Good morning. Let's basketball.
LAST NIGHT: Holy crap, The Wizards! Here's our big next-day feature with blurbs on the young Wiz, the tired Bulls, Kyle Lowry and Drake going Lady MacBeth on his pantalones.
Links in scores go to recaps, link in series status go to series hub.
Pacers 101, Hawks 85 | Series tied 1-1
Raptors 100, Nets 95 | Series tied 1-1
Wizards 101, Bulls 99 (OT) | WAS leads 2-0
The first team to two wins in the NBA playoffs is the Washington Wizards. What a world.
TONIGHT: Three more games for your heart-stopping pleasure.
Bobcats at Heat, 7 p.m. ET, TNT, Miami leads 1-0
Mavericks at Spurs, 8 p.m. ET, NBA TV, S.A. leads 1-0
Blazers at Rockets, 9:30 p.m. ET, TNT, Portland leads 1-0
WIZARDS FEVER: The Bullets Forever headline says it all: "Oh My God They Won Again." Led by Bradley Beal and Trevor Booker, Washington fended off a furious and very Bullsian comeback by Taj Gibson and Chicago.
Of all the series, this would be near the bottom of the ones you'd expect to be 2-0 in favor of the lower seed based on the way Chicago and Washington finished the regular season. But here we are: the Wizards can clinch at home.
WOJ NEWSBREAK: "On the eve of this Eastern Conference series, the wobbling No. 1 seed punctuated its final playoff preparations in a most self-destructive way: Two Indiana Pacers dragged a cursing, cut Evan Turner out of the Bankers Life Fieldhouse court, untangling him from a practice-floor fistfight with teammate Lance Stephenson."
Yes, that's Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting that E.T. and Lance brawled on the practice floor on Friday. That sound you hear is Stephenson's free agent salary request slip-sliding down a mountain.
COACH OF THE YEAR: ... goes to Gregg Popovich for the third time. Only two other coaches (Nellie and Riley) have three wins. Jeff Hornacek was close behind Pop, with Tom Thibodeau in third.
Mark Jackson received one third-place vote, which came from Warriors sideline reporter Ric Bucher. (Jason Kidd's single vote came from an Indiana beat writer.) Tracking these questionable votes is a job without glory, but I'm just the man for the job.
THE PHIL JACKSON COACHING TREE: It's covered in poison ivy.
JURASSKICK PARK: God bless the Toronto Sun for riding hard for the dinosaur theme to the Raptors-Nets series.
ROB FORD: The, uh, beguiling loon who happens to run Toronto showed lots of Raptor Pride on Tuesday. Coincidence that Toronto evened the series? I think not.
ON JOHN WALL: Nice piece by Albert Burneko on why rooting for John Wall is wonderful. Also, related: Colin Cowherd is still being a total idiot about Wall.
HOW TO INSULT BROOKLYN: Brooklyner Matt Ufford has some tips for Masai Ujiri the next time the GM wants to insult the borough.
CRITICAL EDITS: Mike Prada highlights the two things Memphis did differently to beat the Thunder.
PESSIMISTIC SPECTATORS: Look at OKC fans' faces as Kevin Durant took his crazy circus shot on Monday.
THE ONE PLACE THE NBA IS MORE POPULAR THAN FOOTBALL: Google.
AS EXPECTED: Julius Randle is going pro. He'll be a top-10 pick, likely a top-5 pick.
BLATCHE WORLD: Andray Blatche is super excited to compete with the Philippines in the FIBA World Championship this summer. The national team moved its training camp to Miami to accommodate him. This is going to be FANTASTIC.
SOCIAL STRAT 101: Shaq has the best LinkedIn page.
OH NOTHING: Just Nick Young driving a Zamboni in a personalized Swaggy P L.A. Kings jersey.
Happy Wednesday. See you next time.