Let’s see…the reigning NBA MVP, and soon to be 2 time MVP can’t get a foul call on Smush Parker reaching in and basically bumping him out of bounds, which leads to the shot Bryant made to tie the game at 90 and force overtime…than Phoenix's James Jones gets a perfect lob and is blatantly held by Luke Walton as time expires….no call…then Nash get tied up for jump ball by Luke “I get all the calls” Walton on the sideline with 7 seconds left with Nash and four other Suns players screaming for timeout and Bennet Salvatore, his Kiobe Bryant memorial Lakers jockstrap firmly in place under his Ref uniform, call jump ball…the rest you know…Nash wouldn't say he got fouled on either big play he was involved in. "In those situations, those are tough calls to make," he said. "The first one, I slipped. "The second was pretty physical. Boris [Diaw] was calling time out. I don't know. It was a jump ball…"There were some costly plays down the stretch that didn't go our way. We did everything we could to win the game. It wasn't meant to be."…Tim Thomas expressed it a little better…"We have Nash, the NBA's MVP last year, and he can't get a call," Thomas said, alluding to the play when Parker stole the ball. "Boris and Steve called timeout, but we did not get the call," Thomas said of the play leading to the jump ball. "It was the most difficult loss, by far, of my career." Lamar Odom led the Lakers with 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Bryant had 24 points and eight assists, Kwame Brown added 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Devean George scored 11 points -- all but two in the fourth quarter. Nash led the Suns with 22 points and 11 assists, but scored only six points after halftime. Diaw had 21 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Shawn Marion had 20 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out with 2:37 left in the fourth quarter, and Thomas scored 12 points.

Meanwhile the Kings' 102-84 beat the Spurs last night, evening up their first-round playoff series 2-2….Bonzi Wells was unstoppable with 25 points and 17 rebounds in a dominant effort.

Oh and Milk Carton: Manu Ginobili? 3 points in 25 minutes…

All you need to know about the Bulls 93-87 win over the Heat was: Miami fouls? 31…Chicago fouls? 17…the refs neutered Shaq by calling fouls on moves he’s been making for 10 years…ridiculous…as for the Heat, they’re in trouble if they can’t start playing together, what with Payton and Wade jawing away at each other…as for the Bulls, they will go only as far as Andres Nocioni will take them…he has been by far the best player in the series averaging 22.8 PPG, 935 R.G, 2.0 APG and 54% shooting from the field, including 46.2% from three and 89.5% from the line…

The Clippers finally ended their 13-year road playoff drought by beating the Denver Nuggets 100-86 Saturday night and getting themselves 1 win away from their first series win in over 30 years…Corey Maggette finished with 19 points and Elton Brand had 11 points and 10 rebounds to lead Los Angeles, which flustered Denver into five technical fouls…play of the night was when Denverr's Reggie Evans reached Chris Kaman’s legs while going for a rebound and squeezed his cojones…Kaman immediately shoved Evans to the court at the whistle in the first quarter…Denver's Ruben Patterson and Kaman were separated, but Patterson continued yelling and Kaman circled back toward Patterson before being led away again by his teammates…best part is all the while Patterson is yelling at him, Kaman is shouting back: ”I’ll kill ya man…I’ll just kill ya…”

Ignore the Bucks blowout win over Detroit…the Bucks to their first home playoff victory over the Pistons in 30 years, 124-104 on Saturday night.

1) Jason Reid of the LA Times reports on the Kaman Ball grabbing episode:


The NBA is investigating an incident in Saturday's 100-86 victory in Game 4 that led to center Chris Kaman's being assessed a flagrant foul. The foul was called with 8 minutes 45 seconds remaining in the second quarter when Kaman shoved Denver forward Reggie Evans. Kaman said he told referees that Evans grabbed his testicles and "pulled hard," and repeated his account in an interview Sunday with an NBA security official. TV replays appeared to indicate Evans put his hand under Kaman's shorts as they battled for position near the basket. "I told [the NBA] in complete detail what happened," Kaman said. "The three refs also knew what happened." Kaman, who played despite being slowed by a viral illness, said he considered punching Evans. "With what we're trying to do, I didn't want to get thrown out," he said. "I thought about it, but I knew what would happen. "One of the refs said he would have knocked [him] out. It was crazy." The Clippers were surprised by Evans' actions, to say the least. "When I saw it on TV, it was like, 'Wow,' " 13-year veteran Sam Cassell said. "I asked the referees about it at halftime, and Jess Kersey, who has been in the league for [29] years, said he's never seen anything like it. "You know what, Reggie is a good guy. I think he just lost it for a minute."

2) Chris Ekstrand of SI.com thinks the Euros have righted the ship:

The old world is new again - Bargnani, Splitter have NBA eyes focused on Europe

Andrea Bargnani and Tiago Splitter have some important things in common. They are tall, athletic and immensely promising basketball players who play key roles for two of the best teams in Europe. Both reportedly are under contract to their respective teams through the 2007-08 season. Both have been heavily scouted by NBA teams. And both will eventually have to make the transition from European prodigy to high NBA draft pick, with all the inherent pressures that status represents. The good news for Bargnani, the 6-foot-10 Italian forward from Benetton Treviso of Italy, and Splitter, the 6-foot-11 Brazilian-born center from Tau Ceramica of Spain, is that when they come into the NBA, they will be joining a league that has evolved dramatically over the past two decades thanks to David Stern's vision of becoming a global sports brand. NBA teams today are better equipped than ever to guide international players through the gauntlet of cultural, linguistic and lifestyle adjustments that await them. In places like San Antonio and Phoenix, players with international backgrounds have flourished in systems that are similar to the brand of basketball they grew up with in Europe. Those teams demand that players big and small be able to pass the ball, shoot the ball with range and put team goals first. And that involves more than just feeling comfortable in a drive-and-kick offense as opposed to one relying on the pick-and-roll as the main course. It's about embracing a basketball philosophy that celebrates group achievement rather than individual expression. And it's about integrating the fundamentally sound games of well-schooled Europeans with the explosive, flamboyant style favored by most American players. Longtime NBA people chafe at the idea that these are "European basketball values." They would argue, correctly, that five-man basketball at its highest level was taught and practiced by American coaches such as John Wooden, Red Auerbach, Red Holzman, Pete Newell and Clair Bee for decades before any European player found his way to the NBA. San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told USA Today just this week, "The Euros and foreign players and coaches are doing things in some ways we have forgotten about and used to do." It's amazing how quickly the NBA landscape has changed. A scant decade ago, a basketball scout describing a player as "European" would most likely be criticizing him as lacking in athleticism and being soft defensively. Today, if a scout says a player plays "like a European," he's more likely complimenting his perimeter shooting or overall fundamental play. hat has been the catalyst for this change? It's simple, really. The achievements of two generations of European stars have pulled NBA scouts, coaches and general managers in the direction of the new-old approach to the game. The success of early 1990s pioneers such as Sarunas Marciulionis, Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic paved the way for the second wave of European superstars to gravitate to the NBA in the mid-'90s: Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja and Arvydas Sabonis. When those stars, who were already established European veterans in their mid-20s, met with similar success in the NBA, the next logical step in the continuum was achieved: NBA teams started drafting unproven teenage European prodigies with the same breathless (and in some cases mindless) anticipation as they did young Americans. By 2001, a 20-year-old Spaniard with one good season in the ACB (Spain's top league and the best in Europe) was deemed good enough to be chosen with the third pick in the draft. In five seasons, NBA All-Star Pau Gasol has been everything the Memphis Grizzlies could have wished for. And no one needs to be reminded that Dirk Nowitzki of Germany, already a five-time NBA All-Star, is a perennial NBA Most Valuable Player candidate. But not every player born outside the United States has been a success in the NBA. If current Hawks GM Billy Knight is to be commended for wisely trading for the rights to Gasol when he was running things in Memphis, Denver GM Kiki Vandeweghe has to take his lumps for selecting Nikoloz Tskitishvili with the fifth overall pick in '02. And though Hedo Turkoglu, Vladimir Radmanovic and Nenê (a Brazilian player whose draft rights Vandeweghe slickly acquired from New York on draft night) have already validated their high selections in the draft, Bostjan Nachbar and Jiri Welsch have yet to do so. And then there's Darko Milicic, who had to endure hearing what a bust he was in Detroit while never being given any playing opportunity. As his late-season performance after a trade to Orlando suggested, Milicic just might turn out to be a top-flight NBA player after all. He doesn't even turn 21 until June. this track record proves only that there are hits and misses when choosing European players in the draft, just as there are hits and misses when drafting players from the United States. And for all the hopes attached to Bargnani and Splitter, it's not certain that either will keep his name eligible for the '06 draft or, even if they are drafted this year, that they would join their NBA teams right away. Once drafted, both players will have to negotiate buyouts of their contracts from their clubs. While NBA teams can now contribute up to $500,000 to an international player's buyout from his team (the maximum before this year was $350,000), the player must pay the rest from his own pocket. To that end, it behooves Bargnani and Splitter to make sure they will be drafted high enough that it won't be prohibitively expensive to leave comfortable situations in Europe for the NBA. Just a year ago, the Orlando Magic spent the 11th overall pick on promising center Fran Vazquez of Unicaja Malaga in Spain. Vazquez didn't feel he was ready for the NBA limelight, however, and left the Magic at the altar by signing a lucrative contract with another Spanish team, Akasvayu Girona. Orlando retained his NBA draft rights, and the Magic rebounded nicely with the acquisition of Milicic, who might benefit from Vazquez's decision to remain in Spain. Bargnani and Splitter both have attributes that would make them attractive to any NBA team. Bargnani, who has earned increased playing time as his season has progressed, has the skills of a small forward despite his height and length. He is quick off the dribble and loves to take the ball to the basket. In addition, he's a high-percentage shooter facing the basket and has improved his three-point shooting to a respectable 37 percent. On a team blessed with scorers such as former college stars Drew Nicholas (Maryland) and Marcus Goree (West Virginia) and respected Lithuanian Ramunas Siskauskas, Bargnani has carved out a role providing instant offense off the bench. He is a big reason that Benetton (23-7) is tied for first place in Lega A with four games to go in the regular season. Splitter is a completely different type of player, but his list of attributes is just as long. Tau Ceramica (21-9) is a powerful team that for the second straight season has reached this weekend's Euroleague Final Four, the pinnacle of European basketball. It's the culmination of a season of play among the top teams in all the major basketball-playing countries in Europe, played outside of the teams' national league competitions. Despite his youth, the 21-year-old Splitter has already made his bones by playing well in many important European competitions, and he'll add two more highly scrutinized games to his portfolio this weekend in Prague. Splitter starts alongside Luis Scola, an '02 draft pick of the San Antonio Spurs and arguably the best power forward in Europe. While Scola gets most of the post-up opportunities and shots, Splitter is an opportunistic offensive player who can score by beating opponents to offensive boards and with an improving hook shot. He is averaging a solid 10.4 points in ACB play and 10 points per game in just 22 minutes against Euroleague teams. But it's on defense where Splitter really excels. He gets great position in close and uses his length to block and bother shots. He also plays exceptional help defense, with enough athleticism to switch out and challenge a perimeter shot. Bargnani and Splitter aren't the only international players that NBA teams will be looking at leading up to the draft in New York on June 28, just the ones with the best chance to be chosen early in the first round. In a change from recent years, a number of interesting international guards are in the mix this year. Rudy Fernandez, an athletic scorer from DKV Joventut in Spain, Thabo Sefolosha, a Swiss guard playing for Biella in Italy, and Yotam Halperin, an Israeli point guard playing for Union Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia, all are being carefully evaluated by NBA teams. For each of these players, receiving serious consideration from NBA teams is expected, given their attributes and potential. If NBA talent evaluators should describe them as "typical" European players, they can hold their heads high and smile. They are on the receiving end of a compliment from the architects who are reshaping the new-old NBA.

3) Chad Ford of ESPN.com reports on who’s in but out…so to speak:

Breaking down the draft class as deadline passes

The Saturday deadline for college underclassmen to declare for the 2006 NBA Draft came and passed without a major announcement. In the next few days, the NBA will release the official list of underclassmen. There are usually a few surprises on the list -- under-the-radar underclassmen who throw their names into the pool. But, barring a major surprise, we have a good idea of who's in and who's out of this year's draft. The list includes at least 40 college underclassmen and at least 20 international players under the age of 22 for a total of 60 or more early entries. When the official list comes out, there likely will be even more. Most of the early entries are eligible to withdraw from the draft by June 18. If form holds from previous years, a majority of the international "underclassmen" who have declared will withdraw by the deadline of June 18. So will some college underclassmen. The 60 early entries we know about so far just happens to match exactly the number of draft spots available in the first two rounds. But considering that the draft class includes a plethora of college seniors and a number of 22-year-old draft-eligible international players, a significant number of underclassmen will be left out in the cold, if they elect to remain in the draft. The underclassmen list includes at least 30 college underclassmen and another 15 serious international prospects with a legitimate shot at being drafted. Add those two numbers and you get 45 early entries with a good shot of being drafted. If all 45 were drafted, that would leave just 15 spots for college seniors and international players who are 22. As it does every year, the numbers game will victimize quite a few players. When you contrast the number of players eligible for the draft (well more than 100) with the number of spots in the draft (60), you can see the problem. That, by the way, is why NBA teams were so skeptical of the Portsmouth Invitational several weeks ago. While there are only 60 spots available in the draft, there are 81 promising prospects who didn't play at Portsmouth. So far, there are two major kinds of mistakes that players have made: Some underclassmen have declared who don't belong in the draft (though most of them can still withdraw), and some seniors skipped Portsmouth. Let's look at those lists.

Underclassmen very unlikely to be drafted:

Morris Almond, SG, Rice
Renaldo Balkman, F, South Carolina
Mike Efevberha, SG, Cal State Northridge
Carl Elliot, PG, George Washington
Brandon Heath, PG, San Diego State
Thomas Gardner, SG, Missouri
Trey Johnson, G, Jackson State
Danilo Pinnock, SG, George Washington
Blake Schilb, SG, Loyola
Ian Vouyoukas, C, St. Louis

Seniors who skipped Portsmouth and are very unlikely to be drafted:

Louis Amundson, F, UNLV
J.P. Batista, PF, Gonzaga
Cedric Bozeman, G, UCLA
Taquan Dean, SG, Louisville
Terence Dials, PF, Ohio State
Eric Williams, PF, Wake Forest

Even if you subtract those players and everyone at Portsmouth (though we think at least four players who participated in Portsmouth -- Juan Jose Barea, Steve Novak, Terrell Everett and Bobby Jones -- have a decent chance to be drafted), that leaves 75 players for 60 spots.

At least 15 others -- college seniors who were not at Portsmouth, underclassmen and international players -- might be left out in the cold this year.

That list:

Arron Afflalo, SG, UCLA
Will Blaylock, PG, Iowa State
Denham Brown, SG, UConn
Goran Dragic, PG, Slovenia
Matt Haryasz, PF, Stanford
Ryan Hollins,C, UCLA
Marko Lekic, PF, Serbia
Gerry McNamara,PG, Syracuse
Pops Mensah-Bonsu, PF, George Washington
Kevin Pittsnogle, PF, West Virginia
Milovan Rakovic, PF, Serbia
Mustafa Shakur, PG, Arizona
Marcus Slaughter, F, San Diego State
Craig Smith, PF, Boston College
Mirza Teletovic, PF, Bosnia

The quality of this list demonstrates how unusual this draft is. While it is not strong at the top (especially in the mid-to-late lottery range), the 2006 draft does have tremendous depth. For a team looking to pick up a rotation player, a second-round pick could be meaningful this year. For a lottery team looking to pick up a potential starter in the mid-to-late lottery, there will be better luck in 2007, which is shaping up to be a very strong year for the draft.