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Way out beyond the 3-point line, Metta World Peace never had a chance.

Kevin Durant walked forward, confidently bouncing the ball high off his right hip, his Thunder teammates arrayed along the baseline.

This was the definition of an isolation play; there was no way the other Lakers could offer help.

As he neared the 3-point line, Durant executed a hard right-to-left crossover, dipped his shoulder and glided past World Peace, who managed only to helplessly rotate his hips as though one foot was nailed to the ground.

Having summarily dispatched World Peace, Durant wove back to his right and finished past Andrew Bynum.

It was the first shot Durant took in Game 2, and one of just three Durant isolation attempts all game.

The result was no fluke. In fact, Durant isolated in space against Metta World Peace might be one of the most bankable plays in the Thunder’s awesome arsenal of offensive weapons.

As David Thorpe pointed out on TrueHoop TV, while Metta World Peace can still be a valuable defender, his worth is directly related to the distance he is from the rim. Down in the paint -- where his phenomenal strength and lightning quick hands make all the difference -- that’s where he can dominate.

But out on the perimeter, especially when called to move laterally, not so much.

Admittedly, defending Kevin Durant anywhere on the court is like trying to nail Jello to a wall. But Thorpe notes that Metta World Peace remains particularly well-suited to defending one type of Kevin Durant play.

“He can still chase, I think, very well," says Thorpe. "And for years now I’ve suggested he’s one of the best chaser defenders we have in the league, guarding the guys who want to use single-doubles or staggered screens.”

What Thorpe is describing are the pindown sets in which Durant sprints off devastating screens from guys like Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison. He uses them to create that fraction of daylight necessary to get off his silky jumper, or to create a crease for a tight curl to the rim.

These are the plays that Artest, with his intelligence and strength, still defends quite well. He remains a savvy off-ball defender and knows how to re-route Durant to keep him from catching.

Now for the other half of Thorpe’s take on World Peace’s defense:

“He can run, just fine. He just can’t slide maybe more than a step and a half to two steps and literally stops, very often, when he’s forced to take more than that.”

That’s almost exactly what happened on Durant’s first bucket.

So why didn’t we see it again, and again, and again?

Fancy plays are all well and good, and the Thunder offense has certainly benefited from more nuanced sets. But this matchup demands some good ol’ fashioned four-down isolations that pit Durant’s slick handle and slithery quickness against the leaden feet of Metta World Peace.

Blake Griffin has received his share of hard fouls this season. After Robin Lopez earned a Flagrant 2 and an ejection for collaring Griffin on Thursday, Griffin's teammate DeAndre Jordan vowed to protect his buddy. ESPN LA's Arash Markazi reported Jordan’s statement in practice the next day, when Jordan essentially said he would put the hurt on anyone or any team that went after Griffin.

"If Blake gets fouled, I can't go punch someone in the nose," Jordan said. “We can't do that but throughout the course of a game, other fouls happen to other players on the opposite team and if they happen to be hard fouls, they happen to be hard fouls. We're going to protect our teammates; it doesn't matter who it is."

Jordan was threatening to be the Clippers’ enforcer, a time-honored role in the NBA. Fortunately, this kind of threat has been on the decline since the league has taken steps to curb the violence in the game -- particularly fighting and fouls that endanger players.

But violence hasn't disappeared in the NBA, and the matter is complicated by the relative value of the players involved.

Consider that Robin Lopez has little value compared to Blake Griffin, so if Lopez had taken Griffin out of the game, it would have been a much more damaging blow to the Clippers, even as it was a Suns player committing the infraction. Or how about Sunday, when Metta World Peace was ejected for brutally elbowing star Thunder guard James Harden in the head -- though it wasn’t a part of the L.A. game plan, the exit of World Peace and Harden was a net gain for the Lakers, who eventually came back and won the game.

Clippers VP of basketball operations Neil Olshey has a HoopIdea that could lessen the incentive for NBA violence. He told ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz that rather than simply ejecting the offending player, the team that is flagrantly fouled should have the ability to choose which player sits.

After the ejection of Lopez on Thursday night, the Suns still had all their top players on the court and eventually came back to beat the Clippers. In Olshey’s world, they would have had to do it without a star player: "I want Steve Nash to sit, not Robin Lopez."

In other words, Olshey thinks the stars should pay for the sins of the goon.

A player like Lopez or Jordan might be willing to sacrifice his ability to play to make a statement to an opposing star and team -- that's part of the job description. But would he be as willing to do so if it meant his own star teammate would have to sit?

On Sunday, Olshey's HoopIdea could have forced the Lakers to attempt their second-half comeback without the services of Kobe Bryant. If the league really wants to keep goons from running amok, punishing stars, and thereby their teams, for their goons' rough play is a good place to start.

With a 112-108 overtime win over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers moved to a season-high 17 games over .500 (39-22) and improved to 4-1 this season without the league’s leading scorer, Kobe Bryant.

Tonight, the Lakers will look to build on that momentum against the San Antonio Spurs (10:30 ET).

Instead of taking a step back lately, the Lakers have shown they can both win without their superstar and thrive offensively. In the last five games, the Lakers are averaging more points and shooting more efficiently compared to when Bryant has been in the lineup this season.

Much of the Lakers’ success without Bryant has been due to the supporting cast stepping up, most notably Andrew Bynum and Metta World Peace.

Andrew Bynum
In his first 51 games this season, Bynum averaged a double-double, posting career highs in points (18.3) and rebounds (11.8). But in the last five games without Bryant, he has really stepped up his game at both ends of the floor and has taken an increasing role in the offense. He is averaging four more points per game, five more rebounds per game and nine more shot attempts per game without Bryant.

One of the areas where Bynum has been the most aggressive is in the post. Over the last five games, he has almost doubled his field goal attempts on post-up plays per game compared to when Bryant was in the lineup and has increased his scoring in those situations.

Metta World Peace
World Peace has also found a rhythm in Bryant’s absence. In the last five games, World Peace is averaging 17 points on 52 percent shooting. Prior to this stretch, World Peace averaged just 6.5 points. No other player on the Lakers has increased his scoring more since Bryant has been out of the lineup than World Peace.

Where World Peace has improved the most is his jump shooting. In his first 55 games, World Peace shot just 29 percent from 10 feet and beyond. However, he has been on fire from the outside in the last five games, shooting over 47 percent from that distance.

(The Dallas Mavericks host the Los Angeles Lakers, Wednesday at 9:30 ET on ESPN)

Last month, the Lakers scored a season-low 73 points, but still managed to beat the Mavericks, 73-70. Although 73 points is low for the Lakers, their offense has struggled all season to score.

Last season, the Lakers averaged 101.5 points on 94 possessions per game. This season, they rank 22nd in the league in scoring (93.3 PPG) even though they are averaging 93 possessions per game.

The Lakers’ 102-90 loss on Sunday against the Phoenix Suns typified their offensive struggles, especially behind the arc. They shot 3-of-18 on 3-point attempts, and for the season the Lakers are shooting 30.1 percent from 3-point range -- down more than 5 percent from last season.

They shot 1-of-16 (6.3 percent) on 3-point attempts in a road loss to the Kings on Dec. 26, and failed to make a 3-pointer on 11 attempts in a road loss at Portland on Jan. 5. It was the first time Los Angeles failed to make a 3-point shot in a game since Nov. 16, 2003 against the Miami Heat.

Derek Fisher and Metta World Peace are posting career-low percentages on 3-point attempts, and Kobe Bryant, Steve Blake and Matt Barnes are shooting below their career marks as well.

Beyond their shooting struggles, the Lakers have not been able to run this season. They have the fewest transition points (330) in the league and average only 10.3 transition points per game. Only 8.6 percent of the Lakers’ plays have come in transition this season, second-fewest in the league behind the Orlando Magic.

Bench production has been another area of concern after the departures of Lamar Odom (14.4 PPG last season) and Shannon Brown (8.8 PPG last season). The Lakers have the fewest bench points in the NBA this season, 21.5 bench points per game, compared with 28.2 last season.

All of the Lakers’ offensive struggles have been magnified in road games where they are 5-11 this season, compared with 14-2 at the Staples Center.

"I said . . . 'If I was a stats guy, Metta, you wouldn't be playing at all. Look at your stats offensively. And then Synergy (Sports Technology) says you're the 192nd-best defensive player in the league,'" Lakers head coach Mike Brown said.

"If I was a stats guy, the guy that should be playing at the small-forward spot is Devin Ebanks because he's shooting better than you and Matt."

Those were Brown's words following Metta World Peace's claim that Brown is "all stats."

While Brown claims not to be all "stats", ESPN Stats & Information is, so let's dive into the numbers.

Entering Thursday, the aforementioned Synergy had World Peace allowing 0.813 points per play this season, placing him as the 159th-best defender in the league (slightly better than league average).

To be fair, he's been the responsible man on defense more frequently than many of the 158 players ranked ahead of him. If we raise the minimum to at least 200 defensive plays, World Peace's rank improves to 58th out of 160 players.

Among Lakers with at least 200 defensive plays this season, World Peace grades out as the Lakers' third-best defender, behind Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

One way of measuring how effective he is as a defender is the Lakers defensive efficiency on a per-possession basis when MWP, a former Defensive Player of the Year Award winner, is on or off the court.

When he's on the court, the Lakers have allowed 94.2 points per 100 possessions. It's in stark contrast to the 100.3 points per 100 possessions they allow when he's off it. (League average this year for defensive efficiency is 100.3, so one could say MWP is the difference between an average defense and a very good one.)

But just as he strengthens the Lakers defense, he's been a liability on the offensive end of the floor.

MWP's shooting woes this season are hardly news. He's shooting 34 percent from the field, 21 percent on 3-pointers, and 51 percent from the free-throw line -- all career lows.

Only two NBA players are shooting worse this season using true shooting percentage, which adjusts for the value of free throws and 3-pointers (minimum 500 minutes played). MWP's 39.8 true shooting percentage trails only the Nets' Shawne Williams (37.2) and the Knicks' Toney Douglas (38.9). League-average true shooting percentage is 53.0.

For offensive purposes, the Lakers would be better giving Matt Barnes more minutes if they're looking for a scoring spark. The Lakers average 102.8 points per 100 possessions when Barnes is on the court compared to the 96.7 when MWP is on the court.


Lastly, player efficiency rating (PER) reveals who's been more efficient between MWP and Barnes. PER is a rating of a player's per-minute statistical production.

Barnes has the highest PER (13.9) among Lakers at the 3-position, more than twice that of World Peace (6.4). The league-average PER for a season is 15.0, so while both are below average, Barnes has been the more efficient player.

Assuming neither MWP nor Barnes can overcome the deficiencies they bring when they enter the game (for MWP, offense; for Barnes, defense), the workload should be determined situationally, not unlike lefty/righty platoons in baseball.

If scoring is what the Lakers need, then Barnes should get the nod. But if it's stops they need, Metta World Peace is the better option.

For once, Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose didn’t come through when needed most.

Rose was 3-for-13 from 10 or more feet away, including a miss of the potential game-tying shot with three seconds left in Sunday’s loss to the Miami Heat.

Rose is a 41 percent shooter on shots from that distance at home, but just 31 percent on the road.

Rose, who did finish with 34 points, also missed a pair of free throws late in the game, snapping his string of fourth-quarter free-throw perfection. Prior to those misses, Rose was 29-for-29 on fourth-quarter foul shots this season.

LeBron James led the Heat with 35 points, along with 11 rebounds and five assists. James recorded his 64th career game with a 30/10/5 combination, by far the most in the NBA since his rookie season, 2003-04. The player with the next-most in that span is Dirk Nowitzki with 23.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, James has had at least 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in 22 straight games dating to last season, the fifth-longest such streak in NBA history and the longest since Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson in 1965.

James was 6-for-7 from inside five feet and was 5-for-8 from beyond 15 feet, matching his best field goal percentage of the season (63 percent) from the latter distance.

The Heat had seven dunks Sunday, all from James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. The Heat are 5-0 when recording at least seven dunks this season.

Kobe sets a record

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant set a franchise record in Sunday’s win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabaar as the team’s all-time leader in field goals made. Bryant had 14 field goals and 35 points in the win.

Bryant is now the team’s all-time leader with 9,946 field goals made, 11 more than Abdul-Jabaar. Bryant is 54 field goals shy of becoming the 10th player to make 10,000 field goals in the NBA.

Magic stage another disappearing act
For the fourth time in five games this week, the Orlando Magic offense disappeared in the second half. Sunday, the Magic led by 3 at the half but ended up losing to the Indiana Pacers by 21.

In their last four losses, the Magic have been outscored by an average of 50 to 28 in the second half and have shot just 29 percent from the field.

Plus-Minus Note of the Night
Lakers forward Metta World Peace scored only two points, but was a plus-19 in a 106-101 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
This was the second time in the last three games that the Lakers had a close win and World Peace had a good plus-minus. He was a plus-20 despite scoring only three points in a 96-91 win over the Clippers on Wednesday.

Also, Cleveland Cavaliers rookie guard Kyrie Irving had 23 points and six assists, including the game-winning layup to close a 12-0 run in an 88-87 win over the Boston Celtics.

The Cavaliers outscored the Celtics by eight points in his 33 minutes of play. Irving has now had three straight games with a positive plus-minus rating.

Cavaliers backup forward Mychal Thompson, playing in his second career NBA game, was the only player on the team to have a better plus-minus than Irving in this contest. He was a plus-9 in his 12 minutes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Whither the franchise tag -- or designated player -- that was one of the major talking points last summer when a discussion of the next collective bargaining agreement was just getting underway? Zach Lowe of Point Forward revisits the idea, and looks at the repercussions of such a rule.
  
  My general feeling is that, no matter how much you incentivize a player to stay put with his existing team, it's still inordinately difficult to convince a guy to stay in a place he deems undesirable. As Lowe points out, eliminating the sign-and-trade and extend-and-trade will prevent suitors from manipulating the system so that they can offer a defector more money and more years, but it's still hard to imagine a world where Top 20 players stick around for a extra dollars and an extra year. Regarding the latter, locking in an extra season isn't all that compelling to a young superstar. In many cases, he's likely to score a heftier salary in the first year of his next deal (To wit, look at how many superstars are negotiating opt-outs after the third year of lengthier deals). And as Miami's superstars proved last summer, superstars are willing to take less money in a more desirable locale.
• Given how well Lamar Odom played during his stint with Team USA, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times says Odom would be wise to look overseas during the lockout.
• Charles Barkley takes a victory lap for his clairvoyance (at 1:21:40 mark of interview with ESPN Chicago): "Oh I was the first one. If you go back and look, I remember I was on a TV show last year when the season was going on; they asked me about next year, and I said ‘dude, I don’t think there’s going to be a season at all next year.’ And everybody looked at me like ‘that dude’s crazy.’ What I always knew was the owners were going to get the deal they wanted or they were not going to play."
• Politicians, restaurant owners and a vodka company's CEO will issue demands to the Knicks that the team has already granted -- full refunds with interest for season ticket holders.
• Did Tyson Chandler's injury history coupled with his free agent status inform his decision to reportedly turn down an offer from the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions?
• I was supposed to be at the Wizards-Celtics game in Washington last night. Bradford Doolittle of Basketball Prospectus continues his Sim Season series and tells us that I didn't miss anything, apart from a 3-for-14 night from John Wall. Doolittle's simulation doesn't track the keystone cop moments JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche had on defensive rotations along the back line, but the 108-94 final score in Boston's favor suggests they were plentiful.
• Twenty-eight years ago tonight, the Trail Blazers beat the Nuggets 156-116. After the game, Nuggets head coach Doug Moe confessed that, once the rout was on, he told his team to let the Trail Blazers score. Via the Oregonian: "'Our defense was getting so tenacious, I was afraid they (the Blazers) wouldn’t get to 150,' Moe said in laughing off his actions afterward. 'And they (the Portland fans) wanted it bad. I just told the team to back off and let them have it. I said, "Part the seas."'"
• Luol Deng is loving Arsenal veteran Alex Song.
• Metta World Peace: Courting danger on the dance floor.
• Life after the Association for Lamond Murray.

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

• From a discussion at Wages of Win about the salaries and earnings of NBA players: "That’s right; the lottery [not the NBA draft lottery] has produced almost twice as many millionaires in the last year as the NBA has in the last twenty years!"
• Zach Lowe of The Point Forward on the union's disclosure of some vivid details of Thursday's negotiations: "It was an extraordinary public accounting of a private negotiation, one clearly fueled by anger over the alleged misrepresentations Silver and Holt gave reporters a few minutes earlier. We have seen nothing quite like it so far in these talks. It is discouraging. And the anger matters. The two sides need to cool off now, and it is unclear when they will meet next."
• Belgrade is a basketball hotbed. When Serbia took on France in EuroBasket 2011, you could hear hoots, hollers and moans emanating from alleyways in the Serbian capital. Acie Law has joined Partizan Belgrade and has been blown away by fan passion: "I've never seen anything like it, you don't see fans like that in the United States."
• A nice story in the Sporting News about SEEDS Academy, Amadou Gallo Fall's basketball school in Senegal. The piece includes a clip of a documentary, "Elevate," by filmmaker Anne Buford -- San Antonio general manager R.C. Buford's sister.
• Rex Chapman on owner-player vengeance: "League owners possess much resolve. They've vowed athlete-payback 4ever. Branded into memory are their yrs of daily P.E. dodgeball beatings."
• One ancillary benefit of the lockout? Stars like Stephen Curry who traditionally deliver boilerplate quotes are now expressing their sincere opinions.
• Raja Bell to Dan Le Batard and Stugotz on 790 AM in Miami: "I feel like that is their target to shoot just below the bar, so it looks like they are negotiating and in fact there is not a real attempt to negotiate.”
• If you didn't catch HoopSpeak Live yesterday, you missed some compelling stuff from Bomani Jones and Larry Coon. Jones speaks about how $5 million players have $5 million dollar bills, while Coon revisits the contentious issues that are dividing the camps in the labor negotiations. Equally as entertaining, with a whole lot of whimsy, is Zach Harper, who stops by 48 Minutes of Hell's 4-Down Podcast.
• John Wall in a Dougie-off at a Reebok promotional event.
• LeBron James gets zinged on twentysomething dramedy "Happy Endings." (Hat Tip: Ball Don't Lie & Your Man Devine)
• Magic big man Brandon Bass tells Zach McCann that he's spending his time in Orlando working out with Jameer Nelson, Gilbert Arenas and Jason Richardson. On his to-do list? Extending his range beyond 18-20 feet.
• J.J. Hickson makes aliyah, as he signs with B'nai Hasharon in Israel, replacing Trevor Booker on the roster.
• Can you name all the D-League teams? You've got four minutes on the clock. Go.
• Metta World Peace would like some company. Via his Twitter feed: "It's not a weird question to ask where the fellas at. I can't entertain 100's of ladies alone. My party yesterday was all girls."