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

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

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

Then they confiscated our cell phones.

Woohoo!

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

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

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

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

The Cavs know how to party

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New York, New York

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This?

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

And, increasingly, they know it.

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

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

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

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

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

He of all people must love this system, right?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A while back I found that players who play a ton of minutes don't win NBA titles anymore.

It used to happen all the time. Michael Jordan did it constantly. But it has been almost a decade since any player has pulled that off, even though a who's who of MVPs and the like have attempted it.

What interests me is: What happens? Those players who still play huge minutes ... what's happening to them?

I just took a peak at the top 20 players in total minutes played this season.

Now, think about this -- these are the NBA's Iron Men. Not just the ones who some coach theorized could pull off massive minutes. These are the ones who really did. This season.

If coaches are managing minutes correctly, you could expect this group to be among the NBA's least likely to get injured as the season moved into the playoffs. These are, presumably, theoretically, the men who can take it.

Were they?

As a group, they have indeed had it very rough.

I found these 20 players fall into four categories:

Catastrophic injury: Kobe Bryant, David Lee, Luol Deng, Russell Westbrook

This is amazing and scary. A full fifth of the 20 NBA players with the heaviest minutes load this year are either certain not to contribute any more this season, or are unlikely to.

Kobe Bryant, fourth on the NBA's list of minutes played this season, stars in this group with a ruptured Achilles. But he's part of an All-Star cast. Russell Westbrook's knee injury will keep him out for the rest of the playoffs and has dealt the Thunder's title chances a serious blow. He was 17th this season in total minutes played -- but was much higher on the list before some late-season rest.

All-Star Warrior David Lee has been getting back on the court in short stints, but by and large his hip injury has been a defining storyline in these playoffs. He was 12th in minutes played this year.

What would the Bulls, going toe-to-toe against the Heat with a short bench, give to have their typical minutes leader Luol Deng back? But he is out possibly for the rest of the playoffs with complications from a spinal tap, related to an infection. Many would assume that would have nothing to do with heavy minutes. That could be so. But don't forget that exhausted bodies can malfunction in many different ways.

Honorable mention: Derrick Rose is still out after being 24th in minutes per game last season. Over the 38 games before his season-ending injury, Rajon Rondo played 37.4 minutes per game, good for 13th in the NBA this year.

Banged up: Stephen Curry, James Harden, Deron Williams

Stephen Curry's playoff injury saga -- he has been a near scratch for many games -- comes on ankles that played the seventh most minutes in the league this season. And he's playing against the Spurs, the team that has always been so strategic in managing minutes in the regular season, to keep the injury-prone (Manu Ginobili) and aging (Tim Duncan) at their best. Should the Warriors have protected him a bit more to have him firing on all cylinders now? Worth considering for next year?

James Harden was underwhelming in the postseason -- he could barely eat while battling strep throat -- after playing the NBA's sixth-most regular season minutes. Deron Williams battled injuries all season, but still played the 19th most minutes. His Nets lost to the lower-seeded Bulls at home in a Game 7.

Didn't make the playoffs.

Say goodbye to Damian Lillard, who topped the minutes list, as well as DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday, O.J. Mayo, Evan Turner, Kemba Walker and Nicolas Batum.

Dealing with it: Kevin Durant, Paul George, Klay Thompson, LeBron James

Halfway through the second round, a grand total of four of the NBA's top 20 players in minutes played are alive in the playoffs anywhere near firing on all cylinders, health-wise.

That's the same percentage that have had catastrophic injuries.

Hats off as well to Bucks Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings, who made the playoffs intact after finishing in the NBA's top 20 in minutes played.

If Durant looked a little tired missing two free throws late in a Game 3 loss, it might have something to do with having played more regular-season minutes than every NBA player not called Damian Lillard. Indeed, unless the Thunder right the ship and win a chip, this will mark the 10th straight season nobody has both played 3,000 minutes and won a title. Durant is the only candidate remaining.

Youngsters George and Thompson were eighth and ninth in the league in minutes played (but at a hair below 3,000 minutes) and are performing well.

James -- in a season when his coach paid careful attention to managing his minutes -- still finished 16th in total minutes. And he's an interesting test case.

David Thorpe's theory is that the reason the NBA has changed to favor managing minutes is that defense has become a lot more work. Now it's five players moving constantly, while it used to be a lot of isolation basketball, with many players standing around watching as one guy pounded the ball into the post. Watch James at both ends and you'll see what Thorpe is talking about. There's not much standing around these days.

The Heat believe exhaustion due to long minutes is why James' performance tailed off badly in the 2011 Finals, which is something they have been trying to address ever since.

James has played 191 fewer regular-season minutes that he did two years ago. Did Spoelstra get him enough rest this time around? We'll find out in the next few weeks.

On Thursday I wrote about the Timberwolves severing ties with David Kahn, who is generally treated as an NBA laughingstock. My big point: OK, he made some mistakes. But if he's so bad at his job, how come so many other teams have worse rosters?

In 2010 Kahn said he wanted compensation from the Trail Blazers because they traded him Martell Webster with, he said, an improperly disclosed back injury. (Webster has since moved on to play for the Wizards.)

I called many sources to assess Kahn's chances of winning compensation for the Timberwolves. The people I called around the NBA were unanimous: Nobody thought Kahn had any chance. Only one person would let me quote him, and even then without a name. He pointed out that Webster's injury happened in front of a nation of NBA fans:

"We're all laughing about it. You can't watch the freaking playoffs? That was a pretty obvious incident, right on national TV."

So, what did happen with that Webster dispute?

These inter-team squabbles are not public. And yet this part March, there were reports that the matter had been "resolved amicably," although it has never been clear precisely how. Was Kahn's claim as out of line as it seemed initially?

Today, two sources directly involved in the talks tell me that in fact the dispute led to depositions in preparation for a hearing, and those depositions did not go well for the Blazers.

As a result, Portland agreed to pay Minnesota $1.5 million -- said to be one of the largest such agreements in league history -- to settle the matter before it reached the hearing stage.

The Trail Blazers declined to comment.

It's doubtful this little bit of vindication will tip the scales of public opinion in Kahn's favor, but in fairness: He was ridiculed for that in real time, but apparently time proved him right.

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

I'm one of them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's fine. Give the man his prize.

But.

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

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

OK, I hear that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teams typically like to use high picks on players with good size. But if you ignore that, things tend to work out beautifully.

 

• Tom Moore of phillyBurbs.com: In the wake of a published report saying the organization privately hopes Doug Collins doesn’t return next season as 76ers coach, his agent claims it will be Collins’ call. “The relationship with Doug, me and Sixers management has been terrific,” said John Langel during a Thursday afternoon telephone conversation. “What they told me beyond this season and as recently as today and yesterday is how long Doug stays here is Doug’s decision.” Langel denied rumblings that the story, which cited multiple unnamed NBA sources, in Thursday’s Philadelphia Inquirer originated from Collins’ camp. Sixers spokesman Mike Preston said, “We are aware of the report and will not comment on a column loaded with innuendo and speculation.”
• Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: An NBA source reached Thursday said the decision of staying or going is up to Collins, that Harris and Co. are on board with him being the coach of the team "for as long as he wants." That stance hasn't seemed to change since the beginning of the season. But through all this, one thing seems to be clear - Collins most likely won't be coming back as head coach next season. This type of talk usually doesn't arise unless a change is going to happen. Should Collins quit, he would leave the last year of his salary, reportedly at $4.5 million, on the table. No one wants to leave that kind of money out there. But coming back at age 62 and overseeing yet another rebuilding year certainly can't be enticing to Collins, though, again, management would welcome him back with open arms.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: In the history of its franchise, the Heat has won less than a handful of games in San Antonio. Up the road a ways from the Alamo is Oklahoma City, where the most hostile home crowd in the NBA cheers for the Thunder. Consider these two cities Exhibit A and Exhibit B for why locking up the best record in the NBA was important for the Heat. In clinching the league’s best record Wednesday, Miami earned itself home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, and that includes a Game 7 scenario at AmericanAirlines Arena in the Finals. In other words, the Heat bought itself an insurance policy. “We’re not going to use that as a crutch, but it’s a nice break-in-case-of-emergency box that we have installed in the ‘Triple A,’ ” Battier said. Since the beginning of the LeBron James Era, the Heat has only played one Game 7. It was the final game of last season’s Eastern Conference finals, and the Heat defeated the Celtics 101-88 at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat did not begin the 2012 Finals with home-court advantage but turned that series in its favor with a win in Oklahoma City in Game 2. Miami then won three consecutive games at home to prevent the series from going back to Oklahoma.
• Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: Danny Ainge doesn’t drink alcohol, but he’s having a shot of reality with his beverages these days. He has a genuine good feeling about his Celtics as they lug duffel bags filled with question marks through the last four regular-season games and into the playoffs. But the president of basketball operations is well aware the odds are not smiling kindly on his lads as they take the court against the Heat in Miami tonight — and beyond. Even with both Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett traveling to Florida, the two stars are battling ankle issues and will not play tonight, according to the team. (Dwyane Wade, who has missed six straight games with right knee soreness, expects to play for the Heat.) In terms of psychological edge, the best thing the Celts may have going for them in a week is they may catch an opponent looking beyond their blip on the screen. “I don’t know,” said Ainge, pondering the point, then reaching for real. “Usually when you’re under the radar and you have low expectations, it’s because you’re not as talented as the teams you’re playing. So I don’t know if that’s good or bad. “We’ve been the favorites in a lot of series over the last years, and our guys have responded to that. This will be a chance to see what our guys are made of being the underdogs.” Ainge then commenced with what would be considered stock talk from a guy at the top of an organization. But even in this case, he didn’t dodge the harsher facts. “I love our team going into the playoffs,” Ainge said. “I think our team has good chemistry, we have a lot of resolve and I think they’re fun to be with.”
• Joe Freeman of The Oregonian: Knock on wood. The most important piece of theTrail Blazers’ future is about to be jinxed. For all the accolades Damian Lillard has received, for all the history-making statistics he has accumulated, for all the hypehe has generated, perhaps his proudest achievement during this runaway Rookie of the Year season has gone unrecognized. Lillard is one of just 39 players in the NBA — and the lone person on his own team — to play in every game this season. His basketball ability is so dynamic and so polished, its easy to forget that Lillard also is quickly proving to be one of the toughest and most durable players in the NBA. “He’s the closest thing I’ve seen to Andre Miller since Andre Miller,” Blazers trainer Jay Jensen said, referring to the former Blazers point guard and one-time NBA Iron Man who played in 632 consecutive games before a suspension ended the streak. “Damian is one of the toughest I’ve seen.” No NBA franchise has had its foundation and future rocked by injuries more than the Blazers in recent seasons, as one-time franchise cornerstones Greg Oden andBrandon Roy had promising careers sabotaged and a host of other players endured various ailments. But Lillard is breaking the Blazers’ bad mojo. Not only has he started all 78 Blazers games, Lillard also has played extensive minutes. Lillard ranks second in the NBA in minutes played (3,012) and third in average per game (38.6).
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins doesn’t think his future in Memphis is tied to how far the team advances in the playoffs. His players certainly don’t believe a contract extension for Hollins should come down to the postseason. … Hollins is in the third and final year of his contract. There is nothing in place beyond this season and the Grizzlies have not discussed an extension with him yet. Griz management has not laid out criteria for Hollins, either. Majority owner Robert Pera and CEO Jason Levien have tinkered with the roster while continuing to afford Hollins coaching autonomy. But there is a growing perception that the organization could be waiting to see whether the team advances past the first round after losing an opening-round Game 7 at home to the Los Angeles Clippers last year. Hollins doesn’t believe that is the case.
• Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: The Cavaliers will be facing the hottest team in the NBA when the Knicks visit Quicken Loans Arena on Friday. Now is not the time for Kyrie Irving to wear down before our eyes. In the five games since his return from a sprained left shoulder, Irving is shooting 33.7 percent from the field (29 of 86) and 29.2 percent from behind the arc (7 of 24). He admitted after the Cavs' 111-104 loss to Detroit on Wednesday, he's a bit worn down. "Going into the fourth quarter, I was obviously a little fatigued like everyone else on the court, but that's no excuse for not executing on both ends of the floor," Irving said. Irving has committed an uncharacteristically high 13 turnovers in his last two games. During that span, he's dished out 15 assists. He has averaged 28 points in those two games. The 6-foot-3, 191-pounder has been very good vs. the Knicks this season and has averaged 31.5 points. Included in that total was a career-high 41 points against the Knicks on Dec. 15. "I think he looked more tired in the first half," Cavs coach Byron Scott said. "In the second half, he picked it up."
• Jody Genessy of the Deseret News: Depending on how things play out — in both the impending postseason and the upcoming offseason — tonight could be the last time Paul Millsap ever wears a Utah Jazz uniform at EnergySolutions Arena. Utah finishes its regular season in Minnesota and Memphis, so Friday's game against the Timberwolves could possibly be the free-agent-to-be's home finale after a seven-year stint in Salt Lake City. The longest-tenured Jazz player clearly didn't want to think about that fact, somewhat brushing off a question about whether he'd have extra emotions going into what could be his last home hurrah in a No. 24 Jazz jersey. "I don't approach it differently than any other game, especially in these past few weeks," Millsap said. "The main focus, the main goal, is to win." Millsap smiled when asked to talk about the growth he's experienced since coming to Utah out of Louisiana Tech in 2006.
• Dale Kasler, Ryan Lillis and Tony Bizjak of The Sacramento Bee: In another day of chaos and confusion over the Sacramento Kings, a respected sports publication said Thursday that the NBA is asking Sacramento's bidders to compensate Seattle investors if the team stays put. Sports Business Daily, quoting an unnamed source, said the NBA wants Sacramento's investment group to compensate Seattle investor Chris Hansen for the $30 million nonrefundable deposit he already paid to the Maloof family. The report came one day after a source told The Bee that the Maloofs have demanded a written purchase offer from the Sacramento investors as a backup to the purchase agreement they signed in January with Hansen. The two developments, coming less than a week before the NBA is expected to decide the Kings' fate, underscore the fluid nature of a process that league Commissioner David Stern has called unprecedented. Michael McCann, a legal expert at NBA TV, said the league may have asked Sacramento's investors to compensate Hansen out of fear he might sue the league for damages. "If the NBA is going to, in effect, pick Sacramento over Seattle, it wants to do so in a way that eliminates any legal exposure," McCann said.
• Jeff Faraudo of The Oakland Tribune: The playoffs are secure, a No. 6 seed is not quite so certain. And suddenly neither is the status of center Andrew Bogut, who aggravated a sprained left ankle in the first quarter Thursday night and did not return in the Warriors' 116-97 loss to Oklahoma City. Golden State hung with the Thunder for a half before the NBA's Western Conference leader pulled away. With three games left in the regular season, the Warriors have just a half-game lead over the Houston Rockets in the race for the No. 6 spot in the West. A seventh-place finish would mean a daunting first-round playoff assignment against either the San Antonio Spurs or the Thunder. Bogut, who had microfracture surgery on the same ankle late last April, suffered the sprain in Tuesday's playoff-clinching victory over Minnesota, according to a team spokesperson. He aggravated it Thursday and exited the game with 2:55 left in the first quarter. He went to the locker room for the remainder of the night. It was not immediately clear whether his removal from the game was precautionary or indicative of something more serious.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: In a must-win of sorts, a game the Thunder needed to stay in control of its own destiny, OKC came out and absolutely demolished the Warriors, a team that historically puts pressure on the Thunder inside Oracle Arena. “We emphasized before the game 48 minutes of just toughness and (being) locked in,” said Kevin Durant. They’re going to score, but we stayed locked in and poised. And I think we did that throughout the whole night.” In the race for the West’s top seed, the Thunder is now a half game ahead of San Antonio with three games remaining. In many ways, the final three games will be as challenging as the past five. Unlike the past five, the next three will come against sub-.500 teams, only one of which (Milwaukee) will make the postseason. It’ll be more of a mental challenge to take care of business in these final three than it was to get up for the previous five. Those were about executing and the Thunder playing up to its potential. These final three will be about showing up.
• Frank Isola of the New York Daily News: The next time you hear a team owner, executive or player say “We’re a family,” just remember the unfortunate ending to Kurt Thomas’ career. Family doesn’t treat family that way — unless, I suppose, you are a Soprano or a Manson. Thomas will lose the title of the NBA’s oldest player Friday once the Knicks, desperate to add a healthy body for their depleted front line, release the 40-year-old forward and sign journeyman James Singleton. The expected move — Singleton was in town Thursday but unable to play because the deal was not finalized — comes eight days before the playoffs begin and 23 days since Thomas saved the Knicks’ hide on the West Coast by playing the game of his life. The Knicks’ winning streak, which was snapped at 13 games here Thursday night, began in Utah with Thomas’ selfless and courageous performance. Thomas played with a broken foot, knowing that he could possibly damage it further by playing. Next week, Thomas will have pins inserted in his right foot. “For him to go out there and be playing on a fractured foot and do the things he did for that game, (he) helped us right the ship,” Carmelo Anthony said. “I don’t think he gets enough credit for that.” Instead, Thomas is essentially being fired. This is a necessary evil of the business, of course. The Knicks need frontcourt insurance and Thomas wouldn’t be available even if the Knicks reach the NBA Finals. With Thomas gone, 39-year-old Marcus Camby is now the second- oldest player on the roster behind Jason Kidd and the only active player from the Knicks team that reached the 1999 NBA Finals.
• K.C.Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: The only timeline the Bulls have given regarding Derrick Rose's return is eight to 12 months. That means, given the surgery took place May 12, missing the 2012-13 season always was a possibility. Now that Rose sitting out all season is all but a certainty, the Bulls and Rose have drawn some criticism. Asked in light of that whether the Bulls should have just declared Rose out for the season last fall, coach Tom Thibodeau shrugged. "They were just being forthright," Thibodeau said of management and team physician Brian Cole. "That's what everyone thought. We didn't know, and we still don't know. We were just being honest.” … Rose was cleared for full scrimmaging on Feb. 18. He has practiced well but has given no signs of playing in games. … Thibodeau reiterated there is no drop-dead date for Rose to return, leaving the possibility open he could play in the playoffs after missing the regular season. Nobody expects that scenario to transpire, however, which means Rose likely would return next training camp.

In the summers of 2011 and 2012, ESPN.com has asked a panel of experts to rate every player in the NBA. The scope wasn’t quite as wide for this week’s “in-season” #NBArank, but even the smaller-scale project produced a lot of insight. After each voter rated each player, 9,546 individual ratings had been processed. And while simply averaging each player’s rating and producing a ranking from that is the backbone of #NBArank, there are countless other ways to parse the information to gain insight on how the panel of experts views the players involved.

The first important thing is to not get hung up on the actual rank, which may seem counter-intuitive for a project called #NBArank. For example, the players ranked 20th through 30th were separated by just .208 ratings points. A couple of changed ratings by a handful of voters here and there could’ve completely reshuffled that group. In fact, had one voter given Paul Pierce (30th) a rating a point higher and Zach Randolph (29th) a rating a point lower, they would’ve flipped spots. That’s how close things were in that range of the rankings.

Interesting: The group of elite players is shrinking (or the panel is evaluating players more critically as time goes on):

• In 2011, 22 players rated an 8 or higher.
• In 2012, that number fell to 19.
• The ratings compiled near the end of the 2012-13 season produced just 16 players rated 8 or higher.

Injuries may have been a factor in that. Seven different players -- most of whom are currently expected to miss the rest of the season -- received a zero. It’s also a big contributing factor in Derrick Rose’s fall from No. 5 to No. 23 and Andrew Bynum’s fall from No. 13 to dead last among the players rated this time around. Bynum received a dismal 4.84 average rating, which would’ve ranked him 146th in the offseason (for perspective, it’s the same rating Ramon Sessions received).

Injured players also accounted for the top three biggest drop-offs from August: Andrew Bynum (-73), Steve Nash (-39) and Danny Granger (-36).

On the opposite site of the spectrum, 25 different players received a high rating of 10, including three players who didn’t crack the top 30 in the rankings. The voters, though, remained stingy with the 10s. While every voter handed out at least one (and one voter handed out 15), on average voters gave 10s to just under four players. Three injured players -- Kevin Love, Rajon Rondo and Derrick Rose -- received at least one 10 and at least one 0.

Obviously the player on whom the panel agreed the most was LeBron James, who received a 10 from every voter. Using standard deviation, we can find that the next most agreed-upon players were Kevin Durant (who received exclusively 10s and 9s), Russell Westbrook and James Harden.

Excluding injured players, the player with the largest standard deviation was J.J. Hickson, who had a high rating of 8, a low rating of 1, a median of 6 and a standard deviation of 1.27. So good luck trying to calculate what his contract will be this offseason.

Last, but not least, special mention needs to go out to Jimmy Butler. The second-year Bulls guard made a leap in the ratings usually reserved for rookies (who are sometimes under-ranked in the preseason version of the rankings, with no NBA data to go on). Butler jumped nearly 300 spots, though he was helped because only 86 players were rated this time. It’ll be interesting to see how Butler holds up against the full player pool rather than the reduced one the panel worked with here. Butler’s rating of 5.29 was good for 80th here, but would’ve only placed him 108th this past summer.

• 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.

• John Canzano of The Oregonian: When that awful video footage went public, showing the Rutgers men's basketball coach throwing balls at his players in practice, verbally abusing them, shoving them and assaulting them with gay slurs, I did the oddest thing. When I read or heard people declare, "Mike Rice must go," I quietly added "Jr." to it. If you're like me you were eager this week to separate the son -- Mike Rice Jr. -- from his father -- Mike Rice Sr. One is a deranged coach who deserved to be immediately terminated for his actions. The other is the Trail Blazers' television analyst, a guy insanely proud of his son. I have only three words to say to Mike Sr.: Hang in there. I sent them to him via text. I sent them through his broadcasting partner, Mike Barrett. I'll tell them to Rice's face when I see him next. Because even as the father and son share a name, and both coached, I can't think of a less enviable position anywhere in this than the father who raised a child who is now humiliated and ruined by his own doing.
• Harvery Araton of The New York Times: History is beckoning the Knicks these days, but which will be the more powerful calling, the individual measure of lasting greatness or the consummate joy of collective achievement? … It is no secret that collective achievement outweighs individual exploits on the most important scorecards, but that does not mean the heights King reached in the 1980s, or what Anthony did Tuesday night in Miami and on many other a night this season is not worthy of a starred archiving in the Knicks’ history book. But when the defensive intensity increases in the playoffs, the challenge for the Knicks will be to avoid deferring too much to Anthony, in the interest of finding and sustaining a delicate chemistry that would allow Anthony’s future Hall of Fame candidacy to evoke 1973-like memories of sharing, sacrifice and ultimate celebration. As LeBron James routinely proved last spring — and Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan before him — it can and has been done. Just not for four decades in New York, Monroe, Meminger & Co. will remind everyone Friday night.
• Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News: When the playoffs roll around, Deron Williams says he won’t need the high dosage pain killers that helped salvage his season. The point guard plans to ride this out cortisone-free. Having braced himself for continued ankle pain and a fourth round of shots just before the playoffs started, Deron Williams told the Daily News on Wednesday that his treatments in February were so successful that injections aren’t necessary prior to the postseason in late April. It’s a welcome development for Williams, who is aware of the longterm dangers of injecting too much cortisone – a hormone steroid which, used liberally as an anti-inflammatory, can weaken cartilage in the joints, leaving it susceptible to damage or ruptured tendons. Doctors typically recommend athletes don’t take more than four injections per year, and Williams is happy he doesn’t have to test the limits with a fourth round. “That’s a good thing,” said Williams, who indicated in February that he “probably” will receive injections before the playoffs.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Grant Hill has 27 appearances, a 3.2 scoring average, career-low 38 percent shooting and no regrets about joining the Los Angeles Clippers. Hill expected to return to Phoenix for a sixth Suns season when he stayed in the Valley to train last summer. The Suns made a one-year, minimum-salary offer of $1.35 million and the Clippers came with a two-year, $4 million one while Oklahoma City and Chicago also pursued him. Hill, 40, joined the Clippers, began the season on the inactive list after suffering a bone bruise to his right knee, the one which underwent two arthroscopies since 2011 in Phoenix, and did not play until Jan. 12. Hill likely will not make it to that second contract year and opt to retire this summer. “Strong chance,” Hill said. “I’m leaning toward it. I want to get to the end of the year and off-season and think about it but I’m pretty confident that’s where my mind is right now. I’ve enjoyed it.” Except for a brief 2008 experiment under then-Suns coach Terry Porter, Hill always had started in his career until this season, when he often is not in the 10-man rotation.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: Seven hours before tipoff, an arena quiet, George Karl envisioned nighttime at EnergySolutions Arena — an ear-popping crowd where "the whistle gets wild and crazy against you," he said. Oh, and Utah had won five consecutive games, fighting for a playoff spot. As such, the Nuggets' coach suggested that Wednesday's game would either be close in the fourth, or a blowout — in favor of the home team. So what happened? Well, let's put it this way — Timofey Mozgov played. The Nuggets blew out the Jazz in Utah, 113-96, thanks to stat sheet-stuffing games from numerous players. "It's not very often that this building is empty by the end of the game," Karl said. It was bananas. Danilo Gallinari scored a team-high 21 points, including a huge 3 in the fourth. Kenneth Faried had 19 points and eight rebounds. Kosta Koufos gobbled up 13 rebounds in 24 minutes. And even Evan Fournier, again, made major impacts as the backup point guard, and took advantage of garbage time, finishing with 18 points.
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: Spurs guard Gary Neal could not recall the last time he played as many as 30 minutes, and no wonder. Until logging 31:28 against Orlando on Wednesday night at the AT&T Center, Neal hadn’t topped 30 minutes of court time since Dec. 15, in the 25th game of the season. “I can’t remember that far back,” Neal said, “but I think it must have been when Kawhi (Leonard) and Jack (Stephen Jackson) were injured.” Indeed, Leonard and Jackson were on the injured list when Neal scored 20 points in a win over Boston. A long run on the court Wednesday produced Neal’s highest point total since that Dec. 15 game. He scored 16 on 6-for-14 shooting, including 4 for 8 on 3-pointers. “I felt good on the court,” the third-year guard from Towson said. “It’s coming back. I’ve just got to keep grinding at it, keep working, keep getting shots up and fight to get the rhythm for the playoffs. “Our goal is the playoffs. That’s what we’re playing for and trying to prepare for. I’m trying to be sharp for the playoffs so I can do my job, which is space the floor and make shots.”
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: Lionel Hollins made it clear Wednesday night before the Grizzles’ 94-76 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers that this end-of-season drive presents a different set of circumstances. The Griz began a three-game road trip trying to keep pace with the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers for the third seed in the Western Conference playoff standings. So when the subject of rest came up, Hollins said he’d play it by ear and limit minutes depending on the flow of the game. “I just want us to be playing well,” Hollins said. “Everybody is talking about the playoffs, but we still have (regular-season) games to play. We’re playing to win.” The Grizzlies’ starters certainly came out as if they wanted to dominate and then rest. Memphis (51-24) was never seriously challenged as the Grizzlies set a franchise record for wins in a season by earning their 51st victory. Memphis also guaranteed it would finish this season with the best overall winning percentage in franchise history, surpassing the .621 mark set in 2011-12. The Griz will finish this season with a winning percentage no worse than .622.
• Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: The Warriors have made a pact that everyone will grow beards until they clinch a playoff spot. No shaving. No trimming. "The worse it looks, the better it is for the team," David Lee said. From the looks of it, though, Andris Biedrins isn't on board. He looked cleanly shaven Wednesday. And the patch on rookie Harrison Barnes' chin looked well groomed. Jackson is even in on it. His shadow was turning into some rough real estate at practice, highlighted by some gray strands. But he had his facial mane neatened. There was talk about extended the beard pact through the playoffs. But Curry wasn't a fan of that idea. "This thing," he said at Wednesday's shootaround, scratching his grizzled neck. "I've already got lint all in it."
• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: The easy part for Brandon Bass always has been the scoring, and the Celtics forward didn’t disappoint with last night’s performance against the Pistons in a 98-93 win, scoring 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting. But defensive signal-caller is a new look, and sound, for him. “Hell, maybe the blessing is without Kevin (Garnett) we’ve removed the security blanket,” coach Doc Rivers said of the sudden need for Bass to expand his role. “And Brandon, he has to be the talker on defense now. “It’s great. He was upset at someone early in the game because they were in the wrong position, and I was thinking, ‘Wow, that’s really new. And that’s really nice.’ That’s good, so maybe it’s a blessing.” Bass acknowledged that in the Celts’ current injury vacuum, he has indeed experienced a growth spurt. “I’d rather play with Kevin being out there,” Bass said. “He’s like a big brother to my little brother. But when your big brother isn’t around, it’s time to step up and grow, basically. It gives me the opportunity to grow up and play the big brother role.”
• Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune: Let the Adelman talk commence. Wednesday’s victory in Milwaukee gave the Wolves their first winning streak since Dec. 15 and gave coach Rick Adelman his 999th career NBA victory. Friday’s game with Toronto will be the first crack at 1,000, something many of the players in the locker room were talking about. “Everybody is thinking about it,” center Nikola Pekovic said. “And I know we’ll all be honored to be a part of that.” J.J. Barea said the prospects looked good for getting Adelman his 1,000th this season, something that couldn’t be said a few weeks ago. But the Wolves are starting to play very well. They won their third straight road game for the first time this season and have won five of their last eight overall.
• Richard Walker of the Gaston Gazette: The Charlotte Bobcats will be in the NBA draft lottery for the eighth time in nine years after this season. But after a fifth win in six home games has them within two victories of 20 on the season, there’s little doubt Charlotte will at least be taking more momentum into this offseason that last. Wednesday’s 88-83 victory over Philadelphia continued the Bobcats’ recent strong play while also diminishing the 76ers’ flickering playoff hopes. “We were able to prove again that we’re very interested in the outcome coming down the backstretch,” said Charlotte coach Mike Dunlap, whose 18-57 team has won five of its last nine games overall. “Our guys are playing together. It was particularly a good night for us in terms of the character of the group of guys playing. Even the guys that didn’t get a lot of minutes played great.” As has been the case lately though, guards Kemba Walker and Gerald Henderson led the way.
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: There are fewer things on a basketball court that can put a bigger smile on a coach who values defence the way Dwane Casey does than a thoroughly dominant defensive quarter. Turn that into a dominant defensive half and it’s that much better. For the first time in weeks (although it felt like quite a bit longer) the Raps enjoyed one of those halves on Wednesday night as they held Washington to just 28 points while piling up 49 of their own to put themselves in charge of a game they would go on to win 88-78. Casey has been tormented by the Raptors defensive retreat this season and has made re-establishing that defensive identity that they valued so much a year ago a priority over this final stretch of games.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: After spending most of the last two seasons in the heart of the battle, from the near move to Anaheim through the handshake deal to remain in Sacramento and finally the Seattle-Sacramento tug of war to be decided by the Board of Governors meeting April 18 and 19, Garcia can’t begin to handicap how the competition will end. On Wednesday, the groups vying for the Kings — Steve Ballmer and Chris Hansen are seeking to buy them and move them to Seattle; Ron Burkle, Mark Mastrov and Vivek Ranadive are bidding to buy them and keep them in Sacramento — made the presentation to a Board of Governors sub-committee, which later will make its recommendation. Francisco Garcia could not help but feel empathy for the fans who supported the Kings so faithfully through much of his career. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “One guy is saying this; another guy is saying that. I don’t know. I’d be sad (if the Kings leave Sacramento). It’s such a great city. They’re great fans. They’ve been supporting the team for a long time. “It’s great. It’s a great city. I have nothing but good things to say about Sacramento. I had a great eight years there.” He did return in time to get his first look at the infamous visitors’ locker room, having heard so much about it. “I was never in there,” Garcia said. “It’s pretty bad. I heard about it, but I was never in there.”

• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: In the aftermath of another heartbreaker, there was nothing more the Spurs could do but make the best of it. Monday’s 92-90 loss to Memphis essentially ended with a Mike Conley layup with 0.6 seconds left, the Grizzlies’ point guard doing to the Spurs what Miami’s Chris Bosh and Houston’s James Harden had done in the span of eight days before. Namely, rip their guts out. It was the Spurs’ sixth consecutive game to come down to the final play of regulation and the third they had lost in the middle of a white-knuckle race for the Western Conference’s top playoff seed. “If they have the character I know they have, this is all going in the computer,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “It will make them smarter and make them make the right decisions come playoff time, hopefully.” By now, forgive the Spurs if they are all “learning experienced” out. Monday at FedEx Forum, they very nearly did to the Grizzlies what Miami had done to them in San Antonio the night before, when LeBron James and Dwyane Wade sat and the Heat won anyway. This time, Popovich kept All-Star forward Tim Duncan and small forward Kawhi Leonard at home to rest sore left knees, along with sixth man Manu Ginobili, who is out for as many as four weeks with a strained right hamstring.
• David Barron of the Houston Chronicle: James Harden sat out a second consecutive game as coach Kevin McHale said his primary goal for the All-Star guard was for him to be at maximum efficiency as the playoffs approach. “I think it’s important that James tries to get this thing to the best level he can, considering that we’re short on time,” McHale said. “The longer you have something that bothers you, the more accustomed you get to it and the less you think it bothers you. But when you look at you play — actually stand way, way, way back — you analyze that ‘I’m not doing things the way I used to.’” Harden, who iced his foot twice and underwent treatment Monday morning, agreed it’s better to err on the side of caution. “Health is definitely more important,” he said. “When I’m not effective on the court and not playing to my best abilities, hopefully guys can keep winning and we can go the right way and I hope I can come back and help them out as well.”
• Phil Collin of the Los Angeles Daily News: At one point, the Clippers sat atop the Pacific Division with a 32-9 record on the heels of their 17-game win streak. Entering Monday's game against Indiana, the Clippers were 17-16 since that point. And after a month in which the Clippers went 7-7, it's obvious they're still trying to rediscover the formula that propelled them to their fast start. "We didn't finish a few games out," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said of the .500 record in March. "We had a couple of opportunities, but you have to be able to finish games out by getting stops or making plays but we missed a few opportunities, especially on the road. You've got to play better. You win games by playing at a high level consistently." The Clippers have been beset by injuries, even after it looked like they were ready to make a big run when Chauncey Billups returned in earnest from his Achilles' injury. But then a new series of bumps hit, particularly among key reserves Eric Bledsoe and Jamal Crawford. "You can talk about injuries, you can talk about schedule, you can talk about all these things," Del Negro said. "Everyone goes through it, some more than others. At the end of the day, you have to win games."
• Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times: That day is here. Shaquille O'Neal's No. 34 will join Chamberlain's No. 13, Abdul-Jabbar's No. 33 and the banner that honors Mikan's No. 99 in the upper reaches of Staples Center on Tuesday when the Lakers play the Dallas Mavericks. After winning three of his four titles with the Lakers during a 19-season career that ended in 2011, O'Neal doesn't need to fear his place in purple-and-gold lore anymore. Collectively, the Lakers' Biggest Four logged 11 most valuable player awards, 18 championships and 51 All-Star game selections over their careers. Fifteen of those titles came with the Lakers. "It's not surprising the success the Lakers have had," said Hall of Fame guard Gail Goodrich, a member of the 1971-72 team that won the championship with Chamberlain and West, "because they've had great centers." The Lakers' luck in acquiring those centers, however, was nothing less than extraordinary.
• Jody Genessy of the Deseret News: If you ask Al Jefferson, the NBA forgot to dish out an award on Monday. Denver's George Karl and Miami's Erik Spoelstra earned coach of the month honors for March, while the Knicks' J.R. Smith and Big Al were named players of the week for their respective conferences. "They said Al Jefferson's player of the week," Jefferson said. "I think the Utah Jazz is the team of the week." Can a trophy maker along the Wasatch Front make that award happen? Continuing their red-hot play of late, the Jazz might be front-runners for team of the month honors based on their 112-102 blowout win against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night at EnergySolutions Arena. The victory pushed the Jazz's season-high winning streak to five games, the most consecutive wins they've strung together since the end of the 2011-12 season. The outcome also gave Utah (39-36) sole possession of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, putting the streaking squad a half-game above the vaunted Los Angeles Lakers (38-36). "We're just a team playing like we want to be in the playoffs," Jefferson said, "and that's the difference."
• Eric Koreen of the National Post: Jose Calderon is not done handing out assists for the Toronto Raptors. As of now, Calderon is acting as Landry Fields’ landlord. Fields has been living in the condo Calderon lived in during much of his Raptors tenure for the entire year. There are no immediate plans for Calderon to kick his old teammate out. The two will deal with it at the end of the year, Calderon said on Monday. So, that gave Calderon one less thing to worry about as he made his return to Toronto, playing his first game in the Air Canada Centre since the late-January trade that ended his seven-and-a-half-year tenure as a Raptor. Everything else — well, Calderon had a word for it. “It’s been weird since this morning, being in Toronto in a hotel,” Calderon said. “It’s just weird. It’s a weird feeling all around.” Yes, almost the entirety of Detroit Pistons’ 108-98 win was strange. But at least it was predictable. There was no doubt how the fans would react to the return of the franchise’s all-time assists leader. “I think obviously there’s a lot of emotion involved. I think this will be a little bit different than some of the other former Raptors,” said Pistons coach, and former Nets coach, Lawrence Frank. “I was around when Vince [Carter] came back, and [the same thing happened with] Tracy McGrady and Chris Bosh. This will be, hopefully, the complete opposite.” It was.
• Brendan Savage of MLive.com: Forward Jason Maxiell might have played his final game for the Detroit Pistons after undergoing season-ending surgery to repair a detached retina. Maxiell, who will be an unrestricted free agent after the season and might not return to the Pistons, is expected to make a full recovery. "It's very disappointing," coach Lawrence Frank said. "You feel horrible for Jason. You hate to see any of your guys get injured, especially where their season is over. "The positives are the surgery went very well. He won't be able to resume any basketball activities for two months but the good thing is it's not career threatening. He'll be able to get back and get back to playing basketball." … Maxiell, 30, has spent his entire eight-year NBA career with the Pistons since they made him their first-round pick (26th overall) out of Cincinnati in 2005. He became the player with the longest Pistons' tenure when Tayshaun Prince was traded to Memphis in January. He has started 175 of 523 career games for the Pistons, averaging 6.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 0.8 blocks.
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Cavaliers aren’t the kind of opponent likely to inspire the Hawks to find the the “playoff mode” coach Larry Drew is seeking as the regular season draws to a close. That was the concern for Drew after he said his team “played as if we can turn it on at any point” during a lackluster victory against Orlando Saturday. It took a while for the Hawks to find their form against the struggling Cavaliers, but they eventually did enough to secire a 102-94 victory Monday at Philips Arena. “We want to get back to just grinding defensive possessions out,” Drew said. “I thought we did a little better job tonight (but) not what I was hoping. I thought we had some breakdowns tonight. As we wind this thing down we need to get back to where we not focus on our offense as much as our defense. That got us into a little bit of trouble tonight.” … Hawks forward Kyle Korver extended his streak of consecutive games with a made 3-pointer to 68 games to tie Reggie Miller for fifth place on the NBA’s all-time list. Dennis Scott is fourth all-time with 78 consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer made.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: Charlotte coach Mike Dunlap said he's glad his team is playing teams in contention for the playoffs. "The great thing about playing the Bucks tonight is they have the playoff fever," Dunlap said. "Every possession presents itself with an intensity that is good for our young guys to understand." Charlotte scored 60 points in the first half but only 42 in the second half as the Bucks won their 10th consecutive home game against the Bobcats. The Bucks and Bobcats met twice early in the season, with Charlotte prevailing at home, 102-98, on Nov. 19 and the Bucks winning at home, 108-93, on Dec. 7. Charlotte started 7-5, matching its total of victories last season. But it has won just 10 more times since that promising start. "Youth, is one," Dunlap said. "And two is you have them in a concentrated period of the training camp and you come right into the season. There's a bit of fizz there in terms of clarity.”
• Ray Richardson of the Pioneer Press: Nikola Pekovic had 29 points and Dante Cunningham added 19 points off the bench to lead the Timberwolves to a 110-100 victory over Boston on Monday night, April 1, at Target Center. The victory left Wolves coach Rick Adelman two wins shy of his career 1,000th victory. Adelman, in his 22nd season as an NBA coach, is 998-702. The win also snapped the Wolves' 11-game losing streak to Boston. Avery Bradley led Boston with 19 points. The Wolves took advantage of a depleted Celtics team that played without Kevin Garnett (ankle) and Paul Pierce (personal reasons). Both remained in Boston. This was a game the Wolves were supposed to control and they did. Pekovic returned from missing one game with a sprained left ankle and his presence made a huge difference inside. Without Garnett, the Celtics had virtually no inside answer for Pekovic.
• Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe: Jeff Green’s resurgence coincided with the point at which Rajon Rondo suffered his injury, but Doc Rivers said he isn’t sure if that’s a coincidence or not. “Because with the whole heart thing and sitting out a year, you don’t know if this is progression from sitting out a year or if this is just him getting better as a player and getting more confident,” Rivers said. From the start of the season to Jan. 25, the day Rondo was injured, Green, who sat out last season after undergoing open-heart surgery, was averaging 9.6 points. Since then, Green was averaging 16.3 points per game entering Monday night, when he scored 10.
• Mike Tokito of The Oregonian: Damian Lillard broke the NBA rookie record for most three-point makes in a season. His first three-pointer of the game, with 6:16 left in the first quarter, was the 167th of the season, breaking the record he had shared with Golden State's Stephen Curry, who set it during the 2009-10 season. Lillard finished 3 for 7 behind the arc and had 17 points.
• Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: Tristan Thompson is one of seven finalists for the prestigious J. Walter Kennedy Award, given annually by the Pro Basketball Writers Association to the player, coach or trainer who shows outstanding service and dedication to the community. Thompson created “Giving Thanks in Tristan’s Town” for Thanksgiving, purchasing turkeys and groceries for 150 families from Historic Greater Friendship Baptist Church in Cleveland. He helped distribute the meals along with game tickets. Thompson has also raised funds for Cavaliers Youth Fund and has been an advocate for pediatric epilepsy because his younger brother has epilepsy. He has worked on behalf of the Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center and is active in filling requests with the Cavs’ community service department. He has helped with events at the Children’s Rehab Hospital, Harvest for Hunger food drive and participated in the filming of a Valentine’s Day video for women whose military husbands were deployed.