NBA

So, Ron Artest was a guest on ABC's late-night Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. In his underwear. With Kimmel's name shaved into his head. I can't tell whether it was a planned gag; Artest is infamously said (by former Kimmel writer Bill Simmons of ESPN.com) to have ridden with sponsors and Rockets owner Leslie Alexander on a team bus wearing only boxer shorts, a story Artest "clears up" here. (There is also a Part 2, which includes the revelation that steam rose from Kobe's body during that infamous shower scene from 2008.)

We hear quite a bit about how well Kobe Bryant and LeBron James play at Madison Square Garden, the so-called Mecca of basketball. But Sunday's action reminded us that Paul Pierce belongs in that discussion, too.

Pierce scored 33 points in Boston's overtime win against the Knicks Sunday. It was the sixth career 30-point game at MSG for the longtime Celtics, matching Kobe, Dirk Nowitzki and Allen Iverson for the lead among active (or very recently active, in A.I.'s case) players. LeBron has five 30-point games at the Garden.

Of course, Pierce has been around quite a bit longer than LeBron, and as an Eastern Conference player he plays at MSG twice as frequently as Bryant and Nowitzki. But the mark is still impressive. (In case you're wondering, Michael Jordan holds the modern era record for 30-point games at MSG as a visitor, with at least 17. Basketball-Reference only has a game-by-game box score data going back to 1986-87.) Pierce was the fourth visitor to hit 30 at the Garden this season, following James, Andre Iguodala and Chris Paul.

ATLANTA -- Either Dr. Phil or Charles Barkley once said, if you wish to advance in life, you must start with the image in the mirror. So the Atlanta Hawks will continue to scare people the rest of this NBA season. That's because they know exactly what they are, and they know exactly what they are not.

Here's what the Hawks are: Pretty good.

Actually, the Hawks are better than that. I'll explain more in a moment, but let's start with what the Hawks aren't: Elite.

"We're in the conversation for sure, but we're not satisfied with what we've done so far, because we still have a ways to go," said Hawks guard Jamal Crawford, telling the truth about his suddenly potent team that has surged into a three-way tie with the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns for the NBA's best record at 11-3.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh might want to wait. Jerry Colangelo is willing to let them do so.

James, Wade and Bosh all can become free agents next summer, which has clouded their chances of playing for Team USA in the World Championships in Turkey, Aug. 28-Sept. 12. But Colangelo, chairman of USA Basketball, sees a scenario in which the three still could play even if they might not be available for the team's minicamp in Las Vegas during the third week of July.

"There is a gap between the minicamp and when they have to be back [for a training camp beginning in Las Vegas around Aug. 10],'' Colangelo said in an interview Monday with FanHouse. "That's about three weeks. I could see them getting all their business done by then.''

It's time for the Knicks and the Nets to end this nonsense and stop teasing their fans. It's time to stop dreaming. All the salary cap room in the world this summer isn't going to save NBA basketball in the New York/New Jersey area.

The two worst teams in the Eastern Conference will remain the worst for the next few years. So get used to it.

LeBron James won't be walking through the door anytime soon. It doesn't matter how storied Madison Square Garden feels, or how many celebrities come to the games, or how wonderful the Nets-to-Brooklyn blueprint looks, or even the intensity of James' crush on rapper Jay-Z.

Golden State coach Don Nelson has been diagnosed with pneumonia and did not accompany the Warriors on their upcoming road trip, which includes games at Dallas on Tuesday and at San Antonio on Wednesday.

Assistant coach Keith Smart will coach the team in Nelson's stead.

The Warriors have been hit hard by injury and illness this season, and needed assistant coaches Russ Turner and Rico Hines to participate in practice on Monday just to give the team eight healthy bodies.

PHOENIX -- The NBA's schedule is never something that teams will use as an excuse for playing particularly poorly in any single game.

But sometimes, the way things shake out, it can definitely be seen as a legitimate reason.

The schedule dictated that the Pistons finish up their four-game, West coast swing against a Suns team that averages 117 points per game on their home floor. And coming off of a tough, overtime loss in Utah the night before, Detroit never had a chance.

Magic star Rashard Lewis tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing drug sometime before the NBA Finals last season. A follow-up test was given during the Finals, where Orlando fell 4-1 to the Lakers. But based on when that first test happens, Lewis's former teammate Ray Allen wonders if it might have been the Celtics in the Finals.

Allen told the Boston Globe this weekend that if Lewis has tested positive during the Magic-Celtics Eastern Conference semifinals series, he should have been suspended then. Allen follows that up by suggesting that without Lewis Orlando would have fallen to Boston (a fair retrodiction). The Magic beat the Celtics and Cavaliers on their way to the Finals.

The NBA never announced the timing of that first test, and news of Lewis's positive test didn't break until the start of August -- some nine weeks after the start of the Finals.

These days, we expect greatness from our NBA stars, and Kobe Bryant is one who delivers on a consistent basis. On Sunday night, he drilled one of the craziest shots of his career in the Lakers' game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Kobe got the ball on the low post, guarded closely by OKC's James Harden. As he tried to spin to the hoop, Harden bumped him just enough to force him along the baseline right behind the basket. Thinking he would draw the foul, he fired up a shot from near out of bounds along the baseline that sailed high over the backboard and fell perfectly through the net, mimicking Larry Bird's famous shot that forced a rule change and Rajon Rondo's high-soaring floater over the Sixers' Jason Smith.

The Lakers got two points for Kobe's circus shot whereas Larry Legend's shot was then against the rules. The NBA later changed those rules, declaring that if the shooter is clearly in bounds, such a shot would count. I'm sure Kobe is glad for the rule-change, giving him yet another spot on the court for him to hit improbable shots from.

Check out the video after the jump.

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Apparently, when you're a pretty good team but lose to the Warriors, it's time to make some changes. Even if you don't necessarily want to.

And that's what happened with coach Nate McMillan and the Blazers over the weekend. After losing to Golden State 108-94 on Friday night at Oracle Arena, lo and behold there was a different starting lineup for Saturday's game against the Timberwolves: Andre Miller out; Martell Webster in.

Gone is the three-guard starting lineup featuring Steve Blake, Miller and Brandon Roy, and McMillan explained the change pretty matter-of-factly to The Oregonian before his team blew out Minnesota on Saturday: "I want to give the team back to Brandon. It's his team."