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LOS ANGELES -- The dais here in the bowels of Staples Center has lately served more as a stage for a budding stand-up routine than a postgame news conference.

In each of the Clippers’ two home wins in their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul dolled themselves up, sometimes in suits with more pieces than a Lego pack, and with Paul’s adorable son on his dad’s lap, they would begin rolling out yucks like they were auditioning for a buddy comedy.

But the vibe for Saturday’s postgame greeting with the media was about as funny as a funeral. A banged-up Griffin, who didn’t rise from his seat afterward so much as he slowly detached himself from it, even came dressed in a black jacket.

Paul, however, was nowhere to be found this time.

Just another time that CP3 has gone MIA in the Clippers’ second-round series with the Spurs.

“I don’t know what Chris will say, but I don’t know if he’s 100 percent Chris Paul,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after the Spurs took a commanding 3-0 series lead with a 96-86 victory.

Paul -- who skipped the bright lights and cameras for a good, old-fashioned media scrum in the Clippers’ locker room after another very non-#podiumgame (12 points on 5-for-17 shooting and 11 assists) in Game 3 -- swatted any concerns that the strained right hip flexor suffered over a week ago in Memphis, on top of other dings and dents he might have collected along the way, limiting his game.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Paul said. “I’m all good and well.”

But in general, he doesn’t disagree with Pop -- something’s not quite right.

“I’m just missing, I’m just missing,” he said. “It’s the toughest thing right now, but I’m fine [physically].”

While Griffin has gotten better offensively by the game, scoring 26 points on 62 percent shooting this time around after a 20-point performance in Game 2, Paul is averaging a very mortal-looking 9.3 points and 8.3 assists in 37 minutes per game. But Paul, who averaged 19.8 points and 9.1 assists a game in the regular season, isn’t one to always wow with his raw numbers. The proof that the league’s pre-eminent game manager is struggling can be found in his middling efficiency.

While he shot only 46 percent from the field in Round 1, Paul’s shooting percentage has dipped to 31 percent after a second game in the 20s. And while his showed more care of the ball after coughing it up eight times in Game 2, Paul already has totaled 16 turnovers.

Even in the fourth quarter, when he is supposed to be at his best, Paul hasn’t had much go right, as he’s shot just 2-for-8, with both makes coming in Game 3.

(Then again, there hasn’t been much to play for that late in the game these days.)

“Trying to, trying to,” Paul said when asked why he hasn’t made a Paul-like impact on the series. “But a lot of those shots in the lane and stuff like that, they're just coming up short, and missing.”

San Antonio was particularly effective limiting Paul’s impact on the pick-and-roll, the bread and butter of the point guard’s game. Paul was the ball handler on the pick-and-roll nine times in Game 3, according to data logged by Syngery Sports, and the Clippers came away with points on only three of those possessions.

The Spurs easily collapsed on Paul when he ran it early on with DeAndre Jordan, one of the team’s biggest offensive black holes among a patchwork post rotation. And while he had more success with Griffin as his partner, it often came off Paul pull-up jumpers from midrange, a shot the Spurs are likely OK with conceding.

Paul also struggled in isolation, missing all four attempts, perhaps a telling sign that the burst and quick-cutting ability that his game thrives on aren't where they should be.

“Chris is battling,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. “Chris is giving us everything he has. … We’re not in this position without Chris, in terms of being in the playoffs and everything he means to the team and this organization. He gives you everything he has.

“I’ll go to battle with him every day of the week.”

He’s still battling. Soon, though, there may not be much left to fight for.

“Devastating,” Paul said. “We had an opportunity to put this thing [to] 2-1. We let it get away. I’ve gotta play better. At the end of the day, I’ve got to play better. If not, we’re gonna be in trouble.”

Coming off a pair of 1st-Round sweeps, the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are each on the front end of series against teams coming off a seven-game series.

The Thunder had eight days off prior to their 29-point demolition of the Los Angeles Lakers (one day of rest) on Monday. The Spurs, who will have had seven days off, open their series Tuesday against the Los Angeles Clippers (one day of rest).

Is it possible for a team to have too much time off between series? At what point does "rest" lend itself to "rust"? If recent history is any indication, "rust" is overrated.

Over the last 15 seasons, teams with at least seven days off are now a perfect 6-0 against teams with just a single day to recover. What's shocking might not be the perfect 6-0 record, but the fact that the games haven't even been close.

The average margin of victory in those six games is nearly 25 points per game. The only one of those six games to be decided by single digits was Game 1 of last year's Western Conference Finals in which the Dallas Mavericks beat the Thunder by nine after leading by as many as 16 in the fourth quarter.

Just how important is that extra day of rest for the team with the quick turnaround? Whereas teams with a week off are perfect when their opponents have just a single day to recover, they are just 5-7 when their opponents have two or more days of rest while averaging 23.5 fewer points per game.

The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that over the last 10 years, there were six series played between one team coming off a sweep and the other off a seven-game series. Five of those six series were won by the team coming off the sweep, with the lone exception being the Orlando Magic's elimination of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals.

Clippers-Spurs Key Notes

- The team that wins Game 1 of a seven-game series goes on to win 78.2 percent of the time (337-94, including the 1st Round this year).

- This is their first-ever meeting in the postseason.

- The Spurs are 26-2 at home against the Clippers since drafting Tim Duncan. The .929 win percentage is tied for their third-best at home against any team over that span (27-0 vs Golden State Warriors; 14-0 vs Atlanta Hawks).

- To say these teams have differing levels of success in the postseason would be a drastic understatement. Despite being in the NBA for six fewer seasons, the Spurs have more NBA titles (four) than the Clippers have series wins (three). The Spurs have more than four times as many series wins (34) as the Clippers have playoff appearances (eight).

- Much of the focus will be on the matchup between Chris Paul (third in MVP voting) and Tony Parker (fifth in MVP voting). The two have faced off seven times in the postseason, with Parker winning four times. Paul has enjoyed the statistical advantage, averaging 23.7 points per game and 10.7 assists per game (19.4 PPG, 5.7 APG for Parker).

Statistical support for this story given by NBA.com.

Entering Sunday, the Los Angeles Clippers hadn’t won a playoff game since May 18, 2006. So when they entered the fourth quarter down 21 points to the Memphis Grizzlies all signs pointed to another loss.

The Clippers had other ideas.

Down 95-71 with 7:54 left, Reggie Evans made a layup that ignited a 28-3 run en route to the Clippers historic comeback win.

FROM ELIAS: The win tied the shot-clock era playoff record for the largest deficit overcome at the end of the third quarter.

The comeback marked the 15th time this season the Clippers won a game when trailing by 10 or more points, most in NBA (regular & postseason).

But this wasn’t just any comeback, so how did they do it?

The Clippers actually had more turnovers in the fourth quarter (seven), but they led to only two Grizzlies points.

Conversely, all five of the Grizzlies' turnovers led to Clippers points (10).

The Clippers also made eight more field goals including four more three-pointers plus grabbed 13 more rebounds than the Grizzlies. Evans had eight rebounds in the quarter, twice as many as the entire Grizzlies team.

The Grizzlies did their part too going almost nine minutes without a made field goal between 9:13 and 00:28.

They missed 12 straight shots and the only point scored over this stretch was a Mike Conley made free throw.

Game Two is Wednesday back in Memphis where the Grizzlies will have to regroup.

They have lost four of their last five playoff games, but if we learned one thing from Sunday’s action, it’s that ANYTHING can happen in the playoffs.

Statistical support for this story from NBA.com.

Basketball geekery has delved into crunch time in various ways.

• First there was individual field goal percentage. That's where we learned that the players we thought owned crunch time (for instance Kobe Bryant and Chauncey Billups) actually miss a lot.
• A year ago, we added something new, looking at team offenses. That's a more important measure, assuming you value wins more than highlights. Who cares who gets the bucket, so long as they're on your team? That's where we learned that most teams were about the same, with some exceptions, including Chris Paul's Hornets, which were amazing.

But all that is only part of the picture. Because as much as we love clutch buckets, clutch wins also have a ton to do with defense. If you're going to point to any team as elite in the clutch, that must be included, and now it is.

As John Hollinger has explained, a lot of what teams do in crunch time is likely random. Looking at tiny parts of games creates some wacky results without a lot of predictive value ... anyone who says they know a team will do well in crunch time is likely fibbing. All teams do both well and poorly at different times. But defense may be a bit of an exception. Teams do seem to play defense with a certain consistency late in games.

Using NBA.com data from the last five years (current as of today), from games within five points in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime, Trevor Ebaugh of ESPN Stats & Info. dug in and created this pretty Tableau table:



Some of what we noticed:

• The Cavaliers of LeBron James and Mike Brown were unreal in crunch time, leading the league by a hefty margin for three straight years, with the best performances of any teams in the record. It's easy to see that LeBron James matters here -- once he left for Miami the Cavaliers’ plus/minus plummeted. The Cavs averaged plus-113 with James during those three seasons, and plus one in the two seasons since. Meanwhile, before James, the Heat weren't good in crunch time, but have since become very solid.
• Mike Brown emerges as an interesting character in crunch time. With James in Cleveland three straight years, and now in Los Angeles after a year off, his teams led the league by this metric every year he has coached in the last half-decade. In this period, neither team has been as good with other coaches, either.
• The Lakers have by far the best crunch time plus/minus this season (plus-79, the Pacers are second at plus-65). Pau Gasol (plus-78) has been their biggest individual star, followed closely by Andrew Bynum (plus-74). Kobe Bryant ranks third at plus-58. The Lakers achieved this number with the NBA's second-best clutch offense (behind the Magic) and the eighth-best defense.
• Three teams have shone for five straight years: The Lakers, Celtics and Magic. The Nuggets are flirting with joining that club, too.
• Superstars matter. Or, at least some do. LeBron James, Derrick Rose, Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul almost always end the season positive in this regard -- the only exceptions are Paul and Nowitzki this year, which could still change. Other big names, like Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade have had more mixed results.
• Good teams in general do well in crunch time. The top six teams in crunch time plus/minus this season have already locked up playoff spots, for instance (Lakers, Pacers, Hawks, Magic, Spurs and Bulls). But it's hardly a perfect correlation. In fact, surely a lot of what we're seeing in this chart appears to be simple randomness. The Pacers, terrible for a long time, are suddenly leaders. The Kings are excellent crunch time defenders this season. The Hawks are a solid team that is way better than solid late in games. And plenty of good teams -- the Sixers, the Knicks -- are pretty bad with the game on the line.
• Over the past half-decade, just two teams, the Knicks and Timberwolves, haven't had a single season in positive territory.
• The top ten late-game offensive teams this season are the Magic, Lakers, Grizzlies, Bulls, Hawks, Pacers, Rockets, Thunder, Spurs and Knicks.
• The Pacers are by far this season's best defensive team late in close games. They are followed by the Hawks, Kings (!), Spurs, Heat, Magic, Bulls, Lakers, Thunder and Clippers.
• The Dallas Mavericks have been very good for the last five years, but also have had the biggest drop-off in crunch time performance, from a league-leading plus-117 last season to an anemic minus-16 this season.
• The Hawks have been good in crunch time for four straight years.
• The Spurs and Thunder have been up and down.
• The Houston Rockets (plus-31) and Memphis Grizzlies (plus-28) are the best crunch time teams this season that have yet to lock up a playoff spot. The Los Angeles Clippers (minus-9) are the only playoff team with a negative clutch plus/minus.

Mostly, this feels like it's the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot more to learn about all this, and one of the big questions on the horizon is something Bill James has wrestled with in baseball for quite some time: Is there such a thing as clutch time performers? Are there really players or teams who do better with the game on the line?

That's still not something we know. What we do know is that a lot of what we thought we knew was wrong.

LOS ANGELES -- It took less than 20 seconds, but the two plays produced the only lasting images from a blowout win between a team very much in contention and another very much not.

Eric Bledsoe raced a Sacramento Kings turnover to the other end of the court and lofted up a juicy lob for Blake Griffin, who proceeded to do what Blake Griffin does in times like these: springing up and throwing down. Next play, it was Bledsoe’s turn, as a Chris Paul-forced turnover produced an off-the-backboard alley-oop dunk for the zippy young point guard, sending the crowd into a tizzy and the game into a timeout.

As the benches rose to their feet -- one drunk on adrenaline, the other sobered by another impending defeat -- Griffin ambled to the sideline, his pace as deliberate as his intent, before spinning around and glaring off at the other end of the court, his sight transfixed until a teammate wrapped him up from behind with a bear hug.

The two plays are the lifeblood of these Los Angeles Clippers -- a collection of athletic wonders able to wow in a moment’s notice. But the aftermath is what’s come to define the player who unintentionally coined the term "Lob City" and brought life back to this organization.

The rather insignificant post-slam stroll probably wasn’t picked up by camera crews -- and if it was, it’s long since been lost among all the jubilation shots -- but Griffin’s reactions have slowly become bigger talking points than the plays he makes on the court. (And in a game in which Griffin was probably the best player on the court in the Clippers’ 109-94 victory Saturday, scoring 27 points on 12-for-15 shooting with 14 rebounds, one couldn’t help but miss a play or two while watching the burly power forward’s responses to calls.)

He hasn’t finished his second regular season, but Griffin has already become one of the league’s most electrifying athletes. Yet, after rising up as rookie to become one of the fresh faces of the league, picking up All-Star nods and endorsements and commercials along the way, Griffin has slowly embarked on a heel turn straight out of the WWE playbook (as first noted here).

Griffin still produces aesthetic gold on the court -- the kind of plays that YouTube was made for. And if anything, his highlights have only become more plentiful with Paul around, his dunks only fiercer. But the endearment that his game once elicited has soured some into a sense of entitlement.

When Griffin doesn’t get a call, he will often demonstrably throw his hands up, his mouth agape. When he finishes a particularly forceful dunk, he may shoot back an icy glare ripped straight from a pro-wrestling stare-down or smirk at his opponent as he jogs to the other end of the court. His teammates and coaches have attempted to curb some of his post-call behavior, and it has worked to some degree -- Griffin has, for example, taken to covering his mouth or yelling into his shirt instead of letting his emotions cost him (and his team).

But for the most part, these actions seemed engrained in his game, perhaps the product of the beatings he takes from defenders, a way to fight back from the countless times he goes crashing to the hardwood. And as a result, the witty guy off the court comes off as a little too smug on it.

So even though Griffin has one of the most fan-friendly games, particularly when games are whittled down to 30-second bites, watching him can be a bit grating for fans. And players as well, it seems.

Griffin’s attitude has been a topic of conversation throughout the season, mostly among fans and media, but it came to the forefront this past week, when two separate players took umbrage with his play. First it was Pau Gasol, the latest victim of some of Griffin’s vicious dunks who, along with Lakers coach Mike Brown, bristled when offensive fouls weren’t called on the Clippers forward in the Lakers’ 113-108 victory on Wednesday. And one night later the complaints came from DeMarcus Cousins, who took a more blunt approach: The Kings big man called Griffin an “actor” and told SI.com that referees and the league baby Griffin.

In his first public comments since Cousins’ remarks, Griffin put the humor he shows off in his Kia commercials to use, saying, “I first heard about it from my acting coach, he sent me an email. He was obviously thrilled. It was a compliment. I guess he’s seen some commercials and stuff and I appreciate it.”

Griffin is probably right to just laugh it off and go about his day (although he did manage to lob one back Cousins’ way, noting that “you have to consider the source”). Unless his antics draw whistles, his on-court crankiness does little besides make L.A.’s postseason-bound product a little less appealing to watch.

But Cousins and Gasol aren’t entirely wrong, either: While it’s hard to argue that Griffin is “babied” by refs, given the game-by-game punishment he takes in the post, he certainly benefits from his share of favorable calls (in particular, the one that sent Cousins off the deep end to begin with). And Griffin has made a habit of forcefully dropping his off-hand on some of his more memorable dunks, creating both a way to propel himself higher and return some of the force applied to him on his way up (a natural reaction with unintentional consequences, he’s said in the past).

However, these are only minor squabbles in a season full of them, throughout the league. Their comments certainly put a national spotlight on Griffin’s on-court demeanor -- Cousins’ comments alone overshadowing recent ugly performances by the Heat and Thunder -- but they may end up saying more about how players around the league perceive the rise of young stars like Griffin.

You have to crawl before you walk. You’re supposed to intern before you get that big job. And in basketball, like all other professional sports, you’re supposed to pay your dues. Although he lost his first season to a stress fracture, Griffin’s rise has come faster than few others before him (LeBron, remember, was already a star before he was even drafted). In an industry that’s known for codes of unwritten rules -- rookies, for instance, still must tote backpacks with cartoon characters on them -- that type of meteoric ascent may rub some the wrong way, particularly when the player announces his arrival with firecrackers rather than "earning" some star rights over time, the old-fashioned way.

“A lot of guys would love to be able to do what he does,” Paul said Saturday when I posed the theory to him. “Sometimes it’s other guys competing against him harder because they want that sort of same stature and status that he has. Sometimes it’s jealousy. You never know where it’s coming from.”

And therein another possible explanation: plain ol' envy. Or at least a level playing field.

Cousins certainly isn't the first player to be rubbed the wrong way by Griffin's behavior; less than a month ago, it was was former Kentucky teammate Patrick Patterson who was shelling out 25 large for ripping officials after a run in with Griffin. But it's no real surprise that, while others have made their grumbles away from microphones, Cousins lashed out. And not only because of his now-infamous temper (although, Vegas surely wouldn't have put up odds against him being the first to do so).

In his first two seasons, the 21-year-old Cousins has been painted as an anti-star. More specifically, the anti-Griffin. While Blake's game is easy on the eyes, his high-flying repertoire as Cirque du Soleil as it is sport, the lumbering Kings center's is more plodding, the countless hours of grinding out position in the post far less enjoyable for the every-day fan. And like Griffin, Cousins tends to complain a lot throughout the game; after jacking up midrange shots on the Kings' first two possessions, one made and one missed, Cousins made sure to let the officials know he had been nicked on the arm both times. Only, because of the bad-guy persona that has dogged him since before he stepped foot in the league, Cousins' bellyaching comes off as sharp, as if each outburst only further cements his image as a tyrant.

So while Cousins has quietly turning into one of the league’s best big men this season, with a player efficiency rating (21.87) to back it up, his breakout season has gone relatively unnoticed, a fact owed as much to the miniature market in which he plays as his uneasy image. (It took an up-close look to appreciate it myself.)

Griffin and the Clippers haven’t had that problem since Paul’s arrival.

“We’re on national TV a lot. We’re one of the top draws on the road. We’ve seen it every game now,” Vinny Del Negro said. “So a lot of things have changed -- a lot more exposure, a lot more tension. So maybe that has something to do with it.”

For the record, in each of the two times I’ve run into Cousins -- once before he entered the league and again during this weekend's visit -- he’s been easy to deal with, a guy who doesn’t seem to fit the image most conjure up when they think of the big lug.

But public perception means so much. Griffin certainly knows that now.

“I’ve heard that,” Griffin said with a smile when a reporter noted how polarizing he’s become. “It’s not something I embrace or try to do. It just kind of happens. I’ve seemed to have had a good week as far as that goes.”

You might’ve missed it, but the Clippers’ past two weeks haven’t been so bad, either. After losing three straight on the road and appearing on the brink of collapse, the Clips have strung together eight wins over the past nine games and positioned themselves a half-game behind the third-place Lakers in the Western Conference standings.

Griffin’s bothersome on-court antics will likely continue to irk fans and players alike. But as long as this team keeps rolling, those fun "Lob City" images will be the only ones that matter.

LOS ANGELES -- The buzz began to build as it usually does here in Lob City. Not the electric, almost-deafening roar that ascends with every Blake Griffin leap around the basket, or the gasps that turn into a respectful round of applause in commemoration of a Chris Paul crossover and dish.

Instead, it was the humming of a disinterested crowd’s chatter as shot after shot bricked off the Staples Center iron in a first quarter that saw the Clippers shoot only 6-for-22 from the floor and score only 16 points.

So like he always has, for 11 straight seasons, Clipper Darrell arose from his seat in section 109. Now just Darrell Bailey after a run-in with Clippers brass that screams “Classic Clippers,” the unofficial mascot of L.A.’s other team, decked out in his usual garish blue and red Two-Face suit and baseball cap, cupped his hands around his mouth did what Clipper Darrel does.

“Let’s go, Clippers, let’s go!” he shrieked.

Heads turned to see the man whose devotion to an underdog team had ended with him in tears on a local TV set last week, but the interest quickly turned into indifference.

A glance, a sigh, and that was that.

With Griffin at the line moments later, Bailey broke out his bullhorn scream again.

“M-V-P! M-V-P!” he shouted.

Again, a glance and a sigh, and one nearby young patron a few rows back even let out a mocking “Good one, Darrell” to kick a little more dirt Bailey’s way.

This is Lob City. The real Lob City.

Despite all the billboards, the high-wire acts, the rim-rattling, the hype, the highlights that surrounded their rise from the big top to the big time, the Clippers are far from the well-oiled machine that most concocted this winter, the Miami Heat -- only without all the hate.

The Clippers aren’t the Clippers anymore; the standings prove as much. But they sure aren’t the team that got Griffin, and subsequently every fan with an iota of pro basketball interest, downright giddy this offseason.

That 23-16 record? That bottom-third ranking in defensive efficiency? The inability to start up or slam the door shut? Falling to a fast-rising, but beatable, Warriors team 97-93 after beating the Spurs at the AT&T Center for the first time, ever?

That’s these Clippers for you.

Paul is everything you could want in a point guard, particularly when the only notion of a floor general for L.A.’s other team conjures up images of Shaun Livingston crumpled up in a ball. But this season, Paul hasn’t always been able to be the Paul we’ve watch pick-and-roll his way to the top of the PG heap over six seasons. With an Achilles' tear robbing Chauncey Billups of likely his only Clipper campaign and Caron Butler (6.9 points per game over the past 10 games) struggling to pick up the scoring slack, the offensive maestro has been forced into playing more as a scorer (ppg by month: 15.0, 19.0, 20.8, 23.7) than a distributor (apg by month: 10.7, 8.4, 8.1, 8.3).

With the spotlight now squarely on him in his second NBA go-round, Griffin has become more villain than dunk hero, his scowls and smug-looking stares after calls turning off fans by the day.

And DeAndre Jordan has been … well, Jordan is almost exactly the same player from when we left off for the extended summer vacation. By matching the Warriors’ offer sheet this offseason, the Clippers have essentially set their star troika moving forward, as Jordan’s new four-year, $43 million deal gives them little wiggle room with both Paul and Griffin needing new deals in the near future.

The Clippers were buying more potential than production, as Jordan’s projected outlook as an athletic, rim-protecting center to pair with the defensively challenged Griffin far outweighed his measly current numbers (7.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.8 blocks per game), but they’ve yet to truly reap the benefits of the investment. Jordan still shows flashes of the Tyson Chandler lite L.A. envisioned, but despite a rise in player efficiency rating (PER) and rebound rate, the rest of Jordan’s numbers continue to tumble.

His defense is still imposing (Jordan ranks as the 20th-best defender, according to Syngery Sports), but without the ability to hit shots, from the free-throw line or elsewhere, the 23-year-old big man barely sees the court in the fourth quarter anymore.

He said the crunch-time snub doesn’t bother him, and for a guy with an easygoing attitude about most things, it probably doesn’t. But it sure would be nice to get more out of that $11 mill a year than three quarters of above-average defense.

“This wasn’t the perfect game for him, but we need DeAndre to play well and play at a high level and accept and do his role every night,” said Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro, putting a little extra emphasis on the last two words and referencing Jordan’s consistency both before and after another disappointing homecoming performance.

The Warriors’ small-ball lineup, as Del Negro noted, isn’t an easy task for a 6-foot-11 shot-blocker, but that’s where Jordan’s flaws really come to light: Instead of forcing opponents to make adjustments to what should be an imposing, physical frontline of Griffin and Jordan, the Clippers always have to match what the other team is throwing at them.

Which is why in the Clippers’ most important stretches, you’re more likely to see Reggie Evans or Kenyon Martin or Bobby Simmons than the supposed Lob City big three. In their fourth-quarter rally on Sunday, in which the Clippers dug themselves out of a 21-point deficit after another slow start to tie the game at 83 with 4:30 to play, not even Paul -- sporting a clear visor straight out of the Kobe Collection after breaking his nose in San Antonio -- could be found on the court.

That dream team assembled in the wake of the failed trade of that other team that occupies Staples, with a five-man lineup (Paul, Billups, Butler, Griffin, Jordan) that screamed “contender”? It’s still the Clippers’ most-used crew, despite Billups’ jersey hanging in his locker untouched for almost as many games as he’s worn it, with ones involving the Clippers’ rotating cast of wily vets slowly creeping up the list.

Not even the guy in the front row still sporting a Corey Maggette jersey could’ve been ready for that.

Maybe old habits die hard. You can’t blame the fans for being a bit groggy for a 6:30 p.m. PT start, on a Sunday, immediately after a barnburner between the team L.A. has loved for decades and the team L.A. has hated for just as long. And the noise certainly picked up when the Clippers did and the highlight machine got up and running.

But it’s sure hard to move on when the Clippers still find ways to conjure up memories of the Clippers. A technical foul in the third quarter for having six players on the court? Pure Clippers.

“Just a miscommunication between the players and the referee,” Del Negro said of the play.

Even as the franchise continues to cross lines and break barriers, some lines are still far too tangled for any legitimate contender.

Justin Verrier is an NBA editor for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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• Is Chris Bosh better than LeBron James or Dwyane Wade? No. But he may be less dispensable to the Heat's offense. Brian Windhorst reports that Chris Bosh will return to the Heat lineup tonight after missing three games (two of them losses) following the death of his grandmother.
• The Raptors are fighting hard for new coach Dwane Casey, but it's still important that they lose their fair share of games in order to nab a high lottery pick. So, according to Prospect of Raptors Republic, last night was a perfect game: "The Raptors were outmatched, undermanned, but still somehow managed to put in a scrappy effort and almost won the game, pleasing tank nation while still giving the home fans a reason to show up."
• D.J. Foster on why the Clippers should be nervous about the postseason:"The best teams in the league force you to pick your poison, but the Clippers don’t really do that — Paul just administers the poison on his own and kills you himself. Eventually though, teams will start doubling Paul as soon as he crosses half court. We’ve seen it before in New Orleans — it’s not that crazy of a thought. They’ll get the ball out of his hands, and if they fail at that, they’ll collapse on him as soon as he moves towards the rim. Defenses will make anyone other than Paul beat them. A good portion of the time Paul will still beat them, but at times it will come down to things like this: Can Blake Griffin hit a mid-range jumper? Can Caron Butler hit the open 3 from the corner? Can Randy Foye make the right decision?
• Jan Vesely wants in the dunk contest. Anyone whose nickname is "Air Wolf" gets my blessing.
• Evan Turner's first start of the season didn't go so well. Should he be starting at all?
• For GQ, Bethlehem Shoals writes that fans give Lamar Odom the benefit of the doubt because he's never been shy about showing an emotional vulnerability that is unusual for professional athletes, but pretty common in most humans.
• The Charlotte Bobcats are making a legitimate run at being the worst team of all time. Related: Boris Diaw remains hopelessly out of shape, which may mean he's consuming calories equivalent to 200 White Castle burgers a week.
• Zach Lowe takes on the impossible task of quantifying Rajon Rondo's trade value.
• Plenty of people want to see Steve Nash get traded to a contender. But moving Robin Lopez might be more beneficial to the Suns.
• Despite missing Zach Randolph all season, the Grizzlies lurk as a sleeper to once again make a run in the Western Conference playoffs. But to do so, should they make a trade before the deadline?
• A lot has already happened since the All-Star break. Here's a funny video recap of it all (and some made up stuff, too).

A shooter waits in the right corner, feet set and hands ready. A big, bouncy center creeps along the left baseline and prepares to dunk anything that comes his way. From the right wing, a second shooter cuts through the paint to the opposite corner as the shooting guard floats up to the left wing. Chris Paul dribbles facing the rim and casually drifts to a spot on the 3-point line -- a straight line drawn between his feet and the basket would pass directly through the right elbow.

This is Paul's spot.

What he does from here is more or less why Chris Paul is the most deadly crunch-time player in the NBA. What he does is shoot.

In the second half of the Clippers' opening night win against the Golden State Warriors, Paul shot 4-for-4 from the six-by-six foot box in between the right elbow and the 3-point line. It's precisely this ability that separates him from other pass-first blurs like Rajon Rondo.

Paul was brought to Los Angeles to help make Blake Griffin truly great, to smooth out the jagged edges in DeAndre Jordan’s game and to revitalize Caron Butler. But most of all, he came to win and win big by making everyone else better with his passing and exquisite command of pick-and-roll dynamics. So why let his teammates just stand around while he isolates 25 feet from the hoop?

Well that passing ability is good for more than just selling Lob City T-Shirts. Paul’s insistence on finding the open player, whomever it may be, is also why he’s able to find himself open for flatfooted jump shots -- even when the whole defense is staring right at him.

When Paul winds his way around a screen, his shoulder snug to the screener’s hip, or when he signals he’s ready to score by bending low from the waist and beginning his mesmerizing crossover routine, help defenders stay put. They know that despite signs to the contrary, though his focus seems like it could melt the steel rim, Paul's vision extends to every inch of the court. Send three defenders his way as Chicago did to Kobe Bryant on Bryant's potential game-winner and Paul is sure to find the open man.

So because defensive help’s heels are tacked to the hardwood, the player with the undesirable task of staying in front of Paul, last night Monta Ellis, must concede an extra foot or two to stop the drive -- a killer crossover soon becomes a dump off to dunk-happy DeAndre Jordan.

The only goal of Paul’s defender is to shuffle his feet fast enough to prevent Paul from shattering the team’s defensive structure. Staying in front of him is more important than staying close to him.

And that’s just the air space Paul, who is only 6-feet tall and does not get much elevation on his jumper, needs to shoot without so much as a hand in his face. Instead, Paul shakes and shimmies until the defender’s knees and ankles approach the consistency of pudding, then gathers his feet, rises straight up and lofts the ball gently through the net.

Hoopdata tells us that for the last four seasons, Paul has shot about 45 percent from 16-23 feet -- an impressive rate from that difficult distance. In that same time, the percentage of his total field goal attempts from this range has increased, absorbing what used to be more efficient attempts at the rim. This shift is why many remain unconvinced that Paul is his old 2008 self.

But while the 19 foot pull-up is hardly the best shot in basketball, it’s a shot Paul makes and that his skill essentially forces the defense to concede. It’s impractical to trap Paul because his ballhandling wizardry and powerful frame make him impossible to bully. And while simply getting the ball out of his hands counted as a defensive victory during Paul’s last two seasons in New Orleans, Paul’s new SoCal teammates will feast on opportunities to go 4 on 3.

Vinny Del Negro didn’t acquit himself all that well in his first game as helmsmen of the new Clippers. The team showed a worrisome lack of offensive imagination and organization and was fortunate that the absence of purpose and weakside motion wasn’t fatal against the Warriors’ dilapidated defense.

But credit Del Negro this: He knows that when his team needs a bucket, you could do much worse than a 18-foot Chris Paul jumper over a backpedaling defender. When your last resort is your best player’s go-to move, and that player is Chris Paul, it seems not even the Clippers can screw it up.

With the season set to tip-off on Christmas Day, here are four major statistical storylines to keep a close eye on:

Can the Mavericks repeat?
With the departure of Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea and DeShawn Stevenson, the Dallas Mavericks will be the first defending champion since the 1998-99 Bulls to lose three of its top seven in minutes played from the previous season’s NBA Finals.

Added to the mix are Lamar Odom and Vince Carter. In Odom, the Mavericks added an incredibly efficient half-court scorer according to our video-tracking friends at Synergy Sports. Among all qualified forwards, he ranked third in the NBA in points per play in the half court, trailing only Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki.

Carter is also a good fit. Last season, only five teams scored more points on spot-up shots. In 2010-11 Carter ranked in the Top 25 in the NBA in field goal attempts per game, field goal percentage and points per game on spot-up shots.


How does Chris Paul improve the Clippers?
As a pick-and-roll ball handler last season, Chris Paul ranked sixth in the NBA in points per play among the 103 players with at least 100 pick-and-roll plays. As a team the Los Angeles Clippers ranked 17th in pick-and-roll efficiency while Paul’s old team in New Orleans ranked seventh.
Look for Paul to help improve the Clippers jump-shooting woes as well. Last season the Clippers shot just 35.1 pct on jump shots which ranked dead last in the NBA. Paul ranked 20th in jump shot FG attempts, but did so with great efficiency, connecting on 44 percent. Of the 19 players which took more jumpers, only Dirk Nowitzki, Stephen Curry and Ray Allen shot a better percentage.

While the loss of Eric Gordon hurts, consider this: accounting for three-pointers, Gordon had a 48.5 adjusted FG pct on jump shots... worse than both Paul (49.8) and Chauncey Billups (52.7).


Will youth be served in Oklahoma City?
While James Harden and Serge Ibaka continue to improve, the main focus is on Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

Durant is looking to become the first player since Michael Jordan in 1997-98 to lead the league in scoring three straight seasons. Westbrook meanwhile is coming off a 2010-11 season in which he emerged as one of the league’s best finishers at the rim, ranking sixth in points scored within three feet.

Perhaps the biggest concern with the Thunder is the potential for an alpha-dog dispute. Durant was the unquestioned go-to guy down the stretch during the regular season, an assumption which was then challenged by Westbrook during the postseason (see chart).

Regardless of who takes the big shots, an improvement on their combined 3-26 effort would surely bring OKC closer to a title.

Bigger impact on the East: Richard Hamilton or Tyson Chandler?
While many presume we won’t know anything new about the Miami Heat until the playoffs, the same can’t be said for the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks who added major pieces in Richard Hamilton and Tyson Chandler.

The Bulls brought in Hamilton to take the place of Keith Bogans, who despite starting all 82 games, averaged just 4.4 PPG which was the fewest among all players with at least 50 starts. With Derrick Rose having the second-highest usage rate in the NBA last season, scoring without the ball is an essential skill for all other Bulls players. Among guards, Hamilton has the fifth-most assisted FG on shots beyond 15 feet over the last three seasons.

Chandler’s most significant responsibility will be to improve a Knicks interior defense which allowed opponents to shoot 45.3 percent on post ups last season (21st in the NBA). On post up plays in which he played single coverage, Chandler held opponents to 41.4 pct shooting. That is at least 5 points better than any of the players who saw minutes at center for the Knicks last season.

Blake Griffin posted his first career triple-double in the Los Angeles Clippers 127-119 double-overtime win over the Washington Wizards. He had a career-high 10 assists, was one shy of a career high with 17 rebounds, and his 33 points were the fourth-most of his career. He also fouled out, making him the first player to foul out with a triple-double since Lamar Odom in April 2007.

With the Clippers winning at home in double overtime a day after the Los Angeles Lakers won at the Staples Center in triple overtime, the Elias Sports Bureau reports that the last time there were back-to-back multi-overtime games in the same arena was March 1984, at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. The San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks in two overtimes on March 13 and then beat the Hawks in three overtimes seven days later.

Overshadowed in defeat, John Wall set a career high with 32 points, topping his previous best of 29, against the Philadelphia 76ers in November.

In other triple-double news, Chuck Hayes and Kyle Lowry are evoking memories of Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but Hayes' triple-double on Wednesday (13 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists) makes him the second Rocket with a triple-double in as many games, joining Lowry, who did it Sunday against Utah. The last time Houston had multiple players with a triple-double in the same season was 1996-97, by Drexler (2), Barkley and Olajuwon.

Perhaps more impressively, Elias says that the last team to have triple-doubles from different players in consecutive games was the New Jersey Nets in March 1996, by the vastly dissimilar Shawn Bradley and Chris Childs.

Speaking of New Jersey, Kris Humphries had 18 points and 23 rebounds in the Nets overtime win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday. The last Nets player with at least 23 rebounds was Michigan State alum Jamie Feick, who had 25 boards on Jan. 20, 2000 vs Detroit.

Although the Boston Celtics lost to the Memphis Grizzlies at home, Kevin Garnett made a bit of history. With his 10 points, Garnett passed Adrian Dantley for 20th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. Next on the list is former Celtic great Robert Parish. At his current pace of 15.0 points per game this season, and assuming he plays every game, Garnett would pass Parish in the season's penultimate game, against Washington on April 11.

• A moment of silence please, for the death of my favorite NBA Twitter handle.
• Jared Wade is at the controls over at The Point Forward, where he's done a lot of statistical legwork to figure out what makes a player MVP-worthy. His conclusion: "By examining past winners, we get a snapshot of the typical MVP: a 27-year-old, healthy big man who leads his team to 60 wins while scoring 25 points (on 51 percent shooting), grabbing 13 boards and handing out five assists per game. We are looking at Charles Barkley on the Suns, basically."
• Pistons to MacGrady: "Tracy, this is awkward. It's not that we didn't think you'd be good, it's just that we never thought anyone would want to buy your jersey."
• This physics-defying freethrow attempt made me think of The Sixth Man. Beware the ghost of Antoine Tyler!
• Sebastian Pruiti shows us the effect of good coaching versus bad coaching can have when it comes to getting clean looks.
• I'm almost positive this is legitimate. An English translation of Knicks forward Timofey Mozgov's lengthy, revealing blog post which originally appeared in Russian here. Quoth Mozgov on his recent Did Not Play, Coach's Decisions: "You should agree with me that panic is a bad advisor; it’s hard to work productively when it’s there. But I’m not complacent either. So, I’ll repeat myself: I’m not ashamed."
• Ever wonder what The View would look like with younger hosts who only discussed sports? If so, I direct you to KFrye and Friends, a new sports talk show hosted by Channing Frye's Emmy Award-winning mom, Karen. I'm not sure how large the audience will be, but I'm interested to see women talking about sports (video) in a way that seems intended for a primarily female audience. If it works, KFrye could really be on to something.
• For Atlanta fans, this ain't good.
• This is what they're saying about the Knicks' stud rookie Landry Fields over at DraftExpress: "Considering where he started and where he is now, Fields' case might be the most unlikely we've seen in the seven NBA drafts we've covered." Read up to find out why Fields has been one of David Thorpe's top rookies all year.
• LeBron's contraction remarks have once again stoked the flames of his most passionate detractors. The guys at Nets Are Scorching roast James in this half-serious, half-hilarious debate to determine what the correct reason to hate LeBron is.
• After three exceedingly frustrating years, Nick Young is putting it together. But Kyle Weidie of Truth About It notes that while he's playing more efficiently and intelligently than ever, he's still a historically awful passer.
• The No Look Pass takes a shot at ranking the five most lopsided trades of the last 15 years.
• You may hate the Heat, but there is simply too much stellar writing and analysis on the Heat Index to let that keep you from reading. Today: Tom Haberstroh explains how the Heat's newly methodical execution on both ends is slow cooking the competition; Kevin Arnovitz provides five insights into the rematch of 2010's most entertaining game; and Mike Wallace explains that part of why Chris Bosh has been so magnificently effective for the last month is because he's finally got his legs under him.
• Jeremy Schmidt may be on to something. If Jason Collins is killing you on the glass, you're doing it wrong.
• Because the Spurs are running so much, and Tim Duncan's statistics are down, you may not have noticed that he's still playing a vital role in the Spurs revamped offense.
• Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph of the Memphis Grizzlies have some thoughts on contraction, and the fact that Memphis would be one of the more obvious targets should the NBA actually decide to eliminate a couple teams. I'll say this about the matter: if it happens it will be because of a dilution in league-wide revenue, not talent.

By Kevin Arnovitz

It's a tough week for non-rostered players trying to hang on with NBA teams. The vast majority of them will be clearing out their lockers and packing up their belongings. Such was the case on Monday for NBA veteran Anthony Roberson, the 26-year-old guard who has spent the past month with the Los Angeles Clippers. We caught up with Roberson as he was moving out of the Marriott in Marina Del Rey near the Clippers training facility, as he ponders his next move.

Anthony Roberson was cut by the Clippers on Monday."This isn't my first time around," Roberson says. (Noah Graham/Getty Images)

How did you learn you were being cut?
After my last practice when I got off the court, the trainer told me that Coach Dunleavy wanted to see me. I knew what it was. I know how it works. This isn't my first time around.

Did he bring you into his office?
No, he told me on the court. He thanked me for working hard, and I thanked him for the opportunity. At the end of the day, I knew it was going to come down to me and Kareem Rush. Kareem is a good player, so it really wasn't a letdown.

You've been around the block, but does it still hurt to get cut right before the season starts?
Not this one so much. I got a real opportunity. The Denver situation (training camp, 2007) -- that hurt me. I was putting up double-digits for them, was playing a lot, and gave it my all. This time, I knew the situation. I came into camp with a different mindset.

So what's your next move?
I'm going to take a few days and figure out my options. There are opportunities in Europe and the D-League. I'm going to go back home to Atlanta for a few days, then go see my mom in Michigan and see how she's doing.

What kind of situation are you looking for?
I want to go where I can play. Europe is very powerful. A lot of players benefit by being on a club overseas. The most important thing is that I get a chance to show what I can do, where I can have the ball in my hands. The D-League is also a good place, especially the teams being sponsored by an NBA team.

What's the most frustrating thing for you about the process?
I know I'm an NBA player. That's the most disappointing thing. Sometimes, you fight with yourself. You question yourself sometimes. But then you remember you've had success, and even though you're not getting the full opportunity you want, you can't get down on yourself. You have to remember that everyone takes a different route and I respect the route I've taken. It makes me stronger and appreciate it the chances I get.

Having trained with them for a month, what's your read on the Clippers?
I love the attitude they have now. You can tell it's like night and day -- a whole different season and it seems a whole lot better than last year. In preseason, they're playing the whole game every game, from the first quarter to the fourth quarter. They're going to be in a lot of games this season. They have players like Rasual Butler who bring in a different mindset. Everyone in the locker room is looking forward to this year. They know they can play with any team in the NBA, and that confidence is half the battle in this league. They have so much to prove and it's going to be interesting to watch how they get better.

How do you think Baron Davis is going to impact the team this year?
He's a vet and he's playing with a chip on his shoulder -- but a positive chip. He's motivated. He knows that as he goes, the Clippers go. He's getting back to the way he was at Golden State. I loved playing with him.

You've played for a bunch of NBA coaches. How would you describe Mike Dunleavy's style?
He's very organized and structured -- a veteran coach. You always know what he expects of you in terms of schemes. The things we ran in practice show that he knows what it takes to win. I respect him. He also has that positive chip on his shoulder after last season. He thinks the Clippers are as good as anyone -- and I believe that too. And you can't blame him for thinking that. The talent they have is unbelievable.

What about Blake Griffin?
As good as he is at basketball, he's also a good person. He loves the game. He stays in the gym all the time. He's young, energetic and he's willing to listen and learn. His nickname on the team is "Amazing," because everyday he's going to do something that makes you go, "Whoooaaa!" He's going to be big in L.A.. His upside is crazy.

Can you imagine a life for yourself without basketball?
No. I've been playing since I was five. I just can't imagine it. Can't.

• Frank Dell'Apa of The Boston Globe: "Kevin Garnett passed the alley-oop test in the Celtics' 106-90 exhibition win over Toronto last night. Garnett converted two dunks off lobs from Rajon Rondo, the first time they have combined on the play since Garnett was injured last February. 'That was nice,' coach Doc Rivers said. 'Unexpected, actually, because Kevin got kneed in the calf in the first half, so I didn't think he was running well. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he becomes the old Kevin. That's the only thing, really, that you can see that he hasn't done. And to see that, that's really big.' Garnett, who had 16 points and six rebounds in 22:42 of playing time."
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: "Allen Iverson joined the Memphis Grizzlies for $3 million late in the off-season, amidst plenty of media speculation and hoopla. Now the 34-year-old Iverson already is out of the Memphis lineup for an extended time due to a partial tear in his left hamstring. In a much quieter off-season transaction in National Basketball Association circles, forward Hakim Warrick signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, after the Grizzlies withdrew their qualifying offer to the former Syracuse star. Warrick's signing could be a steal for the Bucks, if he can continue the steady play he has produced over the first five exhibition games. He leads the team in scoring (17.8 points per game) and rebounding (6.8) and is shooting 59% from the field and 77% at the foul line, while taking a team-high 44 free-throw attempts. ... So it was a bit of a jolt when the Grizzlies let him become an unrestricted free agent. 'Just being in this profession, you always want to have something to prove, no matter what,' Warrick said. 'You look at the greatest, Michael Jordan. He always had something to prove, and he was the best player that walked the face of the earth. 'I definitely want to go out there and show that it was a mistake and I'm a really good player.' "
• Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: "One of the knocks on Kwame Brown has been his inconsistent hands -- frequently in the past he would fumble passes out of bounds or lose the basketball when going up for shots around defenders. But that hasn't been the case so far. I asked Brown if he is doing anything different. Is he using Stickum? Using contacts now? Using Velcro gloves? The secret is not so drastic. Brown said he's just concentrating on slowing down and making sure the ball is secured before starting his move. Really? That's it? But it does make some sense. Former Pistons coach Michael Curry used to tell the media all the time last season that Brown was fine whenever he would just slow down. Further reminders from Kuester has continued the reclamation project. And while Brown may never reach the heights his draft status says he should, Kuester thinks Brown can still have a huge impact in this league -- proving our skepticism dead wrong."
• Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post: "George Karl hasn't seen much to write home about from his team during preseason games, but he's got plenty to smile about anyway. We're talkin' about practice. This team is taking the every day sessions with a professional approach Karl has never seen from a Nuggets squad during his tenure. And that has him practically giddy about the possibilities ahead. ... Karl said Carmelo Anthony has been particularly solid with his leadership in October. Anthony also scored 45 points in the Nuggets' last exhibition game -- a win over Indiana in Beijing. 'I think Melo is growing into that role, more so by his approach and his actions more than just his words,' Karl said. 'And the culture. Our culture of who we pick up and who we trade for, I think we're a little more aware of guys that like to be in the gym.' "
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: "Blake Griffin sent a second message, inquiring about DaJuan Blair's arrival time. This time the response left Griffin totally perplexed. 'He let me know he wasn't coming to New York at all,' said Griffin, the Clippers rookie and 2008-09 College Player of the Year who was the No. 1 overall selection of the draft. 'That confused me and surprised me.' In fact, Blair wasn't in the 'green room' at Madison Square Garden, awaiting an expected curtain call to pose with commissioner David Stern after being announced as a first-round pick. That was because the league had determined it wasn't likely that Blair would be taken in the first round, which turned out to be the case. Instead, the Spurs made him the 37th overall pick. Blair has vowed to make the 29 teams that passed on him regret the decision. Griffin believes he will make good on his promise. 'It doesn't matter that he didn't go (in the first round),' Griffin said. 'He got drafted where he was meant to be, and I know he's going to make the best of it.' The two power forwards became good friends at summer basketball. On Wednesday night, they went head-to-head at the AT&T Center in a preseason game. Griffin had 23 points and seven rebounds. Blair turned in his second double-double, with 11 points and 12 rebounds in Los Angeles' 93-90 victory."
• John Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times: "The word 'potential' is a dangerous adjective in sports when applied to a young player. Sometimes it means that player is a future star; other times it's simply a euphemism for ''hasn't accomplished anything yet.'' With that caveat, I must say I love the potential of the Bulls' young frontcourt players, particularly Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and James Johnson. All three, especially the rookies, surely will have moments when they struggle this season, but each will produce many more positive than negative moments."
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: "I have to say I was flabbergasted by the amount the NBA fined coach Larry Brown and the Charlotte Bobcats Wednesday. The league is charging Brown and the franchise $60,000 each for Brown's behavior in Atlanta on Monday and for what the league perceives as Brown criticizing the referees after the game. I was there in Atlanta on Monday night and again Tuesday after practice when Brown first talked publicly about his ejection. I was within feet of Brown on both occasions and certainly within earshot of what the principals said. It's true that Brown 'verbally abused' (the league's term) the refs, getting himself ejected in the third quarter of the preseason loss to the Hawks. It's also true that Brown refused to leave the court in a timely manner. That accounted for the first $35,000 of Brown's fine. But to say Brown criticized the officials after the fact is at best an overreaction to what happened. And at worst, an injustice."
• Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: "Stephen Jackson initially expressed disappointme
  nt at the coaching staff for keeping him in the game and not backing him when replacement referees whistled him for five fouls and a technical in the first quarter. Wednesday, Jackson also elaborated on his beef with Lakers guard Kobe Bryant. The two were locked in a heated matchup that got Jackson the five fouls and his blood boiling, which led to his two-game suspension. 'I'm not a fan of Kobe,' Jackson said. 'I'm not somebody who looks up to him. I'm a grown man myself. So when I go out there and play the game, I play the game. I feel like I'm just as good as him. I might not get the publicity or notoriety he gets, but I feel like I can play with anybody in the NBA any given night.' Bryant reportedly called Jackson 'young fella' during the game, and Jackson complained of Bryant throwing elbows. Jackson perhaps expected his teammates to mix it up with Bryant in his defense. Their failure to do so might have played a part in Jackson relinquishing his team captaincy Tuesday."
• Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: "Ron Artest speaks his mind on just about any topic, and this afternoon was no different when he was asked about Golden State guard-forward Stephen Jackson. Jackson and Artest were with the Indiana Pacers when the infamous 'Palace Brawl' took place in 2004. Artest stood by his former teammate when asked about Jackson's recent demeanor, which included a two-game suspension on top of a demand to be traded. 'The greatest did it before -- Kobe, the greatest to ever play the game -- and he won a championship after that' demand, Artest said. 'He wanted to win. He didn't want out; he wanted to win. Stephen Jackson probably isn't as talented as the greatest, but he has got as much heart.' "
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: "Marcin Gortat certainly is backing up his claim that he's one of the league's best centers. If he were unhappy about the Magic matching Dallas' offer, he hasn't showed it in his play. He averaging 8.0 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 22.8 minutes per game. He is the only Magic player to appear in all five preseason games."
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel: "A team-wide session on Ustream led to an awkward moment for forward Michael Beasley, as the Miami Heat prepared for Wednesday night's 96-91 exhibition loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the BOK Center. Following up on a session initially put together by Heat guard Dwyane Wade, Beasley found himself responding Tuesday night to a posted comment relating to his substance-abuse issues this summer. As he read the comment on the live video feed, teammates Daequan Cook and Mario Chalmers, who were in his room participating in the live Internet stream at the time, grew quiet. In response to a snarky comment of knowing how to hide his stash, Beasley playfully responded about how true that was. Comments from those viewing the stream followed ripping the initial commenter about trying to lure Beasley into such a response. Before Wednesday's game, when asked if he would have been better off simply avoiding a reply, the second-year forward acknowledged with a smile, 'you're right.' "

• More Coach Wooden, on his 99th birthday, as relayed by Esquire: "Coming off the floor after the NCAA semifinal win over Louisville in 1975, it just hit me: Time to go. It was an emotional thing. I can't explain it. I went to the dressing room, congratulated my players. I said, 'I don't know how we'll do against Kentucky, but regardless of the outcome, I never had a team give me more pleasure. It's been a great year, and I'm proud of you. This will be the last team I'll ever coach.'"
• Baron Davis' tactical advantage, in video.
• The Magic shoot the lights out.
• Joakim Noah made three hook shots in one game. He was also a monster getting blocks and rebounds.
• The suggestion Paul Pierce would re-work his contract to help the Celtics get more talent in the long run. (First discussed here.)
  
• Optimism, from a plus/minus expert, about Kevin Durant's future. Also, Wayne Winston's plus/minus case for Russell Westbrook. And, a smart look at how other Thunder players performed with and without Durant.
• Pistons fans are in love with Will Bynum. 
• It's in the realm of possibility that Jerry Sloan could end his career with more wins than any other NBA coach.
• Phil Jackson is a big believer that geography can play a big role in helping a team win.

• Scott Cacciola of The Commercial-Appeal: "Allen Iverson's abilities are a gift, which even he recognizes. In the same way that musical prodigies can just pick up an instrument and create a song, so too can Iverson grab a basketball -- without hours of practice -- and control a game. He always has been at his best when he improvises. He would clash with his high school football and basketball coaches for missing practices, but they knew he would excel when it mattered. It was impossible to bench him. ... Iverson, no longer a brash rookie, said he has grown to understand the importance of taking care of his body, acknowledging that his long wait for a contract this summer meant sacrificing some of his preparation. Then again, he has coped with injuries before. He missed 34 games during the 2003-04 season because of problems with his right knee -- 'Shaq kneed me in my thigh,' he said -- and his right shoulder. He missed 17 games toward the end of last season with the Detroit Pistons because of a balky back, though he also was upset about his role with the team. He sees his latest challenge as a temporary setback. He is unwilling to concede anything to age. In his mind, it is a fluke."
• Sam Amick of The Sacramento Bee: "Most of this season was taken from Francisco Garcia when the exercise ball on which he lay while lifting two 90-pound dumbbells exploded. The accident, Garcia said, is as surreal now as it was when it happened. 'Just a regular day, lifting weights,' he said. 'I was out there, on the PhysioBall. We've got an understanding that the exercise was good. We'd been doing that, and it exploded on me. ? I didn't have time to react or anything. It's crazy, man. I keep reflecting in my head. It's crazy.' Garcia said he hopes to travel occasionally with the team and maintain a strong connection. 'I want to be here as much as I can, be on the road as much as I can,' he said. 'I just want to be there with them, as a teammate, as a friend, as a leader. I think they really need me out there, even if I'm not playing.' "
• Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle: "Stephen Jackson renounced his team captaincy Tuesday. Captain Jack is now Captive Jack. Jackson has been stewing for weeks, making it clear and public that he wants the Warriors to trade him. Nice strategy, by the way: Clamor to be traded, thereby drastically decreasing your trade value. He returned to the Warriors on Tuesday after a two-game team suspension, meeting with coach Don Nelson and general manager Larry Riley before practice. When Nelson talked to a large group of media in the early afternoon, he was happy. 'The prodigal son has returned,' said a smiling Nelson. 'It's good to have Jack back.' Nelson also said, 'He's going to be the same guy.' But when it was Jackson's turn with the media, he seemed like a very different guy, not the positive and good-humored captain many of us have grown to know and like. To say Jackson seemed bitter Tuesday is to say that the day seemed a bit moist. I'm checking with sources to see if Jackson and Nelson attended the same meeting."
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: "From a distance, Murphy comes across as a free-spirited prankster. It turns out that's not the case. 'Murph plays the Jersey goofball a lot, but he certainly knows what's going on, so we give him a hard time,' said Pacers swingman Mike Dunleavy, who has been Murphy's teammate for seven years. 'He knows all the things that are at stake.' Murphy regained his old form last season when he averaged 14.3 points and a career-high 11.8 rebounds. He's the only player in NBA history to finish in the top five in rebounding (second) and 3-point percentage (third) in the same season. He also had 48 double-doubles, a franchise record. Murphy averaged a double-double in three of the first five years of his career. 'He's always been a terrific rebounder,' Dunleavy said. 'He sort of went back to where he was in previous years and just seemed more focused and had it all together, and when he does that he's a pretty good player.' "
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: "Gilbert Arenas came back from the shower, put on his backpack and lowered his head. He was ready for the Q&Arenas. Here is the full transcript. Enjoy. Q: Do you have any comment on the fine you received today? Arenas: 'Nope.' Q: Do you think the game tonight was a sign of progress? Arenas: 'Yeah, both teams played hard.' Q: How are you feeling out there on the court? Arenas: 'I feel fine.' Q: What are your thoughts on Will Bynum? Arenas: 'He's coming along well.' Q: Anything else about tonight's game? Arenas: 'No.' Q: Do you feel good about the way things are going right now, feel good about the way you are playing, feel comfortable about the new coaching staff? Arenas: 'Yep.' Q: What can you say about Flip and how is he different than what you've experienced here before? Arenas: 'He's just bringing something different than the last coach.' Q: What in particular is he bringing that's different? Arenas: (Six second pause) 'What was the question again?' Q: What are your impressions of Flip? What has he brought to this team so far? Arenas: 'It's too early to tell. Maybe next month, I'll have a better answer for you' Q: Do you have anything to say about the fine today? Arenas: 'Nope.' Q: No comment? Arenas: 'Nope' The end."
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: "Kings forward Francisco Garcia suffered an injury when an inflatable exercise ball exploded. Garcia reportedly was lying on his back across a 'physio ball' while lifting dumbbells. When the ball exploded, the player fell backwards, fracturing the radius in his right wrist. He also suffered ligament damage. Garcia is expected to miss four months of play after surgery to repair the injuries. On Monday, the Kings sent a warning to the other 29 NBA teams advising them about the incident. Spurs strength and conditioning coach Mike Brungardt said the team has used exercise balls -- large, inflated balls on which players balance while doing assorted exercises -- for many years. 'We check them several times each season, and we've never had a problem,' Brungardt said. 'We'll continue to use them, but we immediately eliminated their use in some exercises after we got the report from the Kings.' Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he could not recall a Spurs player being injured during any sort of off-court workout. 'No,' he said, 'but it made us all think. We all have all these different contraptions we're using. Odd things can happen.' "
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: "A significant decision awaits the Milwaukee Bucks by the end of the month, and it's not an easy one. Bucks general manager John Hammond faces an Oct. 31 deadline to decide whether to renew the first option year on forward Joe Alexander's cont
  ract. Alexander would be owed $2.76 million next season if the Bucks pick up the first of two option years on his rookie-scale contract. Complicating the choice is the disappointing performance turned in by Alexander during his rookie year in 2008-'09 and the injuries that plagued him in training camp a year ago and again during the current preseason. Alexander worked hard during the off-season at the Bucks' training facility and performed well in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, but on the first day of training camp, he was standing on the sideline due to a strained right hamstring. The 6-foot-8 Alexander has not been able to practice yet or play in the Bucks' first five exhibition games, a huge setback for a player trying to gain coach Scott Skiles' confidence and battle for time at the small forward position. Hammond declined to comment Tuesday on the Bucks' intentions."
• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: "Jonny Flynn hasn't played a real NBA game yet, but already Timberwolves coach Kurt Rambis knows his rookie point guard can run successfully the two-man pick-and-roll play at the sport's highest level anytime and anywhere he so chooses. That's why he's not letting Flynn do it. At least not yet anyway. Rambis wants Flynn to concentrate on skills he hasn't mastered -- and those his team needs most -- in a preseason that's two games old. 'He's learning the importance of the point guard in this league,' Rambis said. 'I need him to orchestrate the offense and get his teammates involved. They're counting on him.' Oh, is that all? At the age of 20? At a position Rambis calls the most difficult to learn in the NBA?"
• Sekou Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Five years into his NBA career, Marvin Williams has more than established himself in the league. The proof can be found in his numbers. For his career Williams has averaged 12.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and started in 209 of the 284 games he's played since being selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2005 draft. For all that, both Williams and Hawks coach Mike Woodson are convinced that there's much more the starting small forward can do. 'Marvin's come in every year since his rookie year in great shape and he's really been consistent,' Woodson said. 'But he's the one guy over the next two years that I think can really make the jump to become more of an elite scorer, mostly because he can put the ball on the floor and draw fouls. He added the 3-point shot to his game last season and I think that pushed his game to another level. Now, he has to take another step.' Does that mean folks can expect to see a more aggressive and determined Williams this season? 'I think so,' Williams said. 'I've never been one to try and do too much. I've always felt like I know my role and I try to play the best I can. At the same time, I think this preseason I've tried to be more aggressive. And it's worked out.' "
• Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: "As the old saying goes, there is no 'I' in team. But there is a 'me,' and Sixers forward Elton Brand has had to concentrate on the selfish part of the game a little more than usual this preseason. Besides having to absorb the new offensive and defensive schemes that have been brought in by coach Eddie Jordan, Brand has had to make sure his surgically repaired shoulder and Achilles' tendon are ready to endure what he hopes to be an 82-game regular season. He also has had to find out whether he still has what it takes to be the 20-point, 10-rebound-a-night player he has been throughout his career. Sometimes that might take away from what Jordan is trying to accomplish. But for now, the coach is OK with it. 'I like that he's aggressive,' Jordan said of the player the Sixers signed in the summer of 2008 to a 5-year, $80 million contract. 'He's putting the shoulder down, he's really looking to be assertive in the paint area.' Then came the caveat. 'I want him to execute a little better, as far as spacing for his teammates, his cutting for his teammates, not for himself,' Jordan said."
• Frank Dell'Apa of The Boston Globe: "Rasheed Wallace, who had 20 points and nine rebounds in 25 minutes, defended his prediction the Celtics are capable of winning 72 games. 'When you play with a high caliber team, whose goals are higher than other teams in the NBA, when you play with teams that want that hardware, then, yes, those records can be broken,' he said. 'But I think we can get that 72. If we overcome injuries, I think we can get it. Just imagine if guys didn't get hurt [last season], they definitely could have gotten it. That's what we're shooting for this year.' "
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: "And now for your actual 2009-2010 Raptors. Halfway through the pre-season, the Raptors are poised for the first time to play a game with all five of their projected starters in the lineup. Hedo Turkoglu joins the recently returned Chris Bosh to the lineup giving coach Jay Triano his first look at a starting five that also includes Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani and, for now, DeMar DeRozan. And it all goes down in Hartford with the Boston Celtics providing the opposition. Triano will waste no time in getting Turkoglu involved. 'Does he deserve to start because of the amount he has practised? No,' said Triano answering his own question. 'But we only have four more pre-season games and I need to put him on the floor with guys he is going to play with for the majority of the time. I'm planning on starting him with Jose, Chris, Andrea and probably DeMar.' "
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel: "Mario Chalmers' scholarship ended Sunday. Suddenly, for the first time since Chalmers was named last season's Miami Heat opening-night starter, there is legitimate competition at point guard with the signing of free agent Carlos Arroyo. Until the Heat made the move for the eighth-year veteran, Chalmers' competition had been limited over the past year to the likes of Chris Quinn, Marcus Banks, Shaun Livingston, Luther Head and current camp longshot John Lucas III. But now there is a veteran in the mix who has started 113 NBA games, one who has served as an understudy to the likes of John Stockton, Mark Jackson and Chauncey Billups. 'I think he's landslide better than everybody,' Heat forward Michael Beasley said of Chalmers' previous competition. Beasley, in fact, said it is apparent that the signing of Arroyo has motivated Chalmers, who made the surprise jump to starter after being taken in the second round of the 2008 draft. 'I think he's taking this move and really getting competitive with it,' Beasley said of his closest friend on the team. 'Everybody knows Carlos is a great player, a vet, a scorer with court vision. He can do it all. And 'Rio now got somebody not only to go head-to-head with, but somebody to look up to, somebody to learn off of.' "
• Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times: "When so little went right -- as it did for the Clippers and their fans last season -- the temptat
  ion is to go overboard when there are the slightest signs of promise. The incumbent Chris Kaman, veteran of those flickers, urged caution after back-to-back exhibition wins and a fresh air of hope in Clippers' training camp. It took one word to get that thought across: Fresno. 'Don't read into it so much,' Kaman said Tuesday after practice. 'It's basketball. See how it goes. It happened last year. We beat the Lakers in the preseason up in Fresno.' In fact, it was Oct. 9 of last year when the Clippers crushed the Lakers in Fresno, 107-80, in their exhibition opener. And you know the injury-marred rest of the story."
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: "Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown says the NBA game is flawed in ways that transcend whether replacement referees are making the calls. Brown will be relieved when this labor dispute is resolved and the veteran officials return. But he's seen a pattern the past few years -- too many whistles, too many contrived rules -- that rob basketball of its natural flow. 'Until we figure out a way to get more shots and have more of a flow up-and-down the court -- which is the beauty of the game -- it's gonna be tough' to entertain fans, Brown said. So if Brown were basketball czar, what would he do? 1) Standardize rules worldwide for the NBA, college and international games. 2) Move the NBA 3-point line in slightly. 3) Permit teams to play any defense they choose without violating some anti-zone rule. Brown believes those changes would both allow and compel teams to run more and shoot more, and that's what the game needs."
• Steve Politi of The Star-Ledger: "Bruce Ratner may have recruited Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov to bail him out financially, but money is not the only obstacle. You can only wonder how foreign it must seem to Prokhorov, coming from a country where the government gets what it wants, to see how one man can become a thorn to this massive project. The case is a long shot. 'The eminent domain issue is going to be very tough for them to win,' said William Ward, a Florham Park-based attorney who handles cases related to property seizure. 'The problem they have in my perspective is that the politicians are lined up against them.' Ward, who was once the lawyer for the Meadowlands sports complex, sees another legal victory for Ratner. But Goldstein and his allies, the underdogs from the start, still have hope that the Court of Appeals will see this deal for what it is -- the government taking property to line the pockets of a developer. 'The idea that the government would force me to sell to Forest City Ratner because this is some great public benefit offends me,' Goldstein said. 'It is not. If it were a benefit, I would not be doing this. I would have left.' Had he left, the Nets would have left New Jersey already, too. They are still here in part because one man dug in and decided to play some defense. Wednesday, he takes one final shot."