"That’s the NBA we will get in December: One where every bit of action is, for the viewer, shot through with ambivalence. We will love it like never before, while wondering if, just maybe, no one’s having quite as much fun as they once did. We could be projecting, but ultimately, most of what we see in athletes is an attempt to come to terms with what we need them to be. We love this game and yet now we—or the players, or folks paying them—kind of hate everyone. Including ourselves." READ MORE

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Haters, am I right? Just waiting for you to fail, pulling for it with all the sad vigor in their mean, withered selves—it's like they take all the things that are wrong with their lives and put them on you, blame you for what's wrong with them and expect you to take the punishment for them. Am I right, though? It's not a rhetorical question. READ MORE

As I’ve been watching the NBA playoffs this spring, I’ve reached an unhappy milestone: I’m now old enough to dread learning the birthdates of professional athletes. READ MORE

If it were anyone other than the Dallas Mavericks—a team whose past playoff flameouts are legendary—the Western Conference championship series would be over today. READ MORE

I should have known. Despite winning in six games, the Los Angeles Lakers pretty much mailed in the Hornets series. It was disquieting to see them struggle to contain Chris Paul, much less Trevor Ariza and Marco Belinilli. As I said last month, they looked so tired. Meanwhile, the Mavericks, when tested by the younger, more athletic Trail Blazers, responded forcefully, closing them out in six games as well. But I was fooled by the teams’ respective reputations: the Lakers as the-tough-get-going champions, the Mavericks as playoff underachievers. And so, to me, the path to the conference finals was clear for the Lakers. Pffft. What a joke. READ MORE

Picking huge upsets in a playoff series is a relatively cowardly enterprise that's made to seem courageous by those calling them. “Going out on a limb” isn’t really any such thing, as two days after predictions are made, no one remembers them. Except if they were right. Then everyone knows about this stunning act of bravery. READ MORE

After a thoroughly hyperbolic summer, where experts’ predictions had the Miami Heat winning no fewer than 70 games, it’s shocking to see the Southeast division race is even remotely competitive at this point in the season. And yet here we are, watching the Orlando Magic take advantage of the Miami Heat’s up-and-down campaign to challenge them for the division crown. And if the Magic catch the Heat then, oh boy, we may be in for some late-season waterworks. READ MORE

Oh my. You have to feel for Miami Heat soon-to-be-former coach Eric Spoelstra. He’s been a calming influence during what has been a relatively tumultuous, but successful, season. He’s managed to help LeBron and LeDwyane from trying to split the ball with an axe, and has keep a relatively unhealthy team winning a high percentage of their games. Then on Sunday, after losing to yet another talented, balanced squad, this time the Chicago Bulls, he told a group of reporters that the players were back in the locker room crying like little babies, which no doubt they were. (He has subsequently amended that statement to say he noticed “glossy eyes,” which sounds like a weird makeup-y term.) Except you don’t do that. Ever. You never project your weaknesses to your opponents. By now it’s painfully obvious to everyone that the Heat have trouble playing against good teams, which is a little more than an Achilles heel; it’s more like an Achilles torso. When the playoffs start, it will be their opponents that'll be talking the smack. And now that the coach has launched “Crybabygate,” he would do well to start packing his belongings up. Like, yesterday. (No, seriously, yesterday.) The circus is about to hit town. Now, weeping signs will be ubiquitous on the road; people will outfit their babies with Heat onesies, and at the end of games, cameras will slowly pan the team bench looking for signs of waterworks. Good thing, half of the team is fossilized and unable to produce any human tears. READ MORE

Usually, at the NBA trading deadline, there are a couple of minor trades here and there, Troy Murphy and Tim Thomas get thrown in to make the money work, and the league’s balance of power remains largely unchanged. READ MORE