ESPN NBA

The first half was an eyesore, as the Thunder led nearly the whole way despite a bevy of turnovers by both teams. Then the Clippers rallied back to drop the Thunder 92-77 on Monday, five nights after Los Angeles went into Oklahoma City and stole one on the Thunder's home court. The game was a revelation for the Clippers, and a nightmare for the Thunder after halftime.

• So many of the Clippers' wins this season have been of the lightning-in-the-bottle variety. Randy Foye will get hot from long range, or Chris Paul will emerge from the bullpen late in the fourth quarter and carry the team to an improbable win. A win is a win -- but the best teams in the league rely on reliable systems and methods to chalk up victories. The Clippers, on the other hand, have been masters of serendipity. But that wasn't the case Monday night, when the Clippers collectively identified Oklahoma City's weaknesses and attacked them. Playing a grown-up brand of basketball, the Clippers threw a steady stream of different defensive coverages at the Thunder. When the Thunder confronted their strengths with strength, the Clippers made reads and found workarounds. This is how mature basketball teams win big games in the NBA and, in taking out the Thunder with substance and savvy, the Clippers played up to their potential Monday. The pyrotechnics will explode at some point; the Clippers' challenge going forward is adopting a series of principles that will guide them when they don't.
• The turning point of the game came toward the end of the third quarter when Nick Young exploded for eight points in three possessions. Prior to Monday, Young had been terrible for the Clippers, failing to shoot over 50 percent from the field in any of his 17 games with the Clippers. That was largely a function of looking for the wrong shots in the wrong spots. But during this stretch of possessions, he played off the Clippers' primary action: the middle pick-and-roll between Paul and Blake Griffin. On the first shot, the Thunder trapped Paul, then the other three OKC defenders converged on Griffin in the lane. Griffin takes a lot of grief as a "one-dimensional" player. Ever seen him move the ball out of a triple-team? That's what he did there to find Young open for two. One possession later, Paul ran a little slip screen with Griffin. This time, Young needed some help, so DeAndre Jordan pinned Kevin Durant (Young's man) out of the play. Young was open for a 3-pointer at a spot a couple of feet deeper than the previous one. On the third possession, the Clippers ran that Paul-Griffin pick-and-roll one more time. Again, a trap and, again, Durant got caught helping middle (to pick up Jordan on a duck-in) rather than staying at home on Young. It's safe to say Paul is a guy who knows how to make hedging defenders look silly. He did here. In a flash, the Clippers shaved the Thunder's lead down to a single point. Young finished with 19 points on 11 true shots without a turnover. The swag was back, at least for a night, and a very opportune one at that.
• In their heyday, the Celtics got away with a lot of turnovers, largely because they were impossible to score against for long stretches of basketball. The Thunder have a reasonably efficient defense, but they can't continue to cough up the ball on nearly a sixth of their possessions, because a team like San Antonio or the Lakers -- or even the Clippers, who protect the ball well -- will punish them for it. Russell Westbrook, who scored the Thunder's first seven points, couldn't find his cutters in the first half, errors that resulted in a slew of turnovers. In the third quarter, Serge Ibaka couldn't make a simple entry pass into the high post, and Westbrook found a wide-open Vinny Del Negro for a kickout. All of it made for very bad news, as the Thunder couldn't get out of their own way.
• The Clippers started dabbling with the zone a couple of months back when their man-to-man defense was in shambles. The schemes weren't terribly effective, but you could see the faint sketch of something that could potentially work. The Clippers are quick and long, and they certainly had the potential to compensate for their lack of reliable isolation defenders by using their size and athleticism in the zone. Gradually, that zone defense has improved, and it hummed just before halftime. Jordan was everywhere, and the Clippers were quick to match up the instant the Thunder found a seam. I caught up with Chauncey Billups after the game to ask him about the Clippers' zone, which gave up only seven points in 13 possessions. Billups was miffed when Flip Saunders installed the zone in Detroit, because he took it as an affront to his Pistons' defensive capabilities. Zone, as Metta World Peace recently told me, was for teams that can't defend in man, and for a certain proud vet, the scheme still carries a stigma. "We looked at it like it was a weakness, like you couldn't stop anybody," Billups said. "But it's a good gimmick to change up a defense." The Clippers, with Jordan anchoring underneath in Chandlerian fashion, are making it work. The Thunder couldn't lay off the long jumpers (though Durant missed a couple of open ones from long range), or they drove recklessly into the teeth of the zone. No flashes, few cuts and little patience.
• Oklahoma City couldn't make sense of the Clippers' varied coverages. The Clippers ran under Westbrook on pick-and-roll plays -- but not the big man -- giving the eager point guard just enough rope to hang himself ... but not too much. The Clippers played Durant straight-up in isolation or in the post, with the occasional trap. Sometimes they'd switch when Durant came off the pindown, sometimes not. "The big thing was to make [Durant] catch as high as possible," Kenyon Martin said. "Sometimes out of timeouts we'd switch the coverage if we saw he was getting low, and sometimes we made a read." Durant shot 7-for-18 from the floor, and drained 10 of 12 from the line.
• Aside from the handful of lousy close-outs, the Thunder didn't play a poor defensive game. Their defensive pick-and-roll strategy can best be characterized as a "long show." The big man -- be it Kendrick Perkins or Ibaka -- stayed with Paul until the point guard gave up the ball, and this creates all sorts of confusion behind this quasi-blitz. The Clippers' wing would stagnate in the corner, while Griffin would shuffle around the high post desperately looking to provide a pressure release for Paul. More times than not, it worked, even against a menace like Paul. The Clippers point guard finished with 12 points (5-for-12 FGAs, 1-for-2 FTAs) and 10 assists. Not bad, but hardly destructive.

Ever since Chauncey Billups was lost for the season on Feb. 6 to a torn left Achilles tendon, the Clippers are a mediocre 9-10, dropping games to Cleveland, Phoenix, New Jersey and Golden State (at home).

It’s always dangerous to link cause and effect, but despite his occasionally free-wheeling shot selection, Billups posted a Player Efficiency Rating of 16.3 in his 20 games as a starter. And despite reports of his demise as a defender, the Clippers were 4.4 points better defensively when Billups was on the floor.

The Clippers pursued J.R. Smith and had been active in trade discussions for several shooting guards in recent weeks. Price tags for such players have been steep, and in snagging Nick Young from a moribund Wizards squad, the Clippers gave up virtually nothing for a proficient shooter on an inexpensive expiring contract -- DNP case Brian Cook and a future second-round draft pick.

Young can shoot the 3-ball, particularly from the corners, where Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro tends to situate his wings in his pick-and-roll, isolation-heavy offense. Young is a 54.5 percent shooter on corner 3s, and his 30 makes from that zone rank him seventh in the NBA.

What Young can’t do much about is addressing the Clippers’ most pressing problem -- their 22nd-ranked defense. His 6-foot-7 frame will make life a little more difficult for opposing wings, who have had a significant height advantage over the Clippers’ defenders, but Young can never be characterized as a stopper. He’s also one of the most gratuitous chuckers of the dreaded long 2-point shot. And his miniscule 6.1 assist rate ranks him 78th of 79 qualified shooting guards -- deep black hole territory.

But on balance, this was an easy call for the Clippers. They have no long-term commitment to Young, who is on a one-year contract. If he can fill Billups’ shoes as a proficient spot-up specialist, good for the Clippers. If not, the Clippers still have Mo Williams as their designated microwave and can punt on Young at the end of the season.

1. There was an air of certitude coming from Pau Gasol following the Lakers' 96-91 win over the Clippers. It wasn't quite an "I told you so," but he spoke like a man who felt vindicated. Gasol went 9-of-13 from the floor for 23 points and added 10 rebounds and four assists. "We made sure we used a little more of our interior game so it would open things up for our exterior game," Gasol said. "That's just the way it works." Gasol said the coaching staff drew up a couple of more plays to ensure he'd get the ball in the post so he could attack.

He didn't screw around. From the very outset of the game, he ran down to the box like a man possessed. If he didn't establish position against Blake Griffin on one block, the Lakers would run a cross-screen to free him up for a deep entry catch on the other. We saw a show-and-go against Reggie Evans, a smooth shot-fake and dribble-drive against a recovering Griffin (courtesy of a nice pocket pass from Kobe Bryant off a well-executed pick-and-roll) and a strong seal along the baseline for that nice pass in traffic from Metta World Peace (though, according to Kobe, that was Ron Artest out there on Wednesday night).

"I made myself aggressive," Gasol said in a television interview immediately after the game. The phrasing was telling.

2. Chris Paul suited up for the first time since these two teams met 10 days prior, but his 26 minutes suggested he isn't yet 100 percent. The Clippers' offense, which had been humming with machine-like efficiency before Paul was sidelined with a strained left hamstring, sputtered in the second half.

If you're the Clippers, what kind of shots are you generally looking for? Opportunities for Griffin at close range; Paul optimizing space to get a clean jumper or a smooth driving lane to the rack; maybe Caron Butler as a weakside release after the defense tilts the floor; kickouts for Billups that result in open 3-point looks or a chance for him to draw contact against an imbalanced defender.

The Clippers didn't generate anything of the kind in the fourth quarter. Down two with 1:40 to play, Paul buzzed in and out of traffic and drew Andrew Bynum on a mismatch. He backed Bynum out, but with only three seconds left on the shot clock Paul launched a 26-footer. The Clippers' next two shot attempts were blocked at the basket, which effectively sealed the game, but the trouble for the Clippers started long before that.

3. Griffin had a prolific night from outside the paint, shooting 6-of-10 beyond 10 feet. Like most defenses, the Lakers yielded Griffin space at midrange to limit his dribble attacks. He used his agility to propel into a spin move and then launch a turnaround jumper. Building on the confidence of his stroke, Griffin later went to a step-back jumper over Gasol. The midrange game presents a dilemma for Griffin. He isn't a high-percentage shooter from distance, but he also knows it's a shot he needs to make with some proficiency if his game is going to evolve to the next level. On Wednesday night, the Lakers' length inside might have been a motivating factor or he might have simply felt comfy from outside.

4. Bryant threw the ball away early looking for teammates against pressure, but credit him for finding Derek Fisher repeatedly along the arc. Fisher was the constant beneficiary of a Clippers defense that paid little or no attention to its floor balance defensively. The Lakers pounded it inside, and any incursion into the paint drew the entire Clippers defense. Fisher faded to the perimeter and was on the receiving end of some skip passes from Bryant with serious altitude.

5. It’s very hard for the Clippers to generate much offense when they have some combination of DeAndre Jordan, Solomon Jones and Reggie Evans as their frontcourt. Crazy as it sounds, Griffin is the Clippers' stretchiest big man not named Brian Cook. You have to wonder at what point the Clippers will look to add a more offensively minded big man, because they're barely treading water when the combined range of their power forward and center is roughly the length of a Twix bar. The Clippers can opt to go small against certain opponents, but against the Lakers, Trail Blazers, Thunder and most of the top teams in the West, it’s just not a feasible scenario, which means they're stuck with an anemic unit on the floor for considerable stretches.

80 percent of life is showing up.

Of all of Woody Allen's enduring punch lines, none is so practical as a life lesson. You don't have to be a genius to achieve success -- just show up. Those silly perfect attendance awards they hand out in school? They're a better predictive measure than we think -- and we can apply that lesson to basketball.

At its very root, a basketball possession is an opportunity for points. There are no promises you’ll score. But NBA teams that get a shot off at the basket score an average of 1.16 points per possession. Barring an illegal defense call or a foul away from the ball, teams that don’t get a shot off score exactly zero points on average.

The lesson here is fairly simple: Show up for the possession and you’re likely to pad your lead or narrow your deficit. That's a primary reason Dean Oliver rates turnover rate as one of his "Four Factors of Basketball Success," second only to shooting proficiency.

The Clippers have ranked as one of the three most efficient offenses in basketball since the outset of the season. They’ve accomplished this while running very rudimentary stuff in the half court. Much of the playbook consists of angle pick-and-rolls, some early drag screens and horns sets (bigs at the elbow; wings in the corners) that move into simple curls or ball screens. In recent days, they've added some second-side actions in which after an initial pick-and-roll with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, the ball is swung quickly to Chauncey Billups, who will get into a similar action with DeAndre Jordan.

But as the Atlanta Hawks demonstrated during the latter seasons of the Mike Woodson era, you can rack up some nice efficiency numbers if you protect the ball -- even if your offense is obvious and not remarkably innovative. The Hawks’ game plan was so utterly predictable that “Iso Joe” became a calling card. Yet when you'd visit any advanced team stats page, you'd find the Hawks near the very top of the rankings. How could an offense whose trademark set consisted of a swingman pounding the ball one-on-one possibly rate so high? The answer: Atlanta rarely turned the ball over.

The Clippers rank second in turnover rate, behind Philadelphia (which, not coincidentally, is the only team with a more statistically efficient offense). Wednesday night against Houston, the Clips didn’t turn the ball over once in the first quarter while scoring 41 points on 26 possessions. Everything they threw at the basket fell through, though little of it was the result of brilliant choreography. As usual, the Clippers used very basic actions to find shot attempts -- and they generated at least one each time they brought the ball across the time line by simply being careful with their possessions.

Against Milwaukee on Saturday night, the Clippers turned the ball over 10 times in the first 18 minutes and looked dreadful doing it -- trailing the Bucks 28-24 when a timeout was called at the 5:42 mark of the second quarter. From there, the Clippers went 16 minutes without a turnover. Over that stretch of 27 possessions, they scored 41 points.

The Clippers are getting the ball in the hands of the right people in the right spots for a lot of easy baskets. Like every good offensive team, they suffer lulls like the one they endured during the first half against Milwaukee on Saturday (and that drought was largely because of an uncharacteristic barrage of turnovers). But by and large, the Clippers are crafting a simple offense predicated, more than anything, on showing up. They aren't even getting very many second chances -- they rank 27th in offensive rebounding rate -- but the likelihood they'll get a first chance is very high.

Never has an effect had so obvious a cause. The arrival of Paul has completely transformed the Clippers’ attack, which logged the highest turnover rate in the league last season. A Paul team has never ranked below 8th in turnover rate, and it’s not hard to understand why. Paul exerts more careful control over a possession than any point guard alive. His teams rarely turn the ball over not only because he’s protective of the basketball, but because he has an incredible capacity to deliver the ball to teammates in low-risk, high-reward spots. Someone, somewhere will end up with a shot, and because Paul is capable as a distributor, he doesn’t need a lot of tactical help or fancy plays to find that someone.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro rejects the idea that the Clippers' playbook is decidedly less intricate than what the rest of the league is doing.

"Everybody runs the same stuff," Del Negro said. "I would say 80 percent. Everyone tries the post-up guys. Everyone runs isolations. Everyone runs pick-and-rolls. It's all the same stuff; they just have different visuals for it. We call something horns -- it's an elbow set. They call it 54. Everyone runs ... we call it floppy, single-double -- other teams call it power or they call it 2-chest."

Del Negro said there's little variance in the schematics of NBA teams, with very few exceptions.

"Most of the stuff is very similar,” he said. “Angle pick-and-roll, high pick-and-roll. Everyone runs those. Other than probably the old Utah stuff -- the UCLA stuff, which we run, which other teams run -- or the triangle offense, which only the Lakers used to run, everyone runs pretty much very similar stuff."

Del Negro said he believes that execution far outweighs design on the basketball court. On Friday, he said he calls only about 50 percent of the Clippers' half-court sets from the sidelines. As a coach, he's not there to put his stylistic imprint on his team or to wow the league with his tactical prowess. He's in Los Angeles to inspire basketball players to play basketball. Give him quality players, and he'll give you a quality product. This is the Vinny Del Negro brand.

The Clippers' most imposing challenge right now is improving their 22nd-ranked defense. After getting torched by San Antonio and Chicago, they've turned in three strong performances at home. Griffin and Jordan have the speed to cover a lot of ground, while Paul is a pest on the ball, but there are still nuances that haven't been refined, a process that will continue under the direction of Clippers assistant Dean Demopoulos.

At some point, Del Negro will find himself in a chess match, and the stakes will grow larger and larger as the calendar moves through the season and into the playoffs. He'll have to draw something up for a final possession or add a wrinkle to fully maximize a mismatch. There will be opportunities to exploit an opponent's weakness and to combat a strength. Great coaches recognize those opportunities quickly and decisively -- can Del Negro? And to the extent he's right about 30 teams all running the same sets, will he know how to distribute those play calls down the stretch of a crucial game?

In the meantime, can the Clippers win big by playing the Woody Allen offense? By merely keeping turnovers low with Paul at the controls, can they maintain a hyper-efficient attack -- irrespective of how elegant or creative the X's and O's? Is it possible that showing up is 80 percent of a possession?

It was all so odd.

Not just that the Clippers trampled the Lakers in a preseason game, or that the media scrum outside the Clippers' locker room after the game dwarfed the crowd waiting to get inside the Lakers' inner sanctum.

Not even Donald T. Sterling, inside the Chick Hearn Media Room after the game, lecturing his guests about the virtues of making basketball a physical -- not a cerebral -- contest.

The strangest moment of the night was more basic than that. It was the sensation of looking out on the floor at Staples Center and seeing the two most trustworthy guards in basketball manning the backcourt for the Clippers.

That's because the defining characteristic of Clippers fandom has always been fear. Fear that basketball possessions would be squandered carelessly by players without the talent or inclination to get the job done. Fear that the organization would choose caution over risk and fumble an opportunity to change course. Fear that supernatural forces would conspire against the Clippers ... just because that's what supernatural forces do.

That fear wasn't present Monday night, and its absence was the most profound epiphany during an entertaining preseason game from which very little about basketball could be gleaned.

We know the Clippers are a dangerous unknown -- only a tad less unknown than they were 24 hours ago. Their regular season opens on Christmas Day in Oakland against the Golden State Warriors, after which they'll play the Bulls, Lakers and Heat at Staples Center over a 15-day period. How do we know if the Clippers are for real? Here are some guideposts to follow:

Have Chris Paul and Blake Griffin developed mental telepathy?
All this talk of seismic cultural shifts in Los Angeles boils down to one essential ingredient: the level of havoc these two All-Stars can wreak in the pick-and-roll.

Everything else is just scene-setting.

We saw what Paul was able to do with an exacting partner like David West in a pick-and-pop game. Now Paul will have the most explosive power forward in a generation at his disposal. How quickly can they get into their dance steps? When opponents play Griffin for his signature spin, or when the entire defense sags and drops into the paint, how can the dynamic duo make them pay? Paul and Griffin's proficiency will not only determine how lethally they can punish the league, but how many open spot-up jumpers can be generated for Chauncey Billups and how easily Caron Butler will be able to dart off down screens for quick looks.

It will take a little time, but once Paul and Griffin become fluent in their common language and the need for cues and verbal direction melts away, the true potential of this team will be much clearer.

How is Chauncey Billups acclimating to playing off the ball?
Billups is a combo guard by origin, but it's been a long time since he was asked to defer ballhandling duties to a teammate and make a living off the ball. Last season before being moved to New York, Billups' numbers as a catch-and-shoot threat were superb (1.36 points per possession). In 2009-10, Billups finished 15th in points per possession as a spot-up shooter for players with more than 100 attempts, and in 2008-09, he was fourth in the league.

Billups is prideful. Telling him that, at 35, the best way for him to extend a prolific and celebrated career is to go stand over there on the wing away from the action is easier said than done. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro reiterated on Monday night that he doesn't see 1s and 2s and 3s on a whiteboard so much as he sees "basketball players." If Billups can buy into the practical implications of this and make himself comfortable as a floor-spacer and secondary playmaker, he can help the Clippers score a ton of points.

Is Vinny Del Negro the man for the job?
The big winner of Monday night?

Del Negro. Not because he outcoached anyone, but because what transpired on the floor suggests that Del Negro's shortcoming will be mitigated by circumstance.

The league is moving away from systems and intricately choreographed play calls from the sidelines. Today's NBA is about getting the ball up and finding clean looks at the basket before defenses can get set. And if you have a couple of floor generals such as Paul and Billups on the roster, there will be plenty of margin for error because they're more than capable of manufacturing opportunities for themselves and others when the shot clock begins to tick down. The thickness of Del Negro's playbook measures only a 10th of the thickness of what Mike Dunleavy toted to work every day. With this team at this moment, that might do the trick.

But sometime in late spring, a critical moment will arise. The Thunder will use Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison to clamp down on Griffin. The Mavs will identify a fatal inefficiency in the Clippers' defense. When it's time for Del Negro to counter, will he have a solution?

Are the Clippers treading water with their reserve units?
DeAndre Jordan gets hit with two early fouls. Griffin walks off the court toward the tunnel for examination in the trainer's room. These things aren't worst-case scenarios -- they're inevitabilities in the NBA. Young, high-flying centers become overexuberant, and bouncy power forwards turn ankles.

A healthy Clippers squad is stacked at the guard spots. But right now, they have a frontcourt reserve corps of Brian Cook (a stretch-4), Ryan Gomes (a smart 6-foot-7 tweener) and rookie Trey Thompkins, who John Hollinger projects to be the next Brian Cook. None of the three can be fairly characterized as a banger, and the Clippers are likely to sign a brawny big man over the next 72 hours. That understudy could prove to be fateful for the Clippers. Small sample-size theater has never been more hazardous than in a shortened season, but whether you watch the progress of the Clippers' five-man bench units on Basketballvalue.com, or just eyeball the team's rhythm and flow when Griffin takes a seat, we'll learn something about the Clippers' prospects in late May and early June by how well those second units perform.

Will Donald T. Sterling stay out of the way?
Longtime Sterling consigliere Andy Roeser and general manager Neil Olshey have put the Clippers in a position to reverse decades of futility. Selling Sterling on the vision was likely every bit as challenging as swinging the deals themselves.

Whatever liabilities remain for the Clippers on the roster or in the locker room, they pale in comparison to the damage that could be unleashed if Sterling were to decide to meddle in the progress. He insulted Gomes and Randy Foye in August 2010, soon after the two veterans were acquired. He embarrassed himself, Baron Davis and the franchise by loudly heckling the team's former point guard courtside.

With Paul and Griffin weighing their long-term options over the next 18 months, the Clippers can't afford to have Sterling do anything to disrupt the aspirations of everyone involved in this project -- not Roeser or Olshey, not the superstars, not the supporting players, nor the fans in Los Angeles. Sterling has earned several lifetimes of fortune. He can add to it by simply letting basketball people conduct basketball business and basking in the glow of the winter sun at the Malibu compound.

• Classmates of Kim Jong Il's son, Kim Jong-un, testify that the presumed successor in North Korea wasn't all that interested in politics when he was at school in Switzerland. What really got him going was basketball. "He worshipped basketball players in the NBA. A friend who visited his apartment at #10, Kirchstrasse, Liebefeld, recalls that Kim had a room filled with NBA-memorabilia. 'He proudly showed off photographs of himself standing with Toni Kukoc of the Chicago Bulls and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. It is unclear where the pictures were taken. On at least one occasion, a car from the North Korean Embassy drove Pak Un to Paris to watch an NBA exhibition game,' the [Washington Post] said. In class, Pak Un was generally shy and awkward with girls, but he became a different person on basketball court, according to his classmates. 'A fiercely competitive player,' said classmate Nikola Kovacevic. 'He was very explosive. He could make things happen. He was the playmaker.'"
• Michael Pina of Red94 composes a stellar post on the psyche of trade bait. There are those, like Kevin Martin and Chauncey Billups, who take it a little personally. Others, like Lamar Odom, are driven to tears. Then there are Luis Scola, Rajon Rondo and Pau Gasol, who are able to convey detachment -- at least publicly.
• The Heat have pledged to switch up their offense this season by incorporating more fast-break attacks and putting more of a premium on spacing. Beckley Mason of HoopSpeak exchanges with a reader who explains what "the Invert" offense in lacrosse can teach us about defending the Heat.
• Charlie Widdoes of ClipperBlog feels the Clippers gave up too much for Chris Paul, and that staying the course with Eric Gordon and the salary flexibility that would've come with Chris Kaman's expiring contract was the right call.
• Aaron McGuire of Gothic Ginobili on the composition of the reigning champions in Dallas: "So where does that leave you? A short stint with a lineup where Lamar Odom is the primary ballhandler, employing Dirk and Marion as roll men with Delonte and Carter in the wings if the play goes sour? Does the team manage a point-by-committee sort of strategy? And who defends what? Dirk’s defense has gotten better over the years, but at this point Odom is essentially the best defensive talent in the Mavs’ big rotation. Do you cross-match Odom on the opposing center and hope he can draw them out of the paint? Do you keep Dirk at center and live with the terrifying defensive results? I really don’t know, and I’m not sure anyone else does either. And that’s part of what makes this Mavs team so interesting."
• Kris Humphries chalks up impressive numbers on the Wins Produced metric, prompting Andres Alvarez of Wages of Win to ask why the power forward remains unsigned.
• When Boris Diaw was growing up in France, his mom -- a former player -- ordered him not to join the throng of kids who'd storm the scorebook immediately after the game to tally their point totals.
• Watching Al Jefferson's deliberate but effective post game drives Zach Harper to thumbing through periodicals during live play, but Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams are shiny!
• The amnesty deadline passed and Rashard Lewis is still a Wizard. Lewis is setting up house in Washington, where his daughter has enrolled at nearby Sidwell Friends, where the Obama girls attend school.
• Who would you rather be -- the Lakers or the Clippers?
• Kevin Durant's fans will scour North America for his backpack like it's an afikoman.

When Chauncey Billups was dealt by Detroit to Denver in November 2008, it was with the expectation that he'd retire with the Nuggets, his home team. Billups was the consummate hometown kid -- a four-year standout at George Washington High School in the Washington Virginia Vale neighborhood on the south end of town. He was honored as Colorado's Mr. Basketball three times, went on to Boulder and stood out as a brawny, brainy combo guard.

Denver was supposed to be a homecoming, an apt closing chapter for a champion whose pedigree and work ethic earned him the right to finish his career in a manner of his choosing.

Only it didn't work out that way. The trade rules in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement are unforgiving and Billups became plankton attached to the Melodrama, ultimately landing in New York last winter against his private wishes. Asked at his introductory press conference at the Clippers' training facility Friday whether it was hard to leave New York, Billups responded, "It really wasn’t that difficult to leave the Knicks because, in all actuality, when I went to the Knicks, it was really never about me coming to the Knicks."

It hasn't been about Billups for a while, so it's not difficult to understand why his mood Friday in Playa Vista was more resigned than buoyant. For Billups, this isn't about the Clippers. "It could've been much worse," Billups said about landing with the team.

It's about being denied the privilege that guys like Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul have claimed over the past year, the same brand of self-determination that drives owners like Dan Gilbert to Comic Sans font.

"I had hoped, like any other hard-working person, that through that process, I would be able to control my own destiny," Billups said. "It didn’t happen and I’m disappointed that it didn’t happen, but that’s life."

For every superstar in his prime who has the temerity to want to play for an organization of his choosing, there are dozens of players who get phone calls telling them to uproot themselves at a moment's notice. Billups, a five-time All-Star, Finals MVP and winner of the NBA Sportsmanship Award, didn't even enjoy the dignity of being traded. He got thrown on the scrap heap along with the likes of Gilbert Arenas, Charlie Bell, Baron Davis and Travis Outlaw -- guys who've never even sniffed a conference finals, who have checkered personal histories or have fallen way short of expectations. For a man of Billups' pride, being waived via the amnesty provision was humiliating.

"Being waived, just the frustrations of being waived," Billups said. "I mean, a player that’s accomplished the things I’ve accomplished, you never think that ... I’ve been through a lot, but you never think that being waived is going to be one of those things. You get waived because either you’re a distraction or you’re a bad apple or they think that you can’t play. That’s the general perception. And neither one of those things have ever been something that’s been said about me."

Billups expressed a reserved enthusiasm about the chance to play alongside Paul. "Chris is like a little brother to me," Billups said. "We’ve been very close throughout the years since he’s been in the league. I’m excited for the opportunity to play with him."

Then there's that little matter of position. The Clippers didn't back up the truck for Paul to put him off the ball. The logical scheme would have a gracefully aging Billups slide over to the shooting guard slot, where he could spot up as recipient of Paul-Griffin pick-and-roll largesse. While his numbers weren't anything to write home about in limited opportunities last season, in 2009-10, Billups ranked 15th in the league in points per possession as a spot-up shooter for players with more than 100 attempts -- better than both Ray Allen and Jason Terry -- according to Synergy Sports. In 2008-09, he was fourth.

On Friday, Billups was somewhat defiant about the notion of changing positions. "I’m a point guard and in my eyes, we’re going to be starting two point guards -- not a point guard and a shooting guard. I’m a lead guard and a playmaker," Billups said. "So is Chris. And I think we’re going to cause a lot of teams a lot of problems. Of course, I’ll be the guy who’s guarding 2-guards because I’m a little bit bigger than Chris, but I think we’re going to find a way to make it work. We’ve got two guys who want to win, know how to win and know how to control a game and know how to play in pick-and-rolls."

For Billups, this isn't about the Clippers or whether they use him as a 1, a 2, a starter or a reserve. Billups told the media that neither Chris Paul, nor Mo Williams, nor Neil Olshey, nor Vinny Del Negro played a role in helping him come to terms with the events of the past week. "It was about me and talking with my support system and my support group that really got me to where I’m at right now," Billups said.

There's good news for the Clippers, something they were aware of when they claimed Billups in the amnesty bidding process. Billups is a pro and takes the business of competing very seriously.

It's that very fact that's eaten at him for the past week. For all the prattle over the past 18 months about the entitlement of the NBA player, one who personifies all the virtues of honest-to-goodness sportsmanship has been caroming around the league like a pinball. He's been consulted only as a mere courtesy. His only recourse? Retirement.

But it could've been much worse.

The basketball landscape is littered with symbols, but none more damning than the bad contract.

Rhetorically, there's a good reason for this. No matter how conscientiously you point out that bad contracts represent a small fraction of the whole, or that the volume of underpaid rookie-scale players and superstars far exceeds the number of bloated deals, the trump card is irrefutable:

"Jerome James," "Eddy Curry," "Gilbert Arenas," "Drew Gooden."

Bogeymen have always populated the political debate: the welfare recipient who drives a Cadillac. The failed CEO with his golden parachute. The undocumented immigrant who uses the emergency room and public school. The retailer who gouges a community after a natural disaster. The corporate jet owners who get tax breaks.

In that same spirit, basketball has James, Curry, Arenas, Gooden and the guy who slurped up your team's budget and then failed to live up to his contract. These players might be the far-reaching outliers, but they represent something fundamentally unfair to most fans:

Getting paid to do a job, then not doing it.

That transgression is particularly rotten when the job in question is playing a child's game, and this breach of public trust makes the overpaid player a very convenient talking point.

Of course, a bad contract doesn't birth itself. It starts off as an offer extended by a team soliciting the services of a player -- usually in free agency, sometimes as an extension of an existing deal. Either way, an NBA front office saw a vacant roster slot, thought enough of a player's potential to pursue him, then ultimately inked him to a lucrative deal. As much as we can fault the work ethic of someone who phones it in after signing such a deal, the job of vetting the character and projecting the performance of a player falls on team executives and the owners who employ them.

As much fun as it looks from the outside and the ranks of a fantasy league, general manager is a grueling, all-consuming, difficult position. The tenure of a general manager usually ends with a pink slip. Unless he's wearing a baseball cap in June standing alongside a star player who's lifting the Larry O'Brien Trophy, a GM's missteps always attract a brighter spotlight than the small victories. The chase for NBA talent is fraught with all kinds of hazards, and even the best human resource managers in the league are going to have an expensive blemish or two on their record.

For this reason, a push for shorter contracts has been a central part of the "system issues" conversation since well before the expiration of the previous collective bargaining agreement. Whether you interpret this as a means for bad teams to seek protection from themselves, a smart way to keep spending in check, or a way to prevent deadbeats from profiting without performing, reduced contract length is almost certain to find its way into the next CBA, whenever the deal happens to be executed.

In the owners' Nov. 11 proposal to the players' union, the length in contract of the mid-level exception signees for both taxpaying and non-taxpaying teams was reduced from five years to either four or three years. Maximum contract length for players with Bird rights was reduced from six years to five, and from five years to four for non-Bird players. In addition, option years for players earning greater than the league average were eliminated (which would effectively shorten contracts vis-a-vis the last CBA), as were sign-and-trade deals for taxpaying teams after Year 2 of contracts (ditto).

What are the repercussions of shorter contracts?

Shorter contracts mean more turnover, which means more free agency. And free agency, lest we forget, has always been the vehicle for the creation of bad contracts.

On the surface, this change would provide a modicum of safety for front offices and ownerships. Never again will a player like Gooden earn a mid-level deal of five years and $32 million. In the new NBA, the maximum a mid-level player could be offered would be 4 years and $20 million. Curry's 6-year, $60 million contract would also be an impossibility.

In other words, execs' colossal mistakes will be trimmed in scale by about 20 percent and their medium-size stupid pills would be reduced by 35 to 40 percent. Curry would've merely been a 5-year, $50 million blunder, while Milwaukee would be on the hook for one year and $12 million less, assuming the Bucks would've opted to use the mid-level on Gooden -- and that Gooden wouldn't have had suitor willing to pay him more.

General managers would be inoculated from truly epic failures, but they'll also be filling more roster spots, more often in more feverish free agent markets. Execs will have more opportunities to make more mistakes of, albeit, slightly less detrimental consequences. That means bad judgment could potentially be compounded in an off-season when a league has dozens of more roster spots to fill with free agents.

On the flip side, shorter contracts would punish crafty executives capable of locking in talent to favorable long-term contracts. With more roster slots to fill more frequently, smart execs will have more shot attempts to work their magic. In 2002, Joe Dumars signed Chauncey Billups to a 6-year, $34 million deal, possibly the best mid-level deal in history. In today's NBA, Dumars would be denied full reward for his prescience. The jury is still out on Wes Matthews in Portland, but his $7.2 million contract in the final year of his 5-year deal might prove to be a bargain. Under the new system, the Trail Blazers wouldn't enjoy the benefits of Matthews' potentially cost-efficient services.

In a league with shorter contracts and greater turnover, navigating the free agent market will be more important than ever. But if making sound judgments on extending free agent contracts is a task front offices as a whole have mismanaged -- by the league's own admission -- is it reasonable to expect that to change with even more opportunities for mistakes?

The San Antonio Spurs have plenty of veteran leaders on their team, but facing elimination in the final seconds of regulation against the Memphis Grizzlies, it was a rookie that saved them. Gary Neal hit a three-pointer at the fourth-quarter buzzer to send the game into overtime where the Spurs would go on to win 110-103.

Neal led rookies in three-point percentage at 41.9 percent during the regular season, good for 12th-best overall in the league among qualifiers. However, he wasn't even the best three-point shooter on his own team during the regular season. Matt Bonner and Richard Jefferson both shot a higher percentage.

Before Wednesday night, Neal had only one attempt this season in the final five seconds to win or tie a game -- missing a three-point attempt in the final seconds against the Suns on April 13 that would have tied the game.

From the Elias Sports Bureau: This was the first time in Spurs history that they avoided elimination from a playoff series with an overtime win. Prior to Neal, the last player to make a game-tying three-point field goal with less than one second remaining in the fourth quarter of a playoff game was the Detroit Pistons Chauncey Billups in 2004 against the New Jersey Nets. The Nets won that game in triple overtime.

A lot of credit for Wednesday's win goes to Manu Ginobili, who made a tough two-pointer with his foot on the three-point line to cut the Spurs deficit to one point with just over two seconds left in the fourth quarter. Ginobili, who struggled in Game 4, bounced back with 33 points on 10-of-18 shooting. The Spurs are 8-0 when Ginobili scores 30 or more points in the playoffs.

OTHER NBA ACTION:
The Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated the Denver Nuggets behind a dominant performance by Kevin Durant. With the Thunder trailing by nine points with 3:30 left in regulation, Durant led the comeback by outscoring the Nuggets 14-6 by himself. Durant hit five of six shots in that stretch and finished with 41 points, which tied a playoff career high. Of the four 40-point playoff games this season, Kevin Durant has two of them. The Thunder are now 7-0 this season when Durant scores 40 or more (5-0 in the regular season, 2-0 in the postseason).

The Boston Celtics dominated the New York Knicks in the first playoff game at Madison Square Garden in nearly seven years to take a 3-0 series lead thanks to a performance of the ages from Boston's big stars.

Much like in Game 2, Rajon Rondo controlled the pace of the game, but in Game 3 it was his passing and not his scoring that gave the Knicks' defenders fits.

Rondo finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and a playoff career-best 20 assists, becoming just the second different player in NBA history to record 20 assists in a triple-double in a playoff game.

According to Elias, the only other player to do so was Magic Johnson who did it twice, in Game 3 of the 1984 NBA Finals and Game 5 of the 1991 NBA Finals.

His 20 assists set a Celtics playoff record, breaking one that he already shared with Bob Cousy (19).

According to game footage this marked the fourth time in his playoff career that Rondo created over 40 points off his assists for the Celtics. He created 49 points Friday in addition to the 15 he scored.

Rondo's primary beneficiaries were Ray Allen (8-13, 21 points off Rondo passes) and Paul Pierce (8-11, 20 points off Rondo passes).

Allen shined from outside making eight three-point field goals en route to 32 points. Five of his eight three's came off of Rondo assists. It was his fourth career playoff game with eight three-point field goals.

Elias tells us Allen is the only player in NBA history with multiple playoff games with eight three-point field goals. In fact, all other active NBA players have a combined four such games.

While Allen was great he wasn't even the Celtics best offensive weapon as Pierce torched the Knicks for 38 points on 14-of-19 field goal shooting.

Game tape showed he was 4-for-4 on spot-up attempts while also making two of his three shots coming off of screens. Overall the Celtics starting unit outscored the Knicks' starters 100-to-44 in the Game 3 drubbing.

The big news before the game was Amar'e Stoudemire's availability, but the Knicks forward had little impact in his return to the lineup scoring just seven points in 32 minutes of action.

Stoudemire was on the court for 76 possessions in Game 3 and got at least one touch on just 16 of them (21.1 percent). He finished with a team-worst minus-34 plus-minus rating.

It turned out it was Chauncey Billups the Knicks could have used back for Game 3. With Toney Douglas as the primary point guard, the Knicks offense struggled.

When Douglas brought the ball up court, the Knicks averaged just 0.65 points per play and shot just 33.3 percent from the field.

It's only fitting that on the same day, Carmelo Anthony's new team, the New York Knicks, and his old team, the Denver Nuggets, would each clinch a playoff berth.

The Knicks defeat of the Cleveland Cavaliers, coupled with a loss by the Charlotte Bobcats, put New York in the postseason for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

The six-season drought was just one shy of a franchise record (seven seasons from 1959-66).

Before this recent drought the Knicks had missed the playoffs just nine times in 28 seasons following the NBA merger (1976-77).

Amar'e Stoudemire led the way with 28 points, while Carmelo Anthony (25) and Chauncey Billups (23) each eclipsed the 20-point mark for the Knicks who moved back to the .500 mark.

The Nuggets, defeated the Los Angeles Lakers to clinch their eighth straight playoff berth.

They were the first team to beat the Lakers at the Staples Center since the San Antonio Spurs did so on February 3.

The Nuggets have won six straight overall and are now 11-games over .500 since the trade.

They are three games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the fourth spot in the Western Conference, but face off against Kevin Durant and company in two of their next three games.

It would be huge for Denver to catch them as the Nuggets are 9-0 at home since the All-Star break.

The Lakers loss coupled with the Spurs win provided some breathing room for San Antonio.

The Spurs picked up their first win in seven games thanks to a large contribution from their bench against the Phoenix Suns.

San Antonio's bench did most of its damage from 15-feet and beyond.

According to video surveillance the Spurs reserves shot 60 percent from the field and scored 41 of their points from that range.

During the team's six game losing streak their bench shot under 40 percent from that area, scoring just 15.8 points per game on those attempts.

George Hill and Matt Bonner led the way as the Spurs reserves scored more total points (73) than the Suns starting five (61).

Bonner was a team-best plus-31 while on the court in just 24 minutes of action.

Elsewhere around the NBA:

• The Miami Heat defeated the New Jersey Nets to improve to 11-2 since their 5-game losing streak.

The Heat clinched the Southeast Division title with their win coupled with a loss by the Orlando Magic to the Toronto Raptors.

• The Boston Celtics shot over 60 percent from the field and from three-point range in their win over the Detroit Pistons.

It’s the second time this season the Celtics have done so. The rest of the NBA combined has two such games.

It’s the fourth time in the last 25 seasons the Celtics have had two such games in a season, and first since the 1990-91 campaign.

While it's March Madness in numerous cities around the country, it's "March Sadness" in New York City as the New York Knicks dropped their sixth straight, falling to the Charlotte Bobcats.

Despite new personnel, these struggles are nothing new in the month of March for New York.

The Knicks have posted losing records this month in each of the last seven seasons and have the lowest win percentage in the NBA during March since the 2004-05 season.

Carmelo Anthony set his Knicks career-high with 36 points, doing so on 25 field goal attempts, the most he has taken in a game since his first with the Knicks (also 25).

He did not receive much help from the rest of the Knicks’ perceived "Big Three" though, as Chauncey Billups and Amar'e Stoudemire combined for just 28 points on 29 shots including just six points on five field goal attempts in the fourth quarter.

Billups continued to struggle from three-point range, making just 1-of-6 attempts. New York is just 1-8 since he returned from injury and 3-10 overall when the point guard plays since the trade.

The Knicks have won four of the six games he missed, and have averaged over eight more points per game without him, while also recording five more assists per game.

While the Knicks continue to slide, the Bobcats' victories on consecutive nights, coupled with two losses by the Indiana Pacers, and Charlotte finds themselves just one game behind Indiana for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Bobcats have 10 games left compared to just eight for the Pacers, but Indiana swept the season series between the teams meaning Charlotte would lose the tiebreaker if the two teams finish with the same record.

Elsewhere around the NBA:

•  The Chicago Bulls outscored the Milwaukee Bucks by 13 points in the fourth quarter of their win. On the year the Bulls have been dominant in the fourth, outscoring their opponents by 201 points. No other team has outscored its opponents by even 100 points in the final frame this season.

• Derrick Rose scored 30 points and recorded a career-high 17 assists in the victory. Rose is just the second Bulls player in the last 25 seasons to score at least 30 points and record at least 15 assists in a single game. The other was Michael Jordan, who last did it in 1989 when he had 33 points and 17 assists against the Trail Blazers.

• The Atlanta Hawks clinched a playoff berth for the fourth consecutive season with their victory over the New Jersey Nets. The streak of four straight playoff appearances is the longest for the franchise since making it in seven straight seasons from 1992-99.

Perhaps the New York Knicks watched too much March Madness over the weekend. In the college game, the teams play 40 minutes of regulation. The Knicks put forth a great effort for the first 40 minutes of Monday's game against the Boston Celtics, but they did not stick around for the final eight minutes that has to be played in the pro game.

Chauncey Billups made an unlikely four-point play with 7:26 remaining, giving the Knicks an 82-73 lead and all the momentum. But from that point on, it was all Boston. The Celtics outscored the Knicks 23-4 over the final 7:26, as they shot 9-for-13 from the floor to the Knicks' 1-for-11. Over that stretch, six Knicks missed at least one FG attempt, while five Celtics made at least one FG attempt.

The only Celtics to miss a shot over the final 7:26 were Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo,; however, each player recorded a steal over that same stretch to help account for the Celtics 3:0 turnover ratio during the run. All three steals led to a bucket for the Celtics, who were well on their way to a double-digit win that appeared unlikely.

• Keeping pace with the Celtics in the Eastern Conference, the Chicago Bulls recorded a 40-point win over the Sacramento Kings. The Bulls clinch their first 50-win season since 1997-98, which is also the last time they won the NBA Finals.

• The San Antonio Spurs beat the Golden State Warriors at home ... again. That's the 26th straight home win for the Spurs over the Warriors. Golden State hasn't won in San Antonio since Valentine's Day in 1997, a game started by ESPN's Chris Mullin. Tim Duncan was coming off a game in which he had 18 points and 16 rebounds -- a home game against Clemson while he was playing for Wake Forest!

• Dwight Howard had an unbelievable line for the Orlando Magic in their win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. He had 28 points, 18 rebounds, four assists, four blocks and four steals in the 11-point victory. The last player to achieve those numbers in a single game was Hakeem Olajuwon on March 3, 1990, against the Warriors. The Dream recorded 29 points, 18 rebounds, 10 assists, 11 blocks and five steals in that contest for the third quadruple-double in NBA history.

Dwight Howard carried the Orlando Magic early, but it was Jameer Nelson who shouldered the load late, doing his best “Mr. Big Shot” impersonation as the Magic defeated the New York Knicks.

After opening the game shooting a season-best 78.6 percent in the first quarter, the Magic followed it up by shooting a season-worst 17.6 percent in the second quarter. That turned an 11-point first quarter lead into an 11-point halftime deficit despite 22 points and 8 rebounds from Howard.

Nelson came alive in the second half scoring 23 of his season-high 26 points. It was the most points he has scored in any half this season. Nelson came in averaging only 11.3 points per game in his previous 10.

While Howard cooled down in the second half, he still finished with 30 points and 16 rebounds, his NBA-best ninth 30-point, 15-rebound game this season. In the process he extended his streak of 20-point, 10-rebound games to 11.

In a losing effort, each of the Knicks' Big Three -- Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire and Chauncey Billups -- scored at least 25 points, the second time in four games together they did so in the same game. The Knicks lost both.

With 25 points, Elias tells us that Anthony became the third player in NBA history to score 25-plus in each of his first four games with a team. The only others to do so were Dominique Wilkins with the Los Angeles Clippers, and Wilt Chamberlain with the Philadelphia Warriors.

Billups did most of his damage from the free-throw line making 18 of 20 attempts. He scored 30 points, but made only four field goals. The last player to score 30 points while making four or fewer field goals was Eric “Sleepy” Floyd back in 1991.

Elsewhere around the NBA:

• Jason Kidd recorded his 107th career triple-double against Philadelphia, most among active players and third-most in NBA history. Oscar Robertson leads all players with 181, while Magic Johnson had 138 for his career.

• Kevin Love recorded his 47th consecutive double-double. He is now just three shy of tying Moses Malone for the longest single-season streak since the merger.

• Kobe Bryant is also chasing Moses Malone, but for sixth place on the all-time scoring list. With 24 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves, he is now 65 points behind Malone.

The new-look New York Knicks made a statement Sunday night as they rallied from a 15-point deficit to defeat the Miami Heat, proving that their "Big 3" should not be overlooked.

Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire have been receiving most of the attention lately, but it was Mr. Big Shot, Chauncey Billups, who was instrumental in turning down the Heat in Miami.

Billups entered the fourth quarter with 8:55 remaining in the game and the Knicks down by five points. In that span Billups went 3-for-5 with 7 points, and as an on-ball defender held his opponent to 0-for-3 and a turnover. He also had two steals in that span, including one on a Chris Bosh pass with 47 seconds left that lead to two free throws by Shawne Williams. Billups finished the game with 16 points and has made a three-point field goal in 19 consecutive games, the third-longest active streak.

Anthony finished with a game-high 29 points and 9 rebounds. Eleven of Anthony’s 29 points came on isolation plays. He trails only Kobe Bryant for the most points off isolation plays this season.

This was Anthony’s third straight 25-point game, and the Elias Sports Bureau tells us that only five other players in NBA history have scored at least 25 points in each of their first three or more games for one team: Wilt Chamberlain, for the Philadelphia Warriors (1959, first 10 games); Walt Bellamy, for the Chicago Packers (1961); Dan Issel for the Denver Nuggets (1976); Dominique Wilkins for the Los Angeles Clippers (1994, first four games); and Glenn Robinson for the Atlanta Hawks (2002).

While Anthony’s offense certainly kept the Knicks in the game, it was his defensive presence that may have put the game away. Anthony was asked to guard LeBron James in the fourth quarter, and the defensive switch paid off for the Knicks. James was 1-for-4 when Anthony was the on-ball defender during the final five minutes of the game, including on Miami’s final two field goal attempts.

Anthony wasn’t the only Knick to lock down on defense. New York held Miami under 40 percent shooting in the half court over the final three quarters. For some perspective, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Milwaukee Bucks shot a combined 46 percent in the half court during the Knicks previous two games.

Perhaps the clinching moment of the game was Stoudemire’s block on James' driving lay-up with seven seconds to play.

The Elias Sports Bureau says it was only the third time in James’ career that he had a shot blocked in the final 10 seconds of the fourth quarter (or overtime) with his team trying to erase a deficit or three points or less. The others came in a span of 12 days in April 2008, on blocks by Joakim Noah and Samuel Dalembert.

Despite his team falling short, James scored 27 points, including nine in transition on 4-5 shooting. James’ nine transition points, combined with two from Dwyane Wade, knots the two for the NBA lead. Speaking of Wade, he finished with just 12 points and five turnovers. Overall, Miami's "Big 3" combined for 13 of the team’s 20 turnovers.

The loss snaps the Heat's 7-game home win streak and drops the team to 5-11 in games decided by five points or fewer.