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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.

Turn your attention to Mar. 23 of this year.

Kevin Love has just dropped 51 points on the Oklahoma City Thunder, scoring from just about every spot on the floor, hitting seven of his 11 3-point attempts and dueling with Kevin Durant through four quarters and two overtimes. Two days later he torches the Nuggets for 30 points (on 19 shots) and 21 rebounds. Three days after that he puts 40 and 19 on the Bobcats. He is now fourth in the League in scoring, averaging 26.5 per game. There have been 20 30-and-15 games in the NBA this year; Love has 10 of them; no other player has more than two.

Now remember the Kevin Love of just one year ago and realize how strange this all seems. Remember last season’s most improved player, the somewhat pudgy, no-jumping white dude who somehow managed to outrebound legions of taller, more athletic opponents? He got his points, but he was no one’s idea of an elite scorer. He was a rebounding supernova and an efficient bucket-getter hiding out somewhere in that second tier of NBA stars. We wondered if he was a franchise player worthy of a max contract or simply, despite the eye-popping numbers, a glorified role player, something like Kris Humphries with a sweeter J.

Back then, Love’s conspicuously below-average one-on-one skills prevented him from being considered a legitimate go-to scorer. He was awkward with his back to the basket. A post-up often ended with him throwing up an off-balance hook as he sailed through the lane, and his face-up game wasn’t much prettier. There’s no way a truly great player, many of us thought, could possibly look like that.

Still, there was an undeniable glory to Love’s early performances. We know full well that elite-level rebounding is a sign of unusual athleticism and finely honed skill -- in Love’s case, an immensely strong and well-balanced lower body; precise footwork; quick, powerful hands; and a preternatural anticipation of the ball’s path. And yet seeing Love sow such chaos on the offensive glass with nothing but these understated gifts, repeatedly creating something out of what looked for all the world like nothing, always came as a sweet shock.

This year, though, Love has become something a bit less idiosyncratic: a genuine premier scorer. And he has done this despite, or perhaps because of, that deeply unorthodox offensive game. Strength, effort and craft on the offensive glass have always been among his fundamental assets. But he has turned the basic act of challenging for rebounding position into a volume-scoring weapon, forcing teams to repeatedly foul him rather than surrender easy putbacks. And for a player so lacking in the conventional offensive tools, he has become remarkably savvy at drawing contact as he makes his move toward the basket. He has overwhelmed team after team simply through the grinding process of getting to the line all night long. (See: Dec. 27 in Milwaukee in which Love shot 24 free throws, scoring 32 points on only six made baskets, or Feb. 10 in Dallas in which he went 14-for-14 from the line, scoring 32 on 9-for-18 shooting.)

Let’s also not forget the particular vexations posed by an undersized big man who happens to be an excellent 3-point shooter. In that ridiculously entertaining double-overtime loss to the Thunder, Love -- playing center because of an injury to Nikola Pekovic -- shredded Oklahoma City’s defense with pick-and-pop 3s. Because Kendrick Perkins was terminally unable to challenge Love outside, Oklahoma City was forced to go small, surrendering its size advantage on the inside. From then on, the game was played on the undermanned Wolves’ terms; Love’s outside shot literally changed the complexion of the game.

Love’s game is a strange patchwork, an unprecedented hybrid of modern Euro big man skill and old-school glue-guy hustle. He is equal parts stretch-4 and banger. He is a dominant scorer whose lack of explosiveness routinely results in blown layups and blocked shots. He is a slow-footed, 3-point shooting, 6-foot-8 center who can singlehandedly foul your best big man out of the game or put your team deep into the penalty. Most great scorers are blessed with some obvious, almost supernatural physical gift -- Durant’s length and economy of movement; LeBron’s size and speed -- but Love is just his average-looking self, exploiting the game’s margins on his way to superstardom.

Still, Love’s transformation has been jarring, and not simply in terms of the sheer quantity of points he’s put on the board. He has assumed the attitude of a scorer, the willingness to see every moment of offensive basketball as an opportunity both to attack the D and to explore new possibilities in his game. This season, we’ve seen Love nail step-back jumpers. We’ve seen him coolly drain Tim Duncan-esque, 15-foot, shallow-angle bank shots. We’ve seen up-and-unders, escape dribbles, dynamic sweep-throughs and balanced jump-hooks. It would have been pretty hard to imagine any of this even one year ago. Thanks to a number of factors -- those improved skills, the Wolves’ changed offensive philosophy, an injury epidemic that has sidelined five of the team’s top six players for significant stretches this season -- Love has become Minnesota’s scorer of first and last resort.

This approach has unquestionably yielded some spectacular results. And this is, in many ways, what the undermanned Wolves require. But it’s hard to fight the feeling that something has been lost along the way. Central to Love’s game has always been an incredible, relentless energy, a willingness to pursue every stray ball and to wrestle all comers for position. This tenacity, coupled with his remarkable offensive efficiency -- putbacks, free throws and 3s were his meat and potatoes -- was at the heart not only of his incredible production in 2010-11, but also of the sheer thrill of watching him play.

Love certainly remains a great rebounder. He’s still averaging 13.8 boards per game, after all, and there are still many moments in which we see him maneuver himself between two bigger, springier defenders and battle to pull down an impossible one-handed board. But that kind of vibrant effort is no longer a constant. He is no longer quite so feverishly disruptive of opponents’ defensive rebounding schemes.

What’s more, his efficiency numbers -- rebounding rate, true shooting percentage, 3-point percentage, all essential to what made him great -- are down from last season. A great portion of this drop-off is explained by the simple fact that Love’s job is extraordinarily exhausting. None of the league’s top scorers are asked to rebound as heavily as Love; none of the top rebounders carry as great a share of their team’s offensive burden. Love can no longer afford to expend such radiant energy every time a shot goes up. He is forced to ration his effort judiciously across the many minutes he is asked to play and the many responsibilities he is asked to shoulder.

But much of Love’s declining efficiency stems from the kinds of shots that he’s now taking. He has accepted the venerable prerogatives of the No. 1 option: the right to demand the ball in isolation; the right to shoot contested, off-the-dribble midrange jumpers; the right to stare down his defender, vision tunneling as seconds tick off the clock and teammates stand and watch. These things can be magnificent and valuable, but they’re a far cry from the Kevin Love we once knew.

We’re all enchanted by the mythology of the high-volume scorer. We love to see players enter that altered state of consciousness in which the game is reduced to the simplicity of an attacker, his defender and the dance the two of them perform together. But Kevin Love -- the superstar role player, the sweet-shooting banger -- complicates this mythology. A great portion of his charm and effectiveness lies in the contradictions and dissonances in his game, the strange, unprecedented way he plays. Do we really want him to accede to the conventions of superstardom? Do we lose something essential when a measure of that offbeat magic is drained away?

• J.A. Adande joined Baron Davis on the campus of UCLA, where the Cavs point guard will try to maintain a GPA, not a PER. At Hardwood Paroxysm, Holly MacKenzie shares a story about how, several seasons back, Davis blew her off in a locker room in Seattle, only to track her down later on in the tunnel to make amends: "[Davis] taught me a lesson: players can be cranky, and sometimes you’ll approach them after a bad loss or performance when they’re angry or bitter or caught up in something. But often times, how someone treats you on that single occasion isn’t a fair representation of who that person is."
• Davis coached LeBron James in a Drew League game on Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles. Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports: "[Drew League director Dino] Smiley said many fans tweeted and sent text messages about James’ arrival. 'Every edge' of the court in the tiny gym, Smiley said, was packed. Smiley said the gym doors were eventually closed shut during James’ game by law enforcement officers, who told fans if they left they couldn’t return"
• Thunderground Radio evaluates how Sam Presti fared in 2010-11. Was the Perkins-Green trade necessary? Can Reggie Jackson make an impact in the backcourt?
• Blake Griffin is a monster and, barring injury, projects to be a indomitable franchise player. For the Clippers, that's the easy part. The more elastic variable for the team is Eric Gordon. If the Clippers aren't able to land a marquee superstar, could they still be a force in the West with Gordon as their featured perimeter threat with Griffin down low, provided DeAndre Jordan and Eric Bledsoe continue to grow? Nick Flynt of ClipperBlog takes a look.
• What happened to the Trail Blazers after they broke up their Finals core in 1993? A retrospective from Blazers Edge.
• I'm a sucker for any basketball post that prominently features Bob Walk, who pitched for the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates. A pitcher named Walk would the equivalent of a hoopster named Travel. But the thrust of the Negative Dunkalectics' post by Chris George is not the dubiously-named Walk, but the playing career of Warriors head coach Mark Jackson: "Mark Jackson was a comparatively small and non-athletic man, largely informed by a street game, who managed to use a few moves over and over again to put up much better numbers than he 'should' have. The combination of the back down, the baby hook, the no-look passes, the teardrop, and the push shot made him one of the most frustrating point guards of his era, even if he never had the ability to be a true star."
• Jason Terry delivered the first pitch at Sunday's Texas Rangers game to Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler. Dirk Nowitzki via Twitter: "Was jet's first pitch at rangers game better than mine? Didn't anyone see it? Let me know."
• Who is Manuel Velez Pangilinan? He's the very wealthy, very influential guy behind the pair of exhibition games at Araneta Coliseum in Manila between a slew of NBA stars and standouts from the Philippine Basketball Association. The two games were standing room only and tickets on the secondary market ran as much as four times face value.
• The WNBA named its 15 best players ever. Ball in Europe follows with its 15 best Euroleague women players in history.
• Hakeem Olajuwon, Marco Belinelli and Hedo Turkoglu: Each initially excited Raps fans when he signed on the dotted line, only to fall way short of expectations. For good measure, five Raptors draft picks that raised eyebrows.
• Six years prior to putting on a Raptors jersey, Olajuwon logged 39 points and 17 rebounds in the Game 6 clincher of the 1995 Western Conference finals against the Spurs. NBA Off-Season presents another in their Lockout Classics series.
• If Kobe Bryant is Derek Jeter, then Derek Fisher is Jorge Posada. Does that make Robert Horry Scott Brosius?
• Look out, Monday. Wes Matthews is in mission mode.
• Kings big man Jason Thompson: "Congrats to the NFL on ending their Lockout....NOW its OUR TURN!!!!"

The Dallas Mavericks have won seven straight postseason games, with their last loss coming in Game 4 of the first round against the Trail Blazers -- nearly a month ago. The Mavericks are 6-0 at home this postseason; they have won nine straight home games including the regular season and last lost at home on April 6 to the Nuggets.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are just 2-4 on the road in this postseason, but are 6-1 at home. They are allowing 106.3 points per game (-3.1 PPG margin) on the road and just 95.3 at home (+8.8).

The story in Game 1 involved Dirk Nowitzki. The Thunder fouled Nowitzki 16 times, sending him to the line 24 times. Nowitzki made all 24 free throws, the most in a game without a miss in the history of the NBA (regular or postseason).

Seven different players picked up at least one foul on Nowitzki, including Serge Ibaka, who got all five of his when guarding the Dallas star.

It was clear from the start that the Mavericks’ plan was for Nowitzki to be aggressive. In three of the four quarters, he took his first shot attempt within the first 63 seconds. In the second quarter, his first shot took just over three minutes.

Nowitzki was very effective in post-up situations, primarily posting up on the right block. In 15 plays on the right block, he was 6-for-8 from the field, drew six fouls and committed just one turnover.

Somewhat lost in the hoopla surrounding Nowitzki’s performance and the Mavericks’ Game 1 win was a pretty good effort by Kevin Durant. He was 10-for-18 from the field and 18-for-19 from the free throw line, scoring 40 points.

Look for Oklahoma City to get their superstar moving Thursday. Durant scored 1.15 points per play when he was static -- which includes isolation plays, post-ups and spot-ups -- but was even better when on the move. In transition, coming off screens and on the pick-and-roll, he scored 1.41 points per play, making seven of his 11 field goal attempts while moving.

The other Thunder star, Russell Westbrook, really struggled in Game 1. He was 3-for-7 from the field from six feet and in; from beyond six feet, Westbrook missed all eight shots.

It’ll be interesting to see how often Westbrook and Kendrick Perkins are on the court together in Game 2. Oklahoma City was outscored by 19 points when that combination was on the court in Game 1.

The game-changers in Game 1 for the Mavericks were Nowitzki and Jason Terry. When that combination was on the court in Game 1, Dallas was +18, the best plus/minus for any two-man combination in the game.

After a five-game losing streak earlier this month, the Miami Heat improved to 7-1 in their last eight games thanks to a big night from the "Big Three." Dwyane Wade had 39 points and 11 rebounds, LeBron James had 32 and 10 and Chris Bosh had 20 and 10 in a 111-99 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time in nearly 29 years that, in a non-overtime game, a team had a pair of players with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds and another with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds. Prior to Friday, the last team to do that was the Nuggets on Dec. 23, 1982 (Alex English, 43/11; Kiki Vandeweghe, 30/12; Dan Issel, 25/10).

It was the second time this season, but just the fifth time since April 1, 2006 that three teammates had 20+ points and 10+ rebounds in a single game. Prior to Friday, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom accomplished the feat against the Suns in triple overtime just this past Tuesday.

Speaking of Kobe and the Lakers, they improved to an NBA-best 14-1 since the All-Star break with a 112-104 win over the Clippers. With the win, the Lakers won the season series against their hometown rivals for the third time in the last four seasons.

It was also the first time in the last five nights that a Kings, Lakers or Clippers game at STAPLES Center did not go into overtime. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the four overtime games in four nights prior to Friday at STAPLES Center was a first for any former or current venue that hosted hockey AND basketball games.

Meanwhile, the Celtics fell to 9-7 since trading Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to Oklahoma City after losing to the Bobcats, 83-81. Boston had a 13-point lead over Charlotte heading into the fourth quarter.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time in Celtics history that they lost a home game to a team at least 10 games under .500 after having a lead of 10 or more points entering the fourth quarter.

Finally, Nicolas Batum tipped in an alley-oop as time expired to lead the Portland Trail Blazers over the San Antonio Spurs in the Rose City. That was the 16th game-winning buzzer-beater this season and the first by Portland since November 6, 2008 when Brandon Roy had one against the Rockets in overtime. The Spurs fell to 1-2 without Tim Duncan this season.

The basketball in Miami
The concentration of talent in Miami has created a dramatic storyline the NBA hasn't seen in years. In late October, the narrative will finally give way to live basketball, as the offseason machinations fade into the background. Fans and observers can debate whether a team of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami is healthy for the NBA, and the Heat's first final-possession scenario will likely launch silly arguments about who rightfully deserves to be called "the man" in Miami. Lost in the cacophony of hysteria is the single most fascinating question headed into the 2010-11 season: What will the Miami Heat's 94 or so possessions look like on a nightly basis? How will James play off Wade and vice versa? How do you defend a Wade-James pick-and-roll? Will we see a lineup of Eddie House, Wade, Miller, James and Bosh (talk about the end of positional orthodoxy!)? Will Bosh benefit from the disproportionate attention opposing defenses will have to devote to the perimeter? And how will Bosh handle the more workaday duties of being the big man down low? However you feel about what's transpired since the beginning of July, the experiment being assembled in Miami is a basketball lover's dream. If you find Miami's personnel unlikable, then root like hell for the opposing defense. Either way, you won't be disappointed.

The blueprint in Oklahoma City
The Thunder emerged last season as the most promising young outfit in the NBA. They finished with 50 wins and gave the Lakers their toughest Western Conference playoff series. Then, this offseason, they extended a max contract to Kevin Durant and fortified their bright young core by adding Morris Peterson, Daequan Cook and first-round draft pick Cole Aldrich. In some sense, general manager Sam Presti's decision to essentially stand pat might have been one of the the boldest move of the offseason. Many executives with a talented core and some money to spend would've committed to a high-dollar addition, but Presti stayed the course. He's banking that the maturation of Durant, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green, James Harden and Serge Ibaka will continue and vault the Thunder over of the scrum in the Western Conference. Is he being realistic? Can the Thunder ride a frontcourt of Green, Nenad Krstic, Ibaka, Nick Collison and Aldrich into the ranks of the NBA elite? Can a team that sustained no major injuries last season decline to add a single major pieces and still pick up 5-10 wins? The answer to these questions will give us an idea of how much "upward trajectory" is worth in the NBA.


The power of Nash
Amare Stoudemire provides us with one of the best controlled experiments in recent years.
Watching him run the pick-and-roll with Steve Nash in Phoenix for eight years, we grew to regard Stoudemire as one of the most prolific power forwards of his generation. In New York, Stoudemire will benefit from the presence of coach Mike D'Antoni, who conceived many of the schemes that enabled him to flourish, but will be without Nash for the first time since 2004. How will swapping out Raymond Felton for Nash affect Stoudemire's game? Back in Phoenix, a 36-year-old Nash will have to replicate what he did during his 2005-06 MVP season when Stoudemire missed virtually 79 games -- cobble together an offense with imperfect parts. How Stoudemire performs without Nash as his dance partner and how Phoenix fares with an offense that will be more reminiscent of their 2005-06 season -- when Nash maximized the versatility of Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw and Raja Bell -- will tell us a lot about Nash's enormous impact on the game he plays as beautifully as anyone.

The defense in Chicago
The Boston Celtics' return to the NBA's upper echelon was predicated first and foremost on their defense. They unleashed a pressurized force field designed and implemented by Tom Thibodeau, and ultimately adopted by other teams around the league, including the Los Angeles Lakers. This June, the Bulls tapped Thibodeau to fill their head coaching vacancy. He joins a Bulls team that put together a strong defensive season last season, finishing 10th in efficiency. Skeptics might look at Derrick Rose -- whose defensive instincts are a far cry from Rajon Rondo -- and Carlos Boozer and conclude that Thibodeau doesn't have the personnel to succeed the way he did in Boston. Yet in 2007, Thibodeau took a quintet that featured Ray Allen (who had a horrendous defensive reputation coming from Seattle), an undisciplined big man in Kendrick Perkins, a second-year point guard in Rajon Rondo who'd started only 25 games and made them one of the best defensive units in basketball. With Joakim Noah anchoring the interior, the lanky tandem of Luol Deng and Ronnie Brewer on the wings, Boozer's sharp basketball IQ and Rose's gifts, Thibodeau should have the tools to sculpt a top-5 defense. If the Bulls buy in, we'll have a better understanding whether Thibodeau's kind of tactical expertise is transferable -- and an inkling of just how dangerous the Bulls could be.

The reign in Los Angeles
A calm has set in over Los Angeles, where the Lakers went about their offseason business with all the fanfare of a routine annual checkup. While the rest of the basketball universe was focused in on LeBron James and south Florida, the Lakers quietly added veterans Steve Blake, Matt Barnes and Theo Ratliff and re-upped head coach Phil Jackson. Even when the Lakers were stringing together three consecutive titles at the beginning of the millennium, there was always a swirl of intrigue surrounding the club. That's no longer true, as the Lakers have assumed a posture of professional incumbency the league hasn't seen in quite some time. Will the Lakers ride the precision of their system, the collective experience and poise of their core and the natural attributes of their defense to a fourth straight Finals appearance? Barring serious injury, is there anything that can disrupt the Lakers' rhythm? Is a successful formula ever in danger of becoming predictable?

The patience in Portland
Before the Oklahoma City Thunder became next year's model, the Portland Trail Blazers were on the brink of creating something special. The sketch of a winner was stenciled on the Rose Garden floor -- an all-powerful wing primed to take big shots, a talented power forward oozing with finesse, a defensive and rebounding force in the middle and smart supporting players who embraced their roles. Injuries and disruption turned the 2009-10 campaign into a holding pattern, but the pieces are still in place for the Trail Blazers to achieve. Health remains a concern, as Greg Oden will try to return from a fractured left patella. But if the big man can log 2,000 minutes, Portland should be able to complement their Top-1o offense with the kind of dogged rebounding and efficient defense that made them a popular No. 2 pick headed into last season. The question those with an affection for Portland don't want to ask is, how bright is the team's future if he can't?

The possibility of youth
The appeal of the league's top-rated rookies runs much deeper than individual performance. Their presence can ripple beyond whatever spot on the floor they happen to occupy. Blake Griffin not only has the power to explode to the rim every time he touches the ball, but he also has the potential to transform Baron Davis into the joyful point guard the world fell in love with in the spring of 2007. John Wall's well-honed instincts won't just fill up the box score, but also could revive a fan base in Washington that was teased with meaningful basketball a few years ago, only to watch their franchise return to the wilderness. DeMarcus Cousins could become the Kings' more formidable presence in the frontcourt since Chris Webber left, but more important, he and Tyreke Evans have a chance to redefine what big-small combos can do in the rapidly changing pro game. "Upside" is a word thrown around a lot in June, but watching that potential unfold produces unique findings. And that's why we watch.

• If Chris Paul demands his way out of New Orleans, should he be subject to the same vitriol LeBron James has received? Should the fact that Chris Paul is a point guard color our perception of his desire to play with a better supporting cast? Should Paul have known better when he signed an extension with the Hornets in the summer of 2008?
• The prevailing question when Richard Jefferson opted out of the final year of his contract was, "What is he thinking leaving $15.2 million of guaranteed money on the table?" After agreeing to a 4 year/$38.9 million deal, Jefferson's decision appears pretty savvy -- and informed -- in retrospect. Timothy Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell on Jefferson's gamble: "Turns out that Jefferson knew more than his critics: he just parlayed 15 million into 38. With a possible lockout and a more frugal CBA looming large on the horizon, Jefferson has locked himself into more guaranteed money over the next 4 years than he would have made otherwise. Credit Jefferson with a shrewd move and big score."
• Grizzlies vice president of basketball operations and general manager Chris Wallace chats with Chip Crain of 3 Shades of Blue about Hasheem Thabeet, O.J. Mayo as point guard, and testing potential draftees for basketball I.Q.
• The prospect of Hedo Turkoglu playing the 4 in Phoenix's offense has rattled some cages, but think back to 2006 postseason when the Suns got within two games of an NBA Finals berth without Amare Stoudemire. Apart from all their early drag-screens and transition pull-ups, the Suns ran a bunch of effective stuff through Boris Diaw at the high post for cutters and shooters on the weak side. Turkoglu will presumably perform a similar function in the offense. Michael Schwartz of Valley of the Suns enumerates some of his concerns about the Hedo Turkoglu-Phoenix Suns fit.
• A nice story of a summer league standout making good: Jonathan Givony of Draft Express reports that perimeter sniper Gary Neal has agreed to a 3-year deal with the Spurs. Neal set up shop behind the arc and went wild in the first half of the Spurs' final game in Las Vegas.
• Who should be the Magic's starting small forward? Ben Q. Rock of Orlando Pinstriped Post pores over some data and concludes that the answer is not Mickael Pietrus. Eddy Rivera of Magic Basketball reached the same conclusion.
• Ben Golliver of Blazers Edge sits down with Joe Cronin, one of the Trail Blazers' lead scouts, and talks Dante Cunningham, Luke Babbitt and Armon Johnson, among others. Hey, did Cronin just call Patty Mills a "master flopper"?
• Kyle Weidie of Truth About It captured some incredible shots from the baseline of Cox Pavilion during Las Vegas Summer League. His latest target? Cal standout Jerome Randle, who played on the Wizards' squad.
• If you're having trouble finding a satisfying highlight reel of Derrick Favors at Georgia Tech, it might have something to do with the Jackets' guard play last season.
• Steve Perrin of Clips Nation writes that it appears the Clippers and Sofo Schortsanitis just aren't meant to be. After a lackluster performance for the Clips' summer league squad, that might be for the best: "Sofo did NOT acquit himself well in Summer League, even taking all of those things into consideration. Plenty of bigs looked good in Vegas -- JaVale McGee, DeMarcus Cousins, even Derrick Caracter. He didn't handle double teams well, and he didn't convert free throws when he went to the line. It was a terrible environment for him, but even considering its shortcomings, he should have done better."
• Miami rookie big man Dexter Pittman will have to fight like hell to break the Heat's frontcourt rotation. He tells Surya Fernandez of Hot Hot Hoops that he's up to the task.
• Who's Toronto's go-to guy moving forward -- DeMar DeRozan or Andrea Bargnani?
• New Zealand's national team would love to lure Kendrick Perkins. (Hat Tip: Zach Lowe of Celtics Hub)
• Part seven of Basketbawful's Pickup Diaries: Thinking too much about the 1992 Eastern Conference playoffs while taking the most important standardized test of your life. (PG-13)
• Morris Almond's morning win: "back to back Fresh Prince episodes on TBS and Mickey D's breakfast."

Perkins spoke with me about the craft of setting screens last December before the Celtics faced off against the Bulls in Chicago. I asked him how much a screener should try to get away with:



That's why 29 other teams and their fans would love to have Perkins setting screens for their primary ballhandlers and scorers.

Does Perkins' approach make him a dirty player? Does his strategy make him the ideal heavy in an offense that relies on rotating pick-and-rolls for three perimeter players -- Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce -- with vastly different styles and skill sets? Is Perkins' willingness to work the system to the very boundaries of legality help make the Celtics the cutthroat, nasty competitors that they are?

After the NBA rescinded one of his two technical fouls from Game 5, Kendrick Perkins will be in uniform but on thin ice for Friday night's Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. His next technical will be his seventh of the playoffs, and will trigger an automatic suspension.

Three thoughts:

This decision is too slow
The Celtics lost Game 5 by 21 points. It was not close.

However, it was close when Perkins was playing. During his 16 minutes of first-half play, the Celtics were outscored by just a single bucket. Perkins was ejected just before halftime, with the Celtics hanging around, down eight.

I'm not saying the Celtics would have won had Perkins played. I'm saying we shouldn't have to wonder.

My complaint, which I have made several times before, is that in this day and age there's simply no reason it should take a whole night and most of a day for the NBA to review a five-second play.

The NBA has rescinded Perkins' second technical, which means the very call that banished him from the second half of the game last night was a mistake, for which the Celtics have already been punished mightily.

It just doesn't have to be that way. Video review, insight from the players and the referees about the things that might not have been obvious on video ... these things can be done during the game, even in a timeout. Whoever weighed in on this decision at the league offices in New York today, where were they last night? If they couldn't have been in Orlando, at the very least they could have been in front of an HD screen with a feed of multiple video angles, and a phone connected to the sideline to run questions by referees.

Certainly, the current system of reviewing calls the next day avoids certain sins of "the heat of the moment." But for those few calls that might be blown with instant reviews, would any of them matter as much as mistakenly ejecting a key player for half a conference finals game?

Referees are expected to make the right call instantly. In reviewing that work, the league need not be instant. But in the interest of fairness, and getting things right, it ought to at least be as quick as possible.

Kendrick Perkins matters
The story of these playoffs has been the Boston Celtics.

At the end of the regular season, by every fancy metric I know (offensive and defensive efficiency, adjusted plus/minus lineup analysis etc.), the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers were not just the favorites to win the East, but were also the two leading candidates to win the championship. They were destined to meet in the Eastern Conference finals, with the winner favored to knock of the West winner.

But the Celtics have systematically broken those two teams apart in eliminating the Cavaliers in six games and then going up 3-0 against the Magic (which has now, of course, become 3-2).

The only possible explanation is that the Celtics are a much better team than they appeared to be in the regular season.

The "Big 3" or "Big 4" -- with Rajon Rondo -- is seen as the story, but ignore that fifth starter, Kendrick Perkins, at your peril. He sets some of the meanest screens in the business, and controls the paint for one of the NBA's truly elite defenses.

According to ESPN's stats and information group, the Celtics are 8.3 points better per 48 minutes than the competition when he is on the floor in this year's playoffs. The Celtics are only 1.2 points better, per 48 minutes, when he sits.

Against the Magic, Perkins' role is even more profound than usual. The Magic's attack is built around Dwight Howard. To capitalize on his remarkable size and strength in the paint, the Magic have surrounded him with shooters, and they play "one in, four out." When Howard is doubled in the post, somewhere a shooter will be ready to make a 3. Except against Boston. Thanks to Perkins' extraordinary tenacity, size and defensive skill, the Celtics don't double Howard in the post much. The idea is that Howard would otherwise be able to score 40 to punish them for disrespecting him in this manner. But Perkins knows what he's doing, and Howard is instead averaging just 20 points per game in the series and has twice finished games having made just 3-of-10 shots.

So, make no mistake: Whether or not Perkins plays is paramount to the Celtics.

The particulars of the incident barely matter
Zach Lowe of CelticsHub does a great job of wading into the murky waters of figuring out whether or not Kendrick Perkins "deserved" his punishment. On Pro Sports Talk, Matt Moore, meanwhile, makes the annoying-to-Celtics-fans but nevertheless honest point that it was certainly within Perkins' power to avoid those technicals, simply by being calm and professional, as called for in the rules.

Perkins is undeniably one of the most physical players in the NBA, and the Celtics are the most aggressive team in the NBA. His playoff technicals are the predictable result of having played nearly all of his 401 minutes this close to starting a fight. If it wasn't this incident, it was going to be something else.

To me, what was actually said or done on the court, and how it compares to other cases, barely matters. The truth is that the behavior of players is all over the place, while the power of the referees to punish them for this or that thing is unquestionable and absolute. It invites an absurd situation. Perkins did something for which one can rightly, by the letter of the law, get a technical or even two. He also did something that is wholly routine for an NBA game.

When the speed limit is 55, and every single car goes 75, what's the one guy who gets pulled over supposed to think? Is that justice, or an almost random reminder who's in charge?

The problem is not so much this or that action by this or that player or referee. It's the ever-present ability of referees to selectively enforce whatever they want, like a sheriff in a frontier town, with the bosses unable to even weigh in until a day later.

Surely it would be better for the powers that be to impose a little more real-time order, and not just on the players but on how the game is called.

• What should you reasonably expect of a draft pick? What constitutes a bust? Is it fair to expect a rotation player if you're drafting in the latter half of the first round? All great questions that Tim Donahue of Eight Points, Nine Seconds seeks to answer with an impressive set of data.
• According to SeatGeek.com (via the Wall Street Journal), the LeBacle saved NBA fans serious cash: "According to ticket-price aggregator SeatGeek.com, fans would have had to pay an average of $349 to see LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers play a home game for this round. But the Cavs didn't make it, and the average resale ticket price for the teams that did, the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, is $157.81 and $157.90, respectively."
• Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don't Lie on Kobe Bryant's tactical approach to Game 1: "... Bryant was essentially going one-on-one against the Suns in a way that favored the Lakers. A way that stayed within the confines of the offense, something that ... makes him more dangerous. Like improvising in transition. Finding a quick elbow post-up in delayed transition, while using triangle spacing and watching as the potential help defenders have to slunk away while they follow your teammates because of triangle cuts off the ball. This leaves space to work, a nervous defender, and distraction enough to pull up for that fadeaway. Quick, smart, potent. He didn't need to drive endlessly, flatten out the offense with 1-4 sets, or call for screen after screen. Any pick and roll run with Pau Gasol ended with a pull-up 15-footer, not a tough 19-footer with a hand in his face. Were there any potential for that 19-footer, Kobe would decline to force it. He was absolutely brilliant."
• Kevin Pelton examined the box score and discovered that the starting units for Phoenix and the Lakers essentially played each other even: "... the Suns were +2 in the first quarter and the Lakers +3 in the second quarter. When both teams went small, however, with Frye replacing Robin Lopez and Odom stepping in for Andrew Bynum, that's when the Lakers surged ahead. Los Angeles was +24 in Odom's 31 minutes of action; Phoenix was -13 during the 20 minutes Frye played."
• Darius Soriano of Forum Blue & Gold says that the Lakers' much-maligned bench, which performed well in Game 1 on Monday night, has actually been playing quality basketball for a while now.
• FreeDarko has updated its draft board and now has Caudipteryx going No. 9 to Utah with the Knicks' pick. Just what the Jazz need -- more undersized, flightless personnel up front.
• John Wall: Excited for the lottery.
• Can Dwight Howard beat Kendrick Perkins down on the block? Ben Q. Rock of Orlando Pinstriped Post reviewed Perkins' defensive catalog from the regular season and discovered that a handful of big men had prolific games against the Celtics' center. BQR found something else: "Perkins has a weakness, however, and that is covering the big man rolling to the rim on pick-and-roll plays. According to Synergy Sports Technology, Perkins defended 51 such situations this year, and opponents scored 1.02 points per possession and 51% of the time. He rates from 'Good' to 'Excellent' in every other play type, meaning Howard's best bet is to keep running hard to the rim on screen-and-roll plays."
• Royce Young of Daily Thunder looks at what Kevin Durant needs to do to become a better producer in end-of-quarter situations. The diagnosis? "He’s not great at using his dribble to escape a double-team. He’s not great at putting the ball down in traffic and getting into the paint. We saw the Lakers use a flash double-team to get the ball out of KD’s hands. Teams don’t fear KD’s drive, so they play him tight and try and body him. Or they use an extra defender and force him to pass."
• A rite of spring: Has the Spurs window closed?
• The Nuggets underperformed this spring and head into summer with a series of stubborn questions. For all the hand-wringing, though, conventional wisdom credits Carmelo Anthony for having a breakthrough season in 2009-10 ... but did he? Jeremy Wagner of Roundball Mining Company wonders how much Anthony has really grown as a player.
• Wilson Chandler figures to earn a decent living as a pro basketball player, but that doesn't mean he can't be seduced by a smart, well-placed marketing campaign.

When asked about his defensive strategies against Carmelo Anthony or the Lakers' big men during Utah's postseason run, Jerry Sloan routinely pointed out that it's impossible for a defense to focus disproportionate attention to a specific player or area of the court without leaving itself vulnerable somewhere else. When you're facing an elite team with weapons all over the floor, choosing where to allocate defensive resources is especially tough.

Against a dominant Orlando team, Boston had to decide: Would they send double-teams down low to disrupt Dwight Howard or would they stay at home on the Magic's lethal perimeter shooters and let Kendrick Perkins, Rasheed Wallace and Glen Davis fend for themselves one-on-one against Howard? Boston chose the latter.

In today's episode of Superstar Underachievement, Dwight Howard is stifled by the Celtics' defense, despite confronting Perkins and Co. one-on-one. What held him back? We explore what happened at Orlando with David Thorpe:

Both the practical and symbolic significance of Game 5 between Cleveland and Boston couldn't be overstated. The rest of the NBA's elite made quick work of their conference semifinal opponents. Meanwhile, the 61-win Cavaliers were struggling with a Celtics team that was supposed to be creaky and ill-equipped for the long march into June.

Game 5 in a knotted series is always pivotal, and that's particularly true for a team whose aspirations were as lofty as Cleveland's. The expectations of the Cavs and their fans are inextricably linked with LeBron James' future in Cleveland. Success would supposedly deter James from leaving Ohio, but if the Cavs were to do the improbable and lose to the fourth-seeded Celtics in the series, all bets were off. A Game 5 loss would've been especially devastating because it could've signaled James' last game in Cleveland as a member of the Cavaliers.

Nobody on the planet had more control over the events of Tuesday night than James. He's one of the few players in the game with the capacity to will victory, but the results of Game 5 were disastrous for James and Cleveland. The NBA's MVP finished with only 15 points on 3-for-12 shooting from the field. James was a mere afterthought in the flow of a game his team lost by 32 points.

How did it happen?

There have been so many strains and stresses in the lives of Celtics' fans lately. Everything from Paul Pierce's foot to the whole darned team has seemed broken.

The latest concern is chemistry issues, as fueled by a series of recent quotes from Rajon Rondo.

Rondo told the Boston Herald's Steve Bulpett, for instance:

“We’ve got to play unselfish, you know? That’s on defense and offense. You’ve got to want the best for the next man out there regardless if you’re in the game playing well or you’re out of the game not playing well. ... The first year, it was a crazy spirit in the locker room. But now it doesn’t feel the same. It’s not the same right now. We’ve got to find a way to get that back somehow, some way.”

ESPNBoston's Chris Forsberg, meanwhile, quotes Kendrick Perkins saying it's much ado about nothing:

I don't think it's anything... We’re cool, we real cool. There's no beef. Guys still talk, laugh, joke -- we’ve all got each other’s back. That’s one thing you don’t have to worry about in this locker room, especially with [Kevin Garnett], Paul [Pierce], Ray [Allen], and [Rasheed Wallace] in here. Guys will stick together.

CHICAGO -- Prior to their game Saturday night against the Boston Celtics, the Chicago Bulls downplayed any invocation of last spring’s epic first round series between the two teams.

Asked what he remembered about the series, Bulls forward Luol Deng shrugged.

“Personally? Not much. I was on the bench,” Deng, who was inactive for the series due to injury, said.

Bulls head coach Vinny Del Negro was front and center on the sidelines last spring, but prior to the game, he dismissed any suggestion that the series bore any relevance on Saturday night’s game.

“No,” he said emphatically, clearly tired of fielding the question over the past 24 hours. For a Bulls team that came into the game losers of nine of their last 11, any parallel between Saturday night’s rematch and what transpired in the grueling playoff matchup seemed remote.

Saturday night’s 106-80 Celtics’ victory proved them right.

The arsenal Chicago deployed against Boston in that 7-game series was nowhere to be find. Last spring, a quick, agile Bulls team had the Celtics on their heels trying to defend Chicago’s lethal dribble-penetration. Saturday night, Bulls point guard Derrick Rose got loose on a few occasions, but the lack of an outside threat allowed the Celtics’ defense to smother him most of the night. Most of the evening, you could find the painted area encircled by five green jerseys.

"We sack the paint every night anyway," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "We try to force contested jump shots. They have a great point guard. If you allow [Derrick Rose] in the paint, you're going to lose. We knew that going into the game, and that's what we tried to take away."

Without Ben Gordon commanding attention along the arc and with little depth in the frontcourt, the Bulls couldn’t recreate their postseason magic. No nifty high ball screens with Rose and his big men, few transition buckets, and nothing resembling the ball movement the Bulls generated from good floor spacing. Like most of the Bulls’ recent opponents, the Celtics clogged the paint and forced the Bulls into a barrage of contested, off-balanced jumpers. Not one Bull shot over 50 percent from the field and Chicago finished the night only 32.6 percent and scored only 80 points in 101 possessions.

"If you don't move the ball, [the Celtics] use their length and physicality to take you out of stuff," Del Negro said after the loss. "They execute so well and make you pay with all the weapons that they have."

While Chicago resorted to one stagnant isolation matchup after another, the Celtics were running beautiful offensive sets with multiple options. They displayed their full array of tricks. Rasheed Wallace converted three buckets in the second quarter on easy step-outs against Joakim Noah. Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins teased Derrick Rose and Noah with screen-and-roll sets.

And, of course, there was the re-introduction of Kevin Garnett to whatever is left of this rivalry.

"Everything is predicated off Kevin," Del Negro said. "He gets everybody going. He brings great energy. He's a future Hall-of-Famer. You add one of those guys to your lineup, you're going to be better."

Garnett spent the evening rolling off picks to find open space for easy buckets from both the wing and in the basket area. He finished 6-for-8 from the field in 26 minutes.

Things really got ugly toward the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth when Boston ran off a 21-4 run. By the time Rose made him most assertive drive of the night with 9:01 left in the fourth quarter – drawing rare contact – the Bulls trailed 88-65 and most of the Celtics' veteran starters had retired for the evening.

The only thing that evoked the playoff series from seven months ago was Brad Miller’s flagrant foul against Rajon Rondo. In the first quarter, Rondo drove down the gut of the lane and was elevating to the rim when Miller clotheslined him with his right arm. The two teams remained relatively calm as the United Center crowd reached its highest crescendo of the night.

Although Boston eked out the 7-game series over Chicago last spring, the Bulls' gutsy performance was heralded as a moral victory for a team ascending, while doubts began to surface that an aging Celtics core wouldn't be able to re-establish itself as a championship-caliber squad.

"It's totally different now," Del Negro said. "Last year was last year. This is this year."

The Magic bask in the warm glow of their ECF upset, while Cleveland is forced to do some serious soul-searching. The Sixers opt for a tried-and-true choice to propel them forward. And what should the Knicks do about their fan favorites -- both free agents?

Zach McCann of Orlando Magic Daily: "The NBA Finals never seemed possible. Too much went wrong this season. But this team grew up in the playoffs and evolved into an elite team that won't quit, that won't go down without a fight under any circumstance. Not all championship teams are that way at the beginning of the season. It takes some tough times (struggling against Philadelphia in round one). It takes adversity (Jameer Nelson's injury). It takes inner-conflict (Dwight Howard's touches). It takes growth (Courtney Lee's emergence). It takes seemingly insurmountable odds (down 3-2 to Boston). It takes adjustments (Rafer Alston). It takes unity. It takes teamwork. Now, the Magic are right there. The ultimate dream is no longer a dream. It's now a goal."

John Krolik of Cavs the Blog: "This was one of ours. And we lost. It still hasn't sunk in for me yet, but it's just so painful. The Cavs won't get many more chances like this. So, what happened? Nobody thought we would lose this series. Nobody ... This was a tough matchup for this team. All the talk will be about what else the Cavs could've done offensively, with LeBron [James] accounting for nearly half the offense and all, but the problem was the Cavs' defense getting cracked. The Cavs had nobody to defend Dwight Howard, and that opened up this insane perimeter game. Everyone was ready to make the extra pass and the open shot, and that's just ridiculously hard to defend when you have one guy who demands two defenders ... There's at least one more go-round with LeBron and Co., and all signs point to many more. But you get so few years. So few. I don't know what else to say. I want answers. I want vindication. I want validation. I want a smoke. I even want to see my ex again. I'm going to get none of those things. There will be lots of things said about this team. The trick is to not listen to them. This is a great player. This was a great team. They did great things. They brought so much joy. The memories they made will last forever."

Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm: "Mike Brown's gotta be saying to himself, 'I worked a roster to defend Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo. I can battle Pau Gasol and Kendrick Perkins. My team can dominate Rasheed Wallace and neutralize Josh Smith. We've got Kevin Garnett in a series of uncomfortable situations. And what do I get? Rashard freaking Lewis' ... While Mike Brown was pretty abused on both ends of the floor in this series, tonight wasn't on him. What was he going to do? Double Howard? He kicked it out for the rotation three. Don't double? Howard killed whoever was on him. Foul him? He hit free throws. There wasn't much Brown could do tonight. The Magic weren't hot, they were just playing to their fullest potential. Which is kind of what you want to do in the Conference Finals in a home elimination game."

THE FINAL WORD
Philadunkia: The Sixers play it safe with Eddie Jordan. 
Knickerblogger: Truth-squadding Will Leitch's platform for the Knicks. 
48 Minutes of Hell: How borderline prospects view the D-League.

(Photos by Phelan M. Ebenhack, Elsa, Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)