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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.

Five dribbles of chatter from the league's front-office and coaching grapevines:

Among the immediate concerns for the Indiana Pacers heading into the Eastern Conference finals against Miami is the state of David West's right calf. One of the longer-term worries, though, is West's forthcoming free agency.

The Pacers' veteran leader openly loves his situation in Indiana, which certainly gives Indy justified cause for optimism when it comes to re-signing the 32-year-old this summer. Yet the whispers are already swirling that Chris Paul's Los Angeles Clippers, in particular, are going to make a hard run at West in the offseason.

Indy will certainly have the ability to pay West more to convince its locker-room sage to stay, given that the Clips would presumably have to structure an offer with the $5.15 million midlevel exception available to nontax teams. But you have to figure that the former Hornet -- who rose to All-Star prominence playing alongside CP3 -- is going to want to hear the details of a proposal pitching a reunion with his old point guard ... as long as Paul himself, of course, decides to stay. If Paul re-signs with the Clips as most league insiders continue to expect, L.A. will be seeking to add the final piece or two to cement itself as a contender with some staying power.

Yet Indy's brass must feel some reassurance when it hears West say things like he said in the wake of the New York series when he described the Pacers as "the most together group I've ever been a part of."

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Early estimates suggest that the Toronto Raptors would be willing to offer Masai Ujiri an annual salary in excess of $2 million to leave the Denver Nuggets' front office.

The Nuggets, I'm told, nonetheless remain positive that they'll be able to hang on to Ujiri -- just named the NBA's Executive of the Year for the 2012-13 season -- while knowing they'll obviously have to raise his reported salary of $500,000 to keep him from wanting to leave.

It should be noted that, as of Monday night, Toronto had yet to secure permission from the Nuggets to officially woo Ujiri. But that hasn't stopped the Nigeria native from being billed as the Raptors' top target after it became apparent that Phil Jackson -- despite his longtime friendship with new Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president and CEO Tim Leiweke -- was in no rush to embrace Toronto's interest.

Jackson has said repeatedly in recent weeks that he wants the opportunity to run a team from the top, a la Pat Riley, for the first time in his basketball career. After ESPN.com reported that the 11-ringed coaching legend wanted to let the fate of the Sacramento Kings play out before deciding anything about his future, Jackson said in a subsequent visit to "The Tonight Show" that his discussions about running basketball operations for the Chris Hansen-led group trying to purchase and relocate the Kings to Seattle were "serious talk."

Some league observers, however, remain convinced that Jackson's flirtations with teams are largely aimed at convincing Lakers lead basketball decision-maker Jim Buss to cede his organizational power to sister Jeanie Buss ... which would theoretically enable Jeanie to bring Phil, her fiancé, back to Lakerland as L.A.'s next front-office chief.

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At least two teams came away from last week's Board of Governors meeting in Dallas convinced that the 22-8 vote in favor of keeping the Kings in Sacramento would have been a lot closer if NBA commissioner David Stern wasn't so determined to lobby owners in the room to keep the franchise right where it is.

Yet a third team consulted told ESPN.com that Sacramento likely would have prevailed anyway, with or without Stern's hard push, since a simple majority of just 16 votes was all that was needed to block the proposed relocation to Seattle.

My follow-up question: Does the league's ultimate decision to keep the Kings in Sactown do anything to erase at least a little of the bitterness that locals still harbor about the way the 2002 Western Conference finals against the Lakers played out?

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On the coaching front ...

One reason the Nets' coaching search isn't moving too quickly: Lionel Hollins and Brian Shaw, two of Brooklyn's foremost targets, are still at work in the playoffs.

Sources say the Grizzlies remain determined to sign Hollins to a new deal after the playoffs. Contract discussions were mutually tabled by both sides until the postseason plays out, but that does expose Memphis to a high-dollar offer from Brooklyn in July that gets Hollins' attention.

The Clippers, while still deliberating the future of incumbent coach Vinny Del Negro, are now widely presumed to be in the running for Hollins as well after owner Donald T. Sterling -- who doesn't even attend all of his own team's playoff games -- showed up courtside Sunday in San Antonio to watch the Grizzlies get thumped in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. But skepticism persists, even if the Clips do soon have an opening, about Sterling's appetite to pay what it would take to extricate Hollins from Memphis, where he is revered locally.

Interesting footnote about the Nets' coaching search: Italian legend Ettore Messina, reported by Yahoo! Sports to be a candidate who is tempting to Atlanta Hawks GM Danny Ferry, is not on Brooklyn's list. If the Hawks make Messina the first European head coach in NBA history, he would have to find a way out of Russian superclub CSKA Moscow, which for years received considerable financial support from Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov.

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Lakers assistant coach Steve Clifford, who previously interviewed for the Milwaukee Bucks' head-coaching job, interviews Tuesday for Charlotte's opening. The Bobcats are also scheduled to interview Utah assistant Jeff Hornacek later this week, with both Clifford and Hornacek likewise in the mix for the Phoenix Suns' job.

• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: Prepare for the correction: The Spurs left the AT&T Center after Game 1 uniform in their belief that they were unlikely to make 14 3-pointers again this series. “I’m a math guy,” Matt Bonner said. “It’s highly improbable we’re going to shoot that clip again.” The trick for the Spurs in Game 2 will be to generate offense once the Grizzlies have located their perimeter shooters. As per usual, that effort will begin with Tony Parker, who must continue to attack off the pick-and-roll, put pressure on the Memphis defense in the paint and make good decisions from there. Protect ball and boards: With a lack of perimeter shooters, the Grizzlies can often struggle to score in a half-court offense. They generate much of their offense off turnovers and offensive putbacks. The Spurs did a decent job of limiting giveaways in Game 1 (11) and keeping the Grizzlies to a manageable 10 second-chance points. Without either of the above, it will be difficult for Memphis to score with the Spurs, even if its defense reverts back to norm. Adjust to adjustments: It’s no secret Memphis will want to get Zach Randolph going in Game 2. One way coach Lionel Hollins could accomplish this is to give more minutes to Quincy Pondexter and Jerryd Bayless, his best floor-spreading bench shooters, instead of the more offensively limited wings Tony Allen and Tayshaun Prince. That move would likely change the way the Spurs are defending Randolph, making it more difficult for guards to help, but it would also make Memphis a less potent defensive unit.
• Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News: Carving out space for Randolph could be every bit as difficult unless Memphis, which made the fewest number of 3s in the NBA this season, can prevent the Spurs from neglecting shooters in order to collapse on the interior. Gasol described a clear set of tactics from the Spurs: Play tight on him to negate his high-post passing skills, front Randolph and ignore the corners in order to “pound the paint.” It’s nothing the Grizzlies haven’t seen before, he said, but it proved to be highly effective as the Grizzlies made only five 3s and Randolph was limited to one meaningless basket. “We just need to keep moving the ball, keep being patient, get it some other way,” Gasol said. “But we cannot hold the all. Once we hold the ball, we’re allowing them to load up.” Conley said the team’s perimeter corps has to take more responsibility, not only by making the Spurs pay but by getting Randolph — who said he was so distraught over his play in Game 1 that he barely slept — involved.
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: According to several sources close to the situation, LeBron James does not, in fact, put his pants on one leg at a time. That being the case, it’s astonishing that Frank Vogel has “dismissed” the mighty Miami Heat as the “next team” in the Pacers’ way -- not “just another team,” as James misquoted him -- but the next team. Shame on Vogel for not genuflecting when he mentioned the Heat, or for volunteering to kiss James’ ring -- ring singular, not rings -- when the two teams meet up in the Eastern Conference finals beginning Wednesday in Miami. The gall of Vogel, who last year suggested strongly (and expensively) that the Heat were the biggest floppers in the NBA. Doesn’t he know he’s talking about LeBron and the Big Three and a team that has gone 45-3 in its last 48 games? (If you’re not picking up on the facetiousness here, go back to school and enroll in a reading comprehension class). … Of course, this is a non-story that has become a story, which means it’s a nice easy column. Because we love conflict, even when it’s artificial conflict. Because it’s a lot easier than calculating D.J. Augustin’s PER rating in the second round against the Knicks. Because we’re like that kid on the playground who used to try and stage fights, a la Don King. Did you hear what Johnny said about your girlfriend? Silly. But wonderful. Wonderful because there’s still some bad blood after last year’s compelling six-game series between the Pacers and the Heat.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: Much will be different about this year’s matchup between the Heat and Pacers, and it all starts with Chris Bosh being healthy and at the top of his game. But how the Heat’s reserves affect the series might be the most significant key to the game. The Heat’s bench scored 55 points last week in Game2 of its Eastern Conference semifinals playoff series against the Bulls. In last year’s conference semis against the Pacers, it took the Heat’s reserves nearly three full games to reach that total. The major differences between the Heat’s bench now and the rag-tag group that slugged it out the with Pacers in 2012: Ray Allen, who was with Boston this time last year and gearing up for a match-up with the Heat, is averaging 12.2 points per game in the playoffs. … Chris Andersen, who was on his couch in Denver this time last year, has provided much-needed muscle and energy to the Heat’s second unit. … Norris Cole was a minor footnote against the Pacers last year, averaging 2.0 points and less than 13 minutes per game.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: Our next chance to judge the James Harden trade — as if it hasn't been scrutinized enough — has come. The NBA Draft Lottery is Tuesday night. It will reveal this year's draft order and determine whether the Thunder will receive Toronto's first-round pick. It's a selection Oklahoma City received as part of a package that included Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and two other picks. Whatever happens, the team's fan base, as well as close followers of the trade's fallout, likely will be split. If the Thunder lands the pick, it'll be the 12th overall selection and perhaps viewed by most as a disappointment. If the pick remains with Toronto and rolls over into next year, the Thunder seemingly will get criticized for failing to receive an asset in exchange for Harden that could help sooner rather than later. A perfect storm put the Thunder in this position of possibly picking at the back end of the lottery. No way could this have been what the front office had in mind when the powers that be insisted on Houston including Toronto's first-rounder before pulling the trigger on the deal. But here they are, stuck with a worst-case scenario after everything that could go wrong for the placement of this potential pick did go wrong.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Since the regular season ended just more than a month ago, New Orleans Pelicans backup guard Brian Roberts hasn’t paid much attention to the upcoming NBA draft lottery set for Tuesday night. But whether the Pelicans pick up the option on Roberts' contract to retain him could largely depend on where they are slotted for the upcoming June 27 NBA draft. The Pelicans have only an 8.8 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick going into the lottery. But they have a 26.15 percent chance of staying at the fifth spot, where several mock drafts have them selecting Michigan point guard Trey Burke. Most have Burke, 6-feet, 190, being taken no higher than fifth and not lower than seventh. If the Pelicans draft Burke and they already have starter Greivis Vasquez, they could opt not to keep Roberts, especially with Austin Rivers having the ability to play both guard positions. But some of the mock drafts also have Pelicans addressing their need to improve their small forward spot by drafting Georgetown's Otto Porter or UNLV's Anthony Bennett if they can land one of the top three draft spots. ``Right now I’m just trying to see how things play out,’’ Roberts said.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: Will the Bobcats select a long-term keeper? History suggests the odds aren’t great. Since their inception in 2004, the Bobcats have made top-five selections four times. An Observer study last spring demonstrated top-five picks are precious: Thirty-six of the top 100 players in the league, as identified by that study, were top-five picks, including 15 of the top 20 players. … The Bobcats’ draft pick retention history is pretty threadbare. Of the 10 players chosen in the lottery (the first 14 picks) six are gone (two no longer in the NBA). Gerald Henderson will be a restricted free agent and three others – Kidd-Gilchrist, Bismack Biyombo and Kemba Walker – are still playing in Charlotte under their rookie contracts. These next two drafts could provide the Bobcats’ a do-over. Along with the 2013 pick, the Bobcats might have three first-rounders in 2014 and all could be lottery picks. The Bobcats figure to miss the playoffs next season and are owed picks from the Portland Trail Blazers and Detroit Pistons that could come due in ’14.
• Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: As all of the NBA’s non-playoff teams gather in New York tonight for the draft lottery, the Cavaliers have to like the odds they carry into Times Square. The Cavs enter with the third-best chance (15.6 percent) at winning the lottery. The league is celebrating its 20th anniversary of the revamped weighted system, and the team with the third-best odds has won five of the first 19 years. No other lottery position has been more successful. The overwhelming question now is how excited it’s worth getting for a lottery victory when the draft is expected to be so dismal. The projected top pick, Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel, is offensively challenged and isn’t expected to play until close to Christmas while recovering from a knee injury. And that’s the best prospect. It only goes down from there. Nevertheless, the Cavs will follow the same protocol as the previous two years. Minority team owner Jeff Cohen will represent the Cavs in the sequestered room where the numbers are actually drawn and Nick Gilbert, son of owner Dan Gilbert, will again represent the Cavs on the podium during the television broadcast when the draft positions are revealed.
• Peter Botte of the New York Daily News: Iman Shumpert revealed that he will play for the Knicks in the Las Vegas summer league for the first time after missing it last summer while rehabbing a torn ACL and the year before because of the lockout. “They want to see me be more decisive offensively, which I already knew, but that would be big for me to work on this summer…and come in for training camp ready to do that,” Shumpert said.
• Michael Hunt of the Journal Sentinel: Given the NBA's willingness to relocate franchises far more freely than the other big leagues, the decision last week to keep the Kings in Sacramento in lieu of a crazy-money offer from Seattle was surprising. What wasn't surprising was the local reaction. The Bucks-to-Seattle drum was put out there and then beaten by politicians and community leaders who needed the news to throw another log on an arena-debate fire that isn't exactly raging at the moment. Two things: None of this was coming from Seattle. And if it is suddenly convenient to have the nation's 12th largest TV market looming as a bogeyman to jump-start serious arena discussions here, well, that is how the game is played. Of course, there is another way to look at this unexpected turn of events as it applies to the Bucks. Not long after the NBA prevented the small-market Kings from moving, NBA commissioner Stern, for the first time in a decade, began warming to the idea of expansion. In a Sunday story, the Seattle Times portrayed expansion as the city's best chance to reclaim the team that was stolen five years ago in the Oklahoma City rustle. … If Seattle is an imaginary threat to the Bucks, that doesn't mean the pressure is not there to make the organization worthy of a new arena. Since advancing to the Eastern Conference finals 13 years ago, the Bucks have made the playoffs five times, are 7-20 and have not gotten out of the first round. The effort to pull the Bucks from their self-dug pit should be from within, not from without.
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: Bryan Colangelo’s tenure as the top basketball savant at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is at an end. His relationship with the sports conglomerate is not. In a move that should be officially announced as early as Tuesday morning, Colangelo will cede control of basketball operations as the president and general manager within the company and move to some unspecified corporate role, according to multiple NBA sources. Colangelo’s future has been cloudy since the arrival of new MLSE chief executive officer Tim Leiweke; the Raptors held an option on a final contract year for Colangelo and Leiweke seemed lukewarm from the start about picking it up. But the veteran NBA executive, seven years on the job in Toronto after more than a decade with the Phoenix Suns and a two-time NBA executive of the year, has always been a loyal and valued part of the organization, a fact not lost on ownership. Sources suggest minority owner Larry Tanenbaum may have been involved in the process of finding a suitable and significant position for Colangelo, a process that was still being finalized Monday afternoon, according to sources.
• Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: What you are about to read is pure speculation. I feel compelled to declare that up front, unlike so many NBA coaching rumors you read on the internet that quote "well-placed sources," which often is the Ouija board sitting next to the author or, even worse, an agent. So here goes: It wouldn't surprise me if Hawks general manager Danny Ferry, who has been looking for apotential replacement for coach Larry Drew, is waiting to interview Brian Shaw. Shaw is an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers, who just upset the New York Knicks in the second round of the playoffs and now will face (and lose to) Miami in the Eastern Conference finals. … No, I'm not declaring Shaw as the favorite for the Hawks' job. But it would make sense if he's a candidate, especially if Ferry can't land Stan Van Gundy (who figures to have better options) and believes he and Shaw will be on the same page in terms of how to build a team. (This is why I believe San Antonio assistant Mike Budenholzer is a strong possibility.) And if you're wondering, yes, Ferry and Shaw did cross paths once: in Italy. Both played in the Italian League for Il Messaggero Roma in 1989-90. In fact, I've even located NBC News raw video links of the two walking together in Italy.
• John N. Mitchell of The Philadelphia Inquirer: Although he no longer plies his trade here, former 76ers coach Larry Brown still keeps his eyes and ears focused on all things basketball in Philadelphia. Brown, who coached the Sixers from 1997-2003, expressed some skepticism about the direction of his old team. Now the coach at Southern Methodist, he also bemoaned the loss of his chance to coach in the Big East Conference. Brown was one of eight inductees Monday night into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. The 72-year-old Brown is an old-school coach who is not sold on the heightened focus on advanced statistics in the NBA. "I'm not that kind of guy," Brown said when asked his opinion on the hiring of new Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie. "You're asking the wrong guy. This is not baseball. Guys hit better during the day than they do at night. You have lefties and righties. But this is not baseball. In this league, it's about teaching players and making them better." However, Brown said he does not rule out the role of analytics in building a better basketball team. "All the information, I'm sure, helps," Brown said. "But at the end of the day, this is a basketball town. They love kids that play hard, play together, play smart. And the best way to tell that about a kid is to look him in the eye in the most crucial moments of a game. That tells you so much. But you have to give this a chance.”
• Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee: For the better part of three years, they had one of the most thankless jobs in the industry, trying to sell season tickets when their franchise was forever on the move? Good luck. Good night. And break out the suitcase. So imagine how the remaining members of the Kings' depleted ticket sales department felt Wednesday when NBA Commissioner David Stern announced the team was staying in Sacramento and negotiations were under way to transfer controlling interest to a deep-pocketed investment group headed by software entrepreneur Vivek Ranadive? There was relief, and disbelief. There were high-fives, and tears. There were jobs, and more jobs.

• Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: Zach Randolph called it his “win-win dance,” and the choreography was not cutting edge. He hopped, and he smiled, and he acted like someone who would never miss another shot. This was two years ago. Against the Spurs. When it seemed he would never miss another shot. He would eventually prove to be human. Still, the lose-lose dance he performed Sunday should be seen as the same kind of temporary tango. Because this isn’t Randolph. These aren’t the Grizzlies. And this isn’t how the series will continue. The Spurs will take how the series began. These Western Conference finals, after all, started nothing like last year’s did. Then, the Spurs had to scratch out the I-want-some-nasty game. … Sunday was closer to a Spurs clinic, as well as a counter to those who saw Memphis as the trendy pick. When Tony Parker wasn’t shredding Memphis, the Spurs’ shooters were overwhelming a group that was second in the NBA this past season in 3-point defense. … The Grizzlies will try. They will review film, and they will prepare to play to their strength. They will pound with Z-Bo as they pounded the Clippers and Thunder before, and dancing will be optional.
• Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News: Memphis’ abject lack of outside shooting (5 for 12 on 3s) killed them in two respects. One, they were outscored by 27 points from beyond the arc, easily the biggest different in the game. Two, it allowed the Spurs to basically ignore their perimeter players and collapse on the low-post tandem of Randolph and Marc Gasol. Gasol was active early on, but he needed 16 shots to score 15 points while drawing just two free throws. Randolph barely got any touches at all, scoring his lone bucket on a tip-in while missing 7 of 8 shots. He had been averaging 19.7 points on 51.2-percent shooting in the postseason. It’s fitting Gregg Popovich used a football metaphor to describe the Spurs’ strategy, which was basically a page taken straight from their first-round meeting with the Lakers — swarm the paint first, recover on shooters second. “Zach and Marc are a heck of a combination, probably the best high-low combination in the league,” Popovich said. “Everything they do is really difficult to stick with, and you’ve got to have a mindset to do it on every down. You can’t be perfect at it. They’re just too good. But the effort was there for 48 minutes.” … The Grizzlies have bounced back from 0-1 deficits to win each of their past two series. Conversely, the Spurs are 19-3 when they win the first game of a best-of-seven series in the Duncan/Popovich era.
• Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: So when he's asked about playing Indiana next, and how they'll strategize against him again, you know he's run the matchup through his mind. And it's not a hard conclusion on Indiana's best play against him. "They'll try to put me on the floor, maybe,'' LeBron James said. "They'll be physical with me, maybe. … The word is you've got to beat up the Heat to beat them. And every team has tried to do that." This wasn't just Indiana's way in their playoff series last year. It was Chicago's method last week. That series offered another glimpse into what may be the final rite of public passage for the best player in the game. Lots of teams hit LeBron at the rim. Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau took it to uncharted territory. He ordered his players to get rough with LeBron in the open court, well before he became unstoppable near the basket. When Nazr Mohammed threw a two-arm wrap around LeBron near mid-court, then shoved LeBron to the floor, Thibodeau snapped. He said LeBron flopped. Nate Robinson then football-tackled LeBron near mid-court. There was something old-school gallant about Chicago's game plan, bit players trying to take out the game's best player. "Hopefully, the league will look at that,'' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. That's not intent here. It's, again, this strange, final passage LeBron seems to be making. Teams always played Michael Jordan hard right to the end of his Chicago run. But no one got Medieval on Jordan.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: The last time I got a text from from Larry Bird at 1 a.m. it was about this time a year ago. It first started with a telephone call talking about how poor the Pacers played in their 32-point loss to the Miami Heat in Game 5. Then came the text message. My phone went off again early Sunday morning. It was Bird, who has kept a low profile since stepping down as a president last June. Bird was offering up nothing but praise this time about the team he put together. “Those who play together stay together!” Bird wrote in the text. Bird is right, the Pacers stuck together all year. They stuck together when Danny Granger was ruled out at the start of the season. They stuck together when they got off to a slow start. They stuck together when Granger came back and then went down again for the rest of the season. And they stuck together when they opened the second round of the playoffs as the underdogs against the New York Knicks. For years, outsiders have questioned the Pacers on who the face of the franchise is and who is going to lead them in the playoffs. The Pacers have shied away from getting caught up in that talk. They proved it again on Saturday after they eliminated the Knicks in six games.
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: Today, barring a stunning turn of events, it is expected Bryan Colangelo’s term in Toronto will end seven years and 81 days after it began. Under his guidance, the Raptors made it to the playoffs twice — in each of his first two full seasons on the job. The five-year drought since then more than justifies the organization heading in another direction. This is not an indictment of Colangelo. It’s just a recognition of the fact that he has had his chance to turn things around here and now it’s time to give someone else that chance. Much is being made right now of the Raptors’ dithering in this respect. Under recently named president and CEO — and this is key — but still not actively serving Tim Leiweke, the impression has been left that the organization is somehow being harmed by a lack of an immediate decision on the general manager. One way or another, that impression will end today. Colangelo probably had another year with the Raptors had MLSE not gone out and snapped up Leiweke. … There are plenty of targeted names out there to fill Colangelo’s shoes. From Denver’s Masai Ujiri to Indiana’s Kevin Pritchard to Oklahoma City’s Troy Weaver, there is plenty to like about the wish list but so far that’s all it is — a wish list. Ujiri, the Denver GM and former Colangelo assistant in Toronto, has given no indication he is interested, but nor have either of the other two. It’s all well and good to target a guy, even one as presumably easy as it would be to target the recently named NBA executive of the year in Ujiri. But it’s another to actually hook that target. So, yes, there’s still a slight chance Colangelo could be back.
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: One theory making the rounds in NBA circles over the weekend is that both sides are trying to find a way for Colangelo to remain in the organization but perhaps in a different role. Other people in the league, however, are certain that the longer Leiweke lets the situation drag on, the more likely it is that Colangelo leaves and that the chief executive officer is plumbing the depths of other front offices to find someone with a reputation — and the ability — that would make a new hire seem like a big splash. But whatever the resolution, it won’t come until the last minute, at least. Monday is supposedly the deadline for the 2013-14 option on Colangelo’s contract to be picked up. It could be extended by mutual agreement. Still, there are other issues — and human situations — to be dealt with and taken into consideration. Colangelo’s chief lieutenant, Ed Stefanski, has been on the job less than two years, is under contract for one more and has a resumé just as impressive as any of the rival executives whose names have emerged publicly. But if Leiweke — and sources are adamant that this is his decision to make — insists on bringing someone in to work either with or independent of Colangelo in some senior role, where does that leave the well-respected Stefanski? And if Leiweke decides to cut ties entirely with Colangelo, the front-office upheaval could be significant. Along with Stefanski, assistant general manager Marc Eversley is closely aligned with Colangelo and someone new in charge might not be comfortable with that arrangement. Coach Dwane Casey, entering the final year of his contract, has the full support of Colangelo but does that change if there’s a new boss in charge? So it’s not as if Leiweke’s decision will only have an impact on one member of the front-office staff.
• Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post: If you had to pick one man whose leadership is most essential to the future success of the Nuggets, would you go with coach George Karl or general manager Masai Ujiri? My vote: Ujiri is more valuable. By a power of 10. Contrary to popular belief, the potential free agent Denver really needs to lock up this offseason is not Andre Iguodala, a $15 million guard who shoots 58 percent from the foul line and is professed to be an all-world defender, yet can't be entrusted to lock down Stephen Curry in the NBA playoffs. Ujiri rescued the Nuggets from the chaos caused by Carmelo Anthony's trade demand. Ujiri has discovered real talent late in the first round of the NBA draft, while bringing Kenneth Faried and Evan Fournier to Denver. Ujiri would be far harder to replace in the front office than Karl would be on the bench. Sports executive Tim Leiweke helped bring the Avalanche to Colorado. Now Leiweke could steal Ujiri from town. Leiweke oversees the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors have cast covetous eyes at Ujiri. Ujiri deserves a big raise from the Nuggets. Pronto. … With all due respect to Ty Lawson, Ujiri is the MVP of the Nuggets. Lose Ujiri, and the Nuggets would be lost.
• Frank Isola of the New York Daily News: Carmelo Anthony sat shirtless and wore ice packs on both knees late Saturday night as he surveyed the losing locker room inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse. From his demeanor and posture right down to the accessories needed to heal his aching body, Anthony resembled Patrick Ewing more than ever after the Knicks’ season ended prematurely against the Indiana Pacers. The look said it all: Another prime year lost, another bid for that elusive championship wasted. “I mean, it’s a disappointment,” Anthony said. … The time, of course, is now. Anthony turns 29 on May 29 and has been in the league 10 years. That’s a lot of miles on his legs. Ewing was 31 when he reached the NBA Finals in 1994, his ninth season. A better comparison are two of Anthony’s contemporaries from the historic 2003 draft class. James, who turns 29 in December, has been to the NBA Finals three times and could secure a second straight championship next month. Wade, 31, is in his 10th year and has reached the Finals three times and won two rings. Anthony’s best finish was the Western Conference finals. Otherwise, he’s been out of the first round just twice. Anthony is in the prime of his career, but there is no guarantee that the best years are ahead for him and the Knicks. Maybe that’s what he was contemplating late Saturday night after another lost season.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: Orlando Magic fans approach Pat Williams whenever they see him around town these days. "Come on home with the first pick," they say. "Bring it on back," they say. "OK, we're looking for that first pick," they say. What those strangers are referring to is the 2013 NBA Draft Lottery, which will take place Tuesday night in midtown Manhattan. The Magic own a 25-percent chance of winning the top overall pick, the highest probability of any team, and Williams will be there once again, on stage, serving as the public face of the franchise. Williams, the Magic's co-founder and senior vice president, is a living, breathing good-luck charm. His teams have won the lottery four different times: thePhiladelphia 76ers in 1986 and the Magic in 1992, 1993 and 2004. "People just expect another one," he says now, chuckling. "We only have a 25-percent chance! I guess if I don't come back with the top pick, they'll say, 'Boy, what a bum he is. What was he doing up there?' " Many people remember Williams for his lottery fortune instead of his skill and accomplishments as a sports executive. Major networks have televised the lottery ever since the its inception in 1985, and Williams' reactions to his victories have been priceless.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: The Charlotte Bobcats are on their way to becoming the Charlotte Hornets. The Bobcats have started pursuing a name change to Charlotte’s original NBA team, an informed source confirmed to the Observer. Though the Bobcats will need permission from the league to make such a change, incoming NBA commissioner Adam Silver has twice indicated that shouldn’t be a problem. What’s still in question is when the name change could be implemented and how extensively the Bobcats would assume the Hornets’ old look. The source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, would not comment on whether the popular teal-and-purple color scheme would return to Charlotte. The Hornets were Charlotte’s first major-league team, and for most of 14 years the town embraced the team. The consecutive sellout streak for home games reached 364, nearly nine full seasons. Players like Muggsy Bogues and Dell Curry still live here and are still prominent figures. The Hornets drafted power forward Larry Johnson and center Alonzo Mourning with top-two picks and they led the team to an unlikely victory over the Boston Celtics in a first-ever playoff appearance in 1993. But even before then the Hornets owned the town.
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: As the Dallas Mavericks contingent of Donnie Nelson and Keith Grant prepare to head to New York for Tuesday’s NBA Draft lottery selection, they do so knowing nothing strategically will determine whether the Mavs can walk away with the No. 1 overall draft pick. No tea leaves. No Ouija boards. No X’s and O’s. Just like the Powerball winner, it comes down to pure luck as to who wins the draft lottery. Owner Mark Cuban said: “As much as we want to say it’s all science, there’s a big part of it that’s luck.’’ The lottery is at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the ABC Times Square Studios in New York City. This is just the second time in the Cuban era that the Mavs have been in the draft lottery. Cuban purchased the Mavs on Jan. 4, 2000, and Dallas was involved in the lottery some four months later after finishing the season with a 40-42 record.
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: Last summer, Thunder forward Serge Ibaka was said to be considering working with Olajuwon, but Ibaka didn't have adequate time. Ibaka was busy playing for silver medalist Spain at the Olympic Games in London and then returned to OKC to hammer out the details of a four-year contract extension worth at least $49 million that begins next season. Multiple times during his exit interview session on Thursday, Ibaka said his primary focus this offseason will be to find ways to “create my own shot.” Might this include a trip to Houston to work with Olajuwon? “Yes, it's a possibility,” the 23-year-old Ibaka said. “It depends on how the summer goes. If there's time, I would like to go (work with Olajuwon). I'm not just focused to go see Hakeem, I'm focused to work on my game. From what I've heard, it's a good option for me. … I really, really want to get better and create my own shot. So it's something I will focus on this summer.” NBA players who have worked with Olajuwon include Yao Ming, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire, Luol Deng, Emeka Okafor, JaVale McGee and Kenneth Faried. Olajuwon also has worked with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. Thunder coach Scott Brooks is friends with Olajuwon and was his teammate for 2 1/2 seasons (1992-95) in Houston.

Phil Jackson is in the news every day. Will he return to the NBA? What does he want? Where will he land? Would he run a good front office? Will he coach? Marc Stein and David Thorpe weigh in.

• Tony Bizjak, Dale Kasler and Ryan Lillis of The Sacramento Bee: The uncertainty over the future of the Sacramento Kings will linger at least into next week. Just as Mayor Kevin Johnson announced on Tuesday that a local investor group was finally ready to present its formal bid to buy the team, league officials in New York revealed they have scrubbed plans to vote this week on a competing offer to move the team to Seattle. An NBA spokesman declined to offer a reason. League Commissioner David Stern two weeks ago said a postponement was possible due to what he called the complicated and unprecedented situation the league faces. The NBA has never before had to decide between two cities competing hard and well for the same team, Stern said. Both have well-financed groups eager to buy the team from the Maloof family, the team's current owner, and both cities assure the NBA they can build gleaming state-of-the art arenas in the next few years.
• Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times: Having Chauncey Billups back in the starting lineup for the Clippers on Tuesday night against the Portland Trail Blazers meant a lot to the team in many ways. Billups brings the Clippers championship experience. He won a title with the Detroit Pistons over the Lakers in 2004, when Billups was named the Finals most valuable player. "He's a little bit older now," Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said about the 36-year-old Billups. "He's missed most of last season and a lot of this season, so that's not as easy to do. We still expect a lot from him with his leadership. He can make shots, obviously. He's another guy that can make plays." Billups had missed the last eight games with a strained right groin. He has played in just 21 games this season and is expected to play in a back-to-back game Wednesday night in Sacramento. Del Negro said the plan is to play Billups about 20 minutes per game.
• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: The photo, like so many others from Monday’s explosions, had gone viral. A young woman, her body mostly obscured by a distraught man and an EMT, lay face down on the blood-splattered Boylston Street sidewalk. Avery Bradley spotted the photo online and immediately posted it to his Twitter account with a simple hashtag — #sad. “It just caught my eye,” the Celtics guard said before yesterday’s practice. “All I could think was that this is crazy, to think that people go to an event like this to run. That’s what they train for all year. And for people to lose arms and legs, that’s just crazy.” So Bradley did what so many others could only do. He asked for help from a greater power. “All you can do is pray for their families. I definitely did yesterday,” he said. “I feel bad, and if there’s any way I can help, I will want to help. . . . It could happen anywhere. But to see it happen there or anywhere at all is just crazy.” The Celtics took the practice floor in a relieved state yesterday, most glad last night’s game against Indiana was canceled.
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: With a $100 million payroll, four future Hall of Famers and a storied championship history, it's come to this. The Lakers' season finale Wednesdaytonight against the Houston Rockets could decide whether they perhaps salvage an otherwise disastrous season or miss the playoffs for only the third time in the team's history. Few would have guessed this scenario. Plenty envisioned the Lakers waltzing into the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. Many wondered if anyone could stop a star-studded lineup that featured Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol. Never shy to boast, Lakers forward Metta World Peace predicted the team would surpass the NBA's regular-season record (72-10) set by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team. "I thought we'd be at a different point right now," World Peace said. "But that's all right." Instead, the Lakers (44-37) enter Wednesdaytonight's game against the Houston Rockets (45-36) at Staples Center with a possible must-win situation. The Lakers are a pure lock for the playoffs if they win, earning a seventh seed and playing the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. A Lakers' loss coupled with a Utah loss against Memphis would leave the Lakers in the eighth spot against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
• Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune: Wishing and hoping and thinking and — oh, right — playing. With apologies to Dusty Springfield, nothing else remains for the Utah Jazz. Their season may conclude with a loss to the Grizzlies here Wednesday, it may end with a Lakers win over the Houston Rockets in Los Angeles or it may be extended into a most unlikely postseason. If the Jazz can beat the Grizzlies at FedEx Forum, they will turn into Rockets fans, hoping Houston, trying to avoid falling into the eighth seed, can beat the Lakers in a game that fittingly, cruelly, doesn’t begin until after the Jazz and Grizzlies end on national TV. The Jazz, who won the season series against L.A., would be even with the Lakers and into the playoffs. "I guess I need to try to get in touch with Kevin McHale," Al Jefferson said of his former Minnesota coach, now with the Rockets, "and tell him to handle that for me. Give me a late birthday present."
• Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: As another Toronto Raptors season crawls to its conclusion, a franchise teetering on irrelevance has a series of enormous decisions to make. There may not be any one right answer for Tom Anselmi and the board of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, but there is almost certainly a wrong one. The decisions, as they seemingly do at the end of every Raptors season, revolve around the general manager, Bryan Colangelo, and the coach, Dwane Casey. Colangelo has an option year remaining on his contract. Casey has one year left on his deal. And the team is forever paddling in circles, creating the occasional wave, but ending up nowhere in the end. The decision for Anselmi and the board isn’t in any way obvious, with the largest issue being the relationship between Colangelo and Casey. Colangelo did his best to distance himself from his coach early in the season and there has been all kind of internal speculation that the two can’t possibly work together again. That determination may wind up saving his job or costing him the position.
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Hawks had a chance to control their playoff seed. Not anymore. A poor effort against the Raptors, one in which the Hawks went to their bench early and often, resulted in a 113-96 loss Tuesday night in a nationally televised game at Philips Arena. The Hawks played without Al Horford and just a half with Josh Smith in a game they trailed by as many as 23 points. Smith played 13 minutes and received treatment on his knees at the intermission. He banged a knee in the first half and did not immediately come back to the bench after halftime but later returned with both knees wrapped in ice. Regulars Jeff Teague (19 minutes), Kyle Korver (18) and Devin Harris (17) played less than a half. … The Hawks can clinch the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, and a first-round playoff against the Nets, with a victory at the Knicks and a Bulls loss at home against the Wizards Wednesday. The Bulls will claim the fifth spot with a victory or if both teams lose Wednesday. The Hawks would finish sixth and get a first-round matchup with the Pacers. The Hawks have split the season series with both the Nets and Pacers this season.
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: Thunder three-time All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook has never missed a game in the NBA and has the league's longest active streak at 393 consecutive games played. OKC (60-21) closes out the regular season at 7 p.m. Wednesday against the Milwaukee Bucks (37-44) at Chesapeake Energy Arena, but Thunder coach Scott Brooks wouldn't share his starting lineup after Tuesday's practice. Westbrook playfully was asked if there would be a fist fight if Brooks asked him to sit out the finale. “No, no, no. There won't be a fist fight,” Westbrook said with a smile, “but he won't ask me (to do) that.”
• Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News: With all the twists and turns during the 2012-13 regular season, it was only fitting that the Spurs gave us one more on Tuesday, signing Tracy McGrady to fill to roster vacated after the unceremonious whacking of Stephen Jackson. It is the seventh NBA stop for the former franchise player, and eighth as a professional including his recent stint in the Chinese league. He dominated with Qingdao Double Star Eagles, averaging 25 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists — the type of numbers he put up as a seven-time All-Star before injuries sapped his athleticism. McGrady won’t find it nearly so easy back in the NBA, where he averaged 5.3 points last season with Atlanta. There’s some speculation that McGrady’s addition had been the end goal all along. But at this point, the most likely explanation is probably the simplest: The Spurs excised what they viewed to be a cancer, and they needed a warm body to help pick up the slack on a Spurs bench that suddenly isn’t so deep. That means chewing up whatever time is available behind starting small forward Kawhi Leonard. And from what Gregg Popovich has said recently, there won’t be much. Leonard, he said, could earn up to 40 minutes a night, leaving precious little for a floor-bound ex-star.
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: Keeping Noah and Gibson healthy is critical during the postseason. The Bulls took Tuesday off, and both players continued treatment on their respective lingering injuries, plantar fasciitis for Noah and a sprained MCL for Gibson. Coach Tom Thibodeau said "it's a possibility" the players will be on minutes limits to start the playoffs, which affects his rotation. "You don't know what the minutes are going to be, so that's another huge factor," Thibodeau said. "We have to get that sorted out in a very short amount of time. "The question is: Are we going to be sharp? You're talking about playoff basketball, where the intensity level is very high and it's the same opponent over and over. Most of the time, games are decided by one or two possessions. So how you matchup with people is critical. A bad matchup for a minute in the playoffs, that's 10 points. We have to be right and ready."
• Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News: O.J. Mayo owes an apology to his teammates in general and Vince Carter in particular. In the least, Mayo owes them maximum effort in Wednesday’s season finale against New Orleans. Why Mayo, in coach Rick Carlisle’s opinion, “didn’t compete” during his 28 minutes on the court against Memphis on Monday, is the latest baffler in Mayo’s mystifying late-season swoon. In fact, Mayo’s lack of production and Carlisle’s now-obvious frustration level seemingly increase the likelihood that Wednesday’s game will be his last in a Mavericks uniform. Of course, this could be the finale for some or all of the nine Mavericks who are in the final year of their contract or, as in Mayo’s case, have optional deals for 2013-14. Mayo holds his option, meaning it’s up to him whether to stay at a $4.2 million salary or declare for free agency.
• Scott Bordow of The Arizona Republic: Luis Scola and Goran Dragic were asked whether they would recommend interim head coach Lindsey Hunter returning next season. Both players punted the topic. “That’s a tough question,” Dragic said. “ ... I’m here to play basketball. It’s not my decision to make.” Dragic did say he liked Hunter’s approach to practice. “Alvin (Gentry) was a great coach for the veteran players; he knows when to give them a day off, but for our team we have a young team and we really need to practice hard every day,” Dragic said. “When he (Hunter) took over the team I think we maybe had one or two days off. I think it should be like that.” Scola said he thought Hunter did “a great job. Circumstances were bad and he did as good as he could. But I don’t make those decisions. I’m just a player.” Would a third coach in less than a year be unsettling for the team? “I think it would be a sign of things being bad,” Scola said. “But things are bad.” Suns owner Robert Sarver declined comment when asked about Hunter’s future, and Hunter said no time has been set for a postseason meeting with either General Manager Lance Blanks or President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby.
• David Mayo of MLive.com: One day after Pistons owner Tom Gores bluntly said he wasn't satisfied with on-court performance -- Gores also praised basketball operations, which supports the notion that team president Joe Dumars' job is safe -- Frank said he and his coaching staff want another year to right the ship. Frank noted that the Pistons are ahead of schedule in terms of their financial flexibility this summer because of the Ben Gordon and Tayshaun Prince salary-purging trades within the last year, and said he wants to remain head coach of a franchise in "prime position" to make major moves. "Obviously, you want to be a part of it, because that's why you went through the bleeding," Frank said. "I know, without a doubt, we all want to be back. But at the same time, that's not our decision. "But do I want to be back? Of course, because this is what you signed up for. You want to be part of reshaping the franchise and getting it back to where it was.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: With a 20-61 record entering the season finale against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Bobcats might end up with the NBA’s worst record for a second straight season. Charlotte will have a high draft pick and as much as $21 million in room under the salary cap this summer. Owner Michael Jordan and the front office face some big decisions between now and the start of training camp in October. Do they bring back the coaching staff? Which of their free agents do they re-sign? Do they cut ties with power forward Tyrus Thomas? Even what should they call themselves going forward? Coach Mike Dunlap: Winning one out of every four games isn’t the ideal NBA coaching debut, but the Bobcats’ record is about what was predicted at the season’s outset. When Jordan was asked at a season-ticketholder event about Dunlap, the owner said all his major employees’ performances would be reviewed after the season. To Dunlap’s credit, he’s had an impact in player development, the priority he was given when hired. Kemba Walker, Gerald Henderson and Byron Mullens all improved. But Dunlap has had some rocky moments in his interaction with players, particularly veterans.
• Tery Pluto of The Plain Dealer: Kyrie Irving can be great. That's right, the Cavaliers point guard can be great. But he's not there. Not yet. Great players defend. Great players help their team win. Great players find a way to stay on the court for most games. It will be up to Byron Scott or whomever coaches the Cavs to deliver that message next season. At times, Scott has tried. He has pulled Irving from games for a lack of defense. He has talked about Irving's disdain for defense. He consistently compares Irving to Chris Paul, adding that Paul is superior defensively. It's no secret that Irving is a soft defender. That's true of many young players, who believe all that matters is the points next to their name in the box score. The fact the team has yet to come close to the playoffs with him should point out that Irving still has a lot of work to do. … There are times when rolls his eyes or shakes his head in disgust when a teammate makes a poor play. It's kid stuff, but he should know better. None of this is to say Irving is a bad guy or a lousy teammate. But he has some maturing to do, and the Cavs must demand that he do it.
• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: Timberwolves forward Chase Budinger wants to return to the team next season if an agreement can be reached this summer, but as with any contractual agreement, there’s a bit of fine print. That is, if Rick Adelman returns to coach. Adelman is the reason the Wolves traded the 18th overall pick in last summer’s draft to Houston, where Adelman coached Budinger for three seasons before the pair was reunited in Minnesota. He’s also the reason a California kid wants to remain on the frozen tundra when he becomes an unrestricted free agent free to sign with any team this summer. “I would like to come back,” he said. “I like the organization. I like the staff. I love Adelman.” He saved the most important part for last there. “That’s a big part of it,” he said about the coach who taught a second-round draft pick in 2009 the NBA game. “Our relationship, he knows how I play. I work well in his system. It’s [Adelman’s decision] going to weigh big.”

• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: So is this his best season? “I don’t know,” LeBron James said. “I’ve had some really good individual seasons. I think, as far as efficiency, yeah. I don’t know if they’ve got all the numbers settled yet, but I felt I played some really good basketball this year.” How good? He has averaged 8.0 rebounds, highest of his career. He has shot 40.3 percent from 3-point range, highest of his career. He has averaged 7.3 assists, highest of his three seasons with Miami. Miami has outscored opponents by 720 points when he’s been on the floor. “Whatever I try to do, I want to be as close to perfect as possible,” James said. And now that Kobe Bryant is finished for the season, James is likely to lead the NBA in field goals made, holding a 36-make lead over Kevin Durant. “I don’t even shoot that much,” James said. “That’s pretty cool. I like that stat.” There’s a statistic that James appreciates even more, the one that tallies wins. Miami now has 64 with two games remaining, and a chance to tie James’ 2008-09 Cavaliers and Ray Allen’s 2007-08 Celtics for 10th on the single-season victory list. Those Cavaliers lost in the Eastern Conference finals to Orlando. These Heat, however, are stronger and deeper than that squad.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: The scene was set Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden — for payback, for message-sending, for a modest celebration and for a timely, well-earned rest. All the Knicks needed on this first day of the final week of the season was a sound victory over the Indiana Pacers. That, and four quarters without anyone being bruised, battered or broken. The Knicks got everything they wanted, and with a minimum of pain. With a suspense-free 90-80 victory, they clinched the second seed in the Eastern Conference and secured home-court advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs, including a potential second-round meeting with the Pacers. The Knicks will open the playoffs Saturday against the seventh-seededBoston Celtics — the team that swept them two springs ago, in Carmelo Anthony’s first postseason in New York. “That’s in the back of our minds,” said Anthony, who scored 25 points. “We want to beat Boston — I mean, let’s be quite frank. This would be a great series for us.” Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, who is injured, are the only Knicks left from that 2011 series. Yet the memory remains fresh, and for Anthony, painful.
• Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News: Even if Stoudemire does return, what can the Knicks expect when he hasn’t played since March 7? His blue practice jersey hangs these days in his locker. That’s the only sign of him. Since he had to get knee surgery, the Knicks definitely seem to operate better and win more when it’s Carmelo Anthony and the current supporting cast. If the Knicks are smart, they’ll tell Stoudemire, “See you in training camp.” Donnie Walsh disagrees with that notion. “I would think he would help them,” he said. “Of course, if he’s healthy.” Stoudemire is a proven playoff scorer, something that J.R. Smith and everyone else who gets shots after Anthony aren’t able to list on their resume. But his presence on the floor with Anthony has never made for a smooth-running operation. Quite the contrary. On defense, well, Stoudemire talks a better game than he plays. The Knicks would probably have to get to the second round, potentially against Walsh’s Pacers, for there to be a Stoudemire sighting. Maybe even longer. When Woodson went down his list of walking wounded, he did not mention the player Walsh brought to New York to start the grand rebuilding program.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Life without Kobe Bryant, Day 1, was nothing if not unpredictable. And in a crazy, wonderful, astonishing way, actually quite beautiful. On a night when Pau Gasol was the 7-foot invisible Spaniard, Steve Blake told him, "I've got your back." Blake went on to have the performance of his career while standing on one of the biggest stages of his life. In a game in which the Lakers hovered around 35 percent shooting all night and Gasol clanked 14 of 17 shots, they shook off their notoriously soft-defending ways to harass the San Antonio Spurs into 36.5 percent shooting. And with their playoff hopes resting in the balance, they somehow, someway managed to band together without Bryant and miraculously beat the San Antonio Spurs 91-86 while sold-out Staples Center rocked as loudly as it has in years. Imagine that. With Bryant watching from home, they beat a Spurs team that will finish no worse than the second seed in the Western Conference. And in the process, inch one win closer - or a Utah Jazz loss - to the playoffs. The Lakers finish the season Wednesday at home against the Houston Rockets. Utah plays at Minnesota and at Memphis to finish its season. Any combination of a Lakers win or a Jazz loss does the trick.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: Given a chance to state his case, Nuggets coach George Karl places this team, the 2012-13 Nuggets, among the top three in NBA franchise history — with a chance to enhance the position. "I think it's top three, from what I know about Denver," Karl said. "I think the year we had (in 2009), the one year Doug (Moe) had (1987-88) and this year. You can argue whatever you want to argue. ... And I think that argument is probably going to be more definitive from how we play in the playoffs." The playoffs can't come fast enough. Because while the Nuggets were busy setting a franchise record for victories in a season with Sunday's harder-than-it-had-to-be 118-109 win over a Portland team that started four rookies, it also was dampened a bit because of an injury. Starting power forward Kenneth Faried went down in the first quarter with a sprained left ankle and did not return. Though he's considered day to day, Faried did not make the trip to Milwaukee for Monday night's game and is scheduled to get an MRI exam. "I tried to power up and stepped on Will's foot when I tried to go," Faried said, referring to Portland's Will Barton. "Just twisted it. I'm relieved it ain't a break." Asked if he thought he'd be ready for the playoffs, Faried said, "I'm going to play."
• David Barron of the Houston Chronicle: This finale, thankfully for the Rockets and their fans, is not the last word. The Rockets will be back at Toyota Center this month, matching up with a playoff opponent to be determined. So Sunday’s last regular-season home game was considerably more upbeat than those of the last three playoff-free seasons, representing a celebration for a Rockets team that has wildly exceeded expectations with hopes of more to come. With their 121-100 win over the Sacramento Kings, the Rockets improved to 45-35 and tied Golden State for the sixth seed in the Western Conference playoffs. They hold the tiebreaker over the Warriors and can clinch the sixth spot with wins Monday night at Phoenix and on Wednesday in Los Angeles over the Lakers. There are scenarios aplenty for playoff series against any of the five teams in front of them — too many for coach Kevin McHale to focus on. Besides, McHale said, he knows how the form chart will read under any circumstances. “Whoever we play, we will not be favored,” he said. “We’ll be underdogs to whoever we play. That’s fine with us. We want to get in there and get the guys playing well.”
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Let the shaving begin. All those bushy beards the Dallas Mavericks sported over the past two months were able to come off Sunday night after the Mavs posted a 107-89 blowout against the New Orleans Hornets. A little more than two months ago, the Mavs vowed not to shave until they reached the .500 barrier. The win over the Hornets pushed the Mavs to 40-40, the first time they were .500 since they were 11-11 on Dec. 12, and Dallas pushed a few whiskers onto the floor inside its locker room. The first player to trim his beard was Dirk Nowitzki, who collected 19 points and six rebounds in Sunday’s win. “It’s been too long,” Nowitzki said. “Even my wife stopped kissing me somewhere in February. It feels good to shave again.” And how quickly did Nowitzki shave off his beard? “I did it in a minute or a minute and a half, and then I did the coach’s meeting,” Nowitzki said. “And then I ran back in right before the interviews and cleaned up the rest on my neck and behind the ears and the nose hair a little bit, and then I did the interviews.” Nowitzki said he used a small razor to get the fuzzy hair off his neck and chin.
• Phil Sheridan of The Philadelphia Inquirer: Doug Collins told reporters anything other than the titanic clash against the Cavaliers was "moot," refusing to answer questions about his future as if they were somehow a product of the media's collective fever dream. John Langel, Collins' agent, stood up and declared that Collins would coach the team in 2013-14. "He's the coach and he's going to be the coach," Langel said, either lying or badly behind the curve. The Sixers honored their 1983 championship team on the 30th anniversary of its achievement, with Julius Erving pointing out that the team isn't going to find a better coach than Doug Collins. It must be noted for the record that Sixers owner Josh Harris was not available to the media, even though he was standing about 30 inches from Langel while the agent was spouting off. A little earlier, during the halftime ceremony for the '83 team, Harris had blurted out that the Sixers would "work really hard to make next year even more exciting for the fans." Really? Even more exciting than this debacle? Please don't set the bar too high. …Collins sounded like a man who was moving on. He just declined to say so. And that really is a shame, because he's otherwise been a standup and accountable and, frankly, admirable figure here. … If this is the end, no one is going to walk away looking good. Not Collins, who owed the fans and his players better. Not Harris, who looks like an empty suit. Not anybody.
• Tom Moore of phillyBurbs.com: The 76ers haven’t publicly criticized Andrew Bynum during a season in which he was paid $16.5 million and played no games due to knee injuries. Hall of Famer Julius Erving, who is the team’s strategic advisor to the Sixers’ ownership group, didn’t hesitate to give his opinion on Bynum. Prior to the Sixers’ home finale, a 91-77 victory over the Cavaliers on Sunday afternoon, Erving was asked about Bynum, whom the team acquired in a blockbuster Aug. 10 trade. “I know what the net result is,” said Erving, smiling. “The net result is Robert Parish’s old number — 00. We have not benefited one degree. I guess he has. “If the Bynum situation is one of total uncertainty for another year, I don’t think the organization should stand for that or the fans should stand for that.” On the other hand, if the Sixers don’t re-sign Bynum or any of their other impending free agents, they could have about $12 million to spend this summer in free agency. “I think if he’s not here, you’re going to free up a lot of money,” Erving said. “Washington and Lincoln can’t play the corners for you, but they can get somebody that can play the corners for you. We need somebody to play a corner for us and play the middle for us. It’s going to be costly.” As for his role, Erving said he’s pretty happy with it, though, “There’s probably room for more communication.”
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: The irony of the afternoon wasn’t just limited to both men playing so well off the other. The three-point barrage from both men also answered the major deficiency is each man’s respective games, DeRozan since he has been a pro and Gay moreso this season. As for being able to co-exist, well, the two think that theory has just about been put to rest. “People were saying that as soon as he came,” DeRozan said of the trade that brought Gay to Toronto at the end of January. “Me and him laughed about it. Before he came here Rudy was a good friend of mine. We played all the time in L.A., take Nike trips to China together and be over there for weeks at a time. It was funny when people were saying that because they really don’t know. They don’t know we understand each other’s games and that’s why it’s so beneficial.” DeRozan has no hesitancy is predicting many good things ahead for the duo. “We are definitely going to be something to be reckoned with without a doubt,” he said. “I don’t see any team being able to stop us, especially if we play the way we played tonight. We are just trying to get better every day and every game.” As Dwane Casey is wont to say, it’s a process, and right now the process is moving along nicely. As for Gay, it’s a case of the more the merrier.

On Grantland, Thomas Golianopoulos has an outrageously insightful tale about Kobe Bryant's secret history as a rapper. It's a fun read all around, and makes clear that his much-publicized effort with Tyra Banks demonstrated only a fraction of his skills with the microphone.

Perhaps my favorite tale, however, came from a footnote, where then-Raptors guard Alvin Williams tells his side of an All-Star Weekend "rap battle" with Kobe:

"It wasn't a battle," Alvin Williams says.

"I was walking out of the Hilton and bumped into him as he and a couple of buddies were getting out of a limousine. I said, 'What are you going to do?' He's like, 'Go to my room and rap until my voice gets hoarse.' I go, 'You can't rap.' It was like straight out of a movie. He says, 'I can't rap?' Then he turned to one of his friends and said, 'Give me a beat.' His friend started beatboxing. Kobe then rapped for about 15 minutes straight. By the time we finished, I swear to God, there are like 150 people circled around. Then everyone expected me to rap. I walked away. I don't rap. They had their whole routine. It was straight out of Krush Groove. He wasn't that bad. And I'm a rap head."

• Al Iannazzone of Newsday: The scoreboard above the Garden floor read "Atlantic Division Champions" and blue T-shirts hung in each player's locker with "Can't Stop NY Knicks 2013 Division Champions" on it. The Knicks buried the Wizards Tuesday night, 120-99, to clinch their first Atlantic Division championship since 1994. It's the first step to what they hope will end in a march through the playoffs and their first NBA title in 40 years. "That was our No. 1 goal, win our division," J.R. Smith said. "Fortunately we did it. It's a great thing to achieve one of your main goals. Now we just got to get that gold ball." The way the Knicks (51-26) are playing, they have emerged as a legitimate threat to the Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder and the rest of the championship contenders. The Knicks won their 13th straight. Next on their agenda is getting the No. 2 seed in the East, which would give them the home court edge for at least the first two rounds of the playoffs. … But a damper was put on the festive mood when Kenyon Martin sprained his left ankle early in the fourth quarter after coming down on Chris Singleton's foot. X-rays were negative. But Mike Woodson called it “'a severe sprain.'”
• Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News: Jay-Z’s 99 problems won’t include the Nets for much longer. The rap mogul and NBA franchise figurehead plans to sell his small share of the Nets, as reported by Yahoo! Sports, because Shawn Carter wants to elevate his new career as a sports agent. Jay-Z, who recently acquired Robinson Cano as a client in partnership with Creative Artists Agency, has begun the process of obtaining his National Basketball Players Association certification as an agent, reports Yahoo!, which would require him to relinquish ownership of the Nets. Jay-Z reportedly owns just one-fifteenth of 1% of the Nets, but became the central figure in marketing the franchise's move from New Jersey to Brooklyn. The 43-year-old has been a mainstay in the Barclays Center this season, and was the first to model the team's new uniform during a concert in September. … “I would say (Jay-Z) had an enormous amount to do with the re-branding of the team,” Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo said before Tuesday’s game against the 76ers. “I was not close to it at all, but from what I heard and what I read and saw, he was huge — it would be hard to overstate how important he was to the rebranding. So it would be disappointing (if he left the Nets). I would be disappointed. I like his involvement with our team."
• Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: It could have been the Lakers' darkest hour this season, losing at home to the New Orleans Hornets. So Kobe Bryant brought out his flashlight, flicked it on and shined it directly at the Hornets. Twelve chaotic minutes later, Bryant had taken the Lakers to a 104-96 victory Tuesday at Staples Center. Yes, there is light near the end of the regular season. Barely. Bryant entered the fourth quarter with seven points and finished with 30, pushing the Lakers to their most important victory this season, if only because they moved half a game ahead of Utah for eighth place in the Western Conference. It wasn't the kind of night that inspired confidence for a long Lakers playoff run. Not even close. But if they make it past April 17, they can thank Bryant. As usual. "We have one of the best closers in the game," Lakers Coach Mike D'Antoni said. "That's why we could be a dangerous team." The Lakers' cause was helped when Utah (41-38) lost at home to Oklahoma City, 90-80, news that trickled through the arena in the second quarter Tuesday. … Howard said the Lakers hadn't adopted a dour attitude yet. "We smile in the locker room. We're still blessed to be alive," he said. "No need to walk around with frowns on our faces. We know what we need to do as a team, we've just got to go do it." It sure didn't seem that way for three quarters. But the Lakers prevailed, making the playoffs a slightly stronger possibility for them.
• Phillip B. Wilson of The Indianapolis Star: So that’s what it took to inspire the Indiana Pacers? Frank Vogel getting ejected? His team was going nowhere fast when the coach erupted and exited in the third quarter Tuesday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Pacers point guard George Hill said his coach’s first ejection of the season showed how far their leader was willing to go to inject intensity in lackluster players. Indiana improbably woke up and erased a 20-point deficit in the final quarter, much of it on a 17-0 run, then made the key plays at the end for a 99-94 comeback victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Pacers outscored the stunned Cavaliers 35-10 in the final quarter, including 31-6 in the final 8 minutes, 40 seconds. “That don’t mean nothing in the NBA; 20 points can go by like that,” Hill said, snapping his fingers. “As we showed tonight, no lead is safe in the NBA.”
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: Thunder forward Kevin Durant on Tuesday night topped 20 minutes, something he's done in every game this season. Only this time his minute total in the Thunder's game against Utah could have significant implications. According to the ESPN.com blog TrueHoop, no player in the past nine seasons who has played at least 3,000 minutes has gone on to win the NBA championship in that season. Durant entered Tuesday's game 20 minutes shy of the 3,000-minute plateau, prompting Thunder coach Scott Brooksto jokingly tell reporters before the game that he was shutting down Durant for the rest of the year. “Well you guys are going to hear it first,” Brooks said. “Tonight we're going to rest Kevin for the rest of the season. Breaking news.” The last player to win a championship in the same season that he played at least 3,000 minutes was former Detroit centerBen Wallace, according to TrueHoop. Durant's 2,980 minutes played entering Tuesday's games led the league, while his 38.7-minute average ranked second to Chicago forward Luol Deng's 39.2. After playing 37 minutes against the Jazz, Durant now has played 3,017 minutes this season. Brooks, however, doesn't view Durant's major minutes as much of an issue. “He's going to play and he's going to play a lot of minutes,” Brooks said.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: A streaking Mike Conley led the fast break and passed the ball off to Ed Davis for a probable layup. But Davis aborted his shot, flipped the ball by a defender and found Jon Leuer with a nifty pass. Leuer threw down an uncontested dunk, further energizing a crowd that already had been enthralled by the Grizzlies’ bench play. Conley amassed game highs with 20 points and seven assists. But a group of unusual suspects overwhelmed the Charlotte Bobcats, and led the Griz to a 94-75 victory Tuesday night before 16,591 in FedExForum. Credit the Grizzlies’ sudden vigor on defense. The Bobcats experienced a major drought in the fourth quarter. And Leuer couldn’t miss. The little-used Griz forward made all four shots he took, and finished with 11 points and five rebounds. His play epitomized the spark Memphis got from its bench. … Conley tossed in 20 points for a fifth straight game, extending his career-high scoring stretch. He is the only Memphis player to score at least 20 points in five consecutive games this season. The point guard has led the Griz in scoring in 10 of the past 13 games after doing so just seven times in the first 65 games this season.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: For a final few split seconds, the Rockets’ return to the playoffs hung in the air above the rim, as if teasing them with the last shred of uncertainty. Though likely all along, the Rockets were playing to make it official with a win over the Suns and a Jazz loss to the Thunder. But with a final shot to avoid overtime, James Harden’s 3-pointer hit the rim, bounced up and headed back down, seeming certain to fall away and make the Rockets go through at least an extra five minutes before they could take care of the business at hand. Then Suns center Jermaine O’Neal went up to fight off guard Patrick Beverley for the rebound and touched the ball while still in the cylinder. The goaltending after the buzzer counted the basket, lifting the Rockets past the Suns 101-98, and with the Jazz loss to the Thunder, assured their return to the playoffs for the first time since 2008-09. “I actually didn’t think I would be excited,” Jeremy Lin said. “I was like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going for the six seed.’ Now that it’s really here, I’m actually really excited because no one really gave us a chance going into the season that we’d be in the playoffs.”
• Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News: The Warriors are in the playoffs. Only a sourpuss would diminish that achievement. But the Warriors are not going to win the 2013 NBA championship. Only a fool would believe that pipe dream. Thus, for the next few weeks, followers of the team must confront a double-edged sword of giddiness and clearheaded reality. They should be glad to know that Bob Myers, the team's general manager, is waking up at 3 a.m. thinking about 2015 and 2016 as much as about 2013. Not every night. But many nights. "I keep my notebook by my bed," Myers said the other day at his office, "so that I can write down my thoughts and then go back to sleep. Otherwise I couldn't." As an example, Myers recently bolted out of a deep slumber when he suddenly thought of a contract ramification that he'd possibly overlooked, something that might affect the Warriors' salary cap or roster flexibility two years from now. Warriors' fans should rejoice and toss confetti at that story. Over the past 25 years, during those rare stretches when the Warriors might threaten to sustain a winning team, the threat would always end quickly. The front office strategy was grab-bag improvisational theater. The hope was to catch lightning in a bottle. But when lightning was occasionally caught, as with the 2007 "We Believe" team, it was never sustained. The elements were too volatile, too fragile or too obnoxious. The patch-and-fill roster changes would result in a toxic mess. It has become clear that such chaos will be avoided under the regime of owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber -- and especially under Myers, who on April 24 will celebrate his anniversary as G.M. The current Warriors team is clearly a positive step on the path to true and legitimate NBA title contention. But in a recent sit-down session, Myers was refreshingly open about the team's ultimate master plan.
• David J. Neal of The Miami Herald: Fans will be fortunate to see the Big Two-Thirds, much less the Big 3 during the last six games this season. LeBron James said Tuesday morning he would be a scratch for some of the last six. Dwyane Wade will travel to Washington for Wednesday’s game, but is no lock to play. Center Chris Bosh called in sick Tuesday and could miss Wednesday’s game at Washington, too. “He has flulike symptoms, so unless he gets dramatically better [he won’t travel],” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Tuesday’s game with Milwaukee. “It’s something we talked about. I don’t know if we will bring him around everybody.” Spoelstra said Wade is day-to-day with his knee and ankle injuries. Wade went through Tuesday’s morning shootaround and worked out later in the day. James said he’s “getting back to form” and his hamstring has “reacted well the last few days.” But as for the last six games … “I want to play, but I’m going to go against myself for the first time in my career,” James said.
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: To say it’s been a tumultuous first year in Toronto for Kyle Lowry would be one of the great understatements of the season. He has lurched from starter to backup to starter, working for another new coach with teammates that changed frequently over the course of the season and it’s no surprise that he answers quickly and emphatically when asked what it’s been like. “For me personally? Very frustrating, very disappointing.” And very up and down. When he first arrived at the cost of a lottery draft pick and a spare part, Lowry was famously “given the keys” to a franchise that fully expected him to lead it to the playoffs. He was lauded as a “pit bull” of a defender and a leader, a point guard with scoring skills who would give the Raptors a different look they wanted from their own court leader. It hasn’t actually panned out that way: Lowry’s been criticized by his coach for gambling too much on defence, he was injured and lost his starting job when he got healthy and the team not only floundered terribly at the start of the season, it’s basically limping home in much the same fashion. But Lowry continued a stretch of solid late-season play here on Tuesday night with 13 points and 10 assists as the Raptors stunned the short-handed Chicago Bulls with a 101-98 victory.

• Phil Collin of the Los Angeles Daily News: One teammate uttered the words "bionic nan." Kobe Bryant has taken to calling Metta World Peace "Logan," the character in "Wolverine." Whatever Metta Madness is flowing through his veins, it looks like World Peace will return to the Lakers lineup tonight, 12 days after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. A medical miracle? Not really, World Peace said. He was itching to play the moment he was asked by Dr. Steve Lombardo if he could put weight on the leg, and he hopped out of bed and did so only hours after the operation ."As long as he didn't have to stitch anything together, I couldn't do anything to (further damage) it," World Peace said Monday after going through 3-on-3 workouts. "I was in great shape. The doc said he was surprised my knee was in such great shape playing 14 years in the NBA and always in a defensive stance. "When I heard all that, it wasn't like I was trying to come back to be a Superman. I figured I've just got to play through pain and it will get better as time goes." … Guard Steve Nash, who was "super optimistic" about a return last Friday, remains doubtful with a hamstring strain.
• Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald: The last thing the Bulls need with six games left in the regular season is to roll back downhill with their health concerns, but that appears to have happened. Joakim Noah returned to the court Sunday against Detroit after missing eight games to rest chronic plantar fasciitis in his feet. Noah played well (13 points, 7 rebounds in 21 minutes), but his feet didn't react well Monday morning, according to coach Tom Thibodeau. "Jo had a little bit of a setback. We'll see. We'll see where he is," Thibodeau said after practice at the Berto Center. There's no telling if or when Noah might be back to normal this season. It seems unlikely he'll play Tuesday when the Bulls host Toronto. While most injuries slowly improve, plantar fasciitis patients often talk about how the ailment is so unpredictable. Thibodeau said Noah felt good after Sunday's game.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: While the rest of the NBA community is busy speculating about the future of LeBron James and how the Heat plans to navigate the new salary cap, Pat Riley is thinking long-term about how special the run of this Heat team can become. Speaking with reporters at the Heat’s “Family Fest” on Sunday, Riley pointed to models of success the NBA considers some the best in its history as the ultimate goal for the Heat while also reminding the city to enjoy this “special time.” “I just want to keep helping them, keep bringing in more pieces that are going to complement them and hope we can have one of those 10-year rides, you know,” Riley said. “You think about every team, through the Celtics in the ’60s and the Lakers in the ’80s and the Bulls and then again the Spurs, those guys have been together eight, nine, 10 years and if we can keep this group together for eight, nine, 10 years, then we’re all going to have some fun.” And then a piece of advice. “So, don’t ever take it for granted,” he said. Already this season the Heat has won 27 games in a row, the most in franchise history and the second most in the history of the NBA. Now the team is on the verge of another milestone. A victory Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks would give the Heat 61 victories, which would tie the franchise’s record for a single season.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: This streak brings its own questions: Is the new, efficient Smith here to stay, or will he revert to bad habits under postseason duress? Can Anthony keep scoring at this rate when defenses target him during the playoffs? Can the Knicks make the finals with a merely average defense? Does their defense have another gear? What happens to the chemistry if Amar’e Stoudemire, Rasheed Wallace and Kurt Thomas return? And most curious of all: After months of mediocrity, where did this Knicks team come from? “It’s April, I guess,” Anthony said. “It’s April. It’s time to go.”
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: The one thing people would never accuse Mike Conley of is being flashy. He tends to appear conservative — on and off the court. But that is starting to change — at least on the floor — where Conley’s offensive game suddenly has a lot of bling-bling to it. The Griz have increasingly relied on Conley to carry a heavier offensive load, particularly late in games, and it’s allowed him to shine. It’s a dramatic transformation for a point guard who had been content with being a passive piece of the puzzle for most of his six-year career. Conley enters Tuesday night’s game against the Charlotte Bobcats having scored at least 20 points in each of the past four games. That’s the longest streak by any Grizzlies player this season. Relatively speaking, Conley is in the proverbial zone as a scorer. “I’m really comfortable right now,” Conley said. Coach Lionel Hollins seems impressed yet not surprised by Conley’s maturation. “He’s just a more confident player,” Hollins said.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Although they got into an apparent shouting match during a timeout in last Friday’s game against the Utah Jazz, New Orleans Hornets Coach Monty Williams and guardEric Gordon both appear to have moved past the conflict. But Williams said he's not going to stop pushing Gordon to improve his overall play, especially during the final five games of the season. Against the Jazz, Williams did not put Gordon back into game after they apparently got into shouting match. Williams was visibly agitated, yelling in Gordon’s direction when he apparently didn’t think Gordon was hustling enough. Assistant coach Randy Ayers stepped in front of Williams to calm him, after Gordon hollered back at him. “He’s a dynamic guard, that’s why I push him,’’ said Williams, who plans to start Gordon for the second consecutive since the incident on Tuesday night when the Hornets play the Lakers at the Staples Center. “I’m not going to allow him to settle for where he is in his career right now. He’s got to get better. If he gets better, he should be an All-Star someday.’’ Gordon admitted the conflict was a heat of the moment situation that shouldn't be blown out of proportion. “It got very heated in the moment, but I’m not letting none of that get to me,” Gordon said. “I’m just out here, still trying to play.”
• Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: As Kyrie Irving continues to shrink away from any public platform, Tristan Thompson is embracing his role as a spokesman — and he’s backing it up with his play on the court, too. “Just being myself, just being a natural leader and speaking up if I see something is wrong,” Thompson said after the victory Sunday against the Magic. “Just recently y’all have been coming to me, and I’ve been speaking, so I guess you can say I’ve been a leader.” Because of the position he plays and his immense talent, Irving remains the floor leader. But twice in the past week Irving has been given the opportunity to take a stand publicly and twice he declined.
• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: If there was any lingering doubt, Timberwolves forward Kevin Love’s season officially is over, but it’s not just because of that healing shooting hand. Love will have arthroscopic surgery to remove scar tissue in his left knee later this week. Love will consult with two surgeons on Wednesday at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery: He’ll see his hand doctor for a checkup on that right hand he has broken twice this season and also will consult with knee surgeon Dr. David Altchek, who probably will perform the operation that same day. Love’s left knee has bothered him much of the season, but it has grown more painful in recent days as he ramped up workouts for a possible return yet this season. He told team doctors after games in December that his hip was hurting him, and Wolves doctors concluded that the problem was connected to his knee pain. David Kahn, Timberwolves president of basketball operations, called the arthroscopic surgery “minor” and said he expects Love to resume his normal summer workouts in Los Angeles by early June after a season in which he has played just 18 games.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: Larry Sanders has plenty of competition for the most improved player honor, and he's also in the conversation for the defensive player of the year award. New Orleans' Greivis Vasquez, Houston's Omer Asik, Philadelphia's Jrue Holiday, Orlando's Nikola Vucevic and Indiana's Paul George are garnering support for the most improved award, voted on by 122 journalists who cover the NBA. … Several detailed analytical studies support Boylan's view. And a mere glance at last season's statistics shows Sanders played in 52 games without any starts and a total of 643 minutes, while this season he has started 53 of 69 games and played 1,892 minutes, an average of 27.4 minutes. This is the second consecutive year the Bucks have put a player in contention for the award. Ersan Ilyasova finished second to Orlando's Ryan Anderson for the most improved honor in 2011-'12. … The Bucks designed a public relations campaign featuring a colorful set of blocks to promote Sanders' candidacy for the most improved player and defensive player of the year awards. Sanders led the league in blocks for much of the season until recently being passed by last year's rejections leader, Serge Ibaka of Oklahoma City. Ibaka is averaging 3.07 blocks to Sanders' 2.9.
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: John Wall was unaccustomed to having a teammate challenge him, but in hindsight, he couldn’t disagree with anything that Okafor told him: Wittman had to go with someone else if he was ineffective and Wall has to trust that the coach is doing what was in the best interest of the team, which should always come first. … What followed after the encounter has been the best basketball of Wall’s young career. Beginning with the next game on March 1 against the New York Knicks – the Wizards’ opponent on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden – the third-year point guard has been on a statistical tear that has changed perceptions of his career and shown that his talents are no longer stagnating. In his past 21 games, Wall is averaging 22.7 points, 7.9 assists and 4.9 rebounds and has recorded 10 games with at least 20 points, three games of 35 or more, and seven double-doubles. In that time, only LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are averaging at least 22 points, seven assists and 4.9 rebounds. “I think I really had to grow. Get my teammates back behind me. Because that’s not the way you’re supposed to come out as a leader and as a franchise guy,” Wall said of his attitude the night of the argument with Okafor.
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: With Sunday's 125-120 victory over the Thunder, New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony is now 11-1 all-time against Kevin Durant in NBA games where both have played. Durant's lone head-to-head victory against Anthony came in a 151-147 double-overtime contest at KeyArena on April 6, 2008, which means Durant has yet to defeat Anthony while with the Thunder. Anthony did not play in OKC's 95-94 victory at New York on March 7 this season. Against Durant, Anthony has averaged 30.2 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals while shooting 50.4 percent from the field, 40.0 percent from 3-point range and 84.8 percent from the free-throw line. Meanwhile, Durant has averaged 26.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 42.2 percent from the floor, 38.3 percent from 3-point range and 89.1 percent from the free-throw line.
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: Dirk Nowitzki doesn’t want it to end like this. Slugging it out for the eighth seed — or more likely missing the playoffs — is bad enough once. Or twice. In the autumn of his NBA career, he wants more. And while he has no problem putting pressure on ownership to find some high-quality warriors to play alongside him, Nowitzki also is OK taking on his share of the workload off the court. He’s ready to hit the recruiting trail. “I’ve said it all year long — this is a big summer for us,” Nowitzki said. “We have to get better. We have to get some guys in that can get us back to the top level. We want to be a top-four seed in the West. That was always our goal, to play for the top. So this is a big summer. If [owner Mark Cuban] needs me to recruit and do all that stuff, I’m more than happy to.” Will it be enough to woo a marquee free agent or finagle a sign-and-trade? Nobody knows for sure. But it can’t hurt.
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: What if? What if the Raptors hadn’t screwed up so many years ago when they had the chance to hire Hammond? What if they hadn’t blown it by going through a ridiculous process of whittling a large group to four only to say they were going to open up the process again only to come back to the same four and eventually picking Rob Babcock. The four — Babcock, Jeff Weltman, Mark Warkentien and Tony DiLeo (remember that Gang of Four?) —were basically underwhelming at that time and that the Raptors — and I am pointing a finger directly at Richard Peddie — didn’t even deign to interview Hammond, who was the No. 1 man to Joe Dumars in Deroit at the time, was a shocking blown opportunity. John wanted the job and deserved to have a shot at it; the short-sightedness of Peddie and his people set the franchise back years, so far that they might still be digging out almost a decade later.
• Dale Kasler, Ryan Lillis and Tony Bizjak of The Sacramento Bee: Beverly Hills billionaire Ron Burkle, a driving force for the past two years in trying to keep the Kings from leaving town, will not invest in the team or the proposed Downtown Plaza arena, Mayor Kevin Johnson announced Monday afternoon. Facing questions over a conflict of interest, Burkle instead will focus on redeveloping other portions of Downtown Plaza. "He's so committed to Sacramento," the mayor said, adding that he spoke with Burkle on Monday. "There's a host of ancillary development opportunities that Ron will participate in." … Johnson insisted that Burkle's new role would not deflate the effort to keep the Kings from going to Seattle, and said other investors would pick up the financial slack. He did not give specifics.
• Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: The Warriors have a get-well game Tuesday against visiting Minnesota, which is 18 games under .500. A win coupled with a loss by Utah or the Los Angeles Lakers would clinch the Warriors' first postseason bid since 2007. But success against the Timberwolves won't answer an emerging concern. If you let Utah, a bad road team on the cusp of missing the playoffs, shut down Curry and the Warriors offense at the most critical of times, will Golden State be able to score in the postseason? Sunday night was less an anomaly and more like a trend. The Warriors have lost seven of their last 10 games against winning teams, including Sunday's home loss to Utah. In those 10 games, the Warriors averaged 22.4 fourth-quarter points. That includes a 17-point fourth quarter in a blowout of visiting New York, but finding offense against stiff defenses has been a major problem. … Jackson likes having Jack on the floor, so the three-guard lineup isn't going anywhere. That makes sense considering the way Jack has played this season. Jack is more secure with the ball than Curry, and defenses have aggressively double-teamed Curry late in games, something harder to do when he's playing off the ball. This quandary will continue into the postseason when the defenses step up a notch and coaching chess matches ensue. Because, no doubt, as goes Curry, so goes Golden State.
• Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune: Well, this ought to be a good story. Jazz forward DeMarre Carroll tweeted Monday afternoon that he broke the rim during a pickup game at Life Time Fitness, an athletic club in South Jordan. There have been plenty of classic backboard breaking moments [this is a solid compendium] but the whole library doesn't quite seem complete without footage of Carroll's. Does anybody have it? Carroll, 26, averages 16 minutes per game in 64 appearances this season. He is a pending free agent, but even if he ends up leaving it's unlikely it will be without recounting the story of the time he broke the backboard at Life Time Fitness. Stay tuned.

Jamal Crawford has scored 40 points or more eight times in his career. In a little TrueHoop TV game show, Kevin Arnovitz resolved to test Crawford's memory of those games -- Crawford came up with eight answers, and a nice little Michael Jordan anecdote to boot.  

• 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.