in early February isn’t an excuse, it’s an explanation. Until the last two games he hadn’t been the player worthy of the No. 2 overall pick; not the guy who occasionally totals 25 points or 10 rebounds or three steals. Simply put, not himself. “He’s always in the action – he’s a physical player who attacks – so for him to get a concussion, you’ve got to make sure it’s all the way out,” said Bobcats co-captain Gerald Henderson. “That’s nothing to play with.” Yet that’s precisely what Kidd-Gilchrist did; play with it. He collided with teammate Jeff Taylor Feb. 2 in Houston. First his head and neck made contact with Taylor’s leg, then his head bounced off the floor at the Toyota Center. The injury was serious enough that his neck was immobilized by medical staff and he spent the night in a Houston hospital. Kidd-Gilchrist missed the next two games before passing the NBA’s post-concussion protocol to play again. But there’s a difference between being well enough to play and effective. He struggled the past month, and appeared to hit a low point against the Los Angeles Clippers at the start of a four-game West Coast trip.
• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: Jeff Green has taken over leadership of the second unit, and is usually on the floor at the end of games. That perpetual pressure Green imposes on himself is paying its highest dividend yet. … Garnett has told him not to be so nice, in language that typically can’t be used here. They’ve all told him to be more selfish. But Green has the critiques covered. That never-ending gravity was apparent the night of Feb. 20 in a tweet by @unclejeffgreen: “Damn altitude killed me today, tough (loss) but got another one tomorrow.” Green came off the bench with 15 points that night during a loss to the Lakers in the Staples Center. He also had seven rebounds, four assists and a block. He may have been minus-11, but rare was the Celtic with something to crow about that night. So Green sent out a modern mea culpa. He tweeted. Some players, especially, need a new kind of release.
• Ray Richardson of the Pioneer Press: As Ricky Rubio approaches the one-year anniversary Saturday, March 9, of his devastating knee injury, the second-year guard is still rebuilding the skills that made him one of the NBA's most entertaining players as a rookie. The total package in Rubio's game might not be complete until next season, but the Barcelona native has made enough progress to show he's still an impact player. "I know what he did overseas, and he's not back to that level yet," San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovic said in February. "An injury that keeps you out that long, it takes a while to get your rhythm back, regain your confidence and really feel 100 percent. He'll get there because he's a hard worker. He's still going to be a heck of a player here in Minnesota." What Rubio lacks in elevation, he has made up in floor burns and bruises, diving for loose balls and making steals.
• Daniel Brown of the San Jose Mercury News: A little more than a year after the birth of "Linsanity," point guard Jeremy Lin returns to where it almost didn't begin. He was buried on the Warriors' bench for 29 forgettable games two seasons ago. It was during that stretch when an elderly man with a special place in basketball history sat down and wrote him a fan letter. "I figured he could use a little bit of encouragement," recalled Wat Misaka, now 89 and living in Salt Lake City. "So I sent him a note that said: 'Hang in there. It's sure to get better.' " Things got better all right. Lin, now with the Houston Rockets, returns to Oracle Arena on Friday as an internationally known sensation playing on a three-year, $25 million contract. A documentary that traces his unlikely rise to fame with the New York Knicks opened to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The 88-minute film, "Linsanity," makes its San Francisco debut next Thursday at the Center for Asian American Media Festival. Lin's global fame means the world to Misaka, who in 1947 became the first non-Caucasian to play professional basketball in the U.S. The Japanese-American was a 5-foot-7, 150-pound point guard for the Knicks, even if his career only lasted three games. To Misaka, the rise of another Asian-American wasn't "Linsanity." It was lineage. "It really made me feel good that he was getting all the attention that he deserved," he said.
• Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee: Mitch Richmond is buying back into the Kings. Emotionally, for sure. Financially, he hopes. And we knew that. The first legitimate star of the Sacramento era is among the investors who each have committed $1 million and are bidding on the seven percent share being auctioned in bankruptcy proceedings. But that's not the bottom line. Richmond wants back into basketball, too. After a meet-and-greet session with fans and reporters Thursday at a downtown restaurant, the six-time All-Star quietly revealed that, if the Mastrov/Burkle ownership bid for the Kings prevails, he will pursue a position in the basketball front office. "That's where my interest is, what I'd be looking at," said Richmond, a consultant with Golden State until 2009. "I left when (Chris Mullin) was let go." Because uncertainty intrudes into virtually every conversation about the Kings and their future, Richmond declined to elaborate. There is an exhausting list of issues to be addressed and resolved before one city celebrates and the other city slumps.
• Kerry Eggers of The Portland Tribune: Chris McGowan is in the preliminary stages of selling the Rose Garden’s naming rights. He hired a company called “Premier Partnership” to facilitate the process. They have a list of about 100 businesses — some local, some national — that have a likelihood of interest. Three or four presentations have already been scheduled. “We’re getting pretty good feedback,” he says. “It could be a local company, which would be great, or it could be a (national) blue-chip brand.” McGowan would like to have a contract in place before the 2013-14 NBA season. It’s not a done deal, though, that he’ll make a deal at all. “It’s good for our organization to have this revenue stream,” he says. “All of it would get reinvested into what we do on the court. There are only three NBA teams that don’t have (a naming rights deal). But I’m going to be very cautious about it. I’m not going to do a deal with the wrong brand. We’re the Portland Trail Blazers. The Rose Garden has a great name. It’s not something we have to do, which is a good position to be in. There are a lot of companies that have to get deals done. We’re not one of them.” … McGowan speaks almost daily with general manager Neil Olshey, who runs the basketball side of the operation, and often sits with him at games. … It’s way too early to predict how successful McGowan will be with his new mission. He is certainly bright and an ideas guy, and seems every bit a people person, which never hurts when you’re dealing with the public. He doesn’t carry himself as a big shot. He seems genuinely enchanted with Portland, too, where his boys can play soccer and lacrosse and his family can ski and enjoy the outdoors. When I ask if he envisions this job as being a steppingstone to something bigger — if this is just another line on his resume — he smiles.

• Andre C. Fernandez of The Miami Herald: The Heat continued to climb the ladder on the list of the NBA’s all-time best winning streaks with Wednesday’s victory. Miami tied seven other teams that have strung 16 victories together, including three that went on to win the championship (1964-65 Celtics, 1970-71 Bucks and 1999-2000 Lakers). But the Heat still has a long way to go to get even near the NBA record of 33 in a row set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. “It’s not really in the back of my head or anything like what number we’d like to hit,” LeBron James said. “If it hit a league record, I mean that’s crazy if we did at some point. We don’t want to lose, but we’re going to play each and every game and not worry about it.” Among some of the notable teams the Heat could catch soon on the all-time list include the record-setting 1995-96 Bulls who won 18 in a row during a 72-10 regular season, and 1999-2000 Lakers who had a 19-game winning streak that season. The 2007-08 Rockets have the second-longest streak — 22 in a row.
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: In a season in which they dug so much to climb back into playoff contention, it seemed appropriate the Lakers operated in the same fashion in a game that could largely dictate those fortunes. The Lakers' 108-102 victory Wednesday over the New Orleans Hornets didn't just mark a game in which they overcame a 25-point deficit against a sub.-500 opponent. This didn't just mark the first time the Lakers overcame such a large gap since overcoming a 30-point deficit against the Dallas Mavericks in 2002. The Lakers' latest win gave them renewed confidence they can overcome any obstacle. "Games like this really strengthen the bond between us players," Lakers guard Kobe Bryant said. "That's really what the playoffs are all about. You have adversity. It's about who's going to stick together and who's not going to break." It helps that the win improves the bottom line results, too. With the Utah Jazz losing Tuesday to Cleveland, the Lakers (31-32) trail Utah (32-28) by only 1 games for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot.
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Basketball Hall of Fame forward Dennis Rodman took a lot of heat recently when he flew to North Korea and met with controversial North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban saw no problem with the two meeting. “Actually I think it’ll help,” Cuban said before Wednesday’s game against the Houston Rockets. “When you’ve got somebody talking about something other than global nuclear destruction, that’s a step in the right direction because you know there’s a topic you can have a conversation about that isn’t thinking about something else. Just like any argument, when you calm it down by switching subjects, that’s a good thing.” Cuban isn’t sure if anything of substance will come from the meeting between Rodman and Kim. But the fact that Kim is a huge basketball fan apparently says that he can at least relate to Rodman. “Who knows if it has any staying power, but it’s certainly not a negative,” Cuban said. “When I think of world peace I think of Rodman.” … In a recent interview with Charlie Rose for 60 Minutes, NBA commissioner David Stern characterized Rodman’s visit with Kim as “ridiculous.”
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: On a play usually reserved for Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett, Jeff Green attempted the final shot Wednesday night and he helped seal perhaps the Celtics’ biggest win of the season. Green has emerged as a primary offensive weapon in the past two months, but with the Celtics having possession with 23.6 seconds left and the game tied at 81 against the Pacers, the forward usually would have expected Pierce or Garnett to take the final shot. Instead, Garnett decoyed off the pick-and-roll and found Green with a high pass that he gathered in. Green scored with 0.5 seconds left for Boston’s 83-81 win. Not only did Green flourish in a critical time, but having his name called was a sign of confidence from coach Doc Rivers. “It builds confidence, especially with the playoffs right around the corner,” Green said. “Now at this point in time of the season, that confidence will be [useful]. You know all the attention is going to be focused on Kevin and Paul, but with the confidence that we’ll have going into the playoffs as far as the end of games, I think Doc trusts that we can make plays and help and take some of the pressure off Kevin and Paul.
• Brian Schmit of the Orlando Sentinel: Former Magic forward Rashard Lewis called Dwight Howard's recent comments about his former Magic teammates "disrespectful" and defended Jameer Nelson, once one of Howard's closest friends. Howard told KCAL-TV in L.A. that "my team in Orlando was a team full of people who nobody wanted, and I was the leader and I led that team with a smile on my face." Howard, Lewis and Nelson were on the Magic team that defied odds and reached the NBA Finals in 2009. "It's disrespectful more than anything. We helped Dwight become the player he was," said Lewis, now a member of the Miami Heat, who faced the Magic on Wednesday night. Lewis wasn't a nobody in the summer of 2007. He was the top free agent, and the Magic signed him to a six-year, $118-million contract to help Howard win. "We made a good run. Hell, look at those (conference and division) banners hanging in the stands. They don't say Dwight Howard on them... I think everybody should get a little piece of the credit. It's not just one guy who did everything." Nelson said after shootaround that he was disappointed in Howard's professionalism. "At some point, when are you [Dwight] gonna as a man, when are you going to take ownership and stay out of the media in a professional manner?" Nelson told the Sentinel.
• T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times: And here we have the Clippers, feeling really good about themselves, but what have they really accomplished? Do they belong in the same class as Oklahoma City and San Antonio after getting spanked at home by each recently? Could they beat the Lakers in a No. 3 seed versus No. 6 matchup, the best possible opponent for the Lakers, as Shaq suggested on TNT? "The Clippers are not legitimate" championship contenders, said Barkley, and so I wonder who Barkley would pick if the soft Clippers met the dead Lakers. With nothing else to do but watch the Clippers abuse Milwaukee on Wednesday night, why not put the brakes on this joy ride and agree or disagree with Barkley? Ralph Lawler, the team's long-time broadcaster, said there are things that must go the Clippers' way. "Chauncey Billups has to be Chauncey Billups," said Lawler, and lately Billups has struggled. "Eric Bledsoe has to be the Bledsoe who was so dynamic in the playoffs last year," said Lawler, and lately Bledsoe has been hobbled. Lawler said the Clippers will come on. "But if not, Charles could be just plain right," said Lawler, his sidekick Mike Smith saying nothing and no one seemingly disappointed.
• Al Iannazzone of Newsday: Mike Woodson said the MRI on Carmelo Anthony's injured right knee showed "some fluid buildup" in there. "That's what's causing the stiffness," Woodson said. "Rest will probably be the best thing for him." Anthony rested Wednesday night, sitting out against the Pistons. Woodson said Anthony would be evaluated again Thursday night and if he feels better, he could play against the Thunder at the Garden. Woodson said it will be Anthony's decision. "I'll do whatever he wants to do," Woodson said. "Trust me. Players know their own body. If he tells me he wants to play I'm going to play him. I'm not going to fight him on that . . . If he says, 'Coach, I need to sit down and rest a game or two,' I'm going to grant that, absolutely." The irony is Woodson said Anthony asked out of Monday's game in Cleveland before he aggravated his knee and the coach didn't listen to him. "He just kind of nodded that his knee wasn't right," Woodson said. "I kind of ignored it somewhat. Maybe I shouldn't have."
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: Center Andrew Bogut on Wednesday was part of the Warriors' starting lineup in consecutive games for only the fifth time, and executive board member Jerry West thinks they might need more of the big man to hold on to their playoff spot. "We really need him in the lineup. Oh, my gosh, yeah, we need him in there," West said. "He's crucial for us to be able to close this season out the way we want to close it out." After beating the Kings 87-83 on Wednesday night, the Warriors remain in sixth place in the Western Conference - 5 games back of fifth-place Denver and six games ahead of 10th-place Portland. … "We're not seeing the real Andrew Bogut, with all the (injuries) he's been through," West said. "He just gives us something we do not have, OK? He's got a great mind to play the game. He's physical as heck. He takes up space. He doesn't even really want to shoot the ball. His knowledge of the game is off the charts, and this is the kind of player that makes other players better."
• Seth Walder of the New York Daily News: Kris Humphries' official divorce from Kim Kardashian is fast approaching, but his divorce from playing time will come much sooner. According to a league source, Humphries was informed by coach P.J. Carlesimo Wednesday morning that he will no longer be part of the Nets' shortened rotation. Carlesimo has said in recent days that he wants to limit the rotation to nine or 10 players as the Nets head into the stretch run before the postseason. The 6'9" forward is averaging 18.4 minutes per game this season, a number that has dwindled substantially since the beginning of the year. He has grabbed 5.9 rebounds per game while scoring 5.5 points per contest. The decision to bench Humphries is curious given how fervently the Nets have worked to keep him. In July, the Nets inked the forward to a two-year, $24 million contract. Two weeks ago, at the trade deadline, the Nets could have traded Humphries to their opponent Wednesday night, Charlotte, in a deal that would have brought back Ben Gordon. And yet, despite their commitment to Humphries financially and the value he could have returned in the trade market, his only spot on the team for the foreseeable future will be on the bench.
• Ronald Tillery of of The Commercial-Appeal: Darrell Arthur sat on the bench unavailable and trying to get comfortable with a sore neck and back. Zach Randolph, nursing a left ankle sprain, was nowhere in sight. And it appeared the home team missed a lot more than their starting power forward and his understudy most of Wednesday night. However, the Grizzlies finally located their dogged defense, and a late scoring run allowed them to catch and pass the Portland Trail Blazers for a 91-85 victory before 16,214 in FedExForum. The Griz, winners in 10 of their last 11 games, overcame a 17-point, second-half deficit to capture a sixth consecutive win at home. This was the second straight home game in which the Griz had to dig out of a major hole. … “We don’t like being down 17 or 25, but in those situations we find out who we are,” Griz point guard Mike Conley said. “It’s good for us to sometimes win in different ways.”
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: Spurs center Tiago Splitter was excited by the news that the NBA has scheduled its first preseason game ever in his native Brazil. The Bulls and Washington Wizards will play Oct. 12 in Rio De Janeiro. “Oh, yes, this is a big step for us,” Splitter said. “We have all the World Cup and Olympic Games, and now we have an NBA game. It’s great for basketball in Brazil, and I’m very happy we’re going to have a game there.” Splitter said he would have been thrilled had the Spurs been selected to play, but understood the choice of the Wizards, who have 10-year Brazilian veteran center Nene. “I don’t know if the Spurs were considered for the choice, but I know that they want to bring Nene,” he said. “Of course, he is a veteran who has played a long time in the NBA.”
• Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News: Apparently not intimidated by Manu Ginobili’s previous treatment of its brethren, a bat dared to fly through the AT&T Center during the second half. Spurs trainer Will Sevening comically shook his index finger at Ginobili to prevent another impromptu extermination, but the Argentine needed no warning after his last encounter required a series of rabies shots. “One for one is a great percentage,” he said. “I’m going to retire.”
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Hawks took out a great deal of frustration against the 76ers. First, they ended a three-game losing streak. Second, and perhaps more important, they halted a six-game slide against the Sixers. The Hawks led by as many as 21 points en route to a 107-96 victory over the Sixers Wednesday night at Philips Arena. “I wanted to use that as motivation,” coach Larry Drew said of the recent failures against the Sixers. “That is why part of our pre-game talk was the fact that this team, for the last six games, has owned us. We need to step up to the challenge. We need to respond. After getting off to a slow start, we responded very well.” The Hawks (34-26) avoided matching a season-high four-game slide. They avenged a 19-point loss to the Sixers in Philadelphia on Dec. 21.
• Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: Cavaliers coach Byron Scott has devised a plan to keep the bug that has ravaged his team from being even more contagious. "We'll wear gloves and surgical masks," he joked. Cavs center Tyler Zeller returned to the starting lineup for the Utah game on Wednesday. Zeller and shooting guard Dion Waiters missed Monday's game and spent some time in the hospital over the weekend with flu-like symptoms. They were throwing up and had extreme pain in their stomachs. Guard Daniel Gibson was added to the list on Wednesday. Waiters and Gibson were told to stay home and didn't play vs. the Jazz. Scott said Waiters had a doctor's visit on Wednesday. The 7-foot, 250-pound Zeller returned to practice on Tuesday. "We didn't do a ton as far as practice-wise, but I was exhausted," he said. "I was trying to get my energy back up."
• Ray Richardson of the Star Tribune: Timberwolves forward Kevin Love has a meeting scheduled in New York on Wednesday, March 13, to meet with the doctor that performed the Jan. 15 surgery on his right hand. Love said the meeting with Dr. Michelle Carson could determine when he might be able to return to the lineup. "We'll pick a game or two that's right for me to come back," Love said before the Wolves' game Wednesday night, March 6, against the Washington Wizards at Target Center. "Until I see what the doctor says, I don't know." Love was projected to miss eight to 10 weeks after refracturing the third and fourth metacarpal bones in his right hand Jan. 3 at Denver. … Love said his recovery is on schedule and that he hopes to play again before the end of the month.
• Zach Buchanan of The Arizona Republic: The ink is barely dry on the trade that sent guard Sebastian Telfair to the Raptors two weeks ago, and Telfair already was back at US Airways Center facing his old team. Except this time, it felt different than other reunions he’s had. “Going back to Boston, Minnesota and Portland, there were more butterflies,” Telfair said. “I was a little more anxious and amped about it. I’m pumped for this game, but I don’t have the butterflies and I’m a little nervous about that, for whatever reason.” Late in his tenure with the Suns, Telfair had dropped out of the rotation as Phoenix sought to get extended looks at rookies Kendall Marshall and Diante Garrett. If Telfair thought the move to Toronto would open more playing time, it hasn’t happened in the six games since. Telfair has received just seven minutes of playing time in that span, recording four fouls and nothing else in a loss to Cleveland on Feb.27, although the 27-year-old said he expected to get extended minutes against his former squad.
• Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman: Ben Alamar once worked for the Thunder as a analytics consultant. Analytics is the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns of data. Simply put in sports, analytics is the deep study of statistics. Now Alamar is a professor of management at Menlo College in California, and he has written a book that soon will be available: Sports Analytics: A Guide for Coaches, Managers and Other Decision Makers. The book should be a fabulous peek behind the Thunder veil. Sam Presti’s secretive organization is wondrously successful but maddeningly frustrating for followers of the team who want to learn more about how and why decisions are made. Presti seldom speaks in detail, and his lieutenants never speak at all. But last week, Alamar spoke at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, and he sat down for an interview with Grantland’s Zach Lowe, which you can view here. It’s a fascinating look at some inside Thunder decisions.

A caricature of how NBA teams use analytics could be an unshaven Daryl Morey sitting alone in a laboratory feeding statistics through some Rube Goldberg computer contraption programmed to calculate wins. But there is a whole other side to how franchises crunch data that has nothing to do with basketball statistics -- it’s strictly business.

In 2013, teams use analytics to increase their bottom lines as much as they do to boost their win totals.

The Orlando Magic, for example, knew that ticket demand would nose-dive after they traded Dwight Howard. But Orlando's gate revenue is down just 3.3 percent this season compared to 2010-11, according to team vice president of business strategy Anthony Perez, who spoke on a ticketing panel during the 2013 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston.

Compared to the related fall in the secondary resale market for tickets, which Perez said has dropped 28 percent, the sales team seems to be doing well. Although fewer people are coming to games (1,322 fewer fans per game from a franchise-high average of 18,972 two years ago), Orlando has gotten better at squeezing money out of its building.

“Our goal is not to sell out games necessarily,” said Perez. “We're trying to maximize revenue.”

To do this, the Magic and many other teams have adopted a sales practice commonly used by energy companies, hotels and airlines but relatively new in sports: dynamic pricing.

For several years, NBA teams have charged different prices for tickets depending on the opponent or the day of the week. This season, the Magic have taken it a step further, using data-intensive software models to adjust prices in real time as market demand ebbs and flows.

Just like gas prices.

This is far from the only way teams are using analytics to drive revenue. Data has become vital to selling season tickets, which Amy Brooks, senior vice president of the NBA, called the “most critical part of our business” during an MIT Sloan panel session.

To predict which customers are likely to purchase ticket packages, the NBA assigns each fan in its database what Brooks calls an "NBA FICO" score, a term coined for its similarity to consumer credit ratings. This number (from 1 to 100) can be determined by any number of factors: age, income, home ownership, season-ticket buying history, distance from the arena, games attended, purchases made on NBA.com, number of stadiums visited, League Pass subscription renewals. The goal is to gauge the revenue potential the league can expect from a fan buying full or partial season-ticket packages.

If John Hollinger had devised the formula, it would be called the fan's BER (Buyer Efficiency Rating).

Given that the average NBA team has 100,000 leads, according to Brooks, cold-calling is a daunting proposition. So the more teams know about each, the more they can sell.

"We love behavioral data," Brooks said. "We want to automate this as much as possible."

This more than anything is why teams are phasing out paper tickets in favor of digital entry passes that force fans to reveal so much information about themselves.

Because ticket sales can go only so far. The gate has actually seen its slice of the overall revenue pie shrink in recent years.

“We know the revenue growth isn't coming from fans spending more money on tickets,” said Jonathan Kraft, president of the company that owns the Patriots, who was part of an MIT Sloan ownership panel. “We're looking at other areas to increase revenue.”

Outside of local media deals, sponsorship is the biggest potential source of growth, and compiling fan data can help teams lure whale companies.

The days of calling up American Express and having the company cut a check to put its logo in the stadium are over, said Elizabeth Lindsey of Wasserman Media Group during an MIT Sloan panel. The financial crisis of 2008, which tanked the economy and accelerated the trend of sports becoming more corporate-like, has forced teams to actually listen to what the sponsor wants.

Now company reps might start a conversation outlining that they are a Fortune 500 company with one of the most recognizable logos in the world. So they don't need signs and branding splattered all over the arena.

These big-name companies want to make a genuine connection with fans. They want to engage them in a way that is memorable. They want to provide an experience instead of just delivering a passive message on a billboard that is easy to ignore. They want to emulate the passionate consumer reaction to a brand that sports teams seem uniquely capable of creating.

Then the team’s execs usually nod and say they understand -- only to come back with a sponsorship package that includes big, expensive ads on the scorer’s table.

For franchises living in the past, these unappealing, traditional avenues are all they really have to offer. But creative teams that have a deep analytical understanding of who their fans are can present opportunities that are much more attractive to potential sponsors.

The Celtics, says Lindsey, are one team that really gets it.

They have partnered with AmEx, for example, to give cardholders who buy season tickets access to exclusive events -- attending practice, sitting down with Boston legends, going to player autograph sessions. Such access resonates with consumers in a way that no scoreboard sign ever could.

Kyle Sherman of Fox Sports Media Group, on the same panel, noted why these new-age partnerships are alluring to companies: "If I love the Clippers, and Toyota sponsors the Clippers, then I love Toyota by default."

And with deep analytic knowledge of who their fans are, teams like the Celtics and Magic are able to create custom pitches. Having the numbers allows them to prove their value to both current sponsors and potential ones. They can let you know how many 18-to-34-year-olds attend the average game, how many beers the typical male spectator buys or what might happen to attendance if J.J. Redick is traded in the middle of a losing season. (Orlando can -- and did -- model those figures before the recent deal that sent him to Milwaukee.)

This gives data-rich franchises something in common with Facebook: They are becoming increasingly attractive platforms for advertisers because they can offer laser-guided customer targeting. Just as Facebook can let companies show ads to, say, only Pearl Jam fans or those who self-identify as Republicans, teams can now step into a meeting armed with reams of demographic information about who comes into their arenas.

Ultimately, however, the on-court analytics popularized by Morey and the Rockets are still where the money is. By comparison, the business-based data sets offer low-leverage advances in revenue -- and they'll never get you James Harden.

Perhaps a better example: Chandler Parsons. While he may never become an All-Star, the Rockets are getting an incredible on-court return on investment given Parson’s meager salary.

And if these types of moves lead to an extended period of success -- or even the ultimate goal of winning a title -- then the windfalls the team makes through its stat crunching would greatly outweigh the smaller revenue increases brought on by fan data mining.

Mark Cuban summed it up best at Sloan: "When a company has a good year, you don't throw a parade. When a sports team wins, the whole city celebrates.”

Fan-behavior analytics alone will never win a championship, but they can create more financial flexibility for a front office and reinforce a culture of critically thinking about how to improve a franchise -- both on and off the court.

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

• Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Don’t look at the Hawks as a basketball team. Look at them as a spreadsheet. The NBA trade deadline passed Thursday. Josh Smith is still a Hawk. Why? Because for general manager Danny Ferry, this season realistically isn’t about winning a championship, it’s about preserving the wonderful landscape without another volcanic eruption of red ink. There were potential trade partners willing to send the Hawks players for Smith, possibly even name players. But after ridding the franchise of one debilitating financial virus (Joe Johnson’s contract), the last thing Ferry was willing to do was take on, say, Amar’e Stoudemire and an economic Bubonic plague (about $54 million for the next 2½ years). … Ferry is clearing land with the belief that others will buy in and he’ll be able to build his Shangri-La, not a Knights Inn. Here’s the problem with what happened Thursday: There is a chance Josh Smith walks after this season for nothing. Even if he has overvalued himself and doesn’t get the contract he hopes for in free agency, he still may leave. Ferry obviously wasn’t enamored with any of the players he was offered in trade, but aren’t weak assets better than potentially no assets?
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: J.J. Redick, who is in the final year of his contract, said he hasn’t spoken with the Bucks yet about his long-term plans. “I think with them bringing me in I assume they want to get into the playoffs, make a playoff run and try to get as high a seed as possible,” he said. “Hopefully, I can help them do that and we’ll deal with the summer when the summer happens.” Redick, who will turn 29 in June, will become an unrestricted free agent in July because his current contract can’t be extended. Hypothetically, he could sign with the Magic, but he doesn’t see that as a realistic possibility because the Magic are headed in a different direction. “I think that door is probably closed, and that’s just my assumption,” he said. “I can’t imagine a scenario where that would be the case. Will our paths cross at some point in the future? Who knows? But in terms of this summer, I don’t see that happening. I have no hard feelings. None whatsoever. I just can’t remember that ever happening in the NBA [where someone was traded and then signed a few months later].”
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: Bucks general manager John Hammond didn't come away empty-handed, however. He still pulled off the biggest deal of the day by acquiring Orlando Magic guard J.J. Redick in a six-player trade. Redick joins Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis to form a talented three-guard rotation as the Bucks approach the final 29 games of the regular season and try to secure an Eastern Conference playoff spot. "People underestimate J.J.'s overall ability because he's such an effective three-point shooter," Hammond said Thursday. "He's a quality defender, a good ball handler, a good decision-maker. "He gives us an opportunity to go with a true three-guard rotation. I don't want to say we have the best three-guard rotation in the NBA, but we've got to be in the discussion." … Now the Bucks will have intriguing contract situations to ponder with Jennings, Ellis and Redick in the off-season. Jennings will be a restricted free agent, and the Bucks can match any offer made to him. Ellis has an $11 million player option for next season and can become an unrestricted free agent. And Redick will be a free agent. "We have decisions to make this summer, as we do in every off-season," Hammond said.
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: Shoring up the point guard position at virtually no cost, Toronto acquired well-travelled Sebastian Telfair from the Phoenix Suns on Thursday. It fills a need on the roster, no doubt, but it’s hardly a deal that will reshape the team’s immediate fortunes. And while sticking with the plan may be a solid longer-term philosophy, the team the Raptors are currently chasing in a difficult race to the post-season upgraded itself. The Milwaukee Bucks, who began play Thursday night in eighth place in the East, picked up J.J. Redick from the Orlando Magic in a definite upgrade. … The word from the Raptors to their fans is obvious: “We’re on the right track, hang with us as we grow internally.” Whether that works or not is impossible to tell — and Colangelo is still going to have discussions about an Andrea Bargnani trade around the late-June draft and early-July free agency period — but the team president seems content with the pieces that are in place.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: The Charlotte Bobcats did a deal at the trade deadline Thursday, but it won’t exactly change the course of the franchise. The Bobcats moved one little-used power forward, Hakim Warrick, for another little-used power forward – Orlando’s Josh McRoberts. This makes the Bobcats a bit younger: McRoberts, who played collegiately at Duke, is in his sixth NBA season, while Warrick is in his eighth. It also shaves about $800,000 off the Bobcats’ salary cap. Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins and general manager Rich Cho said they’ve had interest in McRoberts for a while and want to explore his potential the rest of this season.
• Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman: Ronnie Brewer is coming, a defensive whiz acquired from New York for a future second-round draft pick. He is a relative unknown in these parts, unless you remember him playing at Arkansas or you worship at the House of Sutton — then you know his dad played for Eddie. But if you love Thabo Sefolosha, you're going to love Brewer. Eric Maynor is going, the third-string point guard shipped to Portland for a trade exception. He hasn't played meaningful minutes for months, the result of never quite returning to form after a devastating knee injury. But really, neither of those deals is major. So, why didn't the Thunder strike a big deal? It all comes down to money. On a day when no title contenders made any blockbuster moves, the Thunder fell in line. It has decided to basically stay the course with its current collection of players. Same could be said for the Heat and the Spurs and the Pacers and the Clippers and pretty much everyone else in serious contention. Everyone is mindful of the new collective bargaining agreement.
• Candace Buckner of The Columbian: Portland acquired guard Eric Maynor from the Oklahoma City Thunder in return for the draft rights of international player Georgios Printezis. The Blazers made the deal by using the same $2.4 million trade exception that they received last July in the swap of Raymond Felton and Kurt Thomas for Jared Jeffries. With the trade, the Blazers needed to waive veteran backup guard Ronnie Price to make room on the roster. By doing so, Portland takes its first steps in improving a low-performing bench, which was once believed it could be built from within. “This was the best deal we could construct,” Olshey said on Thursday afternoon. “Eric fits into our culture. He’s a great guy in the locker room and he’s a really good guy on the floor. He upgrades our talent base in terms of the point guard and backcourt positions.”
• Tom Moore of phillyBurbs.com: The 76ers made a relatively minor move at Thursday afternoon’s NBA trade deadline, acquiring backup point guard Charles Jenkins and cash from the Warriors in exchange for a protected second-round pick the Sixers may not end up having to pay. The Warriors sent the 23-year-old Jenkins, the 44th pick in the 2011 draft, to the Sixers and Jeremy Tyler to the Hawks, which allowed them to avoid having to pay the luxury tax. The move leaves the Sixers with the maximum 15 players under contract. They just guaranteed the contract of point guard Jeremy Pargo on Monday for the remainder of the season.
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: The Warriors avoided paying the league's increasingly punitive luxury tax at the last possible second, dealing away end-of-bench players Charles Jenkins and Jeremy Tyler minutes before Thursday's trade deadline. Jenkins, the team's third-string point guard, was sent to Philadelphia, and Tyler, the team's 15th man, was shipped to Atlanta. Both players were moved along with cash considerations for future protected draft picks that are never expected to be conveyed to Golden State. The Warriors are one of seven teams that have never incurred the luxury tax since its inception with the 1999 collective bargaining agreement. Owner Joe Lacob said he would be willing to pay the tax if necessary in the future, but thought it financially wise to avoid the penalty this season when the team stood just $1.2 million over the $70.3 million luxury tax threshold.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: The Suns were not just acquiring the lottery-pick talent of Marcus Morris by finalizing a deal Thursday with Houston. They feel like they are acquiring a new Markieff Morris as well with the move. The Suns have been interested in pairing the Morris twins since the 2011 draft. They nearly gave a first-round pick to do it 20 months ago but gave up only their second-round pick in June’s draft to get Marcus on Thursday. … Before Thursday’s trade deadline, the Suns also dealt Sebastian Telfair, who was replaced in the rotation by rookie Kendall Marshall three weeks ago. Telfair was moved to Toronto for center Hamed Haddadi and a 2014 second-round pick that will be the latter of Toronto’s and Sacramento’s picks, with top-36 protection. The Suns waived rookie Luke Zeller, who made 16 appearances, to clear a spot on the 15-man roster for the new Morris. The Morrises will be the only twin teammates in NBA history besides the Suns’ Dick and Tom Van Arsdale in 1976-77. This is no novelty act or short-term flier. The Suns feel they acquired a future tandem and sacrificed only a pick at about No. 35, where a draftee would have a hard time making the team over two potential Suns first-round lottery picks.
• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: The Heat invested nearly three seasons in Dexter Pittman’s development. If it pays off for Pittman, it will pay off for the Grizzlies. Pittman was dealt before Thursday’s trading deadline, along with a second-round pick, in exchange for Memphis’ trade exception and a foreign jump-shooting center (Ricky Sanchez) who was drafted back in 2005, plays in Argentina and isn’t all that likely to play in the United States. So what was the point? “Roster flexibility,” Erik Spoelstra said.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: The Griz were able to absorb Pittman’s salary with a trade exception created by Sam Young, whom the team also used to acquire the rights to Sanchez in a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers last season. … “Dexter is a player who gives us some additional size,” Griz CEO Jason Levien said. “We saw it as an opportunity to add a player to our roster who can potentially be helpful to us this season. And doing due diligence, we received favorable feedback on him as a person. Also, we think that using one of our trade exceptions to gain a player and the additional asset of a second-round pick is something we saw value in.” The Griz could have three second-round picks in the June draft. Memphis owns second-round picks from Miami and Toronto. The Grizzlies’ second-rounder goes to the Los Angeles Lakers only if they finish with one of the top five records in the NBA.
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: On Thursday, Washington traded the disgruntled third-year shooting guard to the Boston Celtics for injured veteran guard Leandro Barbosa and seldom-used veteran center Jason Collins, getting minimal return for a player who had been the team’s leading scorer until last month. “Jordan did not fit into our current plans . . . or our future plans,” Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld said during a news conference to announce the trade. “At this time, we thought it was in the best interest of everyone if we make this trade. It will be a good situation for Jordan. He might get an opportunity to go to a better team and help them and it will allow us to continue on the path that we’re trying to build in the locker room, with work ethic and team play, where everybody is on the same page and wanting to play for the same reasons. Being unselfish offensively and playing good, aggressive defense.”
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: The Celtics negotiated until the final moments before the 3 p.m. trade deadline Thursday, trying to work deals that would upgrade the current roster and add youth and talent to future ones. But the only move president of basketball operations Danny Ainge could muster was a three-player deal that landed Wizards shooting guard Jordan Crawford — once renowned for his dunk on LeBron James at a Nike Camp while at Xavier — for injured guard Leandro Barbosa and veteran center Jason Collins. … Rivers and Wittman are close, and the Celtics coach acknowledged Crawford’s attitude issues in Washington. “I know he can score and that’s something we needed,” Rivers said. “Losing Barbosa [to a torn left ACL], I kept saying that’s hurt us. We don’t have that wild card off the bench, and I hope [Crawford] gives us that. I know about the other stuff, too. I’m hoping, obviously, [with] our staff, and we have some veteran players around him, that he can grow.”
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: In a desperate search for another sharpshooter, the Dallas Mavericks got rid of a defensive specialist Thursday in return for an offensive specialist, trading Dahntay Jones to the Atlanta Hawks for Anthony Morrow. Morrow averaged 5.2 points and 1.1 rebounds in 12.5 minutes per game while playing 24 games for the Atlanta Hawks this season. A sharpshooter, Morrow shot 42.3 percent from the field and 39.5 percent from 3-point range this season for Atlanta. “We’ve talked about this since training camp, trying to upgrade and address some of our shooting issues. This really gives us a chance to spread the court and make some people’s job a little bit easier, because you certainly can’t come off a guy like Anthony,” Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson said.
• Marc Berman of the New York Post: At Thursday’s trade deadline, Grunwald opened up a roster spot for Kenyon Martin’s addition by shipping out-of-the-rotation guard Ronnie Brewer to Oklahoma City for a 2014 second-round pick. Martin will sign a 10-day contract but is not expected to play either Friday night in Toronto or Sunday against Philadelphia as final details get worked out. It wasn’t much of an upgrade for a club that has lost four of its last five games, was humiliated in Indiana on Wednesday night and has been a .500 team since mid-December after beginning the season 18-5. Martin, with the Clippers last season, hasn’t played this season. “That’s our goal. That’s what this organization is trying to do — move toward an NBA championship,” Grunwald said on a conference call, the first time he has talked to the media since Oct. 1. “Hopefully, we’ve made great progress on our goal. I think we have the parts to do so.’’