Good morning. LeBron is quite good at basketball.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

MONTY OUT: The Pelicans fired Monty Williams on Tuesday, completely out of the blue after the coach apparently met his directive (make the playoffs). Paul Flannery, who spent a good amount of time with the Pelicans this year, writes on how critical it is that New Orleans get this decision right. Adrian Wojnarowski reports that GM Dell Demps is trying to consolidate power. David Fisher of The Bird Writes comments on the team’s power structure.

Tom Thibodeau is the hottest name. He, of course, still has a job. Mike D’Antoni has also been mentioned. Do I have a vote? Alvin Gentry. Give Alvin Gentry another shot.

THIS IS LEBRON: With Kyrie Irving gimpy and Kevin Love out, LeBron went full LeBron with 38 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists. The Cavaliers take a 3-2 series lead to Chicago with two more chances to close it out. This has been the most interesting and entertaining second-round series. These teams are pretty evenly matched and have some obvious issues the other squad works on exploiting. LeBron and Jimmy Butler are locked in a pretty incredible battle. Also, it features David Blatt being a goofball, which is nice.

DRAMA! Taj Gibson kicks Matthew Dellavedova, gets ejected. As Taj exited, a Cleveland fan tossed a towel at him. (Don’t throw stuff, people!) Taj later called Cleveland fans “classless.” You won’t be surprised to learn Mike Dunleavy actually had no problem with Taj kicking Dellavedova.

IN YOUR FACE: Derrick Rose loses the ball, which careens off of Tristan Thompson’s face and ends up back with Rose for the layup. T.T. gets an assist, right?

MORE MIROTIC 60-FOOTERS, PLEASE: Nothing but net.

ROCKET POWERED: Houston avoided elimination by smoking the Clippers in Game 5. L.A. leads 3-2 and can clinch at home on Thursday. James Harden had a triple-double. Dwight Howard had a pretty good game. There wasn’t much intentional fouling. Otherwise the game was like the series: rather boring. We need a close game in here!

ASSIST OF THE NIGHT (MAYBE): Did Chris Paul mean to lob Blake Griffin a pass off of the backboard?

TONIGHT!
Wizards at Hawks, 8 p.m. ET, TNT, Tied 2-2
Grizzlies at Warriors, 10:30 p.m. ET, TNT, Tied 2-2

MERRY CHRISTMAS: Next season’s Christmas uniforms are here.

WHAT THE ROCKETS LACK: I wrote about the traits James Harden, Dwight Howard and Daryl Morey’s teams seem to lack.

GOOD NIGHT GOON: The hour of the NBA goon is here.

THE SIXERS ARE BACK: Ben Franklin dribbling logo!

ON THE WIZARDS’ FUTURE: Zach Lowe writes about the state of the Wizards.

THE NEXT LABOR WAR: Kevin Draper reports out some aspects of the labor deal that the players’ union will be ripping into leading up to 2017. The NBA refuted some key pieces of Draper’s reporting.

WHIMSY: Russell Westbrook appears to be a big Pitch Perfect fan. This is so very Russell Westbrook.

Happy Wednesday. See you next time.