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The Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics continue their storied playoff rivalry as they meet Saturday night (ABC, 8 ET) in Boston for the seventh all-time Game 7 between these franchises.

The Celtics own a 4-2 advantage in the previous six matchups, but the 76ers won the most recent game three decades ago in the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals.

Game 7 Stats To Know
History appears to be on the Celtics’ side as they are 17-4 all-time at home in Game 7s. They did lose their last such game in 2009 against the Orlando Magic, but they have never lost consecutive Game 7s at home. The Celtics are also 20-7 overall in Game 7s, the most such wins and second-best record in NBA history (min. five games).

The 76ers, on the other hand, are just 1-7 all-time on the road in Game 7s and haven’t played one since 1986. The franchise is 6-8 overall in Game 7s; the eight losses are tied for the most in NBA history.

Celtics Keys to the Game
The Celtics have yet to lose back-to-back games this postseason, having won all four contests following a loss. However, the Celts have not fared well trying to close out a series since the "Big 3" was formed entering the 2007-08 season. They are 10-13 in potential series clinchers (1-2 this postseason).

Kevin Garnett’s jump-shooting has kept the Celtics in this series. Garnett has made 26-of-55 (47 percent) jump shots from 15 feet and beyond. The rest of the Celtics have combined to shoot 30 percent from that distance this series.

The absence of Avery Bradley, who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery on Friday, is significant for the Celtics, as it takes away their best five-man lineup this postseason.

When Bradley, Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Brandon Bass and Garnett have been on the court together, the Celtics have outscored opponents by 53 points. Their next-best lineup has outscored opponents by only 18 points.

76ers Keys to the Game
Philadelphia is looking to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2001 and is trying to become the first No. 8 seed to reach the conference finals since the Knicks in the lockout-shortened 1999 season.

However, they will need to overcome history in order to make it to the next round.

The 76ers have lost each of the last 13 best-of-seven series in which they have trailed 3-2. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the longest such streak in NBA history.

One of the deciding factors in this series has been the 76ers' ability to establish the pick and roll. In their three wins, they’re averaging 11 points running the pick and roll. In their three losses, they’re averaging eight points on 29 percent shooting.

Offense has been an issue in the playoffs for the 76ers, who are scoring 86.6 points per game, the fewest among remaining teams. The 76ers haven’t scored more than 92 points in their last 10 games, the longest single postseason streak of its kind since the Pistons in 2006 (11 games).

Here's a big question: How many minutes can Kevin Garnett play?

Here's another big question: Can the Celtics get anything done without him?

Through 60 regular-season games, Kevin Garnett played more than 38 minutes one measly time. In eight playoff games, he has already passed that number every time except for in a blowout first win against the Hawks and Game 2's loss to the Sixers.

On Monday night, the Celtics were outscored by 17 points in the 14 minutes that Garnett sat. Coach Doc Rivers rested his key big man in the second and third quarters, which is precisely when Philadelphia grabbed control of the game and established, then fattened, a lead that the Celtics could not overcome despite Garnett playing the entire fourth quarter.

Back in February, Rivers moved Garnett to the center position. At this point in the playoffs, no descriptor could be more accurate. With Pierce and Allen struggling to produce on injured legs and Avery Bradley’s left arm reduced to dangling uselessness, Garnett is the hub of everything the Celtics do offensively and defensively -- he is literally the center of the Celtics' hopes.

Paul Pierce is shooting just 25 percent from the field and is moving terribly when Andre Iguodala, one of the premier wing defenders in the NBA, challenges him. In Game 2, Pierce was neither able to punish Evan Turner on the occasional switch nor use his usual craftiness to work his way to the free throw line (just two attempts) -- a major part of Boston’s closing strategy.

Meanwhile, the Celtics can still rely on Ray Allen to drill spot-up attempts, but bone spurs prevent him from sustaining the offensive action for long, because of the challenges of sprinting through his customary circuit of baseline screens.

Both star wings have injuries that are expected to linger.

And with Rajon Rondo largely contained by the long and hardworking Turner (who is also big enough to deter Pierce when the Celtics force a switch with a 1-3 pick-and-roll), that leaves Garnett.

Like the rest of the NBA, the 76ers haven’t come up with an adequate answer to Garnett’s long-range shooting, and he’s been able to take advantage of the Sixers in the post, where he can create shots for himself and, when doubled, for his teammates. Philadelphia's wing defenders present a tenacious and largely interchangeable thicket. The Celtics' only reliable ways through involve Garnett. Even when he's not the focal point of a pick-and-roll, or a post-up, he's also Boston’s best screener. On his least taxing offensive plays he's still throwing his body around, colliding with 76ers, in an effort to spring his teammates free.

Whatever energy Garnett doesn’t use being Mr. Everything on offense goes into the defensive end, where he’s still a superb paint defender and pick-and-roll buster. When he sits, the Celtics are vulnerable to smart pick-and-roll ball handlers who can finish at the rim. Iguodala, for instance. With Garnett on the bench, the Sixer repeatedly found his frontcourt mates for open jumpers as the Celtics big men struggled to rotate quickly.

The Celtics actually outplayed the 76ers for pretty much the whole of Game 2, except for the stretches when Iguodala was on the court without Garnett. One could argue that Iguodala’s ability to lock up Paul Pierce, push the tempo and exploit imperfect rotations when Garnett was out was the difference in the game.

If the first two games are any blueprint, the Celtics will need Paul Pierce to sort out a plan of attack against Iguodala -- possibly by getting Iguodala in foul trouble -- or Garnett has to be able to match Iguodala’s minutes.

This indirect matchup of two defensive-minded players capable of impacting every facet of the game puts a tremendous burden on the aging Celtic.

Iguodala is an ironman and Garnett’s junior by eight years and nine NBA seasons. But Garnett has shown an iron determination, and will certainly offer every last drop of energy for a trip back to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The question is whether that will be enough.

The Philadelphia 76ers evened their series with the Boston Celtics by limiting the home team to 24 points over the second and quarters before withstanding a late rally for an 82-81 win.

The 76ers won a playoff game in Boston for the first time since Game 7 of the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals. Only two players on the current Philadelphia roster – Elton Brand and Tony Battie – were born before that game was played.

In leading Philadelphia to victory, Doug Collins picked up his first win as a coach in five playoff trips to Boston. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he’s the seventh person in NBA history to win a playoff game in Boston as a head coach and as a player. Collins was a member of the 76ers in 1977, when they beat the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

The Celtics were held to 11 points in the third quarter, tied for their lowest output in a quarter since the Indiana Pacers held them to 10 points in the fourth quarter in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference First Round matchup in 2005.

In fact, they were held to one point per minute over the second and third quarters while making just nine of 37 shots from the field. They made 24 of 42 shots – 57 percent – over the other two quarters to stay in the game.

If the Celtics had gotten to the line, they might have been able to win the game despite their poor shooting stretch. Boston attempted only nine free throws in the game. In 1,879 playoff games over the last 25 years, the Celtics are one of only eight home teams to attempt fewer than 10 free throws.

The key combination for the Sixers was Lavoy Allen and Andre Iguodala. They were on the floor together for 24 minutes in Game 2. During that time, Philadelphia outscored Boston by 20 points and made over half its shots. When the duo wasn’t on the court together, the 76ers made 30 percent of their shots and were outscored by 19 points.

Iguodala was also able to hold Paul Pierce in check on Monday. Pierce made only one of six shots and committed four turnovers when guarded by Iguodala. In the series, he has more turnovers than field goals when Iguodala is the defender.

Rajon Rondo made plenty of history in the Boston Celtics’ 90-84 overtime win over the Atlanta Hawks.

Rondo became the first player in NBA history with at least 17 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists and four steals in a playoff game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Elias also tells us he’s the first player in NBA history to record a triple-double in a playoff game after missing his team’s previous game.

Rondo triple-doubles equal Celtics wins. In Rondo’s 20 career triple-doubles (13 in the regular season, seven in the playoffs), the Celtics have a 19-1 record. The lone loss came to the Chicago Bulls in the first round in 2009.

Including the regular season and playoffs, nobody has more triple-doubles than Rajon Rondo (20) since the start of the 2008-09 season.

Rondo’s seven career playoff triple-doubles are tied with LeBron James for the second-most among active players, trailing only Jason Kidd’s 11.

Rondo really steps his game up in the playoffs. He notches triple-doubles more than three times as often in the playoffs as he does in the regular season. He’s done so once every 34 games in the regular season, but once every 11 games in the playoffs.

Per Elias, Rondo’s seven triple-doubles in his first 75 playoff games is tied with Kidd for the fourth-most in NBA history. Only Magic Johnson (18), Wilt Chamberlain (8) and Oscar Robertson (8) had more in their first 75 playoff games.

Only five players in NBA history have more than Rondo's seven career playoff triple-doubles. Magic Johnson (30) is the all-time leader in that category.

Rondo has etched his name in playoff lore by joining an elite list of NBA all-time greats.

OTHER CELTICS NOTES FROM GAME 3
• Paul Pierce was 14-of-14 on free throw attempts. Only three times in the past 20 seasons has a Celtic made all of his free throws with at least 14 attempts, and it was Pierce each of those three times.

• Ray Allen came off the bench for the first time in a playoff game. He had started his first 110 career playoff games.

• The Celtics have won nine of their 10 playoff series against the Hawks, with the Hawks’ only series victory coming in the 1958 NBA Finals while the team was located in St. Louis. According to Elias, Boston’s .900 winning percentage in playoff series against the Hawks is the highest any team has over another in NBA history (minimum six series).

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Do you trust a man without a conscience, one who operates on a different -- even nonexistent -- moral code?

For basketball purists, that’s a tough one. We subscribe to the high-minded principles of “quality shot selection,” of “taking what the defense gives you,” of “not settling.” These tenets make up the basketball code we romanticize in “Hoosiers” and in the longevity of the San Antonio Spurs.

But Los Angeles Clippers’ swingman Nick Young doesn’t subscribe to this code -- not by a long shot. When Young has the ball in his hands, he doesn't factor his decision-making the way coaches, fans and analysts would.

"I'd say I have no conscience, to a certain extent," Young says. "I feel like I can make any shot. That's something that's been in me since I started playing the game."

Young doesn't deny that he takes a few ill-advised shots a game, but he won't apologize for them. And on Sunday in the Clippers' improbable comeback, he had nothing to be sorry about. He went for 19 points on 11 shots, including a trio of 3-pointers in a span of a minute to shave a 12-point deficit to three in a flash.

Most of those shots on Sunday were open looks, but for most of his tenure with the Clippers the degree of difficulty on his shot selection has been astronomical.

"Those shots? I still think I can make them," Young said. "Some people might think, 'He's glad to shoot that shot,' but I practice those shots."

This entire premise can offend certain sensibilities. I ask Young, "Really? You practice taking contested 21-footers inside the arc with two guys on you?"

"I know I can make 'em," Young says.

This certitude can drive an empiricist nuts. An average NBA game has about 94 possessions, and if you have a guy like Young chucking up bad shots on three or four of those possessions, that can kill your efficiency. Look at the point differentials of most NBA teams -- a bucket or two per game is the difference between a top-four seed and a seat at the draft lottery.

Despite these truths, is it possible that Young has a point? Are some of those bad shots loss leaders that ultimately pay off in a game like Sunday night's?

In an effort to try to make sense of whether a lack of conscience can translate to success, I go in search of Gilbert Arenas.

After Arenas dropped 61 points against the Los Angeles Lakers in December 2006, Kobe Bryant famously said of the then-Washington Wizards star, "He doesn't seem to have much of a conscience. I really don't think he does. Some of the shots he took tonight, you miss those, and they're just terrible shots. Awful. You make them and they're unbelievable shots."

Setting aside the irony of the source, Bryant gets to the heart of the matter. Many interpreted his comments as a swipe at Arenas, but it wasn't. Bryant was just delving into the mindset of the unconscionable shooter, who is neither good nor bad -- but just is.

On Monday, Arenas had plenty to offer on the matter:

The best players in any sport in the world have no conscience.

It's like someone who has ADD (attention deficit disorder). They have a creative mind. They can see things that other people can't see. They can do things that other people can't do. But once they take the medicine, it calms them down -- just like a coach who gives a conscience to a guy who doesn't have a conscience.

It's like an assassin. In any movie, he starts off killing everybody, but then he finds the girl who stops him from being an assassin. That's just like players. The reason Steve Nash can make the passes he can make is because nobody has ever told him when he makes a turnover, "Don't make that pass." Same thing with Rondo. It gives them that freedom to expand and create anything he can think of.

I challenge Arenas on the notion that really bad shots are part of the creative process, that a guy somehow can't be both judicious and aggressive, but he rejected the premise that there's anything wrong with taking a 20-footer with a defender in your face and time on the shot clock:

His creativity lets him do that. It's a shot he thinks he can make. Just like Kobe. If you think about the best players in the world, they have no conscience. They try anything. They do anything. Brett Favre -- he threw any pass he thought he could throw. That's his creativity. That's what he's like. He's going to fail and he's also going to win.

But a guy with a conscience won't pull that trigger.

I ask Arenas whether you can be a great player and still have a conscience.

"I don't think so," Arenas says. "Michael Jordan never had a conscience. A.I. didn't have a conscience. Kobe doesn't have a conscience."

I counter that Kevin Garnett has a conscience, that he exercises an uncommon discipline and has still been one of the best players of his time.

Arenas' response?

And that's why he doesn't get the ball in the fourth quarter. That's why they give it to Paul Pierce, because he has no conscience. LeBron has a conscience. He cares what you think about him. But Kevin Durant doesn't have a conscience. D-Wade doesn't have a conscience. But Bosh has a conscience.

You're born with it or you're not. Some people are what I call "killers." Some people have the killer mentality and that's who you want with the ball at the end of the game. You want them taking that shot because they don't care about failing -- even if it's a bad shot.

It's hard to let Arenas off the hook on this point. Does he deny there are bad shots that cost you basketball games?

That's the game of basketball. You can't go around and play like we did yesterday -- like college basketball when you're up 20 with a few minutes left and you're stalling and you do the four corners, and before you know it, you stop being aggressive.

So the Grizzlies developed a conscience at the wrong time in Game 1?

"Yes," Arenas says.

Arenas' theory that conscience is a congenital trait is interesting. In his worldview, a player can't develop -- or rather shed -- his conscience. He's either hard-wired to kill, like Nick Young or, on a larger scale, Kobe Bryant. Or he's not.

Arenas might be half-right, half-wrong:

A lack of conscience might be a necessary ingredient for Arenas' "killers," but those moral vacuums aren't created equally.

On Sunday, we saw the best of Young's nihilism. Without it, the Grizzlies are up 1-0 in this series. But down the road, it's possible a lack of conscience might shoot the Clippers out of a game.

Such is the fickle nature of the code.

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Rajon Rondo | Avery Bradley | Paul Pierce | Brandon Bass | Kevin Garnett
Minutes Played: 136
Offensive Rating: 108.2 points per 100 possessions
Defensive Rating: 81.0 points per 100 possessions

How it works offensively
In a move that's sparked debate, Doc Rivers assigned Ray Allen to the bench upon the shooting guard's return from injury. The absence of Allen from this unit makes this lineup a real departure from the C's 2008 and 2010 Finals runs, and the offense has a somewhat different look. With Avery Bradley in Allen's place, the Celtics lose a bit of their spacing, but their stretchy frontcourt of Kevin Garnett (now the nominal center) and Brandon Bass helps mitigate that.

Reggie Miller as the possible exception, nobody perfected the half-court sprint in the single-double quite like Allen, but you won't find Bradley running around screens. That feature is now property of the second unit. Yet this group still runs the Celtics' proficient series of rotating pick-and-rolls -- with Paul Pierce working one side of the floor and Rondo the other. Meanwhile, Bradley moves side to side off the ball to keep the help away.

Now in their fifth season together, Pierce and Garnett have become so smooth as a pick-and-roll tandem, like an old couple who finishes each other's sentences. Garnett still sets one of the best picks in the business, although Pierce's accuracy from midrange has fallen off this season, so moving to his left off a Garnett ball screen then shooting is no longer the best option in this sequence. If the defender actually manages to fight through that screen to Pierce, Garnett will get the pass. And if he doesn't have a clean shot off that pass, he'll quickly read the defense and find something else -- often a streaking Rondo or an open Bass along the weakside baseline.

Rondo approaches every possession in which he's the primary initiator as a scorched-earth attack. He's not without offensive liabilities, and his range continues to limit his options at times, but when he finds space to work and passing lanes to exploit, those deficiencies are no longer in play. He feeds Garnett almost flawlessly and knows when it's time to bail on the first option (say a pitch to Garnett) and adopt the second (maybe a kickout to Pierce, who has his feet set).

With his relentless penetration, Rondo is still pressuring defenses -- which often choose to help off Bradley. No matter, because Rondo can thread the needle to either Garnett or Bass, who situate themselves in that Luis Scola territory just above the baseline about 16 feet from the hoop. Garnett presents all kinds of problems. One of the best passing big men in the league, he's a savvy playmaker away from the basket. And defenders who traditionally help off the C's center now do so at their own peril.

The Celtics aren't a running team, but this lineup generates a healthy percentage of its points in transition (almost 1-in-5). When Rondo collects a defensive rebound, look out. Rondo can move coast to coast as well as any point guard in the league, and watch out for those trailers: Garnett (inside the arc), Pierce (outside the arc) and Bass (rim runs)!

What about Bradley? How is he getting his buckets? Not as a first option, as Allen frequently is, but by being crafty and finding space. Bradley made a pretty baseline cut from the left corner in the opening minutes of the second half against Miami recently, meeting Rondo at the hoop for the dish. Two minutes later? Same thing.

The Celtics’ offense during this regime has suffered from high turnover rates and, this season, an inability to get to the line consistently -- but not this group. All in all, this unit isn't the most highfalutin in the NBA, but of the Celtics' 10 most used lineups this season, they rank far and away as the most offensively efficient.

How it works defensively
The spirit of Tom Thibodeau lives on in Boston, where the Celtics rank No. 1 in defensive efficiency. They were stingy with Allen and Jermaine O'Neal, but with Bradley in the backcourt they're downright ridiculous. As a frame of reference, the Celtics give up a league-best 95.3 points per 100 possessions overall, but with this unit on the floor, that number drops to 81.0. There's a danger of small sample size theater with a lineup that's played only 136 minutes together, but the crazy thing is that the gaudy 81.0 number keeps dropping the more this unit jells.

As Allen's contract expires at the end of the season, it appears the Celtics have some premium insurance if they don't reel in a top free agent at the shooting guard position. Bradley will never be able to offer the offensive punch Allen gives to the Celtics' half-court offense, but he's quickly becoming one of the most aggressive young defenders in the league -- and he's only 21.

Did you see Bradley's block of Dwyane Wade two Sundays ago? Did you see him deny Wade on the perimeter and lock onto him off every screen and curl? Bradley's prowess as an on-ball defender also allows Rondo to play off the ball, where he can use his long branches to play passing lanes and do a little gambling. Those arms also make Rondo a stellar choice to be one of the two back-size zone defenders in Boston's overloaded defense. Because as important as it is for the C's to suffocate the ball handler and send that extra body to the strong side, it's the two defenders on the weak side who have a ton of responsibility -- as they usually have to cover three guys.

Every NBA big man under age 25 should have the video coordinator at his team's training facility make a feature-length DVD of Garnett's half-court defense. If you watch him closely, you won't see a lot of blocked shots or pickpocketing. His defensive game is an exercise in nuance. At 35, Garnett could probably defend a pick-and-roll with a blindfold on, and his most notable contributions are simply where he situates himself on the court in relation to the offense. Garnett's hyperawareness of what the offense is trying to accomplish on a given possession is remarkable. Watch several dozen defensive possessions with this lineup, and you'll never witness an error in judgment by Garnett. All the while, he's calling out instructions to his teammates and guiding Bass to the right spots.

Bass didn't arrive in Boston with the reputation as the league's most linear thinker on defense, but in the confines of the Celtics' system, he is doing fine. Bass might lack Garnett's assertiveness when he shows hard on a high pick-and-roll. He looks nervous, at times, when he's defending away from the ball and has to make a quick help decision, but he's making progress.

That's the thing about systems, Boston's in particular. Allen was regarded as a sieve when he came over from Seattle in 2007, but immediately adopted the principles that governed the Celtics' D. All over the league, we're seeing players with reputations as iffy defenders figuring things out in a smart system (see Marreese Speights in Memphis, Spencer Hawes in Philadelphia to name a couple). These guys may not be all-NBA defenders, but they limit their personal liabilities in a scheme that protects them from making mistakes.

That's the Boston way.

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Statistical support for this story comes from NBA.com.

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

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

FIRST TEAM

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

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

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

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

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

SECOND TEAM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

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

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

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

It wasn’t the best of days as far as shooting the basketball, but it was a milestone effort for Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce.

On a night in which he went 6-for-18 from the field and 2-for-10 from 3-point range, Pierce passed Larry Bird into second place on the Celtics' all-time scoring list in a win over the Charlotte Bobcats. Pierce now has 21,797 career points, trailing only John Havlicek on the team's all-time scoring list.

The best thing Pierce could say about his individual performance was that when he was on the floor, the Celtics outscored the Bobcats by 26 points in his 37 minutes.

That was due partly to his nine assists and eight rebounds, a plateau combination he hit for the second time this season.

Pierce is in a little bit of a shooting funk, but he's made up for it with his ballhandling and his ability to get to the free throw line. He has 34 assists and nine turnovers in his last five games.

Take the Timberwolves Seriously
The Minnesota Timberwolves are emerging as one of the surprise stories in the NBA this season. Recently, the player to emerge with Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio has been center Nikola Pekovic.
The Timberwolves improved to 13-12 with a win over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday. It's the first time they've surpassed the .500 mark at least 25 games into a season since 2006-07. No players on that team are on this one.

Rubio, who tied a career high with 14 assists in this win, has gotten most of the headlines, with the Timberwolves now 10-5 when he starts.

But Pekovic, who scored 23 points and had 10 rebounds in 37 minutes in Tuesday’s victory, is averaging 18.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in his last four games, three of which are Timberwolves wins.

Pekovic was able to use his post-up game to his advantage on Tuesday, scoring six of his nine hoops on post-up plays. He entered the day averaging only one post-up basket per 26 minutes this season.

Rubio now has 13 games with at least 10 assists this season. That ties Steve Nash for the most 10-assist games in the NBA this season.

The Timberwolves won despite matching their season low for points in a game, with 86. They were averaging 105.6 points in their previous five games.

Wading Through
Dwyane Wade was 7-for-10 from inside five feet in the Miami Heat’s win Tuesday night, scoring 14 of his game-high 26 points on those shots.

Wade had struggled in his six games since returning from an ankle injury, making 55 percent of his shots inside five feet, averaging four baskets per game. Prior to the injury, he was a 67 percent shooter from in-close.

Statistical Feats of the Night
Three players put up impressive statistical tallies in defeat.

Monta Ellis scored a career-high 48 points for the Golden State Warriors in a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Had he scored two more points, he would have had the 131st game of at least 50 points in franchise history. Of those, 105 were by Wilt Chamberlain.

Ellis’ teammate, David Lee, recorded his second career triple-double (the first came against the Warriors). Lee was the fifth player to record a triple-double this season. The others are Kemba Walker, Rajon Rondo, Kyle Lowry, and Andre Iguodala

Also, Derrick Brown of the Charlotte Bobcats went 10-for-10 from the field in the loss to the Celtics.
That's the most field goals made without a miss in a single game by a Bobcats player in franchise history.

Jake Voskuhl held the previous Bobcats record for most field goals made without a miss in a single game. He was 6-for-6 against the Washington Wizards on April 3, 2007.

The last player in the NBA to go at least 10-for-10 from the field was Pau Gasol on November 21, 2010, when he went 10-for-10 in a win against the Warriors.

Plus-Minus Note of the Night
Udonis Haslem tied a career-high by finishing with a plus-27 in the Miami Heat’s win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

All four Heat reserves finished with a positive plus-minus in a game in which Miami didn’t pull away until the fourth quarter, when it outscored the Cavaliers by 10. Haslem played 11 minutes in the final period. Mike Miller (plus-25) played all 12.

Things don't look much different from last season for the Chicago Bulls, who rolled to a win over the Orlando Magic on Friday, with perhaps one subtle exception.

Since the start of last season, the Bulls are now 29-11 against teams that are .500 or better. That’s the best mark against such teams in the NBA.

One much-discussed trend evident from Chicago’s strong start is Derrick Rose’s evolution into becoming more of a pass-first player (he had 10 more assists in Friday’s win).

The proof of this can be seen in video review of situations in which he is the ballhandler on a pick-and-roll play.

Rose has increased the rate at which he’ll pass on pick-and-roll plays in the early part of the season. Last season, he did so slightly less than half of the time of the time.

This season, he’s done so slightly more often, and with greater success, as noted in the chart on the right.

One extra time per game of choosing to pass rather than shoot has led to good results so far. He had four of his 10 assists on pick-and-rolls in Friday’s win.

That said, Rose’s high assist total early this season is actually almost a near match for what he did in the first eight games last season, when he registered 76 assists. It will be worth watching to see if his pass-first ways continue.

Elsewhere in the NBA

Golden Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets won again, beating the New Orleans Hornets, 96-88 to improve to 6-2. Denver is playing at the fastest pace in the league, registering upwards of 100 possessions per game and averaging the most fast-break points per game (24.3).

But what stat is most shocking? They rank first in the NBA in defensive efficiency, allowing 92 points allowed per 100 possessions.

A Night To Forget for Pierce
On a night in which the Boston Celtics were held to just 25 first-half points (their-worst output, via Elias, since 1995), Paul Pierce was just 3-for-17 from the field.

It was just the second game in Pierce's career in which he made that few shots in that many attempts.

Pierce was 3-for-19 in a Celtics loss at the Charlotte Hornets on April Fool's Day in 2001.

Spreading the Love Around
In a 98-87 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love had 29 points and 14 rebounds.

Love is the first to have at least 20 points and 12 rebounds in his team's first seven games since 1975 (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- 10 straight).

Plus-Minus Stat of the Night
Carmelo Anthony starred for the New York Knicks with 37 points, but fan-favorite guard Iman Shumpert made an impact again.

The Knicks outscored the Washington Wizards by 20 points in Shumpert’s 37 minutes on the floor on Friday. They were outscored by 17 points in the 11 minutes in which he was on the bench.

Anthony, by the way, has 204 points through the Knicks first seven games. According to Elias, only one Knicks player had more points in that many games—Bernard King with 228 in 1984-1985.

After Blake Griffin landed in the Los Angeles Clippers' lap in the summer of 2009 after a disastrous 19-63 season, the organization gradually committed itself to a rebuilding blueprint. This later became known to Clippers fans as "the Oklahoma City template," once the Thunder took off during the 2009-10 season.

The Clippers would build around their future superstar (Blake Griffin) and his trusty perimeter sidekick (Eric Gordon), both of whom were on rookie-scale contracts. In the meantime, the team stockpiled intriguing assets, such as DeAndre Jordan, Eric Bledsoe and Al-Farouq Aminu. The Clippers managed to unload Baron Davis for the shorter, less-expensive contract of Mo Williams. Though the front office had meager offers for Chris Kaman, they held onto their All-Star center with the appreciation that he'd fetch more as his contract nudged closer to expiration.

There were a couple of hiccups along the way. The draft pick they sent to Cleveland along with Davis projected to be in the 8-12 range turned into a Kyrie Irving, a stroke of bad luck (the lottery pick had only a 2.8 percent chance of landing at No. 1). But for the most part, general manager Neil Olshey exercised discipline and foresight. Rather than overspend for middling talent in a dash for the No. 8 seed, the Clippers took a waiver on low-cost options such as Gomes and Randy Foye during the summer of 2010. Neither set the world on fire, but the Clippers' primary objective was keeping the balance sheet free of clutter as Griffin and Gordon approached their primes, even if it meant visiting Secaucus for a couple more years.

By agreeing to a three-year with Caron Butler, $24 million deal, the Clippers have taken a detour from their planned route. A franchise that's been protective of its cap flexibility will now pay $8 million to a small forward who is coming off a severe knee injury and has posted a player efficiency rating (PER) of 13.77 and 14.25 each of the past two seasons, respectively. Since the 2005-06, Butler hasn't played more than 67 games in a single season.

D.J. Foster of ClipperBlog took a look at where Butler stands, three months shy of his 32nd birthday:

Here’s the biggest problem with Butler -- [Butler] is a high usage scorer. Butler’s career usage rate (the percentage of offensive possessions used by a player during his time on the floor) is 22.7 percent. Last year in an injury-shortened season on a championship Dallas Mavericks team, it was at 25.1 percent. That ranked him seventh in the NBA for small forwards, ahead of guys like Paul Pierce and Rudy Gay. Short version: Caron Butler uses a lot of possessions.

... With Chris Kaman coming back healthy and demanding a big chunk of the looks (he hasn’t passed up an open 15-footer since, oh, 2005), and Gordon and Griffin demanding more possessions if anything, where are all these shots for Butler supposed to generate from? Who loses all those possessions?

... Let’s say, despite all that, you’re sold on Butler as the scorer the Clippers need. Sixteen points a game at 44 percent shooting is nice. He’s got a nice midrange game and can slash. OK. I’m with you.

But if the priority is placing shooters around Gordon and Griffin — and unless something has changed, it is — then why add Butler? Prior to what can probably be labeled as a statistical outlier (43 percent in 29 games last season), Caron Butler was a 31 percent career 3-point shooter. On his career, he’s attempted less than two 3-pointers a game. He’s not a deep threat or a spot-up shooter by any means, and he doesn’t really stretch the floor because all of his damage is done in iso situations, off his own jab steps. If you want to chase good 3-point shooting numbers in a small sample size, Al-Farouq Aminu’s start to last season works just as well.

The Clippers don't have a legitimate ball-mover on the floor to help jump-start their gummy 23rd-ranked offense. Now they'll have a player at the small forward position whose assist rate ranks below the likes of Kaman, Zach Randolph, Chris Wilcox and Corey Maggette.

Is Butler an upgrade over Ryan Gomes? Yes, so long as he's in uniform -- something he often isn't. The small forward market is dwindling by the hour, so it's likely the Clippers felt the urgency to do something at the 3 spot. But for a team that hopes to add a max player alongside Blake Griffin (who, himself will demand a max contract before the expiration of Butler's deal) and needs to find money to retain Eric Gordon and DeAndre Jordan in the next year, the cap hit for an aging small forward with a high injury risk and ball-stopping tendencies doesn't conform to a model of smart team-building that have made the Clippers relevant and potentially on the cusp of something bigger.

• Did you hear about the time Kevin Durant learned about a flag football game in Stillwater from a tweet from a student at Oklahoma State? Next thing you know, Durant is lacing them up with the student and his buddies.
• Speaking of extracurricular recreation, Paul Pierce has the nicest in-house bowling alley since the Nixon White House.
• From the founders of HoopSpeak comes HoopSpeak U, a brand new college basketball site edited by Zach Zimmerman. Inaugural features include Sebastian Pruiti on North Carolina's offense and Ian Levy on Adam Morrison's legacy.
• Beckley Mason on LeBron James as the league's most subversive player: "In his young reign, James has consistently used his power to depose those who would have influence over him. No owner controls where he would play, no team’s general manager can pull off a stunning swap to land him and no remote mega-agency profits from his basketball contacts or endorsement deals. He owns a stake in a top team in the world’s most lucrative soccer league. Just 26, He has replaced The Agent, The Owner and The GM with The King. The website of his talent marketing agency, LRMR, explains its (and James’) philosophy, 'LRMR is about partnerships, not sponsorships' and elsewhere, 'we seek partners, not clients.' The message: you, the athlete, won’t be treated like a commodity here. You’ll be a full-grown man capable of making and maintaining business relationships. You’ll be empowered. That’s the real message of LeBron’s career thus far: he doesn’t want or need anyone telling him what to do."
• The Painted Area presents its NCAA Viewing Guide for fans with an eye on the NBA Draft. Watching college hoops should be an efficient process this season because "so many top prospects are consolidated on so few teams."
• Don't let a canceled November stop you from previewing what would be a top-shelf opening night matchup, the Lakers vs. Oklahoma City.
• "Clinical infectious Diseases," a medical journal that focuses on epidemiology, publishes an investigation of the nasty norovirus that broke out in NBA lockers rooms in 2010. Rishi Desai of the Center for Disease Control writes, "We confirmed that norovirus spread within at least one team and possibly from one team to another. Overall, 21 players and three staff from 13 teams were affected."
• Zach Lowe of Point Forward presents a compelling case for teams to have the power to trade their amnesty rights.
• Brandon Roy has fallen from world-beater to prime amnesty candidate in a couple of short years. Scott Leedy of Hardwood Paroxysm: "Roy’s career captures the same emotions and sentiments ... as the careers of Tracy McGrady and Penny Hardaway ... Thus, when injury strikes down these once dominant powers, and forces them to walk around on planet earth with the rest of human kind, our beautiful fantasy is shattered ... I think ultimately, this is what makes my willingness to cut Brandon Roy so difficult. It lacks any kind of empathy or compassion. Yes, I know it’s a business. I know the Blazers would be foolish not to get rid of his contract. Still, I can’t help but feel everyone, Roy especially, deserves a lot better than this."
• Despite Blake Griffin's otherworldly hops, ClipperBlog's Breene Murphy projects Griffin to be a more traditional, very solid base defender: "I just don’t see shot-blocking ever being a significant part of his defensive repertoire, though he’ll still be effective on D. Don’t think that’s possible for a big man? Look at Chuck Hayes: great defender, not a shot-blocker."
• To execute quality pick-and-roll sets, what do you need from your point guard?
• Arturo Galletti of Wages of Win looks at a series of metrics to determine whether your city would be a sensible candidate for a big-league sports team. Galletti brings up a very important point: "The NBA is focusing largely on cost-cutting (and mostly on the player side) and are leaving a humongous opportunity on the table to increase revenues.
  It all comes back to a simple question: Which cities can best support an NBA team?" Yet, the NBA refuses to entertain the idea that its choice of markets is a vital factor in its economic struggles.
• Georgia Tech looks to capitalize on the Hawks' absence from the basketball landscape in Atlanta.

The Miami Heat closed the game on a 16-0 run as they defeated the Boston Celtics to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since their championship run in 2006.

For the second straight game the teams battled down the stretch, and for the second consecutive contest it was the "Big Three" of the Heat that made all the plays.

The trio combined to score 23 of the Heat's 26 fourth-quarter points after scoring the last 31 points for the team in Game 4.

Boston's "Big Three" of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen combined for just 2 points on 1-for-9 shooting in the fourth quarter.

LeBron James closed the game in impressive fashion scoring the final 10 points of the contest. He scored 23 of his 33 points after halftime as his jump shot came alive.

Video tracking showed James struggled from 15 feet and out for most of the series. But on Wednesday, he hit five of his final seven attempts from 15 feet and out, including two 3-pointers during the game-ending run.

While it was all about James late, Dwyane Wade led all scorers with 34 points, 23 of which came in the first half to keep Miami in the game. Chris Bosh scored just 14 points but six came in the fourth quarter.

This marked the second straight game those three players scored at least 83 percent of the team's points.

During the Heat's late spurt, they stopped settling for mid-range jumpers over the final three minutes, 43 seconds of the game, instead opting for shots close to the rim or threes.

The Heat had two dunks in the final 3:43, after making just one throughout the first 44 minutes of the game.

While the Heat will wait for the winner of the series between the Chicago Bulls and the Atlanta Hawks, Boston will head into its offseason needing to figure what to do about its fourth-quarter woes.

Particularly troubling, over the last two games the Heat trio outscored the Celtics “Big Three” 40-9 in the fourth quarter, continuing Boston’s trend of tiring down the stretch.

With Garnett on the bench to start the fourth, the Celtics actually built their lead from two points up to seven before he entered for Jeff Green. Once he came back, the Heat outscored the Celtics by 17 to finish the game.

Throughout the entire postseason, the Celtics were outscored by 22 points in the fourth quarter and overtime with Garnett, Allen and Pierce on the court together.

The fourth quarter was a trouble area for the Celtics all year. During the regular season Boston scored the third fewest points per game in the fourth quarter.

As the "Big Three" of the Miami Heat took over late in Game 4, the "Big Three" of the Boston Celtics faded noticeably, begging the question: Has the postseason wear and tear taken its toll on the Celtics trio?

With three days' rest, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen combined for 70 points in the Celtics Game 3 win. Two nights later, they combined for just 51 points on 16-of-42 (38.1 percent) shooting.

Garnett was the biggest culprit of the three. Following a 28-point, 18-rebound performance in Game 3, Garnett finished with 7 points on 1-of-10 shooting in Game 4. That marked his lowest field goal percentage in any of his 104 career playoff games.

So what happened?

It appeared that the Heat's athleticism wore down Boston's "Big Three." In the first and third quarters of Game 4, the Celtics were +8 when Allen, Garnett and Pierce were on the floor.

But in the second quarter, fourth quarter and overtime, the Heat outscored the Celtics by 13 with Garnett, Pierce and Allen on the court.

This has been a trend all postseason for Boston's three stars.

In the first and third quarters this postseason, the Celtics are +74 with the "Big 3" on the court. However, in the second and fourth quarters -- perhaps without the benefit of an extended break -- the Celtics are -15 with Allen, Garnett and Pierce on the floor.

In a game that saw the Heat's "Big Three" score all 29 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, Boston's trio scored just 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting during that same stretch.

The Boston Celtics won Game 3 behind Kevin Garnett, who had his best playoff game statistically since May of 2004 in a Timberwolves win over the Lakers. He had 28 points and 18 rebounds Saturday, just his second 25-15 game in the playoffs with Boston and his first since 2008 against Cleveland.

The Celtics’ Big 3 of Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen scored 70 points in Game 3 after combining for just 36 points in Game 2.

That easily outpaced the Heat’s Big 3 -- Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh -- who combined for 44 points, their worst output of the season. Those three scored 80 points in Miami’s Game 2 victory. Miami scored just 81 points total, their third-fewest in a game this season.

Garnett made 9-of-13 shots from inside of 10 feet in Game 3. He had more makes and attempts from that range Saturday than in the first two games of the series combined.

Garnett got it done on the defensive end as well, as he had a hand in keeping Bosh to just six points, a career-low for a postseason game and the fewest points he's scored in any game all season.

The Heat shot just 5-for-23 from beyond the arc while the Celtics went 9-for-18 from three-point range. The Celtics are shooting 50.9 percent from the three-point line in the series.

One reason why has been the play of point guard Rajon Rondo, as Boston has hit 15 of 19 three-point attempts when shooting off a pass from Rondo in the series, including 5-for-6 in Game 3. Without a pass from Rondo, they are shooting just 35.3 percent from three-point range.

One of the biggest things to come out of Game 3 was Rajon Rondo’s inury; he left the game in the third quarter with a dislocated elbow, but returned to play the entire fourth quarter.

His injury has ramifications for how Boston’s Big 3 has performed against the Heat this season.

The main beneficiary of Rondo’s presence is Ray Allen, who has scored more than twice as many points per 40 minutes while on the floor with Rondo than when he plays without the All-Star point guard.

LeBron James was held to just 15 points in this one, his fourth playoff game with as few as 15 points. Two of those have come against the Celtics. Entering Game 2, Pierce had been effective when guarding James this season (including the playoffs), holding him to 37.0 percent shooting.

But James had success in Game 2, perhaps partly due to Pierce’s strained left Achilles. In Game 3 Pierce bounced back, and once again held James under 37 percent shooting from the field.

There’s no doubt that part of the intrigue of the Eastern Conference Semifinal between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat is based on the tremendous star power, specifically the “Big 3” on Boston (Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen) and on Miami (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh).

The Celtics and Heat combined to have seven all-stars this season. Boston had Garnett, Pierce, Allen and Rajon Rondo; Miami had James, Wade and Bosh. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this will be the just the eighth series in playoff history in which seven or more All-Stars from that season will take the floor. (This excludes cases when teams had All-Stars who didn’t play in the series for whatever reason.) The record is eight All-Stars in a series, set in the 1962 NBA Finals between the Celtics (Bill Russell, Sam Jones, Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn) and Lakers (Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Frank Selvy, Rudy LaRusso).

The last playoff series with at least seven All-Stars participating was the 1983 NBA Finals, when the 76ers’ All-Star quartet of MVP Moses Malone, Julius Erving, Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney swept the Lakers’ All-Star trio of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jamaal Wilkes.

Just looking at All-Star appearances this season might understate this series' actual star power, which is based on some of these players’ tremendous career accomplishments. The Heat and Celtics’ current rosters have combined for an astounding 80 All-Star selections.

Not only that, but they’ve combined to earn 45 All-NBA Team selections, including 18 on the All-NBA 1st Team. If you look at win shares from Basketball-Reference.com -- a statistic that estimates how many wins a player accounted for in a given season or over the course of his career -- the players on these teams have combined for more than 1,500 regular-season win shares and nearly 150 postseason win shares entering this series.

Although most of these contributions come from the Celtics’ roster, most would agree that the Heat currently have more stars in their relative primes than Boston.

If you look at the players with the most regular season win shares since James, Wade, and Bosh came into the league in 2003-04, the Heat have the players who rank first (James), seventh (Wade) and 14th (Bosh). The Celtics have the players ranked third (Garnett), 11th (Pierce) and 15th (Allen). So, six of the top 15 players over the last eight seasons, by this metric, will be facing off in this series.

In all, there are 12 current or former All-Stars in this series, six on each team, for a combined 80 All-Star selections. How historic is this type of battle of All-Stars in a playoff series? Depending on who actually plays (i.e. if O'Neal doesn’t play, the combined number of All-Star selections would dip significantly), it could be among the most historic ever.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the most combined All-Star selections by players participating in a given postseason series is 63, which was the total for the Cavaliers-Celtics Eastern Conference Semifinals last year. The second-most combined All-Star selections among players participating in a given series was 61, which came in the 1973 NBA Finals between the Knicks (led by Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Jerry Lucas, and Dave DeBusschere) and the Lakers (led by Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain).

No matter how you look at it, this Eastern Conference Semifinals series will be one of the most star-studded postseason series in NBA history. Whether the quality of play within the series matches the hype surrounding it remains to be seen.