Excellent dunk, Kobe!

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

THROWBACK THROWDOWN: Excellent vintage Kobe Bryant poster dunk!

AND ... Here’s a Dwight Howard lowlight reel.

ALAS: Dwight’s Rockets beat Kobe’s Lakers by 20.

SCORE SCORE SCORE ...

TOR 99, CHA 109
OKC 100, CLE 104
HOU 107, LAL 87

OH NO! Tied at 90 with seconds left, DeMar DeRozan nailed a halfcourt shot to give the Raptors an apparent win in a big showdown against the Hornets. EXCEPT ... Dwane Casey had called a quick timeout, one recognized immediately by the refs. So, the shot didn’t count. Casey’s play out of the timeout didn’t work, and the Hornets throttled the Raptors in OT. Not good, Bob.

YIKESVILLE: LeBron dove into a fan that happened to be star golfer Jason Day’s wife Ellie. She was taken out on a stretcher but appears to be okay.

EGADS! Steve Adams flubbered all over LeBron. Oy!

THE BRIGHTEST LIGHTS: Zito Madu on the state of Durant and Westbrook.

PHENOMENAL: Pro Euroleague Explainer Seth Rosenthal explains the bizarre end of Macabbi Tel Aviv vs. Darussafaka, in which both teams intentionally missed free throws, committed turnovers and played no defense.

BETTER THAN NOBU: Steph X Drake X In ‘n Out.

DIG IN: Deep feature on the Thabo Sefolosha episode by Scott Eden.

SO, THAT STORY ABOUT BIEBER GETTING BAPTIZED IN TYSON CHANDLER’S BATHTUB ... There’s more about the phenomenal swag of Hillsong NYC and its NBA connection (including Kevin Durant) in this entertaining GQ story.

FOLLOW-UP: Adam Himmelsbach caught up with the Special Olympian who had a special encounter with LeBron the other night.

I DIDN’T REALIZE HE WAS THAT KIND OF DOCTOR: Iman Shumpert delivered his baby daughter in his bathroom using the wire from Beats By Dre. Good thing the Doctor was in the house!

EXCELLENT: The WNBA now has an open gay male head coach. More walls being toppled every day.

WEIRD: Whoever runs the Spurs’ KissCam was really insistent that this couple kiss.

BATTLE ROY-ALE: DraftExpress does a super-thorough breakdown of the Karl-Anthony Towns-Kristaps Porzingis battle this week.

YO: This is a fantastic piece on J.R. Smith from Devin Friedman, and this quote, man: “I tell [LeBron] you can’t have everything. You have to give up one thing, and it just so happened it’s your hair.” SMITTY.

3’ANGELO: Can D’Angelo Russell become a competent deep shooter soon?

THE MANY FLAVORS OF USAGE: Neil Paine on why there are at least three definitions and formulas for usage rate, and why that’s a problem.

HAVE YOU PUT UP YOUR BASKETBALL DAY TREE? Monday is Basketball Day.

Happy Friday. See you next time.