Good morning, it’s the LeBron show in L.A. (maybe forever)
Today’s GMIB: LeBron with some stellar highlights against the Clippers, who feature in new LeBron rumors. Plus, mayhem as the Lakers run out of players against the Cavaliers, Smoothie King and much more.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
LAND OF A THOUSAND HIGHLIGHTS: Miami beat the Clippers 116-112, but not before we got a thousand highlights, including a near-poster of devastating proportions on Birdman. I quite prefer LeBron’s chasedown block on Darren Collison. But nothing beat Hedo Turkoglu putting Hedo Turkoglu on his tailbone.
Of course, the game was supercharged with the ESPN report that the Clippers could end being a candidate for LeBron if he leaves Miami. Why? His relationships with Doc Rivers and Chris Paul.
LIQUID MAYHEM: The officials at Lakers-Cavs had to dig deep into the rulebook when injuries and fouls knocked L.A. down to five players ... and one of them fouled out. How the rulebook resolves such a situation is pretty weird, but not weird enough to keep the Cavs from losing again.
HOLY BAD CALL, BATMAN: Kyle Lowry called for the offensive foul for kicking out on a made three-pointer in crunch time. Oy. That was Lowry’s sixth foul and second technical (after the ol’ “run away in exaggerated fashion” bit) and basically sealed the win for the Kings.
THE UGLIEST OF WINS: The Blazers held on despite a furious Knicks comeback attempt. Blazer’s Edge says Portland puts the ‘W’ in ugly. LaMarcus Aldridge stared down Spike Lee after hitting the dagger.
DIENG IT, GORGUI: The rookie gets a buzzer-beating putback ... for the wrong team. (Via Reddit.)
MORE SCORES: All the other scores and recaps you need from SB Nation's expert team bloggers.
BUT WHAT DO THEY SELL?: New Orleans Arena is being renamed the Smoothie King Center. The Smoothie King Center. Smoothie King.
COMMISERATION COMMITTEE: Jeff Clark of CelticsBlog gathered a roundtable of bloggers of the worst teams in the league to talk about ... being awful? I hope someone locked the liquor cabinet.
TODAY IN OPEN LETTERS: Our friends at Sonics Rising tell the new commissioner it’s time for an expansion team in Seattle. (Ironically, Adam Silver was in Sacramento, where he lauded recently released arena plans and admitted to being a Knicks fan when growing up.)
PRADA’S PICTURES: A thorough breakdown of Oklahoma City’s stifling defense. Always a valuable read.
L.A. LOYALTY: The story about rapper Kendrick Lamar attending his first Lakers game is fantastic.
RISE OF THE YOUNG SHOOTING GUARD: Wasn’t it just a few years ago in which we all bemoaned the lack of great young shooting guards to take the reins from Manu, Wade and Joe Johnson? Ricky O’Donnell writes about the fresh crop of fine young twos.
NO. JUST NO.: There is not a serious financial case to remain in college when you’d be a high draft pick in the NBA. There may be other cases, but not a financial one.
SMOOTHIE KING.
ALL-STAR SATURDAY REVEAL: The NBA will announce the participants in All-Star Saturday’s events at 7 p.m. ET Thursday on TNT. Leaks are already happening. (Damian Lillard in the dunk contest!) I’m just holding out hope for Andrew Bynum in the three-point shootout.
Happy Thursday. See you next time.
