Deron Williams had 29 points and 14 assists as his Utah Jazz beat the L.A. Lakers 123-115 in overtime to even their second round series at 2-2. Kobe Bryant finished with 33 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds but a back injury that he suffered early in the game got progressively worse and significantly hindered him down the stretch.

Cleveland used a balanced offensive attack to beat Boston in game three. LeBron James still struggled with his shot but he played an excellent floor game (eight assists, five rebounds, four steals, three blocked shots). Cleveland assistant coach Chris Jent says that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with James' shot from a technical standpoint.

Cleveland assistant coach Hank Egan, who served on Gregg Popovich's San Antonio staff for eight years, breaks down why Popovich likes the Hack a Shaq strategy. Egan also explains why the strategy can be risky and is best employed by a mature, veteran squad like the Spurs.

Carlos Boozer scored nine straight points for Utah in less than three minutes in the fourth quarter to help the Jazz hold off a late Lakers' rally in game three of their second round series. He finished with 27 points and tied a playoff career-high with 20 rebounds in Utah's 104-99 win.

In recent days it seems like everyone has come not to praise the San Antonio Spurs but to bury them but their 110-99 game three win over the New Orleans Hornets on Thursday suggested that such funeral plans are very premature. Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich resorted to his tried and true tactic whenever things look dire for his team: he shifted Manu Ginobili from the bench to the starting lineup, changing the matchups and rotations for both teams.

For the second game in a row, the Boston Celtics contained LeBron James but this time the Celtics also generated enough offense to put the contest out of reach well before the final buzzer, beating Cleveland 89-73. James had a game-high 21 points plus six assists and five rebounds but he shot just 6-24 from the field and committed seven turnovers.

Considering everything that has happened in recent weeks, this is probably the last thing on Roger Clemens' mind but he owes Greg Maddux an apology. Why? Simple: Clemens stole from Maddux the title of greatest pitcher of the post-World War II era.

Dirk Nowitzki seemingly received the 2007 MVP in a broom closet at an undisclosed location after his Dallas Mavericks were bounced out of the first round of the playoffs. We just saw the 2005 and 2006 MVP, Steve Nash, make Tony Parker look like the greatest point guard in the history of the NBA (funny, Parker does not look nearly that good versus Chris Paul). Kobe Bryant received the 2008 MVP trophy prior to game two of the Los Angeles-Utah series and then he spent the rest of the night clubbing the Jazz over their heads with it.

Don't count the Orlando Magic out just yet. Rashard Lewis scored a playoff career-high 33 points as the Magic beat the Detroit Pistons 111-86 to cut Detroit's lead to two games to one in their second round series--and Chauncey Billups is day to day because of a hamstring injury that he sustained in the first quarter.

On a night when the other three All-Stars on the court combined to shoot 4-36 from the field, Kevin Garnett shot 13-22, scored 28 points and grabbed eight rebounds as his Boston Celtics escaped with a 76-72 game one victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

For several years, Kobe Bryant has widely been acknowledged to be the best player in the NBA. Now, for the first time, he is officially the 'most valuable.'

The Boston-Cleveland series opener has the NBA stage all to itself tonight on TNT--and rightfully so, because the winner of this game will most likely also win this series, defeat the winner of the Detroit/Orlando series and go on to represent the East in the NBA Finals.

On ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown show, Chris Berman is fond of repeating the line, "Once is an accident, twice is a trend, three times is a problem." New Orleans has blown out San Antonio two games in a row, so the Spurs are one loss away from having a serious problem and two losses away from taking an early vacation.

The Boston Celtics had the best one season turnaround in NBA history, while the Cleveland Cavaliers are the defending Eastern Conference champions--and yet the identities of these teams are still not clear: Atlanta pushed Boston to seven games, while Cleveland blew out Washington in game two only to be blown out by Washington in game three.

A triple double is considered to be a benchmark for measuring a player's versatility but a better, more exclusive standard is the "25-5-5" Club, whose members averaged at least 25 ppg, 5 rpg and 5 apg for an entire season. Only 24 players have ever done this and each of them made the All-Star team at least four times.