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HoopIdea wants to #StopTheFlop. To spotlight the biggest fakers, we present Flop of the Night. You can help us separate the pretenders from the defenders -- details below:

Jonny Flynn has spent just five weeks playing with the Portland Trail Blazers, but this Flop of the Night shows he's working hard to learn from veteran teammate and 3-pointer flop artist Jamal Crawford.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Flynn spots up in the right corner where he's wide open for a 3-pointer. However Flynn looks more concerned with drawing the foul than hitting the shot. As his defender flies by, Flynn goes down as though all muscle control suddenly flees his legs in mid-air.

Credit Flynn this much: he truly is a committed actor, listen closely and you'll hear him yelp a verbal flop as well.

Even accounting for the unconvincing dramatization, this is a truly bad flop because it takes Flynn out of the action. After picking himself up off the floor, Flynn lags behind the play as the basketball gods (or just Jamaal Tinsley) punish him for his floppery by pushing the ball up court for a three-on-two that ends in a Josh Howard bucket.

A big thanks to @KennChapman17, who not only caught the flop but sent in an exemplary tweet to alert us.

However the playoffs are sure to provide a veritable cornucopia of flops, so keep your eyes peeled and tweet @HoopIdea when you spot a #FlopOfTheNight!

Here's how to make your submission:

• Alert HoopIdea to super flops with the Twitter hashtag #FlopOfTheNight (follow us on Twitter here).
• Use the #FlopOfTheNight hashtag in Daily Dime Live.
• E-mail us at hoopidea@gmail.com

When Shane Battier, the patron baller of HoopIdea, called out former teammate Luis Scola for being one of the most accomplished actors in the league, it got us thinking: Who are the most egregious floppers around?

We asked the TrueHoop Network for help, and the result is our first ever All-Flop Teams.

FIRST TEAM

Chris Paul, PG: Paul quickly emerged as the consensus Most Floppy Player. As this video from Daily Thunder’s Royce Young shows, Paul is truly a fantastic two-way talent. Graydon Gordian elaborates, “I think Royce's video demonstrated two really distinct things Chris Paul does: (a) He stops dead in his tracks, backs up into a player who's behind him and then falls forward, and (b) he maintains possession of the ball and/or makes a pass while going to the ground. He doesn't lose the ball when flopping, which lots of guys do.”

Raja Bell/Manu Ginobili, SG: Controversial decision to include both of them here, but really these two have given so much to the game. Manu with his whiplash-inducing head thrashes as he drives to the basket and Raja Bell with his ability to be thrown backwards by the slightest of contact. Here’s the Raja-Manu mixtape of floppery.

Paul Pierce, SF: Pierce is another two-way player who isn’t afraid to artistically embellish any contact (real or imagined) with a sometimes ludicrous flourish.

Luis Scola, PF: Battier put it best: “The more hair you have, the better. My boy Luis Scola, he’s got that long hair and when it gets sweaty and he starts flopping and flailing, it looks like he’s getting murdered out there.”

Ben Wallace, C: Writes Patrick Hayes of Piston Powered: "Wallace is adept at going for rebounds in heavy traffic, but he also uses that traffic to his advantage. If a shot is missed and he doesn't have a great angle to get to it, he's patented a move where he jumps forward and lurches his body while simultaneously letting out a loud 'OOOPH,' which over the years has pretty regularly convinced officials he was pushed in the back. Often, video evidence suggests otherwise. Wallace's artful flopping on rebound attempts has been just another valuable skill he's brought to the Pistons that doesn't show up in his stats. Oh, and don't ever mention to him that he flops ... he doesn't like that.”

SECOND TEAM

Rajon Rondo, PG: Rondo’s habit of throwing himself into a defender 50 feet from the hoop and firing off a prayer as time expires isn’t why he’s a celebrated flopper. It’s because, as Brendan Jackson of Celtics Hub noted, he’ll fall over as a defense mechanism whenever he gets in trouble with his dribble, especially along the baseline. (Also receiving votes: Tony Parker, Derek Fisher, Deron Williams, Chauncey Billups.)

Jamal Crawford, SG: A unique flopper, as Kevin Arnovitz explains, “There's a reason Jamal Crawford holds the all-time NBA record for 4-point plays. As the sharpshooter elevates and releases his shot, he'll gracefully hinge his hips forward, kick his legs into his defender and often land on his tuchus in the process.” (Also receiving votes: Dwyane Wade, James Harden, Kobe Bryant.)

Corey Maggette, SF: Ethan Sherwood Strauss paints us a picture of a typical Maggette flop: “Two dribbles hoop-ward and he’s already leaning for contact. It’s an offensive foul, or at least it would be were it not for Corey’s sleight of hand. Somehow this ball of muscles flies backward from the 'contact.' It’s a visual trick -- Maggette uses an off arm to redirect his body movement. The ball? That thing’s flying into the stands, chased by the sound waves of Corey’s wounded animal bleat.” (Also receiving votes: Kevin Durant, Vince Carter, Nicolas Batum.)

Dirk Nowitzki, PF: Dirk is a do-it-all flopper. He can flop while driving, shooting, playing defense and rebounding, perhaps the most underrated facet of his flop game. Dirk may never jump higher than when he’s flying away from a rebound after a “nudge” in the back. (Also receiving votes: Blake Griffin, Pau Gasol, Tim Duncan.)

Reggie Evans, C: Evans has a reputation as one of the dirtiest players in the NBA, but don’t try any of that stuff on him. Reggie can induce whistles with the best of them, but only while doing the only things he does well on the court: setting screens, rebounding and exchanging elbows under the rim. (Also receiving votes: Marc Gasol, JaVale McGee.)

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One thing you'll notice is that this list contains almost every great player in the league. That's not an accident, part of excelling in the NBA is being able to manipulate officials to benefit your team.

It's not that players are sneaky or devious, they're just pragmatic. The system won't penalize flopping and will sometimes reward it, so what's the downside?

So let's change the system. What kind of penalties for flopping would you like to see, and how would they be implemented?

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

You can give us your ideas and talk with us and other fans in the following places:

• Twitter: Go to @HoopIdea and tweet to us with the hashtag #hoopidea
• Google+: Go to our HoopIdea Google+ page and discuss
• TrueHoop: Read our HoopIdea posts here and contribute on the conversation page
• E-mail us at hoopidea@gmail.com

And for the truly ambitious: Shoot a short video of yourself explaining your HoopIdea, upload it to YouTube and share the link with us on Twitter or Google+.

Dwight Howard became the first NBA player this season to record a double-double in the first quarter on the way to finishing with 25 points and 24 rebounds as the Orlando Magic beat the Miami Heat.

It was the sixth 20-20 game of the season for Howard. No other player in the league has more than two such games, and the rest of the league has combined to only match Howard’s total. That’s not a unique position for Howard; during the 2008-09 season, he had nine 20-20 games while the rest of the league combined for eight.

Howard doesn’t often shoot from behind the arc, but he did attempt his fifth 3-pointer of the season on Wednesday. He wasn’t the only Magic player to go long-range in the game. Orlando attempted a franchise-record 42 3-pointers. The Magic were the fifth team since the 1996-97 season to attempt more shots from 3-point range than inside the arc in a single game.

Stop the Lin-sanity
Jeremy Lin continues to take New York by storm. In his second NBA start, Lin scored 23 points and dished out 10 assists to finish with his first career double-double to lead the New York Knicks pas the Washington Wizards.

Lin is the first player since LeBron James in 2003 to score at least 20 points and hand out at least 8 assists in his first two NBA starts. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only five players have done it since the merger. Greg Anthony (1991-92), Negele Knight (1990-91) and Billy McKinney (1978-79) were the other three.

Even before he moved into the starting lineup, the Knicks offense had been much better with Lin on the court than sitting on the bench. New York scores nearly 12 more points per 48 minutes with Lin on the court, with most of the difference coming due to getting open shots in the paint.

Statistical Feats of the Night
The Houston Rockets bench outscored the starters 66-37 in the team’s win at the Portland Trail Blazers. The 66 bench points tied for second-most in the NBA this season, behind the 68 scored by the Dallas Mavericks against the Sacramento Kings on Jan. 14.

Tony Parker was 12-for-24 from the field and 13-for-13 from the free-throw line against the Philadelphia 76ers. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last Spurs starting guard to make at least half his field-goal attempts and convert all his free throws in a game (minimum: 10 made FG and FT) was George Gervin during the 1983-84 season.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 25 points, his third straight game with at least 24 points after only topping that mark twice in his first 19 games this season. Nowitzki moved past Adrian Dantley into 21st on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

Plus-Minus Note of the Night
All 10 starters for the Rockets and Trail Blazers finished the game with a negative plus-minus. All five Rockets bench players finished in positive territory. Chase Budinger, who scored a game-high 22 points, recorded a game-high plus-15. Jamal Crawford, who led the Blazers with 21 points off the bench, was the only Portland player to avoid a minus, finishing at plus-8.

LOS ANGELES -- If Lob City is going to be a functioning municipality, then it's going to need some law and order. Every day can't be a celebratory parade or a civic orgy. Somebody has to sweep the streets, fill the potholes and pick up the garbage.

During the first week of the season, the Los Angeles Clippers delivered spectacle and frills, and entered Sunday's action as the NBA's most efficient offense. Unfortunately, the Clippers' defense was every bit as putrid as their offense was prolific. They knew they’d need a couple of weeks to craft a coherent defensive game plan, but they never imagined that they’d rank dead last in the NBA defensively a week into the season, giving up an unsightly 113.3 points per 100 possessions.

On Sunday night, the Clippers showed signs of life on the defensive end in their 93-88 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. The sellout crowd was treated to its fair share of acrobatics above the rim courtesy of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, but the Clippers fought this game in the trenches for 36 minutes, then weathered a scintillating 36-point fourth quarter by Portland to hold on.

"I thought we did a good job limiting their easy baskets as much as possible," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "They got behind our defense a couple of times in the fourth quarter, but overall I thought that was an important part of the game for us."

The Clippers applied tough ball pressure on the Trail Blazers for three quarters, something that was notably absent from losses to San Antonio and Chicago last week. For the game, the Clippers logged 25 deflections -- an average effort for the team generally falls in the 15 range.

"We were in them the whole time," Griffin said. "We were on top of them, getting loose balls, getting steals, deflections. A deflection forces them to have to take a tough shot at the end of the shot clock. It's huge."

Portland is an efficient offensive club that opened the season with three straight wins, but it's not really a rhythm team in the classical sense. The Trail Blazers rely on a lot of pin-downs and pick-and-pop plays for LaMarcus Aldridge, with a few flex cuts sprinkled in to get their wings some open looks. The Clippers denied the Trail Blazers easy passes to Aldridge and forced 21 turnovers on the night -- much of the credit due to center Jordan. On the rare occasions when that intense pressure yielded penetration, the Clippers' back-line defenders were prompt to rotate. The Trail Blazers couldn't find anything in the half court and Clippers held a 69-52 lead after three quarters.

That's when the trouble began for Los Angeles, as Portland began to work away at the deficit. Nicolas Batum wreaked havoc off the ball (with a nifty baseline cut), as a spot-up shooter (two silky 3-pointers) and in transition (a breakaway slam off a deflection). Jamal Crawford scored 13 points on a combination of long jumpers and foul shots courtesy of his patented kick motion.

By the time Raymond Felton burned the Clippers on a couple of pick-and-rolls -- one resulting in an easy weak-side jumper by Aldridge, the other when he squirted to the hole past a backpedaling Jordan -- a laugher had morphed into a 5-point game and it grew only closer from there.

"In the fourth quarter when Jamal was getting loose, we did a poor job [defensively]," Griffin said. "We just have to bridge the gap and make it a four-quarter thing."

The win was anything but seamless, as the Clippers wobbled defensively and failed to find clean looks on the other end. Caron Butler, who scored 19 points on the night, missed a pair of free throws that would've extended the Clippers' lead to six points with 1:19 to play. On their next possession, the Clippers piddled around in the half court before Butler launched a contested 26-footer with the shot clock expiring. Aldridge then took an inbounds pass, and beat Jordan off the dribble on the right side with a bank shot to cut the lead to two.

Ultimately, it was Chris Paul who bailed the Clippers out on both ends. With 9.3 seconds remaining, Paul scored the final two of his 17 points and gave the Clippers a 92-88 lead. Paul split two defenders off a step-up screen from Jordan, then skated through the paint, finishing with a running bank shot from five feet.

Paul then drew the task of defending the much taller Crawford on the subsequent inbounds play. With Crawford desperately trying to find space along the perimeter, Paul pestered and harassed him. As Crawford elevated for a shot, Paul went with him and a jump ball was called.

"I know Jamal Crawford really well," Paul said. "He's an unbelievable scorer and can handle the ball like crazy."

Crawford is the all-time NBA leader in four-point plays. Was that a thought that drifted into Paul's mind?

"No question," Paul said. "I felt I just had to stay down, don't jump, and I got a deflection."

It wasn't a terribly artful win for the Clippers, who would've preferred to clamp down for 48 minutes rather than watch what they build for three quarters spring a leak. But governance is never pretty, no matter how glossy the city's marketing campaign might be.

The NBA offseason is finishing with a sprint as the schedule is released Tuesday night. Soon teams will be scrambling to fill out rosters with free-agent deals. Before your teams do that, you can go shopping yourself with our interactive graphic below.

Here are some takeaways that we saw:

Tyson Chandler is the prize
Believe it or not, Chandler was tied for fifth in the league in Win Shares per 48 minutes with Dwyane Wade. That is a rate stat so it can be a bit misleading but Chandler's 9.4 total Win Shares ranked 23rd in the league, ahead of more notable big men like Kevin Garnett and Amare Stoudemire. Chandler certainly won’t garner that superstar-level money which makes him a bargain for any team.

Chandler produces an elite rebounding rate – his 19.7% of total rebounds grabbed ranked seventh amongst players with at least 50 games played. Throw in the fact that that he shot 65.4 percent from the floor and you have a tremendously productive player at a scarce position.

Josh McRoberts could have a bright future
Remember when McRoberts was the 2005 McDonald’s All-America Player of the Year? He’s finally seems to be living up to some of that potential.

McRoberts quietly put together a very solid 2010-11 season while playing a career high 22 minutes per game and is the youngest unrestricted free agent available on the market at 24 years old. But it's his per-36 numbers that show he can do a little bit of everything: 12 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1.1 SPG, 1.3 BPG.

Perhaps the most important stat is that McRoberts dropped his fouls-per-36 from 5.2 in his age 21 and 22 seasons to 3.7 last year. At 0.147 Win Shares per 48, McRoberts is the second most valuable available forward who played at least 20 MPG last year.

Don’t overpay Jamal Crawford
Entering this free-agent period, the consensus seems to be that Crawford is the most valuable available guard. Unfortunately the numbers paint a less flattering picture.

Despite seeing 30 minutes per game last year off the bench, Crawford actually produced at a below league average rate. Known for his offense, Crawford’s ORtg of 105 was only 1.5 better than the league average. His DRtg of 111 (meaning he allowed 3.5 points more per 100 possessions than the average defender) couldn't overcome that slightly above-average offense. These numbers added up to a 14.2 PER, the lowest of his career since his age-20 rookie season. He now enters his age 31 season.

In a time when owners want to limit player salaries, the first test will be avoid overpaying for an underperformer such as Crawford.

Most valuable forward … Steve Novak?
Novak led all free-agent forwards last season with .195 Win Shares per 48 minutes. Instant caveat: he did this in only 7.2 minutes per game so there’s an obvious sample-size issue.

But even in that limited time, how did he manage to perform at such a high rate?

The key was his off-the-charts shooting. Novak shot 52 percent from the field last season and a whopping 56 percent from three-point range. He only played in 30 games so it’s not fair to expect that kind of production in the future, but his sharpshooting from outside isn’t an aberration. He’s averaged 42 percent from three-point range for his career. It's not likely that Novak can be more than a role player because he can’t do the dirty work expected of a 6-10 forward, but he can bring valuable efficient outside spot-up shooting with a low price tag.

Thanks to Basketball-Reference.com and Tableau.

• On the B.S. Report with Bill Simmons, union president Billy Hunter insisted there were only "six or seven" NBA veterans who were pulling in bloated salaries in the $6-10 million range without contributing all that much on the floor. On Tuesday, Zach Lowe of the Point Forward pored over salary data and found no fewer than 34 veterans who could be fairly characterized as overpaid. Andrew Lynch of Hardwood Paroxysm went through the list of "Bad Mid-Tier Contracts," and discovered that the five teams who carried three or more of these contracts averaged a woeful 33.2 wins. Meanwhile, the eight conference semifinalists had only four such contracts combined (two of four belonging to Atlanta).
• Tom Ziller of SB Nation offers a smart rebuttal to my case against revenue sharing: "Without more robust revenue sharing, a new revenue split will only serve to shift the conditions a little: teams like the Spurs will make a couple million in profit or break even, the Knicks will make even more money. It's still not fair or productive. It still doesn't incent the pursuit of excellence for small markets." At some point, we'll need to look at the very sensitive issue of what constitutes a viable market in a sports world driven by broadcast revenue and television households. This is a relatively new model because, for decades, the gate was king. I'm still intrigued by the Costas plan, whereby the visiting team would earn its fair share of local television revenue, because it's a proposal guided by principle. I still have hope that, in the coming decades, robust revenue from international broadcasts could level the playing field across the league. Yet right now, it's nearly impossible not to lose money in a number of NBA markets. Nobody wants to see loyal fans in any market lose a product they love. The atmosphere in Salt Lake City and Sacramento is intoxicating and every chance I get to travel to these arenas is a treat. But let's acknowledge you'll have a hard time finding any other commercial sector where huge operating losses are subsidized every year because the idea of a business leaving a market makes people sad or queazy. This returns us to the age-old question: Are sports teams entertainment products or public trusts?
• In the not-so-distant future, it's very likely some of your favorite NBA players will be pitching products in their Twitter feeds.
• Zach Lowe explores whether less restrictive trade parameters would give an edge to wealthier teams.
• The best Milwaukee Buck of the past 20 years? That's easy -- Ray Allen. Josh Hilgendorf of Bucksketball writes that, as good as Allen was, the trade that sent him to Seattle didn't turn out all that bad for the Bucks.
• Derrick Rose, easily among the league's most underpaid players, on the salary cap: "I wish it was back like where it was in the old days where there wasn't a cap ... Back in the day, they were giving guys coming out of college multimillion-dollar contracts, so why stop it now? The game is growing. There's no need to stop it."
• Could Jamal Crawford be a hot free agent target when the NBA gets back to work? Crawford might be a chucker, but has generally been exceptionally well-liked among his contemporaries.
• Morris Almond with some recommendations for your listening pleasure: "Did i mention that the Film Score radio station on Pandora is a goldmine?"
• Social networking tools plotted along two dimensions.
• Mike Fratello is back in the winemaking game.

The Chicago Bulls travel to Atlanta with a chance to close out the Hawks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Thursday night.

When a team leads a seven-game series 3-2, it goes on to win the series 85.5 percent of the time.

The Bulls are 12-1 in a best-of-seven series when leading 3-2, with their only loss coming in the 1975 Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

As for the Hawks, they're 3-13 when trailing 3-2 in a best-of-seven series. Their three comebacks were: 1960 Division Finals against the Minneapolis Lakers; 1961 Division Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers; and 2010 First Round against the Milwaukee Bucks. (The Hawks haven't won two series in the same postseason since moving to Atlanta in 1968.)

One of the keys to the Bulls’ postseason success has been the performance of Derrick Rose. In Game 5, Rose was able to get to the basket at will, scoring 18 points on 9-of-16 shooting inside 5 feet.

Rose has scored 96 points inside 5 feet during the postseason, and has 32 assists in the same range -- both numbers lead this year's playoffs.

While Rose has had his way in the paint, the Hawks have struggled mightily outside of it.

On field goal attempts outside of 10 feet, Joe Johnson is Atlanta's only perimeter player who has been productive (27-for-51, 52.9 percent).

Of the five other Hawks in this series who have taken at least 15 shots beyond 10 feet, none has shot better than 36.4 percent from the floor. The biggest culprit has been Josh Smith, who has missed 26 of 29 shots outside of 10 feet. Jamal Crawford hasn’t been much better, shooting 31.6 percent (12-38) from that distance.

However, within 5 feet of the basket, Smith is 21-for-35 (60.0 percent) in the series.

It must have seemed like déjà vu for the Chicago Bulls, with 69 points through three quarters and entering the fourth with a slim lead. But, after being outscored by 14 points in the fourth quarter of Game 4, Chicago bounced back to defeat the Atlanta Hawks with a strong finish in Game 5.

In the fourth quarter of Game 4, the Bulls allowed the Hawks to shoot 65 percent from the field and got sloppy, committing five turnovers. On Tuesday night, Chicago held Atlanta to 31.3 percent field goal shooting in the final frame thanks to an unlikely combination of players.

At 1:58 of the third, Carlos Boozer joined Joakim Noah on the bench, where the two would remain the rest of the game. The Bulls trotted out a five-man unit of Derrick Rose, Ronnie Brewer, Luol Deng, Taj Gibson and Omer Asik. They played the next 12 minutes and 53 seconds together, turning a one-point lead into a 12-point lead. Prior to Game 5, that unit played just four minutes together in the playoffs.

Gibson scored all 11 of his points in the fourth quarter, while Asik grabbed three rebounds and added a blocked shot. They led a bench that contributed 13 fourth-quarter points in Game 5 after scoring just four points in the last quarter of Game 4.

Rose (33 points) continued his strong postseason play, notching his third consecutive 30-point performance. He really turned it on to begin the fourth, scoring or assisting on eight of the Bulls' first nine baskets. He finished with 11 points and three assists in the fourth.

For the Hawks, their struggles shooting from distance hurt them in Game 5, particularly the duo of Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford.

In order for Atlanta to have success against Chicago, the Hawks need Crawford and Johnson to make jump shots. The two were just 3-for-14 from 15-plus feet on Tuesday.

In the Hawks two wins this series, the pair have shot over 53 percent from 15 feet and beyond. In the three losses, they have shot only 30 percent from that range, scoring less than 10 points per game from that distance.

The Hawks struggled from deep, going just 1-for-12 from 3-point range, with Johnson and Crawford combining to go 1-for-9. Atlanta is just 10-for-40 from 3-point range in its three losses during the series, while 11-for-24 in its two wins.

On Thursday the phrase “win or go home” truly meant something for the Orlando Magic, New Orleans Hornets and Portland Trail Blazers. All three faced elimination, and after Thursday’s action, all three are going home.

Atlanta Hawks 84, Orlando Magic 81 (Hawks win series 4-2)
For the first time in franchise history, the Hawks beat the Magic in a playoff series. Atlanta has not lost a home playoff game in which it had a chance to clinch the series in the last 15 years. The last team to beat the Hawks in such a situation was the 1995-96 Indiana Pacers led by Rik Smits and ESPN analyst Mark Jackson. The Hawks will look to win two playoff series in the same postseason for the first time since moving to Atlanta in 1968.

The stars of the game were Jamal Crawford, who once again outscored the entire Magic bench 19-17, and Joe Johnson, who grabbed a playoff career-high 10 rebounds en route to his first career 20-10 playoff game.

The Magic finished 0-5 this season in Atlanta, regular season and playoffs combined. Their 3-point shooting was a huge issue as the Magic shot 26.3 percent in this game and 26.2 percent in the series. That's more than 10 percentage points below their regular-season average (36.6 percent).

Dwight Howard averaged 27 points and 15.5 rebounds per game, while making 63 percent of his field-goal attempts. The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that over the last 30 years, only one other player had a playoff series in which he averaged 27 points and 15 rebounds per game, while making at least 60 percent of his field-goal attempts. That was Shaquille O'Neal (38.0 points, 16.7 rebounds, 61.1 percent) for the Lakers against the Pacers in the 2000 Finals. In earlier playoffs, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reached those levels in four series, and Wilt Chamberlain and Bob Lanier each did it once.

This was the earliest the Magic were bounced from the playoffs in the Stan Van Gundy era. In each of his previous three seasons, they won at least one series.

The Hawks move on to face the top-seeded Chicago Bulls. Chicago took two of the three meetings this season, with the lone Hawks win coming in Atlanta after the Bulls blew a 17-point halftime lead.

Los Angeles Lakers 98, New Orleans Hornets 80 (Lakers win series, 4-2)
The Lakers led by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter and won their first-round series for the fourth straight year. Phil Jackson improves to 56-21 (.727 win percent) in potential series-clinching games, which is the second-best mark in NBA history to Gregg Popovich (minimum 15 games). Kobe Bryant finished with 24 points including 22 in the first three quarters. Bryant had a string of eight straight 30-plus point games in road potential series-clinchers snapped. The Lakers, however, are 8-1 in their last nine potential road clinchers with Bryant averaging 38.7 points per game. Overall he is 32-14 in potential series-clinching games.

The Hornets fall to 0-5 in playoff series that go six games or more. Chris Paul finished two rebounds shy of a triple-double, which would have been his second of the series.
Paul was less aggressive on the offensive end in Game 6 compared to the earlier games in the series. In the four losses to the Lakers, Paul averaged 18 points and 10 assists, which is very respectable. Unfortunately for the Hornets, they couldn't win without their point guard playing nearly flawless basketball. In the two wins, Paul averaged 30 points and including assists, was responsible for more than 60 points per game.

So who will the Lakers take on in the Western Conference semifinals?

Dallas Mavericks 103, Portland Trail Blazers 96 (Mavericks win series 4-2)
The Mavericks advance past the first round for just the second time in the last five postseasons. Dirk Nowitzki led the way with 33 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the series. Nowitzki improves to 10-7 in potential series-clinching games, averaging 26.2 points per game in those games. It's the second-highest scoring average in potential series clinchers among active players.

Gerald Wallace led the Blazers with a playoff career-high 32 points to go along with 12 rebounds. Brandon Roy added nine points off the bench. In Portland's two wins he averaged 20.0 points per game, while he averaged 4.0 points per game in the four losses.

The Mavericks will now face the Lakers in their first playoff meeting since 1988, which means Bryant and Nowitzki will be playing their first-ever playoff series against each other. The last time the Mavericks and Lakers met in the playoffs it was a Mark Aguirre-led Mavericks team against a Byron-Worthy-Magic-Kareem-led Lakers team. The Lakers won the Conference Finals in seven games and went on to win the NBA Finals.

The bank was open for Jamal Crawford down the stretch of Friday's Game 3 as his three-point field goal with 5.7 seconds remaining helped seal the Atlanta Hawks win over the Orlando Magic.

In a series that has been defined by bench play -- or lack thereof for the Magic -- Crawford led all scorers with 23 points off the bench, with 12 coming in the final frame.

For the third straight game Crawford single-handedly outscored the Magic reserves. For the series, Crawford has scored 71 points, while Orlando's subs have combined for just 43 points.

Crawford is one of only seven players in the past 20 seasons to have three consecutive 20-point games off the bench in a single postseason. Only two players have done it in four straight games -- Nick Van Exel in 2003 for the Mavericks and Kevin McHale for the Celtics in 1991.

Crawford did most of his damage when guarded by Jameer Nelson, who had actually held Crawford to 38.9 percent shooting over the past two seasons.

However Friday night Crawford scored 17 of his 23 points when checked by Nelson, making five of his nine field goal attempts. He was just 2-for-10 when guarded by other players.

Although the Hawks managed to win Game 3, Atlanta has gotten progressively worse at shooting jump shots during their series with the Magic. After shooting 51.4 percent (19-37) on jumpers in Game 1, the Hawks made only 42.0 percent (21-50) in Game 2, and 32.6 percent (16-49) Friday.

However the Magic have not been able to capitalize as they have shot poorly throughout the series as well, particularly from behind the three-point line.

Orlando made just eight of its 28 three-point attempts (28.6 percent) and have now shot under 30 percent from three-point range in each game of this series.

During the 82-game regular season they had only two streaks of three straight games in which they failed to shoot at least 30-percent from long distance.

One of the main cogs in the Magic's struggle has been the inability to get Hedo Turkoglu on track. Turkoglu is shooting just 25 percent on field goal attempts from beyond 10 feet and only 17.6 percent from behind the three-point line.

During the Magic's run to the NBA Finals two season ago, Turkoglu shot 42.3 percent from 10-feet and beyond, including 38.6 percent from three-point range.

One thing is for sure though; Magic fans cannot blame Dwight Howard for how this series has gone. Howard notched 21 points and 15 rebounds and is now averaging 33.3 points and 17.7 rebounds per game for the series.

According to Elias, Howard is the fifth player since the NBA merger (1976-77) to record 20 points and 15 rebounds in each of his first three games of a postseason. The last player to do so was Dirk Nowitzki back in 2001.

Of the 10 games in the NBA on Friday, no two were more lopsided than the Hornets 100-59 win over the Hawks and the Raptors 112-72 loss to the Magic.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was only the third day in NBA history in which two regular-season games ended with a margin of 40-plus points. It also happened on Apr. 22, 1994 (Knicks 125, Bucks 85; Pacers 133, 76ers 88) and Nov. 7, 1981 (Warriors 152, Nuggets 107; Celtics 129, Pistons 88).

Atlanta's 41-point loss came three days after a big overtime win against the Heat in Miami in which five players scored in double figures. On Friday, just two players including Jamal Crawford who came off the bench with a team-high 14 points, scored 10+ points.

Atlanta, which entered the game with a 28–15 won-lost record, is the first team in NBA history to lose a home game by 40 or more points after entering the game at least 10 games over .500.

Atlanta’s 59 points were the Hawks’ second-lowest point total in any game in the shot-clock era (which began in the 1954–55 season); the Milwaukee Hawks had a 62–57 loss in Boston in 1955. Atlanta’s 59 points were the fewest by a home team since Miami scored 56 in a loss to Utah on Dec. 18, 2001.

Atlanta’s 29.1 field-goal percentage was the lowest by any NBA team this season and it was the lowest for the Hawks in any home game since they moved to Atlanta.

The 72 points meanwhile for the Raptors was their fewest total this season. The last time Toronto scored 72 points or fewer was back on February 7, 2009 when they scored 70 against the Grizzlies.

Toronto has lost six straight games for the second time this season. It's the second time in the last three seasons that the Raptors have had two separate losing streaks of at least six games in a season.

Josh is smooth in Hawks win

Although there were only seven games in the NBA Tuesday night, there was no shortage of great notes.

Take Josh Smith, for example, who scored a season-high 34 points in the Atlanta Hawks' 116-101 victory over the New Jersey Nets.

Smith shot 14-16 from the floor, and over the last four seasons, only three other players have scored at least 34 points on at least 14-16 shooting: Amar'e Stoudemire (this season), Chris Bosh (2007-08) and Kevin Martin (2007-08).

The Hawks shot 60.3 percent from the floor in the win, just the fourth team in the NBA to do so this season.

Atlanta also continues to get it done despite the absence of Joe Johnson, improving to 4-1 without their star. Both Smith and Jamal Crawford had season highs in scoring.

FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: Smith became the first Hawks player with a game of that many points (34) and that high a FG pct (87.5 pct) in more than 55 years, since Hall-of-Famer Bob Pettit scored 34 points while making 12 of 13 shots (92.3 percent) on March 14, 1955.

Pettit’s performance came in a 99-84 win over the Philadelphia Warriors, in a neutral-site game played in Albany, New York. What made the game especially noteworthy is that it was the final game played by the Hawks while representing Milwaukee.

Less than 2 months later, it was announced that the team would move from Milwaukee to St. Louis for the 1955-56 season; it then moved to Atlanta in 1968.

Texas Ten-Step

Meanwhile, the Dallas Mavericks' 105-100 win over the Golden State Warriors gave them 10 straight wins.

It’s the eighth time dating back to the 2001-02 season that the Mavericks have had a 10-game win streak, tied with the San Antonio Spurs for the most in the NBA over that span.

That 10-game win streak was enough to move the Mavericks from fifth to second place in the Western Conference.

Miller time ends

Finally, Andre Miller was suspended for the Portland Trail Blazers’ 106-99 win over the Phoenix Suns after his hit on Blake Griffin in Portland’s last game.

That’s important because it snapped Miller’s streak of 632 consecutive games played, which was the longest active streak in the NBA.

Derek Fisher is now the NBA’s new iron man, having played in his 434th consecutive game in Tuesday night’s Los Angeles Lakers' win. The New Orleans Hornets' Jarrett Jack moves to second, with 309 straight games played.

Here are some notes I collected this weekend and this morning:

• Al Horford's five-year, $60 million extension came as a mild surprise to a number of GMs around the league on Monday. Clearly the Hawks love Horford and the toughness he brings to their front line, but can they really afford him after giving more than $100 million to Joe Johnson this summer?

Several GMs believe the Hawks won't be able to keep Johnson ($18.5 million in 2011-12), Josh Smith ($12.5 million in 2011-12), Marvin Williams ($8 million in 2011-12) and Horford ($12 million in 2011-12) together past this season for financial reasons.

While Horford's new salary won't push the Hawks into the luxury tax, it will put them very close. The move means they won't be able to afford to re-sign Jamal Crawford, or replace him with a similar salaried player next season, without incurring the tax.

That situation is already leading to speculation that GM Rick Sund may be forced to put Smith on the market soon. Sund briefly flirted with trading Smith last summer, before pulling back. While no one is claiming he's been made available yet, a number of GMs around the league expect his name to be in the mix by the February trade deadline.

Williams would be the Hawks' first choice to move, but he didn't get a lot of bites when he was available this summer. That could push them to see what they can get for Smith.

A number of teams, including the Knicks, Nets, Pistons and Suns, have shown interest in the high-flying forward in the past. It will be interesting to see if talks heat up as we get closer to February.

The extension for Horford (along with previous extensions for Kevin Durant and Joakim Noah) essentially takes away the three best restricted free agent prospects from the draft class of 2007.

Still, the restricted class is pretty strong. Greg Oden, Marc Gasol, Thaddeus Young, Rodney Stuckey, Jeff Green, Aaron Brooks, Mike Conley, Wilson Chandler, Brandan Wright, Arron Afflalo, Yi Jianlian and Marcus Thornton haven't received extensions as of Monday afternoon. (UPDATE: Conley signed an extension on Monday night.)

Typically restricted free agents struggle to get big offer sheets, and if they do, their team usually matches. But given the plethora of teams with major cap space this coming summer, that could change.

• The Timberwolves drew the wrong types of headlines on opening night when head coach Kurt Rambis benched forward Kevin Love in the fourth quarter of a tight game against the Kings.

Love was clearly unhappy and it didn't take long for fans to start a "Free Kevin Love" campaign. Love had a rocky relationship with the Wolves last season, too, and this clearly wasn't the way to start off the new season.

However, those who think Love is going to be traded soon are going to be disappointed. Sources say that the Wolves and Love have talked since the game and that going forward, Rambis won't be benching the team's best player in the fourth quarter. While Love clearly could use some work on the defensive end, he's the franchise right now until Ricky Rubio arrives (if he arrives) and the Wolves are going to do more to make sure he's happy.

• Speaking of the Wolves, don't be too hard on GM David Kahn for taking Wes Johnson over DeMarcus Cousins. The Wolves didn't think he'd be a fit next to Love. But that wasn't the biggest reason they passed. There was a bigger concern that Cousins would be too much to handle in the locker room -- especially on such a young team.

Those concerns, according to sources, are already being borne out in Sacramento. While Cousins has played very well in the summer league, preseason and in the Kings' first three regular-season games, there are concerns.

Sources close to the Kings tell me that Cousins has earned his reputation for being difficult. Several players on the team have complained privately about his attitude and he's already butted heads with assistant coaches in practice.

• On draft night, the Knicks caught me by surprise when they took Stanford forward Landry Fields with the 39th pick in the draft. Fields was in our database ranked as the 116th-best player in the draft. He's the first American player ever to be drafted that wasn't in our Top 100 since we started doing this in 2003.

Clearly, I blew it.

Fields has earned a starting position for the Knicks and through three games is posting a very impressive 19.30 PER -- better than both Blake Griffin and Cousins.

How did I (and a number of NBA teams) miss so badly? Our Top 100 is based on the consensus of a number NBA scouts and executives. Fields wasn't mentioned by any of them. He was so off the radar that he wasn't one of the top 60 players invited by the NBA to participate in the Chicago predraft camp. The NBA selects participants based off of rankings by all 30 NBA teams.

But that's not an excuse. One NBA scout, along with a source close to the Stanford team, called me and told me I was sleeping on Fields. I pulled down some tape from Synergy and, frankly, just didn't see it. Had I thought about him specifically for Mike D'Antoni's wide-open system -- maybe. But the truth is I thought he was a good European prospect, not an NBA one.

He's proven me and the rest of the league very wrong in the early going. From all accounts he's a very nice kid who's working really hard. Here's hoping he keeps it up over the course of his career.

I practically grew up at the Omni. I had a more familiar relationship with our chain-smoking usher decked out in her red sateen jacket with the octogonal patch sewn on the sleeve than I did with the administrators who roamed the halls of my elementary school.

At the time I started attending Hawks games, the population of metro Atlanta was around 2.3 million people, qualifying it as a medium-sized market still in its relative infancy as a major league city -- the Falcons were the first to arrive in Atlanta in 1965. When I attended my first Hawks game in 1981, the team had been in Atlanta for only 13 years. At age eight that meant nothing to me, but for my father, who was born and raised a couple of miles from the Omni, the Hawks were still a novelty. For most of his lifetime, southern cities simply weren't candidates for big-league sports teams for reasons ranging from economics to history. It's not a coincidence that major league teams arrived just after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Those teams have now been in the city for more than 40 years, but Atlanta still suffers from the reputation of being a horrible sports town. The city's pro sports teams -- most notably the Braves -- have trouble selling out postseason games. Even though the Hawks have climbed into the ranks of the NBA's elite and feature an electrifying roster of athletes, they still rank in the bottom half of the league this season in attendance -- behind the Wizards and just a smidgen ahead of the Clippers. The question of support is all the more riddling because Atlanta has become a magnet for multi-national corporations over the past 25 years.

In today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Michael Cunningham reports that the Hawks are frustrated that, many nights, supporters of the opposing team are more vocal at Philips Arena than Hawks partisans:

The marquee teams and stars who’ve visited Philips Arena this season have been too warmly received for Woodson’s tastes.

“It shouldn’t be that way,” Woodson said. “There [are] enough people in this city to support the Hawks. I think we are a fun team to watch. We’ve grown definitely over the years, from the time we started to where we are today.

“Sure, I’d like to see more people in their seats and rooting for our guys.”

Instead, the Hawks have seen fans root for opponents in their house.

... Now Woodson would like for Hawks fans to do their part to make Philips unwelcoming for visiting teams. That’s how it was for the Pistons when Woodson was an assistant coach there prior to taking over the Hawks.

“When you came up in The Palace, you were in ‘Detroitland,’” Woodson said. “They [fans] made the difference in a lot of ballgames that we won. And it needs to be like that here.

Pop-sociologists have all sorts of theories for the general apathy in Atlanta. They cite the temperate climate, which keeps residents outdoors for much of the year. They point out that Atlanta has produced only one championship in the collective 152 seasons that the four major sports have been played in the city. In recent decades, the traffic on the ribbons of highways that snake through the region has become hellacious and a commute downtown at rush hour is an awful experience.

Each of these factors plays a part, but I like Jamal Crawford's theory a little better:

Hawks guard Jamal Crawford makes the case that support for visiting teams is due to the significant number of transplants in Atlanta. Crawford was on the other end of that equation when he played for the Knicks, who were supported by relocated New Yorkers in several cities.

Since I attended my first Hawks game in 1981, that 2.3 million has grown to nearly 6 million people who live in the region. Needless to say, native Atlantans aren't procreating at a frenetic rate. More than a third of the people who moved to the city between 2000 and 2004 were from out-of-state. That domestic migration is a huge factor in the region's growth. Overall since 2000, nearly 50,000 more US-born people from somewhere else in the country are arriving in metro Atlanta each year than leaving. Global migration represents a big part of the population boom, as well -- 13.4 percent of metro Atlanta's population is foreign-born.

There's a logical counter-argument to all of this: More people should mean more fans, irrespective of where they were born, right?

Yes and no.

If you've ever spent time in an older city outside the Sun Belt, you know how central sports teams are to the natives. Bostonians, New Yorkers and Chicagoans have passed down their loyalties from generation to generation. My late grandfather was born at Georgia Baptist hospital in 1916. He was a native Atlantan through and through. He loved his city and its institutions -- but none of those institutions were sports teams. By the time the Hawks arrived in Atlanta, my grandfather was in his early-50s. Few rabid sport fans cultivate visceral attachments to expansion teams as 50-something empty nesters. The serious middle-aged fans I know grew up listening to Red Barber, Jack Brickhouse and Marty Glickman. Those voices were the tour guides to young fandom. My grandfather didn't have that, and it wasn't something he could pass on to me.

By and large, I found the Hawks at school, where a band of nine year olds rallied around Dominique Wilkins, who was arguably Atlanta's second larger-than-life athlete behind Hank Aaron (Steve Bartkowski and even Dale Murphy didn't carry the same kind of charisma). Those of us who were native Atlantans (only about half the class, even in the mid-80s) weren't raised on tales of Earl the Pearl or Bill Russell. The only sports anecdotes my father relayed to me were stories of watching the International League's Atlanta Crackers at Ponce de Leon Park.

So the dynamics in Atlanta go further than even transplants. Natives themselves have a shallower pool from which to draw. Does that excuse Atlanta's lackluster fan support, particular when you consider the Portland Trail Blazers entered the NBA two seasons after the Hawks moved to Atlanta? Does a city need to apologize for its collective apathy toward its sports teams? These franchises aren't institutions like the school board or law enforcement agencies, or even non-profits like museums or the opera -- entities that require civic support to survive. The Atlanta Hawks are an entertainment product whose profits go into the pockets of some very wealthy individuals. Would I like to see my hometown embrace the Hawks the way residents of Salt Lake City and Portland support their teams? Sure. But nowhere else on the commercial landscape do employees bitch about customers not supporting the goods they produce and/or sell. If the foot traffic isn't coming in off the street, then it's up to management to figure out smarter ways to entice those potential customers. The Minnesota Timberwolves are figuring that out. So are the Charlotte Bobcats.

I don't mean to criticize Mike Woodson or any other Hawk who'd prefer that Josh Smith get more applause at Philips Arena tonight than Kobe Bryant. That's a reasonable wish, but it doesn't change the fact that, for a bevy of reasons, the organization is up against some tough conditions. Business is business -- particularly in an exploding market where there are more ways than ever to spend your money.

• Bret LaGree of Hoopinion on the bizarre play that earned Mike Woodson a technical foul: "I've been critical of both the timing of and propensity for the head coach's technicals this season. This time, he got jobbed. Railroaded, even. The replays showed that Woodson had clearly gotten back out of bounds before Kidd (himself with at least one foot out of bounds) made glancing contact with his outstretched left arm. The replays, though, only confirmed what was an obviously terrible call when witnessed live. Jason Kidd only came into contact with Mike Woodson because he, Kidd, veered suddenly to the left when approaching the Hawks' bench. Jason Kidd only came into contact with Mike Woodson because Kidd purposely dribbled the ball out of bounds."
• Paul Westphal and Spencer Hawes put their differences behind them during player introductions with a chest-bump. Westphal is the one in the dark suit. Hawes then went out on the floor and delivered 15 points, 12 rebounds and five assists in the Kings' win over the Jazz. For the Kings, the tired debate over whether Evans is a point guard, an off-guard, a point-forward or an offensive generalist is immaterial. Positional fundamentalism is a thing of the past. The challenge for Sacramento will be moving the ball enough in the half court to get easy opportunities. It doesn't matter where that playmaking comes from, so long as the good looks materialize. Last night, they did, as the Kings notched their most efficient offensive effort since February 10.
• The Lakers didn't look particularly good Friday night against Philadelphia, but size has a way of compensating for sluggishness.
• Was that Aaron Gray playing meaningful -- and effective -- minutes for the Hornets against the Magic and Dwight Howard? The Magic blew an 18-point, third-quarter lead. Orlando Pinstriped Post documents what transpired in Orlando's 34 possessions down the stretch.
• Not every player in the League dines at the Cheesecake Factory.
• Frank Madden of Brew Hoop is selling ... and I'm buying: Andrew Bogut is the most unhearlded defender in the NBA. The blocks are nice, but next time you watch the Bucks, notice how Bogut protects the paint. Any opposing big man who tries to set up shop on the block will be treated to a strong forearm, and any small who rips across the paint will be slowed by a bump from Bogut. He might not look scary, but there's a reason Milwaukee is one of the ten most efficient defensive squads in the league -- and it isn't all Luc Mbah a Moute.
• How badly is Mo Williams' defense hurting Cleveland? Williams hits big shots, but there's no disputing that the Cavs are a lot less efficient -- on both ends -- when Williams is on the court.
• Another case of a prolific, fluid offensive unit inexplicably resorting to stagnant isolation on a crucial late-game possession.
• Jon Brockman knows when you're a hick.
• Robin Lopez goes for 30 points against the Clippers without committing a single foul. The Clippers' new additions contributed again, but without Marcus Camby on that back line, the team defense is suffering mightily.
• From Clips Nation: "After the game, the Suns announcers asked Lopez what he was going to do to celebrate and he said, 'I'm going to kill Bart Simpson.'"
• The gym at Rainier Beach High School in Seattle is now named Crawford Court, "after Jamal Crawford, the NBA star who paid for the renovation of the gym in which he played so many games."