Lakers have only 3 road games left, none of which are against the top teams, so they could realistically sweep the rest of the way and finish the season 60-22. All the rest of the teams in the west have some tough games left.

Donnie Walsh might come to Knicks at the end of the season. But, apparently, Isiah Thomas will still stay, so...not *that* excited about the move.

That's a tough one to lose. Chris Paul's 20th assist went to David West with .6 seconds left in the game. Hornets #1 in the West again.

And that was AFTER James ran through them

The Celtics finally decided to play 4 quarters instead of 3.5

Oh how I hate the Philadelphia 76ers... looks like I'll have to hope for Washington to falter and get 7th, because god knows Philly can't lose a single fucking game, not even against the Celtics on the road. Our schedule is by far the easiest of the three (only one hard game left - New Orleans at home on Sunday, and then after that it's below .500 teams till the end... there's a game against Detroit in the last week of the season, but they'll probably be resting their starters like last year when we won against them late), but that's not saying much considering Philly is beating everyone right now.

NBA released this: the top selling jerseys since 1998 through today.

1. Michael Jordan
2. Kobe Bryant
3. Allen Iverson
4. LeBron James
5. Shaquille O'Neal
6. Tracy McGrady
7. Dwyane Wade
8. Jason Kidd
9. Vince Carter
10. Tim Duncan

How is LeBron #4 when he's only been around since 2003??? Is he THAT popular?

Jordan still #1 EAT IT, KOBE!

Nobody wants to wear Shaq... afraid it'll make them look fat

I'm surprised Duncan has more than KG

Duncan has 4 championships. That leads to a lot of bandwagon fans buying jerseys.

Vince Carter . I'm sure people in Toronto still wear those proudly.

Ok, 5 minutes left in the 3rd, Calderon's played a grand total of 8 minutes. He still has a team high +11 in that time. Ford's played 20 and has -2, including an 0-14 run as soon as he came into the 2nd that let the other team back in the game. Last time I checked for the season Calderon was +186 and Ford was -19, 2nd worst on the team. I GIVE UP.

Man it feels weird saying this... the Bulls are garlic toast. 4 games out of 8th after tonight, two other teams between them and Atlanta too. They won't even be in the playoff race the last two weeks of the season. To me this is a bigger story than the Heat this year, I mean with them I expected maybe 9th or 10th and they ended up last, but the Bulls... I thought they were a top 3 East team this year. I would have NEVER have expected this. Wtf happened.

I remember listening to the Bulls on an AM radio station at the beginning of the season and the announcers were predicting how many wins they'd get this year... one said he thought they'd reach 60 wins, the other said he thought that was a little stretch, but they should get 55, and anything less than 50 will be a disappointment, the third agreed with the mid 50's assessment. They said they no longer could use the "baby Bulls" excuse and that they are learning, and this was their year.

So, yeah... to hardly win 30 (if they get to 30) in the end and to miss the playoffs in an extremely weak East Conference is a massive, massive failure of epic proportions. And the way they did it too... they self destructed on every level - players, coaches, and GM. Ugly.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm going to feel really bad for the West team that comes in 9th. To have about 50 wins and not make the playoffs - while some team that is 7-10 games under .500 will make it in the East is just a shame. I think it's looking like it will be Dallas... that J-Kidd trade is going to look mighty stupid in the end.

Kobe has 47 points against the Grizzlies going into the 4th. Also, the Lakers are down by 9 . Kobe has 47/80!

I took teh Lakers -14

It's so weird. Just when it looks Lakers had the easiest remaining schedule, they went on to lose to Bobcats and Grizzles. This west conference thing is so tight.

The Lakers without Gasol are pathetic. Hurry up and get out there Gasol. They won't make a dent in the playoffs if they continue playing this way. Fisher, Kobe, and the crew are better than this.

Weird part is the Lakers beat Utah(in Utah!), Dallas, Golden State last week without Gasol. Weird turn-around, to say the least. Though Memphis has figured things out more lately (though it took them 60 games to do it). Darko has kind of arrived finally.

Oh, and the Lakers attempted 45 3 pointers tonight... 14 by Sasha Vujacic! (Kobe took 17). That is awful!

If the playoffs started today, over in the west we'd get these first round matchups:

San Antonio vs. Dallas
Phoenix vs LA
Golden State vs. New Orleans
Houston vs. Utah

There are some pretty impressive looking matchups there for a first round... Kobe vs. Shaq... S.A. vs. Dallas... The first round could be more exciting than the eventual finals.

Phoenix vs LA shouldn't happen in the first round. I'm hoping Phoenix gets the 5 seed while Lakers get the 2 seed, so they don't meet until the conference finals (if they can get past the Spurs and Hornets).

I think it'll end up

NO vs Dallas (hopefully)
LA vs Golden State
San Antonio vs Houston
Utah vs Phoenix

hmm looks like the Cavs haven't totally seperated themselves from "THE PACK" yet. After tonight(they're getting spanked), they'll be 1.5 ahead of Washington, 2.5 ahead of Toronto, 3 ahead of Philly. Those two losses to Milwaukee took away their breathing room. If we could get in a 4-5 seed matchup with Philly or Washington, even without homecourt advantage, it'd be a godsend. A Toronto-Washington series would be the most entertaining thing ever... I swear every game we play with them ends in overtime or a nailbiting finish, they're my favorite team to play.

Oh how wondeful would it be if the Cavs fell into 7th. Pistons vs. Cavs, seven game series in the first round?

What a wonderful thought.

They seriously need to do something about those Hawks scorekeepers. We wuz robbed!

The most frustrating thing is that Mitchell and our bench pointed it out as soon as it happened, but the refs ignored their pleas.

I really think this should be grounds for reversing the game. I mean the instant replay clearly shows the clock was at .35-.4 when the ball was caught, and if it was at .5 it's an easy basket. Raptors victory.

I'm not that upset because Washington lost to Milwaukee tonight and we might end up playing Orlando instead of Cleveland this way(good thing), but still. Get the right calls please. Especially considering this has happened 3 times with the same team (last year Ford had a phantom bucket against Atlanta, plus the Miami thing)

I think the NBA should stop counting tenths/hundredths of seconds...

I mean, come on. Humans can't sense hundredths of seconds. It's just stupid that you can inbound the ball, catch it, land, turn around, set and shoot in less than a second.

It defies physics.