NBA Scores & More: Lakers’ Comeback Knocks Down Thunder

As we wait for word on MWP’s suspension, it’s worth noting that he claimed after the game that the hit was not intentional, that he was simply excited after a big dunk and celebrating the play when his elbow struck Harden. Is he telling the truth? Vote in our poll.

Via LB Sports.

How modern technology can make things worse. Slow-motion comes in really handy when viewers need to figure out what happened on a bang-bang play. But what purpose does it serve when someone’s been elbowed in the head? There was nothing to clarify, nor was there any true mystery as to what happened. Intent was irrelevant given what everyone knows about the responsibility a basketball player has for his own elbows. All repeated viewing of slow-motion replays did in Sunday’s game was foment the visceral reaction many had to seeing what Artest did. It didn’t point out anything new. It just made what we already saw seem worse in a way, and there was no chance the replays would ever make it look better. This happens often in moments like these in sports, and it’s what kids on the Internet call “trolling.” And given that subjects like lynchings and incarceration showed up in my Twitter mentions in reference to Artest, the slo-mo was more damaging than it was illustrative.

A big NHL suspension ... so now what? There’s little sympathy in the air for Raffi Torres after he received a 25-game suspension for his triply-illegal hit on Marian Hossa in Game 3 of the Blackhawks-Coyotes series. It’s also hard to blame NHL discipline czar Brendan Shanahan for issuing a suspension that says “I Mean Business.” However, after getting to the part of Shanahan’s explanatory video where Torres’ prior bad acts are documented, it’s impossible to say this punishment isn’t largely reactionary. Maybe a reaction was necessary, given the general sense of disorder surrounding this postseason, but Torres’ suspension doesn’t demonstrate anything systematic about how the NHL doles out punishment. The league did enough to pacify most of those disturbed by the sight of Hossa on a stretcher, but it did nothing for those searching for rhyme or reason behind its decisions on discipline. A 25-game suspension may discourage the most flagrant violations, but there’s still no telling what will happen the next time a borderline offense occurs.

The 2012 NBA Playoff picture didn’t get a whole lot clearer following the nine games on Sunday’s slate, but there were a couple teams that were jostled around as far as seeding was concerned. Things should start to clear up even more this week with just a few days left in the regular season, but for now, we’ll pay attention to the movement as far as seeds are concerned.

As far as the rest of the playoff picture was concerned on Sunday afternoon, not a lot of things changed.

There’s not a lot to say about the World Peace elbow. After his dunk to bring the Lakers within one, MWP went into a chest pounding celebration. Harden happened to be in the vicinity, and Metta morphed his gorilla dance into a full blown elbow directly to Harden’s temple. His assertion after the game that the elbow was unintentional is patently absurd -- he might not have known who it was, but he knew there was a body there. He clearly modified his backswing to get more momentum behind the elbow, he clearly went high to get over Harden’s shoulder for a direct shot at the head, and he clearly followed through after making contact. It was intentional all the way.

The play seemed to energize the Thunder. Up a single point at the time of the elbow, the Thunder began steadily increasing their lead which grew to five by halftime, and all the way to 18 just before the end of the third. The lead was still a little more than 14 with just over seven minutes remaining in the game.

So, in terms of shooting, it was a pretty ridiculous affair, but this was still very distinctively April basketball. For example:

It was that kind of loose, gunning ball all evening, and that type of play fed into the game’s closing events. The final scoring possessions came with under two minutes left when Johnson and Anthony went back and forth trading isolation buckets. Johnson drilled a contested three to put Atlanta up one, then Anthony came right back with a long pull-up two to put New York back ahead. The final minute was spent on bad passes and missed shots, culminating in a final possession in which Marvin Williams blew a dunk attempt that wouldn’t have counted anyway because he released it after the buzzer sounded.

Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post analyzed the big man’s performance against Utah and came away with a belief that Orton deserved the criticism, and to the 21-year-old’s credit, he accepted the barbs with aplomb and told the Orlando Sentinel that Van Gundy spoke the truth: “Everything he said was true. I understand where he’s coming from, and it’s honest.”

For more on the Orlando Magic, visit Orlando Pinstriped Post. For all the latest on the Denver Nuggets, check out Denver Stiffs.

The Heat fought back to take a one-point lead into halftime, but then Parsons started the second half by letting the Heat have it again, this time blending a series of three-point shots with hustle follow-up scores in transition and a baseline drive and score to compile 12 points in the third quarter to once again provide the Rockets with a nine point lead.

As they did all game long, the Heat closed out the quarter better than the Rockets, this time whittling the lead down to three entering the fourth quarter. In that quarter the Heat played as perfect as they had all game long, taking care of the basketball, scoring the ball, out-rebounding Houston and simply letting their MVP shine.

In other action ...

For all of Sunday’s NBA box scores, check out SI.com’s NBA scoreboard.