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There is a lot of playoff talk in this NBA Today podcast. Predictions about who will win Saturday's Game 7 and both conference finals. There is talk of hard fouls, great coaching, elite defenders, free t-shirts and LeBron James. Luc Richard volunteers to play one-on-one during All-Star Weekend, if they'd have that event. And more.

Then there's more insight than some Suns fans might want into 2007, which is the year Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns thought they would win a title, but lost to the Spurs in a horribly controversial suspension-riddled second-round series. The Suns, as we knew them, would never be the same again.

Jalen Rose was on that Suns team, which he brought up after I asked him about Rick Carlisle, whom Rose once played for:

He made sure we ran hard at shootaround. He made sure we broke a sweat. He made sure we're prepared for the other team's sets. We knew if we were doubling the post. We knew how we were playing pick and roll. Are we hedging on this player, going under on that one. Are we double-teaming? How are we going to play those down screens certain players are coming off ...

We knew everything.

When you've played for a coach like that, it must be hard to play for a coach who doesn't have those same qualities.

I played for the Phoenix Suns. 2007. My last season. As were playing against the San Antonio Spurs. And I remember us coming to our first practice before Game 1. And we brought it in. And we were excited about our playoffs getting started. And Coach D'Antoni put in some film. It was Steve behind the back. Amare slam dunk. Shawn Marion with the block. Raja Bell with the charge. It was a highlight film of our team. They have showed me making a shot on there, and I was barely even playing.

So after that he as like all right, we're going to run and down, go through our set plays and whatnot, and we're going to get out of here.

And I looked at Kurt Thomas. I hit him with an elbow. I'm like hold on. I gotta say something.

So I did my Arnold Horshack from "Welcome Back, Kotter."

I'm like "ooh, ooh, ooh, hey coach. I gotta ask a question. Are we going to talk about how we're going to defend Tim Duncan on the post? Are we going to talk about Manu Ginobili in pick and roll? Keeping Tony Parker out of the paint?"

He looked at me in front of the entire team and coaching staff and said: "We're not worried about what they do. If we play to the best of our abilities, and do what we're supposed to do, there is no way they can beat us. We don't mind if Tim goes off. If Tim goes off, that means everybody else is quiet."

So, people gave us a pass. And we were a great team. And Robert Horry did knock my guy Steve Nash into the scoreboard. And Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw got up off the bench and I should have been paying attention and being a vet, and grabbed Amare -- maybe I'd have a ring to this day.

They walked out on the floor, they get suspended late in the series, and we did lose that game.

But we really lost the series in Game 1. When the guy that couldn't beat us by himself -- Tim Duncan -- he only had 40 and 20 in Game 1. [Ed. note: Actually 33 and 16.]

So that's really when we lost the series.

You're saying that if Rick Carlisle coached that team ...

Breeze through. I have a 'chip. I would have a 'chip.

That's gotta be a bad feeling.

It is what it is.

Every time the San Antonio Spurs get this deep into the playoffs it turns into a referendum on NBA fans. You’ve seen the columns before and you’ll surely see them again during the course of the Western Conference finals: The Spurs represent what’s right about sports, so you really need to appreciate them. Etc., on and on, blah blah blah.

Then the television ratings will come out and reveal how little America really cares about the Spurs. They can retool their roster and revamp their style into the highest-scoring offense in these playoffs and the perception of them will never change. And let's face it, as long as Gregg Popovich, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are around the Spurs will seem...redundant. The problem is, they're a PBS documentary and we're a nation that's addicted to shows about the Kardashians.

So be it. I’m not going to tell you who to like and what to watch. I sure hate it when soccer snobs tell me I need to appreciate their version of football. If I were going to tell you to pause and enjoy a team it would be the Miami Heat, because if you’re still mad that LeBron had a TV show and the Heat threw a party you’ll miss out on breathtaking basketball plays like these. And if you find the Heat’s act too self-serving for your taste, maybe you should root for a low-key team like the Spurs. Oh, that’s right, I said I wouldn’t tell you to root for the Spurs. See the quandary you created?

People keep overlooking a critical aspect of the Spurs: they don’t care if you don’t care about them. In a strange way, the thing I respect the most about them is that they’re not concerned about whether or not I respect them.

When Tony Parker, fresh off beating the Clippers and outplaying Chris Paul, was asked if he should be ranked higher among the elite point guards he responded, “I gave up on that dream a long time ago. Since I’m in San Antonio, we’re under the radar all the time, I don’t really care about that. For me, the most important opinion is Coach Popovich. As long as Coach Pop is happy, I’m good.”

You’ll find a similar sentiment throughout the locker room. You definitely won’t hear anything like what Danny Granger of the Pacers recently had to say about how his team felt disrespected because of its lack of national TV appearances.

The goal is the Larry O’Brien trophy, not the Nielsen ratings. The Spurs recognize that better than any other franchise. That’s why they stay winning. And if their winning ways doesn’t make any national noise, their response is more silence.

Whether or not you enjoy the Spurs, we all can appreciate a little peace and quiet.

Over the past quarter-century, the NBA has seen the Black Mamba, Larry Legend, His Airness, The Answer, The Truth, The Mailman, King James, Vinsanity, Flash and Magic.

But the Big Fundamental? If ever a nickname was assigned with a firm backhand, this is it.

Kobe Bryant attacks; Michael Jordan soars; Karl Malone delivers.

Tim Duncan? He's a large man who's really good at mechanics! While other stars transcend the game as superheroes, Duncan merely masters it as a craftsman.

An example: In the second possession of Game 4 against the Clippers, Duncan ran a little cross with Boris Diaw on the right side. Duncan's goal here? To upgrade his advantage against his defensive counterpart. Before crossing paths with Diaw, Duncan had 7-footer DeAndre Jordan fronting him. But after the subtle, little action, Duncan had the much shorter Blake Griffin.

Only that wasn't enough.

As the ball worked its way to the left side of the floor, Duncan followed it. Seeing Danny Green pressured against the sideline by Clippers guard Randy Foye, Duncan set a pick for Green on the high side. This not only allowed Green to wiggle out of trouble, but Duncan was also able to peel off to a couple of feet from his favorite spot off the left block -- and now with the 6-foot-4 Foye as his defender.

Duncan had turned the Clippers roster into matryoshka dolls. Every time he took apart one defender, a smaller one would appear.

Green ultimately dished the ball off to Duncan, who caught, squared, shot and swished. From the top of the key, Griffin watched the flight of the ball, stood still for a second, then retreated upcourt. Somehow, he got taken out of the play. But only 150-some-odd games into his career, Griffin could only process and learn.

"The way [Duncan] plays is so methodical, but at the same time he doesn't overthink the game," Griffin said after the game. "That's something I want to get to."

This was a very nuanced parallel Griffin constructed to describe what Duncan does on the court. We usually regard "method" as something that results from a great deal of thought, but here's Griffin drawing a distinction: For all of Duncan's technique, he rarely trips himself up with complexities. He rarely pauses, hedges or becomes paralyzed by choices.

Duncan has distilled the game down to its essentials. Play his left shoulder and he'll turn middle and devastate you with that running hook through the lane, or worse, take it all the way to the hole for the slam. Play his right shoulder and the bank is open.

You've seen all this thousands of times.

---

In the most recent issue of Intelligent Life (via The Economist), Ian Leslie writes about how the most accomplished and creative performers in the world get the best results from not, as Griffin said, overthinking.

Leslie contrasts Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the fifth set of a semi-final match in the 2011 U.S. Open. Confronting elimination on a match point for Federer, Djokovic unleashed one of the nastiest forehand returns you'll ever see. Typically, players in Djokovic's situation proceed more cautiously. They're more apt to go with a defensive return to guarantee they stay in the match. Djokovic did no such thing.

After it was all over, Federer was exasperated by Djokovic's return:

Djokovic won the game, set, match and tournament. At his press conference, Federer was a study in quiet fury. It was tough, he said, to lose because of a “lucky shot”. Some players do that, he continued: “Down 5-2 in the third, they just start slapping shots …How can you play a shot like that on match point?”

Asked the same question, Djokovic smiled. “Yeah, I tend to do that on match points. It kinda works.”

Federer, one of tennis' all-time greats, will go down as among the most heralded Thinking Person's athletes in history. He's fallen off over the past couple of years, and Leslie wonders if the contrasting reactions of Federer and Djokovic (now the world's top-ranked player, a position held by Federer for years) speaks to something larger:

Perhaps Federer was so upset because, deep down, he recognised that his opponent had tapped into a resource that he, an all-time great, is finding harder to reach: unthinking.

Unthinking is the ability to apply years of learning at the crucial moment by removing your thinking self from the equation.

Malcolm Gladwell addressed this notion in his book, "Blink." Practice, experience -- what athletes commonly call "reps" -- help develop strong instincts. Duncan has them, as does Federer, Djokovic and most other top-flight talents. Gladwell wrote that the best way to achieve maximum results is to deploy those instincts decisively, without deliberation or rifling through too much information at the moment of reckoning. The expertise acquired over years and years will act as a guide. As Federer said, "But, look, maybe he's been doing it for 20 years, so for him it was very normal. You've got to ask him."

That 20 years is key, and it might be one reason why older teams like the Spurs and vets like Duncan seem so poised when the field of contenders is whittled down to a select few in June. We tend to regard those guys in their 30s as "smarter" -- and they might very well be -- but it could be that they're just methodical-without-overthinking because they arrive at big moments with so much experience:

Unthinking is not the same as ignorance; you can’t unthink if you haven’t already thought. Djokovic was able to pull off his wonder shot because he had played a thousand variations on it in previous matches and practice ... The unconscious minds of great artists and sportsmen are like dense rainforests, which send up spores of inspiration.

When you have years of muscle memory from shooting a lifetime of bank shots, you don't have to think -- you just have to act.

---

Temperamentally on their respective courts, Djokovic and Duncan couldn't be more different. Djokovic plays to the crowd, while Duncan often seems like he could be in an empty gym. But they both carry that special combination that Griffin aspires to -- the ability to apply method to their decision-making, but without overthinking that process.

If you're an intrinsically thoughtful person, being told not to think so much is really annoying. How do you do it? Leslie turns to Bob Dylan, who famously wrote "Like a Rolling Stone" in no time flat. Dylan referred to the making of the song as a "piece of vomit, 20 pages long." Dylan said this about keeping analysis paralysis out of the process:

Dylan believes the creative impulse needs protecting from self-analysis: “As you get older, you get smarter, and that can hinder you…You’ve got to programme your brain not to think too much.” Flann O’Brien said we should be “calculatedly stupid” in order to write. The only reliable cure for overthinking seems to be enjoyment, something that both success and analysis can dull. Experienced athletes and artists often complain that they have lost touch with what made them love what they do in the first place. Thinking about it is a poor substitute.

Maybe that's Duncan's secret: He's never disconnected himself from his roots in the game. He won't release a primal scream after a dunk, nor will he bask in the afterglow of a win (he will, however, tell you about the virtues of being mellow). But if you watch Duncan closely enough, you'll see a man so comfortable in his method and purpose, that it's impossible to think he doesn't love what he does.

It's a fundamental joy.

• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: The Celtics are not expected to have Avery Bradley for the rest of the season because of a left shoulder injury. A source close to Bradley told the Globe that the percentile is in the "high 90s" that Bradley will be shut down and will perhaps need surgery. The source said that it's "highly likely" Bradley's left shoulder would pop out again -- it has popped out twice in the series against the Philadelphia 76ers -- and playing further would put him at risk of "serious structural damage." Bradley has missed the past two games with soreness in both shoulders, and the team's brass along with Bradley's representatives appear close to deciding to sit him for the remainder of the playoffs. Celtics coach Doc Rivers called Bradley's injury "day to day" but said he was not sure when he would return.
• Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: So the teams will reconvene on Saturday at the Garden to conclude the series in a Game 7. But if that’s going to be anything like what we witnessed in Game 6, you kind of wish they’d have just settled it on penalty kicks last night. All the talk of how the Celtics will match up in the next round has been replaced by the club’s mortal fear that its season could be over on Saturday. And it almost certainly will be if they don’t find it in them to move the ball better. Key stat comparison: Rajon Rondo came into Game 6 averaging 14.6 assists in the series, but last night the Celts had 14 as a team. The Bostonians couldn’t hit the ocean from the end of the pier for most of the night, shooting a whopping 33.3 percent. And this was particularly problematic because they took 55 outside shots and just 23 in the paint. ... It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but anyone -- beyond Sixers types understandably happy to survive another day -- finding pulchritude here needs to visit an optometrist forthwith.
• John N. Mitchell of The Philadelphia Inquirer: The Sixers have looked for Evan Turner to go to the glass and grab rebounds, start the fastbreak whenever the opportunity presents itself, and score more, something that coach Doug Collins has implored him to do. But one of his more pressing assignments going into Wednesday's win-or-go-home Game 6 victory over visiting Boston was to play a major role in helping to slow mercurial point guard Rajon Rondo. Not an easy task in this series, which has seen Rondo, on top of averaging 14.4 points and 14.6 assists through five games, mostly control the tempo in just about every contest. A huge part of Turner's Game 6 responsibility was to spread his 6-7 frame for long stretches of the game and - along with Jrue Holiday and Lou Williams at times - impede Rondo's progress wherever he went on the floor. Mission accomplished. Rondo was pedestrian at best, finishing with nine points on 4-for-14 shooting. His nine assists marked the first time this series he has not finished with at least 13, which goes back to Boston for Game 7 on Saturday. Collins gave assistant coach Michael Curry a lot of the credit for formulating the defense that finally stopped perhaps the best pure point guard in the league.
• Linda Robertson of The Miami Herald: NBA commissioner David Stern had no choice but to punish Haslem and Pittman. They were lucky it wasn’t worse. Pittman’s foul, which sent Stephenson to the X-ray room, was arguably as malicious as Metta World Peace’s elbow to the head of James Harden, who sustained a concussion. World Peace was suspended seven games. Stern doesn’t want to see the NBA sink to the level of the NFL, where the bounty scandal and the concussion issue have cast football in a mean, inhumane light. Nor can Stern allow the NBA playoffs to devolve into the mayhem that hurt the early part of the NHL playoffs. The NHL didn’t react quickly, but it did react correctly by ordering a 25-game suspension of Phoenix enforcer Raffi Torres for going after the head of Chicago’s Marian Hossa. There is no place for goons in sports today, not when the athletes are bigger, stronger, faster and able to inflict long-lasting damage. Haslem wasn’t trying to injure Hansbrough, but he took his payback role too seriously. ... If anything, the bruising nature of this series has dispelled the notion of Miami as the glamour team. This is a team Pat Riley and Alonzo Mourning can be proud of. Instead it was Pacers president Larry Bird bemoaning, “I can’t believe my team went soft. S-O-F-T.” There will be nothing soft about Game 6. But keep it clean.
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: For all of those counting out Indiana, my question is this: What have you been watching all year? This team has been tough-minded and resilient all season. It has had some bad performances, but the bad basketball hasn’t lingered. Pacers coach Frank Vogel said the other day, “They haven’t seen our best game.” Tonight, with the season on the line, the Heat will get the Pacers’ best game, even if it means Granger plays on one leg. ... The big problem for the Pacers is, they finally have the Heat’s attention. Maybe it was some of the pre-series talk. Maybe it was Stephenson’s foolish “choke” gesture. Probably it was the fact the Pacers were going toe-to-toe with them and pushing the Heat to the brink of utter desperation. Now the Pacers are in that spot. ... If these teams played with gloves, they would have dropped them already. But this shouldn’t be about evening the score on the stitches scoreboard. It should be about evening the score in this series, and making Miami sweat a seventh game in a series that deserves a seventh game.
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: The Western Conference finals are sure to bring about comparisons between a pair of super subs: Oklahoma City’s James Harden and the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili. Both are left-handed. Both have NBA Sixth Man of the Year awards on their mantles. Both play with a herky-jerky style that can be murder to defend. Harden, however, is the one with The Beard. “Mine doesn’t get that good,” Ginobili said. “I’ve tried.” One other key difference between the two: only Harden will enter Game 1 on Sunday with soaring confidence. Ginobili is coming off his second straight poor-shooting series, going 17 for 42 in the second-round sweep of the Los Angeles Clippers. That included a 6-for-21 showing from 3-point range that dropped his playoff percentage to 25.7 percent (9 of 35). Asked after practice Wednesday to gauge his confidence level in his jump shot, Ginobili said: “Not the best it’s been.” ... For the second time in this postseason, Ginobili is hopeful the start of a new series will change his luck. “This is a whole new story, a new series, and we don’t care about what happened against Utah or the Clippers,” Ginobili said. “Hopefully, I start off on the right foot."
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: Kevin Durant on Wednesday shared his feelings on the violence that overshadowed Monday night's Game 5 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. “Anytime violence is involved it's unfortunate,” Durant said of the shooting that left eight people wounded. “But the only thing I can do is pray for the victims and hopefully everything gets resolved.” Russell Westbrook was finishing postgame interviews when word spread of the shooting but said just before the announcement was made that the Thunder Alley watch party would end that he'd be disappointed to see it go. “It's crazy how many people were outside and how many people come and support,” Westbrook said. “So I think they'll be a little disappointed. So hopefully they don't cut it off.” Forward Serge Ibaka said he was amazed at the size of the crowd outside when he saw live footage of the gathering flash on the Jumbotron during the game. “I appreciate the fans and their support because it's something amazing. I've never seen it in my life,” Ibaka said.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: ESPN reported Wednesday night that Shaquille O'Neal will meet with Orlando Magic officials next week to discuss the team's vacant general manager job. ... The notion of O'Neal as the Magic's general manager seems absurd at first blush, second blush and third blush. He played his first four NBA seasons for the Magic, leading the team to the 1995 Finals, but he left the franchise via free agency in 1996. One of the first tasks for the new Magic general manager will be to try to convince Dwight Howard to remain with the team for the long term. That could be difficult. SheridanHoops.com, citing an anonymous source, has reported that Howard wants a trade. O'Neal's relationship with Howard has deteriorated in recent years. O'Neal has hurled barbs and veiled insults in Howard's direction in recent years. And O'Neal has said he thinks Howard should remain with the Magic.
• Tony Bizjak of The Sacramento Bee: Restaurateur Patrick Mulvaney got a shock a few weeks ago when he contacted a client, the Sacramento Kings, to discuss last-minute details for a banquet at his midtown eatery. A Kings executive told him they were canceling the lunch at Mulvaney's Building & Loan. They had just seen Mulvaney's signature on a letter from 21 Sacramento businessmen to the NBA urging it to push the Kings owners to sell. Mulvaney's name also appeared on a separate list of businessmen attending the press event where the letter was signed. But Mulvaney says he wasn't at the event and had not signed the letter. His signature was forged. The man who organized the April 12 letter signing was Greg Hayes, a local business consultant and member of Mayor Kevin Johnson's Think Big Sacramento arena task force. Hayes admitted when contacted by the Bee last week that five of the signatures were not signed by the people whose names are listed. Hayes declined to say who put their names on the letter. ... A spokesman for the Kings, Eric Rose, declined to comment on the private investigator, but characterized Hayes' letter as part of "relentless unwarranted attacks" on the Kings ownership since the arena deal fell through several weeks ago. ... Restaurateur Mulvaney, a proponent of a downtown arena, said the Kings ultimately set up another lunch at his restaurant after Hayes' apology, and after Mulvaney talked with Gavin Maloof. "My relationship with the Kings is still solid," he said. "I don't have any right to tell someone else how to run their business."

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

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

What is Pau Gasol worth?

Many believe this is the central question of the Lakers' offseason.

Gasol was integral to three straight Finals appearances. He out-fought and outplayed Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett in back-to-back Finals victories. But careers and perceptions change quickly in L.A. and, to many, it now appears imminent that Gasol and the remaining $38 million on his contract will be traded this offseason.

Three top Lakers writers break down Gasol's place in the Lakers' future:

• OC Register’s Kevin Ding (who noted Gasol had a plus/minus of minus-53 for the second round): "It's abundantly clear now that the triangle offense is long gone that Lakers can use some perimeter pizzazz and tenacity a lot more than they can use Gasol's versatility-turned-uncertainty. But even if Gasol averages 50 points and 30 rebounds in the Olympics, the Lakers have a further complication in that they are trying to reduce their payroll in the wake of the post-lockout luxury-tax penalties and revenue sharing that have changed their landscape. Because of that, trading Gasol for a great player who has another massive contract isn't what they really want, either. The Lakers might have to go that route and figure out some money things later, as they were willing to do with their aborted deal for Chris Paul before the season."
• ESPN LA’s Dave McMenamin: "Bryant publicly demoted Gasol to the third scoring option during the regular season and then called him out in the playoffs for not being the aggressive scorer he once was. That makes Gasol the first to go. Call up Houston. Call up Chicago. Call up Minnesota. Call up Orlando. See whether interest is still out there. Better yet, call up all 29 other teams and maybe even go the draft pick route. This year's draft is widely considered to be the deepest in nearly a decade. Gasol turns 32 in July. He's played 11 years in the league plus put in a ton of time overseas playing for the Spanish national team. He averaged 12.5 points per game during the playoffs. History will show he was a vital piece of the Lakers' championship lore, but now is not the time for nostalgia. He's the first domino."
• ESPN LA’s Brian Kamenetzky: "He's supremely talented, versatile and a true team player capable of elevating any good team to elite status, and perhaps of pushing a near-elite team over the top. On the other hand, he won't transform a Brooklyn-esque loser, is very expensive, on the downside of his career, and short of being sent to a team in Spain, won't energize a season-ticket base. Finding a new home for Gasol isn't a simple proposition. The same contract prompting the Lakers to move him will make many teams hesitant to take him on."

The analysis above agrees that Pau is: expensive, talented, seven years older than Andrew Bynum and perhaps not the best fit, emotionally, with Kobe Bryant (though that seemed to be working just fine a few years ago).

The Lakers need more depth and fewer gargantuan contracts, so all signals point to Gasol's departure. Indeed, the Lakers have signaled that they are ready to part with him and, though the transaction was canceled by the NBA, the thwarted three-way deal that would have brought Chris Paul to the Lakers still provides the most accurate measure of Gasol's value.

Back in December 2011, the Rockets were willing to give up Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Goran Dragic in exchange for Gasol.

That’s quite a haul, and a similar trade this summer would supply the Lakers, who counted on Steve Blake and Devin Ebanks for important rotation minutes in the playoffs, with real punch off the pine.

But after a disappointing postseason, does Gasol net the same goodies?

It’s true 2012 was Gasol’s worst scoring season of his NBA career by a point, though his rebounding and assist numbers remained constant. And it’s true that Gasol played farther from the basket on offense than at any time in his career.

It’s also true -- and this is important -- that Pau Gasol is a center. The Lakers managed to end up with two excellent 7-foot players, so Gasol, the more versatile one, plays power forward, but he’s a center. And it’s hard to overvalue a center who rebounds, defends, scores and passes like Gasol. The fact that the Lakers have surplus of this kind of player is borderline obscene and the reason many thought they could contend this season despite their obvious flaws.

They have options.

Perhaps Bynum would draw a better return.

Or maybe instead of ditching Gasol or Bynum, the Lakers could, like the San Antonio Spurs, simply extract more value from their cheaper pieces. After all, the combined salary of Kawhi Leonard, Gary Neal and Danny Green is less than the Lakers pay Steve Blake.

But it won’t be possible for them to get anywhere near the salary cap with their big three -- or even their two bigs -- on the books.

See, here’s the real issue for the Lakers, the one that makes moving Gasol or Bynum seem inevitable: Kobe Bryant’s spectacularly huge contract.

Last offseason, Henry Abbott first noted what an albatross this contract would become:

"Bryant is due to draw a salary of $25,244,493 in 2011-2012, $27,849,149 the following year and $30,453,805 in 2013-2014, when he will be 35. The cold hard question for general manager Mitch Kupchak would become: Which Laker team is better, Bryant and $32 million or so in supporting cast, or $60 million in the best players money can buy without Bryant?

...it may be time to find out if Bryant might consider waiving his no-trade clause. He is such a big name that he may, even under a new CBA, fetch the Lakers a player or two in addition to salary cap relief.

Then there's the final, unthinkable option: It has been discussed that the new CBA may have an amnesty clause, that lets teams buy out players and send them on their way. Depending how it's negotiated, this could include salary cap relief. And if so, would the Lakers use it on Bryant?”

Whether or not they knew league-wide austerity measures were in the offing in 2010, when they gave Bryant his last big extension, there’s no debate that, in basketball terms, the Lakers drastically overvalued their star wing. He is now a volume scorer who is still an excellent player, but the fact is that players better than him -- like Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul -- are paid way less. Even supposing that, despite his age, Bryant's game somehow remains at its current level, the market price for a superstar has fallen precipitously since his last contract.

By the time Kobe's current contract nears expiration, it will be one of the worst in the NBA -- not because he will have deteriorated beyond recognition, but because the outrageous sum will have such a limiting effect on the Lakers' options.

So perhaps instead of wondering what Pau is worth, we should be asking different questions:

Is it worth $30 million in 2014-15 to see Bryant retire a Laker?

To many, the answer is an emphatic “Yes!”

But what about on the court -- is he worth more than Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili combined?

Because that’s how much he makes.

Is he worth destroying the most formidable frontline in the NBA?

Because, as everyone seems to tacitly acknowledge, that’s how much Kobe Bryant costs.

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

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

Some key moments of Game 4 between the Clippers and Spurs were not basketball at all. And with bricklayers like DeAndre Jordan and Reggie Evans parading to the line, it was a decent reason to change the channel.

"I hate it," says Gregg Popovich, the Spurs coach who made the whole thing happen. "It's ugly. But it's something that's available."

What he's talking about is what used to be called "Hack-a-Shaq," where, instead of playing defense, or grabbing a rebound to get the ball back, a team simply fouls a horrible free throw shooter, often with the ball nowhere in the vicinity, and forces them to struggle through the freebies.

It should probably be called "Hack-whoever-Gregg Popovich-says-to-hack," these days, though, as the Spurs dominate this field.

And yet the coach who does it most hates it. Fans hate it. Players, surely, prefer to play, not hack. Surely this is no referee's idea of a game well played. Even David Stern is on record against it. In 2008, Stern railed against hack-a-Shaq tactics to ESPN.com's J.A. Adande, saying he didn’t like "the idea that, 'Hey, look at me, I'm going to hit this guy as soon as the ball goes into play, even though he's standing under the other basket.'"

If everybody hates it ... why would it ever happen?

Because -- as an unintended consequence of the current rules is that in certain situations -- breaking the rules in this precise way can give a team an advantage.

In other words, the rules made Gregg Popovich do it.

Imagine if the penalty for robbing a bank was that you had to give half the money back. The rules, in that situation, would essentially beg people to rob banks.

Change the rulebook, though, and you can say goodbye to this forever. Nobody will miss it.

How to change the rulebook?

We're open to ideas. But here's a basic principle to consider: Breaking the rules should never help your team. If teams are breaking rules to gain an advantage, clearly the penalties are out of whack.

Now in basketball, there's something odd, that most sports don't have. We have a longstanding tradition of fouling intentionally to get the ball back. It happens late in almost every close game. Some of you might be thinking that any rule that eliminates Hack-a-Whoever would need to somehow preserve that.

To which we'd say: You sure about that?

One simple solution: Let fouled teams decide if they'd rather have the free throw, or the ball out of bounds. After any foul, Hack-a-Whoever or otherwise. You'd quickly have no reason to foul to get the ball back, because fouling would not get you the ball back. Then you'd also get a lot more games ending with a lot more basketball being played. And who's against that?

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• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: Let me take you back to May 7, 1989, the day Chicago's Michael Jordan lifted skyward for The Shot over Cleveland's Craig Ehlo, the shot that catapulted his career into the next stratosphere. After the game, Cleveland center Brad Daugherty sat in the Cavs' funereal locker room and shook his head. All he could say was this: "We got beat by greatness." Today, it can be said again after the Miami Heat's 101-93 Game 4 victory over the Indiana Pacers, a game that tied this heated Eastern Conference semifinal series at two games apiece. They got beat by greatness. What else can you say? How else do you deconstruct a game the Miami Heat absolutely had to win, lest they spend the next few months contemplating coach Erik Spoelstra's future and the possible dissolution of the Big Three? LeBron James: 40 points, 18 rebounds (six offensive) and nine assists. Dwyane Wade: After a tepid first half, he finished with 30 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Sometimes, there's not much an opponent can do.
• Greg Cote of The Miami Herald: It might have been a lesson that we saw being delivered in that third quarter Sunday, or it might have been simply a reminder. Either way, it was this: Do not doubt the resolve and power of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Just don’t. Trust it instead. Trust it because they have earned your faith. Mostly, trust it because it is all you have. This time it was enough. Astoundingly, stunningly so. James and Wade combined to put on an epic show Sunday, especially in that third quarter that changed everything — everything — and it is why all of the panic and gloom that had been enveloping the Heat went into sudden remission in the 101-93 Miami victory that leveled this second-round NBA playoff series at two games apiece. All at once the Earth has regained its axis and the Heat appears back in control, with two of the three remaining scheduled games back in Miami starting with Tuesday’s Game 5. All-is-hell turns to all-is-well, or close enough for Heat fans.
• Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: It appeared Sunday the Clippers would extend the Spurs. Blake Griffin needed stitches, and Chris Paul seemed to sew up the rest. The Spurs trailed by five with about five minutes left. Then, with Tim Duncan’s knee holding up, he made two free throws. Found Manu Ginobili on a cut. Tossed in a driving hook over Griffin. Found Tony Parker on a cut. And blocked Paul. What happened? “Perseverance,” Duncan said afterward. “We stuck with it. We kept moving the ball and believing what we were doing.” Parker acted the way Elliott did in 1999. Asked what the sweep meant, he said, “Doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t accomplish anything.” But what about the 18-game winning streak? “Don’t think about that,” he said. He’s right. The last team to sweep the first two playoff series, the Orlando Magic in 2010, didn’t win the title. Still, the Spurs needed to face some playoff tension, because there will be some in the conference finals. Duncan said that. “It was great to have a close game like this,” Duncan said. “Good for our young guys.” But it might have been better for the old guy. Duncan will get a few days off, and nothing will be more appreciative than his knee.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the the Los Angeles Daily News: The loss to the Spurs will sting, but shouldn't linger. And once they realize the gap separating themselves from the elite teams in the NBA requires some tinkering but not a complete overhaul, they will be better-positioned to make decisions that will help close that gap. First and foremost, they need to bring Del Negro back for another year. The decision rests in the hands of general manager Neil Olshey and owner Donald Sterling. The Clippers hold an option on him for next season and they should honor it. It became blasé to knock Del Negro this year. His lack of experience and his rocky two-year stint in Chicago prior to taking over the Clippers made him an easy target for critics who questioned everything from his rotation to his ability to make adjustments and develop young players. But this much we do know: His team played hard for him throughout, and that should mean something. It could have given up against Memphis after the injuries to Paul and Griffin and after losing Game 6 at home to force a long trip back to Memphis and a hostile environment in Game 7. Del Negro had his team up for that challenge, and the Clippers defied odds to beat the Grizzlies on their floor and advance to the semifinals. That stands for something, and it should get Del Negro at least one more season to coach this team under normal circumstances and with a more stable roster.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: All postseason, Oklahoma City has closed out games in grand fashion. The Lakers, in Game 4, simply became the latest victim of the Thunder and its ability to storm back from a fourth-quarter deficit and secure a win. That trait, not Westbrook's explosiveness or Kevin Durant's daggers or James Harden's surgeon-like precision in the pick-and-roll, has been the most impressive thing about the Thunder's playoff run thus far. Oklahoma City is now all grown up. The final five minutes of nearly every Thunder game this postseason has proved as much. Gone are the days when the Thunder would wind up on the wrong end of a blown lead. Now, it's the Thunder that is snatching victories from the jaws of defeat. Four of the Thunder's seven playoff wins have come by three points or less. Another victory was decided by just six points. Of those five wins, the Thunder trailed by 13 points in the fourth quarter of two games, by seven in the fourth period of two others and by one with a minute remaining in the other. The Thunder was the road team in both victories in which it trailed by 13 in the fourth quarter.
• Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: Pau Gasol believes he's hungry for more titles. If he really was, his baseline level of focus would be higher instead of only spiking high. At a time in his career when Bryant needs more help and not less, this mix of talent has gone sour. Not toxic, mind you, but sour. It's why the Lakers frittered away Games 2 and 4 to Oklahoma City. They don't quite have that old confidence that they deserve to win and will make the key plays that demonstrate to the world how they deserve to win. Consider the recent years besides 2009 and '10, when the Lakers won it all: In 2008, they blew a 24-point lead in the NBA Finals' worst meltdown ever in Game 4, giving the Celtics a sudden 3-1 advantage. In 2011, their Game 1 implosion at home against Dallas erased a 16-point third-quarter lead and a seven-point lead in the final minutes, with Gasol faltering badly down the stretch and the last chance being a missed Bryant 3-pointer bearing an uncanny resemblance to the one Bryant missed near the end Saturday night. Championship teams find a way to win because they aren't afraid to lose. And in that regard, the sweet-hearted, good-intending Gasol is unfortunately the Lakers' No. 1 problem.
• Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer: Boston played a great first quarter and a good-enough second quarter to hold a 46-31 lead at halftime, and the Celtics must have thought their work for the evening was complete. That is not what teams do when they respect their opponent or anticipate that something other than ordinary effort will be necessary to finish the job. ... They were surprised, because they didn't think the Sixers had it in them to keep fighting on a night they had shot a ridiculous 23 percent from the field in the first half. That's terrible even by the Sixers' shooting standards, which are pretty low on a good day. And, of course, they were wrong to think it was over. But that is what happens to teams that have been champions before. They think the crown is still up there and lesser teams will bow to its glory, or they think there is some carryover effect to having survived these games before. The Sixers are not going to be champions this year and perhaps not any time soon, but they are a dangerous team to underestimate. Assuming they will quit on a game is usually a particular mistake. ... In the back of their minds, maybe even in the front, they figure that they'll still win the series, and that taking real control of it Friday night wasn't worth the effort the Sixers were requiring them to make. The Celts might be right. They probably will still win the series. What is less true than it was before Friday night, however, is that they still deserve to win it.
• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: Doug Collins has put it delicately, at least compared to how he wants Kevin Garnett defended. The Philadelphia 76ers coach wants his big men to disrupt Garnett’s timing. Sometimes that has meant trapping the Celtics center, but more often that goal has been met by prodding Lavoy Allen and Spencer Hawes to push Garnett farther out, to make it uncomfortable when he gets the ball. Success has only been limited, but on Friday night in the Celtics’ Game 4 loss, when Garnett nearly had as many turnovers (seven) as points (nine) and only took 12 shots, the ploy paid a huge dividend. Asked yesterday about Allen, though, Garnett was typically unseeing. “It doesn’t matter. All of their big guys are playing physical and bumping,” Garnett said. “You go through side picks and it’s physical. I can’t tell one guy from the next. Spencer Hawes is being just as physical as the young kids. It’s all the same. They’re very aggressive.” But tonight in Game 5, the Celtics can’t afford to have the generous Garnett — the one spreading the wealth — passing nearly as often. The Celtics are 1-3 this postseason when Garnett takes 12 shots or fewer, and 5-1 when he takes 13 or more. Shots are just as important as touches, though according to coach Doc Rivers, an acceptable amount of offense is running through Garnett’s hands.

LOS ANGELES -- This season didn’t truly begin until Chris Paul got involved in it. After countless days of long, closed-door meetings and rhetoric-soaked addresses, the announcement of a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement in the wee hours on a cold, late-November night was hailed across the Internet-tethered league instantaneously. But not until trade talks centering around shipping Paul out of the Bayou started up did it really feel like we had returned to the NBA we know and love, where the rumor is far mightier than the jumper.

After the splash, the Los Angeles Clippers never quite made the wall-to-wall-coverage-inducing impact some may have expected, never truly followed in the Miami Heat's footsteps and became the next great microwaved title contender. But almost every step of the way, Paul seemed to be there, even if it wasn’t always at the forefront.

There was Paul in the center of MVP discussions. There was Paul rising up out of nowhere to throttle Twitter feeds with his fourth-quarter explosions. There was Paul when his new team burst out of the gates. There was Paul having to fend off questions about his new team possibly imploding. There was Paul holding his adorable son in the postseason news conference.

But now here we are, just midway through May and with weeks’ worth of basketball left to play, watching Paul walk out of Staples Center one last time in his crisp designer wear, watching him glide away from the NBA for the summer without doing the one thing that, through it all, he ever expressed to give a damn about (besides his adorable son).

“Not really,” Paul said when asked if he took solace in any of the strides the Clippers had taken in his first year much farther west. “It’s cool in order to --. … I mean. I don’t know. I wanna win.”

They came as close as as they have to doing just that in the fourth of four games against the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs, an organization Paul, a master game manager, has lauded for their machine-like efficiency. After being blown off the court in two games in Texas, and having a monster run volleyed right back at them in Game 3, here the Clippers were, down one with 23.1 seconds left, with everything on the line, with the ball in the hands of the player that the team has orbited around since this whole Lob City Experience was set in motion.

After three straight rough outings, through dings and dents to most of his lower half, Paul finally looked like himself (23 points on 9-for-18, 11 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 turnovers), and looked to finish this off like he has so many times before to leave, if not a lasting impression, at least a reminder of his place in the league, his impact on a single team or game.

But after setting himself up at the top of the key and winding the clock down to just 16 seconds left, Paul sped in the paint, Danny Green suctioned to his right hip, barreled into the circle where two more defenders were waiting, lifted into the air, spun the ball around and around to avoid the limbs all over him and effectively finished his wild season-long ride with a Chris Paul cardinal sin: a turnover.

Not another crunch-time bucket or a pass to an open teammate, but a no-shot and a pass to no one in particular.

After one of two Green free throws extended the lead to two, Paul lofted up a runner in the left side of the paint before falling flat on his back, but this was off the mark too.

No trip back to San Antonio or reason to put Paul in the spotlight any longer. Just a 102-99 defeat, a 4-0 sweep, and another impressive victory by the seemingly unstoppable Spurs.

“I think that’s the toughest thing for me, as far as this game goes, to know that I had two opportunities,” Paul said. “We’ve been in that situation all season long. A lot of times I was able to come through. To let my team down in that situation is probably the toughest part of this season and something I’ll think about for a while.”

For the first time this series, Paul looked spry -- his cuts were sharp, his handle was careful (two turnovers after 16 through three games), his ability to wiggle and weave his way through traffic as on-point as it has ever been. Paul, who some say saves his best for the end, just let everything out.

“He has not had that extra burst that he usually has, that extra pop,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. “[But] we are not in the second round of the playoffs without Chris Paul. He gives you everything he has, all the time; he is as competitive as they come. I cannot say enough about everything he has brought to the team, the organization, to the city, and the fans in terms of competitiveness and what he brings on and off the court.”

But even the fiery point guard didn’t have enough in him. And even if he did, the Spurs and his injured legs had already done a number on his series: 3-for-13 shooting in Game 1, 8 turnovers in Game 2, 5-for-17 shooting in Game 3. Even if he had pulled a win out of a hip pocket, the odds of turning it all around, to turn the league upside sound again with a four-wins-in-four-days comeback were too big for even a star of Paul's stature.

Yet while Paul wasn’t up for a moral victory, is never up for a moral victory, the impact on teammates, on the franchise, on the NBA will surely have a lasting impact, even in the loss.

“Not only from the way he plays on the court -- that’s a given. Everybody sees how good he is and the things he does. But it’s when he comes and talks to you about a certain situation, you learn the game through his eyes and see what he sees," Blake Griffin said. "He’s constantly in communication with all the guys and that’s the way you get better, especially with somebody that’s going to have the ball in his hands for your team.

“He’s the quarterback out there, so for us to be on the same page is great. I learned a lot from him this year. Not only on the court, but the way he thinks about the game and how to approach certain situations.”

It’s not a win now, but, with a year-wiser Griffin by his side again, the odds of an even more Paul-centric season grows the closer we get to next fall.

LOS ANGELES -- The dais here in the bowels of Staples Center has lately served more as a stage for a budding stand-up routine than a postgame news conference.

In each of the Clippers’ two home wins in their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul dolled themselves up, sometimes in suits with more pieces than a Lego pack, and with Paul’s adorable son on his dad’s lap, they would begin rolling out yucks like they were auditioning for a buddy comedy.

But the vibe for Saturday’s postgame greeting with the media was about as funny as a funeral. A banged-up Griffin, who didn’t rise from his seat afterward so much as he slowly detached himself from it, even came dressed in a black jacket.

Paul, however, was nowhere to be found this time.

Just another time that CP3 has gone MIA in the Clippers’ second-round series with the Spurs.

“I don’t know what Chris will say, but I don’t know if he’s 100 percent Chris Paul,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after the Spurs took a commanding 3-0 series lead with a 96-86 victory.

Paul -- who skipped the bright lights and cameras for a good, old-fashioned media scrum in the Clippers’ locker room after another very non-#podiumgame (12 points on 5-for-17 shooting and 11 assists) in Game 3 -- swatted any concerns that the strained right hip flexor suffered over a week ago in Memphis, on top of other dings and dents he might have collected along the way, limiting his game.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Paul said. “I’m all good and well.”

But in general, he doesn’t disagree with Pop -- something’s not quite right.

“I’m just missing, I’m just missing,” he said. “It’s the toughest thing right now, but I’m fine [physically].”

While Griffin has gotten better offensively by the game, scoring 26 points on 62 percent shooting this time around after a 20-point performance in Game 2, Paul is averaging a very mortal-looking 9.3 points and 8.3 assists in 37 minutes per game. But Paul, who averaged 19.8 points and 9.1 assists a game in the regular season, isn’t one to always wow with his raw numbers. The proof that the league’s pre-eminent game manager is struggling can be found in his middling efficiency.

While he shot only 46 percent from the field in Round 1, Paul’s shooting percentage has dipped to 31 percent after a second game in the 20s. And while his showed more care of the ball after coughing it up eight times in Game 2, Paul already has totaled 16 turnovers.

Even in the fourth quarter, when he is supposed to be at his best, Paul hasn’t had much go right, as he’s shot just 2-for-8, with both makes coming in Game 3.

(Then again, there hasn’t been much to play for that late in the game these days.)

“Trying to, trying to,” Paul said when asked why he hasn’t made a Paul-like impact on the series. “But a lot of those shots in the lane and stuff like that, they're just coming up short, and missing.”

San Antonio was particularly effective limiting Paul’s impact on the pick-and-roll, the bread and butter of the point guard’s game. Paul was the ball handler on the pick-and-roll nine times in Game 3, according to data logged by Syngery Sports, and the Clippers came away with points on only three of those possessions.

The Spurs easily collapsed on Paul when he ran it early on with DeAndre Jordan, one of the team’s biggest offensive black holes among a patchwork post rotation. And while he had more success with Griffin as his partner, it often came off Paul pull-up jumpers from midrange, a shot the Spurs are likely OK with conceding.

Paul also struggled in isolation, missing all four attempts, perhaps a telling sign that the burst and quick-cutting ability that his game thrives on aren't where they should be.

“Chris is battling,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. “Chris is giving us everything he has. … We’re not in this position without Chris, in terms of being in the playoffs and everything he means to the team and this organization. He gives you everything he has.

“I’ll go to battle with him every day of the week.”

He’s still battling. Soon, though, there may not be much left to fight for.

“Devastating,” Paul said. “We had an opportunity to put this thing [to] 2-1. We let it get away. I’ve gotta play better. At the end of the day, I’ve got to play better. If not, we’re gonna be in trouble.”

The San Antonio Spurs extended their win streak to 17 games (dating to the regular season) in historic fashion.

In Game 3, San Antonio trailed by 22 points after the first quarter, 33-11. That deficit after the first 12 minutes of play is the largest overcome to win a playoff game in NBA history. The previous record was held by the 2008 Celtics, who trailed by 21 against the Los Angeles Lakers after the first quarter (35-14) in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Like Saturday, that game was also at the Staples Center.

The Spurs trailed by 24 points in the second quarter (40-16), making this the second-largest comeback win this postseason. In the first round, the Clippers erased a 27-point deficit in the third quarter of Game 1 against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Spurs comeback was highlighted by a 24-0 run in the third quarter. The Spurs made 10-of-15 field goals and did not commit a turnover in turning a 57-45 deficit into a 69-57 lead. The Clippers went 0-for-12 from the field during the Spurs run and were scoreless for eight minutes.

Four different Spurs scored during the run, led by nine from Tim Duncan. On the other side, five different Clippers missed at least one field goal attempt, including four by Blake Griffin.

The Clippers jumped out to a 24-point lead less than 15 minutes into the game, shooting better than 65 percent from the field (17-26). But over the final 33:17, the Clippers made just 20 field goals and missed nine of 14 free throws.

Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have played 52 minutes together in the series, and the Spurs have outscored the Clippers by 44 points.

Duncan finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds, the 134th double-double of his postseason career. Duncan now is three shy of Bill Russell for fourth on the all-time list.

The Spurs now are 7-0 this postseason, the first time in franchise history they have won their first seven games to start a postseason.

The lone bright spot for the Clippers was Griffin, who scored 20 of his game-high 28 points in the first half. He’s only the second different player to score at least 20 points in the first half of a playoff game in franchise history. Elton Brand did it twice during the 2006 postseason against the Phoenix Suns.