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Last season's MVP, Derrick Rose, will miss the rest of the 2012 NBA Playoffs with a torn ACL in his left knee.

The Chicago Bulls lead their best-of-7 series against the Philadelphia 76ers, 1-0, and statistically they should be OK without their point guard, at least for this series.

In three games against the 76ers during the regular season, the Bulls were 11 points better per 100 possessions with Rose off the court, including one game that Rose did not play.

The Bulls played 27 games without Rose this season, and won 18 of them; however, their overall numbers were down across the board in his absence, although they did play more minutes without Rose this season (see chart).

With Rose on the court during the regular season, the Bulls shot 3 percentage points better from the field and scored 8 more points per 48 minutes.

But the Bulls, at least statistically, are a better defensive team without Rose. They allowed about 5 points fewer per 48 minutes with Rose off the court, and opponents shot a lower field goal and 3-point percentage and committed more turnovers with Rose off the court.

Expect C.J. Watson to move into the starting lineup and more minutes off the bench for John Lucas III. In the 26 regular-season games without Rose, Watson and Lucas' combined minutes went from 25.5 per game to more than 48, and they combined to average 21.9 points per game. On March 24 with Rose out, Watson matched his season-high with 23 points in an overtime win against the Toronto Raptors.

However, the Bulls were 11.6 points better per 100 possessions with Watson off the court this season. Defensively, the Bulls allowed 99.8 points per 100 possessions with Watson on the court and 92.6 when he was on the bench.

After Rose's injury, Accuscore projects the Bulls chances of winning the championship fall from 15.8 to 9.8 percent.

That said, the Bulls played very well this year without Rose. And at 9.8 percent, the Bulls still are a strong fourth in terms of having the best remaining odds at winning the title.

The Miami Heat are the main beneficiaries of Rose's season-ending injury, going from a 25.5 percent chance of winning the championship up to 30 percent. The Spurs are second at 20.8 percent and the Thunder are third at 19.4.

• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: The Bulls took their recent spate of slow starts to a new low Sunday afternoon, missing 11 of their first 12 shots, committing seven first-quarter turnovers and trailing 27-6 at one point. "It's a big concern," coach Tom Thibodeau said. Thibodeau preaches about readiness to play ad nauseam, which is why he fielded a question about if he has new plans to address an old problem. "We'll see," he said. Thibodeau burned two timeouts before 4 minutes elapsed, but the Knicks kept the pressure on, finishing with 18 first-quarter points in the paint. "We have to play with more urgency," Derrick Rose said. The Bulls also dropped to 2-6 in afternoon games. "I'd prefer to play a few of them at home," Thibodeau said. The Bulls are 1-1 in home matinees, losing to the lowly Nets on Feb. 18.
• Al Iannazzone of Newsday: Carmelo Anthony was hopping around and screaming "This is my house!" after burying the shot that capped his best performance of the season and greatest moment as a Knick. Anthony has been booed at the Garden this season, but he had everyone standing and cheering Sunday after his three-pointer gave the Knicks a 100-99 overtime win over the Bulls. Anthony scored a season-high 43 points, shooting 16-for-31. He sent the game to overtime by drilling a three-pointer with 11.2 seconds left and erased a two-point deficit with 8.2 seconds to play in overtime against a team the Knicks will face again Tuesday in Chicago and could play in the first round of the playoffs. Bulls All-Star Derrick Rose , who returned after missing 12 games with a groin injury, had some costly missed free throws and eight turnovers and was outdueled by Anthony in his house. "It was mine today," Anthony said. "They were talking some trash out there a little bit. In the moment, it's fun times."
• Harvey Araton of The New York Times: Can they count on the officials letting Shumpert play Rose as physically as he did Sunday? Can they expect the Bulls to choke at the line? Are the odds with the Knicks when they must live or die with Anthony unloading the way Johnson did long ago and far away? Yes, there are parallels to be drawn to the season in which Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby joined Johnson, Patrick Ewing and friends in New York — although it was the general manager, Ernie Grunfeld, who was fired that time in an attempt to light a fire under the embattled coach Jeff Van Gundy’s team. ... Teams at the bottom of the conference playoff seeding usually are, and an overwhelming percentage do not survive the first round. So give Anthony and the Knicks credit for accepting Chicago’s generosity at the free-throw line and turning Sunday’s instant Easter classic into a much-needed victory. But if there was a statement to make afterward, it should have been more about the division race than the conference. Trust me, Chicago and Miami are the last places the Knicks want to be when April gives way to May.
• Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News: Ray Allen has accepted his reserve role with the Celtics. That doesn’t mean he’s content with it. Shortly before coming off the bench for the third game in a row — and the seventh time in his 16-year NBA career — the 36-year-old guard said that while he is willing to do whatever Celtics coach Doc Rivers asks of him to help the team, he is not yet comfortable coming off the bench, and is not necessarily looking for that to be his role for whatever remains of his career. “I think my challenge is to be able to compete at a high level every year coming into the season and that means competing for a starting job every opportunity I get,” he said before last night’s game against the 76ers at TD Garden. “That’s my focus. That’s my goal. “If I felt as though I wasn’t playing up to that level, and those standards, then I think there’s going to be a point where I’d have to say it’s time for me to move on."
• Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: On a day when many Christians around the world observed a resurrection, the 76ers' offense remained lifeless. And their playoff hopes are nearing life-support condition. For the 10th time in 14 games, the Sixers lost, this time to the Atlantic Division-leading Boston Celtics, 103-79. Boston has a three-game lead on the Sixers and any hopes of winning the division seemed to get thrown into the nearby Boston Harbor. Holding onto a playoff spot is also close to getting washed away as the New York Knicks, with their win Sunday over the Chicago Bulls, pulled into the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference and dropped the Sixers to eighth. Though both teams have the same record at 29-27, the Knicks own the tiebreaker as they took two of three from the Sixers this season. The Sixers are only one game ahead of the ninth-place Milwaukee Bucks. For now, though, playoff talk should be the furthest thing to come out of anyone's mouth concerning this team. Approaching the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the Sixers appeared to be submerging just as quickly.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: With 10 games left in the regular season, Thunder coach Scott Brooks has no plans on resting any of his players in an attempt to enter the postseason rested and working with a clean bill of health. But if the Thunder plays like it did Sunday night, rest won't be a problem. The Thunder trounced Toronto, 91-75, inside Chesapeake Energy Arena, snapping a three-game skid by using a 24-0 run to turn what was a ho-hum game for 21/2 quarters into borderline humiliation for the Raptors. Thabo Sefolosha was the only Thunder starter who logged any minutes in the fourth quarter, as OKC built its lead to as many as 27 before turning the page to Milwaukee on Monday night. “If we keep winning like this, I'll get a rest,” said Russell Westbrook, who played just 27 minutes. Brooks has never subscribed to sitting players. He has likened the strategy to “cheating the game” and the fans. And on Sunday, he confessed that his team's youth plays a part as well. “If we had a bunch of veteran guys in their 30s, there's no question things would be different,” Brooks said. “But our guys, if you take out some of the guys, they'll think I'm benching them twice a game. They want to play every minute. They love to play and they want to keep playing. It's like pulling teeth to get five or six minutes out of them per half.”
• Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun: The Raptors, who lost Andrea Bargnani for the second half due to a flare-up of his calf injury, battled the Thunder starters tooth and nail early, forcing all kinds of turnovers, but things changed once Harden, the NBA’s premier reserve and the rest of the bench entered in the first half. Even more noticeably, Harden imposed his will during the aforementioned run late in the third, which began with the Thunder up only three points. Then the visitors collapsed, giving up 24 straight — one shy of the team record set twice, most recently, back in 2000 against the Charlotte Hornets. That spoiled all the good work from earlier in the game by the visitors. “Like being hit by a train going from Oklahoma City to Dallas,” Casey said of the run. “We can play them 10 out of 10 times and the results probably wouldn’t be different. But like I told the guys, I’m looking for 10 guys to compete, to fight, to scratch, to claw going down. “I didn’t feel like we were competing. That’s what we’re looking for these last few games.”
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: Beginning the final three weeks of the NBA’s compressed schedule with back-to-back games against the Utah Jazz, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich went with another lineup wrinkle designed to manage the minutes of key players. After starting DeJuan Blair at center for the first 53 games, Popovich went with newcomer Boris Diaw in the middle for Sunday’s game at the AT&T Center. Blair didn’t play at all, and neither did forward Stephen Jackson. Both were healthy and in uniform, but Popovich had told both players before tipoff to not plan on seeing any court time. The coach would not reveal his plans for tonight’s rematch in Utah. Might some players even remain at home when the team’s charter flight takes off for Salt Lake City? “It’s a fair question,” Popovich said, “(but) it’s none of your business. Absolutely a fair question, and a good one. It’s something I need to think about.” Jackson offered a hint as he exited the locker room to head to San Antonio International Airport. “See you when we get back,” he called to guard Manu Ginobili, who scored 23 points in little more than 28 minutes in Sunday’s 114-104 win. Ginobili insisted he had received no instructions to remain behind but also could not say for certain he would be on the plane.
• Brian T. Smith of The Salt Lake Tribune: The Jazz will return home hobbled. More beaten up than they’ve been at any point this season. Possibly down to 10 active players, two of whom are rookies, four of whom are 22 or younger. Needing every ounce of strength and willpower that’s kept them fighting thus far. Utah lost two key athletes Sunday during a 114-104 defeat to the Spurs, and the Jazz’s playoff hopes took another hit. Starting shooting guard C.J. Miles (strained left calf) and backup point guard Earl Watson (sore right knee) left the game during the second quarter and didn’t return. Miles wore a protective boot afterward, Watson was on crutches, and both will undergo MRI exams Monday. "I can’t even walk," said Watson, who initially was placed in a wheelchair. Meanwhile, a Jazz (29-28) team that’s dropped six of nine fell back into 10th place in the Western Conference. Utah’s a half-game behind ninth-place Phoenix — which holds a tiebreaker — and 11/2 games behind eighth-place Denver with just nine contests left in the 2011-12 season. With starters Josh Howard and Raja Bell already out of action, the Jazz exited the AT&T Center knowing their options are increasingly becoming limited.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: Kyle Lowry returned less than two weeks after he said he did not know if he would play again this season, just 10 days after he was cleared to begin any activity. He went through one practice and a light walk-through before convincing coach Kevin McHale he was ready. Eager to return “I wanted to play the last game,” Lowry said after the Rockets’ third straight win on the road. “Coach said no. Tonight, he let me go out there. I said I wanted to play. After the day I practiced (Thursday), I felt great. Coach didn’t want me to play the Lakers game. Tonight, was an opportunity to play, so he let me.” Lowry said that if he had been told March 29 when the antibiotics catheter was removed from his arm that he would be playing against the Kings on Sunday, “I wouldn’t have believed you. Things happened really fast. The training staff did a great job. I committed to getting back sooner than later.” After missing 15 games — with the Rockets going 9-6 — Lowry did not ease his way back. He played 18 minutes off the bench, including the entire fourth quarter. He missed his three shots, but he had seven assists without a turnover or a complaint. “I’m not as fast as I want to be, but I’m going to get back there,” Lowry said. “
• Matt Kawahara of The Sacramento Bee: Marcus Thornton missed his fourth consecutive game Sunday evening with a bruised left calf, though Kings coach Keith Smart suggested the guard could return Tuesday against the Mavericks in Dallas. ... Thornton has not played since last Monday, when he left in the first quarter of the Kings' win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Forward John Salmons, missing his eighth consecutive game with a sore right hip, and swingman Francisco Garcia (concussion) also were out against the Rockets. After staying fairly healthy through the first half of the season, the Kings have seemed more susceptible to injuries since the All-Star break. As of Feb. 29, three Kings had missed a total of 19 games because of injury and illness, the third-lowest total in the NBA at that time, according to information compiled earlier this season by the Philadelphia 76ers. That number had increased to 46 entering Sunday. Thornton and Salmons each have missed a team-high 11 games because of injury or illness.
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: If San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich were filling out Sunday's lineup card, there is a reasonable chance the notation next to Dwyane Wade's name in the box score would have been "DNP-Detroit Pistons." Instead, because Erik Spoelstra would never do what Popovich did last month, listing Tim Duncan as "DNP-old," the Miami Heat merely listed Wade as missing the 98-75 thrashing of the Pistons at AmericanAirlines Arena due to a sore right ankle. OK, whatever. Just as Wade was given the night off last week with a "bruised knee" against the Philadelphia 76ers to be there when needed in the next night's victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Wade this time got a bit of R&R in advance of Eastern Conference showdowns this week on Tuesday night against the visiting Boston Celtics and Thursday night on the road against the Chicago Bulls. As it was, the Heat completed their regular-season sweep of the 76ers without Wade and Sunday did the same against the Pistons, getting more than enough from LeBron James and Chris Bosh. "Right now it's coming into form," Spoelstra said. "Hopefully we can maintain that."
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: There wasn't much time for Pistons rookie Vernon Macklin to re-familiarize himself with his teammates on his return from the D-League but they were waiting on him. Teammates Austin Daye and Ben Wallace led the playful chiding chant of "swag, swag, swag" as he was being interviewed by media Sunday, hours after he landed in Miami from Fort Wayne, where the Pistons' D-League affiliate is located. Macklin, a second-round pick in last June's draft, acquitted himself well in his 10-game stint, averaging 14.3 points and 14.5 rebounds, earning rave reviews from front office personnel and the coaching staff. Pistons coach Lawrence Frank was impressed with Macklin's approach. "A lot of guys look at it as a punishment or demotion," Frank said. "He had a great attitude and positive spirit. The people at Fort Wayne were very complimentary of him. (Spoke well) Not just for himself but for the organization."
• Andy Vasquez of The Record: Through Sunday night’s win over Cleveland, the Nets have lost 211 man games to injury/personal reasons this season. They’ve also used 22 starting lineups in 57 games. In 82 games last season, they used 24 starting lineups. Six players who have dressed for the Nets this season have been ruled out for the remainder of the year; Brook Lopez (right foot surgery), Damion James (right foot surgery) and Jordan Farmar (right groin injury) still are on the roster. Keith Bogans (left ankle surgery) was released after suffering a season-ending injury, and Mehmet Okur (back) and Shawne Williams (left foot surgery) were traded to Portland as part of the Gerald Wallace deal.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: Lester Hudson arrived in Cleveland on March 30 as a 27-year-old journeyman trying to keep his career alive in the NBA's Development League. Ten days later, he is the second-best offensive threat on the depleted Cavaliers. He is scoring points in bunches, making the type of fourth-quarter plays Kyrie Irving often delivers and prompting the team owner to tweet: "Lesanity!" in reference to the phenomenon created by another D-Leaguer who captivated NBA fans about 10 miles from here on the other side of the Hudson River. On Sunday night, as his 10-day contract and the game clock were expiring, Hudson hit a fadeaway 3-pointer to force overtime against the New Jersey Nets in the Prudential Center. The fact the Cavaliers lost, 122-117, is almost immaterial given their place in the standings. The fearless combo guard, a member of the Austin Toros two weeks ago, is at worst making the last few weeks of the season palatable for a fan base growing increasingly more interested in mock drafts. Hudson scored a career-high 26 points two days after he tallied 23 in a win over Toronto. That's 49 points in two games coming off coach Byron Scott's bench. He nearly made it 52, but his 3-point attempt in the final seconds of overtime rimmed out and the Nets salted away victory at the foul line. "I think we're going to sign him to another 10-day [deal], that's for sure," Scott said with a grin. "I'll get a good chance to talk to [General Manager Chris Grant] tomorrow and I'm pretty sure Lester will be in a Cavaliers uniform for the rest of the year."

• Brian T. Smith of The Salt Lake Tribune: A public feud between Jazz CEO Greg Miller and Hall of Fame forward Karl Malone is finally over. Miller and Malone exchanged smiles and warmly embraced Wednesday night in an EnergySolutions tunnel, minutes before the Jazz tipped off against the Phoenix Suns. "Karl and I have got it worked out and everything’s good," Miller said. The official reconciliation was announced during the same night NBA Commissioner David Stern visited ESA.
• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: You wanted this? You got it. You wanted LeBron James to grab a meaningful game by the throat, and not let go? Consider that done. You wanted the Heat forward to face down Kevin Durant, the only peer at his position - his only legitimate MVP competition - and rise above? He's rarely soared higher with the Heat. "Without even being biased, I think he's the best two-way player in this league," said his coach, Erik Spoelstra. And this was the best at his best, in arguably the best NBA game of the season, Wednesday's 98-93 victory against the West-leading Thunder, one that extended the Heat's home streak to 17 and served as a delectable appetizer to what could come in June. This was an entirely different team than had been sleepwalking since the All-Star break. This was an entirely different athlete from the one who appeared - and disappeared - in a blowout loss in Oklahoma City just 10 days earlier. This was James showing all the strength his skeptics have sought, not just physically but mentally.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: LeBron James just got my MVP vote. Kevin Durant is second. It’s not just about tonight, although it certainly played a part. But the guy has been phenomenal. He hit a rough stretch recently but so does everybody. What he did tonight — after rolling his ankle early in the first quarter, mind you — is what MVPs do. He put his team on his back, did everything he had to do, when he had to do it, and turned his mediocre performance ten days earlier in Oklahoma City into a distant memory. ... Not to mention James’ defense on Durant. Sure, KD had a team-high 30 on a pretty efficient 11-of-21 shooting, but it was the most difficult and uncomfortable 30-point performance I’ve ever seen Durant have. There were times when Durant couldn’t get open, couldn’t post-up, couldn’t seal for an entry pass and couldn’t even put the ball on the floor and go into a move because James was so airtight. Largely because of James, Durant finished with a career-high nine turnovers and never really got into a rhythm as crazy as that sounds after a 30-point night. ... The mood in the Thunder locker room after the game was sullen. It was clear that this was a big game and that everyone wanted it pretty badly. Most of the players said all the right things, but you could see in their body language that this one hurt.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: Asked if he would consider extending the contracts of Stan Van Gundy or Otis Smith before the season ends, Alex Martins responded, "We're all evaluated at the end of the season. It's consistent. It's happened every year that we've been here. "I'm evaluated at the end of the season. Our general manager is evaluated at the end of the season. Our coaches are evaluated at the end of the season. And we don't deal with that during the course of a season, and we make our decisions about the future of everyone — and, in particular, the DeVoses make the decisions about the future of everyone — after the season's over." ... Now that Howard has waived his early-termination option, ensuring he remains under contract with the Magic for the 2012-13 season, the media speculation is centering around the futures of Van Gundy and Smith. Specifically, will Howard use his uncertain long-term future as leverage to exert influence on the DeVos family's decision-making process? Both Van Gundy and Smith are under contract through 2012-13. Martins insists that he did not make any specific promises to Howard to convince Howard to waive his early-termination option.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Suns forward Grant Hill already became the first active player to be on the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's Board of Governors, and he seems destined for enshrinement there someday for his basketball career. But for Hill, those basketball honors can't compare with what the Hall of Fame did this week, recognizing him more as a person with the Mannie Jackson Basketball's Human Spirit Award. Hill was the professional representative, as Chauncey Billups and Samuel Dalembert had been the previous two years. Jim Calhoun was the amateur-category recipient, and the grassroots winner was Dr. Richard Lapchick, the founder and director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. "It's a tremendous honor because of the award and what it stands for," Hill said
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: With the playoffs looming in three weeks the last thing the Lakers need is their All-Star center carrying around some beef with Brown, his teammates or the organization - or all of the above - and derailing their hopes of a long playoff run. The question is, why now? More important, can Bynum put whatever is bothering him aside long enough to help the Lakers in the playoffs? And at the very least, not be one of the reasons they crash and burn? Getting to the bottom of it is proving to be a difficult task.Maybe it's something as little and understandable as Bynum is growing up right before our eyes and like the teenager transitioning to adulthood he is testing his limits. Maybe with the increased role he's feeling an amplified sense of entitlement. Both are reasonable possibilities, and even somewhat predictable for a young player emerging as one of the brightest young stars in the NBA. It's the timing that makes it so bad. At his best, Bynum can be the difference between the Lakers winning another championship. At his worst, Bynum can be the difference in an early postseason exit.
• Dan Woike of The Orange County Register: When he first arrived at Staples Center on Wednesday, Del Negro knew it was a special day. The hallway series at Staples Center always is. “This game is different,” Del Negro said. “Maybe it’s just me, but the energy in the building, walking into the building, the number of media here, and the feeling in the locker room, it’s just different. But is it a rivalry game? “I think people talk about the rivalry, and I think we have to perform at a high level to create the rivalry,” Del Negro said. “… We’re trying to make it a rivalry. I don’t think it is now. We have to play well consistently and have to win ballgames to make it a rivalry.”
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: For 15 seasons, Spurs captain Tim Duncan and Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett, two of the greatest power forwards in NBA history, have done battle against one another in the paint. With both players in the final seasons of their contracts, could Wednesday’s game at TD Garden have been the last time the two All-Stars would face one another? Neither player has given any indication of his intent to retire, but Duncan will turn 36 later this month, and Garnett will turn 36 in May. Duncan said he won’t begin thinking about his future with the Spurs until the season ends, but he didn’t hesitate to reflect on all his battles with Garnett. “It’s been difficult,” Duncan said after the Spurs emerged with an 87-86 victory that extended the team’s win streak to nine. “We’ve always had some great battles. It always seems to turn into a war at some point in the game, but it’s a lot of fun. We bring a lot out of each other.”
• Scott Souza of MetroWest Daily News: Paul Pierce said he liked everything about the final shot except one thing. It didn’t go in. Down a point with 7.9 seconds left in last night’s game against the Spurs at TD Garden, the Celtics got the ball in the hands of the captain and he decided — as usual — to put the outcome on his shoulders. Pierce dribbled down the clock, got the defensive switch with Tim Duncan, then drove to the free-throw line before taking his patented step-back jump shot. Only Pierce’s shot rimmed out at the buzzer as the Celtics’ five-game win streak ended with an 87-86 loss. “I’m not going to second guess my decision,” Pierce said. “I thought I got a great shot, created some space right there at the free throw line. It’s just some days they fall, some days they don’t.” Celtics coach Doc Rivers didn’t second guess the shot either, only qualifying that he'd wanted Pierce to shoot it earlier in hopes of either drawing a shooting foul or allowing for a put-back at the buzzer.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: The Grizzlies handled the most abrasive portion of their regular-season schedule so far relatively well until Wednesday night. They just couldn’t leave American Airlines Center unscathed. The Dallas Mavericks drew blood and then dominated the last five minutes in handing the Grizzlies a 95-85 loss before a crowd of 20,233. This time, there was no fourth-quarter magic for the Grizzlies despite starting their last game of a back-to-back-to-back set with great energy. Memphis led by five points with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. But Dallas delivered a knockout blow in the form of a 21-4 run. “We gave it what we had,” Griz coach Lionel Hollins said. “I thought we battled. It’s one thing to just play three in a row. But we just played five (games) in six (days). It was a tough stretch, but we did good and I’m proud of our team and how they kept battling.”
• Kevin Sherrington of The Dallas Morning News: Will Roddy B ever make the jump to being a very good player? Sherrington: Great question. He's certainly not a point guard, or not the kind of point guard the Mavs need. He reminds me of Devin Harris. A one-man fast break. Dirk didn't play well with Harris, and he struggles with Roddy. It was very telling this year when Dirk said he had to basically ask for the ball. Not good. Roddy's shot is also unbelievably inconsistent. He can be a great 3-point shooter. And he can throw up an air ball on wide-open 6-footers. I just don't see it.
• Tom Powers of the Pioneer Press: Kevin Love is exhausted. You can tell by looking at him. Right now he's 23 going on 43. His face is drawn and his shoulders slumped. A league-high 40 minutes a game can do that. But it's not just all the time on the court, because Love is a young man. With injuries to key players - Ricky Rubio, Michael Beasley, Luke Ridnour, J.J. Barea and Nikola Pekovic among them - he has had to carry more and more of the Timberwolves' load. Against the Golden State Warriors, he played 42 minutes, 30 seconds, scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Good-looking numbers to be sure. But there was virtually no defense in his game. And with the outcome in the balance, he missed the key shot in the final seconds. The net result was what coach Rick Adelman called the worst loss of the season as a huge first-half lead was frittered away by lack of defense. The Wolves recently have slipped out of playoff contention. I wondered if there was some sort of letdown after that. "A letdown is when you lose three or four of your best players and have to play undermanned," Love said. "That was a letdown for me. Tonight I missed that shot. It's tough to try and play Superman every night."
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: For a team that was starting to wonder if it had lost its defensive swagger, the night could not have gone any better. For a half it looked like those defensive concerns might be completely warranted. Both the Sixers and the Raptors were scoring with abandon. It was almost like defence had been outlawed or the first 40 minutes of any all-star game ever played. But a 15-point third quarter by the Sixers followed by a seven-point fourth has the Raptors talking proudly once again about their defence. It added up to a 99-78 win, their third in a row which is rarefied air for this franchise. They haven’t won three in a row since Nov. 17-24, 2010, which was actually the beginning of a four-game winning streak that coincidentally enough started right here in the City of Brotherly Love. The good feeling though came from once again proving to themselves and everyone else that they still have the ability to lock a team down.
• Tom Moore of phillyBurbs.com: A pair of Iguodala quotes in this week’s Sports Illustrated opened a few eyes Wednesday. In Lee Jenkins’ story on the Sixers featuring Iguodala, Iguodala said, “In Philly, it’s not about who you are — it’s about what you do for us. You could be the worst person in the world, but if you score a lot of points or win a championship, you can murder somebody.” After the game, Iguodala said, “It’s just a figure of speech. People are going to take it either way.” Iguodala also said, “It makes no sense to me why so many good scorers can’t defend. Like (teammate) Lou Williams — he’s one of the toughest guys to guard in the league, but he can’t guard anybody. I don’t get that.” Iguodala said Wednesday night that he “would rather use my teammate than somebody else. Using Lou — I’m just using our best scorer. I told him personally he can be a great defender. I don’t think he’s a bad defender — I’m just using him as an example.” Williams was unavailable for comment beforehand and had left the locker room by the time the media was allowed to enter. Collins downplayed Iguodala’s comments, saying, “The ‘Dre I know has been ultra-respectful toward me. He’s just not going to say a lot of warm and fuzzy things.”
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: Arron Afflalo wears the losses on his face, a lather of anguish, a gloss of gloom upon his weary eyes. As he dressed in the losing locker room Wednesday night, the Nuggets guard looked up and said softly, "Unbelievable." It really was. The Nuggets, jockeying for a playoff spot in the airtight Western Conference, lost at lowly New Orleans 94-92. Told that he takes all the losses hard, Afflalo said: "This feels worse. For one, we've had opportunities all season long to build momentum against teams we felt we could beat if we competed hard. It's another lost opportunity."
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: In a pregame media session Wednesday night at EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City, NBA Commissioner David Stern acknowledged for the first time the league is negotiating with three groups interested in purchasing the Hornets. Stern told the Salt Lake Tribune the league might be on the verge of getting the sale finalized by next week’s Board of Governors meeting in New York. “It remains my hope to tell the owners next week that we’re very close or at the verge of, or maybe just have made a deal, for New Orleans that will keep the team in New Orleans,’’ Stern told the Tribune. “That will have a very favorable lease, important capital improvements, intense tax benefits and a new TV deal to boot, that allows the team to be neither a revenue-sharing recipient, nor a revenue-sharing payer. That’s our goal.’’ A league source confirmed Wednesday night that there’s a third ownership group amongst the finalist to secure the team. During his annual state of the league address during All-Star weekend in February, Stern declined to confirm or identify if the group led by Los Angeles area businessman Raj Bhathal had emerged as the top candidate to purchase the Hornets.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: It was a game the Milwaukee Bucks had to win, but they just couldn't put away the depleted Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night. At least not until Monta Ellis decided to take over. The Bucks' newly acquired guard hit all eight of his shots in the final 4 minutes, 32 seconds and scored his team's last 16 points, lifting Milwaukee to a 107-98 victory over the Cavaliers at the Bradley Center. The victory moved the Bucks (26-28) within one game of the New York Knicks (27-27) for eighth place and the final playoff position in the Eastern Conference and within three games of Philadelphia (29-25) for seventh place. "The shots just were going down," Ellis said.
• Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer: The Cavs are the first team in NBA history to lose consecutive home games by 35 points or more. They lost to San Antonio on Tuesday, 125-90, after a 121-84 loss to Milwaukee on Friday. The 37-point loss to the Bucks was the second worst of the season, after a 114-75 Chicago victory on Jan. 20.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: With the end of the regular season just weeks away and a lot of jostling still going on, some of the Indiana Pacers have made it almost a daily habit to look at the Eastern Conference playoff standings. "Every day I look at them," Pacers forward Danny Granger said. "I like to look at which teams we're competing against, who they're playing, how their schedule looks compared to ours." The Pacers hold the third seed. A losing streak, though, could cause them to fall quickly because the Pacers have only a four-game lead on seventh-seeded Philadelphia. "It's a constant battle with every game -- win or lose -- meaning something," Granger said. "It's kind of interesting to keep track of the teams we're competing with."
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: John Wall tried the move again in the second half of the Wizards’ 109-96 loss to the Pacers on Wednesday night at Verizon Center. Driving baseline, he spun to avoid contact but his off-balance shot soared about two feet over the other side of the basket. Wall has been slumping and his struggles have been magnified as he attempts to lead his depleted team through a grinding, unforgiving schedule. His teammates have advised Wall to play through it. His coach has told him not to make the situation more complicated than it needs to be. “I think he needs to take a step back and simplify things. He’s trying to maybe do too much, too fast right now to fight through how he’s played the last couple of games,” Coach Randy Wittman said after the Wizards (12-42) lost their third in a row. “Sometimes it’s easier to take a step back and slow down. It’s not an easy thing to do. He’s a competitive kid who wants to play well and wants to play the right way and sometimes, you just get going the opposite way when you struggle a little bit.”
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Sure, it was just the Bobcats, whose minimal chances to win evaporated when Corey Maggette didn’t suit up and D.J. Augustin left the game after just 11 minutes. Then again, the Hawks beat them down with none of their starters playing more than 30 minutes, Joe Johnson scoring 16 points on 13 shots and a so-so effort on the boards. Aside from another lax defensive effort in the first quarter, there wasn’t much not to like. The Hawks attacked the basket, shared the ball (and took care of it), played with pace and got to the free-throw line while opening up the big lead in the first half. They even avoided a typical sluggish start to the third quarter and then the starters got to watch the reserves finish things off.

• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: Coach of the Year? Frank Vogel's got a case. He's got an even stronger case to have that third year, now a team option, fully guaranteed by upper management. What else do they need to see? He has taken a wounded, defeated team and in a short time, first as an interim coach and then in a lockout-shortened year, established himself as the man for the job long term. In 91 games -- the last 38 of last season, the first 53 of this one -- Vogel's Pacers are 52-39. If the Pacers can go on a run here -- nine of their next 13 games are at home -- Vogel may get some play as a serious candidate for Coach of the Year. He came in as Dr. Feelgood, propping up a team that had been beaten down by Jim O'Brien's relentless negativity. And then, about three weeks into his interim season, he started bringing the hammer down. And players who wondered if he could be tough took notice. ... Who has done more with his team than Vogel with these Pacers? The answer, best I can tell, is nobody.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: So much changed for the Knicks in a torrid, dizzying 13-minute span Tuesday night that it may take hours or days before they fully digest the consequences. They lost a 17-point lead, they lost their cool, then they lost the game as their grip on a playoff berth became a little looser. If the Knicks ultimately miss the postseason, they will look back with stinging regret on a stunning 112-104 loss to the Indiana Pacers. Carmelo Anthony was mostly brilliant, scoring a season-high 39 points, only to miss the two most critical shots of the night. The Knicks’ defense was mostly sound, until it allowed a 40-point fourth quarter. As the frustration bubbled over, J. R. Smith lost his head, earning an ejection after throwing Leandro Barbosa to the court in the final seconds — an act that Coach Mike Woodson called “unprofessional.” “We somewhat self-destructed,” said Woodson, who lost for just the third time in his 12 games as the interim coach. “I mean, we kind of lost our composure.” The collapse was so quick and so forceful that it took the Knicks at least a dozen adjectives to describe it as they milled about a dejected locker room.
• Geoff Calkins of The Commercial-Appeal: At a certain point, you had to wonder if Lionel Hollins would summon Jesse Jackson out of the crowd and send him into the game. He had tried everyone else, every other combination he could dream up. “I was searching,” he said. “I was reaching far and wide.” He had tried Hamed Haddadi and Zach Randolph, he had tried Marreese Speights and Quincy Pondexter. And, still, the Golden State Warriors were dropping in shots, pushing the Grizzlies closer and closer to a truly devastating loss. The Grizzlies had just beaten Oklahoma City on the road. They couldn’t lose to Golden State at home, right? So with 10-plus minutes remaining — Memphis down by 12 — Hollins mixed and matched yet again. He sent in Gilbert Arenas and Tony Allen to play with O.J. Mayo, Dante Cunningham and Marc Gasol. There was no need for the Rev. Jackson, as it turns out. Not with that group around to keep hope alive. “It was a great fourth quarter,” said Allen. “It was just another great team win.” The final score was Memphis 98, Golden State 94. The final sentiment was: Whew.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: The Heat played the 76ers on Tuesday. In other words, it was a good time to experiment with the lineup. With guard Dwyane Wade resting on the bench with a sore knee, the Heat inserted Shane Battier and Ronny Turiaf into the starting lineup and defeated Philadelphia 99-93 at AmericanAirlines Arena. It was the Heat’s 16th consecutive victory at home, a league high, and Miami clinched a spot in the playoffs in the process. For the season, the Heat is 22-2 at home. A late scratch Tuesday, Wade is probable for Wednesday’s nationally televised game against the Thunder, which crushed the Heat on March 25 in Oklahoma City. The Heat will need Wade on Wednesday but managed to do without him against the Sixers, especially on a night when LeBron James set a season-high for points. He scored 41, shooting 15 of 25 from the field. “It’s never really mattered to me about scoring,” James said. “[Tuesday] was a good team effort, and I’m happy to get a good team effort against a playoff team.”
• Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: For the first 24 minutes and the final 12 against the Miami Heat Tuesday night, the Sixers put together some of their best basketball in quite some time. Passes were crisp, cuts to the basket were hard and it added up to a three-point lead at halftime. But the inconsistency of which Collins spoke reared its ugly head in the third quarter as the offense grew sloppy and the Dwyane Wade-less Heat picked up the pace and, ultimately, a 99-93 win. The Sixers' third-quarter struggles, in which they scored just 16 points, made six of 18 shots and turned the ball over four times, were exacerbated when forward Andre Iguodala had to leave the game with 4 minutes, 42 seconds left after sustaining a left eye contusion. He went to the locker room and didn't return to the bench the rest of the game. "To start the third, we were careless, we started to turn the ball over," Collins said. "We didn't have the crisp movement that we had during the first half. I was pleased with our game. I'm never pleased that we lose, I don't want anyone to think that there's a moral victory, but I thought there was a lot of good things."
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: What Patrick Mills brought to the Spurs when he arrived March 27 was something rare: a thorough knowledge of most of the team’s plays, right down to terminology and signals, without having played a single game in silver and black. The secret: Mills was the point guard for the Australian national team, called the Boomers, for the last four seasons. That team has been coached by Spurs assistant coach Brett Brown since 2009. Mills’ familiarity-by-proxy was on display Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena when he made 8 of 11 shots, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range, and scored a team-high 20 points in just under 20 minutes of court time. He became the 11th different player, including the recently-traded Richard Jefferson, to lead the Spurs in scoring in a game this season. It was Mills’ third game since joining the Spurs and his longest stint by more than 13 minutes. Against a Cavaliers defense that yielded 23 layups among the Spurs’ 48 baskets, Mills found open shots without needing to create anything on his own.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: Byron Scott is no longer talking about winning, something the Cavaliers haven't done since winter turned to spring. Things have eroded so quickly in the past few weeks the Cavaliers coach is just simply looking for his players to compete, to care. It's gotten so bad one of the team's leaders admitted some players have been joking around in the locker room after losses. "I worry more when me as a coach and my coaching staff want it more than my players," Scott said. "That's when I start to worry. And I'm getting worried." His concern elevated to another level after the San Antonio Spurs embarrassed the Cavaliers, 125-90, on Tuesday. The second consecutive lopsided home defeat -- the Cavs lost by 37 points on Friday night to Milwaukee -- drove many in the crowd of 14,759 fans out of the building long before the final horn sounded. It marked their eighth straight loss overall and 11th in the last 12 games.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: Andrew Bynum walked into the Lakers' locker room at 6:30 p.m., roughly 30 minutes after his teammates were required to arrive. He changed into a pair of practice shorts and took his uniform, still on its hangars, back to the equipment room. Bynum couldn't play in Tuesday night's game against the New Jersey Nets because of a sprained left ankle suffered in Sunday's victory over the Golden State Warriors. He wouldn't talk to reporters before the game, as is his custom. So, it was left to coach Mike Brown to answer questions about him. Brown confirmed Bynum was fined an undisclosed amount last week for blowing off a meeting with general manager Mitch Kupchak that was arranged to discuss his immature behavior, including an ill-advised 3-pointer March 27 against Golden State. A Lakers insider said the team hadn't suspended Bynum for his recent actions. Then he smiled faintly and added the word, "Yet." "Am I concerned with Bynum's attitude?" Brown said, repeating a reporter's question about the 24-year-old center's recent behavior. "No, I'm not concerned. - It's been handled internally. It's an internal matter."
• Tim Bontemps of the New York Post: Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has been missing in action, but that will change next week. That’s when Prokhorov will meet with NBA commissioner David Stern, and Prokhorov may attend the league’s Board of Governors meetings next Thursday and Friday, Stern said at an event in Manhattan Tuesday to kick off NBA Green Week presented by Sprint. At those meetings, the Board of Governors officially will vote to approve the Nets’ impending move to Brooklyn, along with the team’s name change from the New Jersey Nets to the Brooklyn Nets. “I know I have a meeting with him next week,” Stern said. “He’ll be in New York next week. Whether he is going to physically be there for [the Board of Governors] vote, I’m not sure, but I hope so.” Stern also spoke glowingly of the ongoing construction of the team’s new home in Brooklyn, the Barclays Center, which is set to open this fall. “It’s going to be on time, [and] it’s going to be a spectacular addition to the New York entertainment scene,” Stern said.
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: Charlie Villanueva again didn't play and has played only 15 minutes all season, erasing the optimism he had when the lockout-shortened year began — and the reality is beginning to set in. "Mentally it's frustrating and hard because you worked so hard to get healthy and help the team out," said Villanueva, who fought ankle problems that kept him out the first two months of the season. "Then after you work so hard you don't get the minutes that I feel like I should be playing." Villanueva is stuck behind Monroe, Jason Maxiell, Ben Wallace and Jonas Jerebko in the frontcourt and Frank likes the rotation as such, despite Villanueva's diverse set of skills. "Look, it's not a knock on Charlie," Frank said after Monday's practice. "Charlie is working hard and doing what we're asking, but my thing is Greg, Max, Jonas, Body (Wallace) — you know they are all doing basically what we're asking. In order to put Charlie in there, one of those guys has to sit." ... He has two years left on his contract, and is scheduled to make $16.6 million over that span. He could be a prime candidate for the amnesty clause if the Pistons can't find a taker for him. "The fact I'm not being used this season, and we have the same guys coming back (contractually)," Villanueva said. "My mind is, 'What's going to happen next season?' I feel like I can be helping out, but we'll see what happens."
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson sat out Tuesday night's game against the Detroit Pistons with injuries, but Orlando Magic officials believe Howard and Nelson will not be out for an extended period. Howard missed his second game in a row because of back spasms, and Nelson did not play because he has a sore left calf. Ryan Anderson has a sprained right ankle. Coach Stan Van Gundy was briefed about each player's status before tipoff by athletic trainer Keon Weise. ... Howard would not discuss his injury. Nelson said his calf had bothered him for three or four games. Team officials decided to proceed cautiously with Nelson to make sure the injury did not worsen. ... Van Gundy said Anderson likely will be out another five or six days. ... ESPN reported and an NBA source confirmed to the Sentinel that Dallas Mavericks center Brendan Haywood will not be punished by the league. Van Gundy alleged that Haywood caused Howard's injury by punching Howard in the back during Friday's Mavericks-Magic game. The Magic had sent video to the league officials for review.
• Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun: Anyone who watches any game, especially at home and regardless of the quality of Toronto’s opponent, can’t help but be impressed at the way Dwane Casey goes about his business. If his players remotely approached every tip the way Casey approaches every possession, the Raptors wouldn’t be life and death when a team such as Charlotte pays a visit to the Air Canada Centre. In Chicago, there’s much angst as to why the Bulls have yet to extend Tom Thibodeau, the NBA’s reigning coach of the year who took his team to the Eastern final last spring before losing to Miami. In Toronto, there’s no chatter about Casey’s extension when there should be as Casey continues to prove his worth and his impact on a team that is more D-league than NBA-ready against an equally inept Bobcats side. In fact, he’s making such a case that the Raptors should lock him up well beyond next season as more legitimate pieces are assembled. Stability has been so fleeting in Raptorland in what seems like an eternity that a known commodity in Casey simply must be locked up for good. Give him a five-year deal and send a message that a culture that demands defence will always be adhered to and enforced. In Casey, the Raptors have finally found a guy players league-wide respect.
• Scott Fowler of The Charlotte Observer: Anthony Davis as a Bobcat: It would change so much. But first, to keep things realistic, let’s look at some odds. I’m assuming two things – Davis will soon declare he’s coming out after his freshman season and the Bobcats are going to finish with the NBA’s worst record. Both seem safe assumptions. As of Tuesday, the Bobcats were five games worse in the win column than anyone else, and the regular season ends this month. But even with the worst record, Charlotte has only a 1-in-4 chance of getting the first pick – which is absolutely going to be Davis, which is why he’d be foolish not to come out – when the NBA draft lottery is conducted May 30. The Bobcats, in other words, have a 75 percent of not getting Davis. ... He would give the team an identity. But he wouldn’t be an immediate fix, much like John Wall hasn’t really moved the win-loss needle in Washington. Davis would need help, which is where the Bobcats’ cap room comes in. Still, Davis would make the Bobcats a lot better than they are. He would intimidate people inside. His mere presence would allow the Bobcats’ shooters to get more open shots. It would all be a whole lot of fun. But first, those 1-in-4 (at best) odds must pay off.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: The Suns remain unsettled on how to act on Aaron Brooks, although it seems doubtful that he will join a team with three point guards and play at this stage. The Suns could sign Brooks to a multiyear contract while they have exclusive negotiating rights, but that would cut into their July salary-cap flexibility for free agency. They could let him go into free agency and still be able to match any team's offer if they elect to keep him. "It's put us in a situation where we need to have some serious conversations, internally and potentially with Aaron, about the state of where we are and what's going to make the most sense with the organization," Blanks said. "I can't give you A or B right now, but it certainly needs to be discussed. He's a NBA-level point guard and a pretty good one. Does it make sense now or later? Those things need to be talked about, and that's a lot easier to do that when you have spent a week with a guy seeing him live in basketball games and talking to him." Brooks' Guangdong team lost 4-1 in the finals to Stephon Marbury's Beijing team. Marbury scored 41 points in Game 5, and Brooks had 33.
• Marcos Breton of The Sacramento Bee: Sacramento is going to be hard-pressed to build a downtown arena to house the Kings as long as the Maloof brothers are the Kings owners. I wish this wasn't so, but the Maloofs have always found a reason not to pay up when it was their turn. They've always thrown up roadblocks when everyone else was ready to take on the monumental task of building an arena here. ... They are refusing to pay $3.2 million in pre-development costs – chump change for most NBA owners – when Sacramento is paying a much larger share. AEG, the Los Angeles-based arena operators, is ready to pay as well. The Maloofs contend they shouldn't pay for pre-development costs when they won't have an ownership stake in the arena. They'll just be renters. ... How curious that this whole story first broke in the Los Angeles Times, the market where the Maloofs wanted to move the Kings last year but were blocked by the NBA. Am I accusing the Maloofs of leaking this story? Heavens to Betsy, no! It's just very curious, wouldn't you say? Now the Maloofs' Los Angeles-based lawyer is firing off letters raising doubts that Sacramento can complete an arena on time. Think about that for a minute.

• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: Kendrick Perkins recently rounded up Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant to sit them down for a talk that he considered much-needed and, perhaps, long overdue. The big man wanted both to check their egos at the door. He wanted his All-Star teammates to cool it on any stat-padding and selfishness and anything else rooted in the wrong place that can work its way into a marathon season. Perkins wanted Durant and Westbrook both to sell out for the team. “We're getting close to the end of the season, and everything is over with as far as the All-Star Game and all that other stuff,” Perkins said. “So we can just concentrate on getting better as a ballclub and taking steps to trying to reach our goal.” If you're searching for what's gotten into Westbrook over the past two weeks, we suggest you start with that conversation. Something about it seems to have done wonders for Westbrook. Ever since, Westbrook has shot up to special. He's taken his already spectacular skill set to an even higher level in the blink of an eye and captained the Thunder on a six-game winning streak. Westbrook used Sunday's 92-78 win over Chicago to confirm what has been clear for weeks: he's in the midst of the best ball of his career. “He's grown up right in front of our eyes,” said Thunder coach Scott Brooks.
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: Asked directly if his injured groin will allow him to play at any point in the Bulls' final 12 regular-season games, Derrick Rose sighed. "I think so," he said. "It's up to me, so, yeah, I think I am." During a pregame interview with ESPN's Ric Bucher on Sunday, Rose hinted at returning next week. And the Bulls' injury carousel keeps spinning. Along those lines, coach Tom Thibodeau more emphatically stated he's the one deciding to continue holding Richard Hamilton out. Hamilton endured a rigorous three-on-three session at Saturday's practice and said he's ready to return from his sprained right shoulder but has no issue with Thibodeau's decision. "I told him I'm comfortable with whatever he wants to do — if we need to shoot more or take more hits," Hamilton said. "(Saturday), we did a little more so it was a little sore but it was a good sore. So we'll see. Hopefully, (Monday)." Hamilton missed his 14th straight game Sunday.
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: Avery Bradley has brought a new dimension to the Celtics’ starting lineup since replacing injured Ray Allen. While his offensive numbers do not match Allen’s, he has provided the team with another staunch backcourt defender - just witness how he bottled up Miami’s Dwyane Wade in Sunday’s 91-72 win at TD Garden. Wade finished 6 for 17 shooting for 15 points, and Bradley (13 points) highlighted his effort with an impressive block of a Wade dunk attempt in the second quarter. Allen has missed the past seven games with an ankle injury, and coach Doc Rivers was asked whether Allen would automatically return to the starting lineup when healthy. "I don’t know, we’re playing well but we’ve also played well with Ray by the way,’’ Rivers said. “I think people forget that part. The good thing is we have options and we have players with confidence and we have a lot of them.’’ The combination of Mickael Pietrus (before he sustained a concussion March 23) and Bradley has vastly improved Boston’s defense in the backcourt. Bradley was primarily used as a backup to Rajon Rondo and started eight games (Jan. 20-Feb. 1) when Rondo was out with a sprained right wrist. Bradley has averaged 12.6 points and three rebounds in the past five games, and his defense early in games has helped the Celtics to establish their game.
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: In the first of three games the teams will play in April, the Celtics humiliated the Heat, a pattern that has become the road norm for the Heat lately against top-tier competition. "This was a good, old-fashioned you-know-what," LeBron James said after going without an assist for only the second time in his career. "We've got to own it, and we've got to get better. "We've got to figure it out before the playoffs. ... We understand we have to fix this right now." The Heat are now 6-5 in their last 11 games overall and 3-7 in their last 10 road games. "You've got to figure it out," said guard Dwyane Wade, who was victimized by a humbling blocked shot by Celtics guard Avery Bradley and shot just 6 of 17. "We'll figure it out. That's what good teams do." Then there was power forward Chris Bosh, who shot 2 of 7, rarely playing with aggression. "We have to fix it," Bosh said. "We have to have a better sense of urgency. We still have some basketball left, not a lot, but some basketball to change it." On one hand, anything to keep the Heat away from the Celtics in the playoffs, at least in the first round, probably is a good thing. On the other hand, the Heat hardly have the look of a team prepared for when the games will count the most starting at the end of the month. For now, the road misery should subside for a while, if only because 10 of their next 13 are at home.
• Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: Andrew Bynum sat in front of his locker before the game Sunday night with what looked like an adult-sized sleeping bag enveloping his entire right leg. It was actually a cutting-edge compression system, which Bynum has been using for weeks to limit swelling, because by now the Lakers know that Bynum's right knee can swell from a cross wind. Then Bynum's breakthrough season on the All-Star team while staying healthy every game went on red alert because of a traditional, everyday basketball injury: an ankle sprain from landing on someone's foot. Bynum left the Lakers' 120-112 victory over the Golden State Warriors late in the first quarter because of a moderate sprain of his left ankle and did not return. He walked out of Staples Center on Sunday night under his own power and told teammates the sprain was "not a big deal." Without Bynum, the Lakers' best quality this season – defense – deteriorated against a patchwork Golden State lineup. But with Kobe Bryant delivering a major bounce-back game to go with Pau Gasol and Ramon Sessions' efficiency, the Lakers still had the firepower to score a season high and survive allowing their opponent season high in points.
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: The Warriors have San Antonio's first-round pick and the second-round choices of New Jersey and Atlanta in the 2012 draft. They could end up with a fourth pick if they're among the first seven selections post-lottery and thus don't have to convey their pick to Utah. With rookies Klay Thompson, Jeremy Tyler and Charles Jenkins expected to be back with the Warriors next season and fellow first-year players Chris Wright and Mickell Gladness still being evaluated, it's unlikely that the Warriors will want to add three or four more inexperienced players to the 2012-13 roster. They could package some of the picks to move up in the draft or to keep their top-seven-protected choice, but there's also some consideration of a draft-and-stash. San Antonio has been probably the most successful franchise in selecting players who either haven't completed their European contracts or need more polish before starting their NBA careers. "This isn't the strongest international class, but we're considering a lot of possibilities right now," Warriors general manager Larry Riley said.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: When the season began, Nuggets rookie forward Kenneth Faried wasn't playing at all. Now the first-round draft pick is playing crucial fourth-quarter minutes. Faried is learning the nuances of the NBA game and earning respect from coach George Karl. Faried helped the Nuggets beat the Magic 104-101 on Sunday by grabbing a team-high nine rebounds. He blocked two shots in the final four minutes. "Jameer (Nelson) was coming down the lane," Faried said of his first block, "and he was hitting that shot all game, so I wanted to show him, like, 'Hey, we're going stop this now and we're going to win this game.' He was trying to take over the game. As for Ryan Anderson, he came quickly and it was shocking how quick the back cut was, but I still got up high enough and got my hand on it." Faried leads NBA rookies in rebounds, averaging 7.1 per game. "It's fun for me to outrun bigs, make coaches get mad and call timeouts," Faried said. "And it's fun to outrebound a guy and give him headaches and think: 'Why is he always on the glass? Won't he just stop?' "
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: The Magic's general manager treats his team like family, so it's no surprise that Otis rushed to his brother Wilbur's side recently after getting the grim news. "It's the single most important thing to me. I dropped everything else," Otis said. A constant presence at every Magic game and practice, he missed several games to be where he was really needed. Cancer had made another visit to the Smith family. Wilbur, 43, five years younger than Otis, had been stricken with colon cancer. Otis lost his mother to breast cancer at age 56 and his father, also to colon cancer, at 72. While Otis obviously has the most high-profile job in the family, he admires Wilbur – and not because the two brothers are so much alike. Wilbur works with kids as an administrator at a Springfield, Mass. boarding school. "When he's hurting, I hurt with him. If he's going through it, I'm going through it with him," Otis said. "Every opportunity I get to be with him, I will be with him." Smith has four brothers and five sisters, but says, ""I'm a little more protective of Wilbur. He's the baby."
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: It was one of those games where you wonder why Danny Granger can’t play that well all the time. Granger played within the offense. He didn’t try to do too much by forcing shots. He looked to make extra passes. He rebounded instead of trying to leak down court for easy baskets. He even blocked a couple of shots, with his last one preserving the victory for the Pacers. Granger had probably his most complete game of the season when he scored 32 points on 11-of-20 shooting, including 6-of-8 from long distance, grabbed seven rebounds, had three assists and blocked two shots in 37 minutes. Sunday was the third straight game that Granger has shot at least 50 percent from the field. “It was just going for me,” Granger said. “My shot was falling. For the most part they ran a lot of plays for me. I got some open shots and I knocked them down.”
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: The Pacers got the ball to Danny Granger and Goran Dragic quickly fouled him, stopping the clock. Dragic, however, has become the Rockets most irreplaceable player and fouled out on the play. The Rockets needed him on the floor. Anyone else could have committed the foul, but instead Dragic had to take it and a seat on the Rockets’ bench. Dragic had ended up on Granger on a switch. The Rockets usually switch on screens late in games, especially when they need a turnover. That’s why Patrick Patterson, Courtney Lee and Chandler Parsons were finishing games so often, even when the Rockets were healthy. They were switching again on Sunday. Dragic, however, said he told Parsons not to switch with him. “I told CP not to switch because I knew they were going to pass to Granger,” Dragic said. “Just a miscommunication. I got caught in the wrong spot and had to take that sixth foul.” Parsons said the strategy had not changed. “It wasn’t a mistake,” Parsons said. “We were switching to get a steal, see if we may cause a turnover. “We were switching everything because they were spacing us out. We wanted to gamble a little bit and go for a steal at the end of the game. We didn’t want to foul right away.” That makes perfect sense, but it should not have been Dragic trying to come up with the turnover or be forced to foul.
• Matt Calkins of The Columbian: LaMarcus Aldridge will probably be able to deal with not making the playoffs. But it would have been awfully hard for him to cope if he couldn’t offer Kevin Love a little payback. The last time Minnesota came to the Rose Garden, Love racked up 42 points and 10 rebounds while treating Aldridge like a sparring partner. This time, it was Aldridge who came out swinging. The Trail Blazers beat the Timberwolves 119-106 Sunday as six Portland players scored in double digits. Aldridge figured most prominently in the stat sheet, scoring 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting while collecting eight rebounds. But his more personal motivation became evident when he and Love engaged in a brief shoving match in the second quarter. The game’s subplot had suddenly become the primary storyline. “That was just two guys going hard,” Aldridge said. “Two guys competing.” Yeah, right. Last year, Love earned the final spot on the Western Conference All-Star team, leaving Aldridge feeling snubbed again. And when Love last came to Portland, he tripled Aldridge’s scoring output. And even though Love still managed 26 points and nine rebounds Sunday, for one game, he was clearly the second-best power forward on the court.
• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: The last time the Timberwolves visited Portland, they walked out of the Rose Garden and into the night winners over the Trail Blazers for the first time in nearly five years. They also left with a winning 19-18 record and fleeting possession of the Western Conference's eighth and final playoff spot after vaulting over the Blazers in one victorious evening. Twenty-nine days later, they trudged off the Rose Garden court looking defeated in more ways than one after a 119-106 loss. "Things have changed," Wolves forward Kevin Love said. "Things have changed a lot." Back then, Ricky Rubio still was the team's rookie sensation and the Wolves ended a four-game Western road trip a very respectable 2-2. They then headed home for a four-game stand that included that fateful night against the Lakers when Rubio clutched his knee in pain after tearing two ligaments in his left knee. On Sunday, they again played without four of their top six starters and lost for the fifth time in seven games. They're now 3 1/2 games behind Houston for that final playoff spot, with Utah, Phoenix and the Blazers all standing between them and the Rockets and 12 games left to play.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: If it seems hard to believe that Grant Hill could return from Friday's knee surgery before the season ends, consider this detail: his right knee has been less swollen following team physician Thomas Carter's surgery than it had before the non-optional scope. Hill's expectation to return for some of Suns' remaining 14 games was clear Sunday, when he returned to US Airways Center for the first time since having the medial meniscus tear repaired. He was cleared to get off crutches Sunday night. "I think I can," Hill said. "Doc is pleased with the surgery and what he saw in there. I'll be back this year." Hill will travel with the Suns in order to rehabilitate the knee with Suns head athletic trainer Aaron Nelson and the staff. The Suns leave today for a three-game, four-day trip and play seven of their next eight games on the road. "We can get a lot done," Hill said. "We'll get double, triple sessions in daily. Being with Aaron and the training staff is the ideal scenario."
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: After having only eight players available in the previous two games, the Hornets got some needed help with the return of center Chris Kaman and forward Gustavo Ayon on Sunday night against the Phoenix Suns. Even though each played more than 24 minutes, the Hornets still didn't have enough to avoid a 92-75 loss to the Suns at the US Airways Center. It was the Hornets' third consecutive loss, and they closed out their extended road trip losing four of five games, which included Saturday's 88-85 defeat to the Lakers in which they stifled guard Kobe Bryant into missing his first 15 shots. ``I think that we ran out of gas, but I also think that it was a bit of an excuse,'' Hornets Coach Monty Williams said. ``We have been situations before off of a back-to-back and this was the first time that I thought it affected us from an energy standpoint. I thought the ball didn't move tonight. You can't win games on the road with 19 turnovers and not getting to the free throw line.''
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: Five times a day, Gary Forbes takes a tiny needle and plunges it into his body; every day he goes out and pushes himself to the limits of his endurance against some of the greatest athletes in the world, oblivious to the illness, the injections, the routine that is little more than, well, routine. Forbes, an emerging late-season key piece with the Raptors, is a Type 1 diabetic, the injections are insulin, the monitoring of his condition is practically constant but a nuisance more than anything. “It’s a manageable disease,” the 26-year-old Forbes said. “I’ve had it now for eight years, went through different ups and downs and learning and stuff like that but I’m still coming out here every day and competing with the best players in the world.” Forbes has become a tireless worker for diabetes awareness and promoting the idea that it’s not an impediment to athletic excellence. Forget looking at his 6-foot-7, 220-pound body to see the evidence — he’s taking his message as public as he can. He runs a camp for kids in his hometown that promotes diet and lifestyle as much as basketball; he works with the tireless Raptors community relations staff and the Canadian Diabetes Association, spreading the word. Forbes knows first hand how relatively easy it is to deal with diabetes, but he feels it’s part of his job to get the message out.
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: Nene and Trevor Booker were both seated on the bench, wearing identical walking boots on their left feet and seemingly matching gray suit jackets, as the Washington Wizards took on the Toronto Raptors on Sunday at Air Canada Centre. With their usual starting center and power forward both out with pulled plantar fascias, the Wizards fielded their youngest starting lineup in franchise history — two rookies and three second-year players — as replacements Jan Vesely and Kevin Seraphin and regular starters John Wall, Jordan Crawford and Chris Singleton took to the court. Coach Randy Wittman has joked that leading such a young team has led his hair to get a little grayer, and his players gave him reason to scoff, scream and fold his arms in frustration as the Wizards fell behind by 15 points in the fourth quarter. But his team made a valiant charge, twice getting within three points in the final 78 seconds, until it simply ran out of time and lost in Toronto for the fifth consecutive time, 99-92.

• Al Iannazzone of Newsday: Carmelo Anthony winced and grimaced because of his strained right groin, but also smiled and bounced around as if pain free as he and the Knicks were putting a hurting on the Magic. Anthony had 25 points in one of his best all-around games of the season last night, providing an emotional lift that sparked the undermanned Knicks to an improbably lopsided 108-86 victory at the Garden. "It definitely fires everybody up to see your star player sacrificing his body and playing defense and doing all the little things, the intangible things," Baron Davis said. "It's definitely an inspiration to the guys." For the second straight game, the Knicks were minus Amar'e Stoudemire (bulging disc in his back and Jeremy Lin (sore knee). Stoudemire is out 2-4 weeks, but two games into his rehab the Knicks seem to be doing fine. They're getting contributions from everyone. Their defense remains solid and Anthony, despite his condition, looks like his old self.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: It doesn't add up. The Orlando Magic own the fifth-best record in the NBA, and yet on too many nights this season, they have played terribly. They played without any passion Wednesday night and they paid an all-too-familiar price. The New York Knicks administered a 108-86 drubbing in which the Magic trailed by as many as 39 points and looked inept on offense. "What's shocking to me is that a team that's playing over .600 basketball can get absolutely rocked as many times as we have been," coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Boston, New Orleans, Chicago, tonight — that's what's mind-boggling to me. It'll happen every once in a while if you're a bad team. To be a .600 team and get crushed like that as many times as we have? That's shocking." On Wednesday, nothing worked from the middle of the second quarter onward.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Not all compliments are created equal. Some even come disguised as a slight. So when the Clippers went through their little funk through the beginning of March, dropping successive games, losing to teams they should beat and tumbling backward in the standings, the calls for coach Vinny Del Negro's job and cries of panic from the fan base weren't so much criticisms as they were flattery. It meant people were paying attention and invested. "Last year we'd lose two games in a row and no one cared," Clippers center DeAndre Jordan said. It meant actual expectations for this once despondent franchise were not being met, which led to anxiety among the fans and probing analysis from the media. That's growth. ... The real key to change, though, is how the Clippers responded. To the losing, the added pressure and the adversity. Could have been the same old Clippers if they caved in. But it looks like the dawn of a new day for this franchise, evidenced by the Clippers' 103-86 win over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday at Staples Center to push their winning streak to three games.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Suns forward Grant Hill arrived at the office Wednesday night with optimism that the improvement in his right knee would be enough to let him get back to work. As doubtful as Hill was about playing before Tuesday's game, he felt good about his chances Wednesday night until he tested the knee and became a pregame scratch for the second consecutive night. Hill missed consecutive games for the first time since January 2011 because of soreness in his right knee, on which he had surgery in September. The knee was hit Sunday while he was taking a charge at Cleveland. Hill, 39, left the game early, but he had progressed to the point that shooting was comfortable Wednesday evening. Moving laterally was the issue. ... Hill has missed five games this season, but two were for rest in the middle of back-to-back-to-back sets. Hill missed three games in the previous three seasons combined.
• Colin Stephenson of The Star-Ledger: After all the mind-numbing losses they’ve had this season, and particularly over the past couple weeks, this was perhaps the last thing anyone could have expected. A double-digit victory over the Indiana Pacers? Really? Really. Deron Williams had 30 points and nine assists and the Nets, who started the game with 10 players in uniform and finished with only eight, stymied the Pacers, 100-84, tonight before a delighted crowd of 10,817 at the Prudential Center. The 16-point margin of victory, in the Nets’ final game before leaving Thursday on a four-game West Coast trip, was their largest of the season. ... The Nets finished with eight players in uniform after Jordan Williams left the game in the third quarter with concussion-like symptoms, and Shelden Williams left in the second quarter with an eye injury. Shelden Williams was poked in the right eye by Hansbrough. “We’re really concerned about Shelden,” Avery Johnson said.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: Many of the Indiana Pacers traveling party, including most of the coaching staff, took in the bright lights of Broadway on Tuesday night in New York. They attended "Magic/Bird," a play about Magic Johnson and Larry Bird's fierce rivalry during their playing careers. "I loved it. I thought it was great," coach Frank Vogel said. "I loved how they portrayed Larry because I know him the best of anybody in the show. But the whole story, the racial issues they were involved with in the '80s(, was great)." The Pacers had about 15 people, including six players, attend the play. Several of them took pictures with the actors who portrayed Johnson and Bird in the six-member cast. "It was cool because for me, Larry is new to me," forward Jeff Pendergraph said. "A lot of the stuff in the play the guys got, but it kind of went over my head a little bit because I haven't really hung around with him." Vogel grew up outside of Philadelphia watching Julius Erving play for the 76ers, but he admired Bird's Hall of Fame career with Boston.
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: Ever since the July 8, 2010, day the Bulls traded Kirk Hinrich essentially for extra salary-cap space to pursue the greatest free-agent class in NBA history, a segment of the fan base has clamored for his return. Hinrich, who still spends offseasons in the north suburban home he kept, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer for the first time in his nine-year career. So what about a Bulls return? "I wouldn't be opposed to it," Hinrich said. "It's still a ways away, and a lot can happen. We'll see. I have no preconceived thoughts on what will happen." He might have some financial ones, though. The Bulls will be hard-pressed to sign Hinrich unless he accepts a hometown discount. Because they're over the salary cap, the Bulls will have only cap exceptions at their disposal. And there are luxury-tax concerns, as well, when Derrick Rose's five-year, $95 million extension begins next season.
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It’s a dangerous game the Hawks are playing of late. After falling behind by large first-half margins the past two games, the Hawks rallied only to fall short. The latest came Wednesday night in a 98-77 loss to the Bulls at Philips Arena. The Hawks trailed the Bulls by 18 points in the first half. The used a 16-2 run to cut the lead to four points, 56-52, but would get no closer. The Bulls used an 18-4 run of their own in the third quarter to push the lead back to 18 points. Luol Deng provided the final nail in the coffin with a 3-pointer to cap the run. It came on a pass from Taj Gibson, who gathered the rebound of his own miss when Ivan Johnson failed to box him out. From there the Bulls' lead only increased. On Tuesday, the Hawks trailed by 17 points to the Bucks. They battled back to take a three-point lead before succumbing in the fourth quarter. They wouldn't get that close against the Eastern Conference-leading Bulls. ... The Bulls took the season series from the Hawks, 3-1. The Hawks (30-22, 16-8 home) lost for the second straight night, losing the final two games of a streak of five games in six nights.
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: Jimmer Mania wasn’t all hype. This, Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard firmly believes. Immersed in his own rookie season, Leonard admits he hasn’t seen Jimmer Fredette play much this season with the Kings. But he remembers how Fredette lit up the Mountain West Conference — and his own San Diego State squad — last season at BYU, led the NCAA in scoring and won national player of the year honors. Fredette, a 6-foot-2 shooter the Kings are hoping to remake as a point guard, has struggled to find a foothold his first season in Sacramento. Heading into Wednesday’s game against the Spurs, Fredette was averaging 7.2 points and shooting 38.3 percent in 18:23 per game. “It’s his first year,” said Leonard, selected 15th in the June draft, five spots lower than Fredette. “Everybody’s struggling as rookies coming in. With the lockout, you didn’t get to practice with your teammates. He’s a hard worker. I believe he’ll get better as time goes on.” For both rookies, life has changed since their epic battles in the Mountain West (BYU has since left the conference). In one meeting last season, Fredette had 43 points in a BYU victory, while Leonard had 22 points and 15 rebounds.
• Matt Kawahara and Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: Allowing opposing teams to shoot for high percentages has been a problem all season for the Kings, who entered Wednesday night's game against the San Antonio Spurs ranked 29th in the league in that category. Now that the Kings are playing at a faster pace, creating more possessions per game, there is even more of an emphasis on bringing that percentage down. Coach Keith Smart said the Kings ideally want to limit opponents to shooting 41 percent or 42 percent. Opponents were shooting 47.5 percent against the Kings before Wednesday. In their previous seven games, the Kings had averaged 111.7 points but lost four of those games in which their opponents shot 47.3 percent or better and averaged 112.3 points. Smart said lowering that percentage means working harder to contest shots and eliminating easy buckets that result from allowing second-chance opportunities under the basket or turning the ball over above the foul line.
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: When asked if he would give his veteran players extra rest during the final month of the season in preparation for the playoffs, Doc Rivers said yes. But there may be an exception. “The problem without saying a name is one of the guys you would suggest sitting, it’s not fun to get him to do that. The conversation is no fun,’’ Rivers said, likely alluding to Kevin Garnett. “Maybe he’ll see that, maybe he will not. But that will be an interesting discussion.’’ Garnett contributed his 16th double-double of the season Wednesday with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
• Brian T. Smith of The Salt Lake Tribune: Gordon Hayward doesn’t just have the talent to be a game-changer. He’s becoming one. The No. 9 overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft was the Jazz’s best player Wednesday during a 94-82 loss to the Celtics. He scored a team-high 19 points, while being second in rebounds (seven) and assists (five).Then there were his two blocks. When Boston suddenly turned a 66-all fourth-quarter tie into a 73-66 lead, Celtics guard Keyon Dooling stole the ball at midcourt and raced home for an easy layup. Until G-Man started flying. Hayward smoothly tracked Dooling’s path, perfectly timed his leap, then coldly swatted away a gimme shot that would’ve given Boston a nine-point advantage. Five seconds later, the just-turned-22-year-old from Butler was flying again. This time, a greedy Avery Bradley was the victim. Ray Allen’s replacement collected Hayward’s initial block and tried to toss in a quick putback. The Jazzman hit the replay button. Hayward destroyed Bradley’s layup, and Utah still had life.
• Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: Seldom-used reserve Austin Daye was going to get a little time with sixth man Ben Gordon sidelined with a sore right groin against the Cavs on Wednesday night. But when Rodney Stuckey (pulled left hamstring) left the game almost seven minutes in, the third-year swingman ended up with almost 30 minutes of playing time. Daye finished with eight points, two rebounds and two steals in the Pistons' 87-75 victory. It's the first time the Pistons (18-32) have won back-to-back road games this season. The team is 2-1 on its latest trip with the finale Friday night at Eastern Conference-leading Chicago. And with the nature of Stuckey's and Gordon's injuries, Daye can probably count on more playing time. "I thought Austin Daye really helped us because defensively he was very good," Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. "He was in good position where he forced guys to make extra passes." Daye has been open about his displeasure at a lack of playing time -- he has played in 31 of the team's 50 games.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: The easy thing for Anderson Varejao to do -- and some might say the smart thing -- is to forget about returning this season. The Cavaliers' center could spend the summer healing up, doing nothing more strenuous than working on his tan on some Brazilian beach. Not Varejao. As soon his broken right wrist heals, he wants to rejoin the Cavaliers. And as long as he's healthy, he also plans to represent Brazil in the Summer Olympics. Varejao has been out of the lineup since Feb. 10. According to the latest medical update supplied by the team, he won't begin to practice until early April. With the team falling out of the playoff race and the season ending on April 26, he was asked, why rush back? "Because I am part of the team and I want to help even if we don't have any more chance at the playoffs," Varejao said. "I want to play, that's what I get paid for. Last year, I was hurt [torn tendon in ankle] and this season I got hurt too. I want to play. This is what I love to do."
• Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune: In an 88-83 victory over a Charlotte Bobcats team that played with more energy than one would expect from a seven-win team, Love, as it has been since March began, led the way. Love attempted a career-high 31 shots, but never forced one. He made 14, four from three-point range. He scored 40 points and grabbed 19 rebounds. (When informed of that number, Wolves coach Rick Adelman joked that Love must have missed a shot late hoping to get to 20). With Charlotte hanging around, Love scored 14 of his points and grabbed six of his rebounds in the fourth quarter as the Wolves secured an important victory. For a team still hanging on the edge of a playoff chase, coming off Tuesday's loss in Memphis, this had to happen. ... It was Love's 10th game with 30-plus points and 15 or more rebounds, the 19th time he has scored 30 or more this season. It was also the third time he has scored 40 or more points this month. And it's a tribute to the Bobcats that the Wolves, playing without Michael Beasley, J.J. Barea and Nikola Pekovic, needed all of that to win.
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: The NBA wants to know in advance which Silas is the Charlotte Bobcats’ head coach for any single game. Coach Paul Silas told me at shoot-around this morning that the league has asked the Bobcats for a heads-up whenever lead assistant Stephen Silas is taking over the team for a game. With the front office’s blessing, Paul Silas is having his son coach about once a week the rest of the season as a training exercise. The likely next game Stephen Silas will coach is Saturday, on the road against the Detroit Pistons. It makes sense that the league office wants to inform that night’s officiating crew in advance that Stephen Silas is in charge. Referees give head coaches more latitude – to stand throughout the game, to argue calls, to ask for interpretations – than they do assistants. So it makes sense for refs to know how to delineate between Paul’s and Stephen’s roles. What Paul Silas is doing with his son isn’t unprecedented. Former Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson used to let assistants Avery Johnson and Keith Smart coach games on occasion. Johnson now coaches the New Jersey Nets. Smart now coaches the Sacramento Kings.
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: Mark Jackson says he's coaching the NBA's version of the Bad News Bears. If the Warriors are the Bad News Bears, then Brandon Rush is Kelly Leak - the neighborhood's best athlete who was once considered a troublemaker off the field. Rush has been quite the find for the Warriors, who got the 6-foot-6 swingman in a December trade after he wore out his welcome in Indiana. He tore his ACL during an illegal predraft workout in 2007, was suspended five games for violating the league's substance-abuse policy last season, and says anti-gay slurs on his Twitter account were posted by someone else. Rush has been a model citizen with Golden State. He consistently has been one of the Warriors' top perimeter defenders, their best rebounding wing and a knockdown three-point shooter. He backed up a season-high 23 points the night before with a 12-point performance in a 102-87 loss to New Orleans at Oracle Arena on Wednesday night.
• Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: In many ways, Wednesday night’s game between the Hornets and Warriors was a matchup of two teams with similar problems. New Orleans was playing with nine players, and Golden State was once again without their starting point guard, Stephen Curry, who earlier in the day was ruled out for another two weeks with an ankle injury, and without two potential starting centers, Andris Biedrins and Andrew Bogut. The Hornets won this war of attrition, 102-87 in Oracle Arena, making a continued statement to the rest of the league, and themselves, that quitting on a season heading nowhere was not an option. The Hornets get right back at it tonight when they travel to meet the Trail Blazers in Portland, the third in this five-game West Coast road swing. Each of the clubs Wednesday night has dealt with adversity, primarily because of injuries.
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: The 105-96 final was the first Toronto win against Denver since a 121-94 win at the ACC back on March 23, 2007. It was just the second win against Denver since the 2004/05 season. Offensively, the load was carried by Andrea Bargnani, who had that “pep in his step” back from before he was injured according to Casey. Bargnani, who had hit just five three-pointers in 31 attempts since returning to the lineup a dozen games ago, went 2-for-4 from beyond the arc in this game, both successful threes coming late in the fourth quarter and neither one of them the easy, wide open variety. “It was fun because in this stretch I have missed so many wide open threes and then I hit the two hardest I have had maybe,” said Bargnani who wound up with 26 on the night.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: So, when is Danilo Gallinari coming back? That's the question Nuggets fans are asking, as the budding star remains sidelined with a left thumb fracture. "I don't think it's going to be this week, but we'll try to push him sometime next week to get on the practice court and then push it a little bit more," Nuggets coach George Karl said Wednesday. "We have a couple of practice days (between the games Sunday and Wednesday), so that's what we're shooting for." The small forward is averaging 15.2 points per game, second on the team to Ty Lawson's 15.6. Gallinari had strung together some good games in March before injuring the thumb against Dallas on March 19. In his place, Karl has started Wilson Chandler, who is averaging 11.5 points in his six games since rejoining the Nuggets.

• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: The Pacers didn’t hide their feelings about Monday’s game against the Miami Heat. They didn’t use the standard cliché often heard from athletes, “It’s just another game.” It wasn’t just another game for the Pacers. It was a game they had been looking forward to for more two weeks. They wanted prove they could truly beat the Heat and that their collapse during the final 90 seconds in South Beach wouldn’t happen again if they faced a similar situation. The Pacers made sure they weren’t in the position to choke this time. They led by double digits for all of 1 minute and 25 seconds of the fourth quarter. The Heat really only made two runs on the Pacers and the blue and gold withstood them both to move 10 games over .500. “We needed to get over this hump,” Roy Hibbert said. “We feel like we can play with anybody and when we have intensity like that from start to finish, we can beat anybody. There’s a chance we could see them in the playoffs and we wanted to let them know we weren’t going to roll over and it’s not going to be easy.” The Pacers didn’t have one player carry them. They did it with a complete team effort, which is what it takes to beat the Heat.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: It’s a good thing the Heat plays most of its games at home during the final month of the regular season. Miami has been downright awful on the road since the All-Star break. While the Heat has won 13 in a row at AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami has played like a different team entirely away from Biscayne Bay — a much worse team. On Monday, the Heat lost its sixth game on the road since the season’s midway point, losing to the Indiana Pacers 105-90 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. All five of the Pacers’ starters scored in double figures while the Heat’s lineup continued to struggle with its offense for the second night in a row. “It’s that time of year for us to hit a little pothole in the road,” said Heat guard Dwyane Wade, who finished with 24 points, six assists, five rebounds, and four blocks. “We have to make the adjustment before we get back to playing on Thursday.” The Heat is 8-6 since the All-Star break and has lost two in a row. ... The Heat is playing its worst basketball of the season with a month remaining until the playoffs.
• Jill Painter of the Los Angeles Daily News: Clippers star Blake Griffin was whistled for a flagrant foul against New Orleans forward Trevor Ariza, less than a week after Hornets forward Jason Smith was called for a flagrant foul that sent Griffin sprawling to the court. The difference was the Clippers won this game against New Orleans, 97-85 on Monday at Staples Center. And yet, the Clippers' win got lost in that foul, which less than an hour after the game already was on YouTube. Usually, Griffin's posterizing dunks dominate highlights, and he had some of those as well. Griffin fouled the former Laker and UCLA player with both arms extending over him as he was driving to attempt a layup. Ariza lost his balance and fell on his backside but quickly hopped to his feet to voice his displeasure with the foul. Players started jawing, and Ariza received a technical foul, too. Smith - not here because he was serving a two-game suspension - fouled Griffin so hard he was knocked to the ground, and Smith served a two-game suspension for it. Afterward, Griffin brushed off talk of retaliation and discussed the game plan to not allow layups. Griffin's hands were situated deep in the pockets of his jeans, so perhaps his fingers were crossed. "No, I don't think that was a flagrant foul," he said.
• Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: There’s apparently going to be a certain edginess every time the Hornets and Clippers play now, if Monday night was any indication. The hard-feelings that came out of last Thursday night’s win — Jason Smith’s hard-foul against Blake Griffin that brought about Smith’s two-game suspension — spilled over into the stands and on the floor in the Clippers’ 97-85 victory. One fan was ejected for throwing a peanut at Hornets Coach Monty Williams, and Griffin exacted a bit of revenge with a flagrant 1 foul on Trevor Ariza in the third quarter, which also resulted in a technical on Ariza when he whispered something to Griffin within earshot of an official. Griffin scored 20. The Clippers toyed with the Hornets until Chris Paul put up 15 third-quarter points — he finished with 25 — as the short-handed Hornets, playing without Smith and Chris Kaman (illness), couldn’t stand up to Los Angeles’ punishing inside attack. ... Williams, an old-schooler in his thoughts about how the game is played, said Griffin is just going to have to become accustomed to being pushed around. “He knows; he’s no fool,” Williams said. “He knows he’s making people look crazy, and guys don’t like that. He’s got to expect some of that. It’s just going to happen.”
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: JaVale McGee hasn't done everything right, but he had accomplished being a significant enough presence in his first three games with the Nuggets that he was in the starting lineup Monday at Chicago. McGee is averaging 12.3 points (on 62.2 percent shooting), 8.0 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots since being traded to the Nuggets. In his time in Denver he has been a more imposing, intimidating, effective presence in the middle than normal starter Timofey Mozgov has been of late. "You've got to experiment," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "He played well in the second half (at Minnesota). There's an energy there. ... JaVale is not the most experienced guy in the world, but I think he has more of a starting mentality to his game. We've got to experiment to see who plays well with who." McGee had his first double-double with the Nuggets on Sunday against the Timberwolves with 13 points and 11 rebounds. On Monday at Chicago he finished with 10 points and eight rebounds in nearly 24 minutes.
• Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times: Everything’s good, right? Who needs a 34-year-old who can’t seem to stay healthy? Who needs a guy who wears an invisibility cloak over his uniform? The Bulls do. They need a rickety, sharp-shooting Hamilton, even if their NBA-best 40-11 record would seem to scream down the very idea of it. The reasons the Bulls signed Hamilton in December haven’t gone away. They still need another element to throw at the Heat. They still need somebody with more offensive skills than Keith Bogans gave them last season. This is where the more enthusiastic Bulls fan says, “Have you seen John Lucas III lighting it up lately?’’ Yes, I have. And I also can’t help but think that Lucas will be lucky to get a few minutes a game in the postseason, when coaches rely more heavily on starters. ... If you’re a fan of doing things the right way, you want that to count for something. It should count for something if life were fair. But life isn’t fair. Some teams coast in the regular season and find an extra gear in the playoffs. Not to get too philosophical on you, but what does it all mean? What does all the regular-season success mean for the Bulls? Very little if they come up short of their expectations. Mr. Hamilton? Any time you’re ready.
• Frank Dell’Apa of The Boston Globe: Mickael Pietrus has not started baseline testing after the concussion be sustained at Philadelphia Friday. “There is no update, nothing, we’re just talking to him on the phone,’’ Rivers said of Pietrus. “Last I heard, they want to try this week. I think you have to start the baseline tests. They haven’t gotten to that. “He’s having too many symptoms. I don’t think we’re going to see him for a while.’’ Former Celtic Brian Scalabrine had a concussion during the 2008-09 season, returned quickly, and sustained another concussion. The Celtics are being more cautious now. “He’s great, he’s back home and he’s talking,’’ Rivers said of Pietrus. “It’s funny, we had it with Scal. You talk to them on the phone, they sound normal. But, obviously, it’s still a factor. “The first thing he said: ‘I’ve got to get back on the floor.’ Take your time.’’
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: Charlotte Bobcats big man Byron Mullens must have big ears. Before Monday’s 102-95 home loss to the Boston Celtics, coach Paul Silas said he sees 7-footer Mullens’ future at power forward because Mullens hasn’t been physical enough at the center spot. As Silas put it, “I just don’t know if you can make a tough guy out of somebody who is not.” Mullens sure looked like a guy making a statement, coming off the bench for 18 points, seven rebounds and two shots blocked. He even traded taunts and the occasional shove with Boston Celtics center Kevin Garnett. The Bobcats were down 18 at the end of the first quarter when Mullens revved up. He hit a 3-pointer over Garnett’s outstretched arms, then beat Garnett to the rim to catch and dunk an alley-oop pass from rookie Kemba Walker. Silas liked what he saw. “We did play tough more than early on this season,” Silas said. “I like what Byron did and Derrick Brown (16 points) was tough, too.”
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: Bucks guard Monta Ellis has been thrown into the mix without much preparation time. That's what happens when you make a deal at the trade deadline. "He's made some really good plays," Bucks coach Scott Skiles said before the game. "He's made some plays on the pick-and-roll; he's passed the ball well. We're a better-than-average passing team and he's fit right into that. "But there's also moments where we're going to need him to step up and exert his will on the game a little bit and score the ball. It's tricky. You make a trade with not a lot of games left, and a guy deserves a period of time to adjust. “And we deserve a period of time to adjust to him, especially a guy as talented as Monta. At the same time, we’ve got to win the game.” Ellis was 2 for 14 from the field against the Knicks was extremely frustrated. He scored on a tip-in in the first quarter and did not score again until 6:03 remained in the game on a fast-break dish from Brandon Jennings. “It will fall,” Ellis said. “Hopefully it will turn around soon."
• John Branch of The New York Times: The latest rash of ailments tainted the enthusiasm over the Knicks’ seventh victory in the eight games since Woodson replaced Mike D’Antoni this month. “It just seems like it’s not stopping,” center Tyson Chandler said. “You get that bug and it seems like it transfers from one guy to another.” The game with the Bucks had enough intrigue without the injuries. With about one-quarter of the shortened regular season to play, the Eastern Conference appears to be a nine-team game of musical chairs for eight playoff seats. The victory moved the Knicks, with 16 games to play, two and a half games ahead of the Bucks for the final slot. The slight cushion may come in handy. While nagging injuries to Lin and Anthony are a concern, Stoudemire’s long-range health is by far the most worrisome. The Knicks hope his injury is not a repeat of last season, when Stoudemire pulled a muscle in his back during warm-ups for Game 2 of a playoff series with the Boston Celtics, and the Knicks hobbled meekly to an early vacation. It took Stoudemire about seven months to fully recover.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: The Orlando Magic have tried to address their turnover troubles by focusing on the problem. Now, Stan Van Gundy will try another remedy. He'll try to let his players play. "We're gonna have to play the game better," Van Gundy said before the Magic faced the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre on Monday night. "We spent a lot of time talking about it. We showed film on it. Now we're gonna go the other way a little bit and just sort of harp on other things and let 'em play a little bit." Orlando had committed at least 19 turnovers in four of their previous five games.
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: The tragic number going in was nine. Raptors head coach Dwane Casey felt his team would at least give themselves a good shot at a win if they could limit the Orlando Magic to eight or fewer three-pointers. The fact that Orlando already had nine, six of them by Ryan Anderson alone, and there was still 1:26 to go in the first half pretty much told the tale. If the pre-game message was “We’re going to chase these guys off that three-point line,” it got lost in translation somewhere as the Magic rolled to a 117-101 win. Casey’s post-game mood was one of abject disappointment. “We came out as flat as a pancake against one of the top teams in the league and it’s disappointing,” Casey said.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: Rockets guard Kyle Lowry shoveled a basketball to Goran Dragic with his left hand, unable to use his right because of the antibiotics PICC line in his right arm. The effort was not much greater than passing the peas at dinner, but it was as much as he has been permitted in weeks or is likely to undergo for several more weeks. He laughed when Dragic hit the shot Lowry told him would be his last. He celebrated not just his first morning around the Rockets since he was hospitalized March 8 with a bacterial infection but the understanding that if not for an alert technician and luck his serious condition could have been worse. Lowry, 26, said he might not return this season from his infection and its treatment, but he was happy just to be back at a morning shootaround. “It was very scary for a while,” Lowry said. “I had a temperature of 104 for a couple days. It’s not a good feeling. It’s very scary, but it’s something that you learn from and you have to deal with and do what you have to do to get better. If I waited a little bit longer I could have been (in danger). I could have been in a real bad situation if I waited a day longer to go in. They don’t have a clue how it happened or how this situation came about.”
• Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: Terrence Williams said facing his old team provided no extra motivation. ... The Rockets waived the seldom-used Williams on March 16, and the Kings signed him to a 10-day contract Wednesday. In both of his appearances with Sacramento, he has been on the court at crunch time. "I don't care where we were playing (Monday)," Williams said. "I wasn't going to let the last game happen again. I just tried to be focused and be ready to play basketball." Williams committed a turnover with 15.6 seconds left in the Kings' 111-108 loss at Golden State on Saturday. On Monday, he had 10 points, three rebounds and two steals. Coach Keith Smart said Williams is "moving up the charts" and earning the right to play earlier in games. "He's playing well. He's playing within himself," Smart said. "He's shown he can make some plays and be a playmaker defensively, so he's moving at the right pace for our basketball team." Williams likely will stay for the rest of the season.
• Colin Stephenson of The Star-Ledger: It has gotten to the point where the Nets lost tonight for the sixth time in seven games — to a team playing its fourth game in five nights, and coming off a four-overtime game the night before — and no one on the team seemed particularly surprised or terribly disappointed. “They’re a good basketball team,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said of the Utah Jazz, who came into the Prudential Center and beat the Nets, 105-84. “This (Utah) is a team that’s vying for a playoff spot in the Western Conference, and they have a lot at stake right now. So even if you’re a little tired, you try to dig a little deeper.” The Jazz have been digging deep for the past couple weeks, at least. The win tonight was their seventh in eight games. At 27-23, Utah is in the thick of the playoff race, currently in a three-way tie with Houston and Denver for the final two playoff spots. The Nets (16-35), on the other hand, have lost eight of their last 10. Johnson said the group that finished the game — Sundiata Gaines, MarShon Brooks, DeShawn Stevenson, Jordan Williams and Johan Petro — let the game get too far out of hand.
• Brian T. Smith of The Salt Lake Tribune: This is Deron Williams’ NBA life 13 months after being traded by the Jazz. The former face of Utah’s franchise was part of another professional embarrassment Monday during the Jazz’s 105-84 victory at the Prudential Center. Just 10,310 fans were announced, and the mark was generous. The only time Williams looked like D-Will came during the third and early fourth quarter, when the Nets (16-35) finally started caring, erasing a 17-point halftime deficit to pull within 72-69 after the All-Star point guard sank an 11-foot turnaround jumper with 11:02 to go. It was as close as Utah (27-23) allowed New Jersey to get, and as good as Williams looked. The man who owned Salt Lake City finished with 17 points, a co-game-high 11 assists and four rebounds in 40:18.
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: As Jordan Crawford walked through the tunnel, following yet another fourth-quarter collapse, he pulled at the drawstrings on his shorts, lifted his head toward the rafters, shook it and rolled his eyes. It couldn’t have happened again. Not like this. Not at home. Not against the Detroit Pistons. But as Rodney Stuckey and the Pistons giddily hugged and celebrated a 79-77 victory at center court, the Washington Wizards had to deal with completing an improbable home threepeat on Monday night, as they allowed their third straight opponent to rally back from a double-digit second-half deficit to pull out a victory at Verizon Center. “It’s mental. It’s mental for sure. You think about it all the time,” Crawford said after scoring a team-high 20 points. “We’re playing to not lose and that’s why we’re not winning. It’s frustrating. We got to play to win the game.”
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey went through Monday's morning shoot-around and declared himself ready to play against the Wizards on Monday. Stuckey, who admittedly hates missing games because of injuries, said electronic stimulation and treatment he has been receiving have eliminated the swelling, which was the most difficult part of the injury. When he played against the Clippers on March 18, Stuckey was laboring, unable to plant his feet. He missed the last three games with a sore left big toe and had to watch the Pistons muddle through the last two games offensively. The one thing Stuckey isn't concerned about is re-injuring the toe. He was asked if he was worried about making his sore toe worse, and he smiled. "We'll find out if I re-aggravate it," Stuckey said. "If not, I'll be fine."

• This is big. John Hollinger (Insider) trots out data showing that while it's hard to find evidence teams consistently perform well in crunch time on offense, there is much more evidence that their late-game defensive performances are not random. In other words, you might really be bad, and not just a victim of small sample size theater, getting late stops. Even more fascinating, one of this year's best defensive teams, the Sixers, is miserable playing defense in crunch time, and was last year too.
• Rob Mahoney of the Two Man Game on Lamar Odom: "Lamar Odom was entirely reduced to being a spot-up guy. Not a spot-up shooter -- just a spot-up guy. He parked himself on the perimeter -- spacing the floor in theory, I suppose -- for entire possessions at a time, and didn’t get all that many touches as a result. I want so badly to take it easy on Odom, but this is getting ridiculous; Rick Carlisle has given him miles of leeway, and yet 43 games into the season we have yet to see any kind of sustained spark. Inconsistency is one thing, but Odom’s lack of effort -- in a matchup in which he had everything to prove, no less – is completely pitiful. I won’t fault another man for dealing with his problems in whatever way he wishes, but I will say that this particular man is playing a brand of basketball so apathetic as to be altogether disrespectful to an organization that had embraced him as one of their own."
• Know where the Grizzlies got the inspiration to sign Gilbert Arenas? According to GM Chris Wallace on Chris Vernon's radio show, from this blog post from TrueHoop Network blog 3 Shades of Blue.
• What a difference a point guard can make for the Lakers.
• Royce Young of Daily Thunder on how the Thunder beat the Clippers: "It helps that the Clippers are a seriously poor defensive team. If you don’t like the Thunder’s defensive sense of urgency on the ball, then shield your eyes from the Clips. Because they seem to give you just about whatever you want."
• The Spurs are fantastic. Consider yourselves warned, again.
• There are all kinds of reasons to love Kyrie Irving's game. One of them has been that "... and he's only 19!" but that reason is going away with his birthday.
• Stephon Marbury is getting closer to his first title.
• Kenny Anderson has a candy strategy.
• I have been wondering the same thing myself: Why does MarShon Brooks sit so much?
• If you find yourself thinking of David Stern as anti-player, realize you are at odds with David Halberstam.
• JaVale McGee wins a game for the Nuggets. Who's laughing now? A few points, though: It was almost illegal for McGee to touch that ball, which is a little crazy. An inch or two here or there, and he has to just watch it bounce around the rim. Surely, we prefer to watch him dunk the game-winner, right? Also, watch Greg Monroe, the Piston who was trying to keep McGee off the glass. What happened there? Something happened, that's for sure.
• The Rockets are the opposite of tanking. Would be fun to see that work.
• Paul Silas is bitterly disappointed in the departed Boris Diaw. But let's be honest, as a player who helped the Bobcats earn a ton of lottery balls, Diaw is, perversely, perfectly in keeping with the organization's longer-term goals. Sad but true.
• The Bulls force the Raptors into a slew of long jumpers, and go on a decisive 20-0 fourth-quarter run.
• Whole mess of Euroleague playoff highlights.
• Mike Dunleavy is tearing it up. He plays for the Bucks, by the way.
• Tristan Thompson likes the condensed schedule, because he is young and likes playing games.

• Howard Beck of The New York Times: The Philadelphia 76ers are lording over the Atlantic Division after years of misery. The Knicks, bound in a cycle of perpetual dysfunction, are charging hard down the I-95 corridor, becoming a legitimate threat to the throne. The power shifted a bit Wednesday as the Knicks outhustled and out-scrapped the 76ers for an 82-79 victory, cutting the 76ers’ lead to three games with their fifth straight win. The game came down to defense, grit and Jeremy Lin’s unwavering self-confidence on a difficult night. Lin had 16 points in the fourth quarter — after shooting 1 for 11 in the first three periods — and scored the Knicks’ last 8 points, all from the foul line. “It’s just a credit to my teammates, how they kept the game close for me,” he said. “Man, the way they defended was unbelievable.” Amar’e Stoudemire, whose resurgence has been a huge part of the Knicks’ turnaround — and been simultaneously overshadowed by it — was energetic and demonstrative all night, leading the Knicks with 21 points and 9 rebounds. A defensive battle once would have favored Philadelphia. But the resurgent Knicks (23-24) have taken on the persona of their interim coach, Mike Woodson, who considers defense the highest virtue. They held the 76ers to 38.7 percent shooting and had a 47-39 rebounding advantage. The Knicks have not lost since Woodson took the reins, and Wednesday’s victory was certainly the biggest of the bunch. Despite speculation that Woodson might move away from Lin as a featured player, Lin continues to provide critical scoring and playmaking.
• John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News With gas in the Big Apple running around $4 a gallon, it's probably a $40 to $50 car ride down the Jersey Turnpike to Philadelphia and back. You're looking at up to $20 in tolls and parking at the Wells Fargo Center runs at least $15. Then you still actually had to purchase tickets for Wednesday night's Sixers-Knicks game, and I doubt a lot of the $12 seats in the upper level were available. Add in concessions, and it was easily a $150 to $200 night for each Knicks fan. Funny thing is, that was still probably cheaper than taking the subway to Madison Square Garden for a real Knicks home game, assuming you could actually get access to a ticket. Average New Yorkers can't afford to go to a Knicks game, but they love their basketball team. That's why they think little of traveling the I-95 corridor to New Jersey, Washington and, yes, Philadelphia, where tickets are always available. That was not really a home game for the Sixers. At least half of the sellout crowd of 20,470 was cheering for New York, and at times it seemed like the entire building was. This was a hostile takeover of South Philadelphia - the type of invasion of somebody else's house that Eagles, Phillies and Flyers fans proudly brag about doing. The Knicks rode the love they got to an 82-79 home, um, road win.
• Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman: Even though he’d been in Oklahoma City less than 24 hours and been through zero practices with the Thunder, he played 19 minutes against the Clippers. He scored five points, grabbed one rebound, dished one assist and even blocked one shot. “He fit in well,” reserve center Nazr Mohammed said of Fisher’s time with the second unit. “It helped that they played a lot of zone, but he’s played a long time. All the sets are the same, just different names.” Still, if Fisher can play that well cold, imagine what he’ll do after a practice or two. He’s more of a set-up guy in the mold of a traditional point guard, and that will be a lot easier once he has a chance to play a bit with these guys. “I think he’ll bring stability,” reserve forward Nick Collison said after one game with Fisher. “He’s good at handling pressure, at getting into offenses ... and being able to knock down open shots.” ... Today, the Thunder is closer to being a championship team because of the different things that Fisher can do. Yes, he’s going to be a great locker room guy, a fantastic community ambassador. But more than anything, he’s an upgrade in talent. The Thunder made the deal and spent the money because it expects big things from him on the court. “He’s not going to be this guy that’s going to be sitting down with our young players and saying, ‘I remember when we did this,’” Brooks said. “He has to be able to get out on the court and play and be a big part of what we do.”
• Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News: Bruce Bowen got a little choked up when he talked about the Spurs organization Wednesday night as he became the seventh player in team history to have his jersey retired. “I thank you all for allowing me to be share this moment with you all,” Bowen said at the end of his 15-minute speech, his voice cracking just a tad. Looking resplendent in his customary bowtie, Bowen watched the action from courtside midcourt seats throughout the game. And it was fitting that his team took control of the victory over Minnesota in the second half with the kind of defensive effort that earned him five selections on the NBA’s All-Defensive first team. ... Bowen was joined on a makeshift stage at center court of the AT&T Center by former teammates Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, David Robinson, general manager R.C. Buford, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and many family members. Most of the sellout crowd of 18,581 stayed around more than an hour after the Spurs’ victory over Minnesota to watch the ceremony.
• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: Wolves coach Rick Adelman compensated Wednesday at San Antonio by starting rookie Derrick Williams alongside Kevin Love in a small lineup, while 7-foot Darko Milicic remained on the sideline and out of favor. Milicic was inactive for Monday's victory against Golden State and its smallish lineup after he started Sunday at Sacramento but played only the first six minutes. He did not play in the two games before that and was inactive the game before. This season, he has missed games some nights because of a variety of injuries and other nights because Adelman has chosen not to play him. "He hasn't done anything to really give you a lot of faith that he's going to go out and do the job," Adelman said of Milicic. "He's gotten himself out of shape. He hasn't been as driven as you'd like so when a situation like this happens, it's time for someone to have their opportunity and get back in there. Today, [Williams] going to get his chance and Anthony Randolph is going to get his chance and we'll see if any of those guys can step up." Adelman then went out and relied on a small lineup that featured Love, Williams and Anthony Tolliver.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: It figures to be only a matter of time before Ramon Sessions moves into the Lakers' starting lineup, returning Steve Blake to a backup role at point guard. That time wasn't Wednesday night, however. Blake started for the fourth consecutive game since the Lakers traded Derek Fisher to the Houston Rockets and acquired Sessions from Cleveland in a multi-player deal at the trade deadline last Thursday. Sessions' impact has been difficult to miss, with his speed and ability to get into the paint among the chief reasons the Lakers traded for him. He isn't comfortable with either the Lakers' offensive or defensive schemes, however. "I'm definitely not up to speed yet," Sessions said. "I'm not comfortable like I would like to be just because I don't know exactly where everybody is supposed to be out on the floor. I'm starting to know more plays for myself as where I'm supposed to go. "But being a point guard, I want to dictate where everybody else goes and tell them where to go. I'm going to get it sooner or later. It's a little different than in Cleveland. I'm definitely trying to get all the concepts down as soon as possible." As for moving Sessions into the starting lineup sooner rather than later, Lakers coach Mike Brown said it's not a pressing concern at the moment.
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Shawn Marion missed his third consecutive game Wednesday night when the Dallas Mavericks hosted the Los Angeles Lakers. Marion is suffering from a sore left knee that has been bothering him for some time. His absence left the Mavs in a difficult position to try and contain Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, who was just 11 of 37 from the field with 29 points in two previous meetings this season with Marion shadowing him. Marion, one of the game's best defenders, wanted to play in the worst possible way. "It's not so much about playing against Kobe," he said. "It's just going out there and fighting with my team. "Other than that, it is what it is." Marion hopes to be back in time for Friday's game in San Antonio.
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: Sometimes words don't do an event justice. The Pistons' found a way to lose a game they had no business winning. After the Pistons came back from a 25-point deficit, two crucial mistakes in the final five seconds left to a demoralizing 116-115 defeat to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday at Pepsi Center. Flint native JaVale McGee dunked in a Arron Afflalo free-throw line miss with 5.6 seconds left, after Ben Gordon fouled Afflalo on a layup that cut the lead to one. It negated a historic comeback from the Pistons and a similar night from Gordon, who scored a season-high 45, three away from his career high. Gordon missed a contested fadeaway as time expired. "Sometimes you have to experience a little bit of hell to get to heaven," said Pistons coach Lawrence Frank, whose team's last two losses were heartbreaking.
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: About 20 minutes after the Nuggets' great escape, George Karl sat down in front of the media for a postgame Pepsi Center news conference and flashed the grin of a coach who knew his team had gotten away with something. Detroit's Ben Gordon scored 45 points. The Nuggets blew a 25-point lead. The Pistons outran the running Nuggets, 24 fast-break points to 14. Detroit hit 14 3-pointers and almost as many free throws (21) as the Nuggets took (22). And yet, on Wednesday night, this happened: Nuggets 116, Pistons 115. In regulation. In hair-raising fashion. "I don't know if we were the best team," Karl said. "But I thought it was a (darn) good played game."
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: For the first time in nearly 10 years, Nene stepped into an NBA arena and he wasn’t representing the Denver Nuggets or wearing the No. 31. The last week has been an emotional and reflective one for Nene, with him being uprooted from the only NBA franchise he has known and being thrust from a team with playoff aspirations to another headed toward the lottery. Surrounded by an unfamiliar set of teammates, in an unusual red uniform with a horizontal stripe and with hip-hop mogul and New Jersey Nets co-owner Jay-Z seated courtside, Nene didn’t waste any time settling in. On the first possession of the Washington Wizards’ 108-89 win over the Nets on Wednesday night at Prudential Center, Nene caught the ball at the foul line and sprinted around Nets center Shelden Williams for an easy layup. The rest of the evening, Nene showed why the Wizards added him to the roster at the trade deadline in a three-team deal. He set solid screens to get his teammates open looks, played effective defense in the low post, and finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot in the decisive victory.
• Andy Vasquez of The Record: For the second straight game Deron Williams left Prudential Center without speaking to reporters; his locker was empty when the Nets’ locker room was opened to media. Johnson questioned his team’s effort for the first time in more than a month. “I’m always one that’s tried to be really, really positive, at all times with our team,” Johnson said. “But [the effort] could have been better.” It was all part of one of the most frustrating nights in a season full of frustrating nights. The Nets would have to win their remaining 18 games to finish at .500. The team has lost six out of seven in a stretch that all but guarantees the team’s final month in New Jersey will be completely irrelevant. “Demoralizing,” Anthony Morrow said of the loss.
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: By toning down their feelings to scattered boos, it’s nice that Magic fans either have 1)forgiven Hill for not re-signing 2) simply recognize an old, worn-out storyline. ... The Magic won their 30th game, although they’ve been inconsistent this season. The view on the other side of the glass is different. “They’ve won 30 games. I don’t know what everybody is complaining about here,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. ... Magic’s offense flamed out late in Miami and scored just 59 points all game Monday against the Bulls. Nothing like the arrival of the Suns’ defense to lighten the mood.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: If the Suns need a reminder of how far they have come this season, they just replayed how dismally they started the season. To find a game in which Steve Nash and Marcin Gortat were simultaneously askew as they were Wednesday night for a 103-93 loss at Orlando, rewind to the second game of this season against Philadelphia. The Suns never competed with the Magic anywhere nearly as well as the final margin indicates. Nash had two assists, nine fewer than his league-leading average, and five turnovers while Gortat had a scoreless first half and finished with four points, 12 fewer than his team-leading average. It was like Dec. 28, when Nash had one assist and six turnovers and Gortat had his other season-low four-point game.
• Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: The rarity of it isn't lost on Klay Thompson. The Warriors rookie took 24 shots in Wednesday's 101-92 win over the New Orleans Hornets. Sure, he made only 11, which isn't a percentage worth bragging about. But the bigger point is he got to take 24 shots. Dorell Wright hasn't taken 20 in a game this season. Stephen Curry, though he's played only 26 games, tops out at 21. David Lee, a seventh-year vet, has taken that many shots just five times -- in his career. "As a rookie, to put up 24 shots is really rare," said Thompson, who set a career high with 27 points. "I'm really thankful Coach (Mark) Jackson has the confidence in me to let me take those shots and play my game." The Warriors have no doubt shown confidence in Thompson, anointing him the successor to guard Monta Ellis, the team's star shooting guard for years before being dealt to Milwaukee on March 13. But it's already obvious why Golden State is willing to stake its future on the rookie. In the six games since the Ellis trade, Thompson is averaging 20 points in 37 minutes. He's shooting 40.9 percent in those games, but that's probably more because he's working on his repertoire and learning how to be a reliable scorer. The fact that he's taken 24 shots -- and no one on the team is griping about it -- is a sign of his potential as a scorer.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Center Emeka Okafor remains the lone injured Hornets player without a clear timetable on his return with 20 games remaining in the regular season. He missed his 19th consecutive game on Wednesday with a sore left knee. “When you get injured, you have to make sure you take care of it,” Okafor said. “That’s the process here, I’m working hard and being diligent. I’m rehabbing.”
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Hawks coach Larry Drew often describes it as a seduction. When the Hawks, a good defensive team, take the court against a bad defensive team, they just can’t help themselves. Instead of clamping down and dominating the weaker foe, the Hawks are content to run up and down the court trying to trade baskets. The Hawks tried that plan against Cleveland on Wednesday, and it nearly backfired. They needed some big shots from Joe Johnson to save them. Johnson’s 25-foot 3-pointer forced overtime, and his basket provided the winning margin in the Hawks’ 103-102 victory at Philips Arena. The Hawks (27-20) won for the third time in four games. Johnson had struggled shooting all game, but made amends at the end.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer Some high draft picks do not want to attend the NBA's summer leagueafter they have established themselves. Irving is not in that category. "Even if Coach Scott didn't want me to go, I was going to be there anyway," Irving said. Scott believes it would be good for rookies Irving and Tristan Thompson to play together, even if it's only for a few games. Irving went a step further: With as many as four draft picks joining the team in July, the newbies will have a chance to play with the starting point guard. Due to the lockout, neither Irving nor Thompson took part in last year's summer league in Las Vegas. Irving said he knows it can be an anxious time for young guys trying to make a favorable impression. "I'm going there to cool everybody down," Irving said. "[I'll] be the cool guy down there."
• Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times: C.J. Watson missed all eight of his shots from the floor in Monday night’s 85-59 wipeout of the Magic in Orlando, but that doesn’t mean he played a lousy game, according to Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. “I don’t necessarily judge him by his shots,” Thibodeau said. “I measure him more on how he runs the team and how the team is functioning and how he’s playing defense. He can play well when he doesn’t shoot well. That’s what he did in that game.” The Bulls were 10-4 without MVP Derrick Rose heading into Wednesday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors, which says a lot about their depth at point guard. John Lucas III and Mike James also have played key roles. “C.J. has played very well whenever he has started,” Thibodeau said. “He’s been solid. John has been terrific. The bench has been very good. Then our starters have done a good job.” The Bulls will need continued solid play from Watson, Lucas III and James because Rose might not return from a strained groin for several more days, if not longer.
• Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun: Stop if you've heard this one before: The Raptors played a solid three quarters before wilting in the fourth to lose a basketball game. It has happened a number of times this season and on Wednesday, the Chicago Bulls used a final frame flurry to disappoint the Raptors 94-82 at the ACC. After surrendering a disappointing 69 points through three, the league's second-stingiest defence buckled down and scored the first 10 points of the fourth and 16 of the first 19, to turn around a seven-point deficit and take complete control. "Chicago is not chopped liver. We competed for three and a half quarters of the game," summarized Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, who said he is still looking to see his club put four good quarters together against a quality team.

• Howard Beck of The New York Times: Yet there is no mistaking Anthony’s mood shift over the last seven days, coinciding with a new Knicks winning streak and a change in coaches from Mike D’Antoni to Mike Woodson. The good times continued Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden as the Knicks rolled past the lowly Toronto Raptors, 106-87, stretching their winning streak to four games. Anthony is still searching for his jump shot (5 for 15), but he put together a complete game, with 17 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals, along with some animated defense and many gleeful grins along the way. ... Anthony had chafed under D’Antoni’s direction and sagged through the Knicks’ six-game losing streak, ultimately leading to D’Antoni’s resignation last week. Anthony’s renewal and Woodson’s firm hand have sparked the Knicks’ longest winning streak since early February, when they won seven in a row. Each of the last four wins has been by 14 points or greater. “I think now we’re playing at a different level, a very high level,” Anthony said. ... Asked why Anthony would not have given the same effort in the first two months of the season, Woodson said: “I can’t explain it. I can’t explain that. I can’t. I wish I could. We probably wouldn’t be sitting in this position that we’re sitting in today, fighting for a playoff spot.”
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: Coming into Tuesday’s game Bargnani appeared to be slowly rounding into the scoring form he had before a 20-game layoff with a left calf strain. Casey sees the progress and he’s fine with that. What he’s not fine with, however, is the slippage in Bargnani’s defence. As apparent and understandable his offensive struggles have been since returning from the long layoff, Casey seemed more concerned about his game at the other end of the floor. “Defensively he’s kind of been a step off too,” Casey said. “I told him I understand the offence being (slow to come) but there’s no reason defensively that you can’t be where you are supposed to be. It’s not effort. It’s more focus and recognizing the situation." ... In the six games since his return, Bargnani has averaged 12.8 points and 5.2 rebounds. As a team the Raps have given up an average of 102.2 points since his return. For the year opponents are averaging 94.8 points against Toronto. One change for Bargnani Tuesday night was the lifting of his minutes restriction. It was a preventative measure put in by Casey to ensure he didn’t overwork Bargnani too early in his comeback.
• Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle: Yao is adjusting to his new life as a college student at Jiao Tong University in his hometown of Shanghai. The nine-hour days are a far cry from life as an NBA player. ... Yao says his left foot, which suffered fractured bones at least three times, is fine, “good enough for walking, but not good enough for playing in a basketball game,” but he looks a little chunky. That happens when you stop working out and start working. Aside from his studies, Yao keeps busy as the owner of Yao Ming Family Wines, which released a Napa Valley cabernet in China late last year and plans to begin selling in the U.S. this year. Yao also owns a team in the Chinese Basketball Association. The Shanghai Sharks made the playoffs this season with Marcus Landry, younger brother of Yao’s former Rockets teammate Carl Landry, leading the way. The Rockets are Yao’s team too, and despite being so far away, Houston will always be his American home. “Just coming to the building, as soon as I drove my car onto the highway, I already felt the emotions,” Yao said. “Everything is just so familiar. It lasted almost 10 years. But today I walked in with a different (identity). But I feel very happy.” It was a fun, emotional night for the universally liked and respected big man. He clapped as the Rockets chased the Lakers down to claim an important win, undoubtedly reminiscing about the days when the crowd cheered wildly for him. Yao sat courtside next to former Rocket Robert Horry, who played only four years in Houston but won two championships. Horry went on to win five more titles in a 16-year career. Basically, Yao played seven NBA seasons, missing more than 20 games due to injuries in three of those. He retired with that single playoff series win. It must be difficult not to wonder what if. “I like to look forward,” Yao said. “There are no ifs. There are no ifs.”
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: In the end, coach Mike Brown insisted he wasn't as upset with center Andrew Bynum's third-quarter ejection as he was with the Lakers' porous defense and lack of hustle during a 107-104 loss Tuesday night to the Houston Rockets. Brown also said he wasn't as concerned about Bynum's lack of discipline with the game up for grabs as he was with the Lakers' inability to keep the shorthanded Rockets from picking them apart when it mattered most. "Our defense is the worst it's been all year," Brown said after the Lakers lost their second in a row after a five-game winning streak. "The last seven or eight games, we just haven't been playing well defensively. "We score 104 points in a regulation game. We shoot 51 percent from the field. Are you kidding me? We can't play good enough defense and box out and come up with enough rebounds to stop them (the Rockets) from winning the game?" Kobe Bryant brushed off Bynum's ejection by saying he likes the way the 7-footer plays with "a chip on his shoulder," and to take away that part of his game would take away something that makes him a force in the paint.
• Toney Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune: Tuesday’s 97-90 loss to the Utah Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena may have exposed a flaw that could become fatal if left to fester. The Thunder have slowly but surely become very vulnerable to physical teams with the size and the depth to score and defend in the paint. As fate would have it, the Utah Jazz are one of those teams. For the entire game Tuesday night, the Jazz picked at that flaw like a scab, taking turns pounding the ball inside to Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap, drawing fouls on Kendrick Perkins, and closing up the middle on Durant. It was an all-around performance that bothered the Thunder. Perkins was seen talking to himself angrily during the loss. James Harden left the locker room in 10 minutes, headphones on, without so much as a word to the media. ... The blueprint for playing with Oklahoma City is out: Score a bunch of paint points, don’t let the Thunder score a bunch of points on offensive rebounds, and try to force either Durant or Russell Westbrook to have a tough shooting night. The latter is obviously easier said than accomplished. The Jazz, however, did all of that and more Tuesday night.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: This team’s inconsistency is a full blown problem. There’s no other way to put it. Don’t think for a second that the Thunder is good enough to turn it on 20 games from now and drown its deficiencies. Right now, the Thunder isn’t even playing like the final 20 games are enough to correct the problems. The freighting thing is we might not have even seen rock bottom yet. The current 10-game stretch that started tonight could expose the Thunder like we’ve never seen. This is by far the toughest portion of the schedule, and unless the Thunder gets its act together we could be in for several more stinkers. ... Something told me that nothing good could come from KD and Russell Westbrook combining to score 23 of the Thunder’s 25 first-quarter points. It’s been proven, time and time again, that the Thunder is at its best when everyone is involved offensively. Tonight, a pair of free throws by Serge Ibaka were the only other points for OKC in the first period. I’d say the first six minutes or so was really good offense. The last six minutes of the first quarter looked like ‘Let’s get it to our All-Stars and let them make a play.” In the end, the All-Stars didn’t have it, and it cost the Thunder the game.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: Frank Vogel may not make George Hill the starting point guard, but what he did during the fourth quarter Tuesday was just as effective. Vogel went with Hill over Darren Collison the entire fourth quarter. You can’t blame Vogel for making that call. Hill scored 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting, dished out six assists and didn’t have any turnovers in 28 minutes off the bench. Collison, meanwhile, had four points, two assists and a turnover in 25 minutes. ... Hill was always looking up the court trying to find the open man while also still being aggressive with his shot. To Collison’s credit, he was up cheering his teammates throughout the fourth quarter when they led by as many as 19 points. It’ll be interesting if Vogel will make the switch or keep things the way they are, with the exception of going with Hill in the fourth quarter of close games. If Tuesday was any indication, it should be an easy decision for Vogel.
• Dan Woike of The Orange County Register: The company line from Clippers players and coaches this season has been that this team will score points. The emphasis will be on defense because on offense, the team is too skilled not to fill it up. But after a 102-89 loss at Indiana on Tuesday night, maybe it is time to rethink that stance. The Clippers have scored 100 points in just two of their last 12 games and haven’t cracked the century mark in their last seven. In Indiana, the team looked like it was going to get there without much problem in the first quarter as Chris Paul and Blake Griffin led the team to 31 points in the quarter. But for as efficient as the offense was, the defense was a mess, letting the Pacers get easy baskets in transition and on offensive rebounds. The Clippers, desperate for points, didn’t do themselves any favors, hitting only 9 of 20 from the free-throw line. Indiana hit 24 of 26 from the line.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: Bucks guard Monta Ellis could feel the love from the Golden State fans when he saw the YouTube video of the crowd booing co-owner Joe Lacob at halftime of Monday's game against Minnesota in Oakland. The fans booed Lacob as he made remarks to honor Chris Mullin, who had his jersey retired by the franchise Monday. Mullin and former Warriors great Rick Barry tried to intervene to support Lacob, but Barry's lecture to the crowd was greeted with more boos. Ellis laughed when asked about the video and whether he had seen it, after the team's shoot-around Tuesday morning. "It was a pretty crazy scene," Ellis said. "I don't really know what to say, but I love those fans. I know they love me, too." ... Ellis also said he wasn't upset about the trade. "It was past due with us and we knew they had to make a move," Ellis said.
• Matt Calkins of The Columbian: Tuesday night, for the first time since announcing his retirement in December, three-time All-Star Brandon Roy walked back into the building where he used to star. Joined by his wife, Tiana, Roy’s appearance was meant as a means to surprise his good friend Jamal Crawford, Portland’s backup shooting guard. As he walked toward his courtside seat across from his the Blazers’ bench, the arena’s sound system blared the “Rocky” theme music, and the crowd gave him a standing ovation that lasted at least a minute. He then seemed to point to Crawford, and was greeted by Joel Przybilla, who put his arms out as if to say, “What are you doing here?” “It was good to see him, Przybilla said. “He had a smile on his face. I just wish we could have gotten a win for him.” Neither Crawford nor any of the Blazers knew that Roy would be making an appearance. As a result, it had its intended effect.
• Ethan J. Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post: You’re worried about the fact that your center rebounds like a point guard, that Chris Bosh sometimes drifts, that Dexter Pittman and Eddy Curry haven’t earned consistent minutes, that Udonis Haslem is often a finger-tip short. But here’s the thing: None of these guys are good enough to earn a rotation spot for the games that matter. Spot duty? Perhaps. But Erik Spoelstra is likely to shrink his rotation to 8 or 9, as he did during the 2011 playoffs, only turning to Juwan Howard out of desperation. And when he does, he’s likely to go with the guys he trusts, guys who know his defensive system by heart. I can’t envision him cutting significantly into Haslem’s minutes, and he is not going to shelve Anthony — especially against quicker frontcourts — considering the way he plays against the pick-and-roll. So stress all you want. But I can’t stress enough: Nobody Miami signs this week will average more than 8 minutes per postseason game — and my prediction is only that high, to protect myself from garbage time.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: The Suns have shown interest in power forward J.J. Hickson, but he is likely to pick Golden State once he clears waivers today. Hickson, 23, was bought out Monday by Sacramento and needs a situation where he can resurrect his career after falling out of favor with Sacramento. Golden State is down a big man after trading Ekpe Udoh with Monta Ellis to Milwaukee and getting back injured center Andrew Bogut. In Phoenix, the Suns would have to curtail the development of rookie power forward Markieff Morris in order to play Hickson at a position where they already have Hakim Warrick out of the rotation. The Suns considered drafting Hickson in 2008 when they took Robin Lopez with the 15th pick. Hickson fell to No. 19, where he was taken by Cleveland when Suns General Manager Lance Blanks was in the front office there.
• Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: The Kings had the opportunity to offer Jason Thompson a contract extension by Jan. 25. The deadline passed without an extension for the fourth-year power forward. That didn't go unnoticed by Thompson. "That was on my mind, but it wasn't on my mind," he said. "It was just about playing consistently." Thompson has done that and become a player the Kings want to keep. By reaching a buyout agreement and waiving forward J.J. Hickson on Monday, the Kings showed Thompson is someone they see playing a part in their future. Hickson and Thompson were in position to receive qualifying offers and become restricted free agents this offseason. The Kings would be able to match any offer to their restricted free agents. "At some point, if you go back to the beginning of the season, we were going to have to make a decision on both of those players in regards to a qualifying offer or not to give them a qualifying offer," Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie said. "We felt we were going to qualify Jason, and his play continues to be in the home improvement aisle."
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: For some reason, the Grizzlies are distracted and less dynamic than normal on defense. Credit the Sacramento Kings for causing some of that. But mostly blame the Grizzlies for being outworked and for lacking intensity throughout a 119-110 loss Tuesday night before a crowd of 11,105 in the Power Balance Pavilion. “We got our butts kicked because we didn’t play hard and we didn’t play together,” Griz coach Lionel Hollins said. “We’ve got to compete and be committed to playing defense and committed to being focused.” With Randolph and a full complement of players, the Griz still are a bunch that relies on overwhelming opponents with aggressiveness and a string of stops. The Griz packed neither to start a four-game West Coast trip that shifts to Portland for a game Thursday against the Trail Blazers.

• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: Actually, it was a horrible business decision. All the ESPN insiders and NBA numbers geeks and incredulous sports agents just could not comprehend what Dwight Howard did Thursday. They couldn't grasp the concept that he would actually waive his right to become a free agent and agree to play at least another season with his team and in his town. And that's why this was such a powerful and wonderful thing. Because it wasn't business. It was personal. It wasn't about the bottom line. It was from the bottom of his heart. ... It should be noted Dwight walked into the news conference at the Amway Center, but it would have been more fitting if he had rode in on a white stallion. No, he didn't sign a long-term deal, but he at least gave the Magic the rest of this season and all of next season to try to win a championship and attract another superstar to Orlando. This was the best news Magic fans have received since Gilbert Arenas shut down his Twitter account. When Dwight's name is introduced Friday night at the Amway Center before the Magic's game with the Nets, it will be a travesty if there isn't a massively raucous standing ovation.
• Dave D'Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: Gerald Wallace can play on our team anytime, anywhere, even if he is likely to suit up with a twisted ankle, a thigh contusion, a chip fracture in his wrist, a cracked rib, and a dented cranium -- which, come to think of it, is a circumstance he usually refers to as “Tuesday.” There is no better hustle player in the league, period -- he is scary-fearless, absolutely demented in desire to pursue the ball, disruptive at every defensive station, and nothing stops him from his appointed rounds, not even the absurd abuse he takes to that Gumby body. He is the crash-test dummy of small forwards. Once he entered the locker room in Charlotte to find an orange sign taped to his stall. “No diving,” it said. Trainer humor. Rick Adelman, who had him in Sacramento, once said that Gerald “falls on the floor harder than anyone I’ve ever seen.” It’s what makes him uncommonly lovable, even though it will probably shorten his career by a few hundred games. He’s the most selfless guy you can have on your team, and he always somehow manages to get his 15 and 8 even though nobody ever runs a play for him. Yes, it’s a risk. If the pick the Nets just gave up lands at 4, and Wallace breaks something -- knock wood -- they’ll have fumbled another building block. But we’ll take a chance on heart anytime.
• John Canzano The Oregonian: Nate McMillan probably won't ever expose which of the Trail Blazers he wanted gone from his toxic locker room. But he told me in a pregame chat 12 days ago that he looked down his bench during a recent game and saw Marcus Camby, legs crossed, arms folded, sitting back in his chair with a "What are you going to do, sucker, bench me?" expression. McMillan was ticked about it. And grumbling too about what he perceived to be a faction of passive-aggressive players who were undermining him as the season spiraled out of control. He said he was doing what he could (film sessions, pep talks, holding back minutes) trying to get control of things. Same night, I spoke to a veteran player who believed Camby and Raymond Felton were trying to get McMillan fired. I later learned that Felton's off-court sidekick, Gerald Wallace, could also be back-biting and subversive. Anyone who paid close attention knew McMillan lost his team weeks ago. So when the Blazers traded Camby and Wallace on Thursday -- two guys McMillan wanted gone -- it looked like a curious vote of confidence for McMillan. A real, "Dance with the one who brung ya" moment for owner Paul Allen. Agree or disagree, the organization was apparently taking a strong stand. The kind the New York Knicks failed to do in picking Carmelo Anthony over coach Mike D'Antoni. The Blazers were sticking with their coach. Then, the deadline passed and Allen promptly fired McMillan. I called around the league during the final hours of the trade deadline, and after talking about the Blazers trades and roster issues, the conversation always turned to McMillan's future. ... Portland got rid of a pair of players who were part of the problem. The Blazers fired their coach. They're making a harsh acknowledgement that things aren't working out. They're starting over. The Blazers didn't necessarily get better on Thursday.
• Mike Wise of The Washington Post: An immediate reaction after hearing JaVale McGee and Nick Young had been traded: “Great. Beautiful. Now no one from the Wizards will make ‘Sports Center’ at 11.” One Nene for essentially two knuckleheads is a bit harsh, especially considering neither player left over from the Gilbert Arenas years in Washington ever got into any real trouble off the court. The truth: Whether McGee was inexplicably sprinting back on defense when his team was still on offense or Young was missing a layup by throwing the ball over the stanchion while impossibly missing the rim and the glass, they were almost blissfully unaware of how comically bad their misdeeds came across. In Nick and JaVale’s alternate universe, they can’t believe they were shipped out of town for anything less than Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in their primes. That’s why the Washington Wizards are making a stab at a change in culture by acquiring Nene, Denver’s 29-year-old Brazilian center, for McGee in a three-team deal that also sent Young to the Clippers. It’s a culture change as much as it is a change in the pivot. Plain and simple, a swap by two teams with equal concerns over the futures of their franchise centers brings Nene from the Nuggets to the Wizards.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: As the season progressed — the injuries, the inconsistencies — some wondered if Nene should beware the Ides of March. Thursday was the NBA's trade deadline and the Nuggets decided to make a major move, sending the 6-foot-11 Nene to the Washington Wizards in a three-team deal that "came out of the blue," according to Nuggets executive Masai Ujiri. The Nuggets received center JaVale McGee, forward Ronny Turiaf, a $13 million trade exception and a future second-round pick, while Nick Young went to the Clippers and Brian Cook headed to Washington, in addition to a future second-rounder. The plan, Ujiri said, is to waive Turiaf to make a roster spot for Wilson Chandler, who said he expects a deal to be done on Sunday or Monday. ... Naturally, there was an onslaught of emotions Thursday at the Pepsi Center as word spread about the big trade. "I can't deny that my head has felt like it's ready to burst a little bit," Denver coach George Karl said. "Trades of guys who have been with you for a long time always cause some turmoil. Nene has been a heck of a part of what we've done here. He's been through some tough situations with the cancer — there's a connection there that I hopefully will always have with him. His family was very good to me through my cancer situation. So there's more than just a basketball friendship there. There's more of a friendship with humanness, mindfulness and soulfulness. I have a lot of love for Nene. I wish I had time for a walk; I guess that's the best way to phrase it."
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Nick Young says he was waiting on pins and needles the past few days, waiting to learn his fate as the NBA trade deadline approached. However painful that was, the outcome more than made up for it. Young, the former Cleveland High of Reseda and USC standout, is returning home to play for the Clippers, who acquired the 6-foot-7 forward from the Washington Wizards in a three-team deal with minutes to spare before the deadline Thursday. Young was reached before the deal had even been made official, but he was already excited about the prospect of coming home. "This is just a great feeling. I can't even tell you how excited I am," he said. "To be coming home and to be playing on a great team." As anxious as Young was in the closing moments of the deadline it was nothing compared to what the Clippers were going through. Neil Olshey, the Clippers general manager, began conceptual talks with Washington about Young nearly two weeks ago. By the time he went to sleep late Wednesday night, Olshey thought the deal was dead. But at 11:15 a.m. Thursday - 45 minutes before the deadline - Olshey got a call from Washington general manager Ernie Grunfeld and the deal was being revived.
• Mark Whicker of The Orange County Register: Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are the only holdovers from the '09 championship. That, of course, was the real news from Thursday: Gasol and Bynum are indeed holding over. They survived the deadline of 2012. That should please Bryant. Few occurrences do. One can safely assume the Fisher trade was not one. "I'm concerned, yeah," Kupchak said. "I don't want to make it too simple, but as each day goes by it'll get easier and easier. "There will be a void that exists for X amount of days. I would hope someone steps up. A lot will fall to Kobe, but a lot of it falls to our coach. At the end of the day he's the leader of our locker room." Fisher called the team meetings. He was the only one who could tell Bryant inconvenient truths. ... The Lakers' peace, love and understanding will be determined by scoreboards and scoreboards alone. On Thursday, Kupchak & Co. bet on Ramon Sessions to win more of those scoreboards than Derek Fisher could. The odds are with them.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: Shortly after the deal for Camby, the Rockets sent Jordan Hill to the Los Angeles Lakers to acquire Derek Fisher and the Mavericks’ first-round pick. The Dallas pick will go to the Rockets the first season it is not in the top 20 picks, but if the Rockets do not get it in the next five drafts, they would in 2017 regardless of the Mavs’ position. The deal could have been made primarily to get the pick. Later on Thursday, the Rockets reached out to the agent for free-agent point guard Anthony Carter about signing Carter, according to a person with knowledge of those talks, a possible indication they intend to buy out the remainder of Fisher’s contract. Fisher, 37, has an option for one more season worth $3.4 million. According to an individual familiar with the trade negotiations, the Rockets had been in talks with Portland for forward Gerald Wallace, who ultimately went to New Jersey. On Monday, the Rockets were involved in talks with Milwaukee for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson, but the Bucks preferred the offer from Golden State that sent Monta Ellis and Ekpe Udoh to Milwaukee. In Camby, however, the Rockets got a player who could bring immediate help in an area of need.
• Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: An overlooked perk to the Cavaliers' trade with the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday was the ability to swap draft picks next season. The Cavs own the Miami Heat's first-round pick in 2013. They also have their own first-rounder next year. "Next year, we have the ability to swap our least favorable pick with (the Lakers' first-round) pick," Cavs general manager Chris Grant said. "Hypothetically, if Miami finishes at No. 27 and the Lakers at 16, we can move from 27 to 16." The Lakers' first-round pick in 2012 is lottery-protected. If they don't make the playoffs — a long shot — they'll keep their pick this year. It would then roll over to 2013 and would still be protected from Nos. 1-14.
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: Many among the sellout crowd at the AT&T Center on Wednesday night believed one key player on the floor was likely making the final appearance for his team. They were right, but probably had the wrong player in mind. It was Spurs forward Richard Jefferson, not Dwight Howard, the Magic’s All-NBA center, who changed teams at the NBA’s trade deadline. The Spurs sent Jefferson, point guard T.J. Ford and their 2012 first-round draft pick, protected if the Spurs should be in the lottery, to the Golden State Warriors for Stephen Jackson, a 6-foot-8 small forward who was with the Spurs from 2001-03. Spurs general manager R.C. Buford called Thursday’s deal the culmination of several years worth of attempts to get Jackson back with the team. The 33-year-old, who has been with five teams since leaving the Spurs, has remained a favorite of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and is still close with the vital pieces who remain from that 2003 title team: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. “We’ve had discussion with people about Jack before, just making people aware we had interest and followed him since the time that he left,” Buford said.
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: Joe Lacob, who maintains that his ownership group is among the league's richest, has put his money where his mouth has been churning. In taking on the hefty contract of Jefferson, who is owed about $10 million next season and has an $11 million player option for 2013-14, the Warriors were able to get San Antonio's pick - so long as the Spurs don't miss the playoffs. Jefferson, 31, is a swingman who has averaged 16 points on 46.7 percent field-goal shooting and 4.9 rebounds in 11 seasons with New Jersey, Milwaukee and San Antonio. He's averaging 9.2 points and 3.5 rebounds in 28.5 minutes a game this season, and is shooting 42.1 percent on three-point attempts. He has played in 94 playoff games, including two trips to the NBA Finals with New Jersey. "Richard Jefferson has played a key role and has been a solid contributor on some very successful basketball teams during his career," Riley said. "He has won a lot of games and will certainly provide our team with some veteran leadership and perimeter shooting skills."
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: Did they acquire a starter in Leandro Barbosa? No, they improved their bench and also gave coach Frank Vogel the option of moving George Hill into the starting lineup at point guard if wants to at some point. Did the Pacers improve by acquiring Barbosa? Definitely. The Pacers weren’t looking to be a heavyweight during trade talks. They just wanted to continue to add pieces. They had the financial ability to take on all of Barbosa’s $7.6 million contract because they’re under the salary cap and had two roster spots available. The Pacers aren’t going to leap ahead of Miami or Chicago in the Eastern Conference standings. Shoot, they probably won’t pass Orlando now that the circus surrounding Dwight Howard ended with him deciding to continue to play in the land of Disney. The Pacers want to get homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs and hopefully advance to the second round.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: The Griz entered the fray at the NBA’s trade 2 p.m. deadline Thursday when they shipped Young to the Philadelphia 76ers for the draft rights to 2005 second-round pick Ricky Sanchez. Young, 6-6, was not in the Grizzlies’ rotation and had requested a trade. The deal helped both parties. Memphis moved below the NBA’s luxury-tax threshold by getting rid of Young’s $948,000 salary. Young played 21 games for the Grizzlies this year, averaging 3.5 points. He started twice, including in Tuesday’s loss to the Lakers. He averaged 6.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in his career, which began in 2009. The Griz have no interest in Sanchez, a 6-11 forward. He is playing in Argentina and will never wear a Grizzlies uniform.
• Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News: The Sixers risk the same playoff danger posed by the talented Knicks, who this week purged themselves of a sideshow coach. As soon as the real point guard takes over - Baron Davis - the Knicks could make a run at a No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. Which means the Sixers can win a round in the playoffs, maybe two if the matchups work out for them. Regardless, they will remain several steps from matching the sort of basketball played in the West by Oklahoma City, the Clippers, the Mavericks, the Spurs and even the Lakers. Fine. The Sixers cannot be about this season. Turner, Holiday and Young need to be allowed to mature into the sort of players who draw contact at the rim and finish; who turn other team's mistakes into quick points; and, yes, into players who relish the chance to beat the clock at the end of possessions, and quarters, and games. This time next year, one or all of them could have developed those skills. Adding a player who would unrealistically raise expectations in this moment simply would have been unwise. Sam Young, on the other hand, is perfect.
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Hawks, as expected, didn’t make any major trades by today’s 3 p.m. deadline. Instead, they sent a second-round pick to Golden State for cash to help offset their first-ever luxury-tax bill that will be due at season’s end. The Hawks owned two second-round picks after acquiring one from the Suns in the Josh Childress sign-and-trade last summer. The Warriors will receive the lesser of the two picks and, since the Suns likely will finish with a worse record than the Hawks, Atlanta probably will keep that pick.

• At Hickory-High, Ian Levy asked readers to pick the MVP based on statistics alone. No names. Yesterday he revealed the results: LeBron James in a landslide.
• Tony Parker has been mentioned as an MVP candidate, which he says makes him laugh.
• On Twitter, Jeremy Lin calls Mike D'Antoni "truly a class act who will be missed."
• This is excellent, Milwaukee-based analysis of the Andrew Bogut for Monta Ellis trade. But it highlights the insanity of NBA rules. As in, it seems like the Bucks got better. Which may be exactly why that was a bad trade. Frank Madden of BrewHoop writes that the improvement from this trade "is unlikely to deliver much more than a swift first round exit at the hands of the Bulls -- and all the Chicago fans who would inevitably invade the Bradley Center. Is that progress? Reasonable people will disagree, and for the Bucks' front office it's almost a no-win situation. John Hammond and company are under significant pressure to win games now and get casual fans interested again, yet many hardcore fans have been understandably clamoring for the team to hit the reset button: add picks, deal away some of the team's depth (Ersan Ilyasova, Beno Udrih, etc), and focus on remaking the core even if it means losing games."
• Speaking of that, the Raptors are now most assuredly playing for lottery balls, right? In that they are joined by, what, eight teams? Ten? As teams get more strategic in their thinking, more NBA games will become unwatchable, like last night's Raptors vs. Nets. (And if you're going to tell me that Gerald Green's amazing dunk made that game watchable, I'd nod and point out that the fact he's playing at all is proof positive the Nets are tanking.) Jeff Van Gundy has your fix.
• John Hollinger with a HUGE point: The Timberwolves are short of point guards. David Kahn laughs at all of you who laughed so hard at him for drafting too many. Also, Hollinger has some love for one of Kahn's former point guards: "I like Michael Beasley better than some people, but I'd still take Ramon Sessions over him a hundred times out of a hundred. Make it 101 given L.A.'s situation."
• Arsenalist of Raptors Republic says asking James Johnson to create his own offense is "like asking someone to assemble Ikea furniture without the manual."
• "The Montegrin invasion is upon us."
• Shameful! Caught on video: Players not shooting when they should. I'm being serious, it is shameful. Really. And it's a HoopIdea.
• File this under "things that would never have happened in Philadelphia." Dwyane Wade's dad was booted from the United Center for swearing?
• Celebrities at the ready with bracket help.
• Back-to-back Blake Griffin free throw airballs send chills through analytical Clipper fans.
• Jason Terry says he is auditioning for his next contract every night out. I guess we knew that, but it's rare to hear it.
• Just another day for JaVale McGee against the Mavericks, writes Adam McGinnis on Truth About It: "Couple sick slams, blooper pass and missed dunk for blogosphere to mock, and a crucial air ball jumper that ended the Wizards’ chance for a comeback. JaVale must have called him Brenda at some point because ex-teammate Brandan Haywood clocked him in the head with a cheap screen when game was basically over."
• Pacers vs. Sixers is quietly emerging as a rivalry that matters. They are close in the standings and on track to meet in the playoffs. If they do, they're two evenly matched teams that play really hard.
• The Rockets have some trade chips.

• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: The biggest upset of the night wasn't Magic 104, Heat 98. It was Dwight Howard doing a 180, a stunning about-face, saying after the game that he wants to stay for the rest of the season. No, it's not April FooI's Day. I and a lot others were so certain that he was going to be an ex-Magic player and headed to wherever the club could deal him. That could still be the case, considering Howard isn't expressing his undying love to the Magic beyond the season, visions of free-agency floating in his head. Howard merely has put the burden on the Magic. Same rock, same hard place for them no matter what he says now. A "maybe" from Dwight is a no. The Magic can't take this gamble and let him stroll away with no compensation. They can't be another team in his free-agent pool. They have to try to trade him, perhaps to the Lakers or the Nets, two teams on the trade-me manifesto he delivered during training camp in December. The Magic and CEO Alex Martins have exhausted all possibilities of persuading him to sign an extension, not an extended stay. They must receive something in return to avoid repeating the Shaq gaffe, 16 years later.
• Brant Parsons of the Orlando Sentinel: At one point on Tuesday night, the NBA’s official online store was selling Dwight Howard t-shirts — with the New Jersey Nets. Astute shoppers quickly got a photo of the page out on Twitter but eventually the link to the shirts went dead. With the trade deadline looming, rumors have been picking up on Howard being moved with the Nets a possible destination. Howard spoke after the Magic beat the Heat and said he had told the team that he has asked them to let him complete the season with the team. Not sure if he will or not, but if he goes to the Nets, at least we know that the NBA Store is ready.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: The Heat plays its second game in two nights on Wednesday at Chicago’s United Center. The Heat is 6-5 on the second night of back-to-back games and the Bulls, the top team in the Eastern Conference, have lost five in a row to the Heat. “Trying to get to where we want to go you’ve got to meet and exceed expectations and challenges and this is one of them,” Heat forward Chris Bosh said before the team embarked on its current three-game road trip. “We know all of these teams are great on their home floor, but we’re a great road team.” The Bulls are 17-3 at home. Only the Heat (18-2) has a better home record this season. Chicago (35-9) has won 10 of its past 11 games. Chicago had the day off on Tuesday. Immediately following Wednesday’s game in Chicago, the Heat will fly to Philadelphia for Friday’s game against the Sixers, fourth in the East. “It’s a tough week,” Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. “When you talk about the Eastern Conference, it can’t get any tougher.”
• Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: They gave up a lot to get rid of a lot of headaches. Oh, and the Warriors acquired Andrew Bogut -- a potential top-line center -- in the process, too. That's a short way of saying that the Warriors finally relented and traded Monta Ellis on Tuesday, probably at least two years later than they should have. So this is the biggest, riskiest move in the Joe Lacob era, by far. It's also the largest sign that Lacob is at last grasping the full limitations of the roster he inherited more than a year ago. Simply put: The Warriors will take an early hit for it, but they had to make this move, and they had to make it now. Before things destabilized completely, the Warriors gulped hard and pulled the trigger to trade one of their most popular players of all time.
• Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: Bogut, 27, has played only 12 games this season after he fractured his left ankle Jan. 25 and won't be back before April, if at all this season. For that reason, several players expressed concern about the message management was sending. In essence, the Warriors gave up two starters for an injured center and a question mark in Jackson. "So we're just giving up on the season?" one Warrior asked aloud before the game. Said forward David Lee after the game: "It certainly on paper looks that way. That's the best way of putting it, I think. We acquired two great players, but from what I heard, Bogut is out for a long while. So, it certainly seems that way. We lost two guys who are a huge part of what we do." Management isn't convinced the trade is a death sentence to Golden State's playoff hopes. After the win Tuesday, the Warriors have won three straight and are among five teams in pursuit of Houston for the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference. Golden State trails the Rockets by three games. The Warriors did not want to trade Udoh, one source said, but the Bucks would not do the deal without Udoh in it. Figuring Bogut and power forward Lee will dominate the minutes, Golden State was willing to sacrifice Udoh.
• Matt Kawahara of The Sacramento Bee: Kings coach Keith Smart said that Clifford Ray, the former NBA center and longtime coach, has delved into his role as a consultant working with the team's big men. "He's really getting them to understand how to play the five (center) position and see the floor … being a big man in the back line of a defense and communicating and talking," Smart said. Smart added that after observing the Kings' bigs playing too upright at times, Ray has begun encouraging them to adopt a lower, more athletic stance. Ray has worked one-on-one after several practices with Hassan Whiteside. The second-year center said Ray is advising him to hold the ball higher around the basket – when preparing to dunk, Whiteside said, he sometimes brings the ball down first – and be active on defense.
• Geoff Calkins of The Commercial-Appeal: They really should send the box score of this one to the Hall of Fame, as one of the all-time great defensive performances. What the Lakers did Tuesday was nothing short of miraculous. They never fouled. Or almost never fouled. In a tough, physical game that went two overtimes. The Lakers shot 34 free throws. The Grizzlies shot 5. And two of those were technicals. In other words, the Grizzlies put up 116 shots and were fouled exactly twice. Like I said, the box score should be saved for posterity. “It was a playoff atmosphere,” said Grizzlies guard Tony Allen. Right. Complete with the shafting from the officials. So the Lakers defeated the Grizzlies, 116-111, in a wildly-entertaining game at FedExForum. The place was packed. The crowd was jacked. The Grizzlies refused to give in to the circumstances. Last year, the Grizzlies figured out how to win without Rudy Gay. This year, they’ve figured out how to win without Zach Randolph. Tuesday, though, was something new altogether: No Zach or Rudy.
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: Is he going to Houston? Is he going to Orlando? Is he going to Chicago? Or is he staying in Los Angeles? Pau Gasol went to the one place he knew he could forget about his own worries and think about somebody else's troubles for a change. After the Lakers arrived Monday in Memphis, he went to St. Jude's Children's Hospital to visit some sick kids. Coach Mike Brown tagged along with the Lakers' power forward. "You can't really get away from it too much," Gasol said Tuesday of the trade rumors swirling around him with the deadline approaching Thursday at noon. "This year has been pretty intense as far as the uncertainty. My situation and how it's going to end up and play out, I really don't know. But I still come in and love what I do. I love being here (playing with the Lakers) and I'll continue to do that for as long as I can." Gasol began visiting St. Jude's during his rookie season with Memphis and his mother and father, both in the medical profession at home in their native Spain, came to work at the hospital. Marc Gasol of the Grizzlies, Pau's brother, has joined them.
• Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Josh Smith wants out. That was reaffirmed publicly recently, even if behind the scenes it wasn’t news. He has wanted out all season. The only thing that really has changed is why Smith wants out. Before, he wasn’t happy that he was viewed as the weak support beam seemingly every time the Hawks crumbled. Now it’s more about needing a new start, wanting to play for a true title contender, his perceptions of the way the Hawks have dealt with him in negotiations (contrasting with teammates), a general lack of appreciation. Here’s the Hawks’ dilemma: Those no-no-Josh-don’t-do-that moments are few and far between now. His game has matured. His head has matured. He has morphed, dare we suggest, into the team’s strongest support beam. ... So what kind of message would it send if the Hawks dealt their best and most popular player six weeks before the playoffs? And do you really want to see Smith, an Atlanta kid, go elsewhere right now and see him potentially flourish with a title contender? ... Given Smith’s play this season and the level of resiliency the team has shown despite injuries, the Hawks would’ve been an interesting team to watch in the playoffs at full strength. But they’re not built for greatness now and, Smith’s pleas notwithstanding, an earth-shaking deal from Sund isn’t likely. The Hawks don’t feel any pressure to move their best player right now. This week’s deadline is not their deadline.
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: There's an old line about how to win in basketball — it's not about X's and O's as much as Jimmies and Joes. But not, it seems, Zazas. The Atlanta coaching staff drew up a beautiful X's and O's play with 2.2 seconds left Tuesday night, but Zaza Pachulia missed an open layup in the final ticks of overtime and the Nuggets escaped with a 118-117 victory at the Pepsi Center. On the final play, Denver zeroed in on Hawks star Joe Johnson. After a pick pushed Arron Afflalo out of the play, Al Harrington picked up Johnson. But with the ball being inbounded from under the basket, somehow Pachuliua slipped into the lane untouched, until Danilo Gallinari spotted Zaza. "I don't know why he was wide open" said Gallinari, who forced Zaza to readjust in midair. "So at the last moment I just jumped at him, because it was the only option I had." This was a quality win for the Nuggets, who are 6-2 since the all-star break and 24-19 overall. And to think, they could be 8-0 since the break — the loss to Cleveland was by one point and the loss to Memphis was by three.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: In an NBA season, one game either way usually means no more than its impact on the record. The Rockets, however, were reeling. They had lost six of seven games. Lowry was out. Martin was struggling. They face Charlotte in the fourth game in five nights then head out to a road back-to-back against the Clippers and Suns. They needed more than just a win. They needed to feel the way they felt when Kevin Durant missed his final jumper and Patrick Patterson blocked Serge Ibaka’s final attempt at the win. They did not do everything well. They did not even shoot that well through most of the game when they held the lead. But the Rockets played with great intensity throughout, making Scola’s final point about backing it up with more of the same valid. When the Rockets beat the Thunder in Houston, Kevin McHale said, “I told the guys … if we play that hard every single night, we’d be OK.” The same goes after they beat the Thunder in Oklahoma City. “The guys played really hard,” McHale said. “It was fun.” With Thursday’s trade deadline looming, they could get through this tough stretch of the season expecting to enjoy themselves again. The deadline will almost surely bring changes. The Rockets could make a huge move to set up future teams or could work just to create more cap space. As mentioned last week, they would take Dwight Howard without a contract agreement and take their chances on keeping him. That and other deals for stars seemed extremely unlikely late Tuesday.
• Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman: The bad Russell Westbrook showed up Tuesday night in the Thunder’s inexcusable 104-103 loss to the depleted Houston Rockets. Not the Westbrook who can be careless with the ball. A backup point guard from Slovenia stole the ball twice from Westbrook in the final 65 seconds, but this is the NBA. Those things happen. But the bad Westbrook who failed to understand time and place, and apparently still hasn’t learned, was center stage. Westbrook’s competitive zeal, which has made him an NBA superstar, went all Mr. Hyde at the worst of times. Weary from game-long clashes with Goran Dragic, Westbrook lost his cool with 48 seconds left in the game. Up four points and having just tumbled to the ground courtesy of a Dragic foul, Westbrook sprang to his feet as if told his mother wears combat boots. Westbrook barked at and moved toward Dragic, held back only by Rockets guard Courtney Lee. Technical foul. A free point, on Lee’s foul shot. A sip of water to a team about to die of thirst. Check the final score. The Rockets won by a solitary point. ... The Thunder likes to talk about lessons learned. But future Thunder foes learned a lesson Tuesday night. Get in Westbrook’s head, hang around and he just might hand you the game.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: All it took was for the return of one player for the Pacers bench to get some life back. George Hill, out the previous two games with a sprained left shoulder, set the tone for the bench when he asserted himself on the offensive end by scoring nine points in the second quarter when the second unit got the lead up to 17 points. Then it was Lou Amundson’s turn to become a fan favorite. Amundson, who is in the rotation because of Jeff Foster’s ongoing back problems, made his first eight shots from the field and had fans chanting “M-V-P” for his hard play. There’s no doubt that Amundson was the MVP of the game for the Pacers. ... The bench picked the perfect time to play well because they’re about to face a team that has just as good of a bench. The 76ers come to Indy for a nationally televised game Wednesday. The 76ers’ leading scorer – Lou Williams – and third leading scorer – Thaddeus Young – both come off the bench. This is also another chance for the Pacers to get a victory against a team with a winning record.
• Joe Freeman of The Oregonian: Portland has stomached the Jail Blazers era. It has outlasted the Frail Blazers era. But now, with losses mounting at an alarming rate and a once-promising season continuing to nosedive, it looks like a new and equally painful time has arrived: The Fail Blazers era. A season of disappointment added another forgettable chapter Tuesday night, when the Indiana Pacers demolished the Trail Blazers 92-75 before 10,933 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Blazers, who were sluggish and sloppy from the opening tip and trailed by as many as 29 points, had just five assists and made just 20 field goals during the cover-your-eyes performance. It was the fewest assists and second-fewest number of field goals the Blazers have recorded in a game in franchise history. "We went harder at each other in practice yesterday," Jamal Crawford said afterward. They probably shot better, too.
• Ryan Wolstat of Toronto Sun: The Raptors have been fielding calls all year but have not been particularly aggressive on the trade front. The plan remains to keep all options open for next season, which means not taking on any more salary extending past this season. “No. I don’t sense anything happening, especially anything that’s going to affect our flexibility, cap flexibility next season, us going into free agency,” Dwane Casey said when queried whether he is expecting any action at Thursday’s trade deadline
• Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: The Cavs are shifting through a number of trade proposals just two days before the NBA trade deadline. ESPN reported a possible three-way deal in which the Cavs would send Sessions to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Lakers would send their first-round pick to Houston and the Rockets would send point guard Jonny Flynn to the Cavs. The Cavs aren't interested in that deal unless the first-rounder is coming to Cleveland. Scott said things are quiet right now. "I like this team," he said. "I like the guys we have. I love the way we're playing. I've been in this league long enough to know something might happen. Anything we do is for the betterment of this organization."
• Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Don't look for the Mavs to be involved in any trades by Thursday's 2 p.m. trading deadline. With one exception, owner Mark Cuban said. "Unless somebody has a brain lapse and makes a mistake,'' Cuban said. "Then we'll happily take advantage of it.'' The Mavs, who have roughly $16 million of salary cap space, are hoping to be a major player this summer when Dwight Howard and Deron Williams will likely be among the top-tier free agents available.
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: The Washington Wizards are unsure if the team that took the floor against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday will resemble the squad that takes on the New Orleans Hornets after Thursday’s trade deadline. But if little to nothing changes with the roster, Coach Randy Wittman made it clear before the team arrived in Dallas that the Wizards would have to make a more solid commitment to playing defense for a full 48 minutes if they are ever going to improve as a team. “We can talk about it all we want,” Wittman said. “It’s just a matter of understanding that and going out and doing that.” Wittman is still waiting for the Wizards’ play to support the talk. Despite NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki missing significant time because of foul trouble, the Wizards were unable to fend off the Mavericks’ ancillary pieces down the stretch and lost, 107-98, at American Airlines Center.

• John Hollinger (Insider) on how the Warriors can pick between trading Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry: "A fun little tidbit from the new stats gizmo at NBA.com: The Warriors are plus-15 this season when Steph Curry plays and Monta Ellis are on the bench but minus-119 when Ellis plays and Curry is on the pine. The season before, they were plus-23 with Curry and no Ellis but minus-191 with Ellis and no Curry. The season before that, the tally was plus-122 with Curry and no Ellis and minus-89 for the opposite. So, for the three seasons those two have been together, Golden State has outscored its opponents by 160 points when Curry plays and Ellis sits despite being badly outscored overall. And, in the opposite situation, the Warriors have been outscored by 399 points. In other words, if you're going to deal one of the two, you deal Ellis in a hot second."
• Benjamin Polk of A Wolf Among Wolves: "On Monday, we wondered aloud about the consequences of losing Ricky Rubio for the season. We suggested that Rubio’s defensive skills–his “ability to create turnovers, disrupt the pick-and-roll game and conjure frenzied defensive energy”–might be even more keenly missed than his mystic passing. And, gracious, did that ever prove to be the case against the Suns."
• Writing about the deal to keep the Kings in Sacramento, at great expense to the city, Dave Berri notes on the Freakonomics blog that 85 percent of economists agree that state and local governments should not subsidize professional sports. Then he explains that "professional sports in North America have evolved into a very odd industry. Typically we tend to think that firms need capital and labor to produce goods; and owners of the firm are responsible for providing the capital. But in sports, much of the capital is provided by the state (see the Baade and Matheson study for how much the public subsidizes professional sports arenas and stadiums). Given this trend, what are the owners providing? In other words, why does Sacramento need the Maloofs (the “owners” of the Kings)? It certainly doesn’t appear to be for managerial expertise."
• The Thunder put on a clinic in literally serenading fans. Don't have to be good singers, but do have to laugh at yourself trying.
• Gregg Popovich captured on screen begging for a caption contest.
• David Robinson is seven inches taller than his football-playing son Corey, who still has a huge size advantage over a lot of those trying to stop him on the field. Damon Sayles of ESPNRecruitingNation quotes the elder Robinson on his high-schooler: "I was a late bloomer. Even after high school and into college is where my body started to fill out. I was never uncoordinated but I started to get that strength with my size and use it. In the next two to three years, I think [Corey] is really going to find himself. Right now, he may think he's starting to feel it, but just wait."
• "I've gotta be the only superstar in the league," says Derrick Rose on ESPNChicago, "that's going through what I'm going through right now. But I can't say too much about it." Most important part of that to me: Hard to find anybody who doesn't think superstars are in a different category when it comes to calls.
• Trevor Ariza's game-tying stuff gets Bismacked at the buzzer.
• JaVale McGee does some head-scratching stuff (PG-13 for language). But if I were a coach, and that guy were available at a discount, I'd gamble on the idea that in the right system perhaps the longest high-flier in NBA history just might be able to help a good team. His continued underperformance ... it's on him, and it's on the coaching staff. Adam McGinnis of Truth About It on McGee against the Spurs: "He crashed the offensive boards early and was active around the rim all evening. He finished with 21 points on 9-for-13 FGs, 15 boards (seven offensive), and one block. ... The “let’s make fun of goofy McGee” crowd will ignore these plays and refuse to acknowledge his improvement by just linking the video where he got rocked in the face with the ball. He earned his rep, so he has to deal with the consequences. But from a basketball sense, games like this are a reminder why McGee is too talented for the Wizards to give up on, as well as the reason other teams are vying for his services."
• Longer pants wouldn't hurt anybody in this photo.
• Where not to shoot from. It's a bad spot because it's at the edge of the range for big men, as pointed out, but I'd argue also because guards who shoot from there tend to be pulling up off the dribble, which is much tougher than catching and shooting.
• The Magic are determined to contend ASAP, and I'm worried that their urgency, combined with the high emotions of the Dwight Howard situation, and some recent poor roster choices, will all coalesce into a lot of pressure to do something, potentially something expensive. That kind of thinking tends to end in big, bad contracts and mediocrity.
• The Raptors' James Johnson says asking to go to the D-League last season was one of the best decisions of his life.

• Anthony Rieber of Newsday: Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire walked off the court at the end of the third quarter Sunday with the Knicks trailing by 16 points. They never got back in the game as the Knicks lost to the 76ers , 106-94. Mike D'Antoni said he wasn't trying to make a statement by sitting his two stars. The Knicks, who face the Bulls in Chicago tonight, trailed by double digits for the entire fourth quarter. The closest they got was 10 points with 1:20 left. "In the sense that these guys [on the floor] were fighting, they had us back, I just didn't feel like it was fair to them to take them out and try something else," D'Antoni said. Neither player said he was upset with the decision, but Anthony sounded confused. "I really don't know what was Coach's mind-set," said Anthony, who finished with 22 points in 29:07. "Maybe he was trying to save us for tomorrow. I'm not sure. That's something you have to ask him." Asked if he was miffed, Anthony said: "I was fine. I guess he was saving me for tomorrow's game. That was the mindset out there."
• John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News: Yesterday, at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks got a first-hand look at a team that has made a living out of always going hard for a full 48. The 76ers aren't perfect, they don't win every game. Sometimes the endless energy they commit to every game isn't enough to overcome teams that might have more talent. But when you do what the Sixers do game after game, instead of just talking about doing it, you beat a team like the Knicks 106-94 in what was supposed to be a big game in the Atlantic Division. Player-for-player, the Knicks may have a better collection of talent, but it's easy to see why the Sixers (25-17) are leading the division. "We have All-Stars, well, we have one [Andre Igoudala]," said Sixers guard Jrue Holiday, "but we don't have like [the Knicks] have with [Carmelo Anthony Anthony and Amare Stoudemire]. We know we have to play 48 minutes, which is something a lot of teams don't do. I think we go the hardest. The harder you work the luckier you get." The more you talk about working hard without actually backing it up, the more you look like the Knicks (18-23.), who lost their fifth consecutive game yesterday.
• Jeff Miller of The Orange County Register: Prior to Sunday, we’d have figured it was more likely that Bryant would be a Laker Girl before he’d be a Laker lure. “It was probably,” teammate Pau Gasol said, “a little unexpected.” No, Jeremy Lin was a little unexpected. This, this was a whole lot shocking. And not only was Bryant reduced to mere bait in a deciding moment of a defining game in a definitive rivalry, it was his idea. “I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” Bryant said afterward. “The ball was going into the post.” The game’s No. 1 closer volunteering to be a setup man? Kobe, in the final seconds, suddenly acting like, oh this can’t be, LeBron James? OK, James shrinks from these moments. Bryant simply was being smart in this one. Still, it wouldn’t have been more surprising had Kobe taken the court for Lakers’ final possession against Boston wearing ski boots. But, sure enough, there he stood, beyond the top of the key, literally the farthest Laker from the basket and -- more notably -- the ball, as Andrew Bynum powered down low and scored the game-clincher. “Kobe came up with that play,” Bynum explained. “He said, ‘They’re not going to be able to know what to do.’ ” Asked to characterize that unlikely conversation in the Lakers’ huddle, Bynum said, “It was crazy.”
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: The Celtics don’t have a legitimate center on their roster. Jermaine O’Neal missed his ninth straight game with a sprained wrist and Chris Wilcox is out indefinitely with a potential heart abnormality. So coach Doc Rivers was left with Garnett, a natural power forward, to play center. Garnett used his wiles to defend Bynum, forcing him to take 16 shots to score his 20 points, but down the stretch Garnett could offer little to no resistance. ... The result was a testament to the Celtics’ softness in the middle. President of basketball operations Danny Ainge traded Kendrick Perkins last season because he believed Shaquille O’Neal could fill in at center, and that failed miserably because of injuries to O’Neal. Jermaine O’Neal played well in stretches but injuries have limited his minutes, so Garnett and Greg Stiemsma were all the Celtics had to offer. And the Lakers knew that. So with Los Angeles ahead by 1 point with 23.8 seconds left, Bryant suggested he play decoy and the Lakers allow Bynum to go one-on-one with Garnett. ... The Celtics were close to a momentous road victory. But scoring droughts have plagued the offense all season.
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: Orlando Magic Chief Executive Officer Alex Martins indicated Sunday that team decision-makers have not determined whether they will trade Dwight Howard before the NBA trade deadline on Thursday afternoon. The Magic face one of the most important personnel decisions in franchise history. Do they trade the sport's best center before the deadline to ensure they receive assets in return? Or do they retain Howard beyond the deadline and risk that he could sign a free-agent contract with another team in July and leave the Magic with no assets in return? Howard has not divulged publicly what he wants to do, and it's unclear what he has told the Magic. But one strong possibility is that he wants to exercise the early termination option in his contract after the season and keep the possibility of re-signing with the Magic on the table as he tests free agency in July. So what happens if Howard tells the Magic that is what he wants to do? Are the Magic prepared to accept the risk of not trading Howard before the deadline? ... "We're not at the point where we're ready to answer that question yet," Martins told the Orlando Sentinel before the Magic hosted the Indiana Pacers on Sunday. "Sometime in the next four days we will be, but we're not at the point where we're ready to answer that question yet."
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: Yes, the Pacers have impressive road victories over Boston, Orlando, the Lakers, Dallas and Chicago this season. But all those wins happened by Feb. 3. The way the Pacers played against Orlando quickly made you forget about how they were less than two minutes away from beating Miami the night before. ... The Pacers haven’t beat a team with a winning record since knocking off the Mavericks. That’s nine straight losses for the those of you counting at home. The Pacers should feel fortunate to still be the fifth seed in the East. Things aren’t going to get any easier for them. They have 12 games remaining against teams who currently have at least a .500 record. The Pacers will finally play a nationally televised game Wednesday against Philadelphia. The last thing they want to do is get embarrassed during a rare national TV appearance.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: O.J. Mayo seemed consumed by his six turnovers after he posted his third game with 20 or more points this season. In 12 career games against Denver, Mayo is averaging 19.6 points. His highest scoring average against any NBA team is 19.8 points against Washington. Mayo really seems to like the Pepsi Center given he’s averaged 21.5 points in the Nuggets’ digs where he also scored a career-high 40 points on Nov. 1, 2009. “He was aggressive,” Gasol said. “Sometimes he gets too aggressive, and I try to calm him down. But I love him for that.” Not everyone in Pepsi Center thought Mayo was the difference maker.
• Lindsay H. Jones of The Denver Post: The Grizzlies' win moved Memphis another game in front of Denver in the Western Conference playoff standings. Both teams entered Sunday's game with 23 wins, with Memphis in the fifth spot and Denver in sixth. "It's frustrating because they're all winnable," forward Corey Brewer said. "It's just tough." Indeed, Nuggets coach George Karl said it was painful last week to watch film of Denver's first two losses to Memphis, and the tape of Sunday's game will be no better. "A close game, but we lose because we throw away too many possessions," Karl said.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: The news for the Rockets got much worse on Sunday than a few road losses. Guard Kyle Lowry, a key to their success in the first half of the season, was diagnosed with a bacterial infection and will be out for two to four weeks. Lowry had been hospitalized in New York since Thursday. He underwent a laparoscopic examination after complaining of fever and abdominal distress. He is scheduled to be discharged from the hospital to return to Houston on Tuesday. “It’s tough, it’s tough,” forward Chase Budinger said. “He’s definitely our leader and our go-to player on the team. Missing him for the next month or so is going to hurt us very much. The rest of us have to really step up because it’s a big hole to fill. Goran Dragic has started the past two games with Lowry out with Jonny Flynn coming off the bench. The Rockets were not surprised by the news, but were hoping he would be back much sooner than now expected.
• Tom Reed of The Plain Dealer: A week ago, sports obituary writers began crafting a rough draft on the Cavaliers' season. The club was in the throes of a six-game losing streak and coach Byron Scott was wondering aloud if anyone in locker room could hold teammates accountable for poor performances. But Scott, who studies the standings the way a broker does the Wall Street big board, refused to get caught up in the gloom. ... One week and three straight victories later, the Cavaliers and their playoff hopes have renewed life. They equaled their longest win streak in more than a year Sunday night with a crackling 118-107 win over Houston at The Q. The Cavaliers are tied with the eighth-place New York Knicks in the all-important loss column. Whether management will move veterans such as Ramon Sessions and Antawn Jamison at the trade deadline is not yet known, but the Cavs are showing there is fight left in them. "I feel like our confidence never died," said rookie Kyrie Irving.
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: At last season's trade deadline Hawks guard Kirk Hinrich was looking forward to the chance to leave the struggling Wizards for a playoff team. It's different this time around for Hinrich. His name is circulating in trade rumors because of Atlanta's glut of guards and his expiring contract but Hinrich hopes he's still with the Hawks after Thursday's deadline. “I like our team,” Hinrich said before the Hawks played the Kings late Sunday. “I feel like we can be a dangerous team come playoff time. I want to be a part of that.” Hinrich said it's the fourth consecutive year he's been part of trade speculation near the deadline but he's only been traded twice. The Bulls sent him to Washington on the night of the 2010 draft and the Wizards traded him to Atlanta in February 2011. ... Hinrich's contract expires after the season and Atlanta is deep at guard, two factors that have made him the subject of trade conjecture. He said he's accustomed to it by now. “You go out there and play the best you can and not worry about it,” he said. “If something is going to happen, it will happen and you deal with it from there. You can't let it affect you. It's just how this league is. It's probably lot harder on my family more than anything.”
• Matt Kawahara of The Sacramento Bee: Used somewhat erratically during the first half of the season, beginning when he did not play at all in the Kings' first four games, veteran swingman Francisco Garcia has occupied a more consistent role lately. Before Sunday's game against the Atlanta Hawks, Garcia was averaging more than 20 minutes over the Kings' previous nine games as coach Keith Smart has worked to define roles for his bench players. "I've liked what he's done with the second unit," Smart said. "He's sort of the voice of reason over there along with (forward-center Chuck Hayes), and on top of that, the way he's been playing from a defensive standpoint has really helped our group. "Sometimes late in a game, he may be on the floor from (my) having a trust factor with him defensively." Hayes said Garcia, who has been asked primarily to guard opposing small forwards, is an "underrated help defender" who "seems like he's everywhere on the court" on defense.
• Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: The Warriors have become big trade scuttlebutt themselves this season, being mentioned in discussions about Orlando's Dwight Howard, New Orleans' Chris Kaman and New Jersey's Brook Lopez. Warriors sources said the buzz about Milwaukee's Andrew Bogut is "nothing more than hype." It can be argued that the Warriors' franchise has shown progress, just by getting into these conversations. But the rumors can also affect the usually harmonious locker room that has "Just Us" written on its wall. Coach Mark Jackson saw the need last week to address the rumors with his team. He said it would be ridiculous for the Warriors to trade Monta Ellis to Orlando in a deal that didn't net Howard. Other than that, he offered no promises. "They understand that we're in this together, but they also understand that this is a business," Jackson said. "You never want to get it twisted and think that you're going to be here, or anywhere else, forever."
• Baxter Holmes of the Los Angeles Times: A popular argument being thrown around since Chauncey Billups suffered a season-ending torn Achilles' tendon on Feb. 6 is how much his absence has affected the Clippers' record without him. It's 8-9. Del Negro said there's more to that figure than just Billups' absence, including a recent hectic road schedule and the fatigue that comes with it. Of those 17 games, 12 have been on the road. Nine of the 17 were against teams with winning records. And those 17 games were played in a span of 32 days — an average of about one game every other day. For as gaping a hole as Billups seems to have left the Clippers, who are lacking his veteran leadership, scoring and clutch free-throw shooting, Del Negro doesn't want to use that as a crutch. "I think we've let a few games slip away and I think we've stolen a few games as well," he said. "Usually, in the end, it balances out."
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: Andrea Bargnani was a little crisper with his shot and took a little while longer to feel the fatigue in his legs, both signs that the Raptors’ leading scorer is indeed on his way back. But it’s a process and it doesn’t happen fast enough for most, Bargnani among them. “I just have to keep pushing aggressively and the rhythm is going to come back,” Bargnani said after an 11-point night against the Bucks. Casey saw improvement too from one night to the next and perhaps even pushed his own self-imposed limits with Bargnani allowing him to play just over 30 minutes a night after limiting him to 19 in his return. The difference, quite obviously, was the Raptors were very much in Sunday’s game while Saturday night’s was decided by pretty much half time. “I felt much better tonight but in the second half my legs weren’t there but that is going to come,” he said.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: Larry Sanders has played a strong role off the bench in the Bucks' last two games. The 6-11 backup center had nine points and 11 rebounds Friday against the Knicks, and he added seven points, five rebounds and four blocked shots in just 14 minutes Sunday. Sanders provided starter Drew Gooden with some valuable rest and took a defensive turn on Raptors big man Andrea Bargnani. Sanders offered a defensive complement and shot-blocking prowess to go along with Gooden's strong offensive game. "Look, when Larry is out there playing with a lot of energy and changing ends, he can get a lot of opportunity baskets like he got the other night (against the Knicks)," Skiles said. "And he's always a factor around the rim defensively with his shot-blocking. It's a matter of him being in tune and ready to play, and when he is, he's normally pretty effective."