On Tuesday evening, Yahoo! Sports NBA writer Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted that Jackson had informed the Nets he has no interest in their coaching job. The 11-time NBA champion head coach was reported to be Brooklyn’s top target after dismissing P.J. Carlesimo.

Confirming a longstanding assumption, Wojnarowski reaffirmed that Jackson’s desire is to land a front office job where he would have full control over player moves. NBA.com’s David Aldridge supported this notion, saying that a source close to Jackson told him the Zen Master is “done with coaching.”

The Toronto Raptors seem to be the leading candidate to land Jackson’s services. For the Nets, Brian Shaw and Scott Skiles may be the team’s next coaching targets.

According to an ESPN report, the Nets have already contacted former Lakers and Bulls coach Phil Jackson about the job. Brooklyn general manager Billy King said on Sunday that he would be reaching out to Jackson, and though the team realizes that it’s unlikely the Zen Master would want to coach in New York, they’d be willing to talk about a front office role with the 11-time NBA champion head coach.

Jackson is said to be interested in taking on a Pat Riley-like role with a team.

The same ESPN report also indicates that the Nets would look at current Celtics coach Doc Rivers. Rivers is under contract with the Celtics, but would draw interest from the Nets should Boston allow him to walk.

Other candidates the Nets are said to be looking at include Larry Brown, Mike Dunleavy and Brian Shaw.

The Nets announced Sunday that P.J. Carlesimo wouldn’t return, hours after they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Carlesimo helped the Nets finish 49-33 after replacing the fired Avery Johnson in December, earning the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.

But they spotted the Chicago Bulls a 17-point halftime lead and lost 99-93 at home Saturday night in Game 7.

“The Brooklyn Nets organization would like to thank P.J. for his efforts with the team in his roles as both head coach and assistant, and for his contributions to the team’s success both on and off the court. We wish P.J. and his family only the best in the years to come,” general manager Billy King said in a statement.

King received a recent contract extension, but the Nets quickly decided they wanted someone new on the bench, even after Carlesimo went 35-19 on an interim basis.

The Nets were one of the NBA’s busiest teams last summer. They re-signed starters Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace and traded for Atlanta Hawks All-Star Joe Johnson in hopes of being a contender in their first season in Brooklyn after they were longtime losers in New Jersey.

They got back to the playoffs for the first time since 2007, but expectations were higher, with owner Mikhail Prokhorov saying in the preseason that he thought the Nets could make the conference finals.

“In one sense, I will say how far we’ve come from last year, infinitely. But we didn’t get as far as we wanted to get,” Carlesimo said Saturday night.

“I think we made enormous progress from where we were last year and what these guys accomplished this year, but to me it’s a hill. You’re always trying to climb up the hill. You go up; you go back. But we thought we could get higher up the hill than we got.”

The Nets were just 14-14 after a December slump, prompting Prokhorov, their billionaire Russian owner, to cut short a winter vacation and fire Johnson.

The Nets won 12 of their first 14 under Carlesimo and went 10-3 down the stretch to earn home-court advantage in the first round. They fell behind 3-1 against Chicago, and their comeback came up short Saturday as they tried to become the ninth NBA team to overcome that deficit and win a series.

Phil Jackson was the Nets’ priority after firing Johnson, and they may try to make a run at him now.

It was clear the Nets, despite boosting their talent on the roster, need to fill it with more passion. Given the money they have committed to the current group, it will be difficult to change the players, so they may want a coach who can bring that out of them.

They couldn’t match the effort of the Bulls, who played harder to make up for the absences of starters Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich during the series.

“I think we have a great group of the guys in the locker room. I just think, like I said, we talked about the word inconsistency all year. I think we just need to find a way to be more consistent, especially mentally,” Williams said after the game. “I think that’s what got us this series, is just the toughness, the mental breakdowns.”

Carlesimo has a career record of 239-315, also serving as a head coach with Portland, Golden State and Seattle/Oklahoma City.

Nate Robinson, who is taking care of a lot of backcourt duties with Derrick Rose eternally out and Kirk Hinrich fighting a calf injury, took the court Thursday despite feeling queasy. (Teammate Luol Deng reportedly had the flu so bad that he was sent home.) Late in the third quarter, though, the illness caught up with Robinson, as cameras caught him covering his face with a towel and doing the old heave-ho on the bench.

The Nets ended up winning 95-92, sending the series back to Brooklyn and only furthering the debate over whether Rose, who has yet to come back from his ACL injury, should be taking the court whether he thinks he’s at full strength or not.

Check out Robinson’s tummy troubles in the video below.

Rihanna was scheduled to hold a concert at the Barclays Center this Saturday, but the Brooklyn Nets have pushed their first-round series with the Chicago Bulls to seven games, causing some schedule conflicts. With the Nets needing their arena for the small matter of trying to polish off a comeback against the Bulls, Rihanna will have to move her concert to the following Tuesday — but it sounds like she’s getting some free tickets in the process, too.

“I want to thank Rihanna for working with us on this new date and for understanding what a Game 7 means to the borough,” Nets and Barclays Center CEO Brett Yorkmark said in a statement. “We look forward to a special concert, and I hope Rihanna will be our guest at Game 7.”

Concertgoers’ Saturday tickets will be good for Tuesday, but they can also get refunds if the new timing doesn’t work for them, according to the statement.

The Nets have come all the way back from a 3-1 deficit in the series after the Bulls took one in Brooklyn, one in Chicago and then won in three overtimes in Game 4, 142-134. The Nets won at home Monday night and then beat Chicago on Thursday night as the Bulls struggled with injuries and illness.

The Bulls clearly had the upper hand in this one early, but with plenty of star power in the Nets’ corner, momentum may be going Brooklyn’s way — Saturday, Tuesday and beyond.

Photo via Facebook/Rihanna Turkey

Photo of the Day

We were going to draw attention to those gold jerseys. But my, that rear end is even better.

Tweet of the Day

Good point. For that matter, good series win.

David Lee might play tonight after tearing his hip flexor in Game 1. Your move, Derrick Rose.

—
  (@SportsNation) May 03, 2013

Video of the Day

Spike to the face — and bounce back up. Yikes.

It takes more than one player to win a championship, however, and even James, Anthony and Durant are going to need help to do that. To get the 16 victories necessary to win it all, some unlikely heroes need to step up.

Some of those heroes might be stars already, or on the cusp of achieving full-fledged stardom, like the Warriors’ Stephen Curry. Others might be aging legends like the Celtics’ Kevin Garnett, who wants to prove he still has at least one more long run in him. Then there are players who will never get an All-Star Game invitation or sell a lot of jerseys but have proven their worth in the playoffs, like George Hill and Stephen Jackson.

NBA Playoffs Bring Opportunities for Unlikely Heroes to Step Forward »

Humphries’ fashion sense is more than just a barb for a Foot Locker commercial — it could also be the reason the Nets player is set up for a financial hit, TMZ reports. Humphries bought “thousands of dollars in designer threads” at a Beverly Hills suit shop at a discount price, promising that he would provide the shop with more NBA clients if they gave him a price cut, according to the report.

Humphries hasn’t followed through and is now being sued by the shop, according to TMZ.

Scott Hill says Humphries and then-girlfriend Kim Kardashian approached him a few years ago to provide clothes for Humphries. Hill suggested a 30 percent discount in exchange for bringing two NBA players to the shop within the next year — just to browse, with no purchase necessary for Humphries to complete his part of the deal.

Humphries agreed and bought $46,000 worth of clothes with the discount, but he never brought other NBA players to the store, Hill says. Hill also says Humphries still has $6,000 in bills he hasn’t paid.

Now, is Humphries just lazy, or could he not find two friends? Poor Kris Humphries (pun intended).

Photo via Facebook/Fox 11 Los Angeles

Photo of the Day

Fight!

Click here for play-by-play photos of the brawl>>

Tweet of the Day

Ooh — double meaning.

BREAKING: Zack Greinke has fractured left collarbone, sustained during fracas in @Dodgers' 3-2 victory.

—
  (@MLB) April 12, 2013

Video of the Day

He was totally planning on that being a goal.

In January, Beyonce sang the National Anthem at President Barack Obama‘s Inauguration. Then, the rapper announced he was getting into the sports representation game and signed Robinson Cano as his agency’s first client. Recently, the couple’s trip to Cuba stirred much debate back here Stateside.

Now, to top it all off, he released a track that disses the Brooklyn Nets, the franchise in which he’s currently looking to sell his percentage of ownership. Click here for a link to the NSFW video, or just check out the select lyrics below.

“Would’ve brought the Nets to Brooklyn for free
Except I made millions off it, you [expletive] dweeb
I still own the building, I’m still keeping my seat
Y’all buy that [expletive], you’d better keep y’all receipt”

Evans has attracted some deserved attention lately for his role in helping the Nets cement their place in the top of the Eastern Conference playoff standings. Since he moved into the starting lineup for good on Dec. 31, the Nets are 30-18, and his three 20-rebound games in the past two weeks have opened the eyes of some who previously thought the 11th-year pro out of Iowa was a limited, yet valuable, garbage man.

Much like the latest iPod, though, Evans is not nearly as new and improved as you might like to think. He is just as effective as ever, with just a few adjustments and extenuating factors that have helped him be more efficient — and seem a little bit cooler in the process.

“It’s more just good decisions,” said P.J. Carlesimo, who made Evans a starter four days after becoming the Nets’ head coach. “We’ve basically told him all year that if he gets a rebound and he has an opportunity for a stick-back, to go up. If not, try to find a 3-point shooter on the perimeter. That’s pretty much what he’s done, but right now he’s just creating more shots for himself. It’s not just the stick-backs, it’s also the baby left-handed hooks and things like that.

“The thing people forget, he’s not very tall [at 6-foot-8], so it’s not always easy for him to finish inside. It’s not just a question of, he gets a rebound and has to go right back up. He’s got to work a little bit more if there’s not space available to him, and he’s doing that very well.”

Yes, Evans’ decision-making has improved, and his production has steadily increased each month from 7.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game in December to 17.8 points and 8.0 rebounds per game in April. But the most important factor in his higher averages might not be anything he is doing at all.

Evans’ “improved” play has conveniently coincided with increased playing time. He received less than 20 minutes per game with zero starts in November and is now a mainstay of the starting lineup who plays more than 30 minutes a night. His per-minute production is better, but not otherworldly, compared to his career norms. He is grabbing 25.8 percent of all available rebounds while he is on the court, the best rebounding rate in the league, but he has had seasons like that before. His rebound rate was 25.7 two seasons ago in Toronto, and as far back as 2007 he posted a rebound rate of 22.9 as a reserve in Denver.

The main differences are that Evans is playing more — 24.5 minutes per game, the second-highest average of his career — and that he is doing it in the media capital of the world. He no longer does the dirty work in the anonymity or Seattle or Toronto. He does it for a New York-based team, and a playoff-bound New York team at that. It is no coincidence that his teammate, Deron Williams, saw his jersey become the sixth-most popular seller in the NBA in his first season as a member of the Brooklyn (not New Jersey) Nets.

Evans is still far from a double-double machine. His 14-point, 20-rebound game against the Bobcats last weekend and his 17-point, 24-rebound performance against the Sixers three days later created some irrational exuberance around the career 4.1 points-per-game scorer. Against the Celtics on Wednesday he was back to posting a much more Evans-like stat line of 17 rebounds with just a single point.

If the Nets make a run in the East and do something really shocking, like give the Heat a scare in the second round, they can point to four main factors.

The first is Wiliams’ midseason turnaround, as the all-world point guard looks to be finally healthy and dominant again. The second is the December coaching change from Avery Johnson to Carlesimo, who has helped the Nets regain their edge. The third is the emergence of Brook Lopez, always an effective go-to offensive threat in the post, as something other than a total liability on defense.

Fourth and finally, the Nets can thank Evans, the garbage man, for turning trash into treasure. Unlike those other three reasons for Brooklyn’s improvement, however, Evans’ impact required no change in health, coaching style or defensive focus. He simply needed to get more chances to do what he has always done, and done well.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Yet as Green was going through his rehabilitation from heart surgery last year, his first NBA coach was one of a number of people he kept in touch with throughout the process. Green and Carlesimo may not have bonded right away, but since then their relationship has grown closer than that of most players and coaches.

“Like any player coming into the league, any relationship evolves over time,” Green said. “That’s what ours did. It took me a while to open up. I was new to really everything, and it took me a while, going into a foreign city in Seattle, new coach, new players, but he’s always been there for me.”

Carlesimo faced Green as an opposing head coach for the first time when the Nets faced the Celtics on Wednesday. Before the game at TD Garden, both Carlesimo — who was named interim head coach of the Nets after the team fired Avery Johnson in December — and Green offered kind words mixed with tongue-in-cheek criticism, in the way only close friends do.

“I thought, honestly, coming out of Georgetown, Jeff was not a good player,” Carlesimo said dryly. “His rookie year, he got excellent coaching and ever since he’s really taken off.”

Carlesimo was not just being facetious. He was very tough on the rookie, Green recalled, which fits Carlesimo’s public image. Despite a long career as a respected college and pro coach, Carlesimo might be best known for a 1997 incident in which Latrell Sprewell choked the then-Warriors coach in practice, left, then returned later trying to exact more damage.

“I wasn’t choking P.J. that hard,” Sprewell infamously told 60 Minutes. “I mean, he could breath.”

Green and Carlesimo’s relationship never came to that, but it was clear to Green that Carlesimo had not softened much in the 10 years since his episode with Sprewell. He pushed his team hard, even though the Sonics were a young team that would win only 20 games that season, with Green’s fellow rookie Kevin Durant averaging more than 20 points per game. Nobody ever questioned Seattle’s toughness or hustle under Carlesimo, however, and it is notable that both Green and Durant have spoken highly of Carlesimo’s impact in their early development.

Doc Rivers does not ride his players any less, according to Green, but the message is delivered differently. The now-Nets coach “curses a lot more” than Rivers, Green said, and his intensity is apparent in the way the Nets have played since the coaching change. The Nets went out and put the Celtics on their heels Wednesday night, attacking the basket on offense and out-muscling the Celtics in the post. Green cannot know for certain, but he has a feeling Carlesimo told a few of his players things they did not want to hear when he took over as coach in the middle of the season.

“He kept it real,” Green said. “That’s how I like it. I like people to keep it real and not beat around the bush, and that’s something he definitely did not do.”

It is interesting to wonder what their relationship would be like if Carlesimo came to be coaching over Green again someday. Not known for being warm and fuzzy, Carlesimo raved about Green as “a first-class individual” and called the forward “one of my most favorite guys I’ve ever coached.” Green appreciated every phone call he received from his former coach last winter and spring, when he wondered if he would ever play again and he discovered who his true friends were.

If they ever become player and coach together again, though, Carlesimo would most likely replace all that praise with a steady stream of four-letter words. And Green would want it no other way.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Deron Williams was brilliant, dropping 29 points and 12 assists on the overmatched Boston backcourt. Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez both reached the 20s in scoring, too, while Pierce led the Celtics with 23.

The Celtics get one day to regroup before they take on the Heat in Miami. Whether the Heat’s stars rest might be irrelevant. Even a shorthanded Miami squad might be able to top the Celtics now, especially if either Pierce or Kevin Garnett, who struggled for much of Wednesday’s game, take a rest.

Fourth quarter, 5:17, Nets 93-82: Green has finally woken up a bit. The Nets have forced him to his left all night, and Green has stopped trying to fight it. Green took what they gave him to drive to his left and convert an and-on layup and pull the Celtics within single digits, but the Celtics are not making this easy on themselves.

Playoff seeding aside, it is important for the Celtics, especially the new guys, to figure out how to close out wins. It would be useful for them to do that now, against a fellow East playoff team.

Fourth quarter, 8:49, Nets 85-75: Nothing came of the review. It was unclear what they were looking at the video for, anyway. Back to the game.

Fourth quarter, 8:49, Nets 85-75: Garnett was extremely close to calling it a night early when he got caught up in a scrum with Humphries. As the two big men battled for possession, Garnett appeared to toss an extra elbow at the end of it, just as the shot clock buzzer sounded.

The refs appeared to miss it, which is good news for the Celtics. But the officials are reviewing the tape, which might not be good news for them.

End of third quarter, Nets 79-69: Nobody has been more unlucky with the shot than Terry has been. He had a possible and-one opportunity roll out of the cylinder and his buzzer-beating three over Humphries spun in and out.

Still, this game is not about Terry’s bad luck, but Pierce and Williams’ dominance. The Nets point guard has 19 points and 11 assists heading into the fourth quarter, while Pierce has 23 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the field and 6-for-7 from the line.

Third quarter, 4:19, Nets 68-57: It took until midway through the third quarter, but the Celtics finally took their first free throw. It came courtesy of Pierce, who has started to attack the hoop as nobody on the Celtics had been previously.

At the same time, the foul machine known as Reggie Evans finally picked up his first and second personal fouls of the game.

Pierce’s aggressiveness has opened things up for the Celtics on the perimeter and fired them up on defense. Green drained a three from the corner to pull the Celtics within 11, then Randolph stepped in and drew a charge on Lopez. After a listless two-plus quarters, the Celtics have given their crowd something to cheer about at long last.

Third quarter, 11:11, Nets 56-45: It did not take long for Rivers to be greatly displeased. After Bradley took a tumble, Rivers felt Williams should be called for an offensive foul. But then Williams went down as well, drawing a defensive foul on Bradley (his fourth), and Rivers really got upset. He issued a quick timeout after a three by Johnson to regroup his troops.

Halftime, Nets 53-43: Sure, the Celtics trail at halftime, but let’s all give them a round of applause for going a full half without attempting a single free throw.

No? OK.

The Celtics pulled off the incredibly difficult trick of going 24 minutes without a foul shot, and it did not exactly help that they shot just 20-for-43 on their regular shots. The Nets shot 9-for-10 from the line and 51 percent from the field, meanwhile, making it fairly easy for them to build a double-digit lead despite Wallace and MarShon Brooks suffering injuries in the first half.

Bass and Pierce have busted out some eye-opening plays, including a nifty step-around, flipped-in bank shot by Pierce to cap of Boston’s first half scoring, but not everyone on the Celtics looks as sharp. Garnett really looks off, missing five of the six shots he took, while Green was just 1-for-7 from the floor.

The Nets’ All-Star backcourt is ballin’, though. Williams and Johnson have 27 points combined on 5-for-9 shooting each.

Even with all that, the Celtics would be in this if they could just get to the line. It’s easy to guess that that must be part of Rivers’ halftime points of emphasis.

Second quarter, 4:58, Celtics 37-35: With more or less the starting five in — with Jordan Crawford in place of Green — the Celtics’ defensive rotations conveniently became worlds better. Who knew?

Anyway, that improved D, as well as improved shooting accuracy that is steadily heading upward to near 50 percent, has helped the Celtics recapture the lead. Wilcox gave the Celtics some valuable minutes off the bench, highlighted by a one-handed throw down after he cut down the lane and received a bounce pass from a posted-up Garnett.

Kris Humphries, who has been banished to the bench for much of the second half of the season by Carlesimo, has gotten some rare early burn. Perhaps the Nets hope the widely disliked forward still has something left after the extracurricular activity he had with Garnett the last time the Nets played here.

Second quarter, 9:09, Nets 31-27: Deron Williams is having a field day against the Likes of Terry, Lee and Terrence Williams. The all-world point guard, who is finally getting fully healthy and playing to his full potential this season, bullied his way into the lane and shoved aside the much larger Wilcox for a fadeaway bank shot. He then penetrated to the right block and whipped an over-the-shoulder pass to Andray Blatche for a dunk.

The Nets could have a tough time keep up with the Celtics’ smaller lineup, however, as Wallace had to be helped off the court during the last timeout. It was a weird situation, because there did not appear to be any obvious sign that he was injured until a convoy carried him to the tunnel.

End of first quarter, Nets 22-21: Bass is continuing his strong play from the last game, hitting his first four shots to finish the quarter 4-for-5 from the field for a team-leading eight points. But the Celtics have been unable to hold a lead thanks to a defensively challenged second unit.

Chris Wilcox, Shavlik Randolph, Courtney Lee, Jason Terry and Green struggled to match up in transition and as a result gave Brooklyn plenty of open looks. Terry and Green seemed confused as C.J. Watson brought the ball up court on the secondary break and drilled a pull-up 3-pointer with no defenders within five feet of him.

First quarter, 6:22, Celtics 13-7: Pay no attention to the score. The pace of this game has been relatively fast for these slow-poke teams. They just have not done a great job of putting the ball in the hole.

For the Nets, it is a matter of holding onto the ball. They have three turnovers, and it really should be four, as the refs missed Evans stepping on the end line while trying to save the ball out of bounds. The Celtics have no turnovers, but Garnett has missed his first four shots, including three makeable layups on one possession.

7:26 p.m.: The Celtics and Nets will never been mistaken for the best of buds, but Jeff Green and Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo do share a special bond. Carlesimo was Green’s first NBA coach, and the Seattle SuperSonics coach was tough on the rookie out of Georgetown. Carlesimo even went so far as the say he did not think Green was a very good player coming out of college.

Still, Carlesimo’s less-than-glowing opinion of Green taught the young player to have a thick skin. Green said the biggest difference between Carlesimo and Doc Rivers, his current coach, is that Carlesimo swears more. Green says he sees Carlesimo’s imprint on the Nets’ midseason turnaround, as they are playing harder and tougher than they did before Carlesimo took over in December.

Carlesimo and Green have stayed in contact since Green was traded to Boston by the now-Oklahoma City franchise in 2011. Carlesimo called Green “a first-class individual” before the game, adding that Green is “one of my most favorite guys I’ve ever coached.”

The projected starting lineups appear below.

Nets
Brook Lopez
Reggie Evans
Gerald Wallace
Joe Johnson
Deron Williams

Celtics
Kevin Garnett
Brandon Bass
Paul Pierce
Jeff Green
Avery Bradley

8 a.m. ET: The Celtics have declared their intentions — if not with their words, then with their actions. They will take it easy with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett the rest of the regular season, doing just enough to stay out of the dreaded eighth spot in the Eastern Conference standings but not doing so much as to strain their veteran stars.

At least Pierce figures to be active for Wednesday’s game against the Nets (44-32), who have already beaten the Celtics (40-37) twice in three meetings this season. Those victories came with a much less effective Deron Williams, who struggled with ankle pain for most of the season before finally rounding into his old form in the last month.

Interim coach P.J. Carlesimo also appears to have found some stability with his rotation now that he has committed to Reggie Evans, a 6-foot-8 bundle of energy. The Celtics’ front line is in for a workout.

Join us for updates and analysis from TD Garden for the regular season’s penultimate home game, which tips off at 8 p.m. ET.

Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter is looking to divest his share of ownership in the Nets to expand his sports representation business to the NBA, Yahoo reports. Carter’s Roc Nation Sports, which is partnered with powerful Creative Artists Agency, recently secured Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano as a client. The company would need Carter to sell his small share of the Nets to avoid any conflict of interest before securing the NBA and players association’s approval to represent players.

Carter owns less than 1 percent of the Nets but has been their most visible front-office face since the franchise moved to Brooklyn last year. According to Yahoo, Carter would not handle any contract negotiations or day-to-day business with athletes.

The Nets’ forward took a hit to the mouth in Saturday’s game against the Bobcats, lost a tooth in the process, and kept going up for the rebound. Evans continued playing until the next dead ball, when he walked off the court to have the blood cleaned up by trainers so he could keep playing.

Broadcasters Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel confirmed Evans had lost a tooth when he casually placed it on the table in front of them.

Evans finished the win with 14 points and 20 rebounds.

Check out the play in the video below.

H/t The Brooklyn Game

Since superstar point guard Rajon Rondo went down with a knee injury at the end of January, the Celtics have played some of the best basketball they’ve ever played as a team. Now, with a veteran ball club like the Mavs waiting to knock them down a peg or two, they’ll look to prove that their resurgence as a force on the NBA betting line was no fluke.

With Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce leading the show, can Boston establish itself as a legitimate candidate to win the Eastern Conference?

Despite their advantage on the NBA futures, a mid-season matchup with the Mavericks won’t exactly be a walk in the park. Dallas does, after all, boast future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki and a bevy of substantial offensive weapons capable of taking over ball games.

One misstep and the C’s could find themselves slipping down the crowded East standings. Currently tangled in a ball of mid-level playoff contenders, the C’s are one of six teams within 3.5 games of second place in the conference. A win over Dallas might not pave their way to glory, but a loss could certainly make things harder than they have to be.

Betting on the NBA playoff stretch will be a bit of a challenge this year, given the turnover that’s taken place in the Atlantic Division alone. Last year’s leader, the Philadelphia 76ers, are currently at the bottom of the pile while the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets have emerged as viable threats to ultimately take and hold the final spot.

Adding to the drama of Friday’s clash is the fact that Boston’s primary offseason recruit, Jason Terry, spent the majority of his career playing and contending with Dallas. It was with Terry that the Mavs won the 2006 Western Conference championship and, of course, the 2011 NBA title.

Back in Texas for the first time this year, Terry will look to put on a show and demonstrate that he made the right choice by signing in Boston.

Get NBA odds for the playoff push at Bovada.

Spencer Hawes

No matter what his statistical line looks like, with his highest per-game scoring average in three years and a rebounding average that is only six-tenths off his season-high of last season, the underwhelming play of Hawes and his fellow Philadelphia big men has contributed hugely to the Sixers’ struggles. In fact, Hawes may be the one person most thankful to Andrew Bynum, whose ongoing injury soap opera has kept Hawes from being this year’s most disappointing Sixers center.

For the better part of 34 glorious minutes on Monday, however, Hawes was the best player on the floor. As the Sixers pushed for a close, yet convincing, victory over the Brooklyn Nets, Hawes went for 24 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and two blocked shots, barking and high-fiving in his usual way the entire time. When things are going poorly for Hawes, his demonstrative nature can wear thin. When things are going well, few players are more openly enthusiastic.

It was fitting that the guy who helped make Hawes look so good is also having a misleadingly effective season statistically. Brook Lopez, fresh off his first All-Star game appearance and on pace to average more than 18 points per game for the fourth straight season, flailed or stood by helplessly down the stretch while Hawes ran amok. Seldom has a 19-point performance by an All-Star 7-footer so clearly illustrated why a team is not ready to be taken seriously in an increasingly intriguing Eastern Conference playoff picture.

The Nets hold the No. 4 seed in the East, entered Monday’s game on a three-game winning streak and currently maintain the head-to-head tiebreaker over two of the three teams chasing them in the standings. The franchise is doing exactly what owner Mikhail Prokhorov promised it would do in its first year in Brooklyn, rocketing up eight spots in the standings from a season ago and positioning itself as a favorite to win at least one playoff series. A year ago, nobody on the Nets would have been disheartened by a nine-point loss on the road. They simply would have been happy not to get run off the court.

But for all their improvements, the Nets remain difficult to believe in. One line from interim coach P.J. Carlesimo on Monday perfectly captured the reasons why.

“This game meant more to them than it meant to us,” Carlesimo told reporters after the game.

Too often, that is how the Nets look. Slow. Indifferent. Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace provide veteran leadership, a quality the organization was eager to play up before the season. Yet all three have suffered from inconsistency and injuries.

Williams started slow and only recently claimed to have finally shaken the soreness in both ankles. Johnson has looked uncertain playing alongside a point guard of Williams’ caliber for the first time in years, and now he is dealing with a bruised left heel injury that sounds similar to one that sapped Paul Pierce‘s effectiveness at the beginning of last season. Wallace spent the entire fourth quarter Monday on the bench, losing minutes to Reggie Evans and Andray Blatche.

Meanwhile, the whole approach makes the team look old, even while the Nets share a division with the Celtics and Knicks, two of the more “experienced” clubs in the league. The Nets are dead last in pace at 91.0 possessions per 48 minutes, a reflection not just of their style but their tendency to be too deliberate on offense. Johnson no longer is “Iso Joe” in practice — his 14.8 shots per game is his lowest average since 2005 — but the Nets’ grinding style as a team creates the same effect, with or without Johnson dribbling out the shot clock for a contested jump shot.

Still, none of the Nets’ potential issues are as troubling as Lopez. It is hard to think of another All-Star who appears as apologetic for dominating as Lopez does. He burst out of the gates with 14 points in the first quarter on Monday, then disappeared. He took four shots after the first quarter and did not attempt a single field goal in the fourth quarter, when Hawes went 2-for-3 with three rebounds to put the finishing touches on his night. This all came two nights after Lopez erupted for 14 points in the second half of a win over the Hawks, so the Stanford product is capable of taking control of a game.

It cannot be said Lopez contributed nothing against the Sixers, however. He did commit two personal fouls, which at least meant he denied two easy layups, right?

Actually, no. Lopez’s first fourth-quarter foul gave Hawes an and-one opportunity on a layup that stretched Philadelphia’s lead to nine points. The other foul was intentional to stop the clock in the waning seconds. Sorry, no silver lining here for Brook.

Listen, as far as a one-year improvement goes, this season should be marked down as a rousing success for the Nets, no matter how things go the rest of the way. Prokhorov has given Brooklyn a professional sports team the borough can be proud of, and the Nets’ overtime victory over the Knicks in November brought catharsis for a group of neighborhoods tired of living in Manhattan’s shadow. Plus, the Barclays Center seems cool.

The Nets just have too many holes — no pun intended — for their style to gloss over their substantial lack of substance. They need to get healthy. They need to find a consistent rotation, however late in the season it may be. They need Lopez to be more than an observer when it counts.

Most of all, they need to keep guys like Spencer Hawes from going off. That might be the best place to start.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

In the absence of superstar point guard Rajon Rondo, the fact that Boston is still contending for home court in the first-round is a miracle in itself. Aging stars Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce have seemingly turned back time to keep their franchise in contention at a key moment of conference transition.

Not only have basketball fans seen the Chicago Bulls falter slightly in the absence of Derrick Rose, but they’ve also witnessed a Brooklyn Nets franchise that hasn’t found its groove in the second half of the season and continues to fall apart. While the Nets have played admirably in their first season after relocating, they haven’t finished better than fourth in the Atlantic Division since 2009 and haven’t made the playoffs since 2007.

That means that while Celtics fans are pleased with a playoff berth in general, they haven’t given up hope of squeezing higher up the standings. Should Boston leapfrog Chicago and Brooklyn while keeping the Atlanta Hawks at bay, they could even be looking at home-court advantage.

Though hardly basement dwellers at any point over the course of the past half-decade, the Celtics were a bubble playoff team heading into the season — going into January, no less. Since then, however, they’ve re-established themselves as a force in the East.

It may not be enough to threaten the reigning champion Miami Heat should the squads meet in the postseason, nor perhaps even the New York Knicks, who sit ahead of them in their own division, but that’s not to say the 2012-13 campaign hasn’t been a resounding success by every other measure.

The C’s, though once a household name, have been beating NBA odds and defying expectations all season long. It’s not only Rondo who has been out with an injury, but standout rookie Jared Sullinger and the since-traded reserve Leandro Barbosa, as well. Even Jeff Green – a valuable contributing forward — has fought extensive health issues over the course of his career and hasn’t been entirely unimpeded until just recently.

Having shown such resilience since January, it’s getting harder and harder for critics to doubt what the C’s are capable of. Lest we forget, it was Kevin Garnett in the first place who told us that anything was possible.

Bet on the NBA playoffs stretch with Bovada.

Deron Williams

Now Williams is back and, he says, as good as ever.

Williams boldly declared that not only is the soreness in his ankles gone, but that he can also once again dunk the basketball. He has not dunked at all this season due to a range of injuries that have taken away his explosiveness, but ever since that juice cleanse he did two weeks ago, everything has been just fine.

Yes, Williams credited his improved movement and regained energy to the three-day “juice cleanse” he underwent during the week he was sidelined by ankle soreness, the All-Star guard told ESPN. The cleanse helped Williams get “bad toxins” out of his system, which really seems to have helped.

Before anybody chalks this up as a victory for the homeopathic health approach, there is one other detail. Williams did not just chug juice and pop fish oil pills to get better. The three cortisone shots he received in each ankle probably did not hurt his cause, either.

Before a late edit, the New Orleans Hornets included a mention of Humphries’ brief marriage to Kim Kardashian in their game notes for Tuesday’s game against the Nets.

“Nets F Kris Humphries once married Kim Kardashian,” read a bullet point under HORNETS-NETS CONNECTIONS. “And well, you know. It’s news.”

The sarcastic note was since removed from the online version, but not before Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News snapped a screenshot.

Hey @KrisHumphries Hornets PR included you in pregame notes http://t.co/5hIamZ72P2

—
Stefan Bondy (@NYDNInterNets) February 26, 2013

A reference to the Nets as “New Jersey,” which also can be seen in the tweet above, so far has not been corrected.

Thumbnail via Facebook/Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries Love Nest

Hawks forward Josh Smith, Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe, Jazz big men Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap and numerous other players whose names came up in multiple trade rumors in the lead-up to the deadline surprisingly stayed put. Blockbuster deals involving Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett or Rajon Rondo never came to pass, with many of the bigger deals consisting of solid but unspectacular players like J.J. Redick and Ronnie Brewer.

After weeks of striking down reports that Garnett, Rondo and even Paul Pierce were on the trading block, the Celtics held true to their word and did not make a major shakeup. They did make a minor deal, adding guard Jordan Crawford from Washington in exchange for a couple of expiring deals, but the team’s three All-Stars will finish out the season as Celtics.

NESN.com’s Doug Kyed sat down with Ben Watanabe to talk about deadline day, which featured some interesting developments despite the lack of a star-studded trade.

Listen in the player below or subscribe on iTunes to download it there.

4:20 p.m.: 

Both players were moved for second-round picks, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. So, there’s that.

3:50 p.m.: Perhaps the biggest surprise of the trade deadline were the players who were not dealt. Eric Bledsoe stayed with the Clippers, Josh Smith stuck with the Hawks, Andrea Bargnani is still a Raptor and the Jazz kept Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo are all still Celtics, as well.

3:44 p.m.: As part of the J.J. Redick deal, the Bucks will send Doron Lamb, Tobias Harris and Beno Udrih to the Magic, according to Wojo. Gustavo Ayon and Ish Smith were sent to the Bucks along with Redick.

Harris and Lamb are both young players who have shown occasional flashes in Milwaukee. Udrih will serve as a backup to Jameer Nelson.

3:26 p.m.: Ronnie Brewer was one of the few members of this year’s Knicks who consistently defended his position, and now it appears he is gone. The Knicks sent Brewer to the Thunder for a second round pick, HoopsWorld’s Alex Kennedy reports, and the veteran guard/forward was just told of the move.

All in all, this is not a horrible move for Brewer. The Thunder are one of the league’s top teams and are all but assured of a deep playoff run. At the same time, Brewer’s main skills — defense and corner 3-point shooting — are somewhat redundant to Thabo Sefolosha’s. And Sefolosha has the benefit of already being entrenched in OKC’s rotation.

3:16 p.m.: Say goodbye to Jason Collins, Celtics fans. The veteran backup has been included in the deal that will bring Crawford to Boston, according to Wojo. (There is that guy again.)

This could mean that the traded involves more than a straight-up one-for-one swap that was reported earlier. Collins also makes the veteran’s minimum, and the Wizards are below the salary cap, so they could absord the extra expiring salary if they wish.

3:11 p.m.: The Hawks appear to have decided to hold on to Josh Smith, but Danny Ferry did not spend the deadline just sitting around. The Hawks have flipped Atlanta-area native Anthony Morrow to the Mavericks for Dahntay Jones, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, so there is that.

3:04 p.m.: Do not close the book on the Celtics’ deadline wheeling and dealing just yet. CSNNE’s Net’s A. Sherrod Blakely tweeted that he ran into Ainge, who was still on the phone, suggesting that Boston’s work may not be done.

As for that pesky Redick deal, Orlando is reportedly sending Gustavo Ayon and Ish Smith to Milwaukee as well. The Magic will get Hakim Warrick in a separate deal with Charlotte, while the Bobcats get Josh McRoberts.

Or something like that.

2:59 p.m.: Trying to sort this all out, but it appears that J.J. Redick has been traded to the Bucks, per multiple reports. Who the Magic will receive in return or whether there is another team involved is unclear. One thing that seems to be certain is that it is not a three-way deal involving the Hawks, according to Adrian Wojnarowski.

Also, Eric Maynor indeed is headed to Portland. The Thunder will get the Blazers’ trade exception in exchange for the backup point guard. Boston College alum Reggie Jackson now becomes Russell Westbrook’s primary backup.

Stick with us for updates well past the deadline in one minute, since teams can take extra time to finalize deals in process.

2:47 p.m.: Around the NBA, executives are picking up the phone and just punching numbers randomly, hoping to get a representative from another team on the line. If teams are in serious discussions as of 3 p.m. ET, they are allowed to continue those discussions.

As a result, the last-minute reports are coming fast and furious.

ESPN’s Marc Stein reports the Thunder are working on a deal to send Eric Maynor to Portland, and Orlando Sentinel beat reporter Josh Robbins reports that the Magic have a three-way deal in place that could send J.J. Redick to Milwaukee.

General managers, the clock is ticking.

2:38 p.m.: With a little more than 20 minutes remaining until the deadline, J.J. Hickson is still trying to work his way out of Portland. The 24-year-old forward has had a resurgence with the Blazers, but he would like to join the talented-laden squad in Brooklyn, according to Sheridan Hoops.

Dishing Hickson would not be the worst thing for Portland, either. His $4 million deal is not gigantic, but it does have some value on the trade market since he has far outplayed that number by averaging 12.9 points and 10.4 rebounds this season.

Regardless, Chris Sheridan adds that a deal getting done by 3 p.m. ET is unlikely.

2:10 p.m.: More huge news (not), this time out of Toronto. Sebastian Telfair appears to be headed north of the border. The Suns have completed a deal to send Bassy to the Raptors for Hamed Haddadi, reports Chris Broussard.

1:47 p.m.: Here comes the boom. Jordan Crawford AND Dexter Pittman will both be traded, according to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Trade deadline excitement does exist.

Seriously, though, the Celtics’ reported pickup of Crawford does help Boston in its current roster crunch. Who has been sent to Washington is unclear, but it presumably is rookie center Fab Melo, who was connected in a deal with Washington earlier. Leandro Barbosa is also an option. Melo and Barbosa each make about the same as Crawford’s $1.2 million, so a straight-up trade could include one or the other, but not both.

Crawford would give the Celtics an extra body in the backcourt, where they are down to just three healthy rotation players plus Terrence Williams, who is on a 10-day contract.

Pittman’s deal is much less exciting. The Grizzlies agreed to take the 24-year-old center and a second-round pick in exchange for the trade exception Memphis received when it sent Sam Young to Philadelphia last March.

1:38 p.m.: We now take a break from your regularly scheduled trade deadline coverage to bring you a bizarre story involving Metta World Peace — as if there are any other types when it comes to this guy.

World Peace reportedly had to be woken up by police when his nephew and some of his nephews friends were “playing” with fake guns outside World Peace’s condo early Tuesday morning. The Lakers forward, donning Cookie Monster pajamas, apparently explained the situation to police and everybody walked away with a good laugh.

Hey, we told you deadline day wouldn’t be totally boring.

1:10 p.m.: The earl of NBA beat reporters, Adrian Wojnarowski, is feverishly working the rumor mill on this deadline day. And guess what he thinks will go down this afternoon?

Asked one GM what he had: "We're down to bulls--- text message offers from people who couldn't keep a straight face if they called."

—
Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) February 21, 2013

So, there you go.

12:57 p.m.: The San Jose Mercury News and The San Francisco Chronicle have been mostly silent on this, but we will forward this rumor anyway. Apparently the Warriors and Hornets have talked about a Klay Thompson-Eric Gordon swap, which has been reported by Warriors TV analyst Ric Bucher and reposted on numerous Warriors-themed blogs.

This seems unlikely. Truthfully, it seems outright idiotic for the Warriors, who would surrender a 23-year-old shooter on a long-term rookie deal for an injury-prone combo guard who is in the first season of a four-year, $50 million deal.

12:40 p.m.: Here is an often overlooked aspect of deadline day: The expiration of trade exceptions.

Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld has a look inside nine trade exceptions for seven teams that effectively expire if not used by 3 p.m. Thursday. The Lakers, Nuggets, Bucks, Net, Clippers and Grizzlies — all of whom have been active in actual or rumored deals in the lead-up to the deadline — have trade exceptions of $1.2 million each or more.

The Spurs also have an $854,000 trade exception for last year’s T.J. Ford deal, but they have been less active in trade reports beyond the long-standing knowledge that DeJuan Blair is available.

12:35 p.m.: J.J. Redick has been on the trading block for weeks, but the Magic may not want to part with him if they can help it. He may not be a part of Orlando’s long-term future, since he is a free agent at the end of this year, but if the Magic get any worse offensively it could get embarrassing.

Redick is one of the few shot-makers on the Magic’s roster. For the 12th straight game, the Magic shot a lower 3-point percentage than their opponent. That’s a lot of games and a lot of bad shooting.

12:18 p.m.: If the Celtics truly are interested in Jordan Crawford’s services, they may have some competition. The Mavericks are also said to be interested in the Wizards guard, whose shot selection is known to be, er, liberal. That said, Crawford is unlikely to bring much in return for Washington. As mention earlier, the Celtics would probably be willing to part with Fab Melo, but not much else.

12:06 p.m.: The Nets are never far from any trade talk, and from the sound of it they are extremely interested in adding Josh Smith. But if the Fighting Prokhorovs fail in their pursuit of the Atlanta forward, they are expected to stand pat at the trade deadline, Yahoo! Sports reports.

Since the Nets are far above the $70.3 million luxury tax line — they are responsible for more than $85.5 million next season in the first year of the new collective bargaining agreement’s more prohibitive luxury tax — they could not sign Smith outright this summer without making other moves to shed salary.

11:59 a.m.: Uh, oh. These Celtics-Clippers rumors simply will not die. Now Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, who is usually on top of these things, reports that the Clippers are still interested in getting a deal done with the Celts.

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge expressed annoyance in an interview with Bulpett over other teams’ tendency to leak reports of their discussions. Ainge had to have been talking about the Clippers, and to a lesser extent the Hawks, who have been incredibly loose-lipped in the past few weeks.

11:35 a.m.: Tyreke Evans’ next stop could be… Boston?

The Celtics have expressed interest in the 6-foot-6 swingman before, and their interest may have been rekindled, according to ESPN. Marc Stein reports that the Celtics may make one more run at Evans Thursday, probably hoping to get some sort of discount in the waning hours before the deadline.

For what it’s worth, the trusted Jason Jones says, not so fast.

11:18 a.m.: The Kings might not be done dealing. According to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee, the team could explore trading Tyreke Evans.

Also hearing Kings could revisit dealing Tyreke Evans. His knee injury slowed talks when he might have been traded earlier this season

—
Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) February 21, 2013

Ridding themselves of Evans, who has regressed each year since winning the Rookie of the Year award in 2010 (because Blake Griffin was injured), would not be the worst thing for the Kings. Evans has never been the player he was as a rookie, when he averaged 20.1 points per game and started all 72 games he played in.

Since then, Evans has lost his starting job to the deserving Isaiah Thomas and even been shifted to small forward on occasion.

11:09 a.m.: Thanks to Kosta Koufos’ emergence and JaVale McGee’s sizable contract, the Nuggets do not really have room for Timofey Mozgov in their post rotation. Reports over the last few weeks have indicated that they would like to deal the 26-year-old Russian, and the Heat have registered some interest, although it is unclear what Miami can offer that Denver would want.

10:43 a.m.: The Hawks really seem to want to rid themselves of Smith, but no other team appears willing to bite. That should tell you something.

Smith is a perfectly fine player and an enticing 6-foot-9, super-athletic wing forward, but he tends to fall in love with his shaky jumper and his impressive stats have never translated into much success in the wins department. What’s more, he is due to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and he has told reporters that he fancies himself a maximum contract player.

If Smith wants $20 million or more per year, he is too pricey. But if some team acquired him at the deadline, they probably would feel pressured to give him his money to justify the move — then regret it for the next five years.

10:35 a.m.: Not quite sure what to make of these Josh Smith-Monta Ellis rumors. One minute, the Hawks and Bucks are talking. The next minute, one side or the other is striking down the rumor. Get used to this sort of back-and-forth in the next five hours.

10:25 a.m.: Fab Melo, we hardly knew you. According to ESPN’s Chris Broussard (I know, I know), the Celtics are dangling rookie center Fab Melo as bait to land a perimeter scorer like Washington’s Jordan Crawford.

With Fab Melo as the bait, Celtics looking to add perimeter scoring. Wizards' Jordan Crawford available @ on their radar

—
Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) February 21, 2013

Crawford has one year remaining on his rookie contract before he becomes a restricted free agent after next season.

10:12 a.m.: The Maloofs are a menace that needs to be weeded out of the NBA. Fortunately, that time seems to be fast approaching. Unfortunately, it did not appear quickly enough to keep them from ruining their own franchise and, now, their current roster.

The Kings made the inexcusable move of dumping rookie Thomas Robinson, the No. 5 pick in the last draft, along with Francisco Garcia and Tyler Honeycutt on Wednesday night. In return, the Kings got Patrick Patterson, Cole Adrich and Toney Douglas, none of whom is anything beyond a role player. Patterson is an effective scorer but in non-existent on the glass or on defense.

Robinson, 21, has been far from a standout so far. He averaged just 4.8 points and 4.7 rebounds in 51 games in Sacramento, but he was a young player on an affordable rookie contract who was worth the project. He was the kind of player a new ownership group could have molded in the organization’s new image. Instead, he is the latest victim of the Maloofs incompetence and awfulness.

8 a.m. ET: Everybody is on the clock. The NBA trade deadline arrives Thursday at 3 p.m. ET, marking the last chance this season for teams to add that last pivotal player to put them over the hump — or to dump that extra salary or free-agent-to-be before it is too late.

As usual, the run-up to the deadline has featured no shortage of rumors. Some are intriguing. Some are absurd, like the Nets’ reported offer of Kris Humphries, MarShon Brooks and a draft pick for Paul Pierce. Seriously, Billy King? That was the best you could come up with for one of the all-time great Celtics?

There are plenty of more realistic deals to ponder, however. The Hawks really seem to want to move Josh Smith, the power forward who stuffs the box score but has yet to lead Atlanta to any real success. Interest in Smith, as one might expect, is tepid. The Jazz are expected to move either Al Jefferson or Paul Millsap if they can, as both members of Utah’s front line become free agents at the end of the season. A Millsap-Eric Bledsoe swap with the Clippers makes tons of sense for the Jazz, but the Clips would need to be really sure Chris Paul is re-signing this summer before they send away the 23-year-old guard.

A few teams would love to have Dwight Howard, no matter how far below his potential he has played this season. But Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak threw cold water on any Howard trade scenarios by reiterating that the Lakers will not trade the big man this season. Sorry, folks.

Join us throughout the day for updates and analysis for the moves, big and small, that take place right up to the last minute.