ESPN NBA

The Boston Celtics visit the Philadelphia 76ers Wednesday night (ESPN, 8 ET) for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Boston leads the series 3-2 after its Game 5 win on Monday, but the 76ers are 4-0 this postseason in games immediately following a loss.

In NBA history, teams that have held a 3-2 lead in a best-of-seven series have gone on to win the series 85.9 percent of the time (213-35). Teams with 3-2 series leads went 4-0 in the first round this postseason.

Since the new "Big 3" era began in the 2007-08 season, the Celtics are 2-10 in road games with a chance to close out a series. The rest of the NBA is 28-28 in such games.

Key Players
Kevin Garnett has increased his offensive production this postseason. He’s averaging a double-double with 19.3 PPG and 10.5 RPG, up from his regular season numbers of 15.8 PPG and 8.2 RPG. In addition, he’s shooting 52.1 percent from the floor in the playoffs, compared to 50.3 percent in the regular season.

The Celtics have outscored opponents by 136 points in the 403 minutes Garnett has been on the floor this postseason. Boston has been outscored by 85 points in the 130 minutes he’s been off the court.

Andre Iguodala is shooting 52.6 percent (10-for-19) from 3-point range but is shooting only 45.5 percent (10-for-22) from the free throw line in this series.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, since the NBA instituted the 3-point shot in 1979-80, only two players have shot for a higher percentage from 3-point range than from the free throw line in a single playoff series (min. 15 attempts in each category). Tony Parker in the first round in 2004 (68.8 3-point pct; 68.2 free throw pct) and Rasheed Wallace in the first round in 2006 (54.2 3-point pct; 43.8 free throw pct).

Stats to Know
Boston has yet to allow 100 points this postseason. The Celtics are one of three teams that haven’t allowed 100 points in a single game this postseason, joining the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs.

Since scoring 109 points against the Chicago Bulls in Game 2 of the first round, Philadelphia hasn’t scored more than 92 points in any of the nine games since. That is the longest single postseason streak of scoring fewer than 93 points since the Detroit Pistons (11 games) in 2006.

Here's a big question: How many minutes can Kevin Garnett play?

Here's another big question: Can the Celtics get anything done without him?

Through 60 regular-season games, Kevin Garnett played more than 38 minutes one measly time. In eight playoff games, he has already passed that number every time except for in a blowout first win against the Hawks and Game 2's loss to the Sixers.

On Monday night, the Celtics were outscored by 17 points in the 14 minutes that Garnett sat. Coach Doc Rivers rested his key big man in the second and third quarters, which is precisely when Philadelphia grabbed control of the game and established, then fattened, a lead that the Celtics could not overcome despite Garnett playing the entire fourth quarter.

Back in February, Rivers moved Garnett to the center position. At this point in the playoffs, no descriptor could be more accurate. With Pierce and Allen struggling to produce on injured legs and Avery Bradley’s left arm reduced to dangling uselessness, Garnett is the hub of everything the Celtics do offensively and defensively -- he is literally the center of the Celtics' hopes.

Paul Pierce is shooting just 25 percent from the field and is moving terribly when Andre Iguodala, one of the premier wing defenders in the NBA, challenges him. In Game 2, Pierce was neither able to punish Evan Turner on the occasional switch nor use his usual craftiness to work his way to the free throw line (just two attempts) -- a major part of Boston’s closing strategy.

Meanwhile, the Celtics can still rely on Ray Allen to drill spot-up attempts, but bone spurs prevent him from sustaining the offensive action for long, because of the challenges of sprinting through his customary circuit of baseline screens.

Both star wings have injuries that are expected to linger.

And with Rajon Rondo largely contained by the long and hardworking Turner (who is also big enough to deter Pierce when the Celtics force a switch with a 1-3 pick-and-roll), that leaves Garnett.

Like the rest of the NBA, the 76ers haven’t come up with an adequate answer to Garnett’s long-range shooting, and he’s been able to take advantage of the Sixers in the post, where he can create shots for himself and, when doubled, for his teammates. Philadelphia's wing defenders present a tenacious and largely interchangeable thicket. The Celtics' only reliable ways through involve Garnett. Even when he's not the focal point of a pick-and-roll, or a post-up, he's also Boston’s best screener. On his least taxing offensive plays he's still throwing his body around, colliding with 76ers, in an effort to spring his teammates free.

Whatever energy Garnett doesn’t use being Mr. Everything on offense goes into the defensive end, where he’s still a superb paint defender and pick-and-roll buster. When he sits, the Celtics are vulnerable to smart pick-and-roll ball handlers who can finish at the rim. Iguodala, for instance. With Garnett on the bench, the Sixer repeatedly found his frontcourt mates for open jumpers as the Celtics big men struggled to rotate quickly.

The Celtics actually outplayed the 76ers for pretty much the whole of Game 2, except for the stretches when Iguodala was on the court without Garnett. One could argue that Iguodala’s ability to lock up Paul Pierce, push the tempo and exploit imperfect rotations when Garnett was out was the difference in the game.

If the first two games are any blueprint, the Celtics will need Paul Pierce to sort out a plan of attack against Iguodala -- possibly by getting Iguodala in foul trouble -- or Garnett has to be able to match Iguodala’s minutes.

This indirect matchup of two defensive-minded players capable of impacting every facet of the game puts a tremendous burden on the aging Celtic.

Iguodala is an ironman and Garnett’s junior by eight years and nine NBA seasons. But Garnett has shown an iron determination, and will certainly offer every last drop of energy for a trip back to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The question is whether that will be enough.

The Philadelphia 76ers evened their series with the Boston Celtics by limiting the home team to 24 points over the second and quarters before withstanding a late rally for an 82-81 win.

The 76ers won a playoff game in Boston for the first time since Game 7 of the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals. Only two players on the current Philadelphia roster – Elton Brand and Tony Battie – were born before that game was played.

In leading Philadelphia to victory, Doug Collins picked up his first win as a coach in five playoff trips to Boston. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he’s the seventh person in NBA history to win a playoff game in Boston as a head coach and as a player. Collins was a member of the 76ers in 1977, when they beat the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

The Celtics were held to 11 points in the third quarter, tied for their lowest output in a quarter since the Indiana Pacers held them to 10 points in the fourth quarter in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference First Round matchup in 2005.

In fact, they were held to one point per minute over the second and third quarters while making just nine of 37 shots from the field. They made 24 of 42 shots – 57 percent – over the other two quarters to stay in the game.

If the Celtics had gotten to the line, they might have been able to win the game despite their poor shooting stretch. Boston attempted only nine free throws in the game. In 1,879 playoff games over the last 25 years, the Celtics are one of only eight home teams to attempt fewer than 10 free throws.

The key combination for the Sixers was Lavoy Allen and Andre Iguodala. They were on the floor together for 24 minutes in Game 2. During that time, Philadelphia outscored Boston by 20 points and made over half its shots. When the duo wasn’t on the court together, the 76ers made 30 percent of their shots and were outscored by 19 points.

Iguodala was also able to hold Paul Pierce in check on Monday. Pierce made only one of six shots and committed four turnovers when guarded by Iguodala. In the series, he has more turnovers than field goals when Iguodala is the defender.

The Philadelphia 76ers became the fifth 8-seed to win their opening playoff series, dispatching the injury-riddled Chicago Bulls in six games Thursday night.

The fact that the Bulls were without reigning NBA MVP Derrick Rose for most of the series likely matters little to Philadelphia fans celebrating their first postseason series win since beating the New Orleans Hornets in the 1st Round of the 2003 Eastern Conference playoffs.

The 76ers advanced to the Conference Semis despite shooting under 40 percent in three of their four wins against the Bulls, including a field goal percentage of 39.7 (29-73) Thursday. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Philadelphia is the first team to win three games in a series despite shooting under 40 percent from the field since the Indiana Pacers did it against the New York Knicks in the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals and just the fifth such team in the Shot-Clock era.

The 76ers also struggled on the boards, and were outrebounded by 23 Thursday night (56-33). According to Basketball Reference, a team was outrebounded by 23 or more in a postseason game 24 times from 1986-2011 and only once did that team win, when the Washington Bullets beat the 76ers 95-94 in Game 1 of the 1st Round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Prior to Thursday, no team in postseason history has won a game when shooting under 40 percent and being outrebounded by 23 or more, according to Elias.

Philadelphia got a big break when C.J. Watson, who made 80.8 percent of his free throws in the regular season, dished to Omer Asik on the Bulls second-to-last possession. Asik missed both of his foul shots after he was fouled by Spencer Hawes, befitting a player who ranked last in free throw shooting (45.6 percent) among the 175 players to attempt at least 100 free throws in the regular season.

When Andre Iguodala got his turn from the line moments later, he converted both of his attempts despite entering Thursday having made a team-low 45.0 percent of his free throw attempts in crunch time (score within 5 points in the final 5 minutes).

Philadelphia’s streak of eight straight seasons without a playoff series win, tied with 1969-76 for the longest such streak in franchise history, comes to an end, as does their string of five straight losses in playoff series.

In the Conference Semis, the 76ers will attempt to become just the second 8-seed to win a pair of playoff series. The 1999 Knicks advanced the NBA Finals before falling to the Spurs in five games.

A look at the six players making their first All-Star Game appearance this season.

• Luol Deng, who is averaging 16.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, is one of two All-Stars from the Chicago Bulls. Deng has been arguably the most valuable defender on one of the best defensive teams in the NBA.

When Deng is on the court, the Bulls are allowing just 90.9 points per 100 possessions. When he’s off the floor, that number jumps to 99.9 and opponents are shooting almost three percentage points better from the field.

• At 18-8, the Philadelphia 76ers are off to their best 26-game start since the 2000-01 season, a year they went to the NBA Finals. A large part of their success this season has been due to the play of Andre Iguodala, who is averaging career highs in 3-point percentage (39.0) and rebounds (6.7).

Iguodala has been most productive in transition this season where he’s collected 86 points, the most he’s recorded among all play types.

• In his fourth season, Roy Hibbert has blossomed into one of the best young centers in the NBA. He’s averaging career highs in points (13.6), rebounds (9.9) and field goal percentage (50.9). Hibbert’s biggest improvement has been in the post.

• Andrew Bynum is averaging careers highs in points (17.1) and rebounds (12.6), and is one of only three players in the NBA averaging at least 17 points and 12 rebounds this season. Bynum has done his damage close to the basket; his 5.5 field goals per game inside five feet are second in the NBA only to his All-Star teammate Blake Griffin (6.1).

• LaMarcus Aldridge is averaging a career-high 23.3 points per game, fifth in the NBA. He’s been dominant in the halfcourt offense where he’s scored 564 points this season, second behind only Kobe Bryant.

• Despite older brother Pau being left off the team, little brother Marc Gasol will be a Western Conference reserve as the only All-Star from the Memphis Grizzlies.

Gasol has established himself as one of the elite post defenders in the NBA; he’s averaging a career-high 2.2 blocks per game (fourth in the NBA), and among players who’ve defended at least 50 post-up plays, he’s allowing the third-fewest points per play this season (0.58).

• In a parallel universe last night, NBA fans were treated to a Bulls-Thunder/Spurs-Trail Blazers doubleheader. Basketball Prospectus' Bradford Doolittle ran the simulation and found that Derrick Rose went off for 34 points. For those tracking the Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook dynamic, Westbrook went 4-for-13 from the field and coughed up six turnovers.
• Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell says that the music industry should look to the NBA as a template for developing young talent: "If music was run like the sports industries, the NBA or the NFL, we would have a healthy school system."
• Kentucky's Terrence Jones, who might have been a lottery pick last June, stayed in school in large part because of advice from cousin Damon Stoudemire regarding the NBA's labor unrest.
• Benjamin Polk of A Wolf Among Wolves likes Luke Ridnour, but also wonders whether average point guards who lack dynamism "are the stock-in-trade of bad teams."
• Kevin Durant's Goodman League Greatest Hits.
• Would a more punitive luxury cap hurt the Thunder's long-term chances of retaining their young core?
• Shawn Bradley has recovered his enormous, stolen bicycle: "The crime perplexed both police and Bradley since the 80 cm frame Trek was built to hold the 7 foot 6 NBA star. 'My brother is 6 feet 10 inches and he can’t ride it,' a baffled Bradley told the Deseret News. The bicycle was stolen from a barn on Bradley’s Murray, Utah, property. Despite having his pick of ATVs, motorcycles and normal-sized bicycles, the thief only took Bradley’s gigantic wheels."
• J.E. Skeets and Tas Melas take a straw poll of NBA players and find that James Harden is the NBA's biggest hipster. Beard density seems to be a disproportionate factor in the criteria.
• Trey Kerby lies on a bed and says funny stuff to the HoopSpeak Live crew.
• Metta World Peace and Devin Ebanks will be serving ice pops in a solar-powered food truck.
• One way to address the financial ills of smart-market teams is to live in a world where the NBA derives the majority of the league's broadcast revenue from the international market. Graydon Gordian, Andrew McNeill and I discuss this, market parity, the sleeping giant that is the San Francisco market, "Party Down" and making the NBA more like the Premier League at the 4-Down Podcast.
• Thad Young has a conversation with Tom Sunnergren of Philadunkia. Young has no idea whether Andre Iguodala will be back with the Sixers: "I’m not sure. He’s not sure either. It’s hard to tell with the lockout, so we pretty much are just playing it by ear and just trying to work out the situation at hand." Young says Kobe Bryant is the best player in the NBA and that Dirk Nowitzki is the player he admires the most.
• When he was 4 years old, Sundiata Gaines was the victim of a stray bullet while he was standing outside a photocopy store. Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News has the story (Hat Tip: Kelly Dwyer, Ball Don't Lie).
• The Bobcats have a logjam at the forward spot, particularly with Bismack Biyombo arriving on the scene. How do you distribute the minutes? Can Tyrus Thomas claim them?
• Another primer on what decertification means, this one from Tulane law professor Gabe Feldman.

One day after blowing a 24-point lead in a loss to the Orlando Magic, the Miami Heat were again embarrassed, this time in San Antonio. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and company lost 125-95 to the Spurs on Friday. It's the Heat's worst loss of the season and the second-most points they've allowed. The Spurs set a franchise record with 17 3-pointers en route to their 22nd straight home win.

Miami falls to 1-8 this season against the Bulls, Celtics, Lakers, Mavericks and Spurs. That one win came against the Lakers on Christmas Day, but there have been no presents since then against the league's top teams and the schedule doesn't get easier. The Heat play their next eight games against teams currently above .500.

The Heat entered the game with a 43-18 record. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it's the first time in almost two years that a team that many games over .500 lost a game by 30 or more points. Cleveland beat the Celtics by 31 points on April 12, 2009. Boston entered the game with a 60-19 record.

Meanwhile, the Cleveland Cavaliers continue to have the New York Knicks' number this season, after their 119-115 win on Friday. Cleveland is now 3-0 vs New York (2-0 with Carmelo Anthony), but 9-49 vs the rest of the league. With their win, the Cavaliers also snapped a 26-game road losing streak and are now 4-4 since they lost 26 straight from December 20th to February 9th.

In Philadelphia, Kevin Love scored 21 points and grabbed 23 rebounds and Andre Iguodala recorded his second triple-double of the season in the 76ers' win over Minnesota. The Elias Sports Bureau tells us the last time that one player had a 20-point, 20-rebound game and an opponent recorded a triple-double was January 16, 2009. Dwight Howard went for 20-20 and Kobe Bryant recorded the triple-double.

It was Love's 49th straight double-double, two shy of Moses Malone's NBA record for a single season since the NBA merger.

It’s the second time this season that Love has had back-to-back 20-20 games; he also did it in November. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last NBA player to have more than one such streak in the same season was Atlanta’s Kevin Willis in 1991-92. Willis had three streaks of back-to-back 20-20 games that season.

After weeks of trade talk, Carmelo Anthony has apparently found a new home in the Big Apple. The Nuggets traded the star forward to the Knicks on Monday along with guard Chauncey Billups, forward Shelden Williams, guard Anthony Carter and forward Renaldo Balkman.

In return, the Knicks sent forward Wilson Chandler, guard Raymond Felton, forward Danilo Gallinari and center Timofey Mozgov to Denver. The Nuggets will also get the Knicks' 2014 1st-round pick, the Warriors' 2012 and 2013 2nd-round picks and $3 million cash.

ESPN's Chris Broussard reports the Knicks will also receive Corey Brewer from the Timberwolves and send center Eddy Curry and forward Anthony Randolph to Minnesota. The 12-player trade (not including draft picks) is tied for the second-largest trade in NBA history.

Chandler, Felton, Gallinari and Mozgov combined for 53.4 points per game this season (50.3 percent of total team scoring). The Knicks acquired a combined 50.9 points per game in the five players that they received from the Nuggets, 47.3 percent of the points that Denver had scored this season.

The Knicks gave up an awful lot to bring Anthony to town, especially when it comes to outside shooting. New York ranked among the league's best in spot-up shooting metrics, including 25.3 points per game. Chandler, Felton, Gallinari and Mozgov contributed 13.1 of those points.

In the last five minutes of games in which the score is within five points, Raymond Felton (32.4), Danilo Gallinari (30.8), and Wilson Chandler (24.0) have the three lowest FG percentages among Knick players who have attempted a shot.

Conversely, Billups and Anthony have shot a combined 43.6 percent in those situations, slightly above the league average of 41.8 percent.

When you are a scorer, you need to find different ways to provide your team with points. For Carmelo Anthony, the leak out play has been a key cog in his arsenal. He is the only NBA player who has had more than 100 leak out plays during the past five seasons (133).

I’m told by well-placed sources that Andre Iguodala would like a change of scenery; that after spending the summer winning a World Championship with Team USA Iguodala can’t stomach going through another losing season in Philadelphia, especially when there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.

The sources said that while Iguodala’s camp has not requested a trade, it has let Sixers management know that if the team doesn’t begin winning, he’d like to be moved elsewhere.

The Sixers, however, deny having had any such conversations with Iguodala. So what gives?

Some league executives believe Iguodala’s camp wants it known that he’s open to being traded, and they say one place he’d like to be is Chicago. You could call it the CAA Effect.

This past summer, agents Leon Rose and Henry Thomas of CAA got three of their star clients – LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh – together in Miami. Then, of course, there’s talk of two of Rose’s other clients, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul, teaming up together in New York. Now, some league executives believe Rob Pelinka, who represents Iguodala and Carlos Boozer, may be trying to follow CAA’s lead by hooking up two of his big clients in Chicago.

The natural trade would be Iguodala to Chicago for Luol Deng, but there’s one problem: if Philadelphia ever decides to trade Iguodala, it won’t be for Deng. Moving Iguodala would essentially mean the Sixers are starting over, so they would not want to take on Deng’s long-term, big-money contract, which has three years, $40 million left on it after this season.

There is no acrimony between Iguodala and the Sixers, and Iguodala will not go public with his feelings. He’s not confrontational by nature so he’s not going to make waves; plus he realizes that he would get skewered in Philadelphia if he had the audacity to say he wants out after signing an $80 million contract. The understandable reaction among Sixers fans would be, “We’re paying you like a star, so you’re supposed to make us a good team, not complain about us being bad.’’

Teams are calling Philadelphia about Iguodala, but as of now no trade talks are taking place. But if the Sixers go south in a hurry, Iguodala could hit the market.

A few months ago, I went to Bristol for some meetings and things. NBA editor Royce Webb invited me to a pickup hoops game in the evening, which was a lot of fun.

Webb has a bunch of nifty ways of scoring the ball -- all manner of runners, leaners and bankers that kind of make you scratch your head as they fall through the net.

That night, he made one of the greatest layups ever. He drove across the lane, encountered some defense, and kept on going -- past the hoop and way beyond the point of being able to attempt any conventional layup. Just as he was running out of backboard, he put up a shot that went from his hand more or less straight up a foot or so until it hit the bottom right corner of the glass. It touched the backboard ever so briefly and then -- owing to an insane amount of spin -- then somehow took a hard left traveled entirely horizontally, right to left, until it bee-lined straight into the hoop.

Webb turned and ran back on defense.

I stood there dumbfounded.

"Did you see how much English Royce just put on that ball?" I asked, to no one in particular.

"That wasn't English," replied ESPN.com NBA coordinator Chris Ramsay. "That was Scottish."

So much English it was Scottish.

I can't remember ever hearing a pickup basketball line I liked more.

In any case, something kind of like that happened to Andre Iguodala today. He, too, has experienced the reality of doing something so hard, so perfectly, that it appeared to change nationality.

Chris Sheridan has the story from today's U.S. win over Russia at the World Championships:

The inclination for a player in foul trouble is to hold back, even just a little. Not so for Andre Iguodala, who played with so much energy and passion right when the Americans needed it that one of the Russian players actually thought he was swearing at him -- in Russian.

"He say in Russian a bad word. I don't know how he know this. I won't even translate it. It's bad," said Russian forward Andrey Vorontsevich, who got yelled at by Iguodala after being a little too physical with Lamar Odom.

"All I said was, 'watch it, watch it,'" Iguodala said, bewildered. "I don't speak any Russian."

Apparently (according to bilingual Russian journalist Vladimir Gomelsky of NTV+, the Russian all-sports cable network), if you say, "watch it, watch it" fast enough, it can be misconstrued as the Russian euphemism for a female canine.

• Wizards owner Ted Leonsis: "Last night there was a pick-up game played at Verizon Center on our practice court. There were many NBA players in attendance and a few NBA All-Stars played as well. I stumbled into watching purely by accident. Gilbert Arenas played last night. It was a very good evening of basketball. Gil -- our All-Star --matched up against another NBA All-Star. It was quite a show and quite a display of talent. I won’t comment yet on Gilbert or who was in the gym last night but suffice to say Gilbert looked trim, fit and explosive. His shot was sweet and he did one left handed dunk that was something to see. It had everyone talking. I was impressed and am happy." (Update via an email from Unprofessional Foul: Was it Chris Paul?)
• Andrew A. McNeill of 48 Minutes of Hell uses some sharp diagrams to illustrate San Antonio's prompt, low-risk, stay-at-home defensive principles.
• On the heels of the presentation of the prestigious Fields Medal to French mathematician Cedric Villani, Tom Ziller of AOL FanHouse asks, "Does defense really come down to atomic physics?"
• Steve Perrin of Clips Nation on Eric Gordon's inclusion on Team USA's final roster: "He came in less well known than many of the other players, a fact that Coach K acknowledged last week. But his work ethic in practice and his solid play on the court has given Team USA no choice but to keep him. He may be less flashy than the other guards on the team, but coaches tend to covet solid unspectacular play, especially from their role players. EJ plays unrelenting man to man defense, he doesn't need the ball on offense, he moves the ball well, and in the end Coach K and his staff appreciated the little things he was doing. It hasn't hurt that he has lived up to his reputation as a knockdown shooter."
• It hasn't been all confetti and champagne for the Lakers since 2000. Jeff Skibiski of Forum Blue & Gold walks you through the Lakers' 10 most forgettable moments of the decade.
• Michael Schwartz of Valley of the Suns says Phoenix could actually field a five-man small forward unit if it wants to: "Such a small forward lineup could put Hedo Turkoglu at the point, Josh Childress at the two, Grant Hill at his natural three, Jared Dudley at the four and Earl Clark at the five."
• Dudley asks a pretty interesting question via Twitter: "Imagine if the NBA had Int rules.. U think the All Star teams would be different?"
• Jeremy Wagner of Roundball Mining Company on why the grass is greener for Carmelo Anthony in Denver.
• Milwaukee did some intriguing things to its roster this offseason -- some of them curious, some of them clever. However we size up John Hammond's maneuvering, one thing is clear: The Bucks should finish at the rim at a measurably higher percentage this upcoming season.
• Mark Cuban says it's time to stay liquid: " If you don’t fully understand the risks of an investment you are contemplating, it’s ok to do nothing. In times of massive uncertainty like we are facing today, doing nothing is a valid and IMHO preferable investment strategy. Just put your money in the bank."
• Rob Mahoney of Pro Basketball Talk on Andre Iguodala's role on Team USA: "Iggy is easily Team USA's top perimeter defender, but offensively, he moves the ball, is a decent spot-up option (just don't ask him to shoot off the dribble...yeesh), and is a good positional rebounder."
• Some video of Wizards draft pick Kevin Seraphin.
• When Gary Grant ruled the world ... for one night.
• How to apply your childhood piano lessons to your NBA viewing habits.
• If the Wizards win 50 games this upcoming season, credit the new red stairs in the Verizon Center.
• Via J.E. Skeets, Living and Dying by the Jazz unearths some sharp threads from Jerry Sloan's playing days with the Bulls.
• FreeDarko revisits how Kwame Brown came to be a No 1 draft pick and the hazards of the pre-draft workout.
• In retrospect, exactly how bad for Cleveland was the Luke Jackson pick at No. 10 in the 2004 draft?
• Press row will be a cozier place next season in Miami.
• Somewhere in Italy is a bedroom treasure trove of NBA goodies.
• The Warriors have made crafty use of the D-League in recent seasons. Rasheed Malek of Warriors World tells D-League Digest's Matt Hubert: "Players such as Kelenna Azubuike, C.J. Watson and Reggie Williams are some of the players who’ve secured multi-year deals from NBA teams after initially being called up by the Warriors from the D-League. Add in other players such as Anthony Tolliver and Chris Hunter who’ve experienced significant playing time with the Warriors and it’s clear that the Warriors are the model franchise when it comes to utilizing the D-League."

• More good stuff on the positional revolution, this time from Jesse Blanchard of 48 Minutes of Hell. Blanchard writes that defensive roles are much harder to define than offensive ones, which makes reclassifying (or declassifying, so to speak) defensive positions a nearly impossible task. The more NBA basketball I watch and the more NBA people I speak with, the more convinced I've become that off-the-ball decision making composes at least 50 percent of a defender's grade. It's important to have wing players who can smother isolation scorers, big men who can bang down low and guys all over the floor who can defend the pick-and-roll, but the margins of the game are won and lost because of the quality and speed of rotations, recoveries and anticipation. That's going to be true irrespective of how we define or redefine what a point guard, power forward or center looks like.
• We've heard a lot about the Orlando Magic's "4 out/1 in" scheme over the past few seasons. Here's what it looks like.
• While we're on the topic of what constitutes a power forward, should Rudy Gay be spending time at the 4? Joshua Coleman of 3 Shades of Blue: "Team USA is apparently content to live with their lack of size in the traditional post position of PF by maximizing their talent and athleticism at those spots by playing Rudy Gay at the 4 with Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant manning the SG and SF positions, respectively."
• An evocative piece by Bethlehem Shoals about his trip to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame has two of my favorite things in one place -- basketball writing and travel writing. On seeing Wilt Chamberlain's jersey from the 100-point game in Hershey: "I couldn't help but stand, slack-jawed, for several minutes. I took in every detail of the fabric, trying to read the game's action, or Chamberlain's mood, through the patterns of sweat and scuffs. Most telling was the long blood stain across the back, where someone had evidently clawed the big man as he took the individual game past all acceptable limits."
• Dave of Blazers Edge: "So much attention gets paid to [Greg] Oden's physical struggles that his true potential Achilles' Heel gets overlooked. The mental and emotional aspects of the game and the league will be Oden's biggest bugaboos. After three years of substantial non-playing his connection to health, basketball, championship-level play, and teammates is fishing-line thin. The organization will have quite a task reeling in such a huge specimen on that fragile line. Greg is more used to rehabbing than playing. He's more used to trying to decide what movie to watch than watching film. Competition is absent, muscle memory faded, rhythm non-existent. How will he adjust to his renewed calling and the renewed expectations...expectations with which he was never comfortable in the first place?"
• Kevin Durant's first dispatch from Madrid: "I’m really looking forward to this whole experience. It should be a lot of fun. I’ve never been to Europe, never been to Spain, never been to Turkey or Greece. I’m looking forward to that and just being able to interact and be around some of the best players in the league. Guys like Rudy Gay, Iguodala, Rajon, Lamar…just to be with those guys and learn, it’s going to be pretty cool and it’s going to help me."
• Jeremy Wagner of Roundball Mining Company on Carmelo Anthony's lame-duck status in Denver: "Carmelo already lacks defensive intensity and is not known for restraint on offense when it comes to letting shots fly. How much worse will those characteristics be accentuated if Melo is longing to be somewhere else."
• Could a breakout season by Brook Lopez propel the Nets to the postseason?
• If you take a look at the Wins Produced metric, it turns out Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley (both still with Phoenix) were the Suns' biggest overperformers during the postseason and Amare Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa (both no longer with the Suns) were the team's biggest underperformers.
• Matt Hubert of D-League Digest lays out five Nancy Lieberman storylines as she takes the reins as head coach of the Texas Legends. Hubert wonders if Lieberman will be the target of any chauvinistic abuse from fans.
• Scott Schroeder breaks down the 10 must-see D-League games in 2010-11.
• A slew of teams introduced small modifications to their jerseys on Monday. The Jazz returned to an old motif and won the day.
• Chris Paul: Big fan of Coca-Cola's Freestyle Fountain.
• The commercial realities of globalism disappoint Donyell Marshall.
• Ben Q. Rock of Orlando Pinstriped Post tweets: "Oh man, guys, do a search for '2010 nba rookie portraits' on Getty. Some incredible stuff up there."
• The cheapest seat in the house for the Heat's home opener will run you $185 plus service charges.
• There are few guys in the league more fun to talk shop with than Ryan Gomes. Throw Gomes on the list of "players most likely to coach." When it's all over, Gomes has his eyes set on the Providence College gig.

• More Fast Draw goodness, this time from Andrew McNeill of 48 Minutes of Hell. We generally regard the Spurs' Richard Jefferson as a spot-up shooter best positioned in the corner, but through video analysis and diagrams, McNeill demonstrates that Jefferson does his best work moving off the ball and diving to the hole.
• J.J. Redick: Efficiency Machine. Eddy Rivera discusses Redick's breakout 2009-10 campaign at Magic Basketball: "Redick scored 1.23 points per possession (league average was 1.08 points per possession). Not bad at all. This had a lot to do with the fact that Redick shot very well from the three-point line and free-throw line, while taking great care of the ball. Because threes and free-throws are two of the most efficient shots in basketball, Redick is optimizing his output on offense and not wasting many possessions in the process. That is efficiency, folks."
• Smart primer on true shooting percentage from Ben Q. Rock at Orlando Pinstriped Post.
• Tom Ziller on the virtues of summer international play, as illustrated by Omri Casspi: "International basketball is the window to the essence of a player's potential. Look at Omri Casspi, star of an Israeli team competing in EuroBasket qualifiers. Casspi had a mixed-bag rookie season ... But in Europe this summer, Casspi has revealed so much more. Casspi has been a simply explosive scorer at the unfamiliar power forward position. In Saturday's win over the very good Montenegro, Casspi scored 30 points in 33 minutes on an array of deep shots and drives. The Kings thought they were drafting a potential poor man's Hedo Turkoglu. During Casspi's rookie season, he looked like he'd instead be a bigger Bobby Jackson. Playing for Israel? He looks like the second coming of Peja Stojakovic. If the Kings are paying attention, they will say new and exciting ways to feature the Israeli in the Evans-led offense next season."
• Tim Duncan vs. Karl Malone: Discuss.
• For all of the young speedsters who fill the league's point guard ranks, guys who can post up at the 1 bring something else to the table.
• Mike Schmitz of Valley of the Suns puts together a reel of Josh Childress' defensive highlights from Europe. Schmitz goes the extra mile for his readers: "In case you have trouble identifying him, he’s No. 6 with the afro."
• If nothing else, Trevor Ariza is a fascinating player to evaluate. Ariza is somewhat of a moving target. There's a constant set of properties most players carry with them, but not Ariza. The Ariza playing the 3 in the Lakers' triangle bore little resemblance to the Ariza in Orlando. And the Ariza in Houston prior to the Kevin Martin deal played nothing like the Ariza who flourished after Martin's arrival. What will Ariza look like playing alongside Chris Paul in New Orleans?
• Andre Iguodala continues to play well for Team USA, and his top-shelf defense has been his most valuable asset. Andrew of The 700 Level was at Madison Square Garden for the U.S. vs. France game: "Perhaps most tellingly, 'Dre was also the court for almost the entire first half, leading the team in minutes by far before checking out for good during the third-quarter line change. It's emblematic of the trust that Coach K, who has done nothing but rave about Iguodala since camp started, has in our guy to play defense, make the extra pass and just be a leader that he continues to lead the team in minutes."
• In JaVale McGee's world, most of the people who populate press row would be looking for work.
• WarriorsWorld TV catches up with Matt Barnes.
• Aussies have more fun.
• Reggie Evans tweets, "U can only imagine how my workout was this morning. They was playing Shaq Fu Da Return album. WOW."
• Hornets rookie Craig Brackins would prefer that you take your child off that leash.
• There will be no green and the zeroes will be less pointy on the Minnesota Timberwolves' new jerseys.

The All-Star Game is a collection of the best basketball talent in the world, but it rarely produces anything resembling the best basketball. Counter-intuitive as that might seem, the reasons for this annual letdown are fairly obvious. Chauncey Billups recited some of them following the lackluster 2007 All-Star Game, everything from fear of injury to exhaustion from the weekend's festivities.

Could there be other factors that keep this collection of talent from playing beautiful, or even watchable, basketball? In a highly functional basketball unit, do certain players need to defer to other players, something that's difficult to demand of the world's premier scorers? Are teams loaded with this kind of firepower vulnerable to the pitfalls that might have doomed USA Basketball in 2002, 2004 and 2006?

These questions got us thinking: Is it possible to assemble a roster of non-All-Stars that could challenge the teams taking the floor in Dallas on Sunday?

We asked the bloggers in the TrueHoop Network to participate in our high-grade parlor game.

In sculpting our roster, we came up with a few basic questions. What kind of players would you look for? Do you tap the best of the remainders who were left off the rosters (snubs like Josh Smith and Nene)? Knowing you're outgunned, is it better to adopt the principles of guerrilla warfare and engage in a less traditional brand of combat? To that end, are there specific skill sets you should look for?

A few criteria and common themes emerged:

Defense and Rebounding

• Bret LaGree of Hoopinion: "Defense and rebounding would ... be vital, both to limit the efficiency of the All-Stars and to rebound as many missed shots as possible. If the non-All-Stars give the best offensive players in the world many second shots, it's hopeless."
• D.J. Foster of ClipperBlog: "I want them to grab every defensive rebound, I want them to get tons of turnovers..."
• Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm envisions a team whose tactical goal is "DEATH FROM HYPER-LONG-ATHLETIC DEFENDERS FROM ABOVE."

Is it realistic to believe that there are defensive stoppers who can contain the most prolific scorers in the game? Probably not, which means we should look for a very specific brand of defender.

• Rahat Huq of Red94: "In a game like this, you don't necessarily want guys who are great individual defenders. No one is going to shut down those all-stars in combination ... You need the best help defenders in the game. These guys can't be left alone on an island."'

We asked David Thorpe to chime in. He told us that, in thinking about defense, it's ill-advised to worry about "'who's going to guard THAT guy,' because defense in the modern NBA is a five-player gig, so that's the wrong question." With the right coach and coverages, anyone with enough athleticism and commitment can play good team defense.

On Offense
Our team won't have the capacity to create shots the way the All-Stars can, so they better be efficient, says Matt Moore. "You're creating a team that takes shots at the rim and at the arc. Most at the rim. Very much so at the rim." When the Houston Rockets are clicking on the offensive end, they do this proficiently without a single player who approaches All-Star status.

Meta-Factors
"Intangibles" are abstract, unsatisfying and impossible to measure, but there's no denying that our players need to embody certain qualities to knock off the big boys.

• Henry Abbott: "If you look at the best lineups in the NBA, they almost all include role players (like Anderson Varejao). But when picking the best teams, it's very hard for coaches, GMs or anybody else to pick a role player over a multi-talented star. So they take the star. Anyone read Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers"? After 10,000 hours people are candidates to become masters at something. I'm thinking you want people who have their 10,000 hours in doing boring things that lead to wins, like playing D. Stars don't have more hours in their days. They have to spend a lot of time on other stuff."
• Rahat Huq: "You want players who 'impact winning,' which entails deflections, making quick rotations, pushing pace effectively, never making mistakes -- all the things that impact the outcome in the aggregate. The only way to beat an all-star team is through some sort of synergism. You'll have to play a virtually flawless game."

Toppling the All-Star teams is an uphill battle, but not impossible. Here's the group we've recruited to get it done:

Starters

Jason Kidd (PG)
If mastery comes from 10,000 hours of practice, then Kidd is the wily veteran to run point for our squad. Darius Soriano of Forum Blue & Gold: "I'd want a point guard who could push the ball and make the right decisions on both the break and in the half court."

Andre Iguodala (SG)
Defense? Rebounding? The ability to finish at the rim? It's all right here. Iggy's outside shot presents a bit of a concern, and makes him an imperfect selection. The sum of the parts, though, gives our team too many important ingredients to pass over.

Andrei Kirilenko (SF)
There was a groundswell of support for Kirilenko, whose ability to make plays from anywhere, cover multiple positions, protect the rim and provide help defense, make him a classic insurgent against a team of All-Stars.

Josh Smith (PF)
Ryan Schwan of Hornets247 likes Smith and Kirilenko as a forward tandem. "Kirilenko and Smith will cover each other and everyone else on the floor with quick-footed athletic defense."

Lamar Odom (C)
Not a traditional center by any stretch, but a trio of Odom, Kirilenko and Smith just might be skilled, long, springy and athletic enough to defend an elite front line. Spencer Ryan Hall of Salt City Hoops is as enamored with the playmaking potential of the Odom-Kirilenko combo as I am. "Give me Odom at the 5 just to watch him and Kirilenko together." Thorpe adds that the defensive strategy of Kirilenko-Smith-Odom would be "to press and trap baseline and corner catches and generally make it a scramble game. Blitzing ball screens will be effective too."

Reserves

Kyle Lowry (G)
Henry Abbott makes the strong case for the efficient Lowry off the bench, where he's excelled for Houston. "[He] fights like a dog and gets to the line like crazy, while also making his team's defense better."

Jamal Crawford (G)
Thus far, we don't have any pure shooters. As Zach Harper of Cowbell Kingdom points out, Crawford has his flaws, but is worth signing up. "I'm not sold on him completely here but if he's hot, it doesn't matter who is guarding him." Just ask the Boston Celtics. Anthony Morrow finishes a close second for the role of sharpshooter off the bench.

Manu Ginobili (G)
"Manu Ginobili HAS beaten All-Star teams, in international competition," writes Henry. He gives the squad one guard who can truly probe the defense in the half court.

Tyreke Evans (G)
We don't care how you classify him positionally. We just know he can score on any perimeter player in the league when he's disciplined and keeps the ball moving in the half court.

Hedo Turkoglu (F)
Critics will knock his defense, but he did just fine on Orlando's shutdown squad last season. In a talent pool that's bereft of big wings, Turkoglu is a good choice for his flexibility as a pick-and-roll practitioner. Imagine what he and the guy just below could do as a tandem in the second unit to that effect.

Nene (F/C)
Jeremy Wagner of Roundball Mining Company describes his assets this way: "A big man who can score on the block, face up and hit the 15 footer or drive and is a very good passer. Plus he has as good of a chance to defend both Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard as anyone." If Nene is unavailable, we like the indefatigable Carl Landry.

Anderson Varejao (F/C)
We don't need him to score, we just want him to annoy the hell out of max-contract superstars. When that pest makes his team's defense inordinately better, crashes the glass and collects the garbage, we'll find the minutes. Joakim Noah was a strong contender for this 12th man slot.

Gregg Popovich (Coach)
"You don't deserve anything. You just go play. You start thinking about what you deserve and what you don't deserve and it just makes you soft. You just go play the game." -- Gregg Popovich, May 2006.

The counter argument
Leave it to M. Haubs of The Painted Are to be the hard-bitten realist. For him, this is a fun, but ultimately futile, exercise. The talent on the All-Star rosters is just too much to contend with, no matter how much synergy our team can muster and no matter how much precision it can deploy. He also challenges the premise that the USA Basketball teams that struggled in the early part of last decade failed because they were overstaffed with scorers:

I have to say that as much as people wanted to blame Team USA's underachievement from 2002-06 on lack of shooting or role players or some mystical qualities, the dirty little secret about the ultimate redemption in 2008 was talent - they brought a roster filled with All-NBA players, which they had not really done since 1996. The teams that Manu beat in '02 and '04 were not really All-Star teams -- those teams had too many role players, not too few.

I'm really not trying to be the poop in the punch bowl here, but I will take CP3, Kobe, Melo, Dirk and Timmy, with Nash, D-Will, Durant, and Pau off the bench, and you can try to beat me with your collection of role players. And please, by all means, try to press and speed up the tempo; I have Chris Paul and Steve Nash.

In reality, I would suggest that you lobby hard to play the game under FIBA rules, with unlimited zone defense to clog the lane and a shorter three-point line for a better puncher's chance, and I'd recommend that a college coach like Coach K be forced to be the game coach for the All-Stars.

We've given you our roster, please tell us yours.

Posted by Kevin Arnovitz

Andre Miller's departure from Philadelphia left a vacuum at the point guard for the Sixers. The team selected UCLA point-leaning-combo guard Jrue Holiday with its first round draft pick, and has now named 22-year-old, fifth-year guard Louis Williams as the presumptive starter at the point for the 2009-10 season.



Williams isn't a natural point guard, though there are some promising numbers in his portfolio:

• Williams recorded a player efficiency rating of 21.3 as a point guard (in contrast to his still respectable 15.5 PER as a shooting guard).
• Williams' passing rating was 7.7, good for 37th in the league, which isn't bad for a guy who spent most of his minutes at the two.
• His turnover percentage of 13.0 wasn't bad either (as a comp, Chauncey Billups also chalked up a 13.0 turnover rate).

The best news of all for Williams' prospects as the Sixers point guard won't be found on a stat sheet, but with the man pacing the sidelines -- new head coach Eddie Jordan.

Jordan is a devotee to the Princeton offense, or at least its NBA variation. Players and the ball are in perpetual motion in the halfcourt, which means the system is less reliant on a traditional point guard.

Here's Sixers general manager Ed Stefanski explaining the dynamic to NBA.com's Matt Winkeljohn, alluding to his days in New Jersey where Jordan served as an assistant, as well as Jordan's head coaching tenure in Washington:

It may help that coach Jordan is not counting on having a John Stockton-esqe point guard...

"Eddie has shown in Washington that without the prototypical point guard he has made it work with Gilbert Arenas so there's a lot less pressure on the point in a two-guard system than the one point guard-system," Stefanski said.

"The theory is the guy who has the less pressure on him will bring it up. When we were in New Jersey, Kerry Kittles often initiated the offense even when we had Jason Kidd [at point]."

Philadelphia hasn't exactly had a banner offseason, and will be fortunate to contend for much more than a 4 seed in the increasingly competitive Eastern conference. But from a basketball perspective, it should be fascinating to watch Eddie Jordan employ his system with the likes of Andre Iguodala, Thad Young, Williams, Elton Brand, Jason Kapono, and the decidedly un-Princeton-ish center, Samuel Dalembert.

This isn't your prototypical Princeton roster, but Iguodala and Young in particular have the potential to run opponents ragged off the ball and beat defenders to the rim in that motion offense.

Could it work?

Maybe.

In theory, the system should thaw an offense that was especially prone to rigor mortis in the halfcourt.

If nothing else, Sixers fans should be grateful for that.