A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.
C: Los Angeles Times. From the man, the myth, the legend, Metta World Peace: "I love when Kobe tweets. Kobe should tweet Game 2 the whole time, every possession, critique us, criticize us, chew us out. ... I love Kobe. Kobe's great."
PF: For the Win. Good news, Everyone Who's Been Waiting for a Chance to Bid on Game-Worn 25-Year-Old Alex English Short Shorts.
SF: WarriorsWorld. Jack Winter takes a look at how a small, simple adjustment in the high pick-and-roll game paid massive dividends for the Golden State Warriors in Tuesday's Game 2 win.
SG: The Sports Fan Journal. I'm sharing this Bryan Crawford piece about how basketball fans and writers who rely solely on advanced statistics to underpin their NBA analysis to make a larger point that I think is pretty basic: Anyone who relies solely on any one thing — whether that one thing is a metric like PER, nights spent flipping around League Pass, chatter from NBA sources or the vox populi — to understand what's happening during an NBA game is doing himself a disservice. You can learn stuff from watching, you can learn stuff from reading and you can learn stuff by crunching numbers. It all matters. OK? OK.
PG: Bleacher Report. Now, all that said, Michael Pina breaks down film and dives into the numbers — watching, reading, number-crunching, all together — to consider whether this year's Oklahoma City Thunder team is better suited to knock off the Miami Heat than last year's model, and what OKC needs to improve upon before a possible Finals rematch to give itself the best shot.
6th: SB Nation. Tom Ziller on Milwaukee Bucks interim coach Jim Boylan's curious decision not to play trade-deadline acquisition J.J. Redick — for whom the team gave up promising former first-rounder Tobias Harris — and the unappetizing situation in which Milwaukee finds itself. "That's essentially what the Bucks have done: taken some good ingredients and trusted them to a chef who is going to use the microwave."
7th: Vol. 1 Brooklyn. FINALLY, a primer on which books fans of each playoff team should be reading as they pass the time in the way-drawn-out first round.
8th: Bright Side of the Sun. "My Last Year as a Phoenix Suns Fan." Wow.
9th: Silver Screen and Roll. Drew Garrison breaks down the utter disrespect the San Antonio Spurs showed for the Los Angeles Lakers' perimeter players and shooting ability in Game 1, and wonders whether that same pack-the-paint strategy will prove as effective in Wednesday night's Game 2.
10th: Grantland. An An entertaining follow-the-bouncing-future-pick guide to how things didn't quite pan out for the Minnesota Timberwolves during and after the 2009 NBA draft.
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