Ummm…OK…apparently Dirk Nowitzki sings David Hasselhoff's song "Looking For Freedom," when he’s at the foul line to relax…

Clippers beat the Suns 118-106 last night to even the Western Conference semifinal series at three games each…so how did they do it? Well. Like this:

- Elton Brand scored 30 points on 14 of 21 shooting, blocked 5 shots and had 12 rebounds…Bradn is the kley, in fact he’s played 96 out of the 106 available minutes in games 5 aqnd 6…
- Corey Maggette had 25 points on only 7-8 shots with 1 three and 9 free throws with 8 rebounds and 4 assists in only 27 minutes off the bench…
- Quinton Ross (who?!!) had 18 points as the starter, posting up Nash at will in the 1st half…
- The Clippers out-rebounded the Suns 48-26…
- And out-blocked the Suns 8-2…
- And shot 61.5% from the field to 43.7% for Phoenix…

So, even though Shawn Marion continued his tremendous play with 34 points, 9 rebounds and 6 steals to lead the Suns, Leonardo Barbosa added 25 points, Nash had 17 points and 11 assists, Boris Diaw had 14 points, nine rebounds and seven assists and Raja Bell scored 13, the Suns still could not get close…Game 7 on Monday night will be a thriller…

I missed the video but apparently Dallas point guard Jason Terry is suspended for Game 6 for punching former teammate Michael Finley in the balls while chasing a loose ball in the closing seconds of Game 5…there wasn’t even a foul on the play, but NBA VP Stu Jackson reviewed the tape and made the call on the suspension…wow…

This is just wrong…and a little right…http://badjocks.com/archive/2006/northwestern-womens-soccer-hazing.htm

Choke note: This year marks the fifth time in the past six seasons that the Nets have lost their final four games….

The Celtics are going to offer Golden State centre and Dwight Howard tutor Clifford Ray a job as an assistant coach to work with young Celtics bigs like Al Jefferson, Dwayne Jones and Kendrick Perkins…a great hire, Ray has really been crucial to the development of Howard from high school phenom to genuine NBA star…he’s also credited with helping Jermaine O’Neal and Erick Dampier…

1) Eric Neel of ESPN.com thinks game 7 Clips-Suns will be a classic:

Anticipating a magical seventh

Six or seven minutes after the horn, the Clippers' faithful lingered in the Staples Center, looking out on the floor, soaking up the moment -- some dancing, some shouting, some banging the ThunderStix one more time just to hear the happy echo. The Clippers had never had a game like this, with their backs against the wall and all the chips on the table, and when it came upon them, they were ready. That's right, that's the new Clippers reality: They come up big when it counts, taking the Western Conference semifinal Game 6, 118-106. They did it Tuesday night in Game 5 in Phoenix -- when they rallied from being down 19 in the third before falling in OT -- and they did it Thursday, taking care of business on their home floor and forcing this series to the limit. They had it all working. The Staples crowd, 19,985 strong, was rocking from the tip. The horse, Elton Brand, was doing his equine thing to the tune of 30 points, 12 boards and five blocks. The stopper, Quinton Ross, was a Nash killer on one end and an opportunistic shooter on the other, racking up a surprising 18 points. The enigma, Corey Maggette, came to play, driving his way through traffic for 25 (on 7-of-8 shooting), five and four. Even Chris Kaman (15 points) was effective. The Suns tried to match them -- Phoenix got another stellar night from Shawn Marion (34 points, 9 rebounds) and a jolt off the bench from Leandro Barbosa -- but they were in over their heads from the get-go, never able to match the Clippers' energy. And so we go to Game 7, like it ought to be, like we were hoping it would be after we saw the classic these two teams cooked up in Game 5. And so, for the seventh game, we pose Seven Questions:

1. Will the three days off be enough for Steve Nash and Sam Cassell? - Nash came out Thursday night with a burst, and Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said afterward he thought there was "some pop in him" in the late stages of the game, but for much of the night the league MVP looked like he was running through the shallow end of a swimming pool, barely able to lift his knees and move ahead. It's reasonable, the Suns have played 13 games in 25 days. "I felt fine," Nash said after the game. "But it just didn't seem like we had a lot of pop tonight." Ditto the Clips' PG, who followed his yeoman Game 5 effort with a pedestrian 15 points in this one. "He's 58 years old," Los Angeles coach Mike Dunleavy joked afterward. "His legs are tired." If either guy gets his mojo back come Monday night, the advantage goes to his club. If they both find the spring in their steps, the advantage goes to those of us watching.

2. Can the Clippers handle the pressure? - Just last week the Suns dispatched a Los Angeles team in a seventh game, and they did it handily. They have a playoff-savvy club, from point guard to shooting guard to, well, whatever it is you call the Matrix. The Clippers, meanwhile, are on foreign soil and in alien territory (Game 7? Chance to go to the Conference Finals? That's some crazy new stuff for the Clips, my friends). "Everything's new for me," Brand said afterward. "I'm going to treat it like we've treated every other game in the playoffs so far." But the thing is, Game 7s are a different beast. And the crowd in Phoenix is one of the loudest in the league. And the Suns, with three days rest and the adrenaline of playing for the home fans, are a high-octane monster. The Clips showed in Game 5 they have it in them to absorb the Suns' best and come back swinging. And they showed in Game 6 that they can attack when their opponent is vulnerable. "We feel we can play with anybody," Dunleavy said. "We can play fast, we can play slow. This team was built for the playoffs." If they can believe that, and draw on that confidence in Game 7, we could see something special.

3. Can the Suns handle Brand? - When the Clippers find their stalwart anywhere near the blocks, good things happen. Tim Thomas can't handle him. Boris Diaw has no shot. When they double, Brand finds his guys on the perimeter. "I have full faith in them," he said Thursday. "I know they're there, waiting to knock down shots." And when they don't double, he takes his time, finds his spots, and launches his feathery jumper. Steve Nash is the MVP of the season, but Brand owns this series right now. "He's been a terrific shot-maker, and he's probably led them in assists," Nash said. "He's been so efficient. He puts a lot of pressure on the defense. He's just a very valuable player." The defense, yes, and the Suns' coaching staff, too; they need to find some combination, some rhythm-jamming, physicality and scheming to get him out of his comfort zone. And with his willingness to pass out of the double (he had 3 assists tonight and is averaging 5.2 in the series), they better hope the Clippers shooters aren't hitting the way they did in Game 6 (the team shot 62 percent from the floor).

4. Will the Clippers go "small"? - Mike Dunleavy started Chris Kaman again Thursday night, and began the second half with him as well, but Los Angeles seems to present the most difficulty for Phoenix when they go with either Maggette or Livingston in the mix instead of the big man. Not to discount the magic of the flowing mane, of course, but when the Clippers can move the ball and their feet quickly on offense, and can exploit gaps in the Suns' D with slashing and dishing, they are at their best. And when they can count on quick, shuffling, sacrificing defenders at every spot on the floor, jamming the Suns in transition, they match up with Phoenix most effectively. Will Dunleavy break his mold and show the Suns the little Clips from the get? It could be the difference between a ticket to the Conference Finals and a ticket home.

5. Will the real Boris Diaw please stand up? - On a night when the Suns needed major contributions from their role players, Leandro Barbosa (25 points and 11 assists) was ginormous. Diaw, on the other hand, came up short. He posted 14 points and seven assists in Game 6, but much of that work came after the game had gotten away from the Suns. He appeared out of synch all night, just missing guys who were open, short-arming shots he normally hits, and hesitating to drive the lane and find his spots to score and dish. At his best, Diaw is Matrix 2.0, an impossible to classify player with handle, vision, and a nose for the ball. At his best, he is the perfect complement to Nash and Marion. If he is at his best in Game 7, all the Brand and Cassell in the world may not be enough to stop the Suns. If he wanders lost in the desert as he did in Game 6, the Clips will give Marion his points and clamp down on Nash and challenge him to find more fuel in the tank.

6. Will Ross be able to do it again? - We knew the man could D-up. We knew he was going to lay a body on the MVP early and often. We had no idea he'd be good for 18 game-changing points in the process. Ross was the most valuable Clipper in Game 6, and it wasn't even close. On defense, he was trained on Nash like a drug-sniffing dog tracking smuggled hash, and on offense, he was passing up open jumpers just to back the tired Nash down and bump him a bit before rising up for a turnaround jump shot. "We felt like we had a good post match-up against Steve," Dunleavy said, underselling the abuse the young, wiry Ross was doling out on the Suns' heart and soul. When Barbosa came off the Phoenix bench he gave Ross fits, at one point scoring 12 straight Suns points, but when D'Antoni put the ball in Nash's hands, Ross was in command. So, how will it play in Game 7? Will D'Antoni go with Nash and Barbosa on the floor together more often? Will the Suns try to knock him silly with Tim Thomas picks up high? And maybe most importantly, will Ross take this game for what it was, his coming out party, and enter the clincher with the swagger he's going to need to withstand the Suns approach to him?

7. How will the basketball gods be able to pick a winner? - If it's the Suns, we get Nash vs. Nowitzki and D'Antoni vs. Johnson, some of the most likeable, most entertaining guys in the league going head-to-head. If it's the Clippers, we get nothing less than a revolution, we get a chance to see how the world works when it spins the opposite direction, we get rain falling up and snowfall in the nether regions. Give the Suns the edge for home court. Give the Clips the edge for hunger. Brand says Los Angeles just might have some momentum after the way it handled Game 6. Nash says the rest for both teams is an equalizer: "I think it's just who rises to the occasion, who does the best, who has the most left in the tank," he said. "I hope they play their best and I hope we play our best." That's what we're all hoping. And if it all goes that way, I give the edge to the Suns on their own floor. But then again, I'm not one of the basketball gods.

2) Chad Ford of ESPN.com with some pre-draft workout news:

Michigan State guard Shannon Brown worked out for roughly 15 NBA teams in Chicago on Thursday and lit up the gym according to NBA sources inside the gym. One NBA GM and two NBA scouts told Insider that Brown was "phenomenal." "His athleticism is off the charts," one scout told Insider. "He has that rare combination of athleticism and power that's usually only reserved for power forwards like Amare Stoudemire. He was amazing." The NBA people Insider spoke with said Brown, who worked out along with Arizona's Mustafa Shakur, Illinois' James Augustine and Wyoming's Justin Williams also shot the ball extremely well. One scout said he was impressed with another physical feature of Brown. When he shook hands with Brown after the workout, he was stunned with how big his hands were. "They were like catcher's mitts," the scout said. "I'm not sure I've ever seen bigger hands on a guard his size. That will help him tremendously in the league." Scouts also said Brown impressed with his energy on both ends of the floor. "Every drill he ran had a zip to it," the GM said. "As a team evaluating a player for the draft, that's exactly the type of effort you want to see from a kid. He laid it all out there. There's no question about what type of worker he is." Everyone agreed that the workout should significantly help Brown's draft stock with one scout and GM saying that the late lottery is not out of the question. The other scout said he'd rank him in the mid first round. Brown is still keeping his options open for returning to school by not hiring an agent, but word from Chicago is that Brown may enter officially soon based on the positive feedback he's hearing from teams. Brown wasn't the only one who was impressive. Scouts like what they saw from Augustine. He's long, athletic and showed a nice mid-range jumper in the workout. While they all complained that he didn't spend enough time in the post against Williams, all of them walked away with a positive impression and said he'd definitely get a team workout from them. There were three other workouts that went down in Chicago with less heralded prospects. In the first, scouts had some positive words for Maryland's Nik Caner-Medley. "He's a little more athletic than I thought," one scout said. "It looks like he's trimmed down a bit which has helped with his quickness. I think he's definitely a guy who could make a roster." In the third session UConn's Denham Brown, Bradley's Marcellus Sommerville, Louisville's Taquan Dean and Iowa State's Will Blalock went at it. Scouts said that surprisingly, it was Sommerville who stood out the most. The 6-foot-7, 230-pound forward was a power forward in college and is making the transition to the small forward in the pros. Scouts loved his body and defense in the workout. Scouts also thought that Denham Brown had good size and showed his ability to score and Blaylock was explosive. In the final workout UConn's Josh Boone and Robert Morris' Reggie George squared off. According to the three NBA people we spoke with, all were unimpressed. While Boone shot the ball OK, the workout was mostly a series of scripted jumpers. There was very little one-on-one action and one scout said that Boone "sleepwalked" through the workout. Boone has been contemplating leaving UConn for good, however the lackluster feedback he got from scouts may make him reconsider. He may be better off returning to UConn for his senior season and showing scouts that he still has the desire to be a dominant player. No one questions his talent or athleticism, but his lack of drive and consistency have been troubling. The Utah Jazz barely missed the playoffs this season. With a healthy Andrei Kirilenko and Carlos Boozer, combined with a more experienced Deron Williams running the point, the Jazz should be able take the next step into the playoffs next year. It's no secret that the Jazz need to add a two-guard to the mix, and they did little to hide it in their first series of draft workouts on Tuesday. Michigan State's Maurice Ager, Temple's Mardy Collins, Arizona's Hassan Adams and Cincinnati's James White were in Salt Lake City auditioning for the Jazz's open two spot. A spy inside the gym breaks down how they did:

Ager: He showed that he had deep range on his jumper -- "he shoots it easy from NBA range." He also showed excellent speed in the open court and good athleticism. Most importantly, he showed great intensity, and the team thought he was a great kid. However, that's where the praise ends. The source said Ager was a little stiff, struggled handling the ball, had short arms and wasn't as quick as they thought.

Collins: The spy thought that Collins, more than any of the other players in the gym, showed a great feel for the game -- "he understands angles and knows how to get to the basket." Collins measured even bigger and longer than the team thought. The knock on Collins is no real surprise. He struggled shooting and isn't nearly the athlete that Ager, Adams and White are.

Adams: He showed his trademark athletic explosiveness and toughness in the workout. But the spy said that they were fairly disappointed with his overall feel for the game. Adams also struggled shooting the ball ... something he struggled with all year.

White: He might be one of the real sleepers in the draft. White has knockout athleticism and has developed a great feel for the game on the defensive end. He also improved his shot, which showed in his workout with Utah. Though he doesn't have the stroke of Ager, he knocked down more jumpers than he missed. White's ability to slash to the basket and play defense could be an attractive fit for the Jazz -- in the second round.

Of course, this was just the first series of workouts to be conducted by the Jazz. In late May, two of the best two guards in the draft, J.J. Redick and Randy Foye, will work out for the Jazz. The Jazz are hoping one of the two falls to them at No. 14. Foye is a better fit because of his athleticism and his ability to slash to the basket. However, the word is that he'll measure a bit shorter than 6-4 (his listed height at Villanova). I've been hearing he'll be a little under or a little over 6-3 in shoes. That said, Minnesota and Golden State have a lot of interest in Foye and could grab him before the Jazz pick. Redick is more likely to be there when the Jazz pick, though Orlando is showing significant interest in him. The problem is that Redick isn't the ideal pick for the Jazz. The Jazz need a two-guard who can penetrate and defend. Redick's specialty is shooting. Still, we hear that owner Larry Miller is a big fan. The other top two-guard in the draft, Brandon Roy, won't work out for the Jazz, we've been told, assuming the Jazz don't move up in the lottery. At the moment it appears that Roy is planning on limiting his workouts to the top five teams in the draft. If Foye, Redick and Roy are off the board, the Jazz might decide between Ager, Collins, Michigan State's Shannon Brown or Rutgers' Quincy Douby. Both may actually have more upside than Ager or Collins. Or they could choose to go big. With Greg Ostertag retiring, they need a defense-minded big man who can rebound and back up Mehmet Okur. Two big guys have caught their eye -- Patrick O'Bryant and Hilton Armstrong. Both will be in Salt Lake City to work out this month.

3) Ian Thomsen of Si.com reports on the Drama that is Larry, Jim and Isaih in New York:

Fly in the Knicks' ointment - Brown's barbs toward trade assets raises team's ire

Wasn't it just one year ago that we were speculating the premature end of Larry Brown's reign in Detroit? Now the Knicks are planning to fire Brown after one remarkably pathetic 23-59 season in which the most expensive team in NBA history ($190 million in payroll and luxury taxes for their 15-man roster! No other team in any sport in any country has ever spent an average of $12.7 million per player as the Knicks did this season) finished with the second-worst record in the league. I'm told that owner James Dolan has turned against Brown for two reasons. First, it is Dolan's conviction that Brown pushed for the midseason trades of expiring contracts to Toronto and Orlando in exchange for Jalen Rose and Steve Francis, respectively, moves that cost the Knicks an additional $63.7 million in payroll and luxury taxes through next season. Yet when Rose and Francis showed up in New York, Brown quickly lost interest in them. Of course, it's hard to feel sympathy for Dolan on this score. He can't blame Brown for the financial disaster the Knicks have created. But it's not the money that upsets Dolan. My understanding is that he's far more worried about the future of the team so long as Brown is in charge. The Knicks' plan -- dismissed as farfetched by rival executives, but it's their plan nonetheless -- is to ultimately lure one or more superstars of the stature of Kevin Garnett or Jermaine O'Neal. The word coming out of Madison Square Garden is that Brown has sabotaged those plans by publicly criticizing his players and diminishing their trade value. Dolan doesn't much care whether Stephon Marbury's feelings have been hurt by Brown's denigrations in the New York papers. But the owner apparently believes that Brown's presence will make it harder than ever to recruit the big star that the Knicks desperately covet. Brown's reputation among NBA stars has turned negative in recent years: Many of the players from the 2004 Olympic team felt mistreated by him, and more than a few of his former Pistons don't have great things to say about him, either. Sure, they take the high road in their public comments about Brown, but in private -- especially among peers -- they complain about his public criticisms and his ambitions to further his own reputation at their expense. On this point I'm sympathetic to Brown, because the question of whether or not he should criticize his players speaks to the larger issue of how fans feel about the NBA. As a general rule, fans want the coach to be the boss. That's one reason why they love the NFL, because there's no doubt that the Big Bills -- Belichick, Parcells and Cowher -- are in charge of their teams. But coaches have far less authority in pro basketball, and the abiding impression that the players are running the league hurts the NBA with fans. A lot of Knicks' followers identified with Brown's frustrations this season.
But the reality is that the Knicks didn't hire Brown to teach a course in philosophy. For $10 million per year they expected him to produce results, and he failed miserably. He lost control of his team. The Pistons paid Brown $7 million to not coach this season and the Knicks may pay him up to $40 million to not coach the next four years. That's a five-year stretch worth $47 million, which would be the most lucrative coaching payout in NBA history. And Brown would be receiving it to not coach. Two organizations have decided independently that they would rather pay him that kind of money to stay home rather than let him near their teams. That is a horrible indictment of Larry Brown.

LeBron ahead of schedule - Here's the big mistake I made about LeBron James: I compared him to Michael Jordan. The assumption was that it took Jordan years to work his way through the playoffs, so James was going to struggle in his postseason debut. But it is with great pleasure that I admit I couldn't have been more wrong. At 21 years of age, James has played with more poise than any of the elders opposing him, from Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison to Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billups. The Cavs have followed suit. Cleveland was unimpressive defensively all season, but during these playoffs the Cavaliers have turned into the No. 2 team in field-goal defense while holding opponents to just 43.6 percent from the floor (1.9 percent stingier than during the regular season). The Pistons, on the other hand, have failed to raise their defensive level, permitting teams to shoot 45.2 percent in the playoffs -- the exact same rate as the 82-game season. The only question I had about the Pistons this year was their field-goal defense. They ranked a mediocre 13th in that category this season, a big drop-off from previous years when they were always among the league's stingiest defenses. Everyone I asked this season -- including Gregg Popovich, Larry Bird and Joe Dumars himself -- maintained that the stat wasn't indicative of their defense, and that the Pistons would always be able to generate stops when needed. But LeBron is ruining that premise. Though they're down 3-2 heading into Friday's game at Cleveland, I would still be surprised if the Pistons fail to win the series. I just can't imagine them surrendering so easily. But then it's shocking that they're in this position at all: Instead of exuding the passion and anger of previous seasons, they seemed both arrogant (as if trying to behave like All-Stars) and insecure (as if knowing deep down they were behaving out of character). It's like they've forgotten many of the blue-collar qualities that made them special. They haven't shot better than 43 percent since Game 1. Maybe it's true that they can't win without Larry Brown. In fact, this entire series is turning into the curse of Larry Brown. While coaching the Pistons to the NBA Finals a year ago, he was also surreptitiously assembling the current management team of the Cavaliers. At that time he was aiming to become Cleveland's team president for this season, with Danny Ferry to join him as GM and Mike Brown as coach. Though Larry Brown ultimately bailed on the Cavs, Ferry and Mike Brown have done a terrific job this season. So even as Detroit was paying Brown his $5 million salary last season, he was sabotaging the Pistons by laying down the foundation of the opponent that now stands one game away from eliminating them. He's an evil genius, that Larry Brown.