Sixers' ugly ball delivers them Game 7 date with Celtics in East semifinal
(Wed, 23 May 2012 23:02:22 PDT)
The Celtics have found themselves in a winner-take-all Game 7 against the scrappy Sixers.

Pau Gasol wonders if he's played his last game for Lakers; trade could await
(Wed, 23 May 2012 20:28:56 PDT)
After another disappointing second-round exit, the Lakers could again try to trade forward Pau Gasol.

Lakers' Bynum plans to have Orthokine therapy (The SportsXchange)
(Wed, 23 May 2012 20:20:08 PDT)
Even though Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum remained healthy this past season, he said on Wednesday he plans to go to Germany in September to undergo Orthokine therapy, which is the procedure Kobe Bryant had last offseason.

Police say 16-year-old shot eight outside NBA game
(Wed, 23 May 2012 19:47:22 PDT)
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A 16-year-old boy is in custody and suspected of opening fire after an NBA game on Monday, injuring eight people who had gathered outside an arena to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder play the Los Angeles Lakers, police said on Wednesday. The police said they expect to file charges against the youth of shooting with intent to kill the eight victims, after filing an affidavit in court on Wednesday detailing the evidence against the boy. The Daily Oklahoman newspaper reported on Wednesday that the boy confessed to the shooting, but that could not immediately be confirmed. ...

Oklahoma City Thunder Fans: Stay Classy (and CUTE!!!) - Lakers Fan's View (Yahoo! Contributor Network)
(Wed, 23 May 2012 18:23:00 PDT)
When our favorite NBA team loses in the playoffs, we as fans experience grief, anger, embarrassment and several other stupid emotions that are totally out of whack for something as relatively inconsequential as professional sports.

Uncertainty shrouds Gasol's future with Lakers
(Wed, 23 May 2012 18:20:56 PDT)
(Reuters) - Pau Gasol expressed uncertainty about his future with the Los Angeles Lakers after his postseason exit interview with general manager Mitch Kupchak at the team's training facility on Wednesday. The Lakers were eliminated from the Western Conference semi-finals by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday after an erratic playoff run during which Gasol was accused by team mate Kobe Bryant of not displaying enough aggression. ...

Lakers' disappointment could lead to makeover (The SportsXchange)
(Wed, 23 May 2012 17:31:16 PDT)
The Los Angeles Lakers are getting used to disappointment.

Can the Lakers improve with Kobe Bryant making $30 million? (Ball Don't Lie)
(Wed, 23 May 2012 16:47:47 PDT)
With the Los Angeles Lakers out of the playoffs in the second round for the second consecutive season, many fans and analysts have considered how to fix the team's problems given their complicated financial situation. Most people have suggested that they should trade very talented but often marginalized big man Pau Gasol for new players, but even that deal wouldn't give them many options. The fact of the matter is that their cap situation is just not very palatable over the next few seasons. Due to those issues, some think the franchise should take more drastic measures. Kobe Bryant is set to make more than $58 million over the next two seasons, topping out at $30.4 million in the 2013-14 season — making him the highest-paid player in the league by a wide margin. At that time, Kobe will be 35 years old. And while he's still a superstar, it's hard to imagine any perimeter player that age being worth that kind of money under a restrictive collective bargaining agreement. So, as difficult as it is to imagine the Lakers without Bryant, Beckley Mason of TrueHoop it might be in their best interest to part ways with Bryant :

Parker says Westbrook hasn't faced PG like him yet (The Associated Press)
(Wed, 23 May 2012 16:22:04 PDT)
SAN ANTONIO (AP) It's the main event of the Western Conference finals: Tony Parker and Russell Westbrook, All-Star point guards having their best seasons yet. One going for a fourth NBA championship, the other still chasing his first.

Heat's LeBron James leads NBA all-defensive team (The Associated Press)
(Wed, 23 May 2012 15:04:39 PDT)
NEW YORK (AP) NBA Most Valuable Player LeBron James was the leading vote-getter for the league's all-defensive squad Wednesday, while Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler didn't even crack the first team.

Dexter Pittman abides by Pat Riley's Heat code by cracking Lance Stephenson
(Wed, 23 May 2012 13:30:34 PDT)
Dexter Pittman's flagrant foul on Lance Stephenson shows the Heat are willing to back for LeBron James.

Jrue Holiday needs to shoot more for Sixers to win, according to Doug Collins (Ball Don't Lie)
(Wed, 23 May 2012 13:15:38 PDT)
The second round hasn't been especially kind to Jrue Holiday. After averaging a sterling 18.2 points per game in the Philadelphia 76ers' first-round win over the Chicago Bulls, he's had a rougher go of it in Round 2, averaging just 12.4 points a night on 43.4 percent shooting against the Boston Celtics. He's far from the only Sixer to struggle — his teammates are shooting a combined 41.7 percent from the floor in the series, which Boston leads 3-2 and can close out in Philly in a pivotal Game 6 on Wednesday night — but what's made Holiday's play particularly noteworthy of late is its passivity. After hitting three of the first four shots he took during Monday's Game 5 and helping Philadelphia jump out to a 27-23 lead after the first quarter, Holiday seemed to recede from view, attempting just two shots in the rest of the game and finishing with a quiet 10 points in Boston's 101-85 win . That Holiday, the team's leading postseason scorer at 15.5 points per game, pulled back when he seemed to have it going gave Doug Collins cause for concern; as the Sixers' head coach told John N. Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer , the team needs more offensive aggression from its lead guard and leading scorer. "He's our leading scorer," Collins said after a team film session Tuesday at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. "[...] I've got to have him in the mode of looking to shoot the ball." In a perfect world for the Sixers, Holiday plays Wednesday night the way he did in Game 2 of the Chicago series, when he finished with 26 points and six assists in a 109-92 rout. "I have to be more aggressive looking for my shot," Holiday said. Perhaps too often, Holiday exhibits a reluctance to take over games. He has a pure point guard's mind-set in that he would rather set up his teammates — something Boston guard Rajon Rondo, his counterpart, could very well be the best in the league at doing. It's true that Holiday can look tentative at times, and that hesitance can spell problems for a Philadelphia team not blessed with very many players who excel at creating good looks, whether for themselves or others. But it's worth noting that it's not exactly as if the Sixers become a high-flying, explosive winning machine when Holiday starts looking for his own offense.

LeBron tops NBA All-Defensive squad
(Wed, 23 May 2012 11:21:10 PDT)
NBA 2012 Most Valuable Player LeBron James, the Miami Heat playmaker still seeking his first NBA title, was the top vote-getter among those named on Wednesday to the NBA 2012 All-Defensive Team.

Arrest made in post-NBA game shooting that hurt 8 (The Associated Press)
(Tue, 22 May 2012 19:13:21 PDT)
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Oklahoma City police made an arrest Tuesday in the late-night fight that escalated into gunfire and left eight people injured shortly after the Thunder-Lakers NBA playoff game ended a few blocks away.

Police arrest man in shooting outside Oklahoma NBA game
(Tue, 22 May 2012 18:34:28 PDT)
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Police on Tuesday arrested a 19-year-old man suspected of opening fire the night before outside an Oklahoma City arena in a shooting that wounded eight people after a National Basketball Association playoff game.

Metta World Peace calls Mike Brown fat (Ball Don't Lie)
(Tue, 22 May 2012 16:52:27 PDT)
We have had plenty of Lakers postmortems in the wake of their Game 5 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Most concern whether or not they'll try to make a big trade involving Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum or both. It's a period of great flux for the franchise, and all we can be sure of is that Kobe Bryant will continue to play a huge role in whatever happens. Whether or not Metta World Peace will be part of that future is anyone's guess. After signing with the Lakers as Ron Artest in 2009, he was an integral part of the Lakers' championship that season. Over the past two seasons, however, they've seen diminishing returns on their investment, with MWP becoming less dependable, more reckless ( the elbow to the head of James Harden will always make that point), and a little pudgier around his midsection. He has one more year on his contract, plus a player option season that he'd be a fool not to take, but the Lakers might consider using their amnesty clause on him to save some cash. [Related: Lakers' future uncertain after playoff KO by Thunder | Photos ] World Peace, to his credit, took some blame for his struggles this season while at Lakers HQ on Tuesday for his season-ending interview. However, in doing so, he also called his coach fat. From Mark Medina for the Los Angeles Times on Twitter (via PBT ):

Thunder face West's best in climb toward top (The Associated Press)
(Tue, 22 May 2012 16:03:44 PDT)
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) The Oklahoma City Thunder haven't found any shortcuts as they try to climb to the top of the Western Conference.

Eight injured in shooting following Thunder win (The SportsXchange)
(Tue, 22 May 2012 15:46:47 PDT)
At least eight people were wounded in Oklahoma City as a result of a gunfire following Monday's Thunder playoff game.

NBA roundup: Eight wounded in gunfire following Thunder-Lakers game (The SportsXchange)
(Tue, 22 May 2012 15:30:17 PDT)
At least eight people were wounded in Oklahoma City as a result of a gunfire following Monday's Thunder playoff game.