Rust versus rest! You would be right to forget about the pregame narrative after watching the Thunder wax the Lakers last night, but outside of the Metta World Peace vs. James Harden story line, the dominant discussion leading into (and through the early stages of) Game 1 was how the Thunder would play after their nine-day break following their sweep of the Mavericks. Of course, the way the Thunder played might write off any rust-related discussion for a while, but it's an interesting question to ponder: Do NBA teams really get rusty after long postseason layoffs?

One way to make the case for rust is to absolutely fabricate a story about being rusty. That's what Shaquille O'Neal did during the pregame show, when he mentioned that his 1994-95 Magic team, the one that had beaten the Bulls during their playoff run, promptly received 17 days off before playing the Rockets in the Finals. There, a rusty Magic team couldn't compete with Houston in Game 1 and eventually, according to Shaq, lost the series because of it.

After Paul Pierce single-handedly won Game 2 of the Atlanta series, a friend of mine e-mailed, "Has there ever been anyone quite like Pierce?"

The short answer: No.

The long answer is a little more fun. Statistically, there's never been a wing player like him. In the regular season, he's already played 37,785 minutes (39th all-time), scored 22,591 points (30th), averaged 22 points a game (30th), grabbed 6,164 rebounds (150th), dished out 3,935 assists (100th), tallied 1,499 steals (40th), earned a 20.7 PER (52nd), submitted a 27.8 percent usage rate (19th), accumulated 131.2 win shares (34th), made 6,101 free throws (17th) and drained 1,679 3-pointers (ninth). The first number (minutes) and the last two (free throws and 3s) explain Pierce's career better than anything: He's one of the finest, most durable inside/outside offensive players ever, and that's before you factor in his career shooting splits (45% FG, 37% 3FG, 81% FT). He also hasn't been a slouch in the postseason: In 116 playoff games (and counting), he's averaged 39.6 minutes (33rd), 21.4 points (34th) and 6.5 rebounds (117th) with 43/35/83 shooting splits, making 190 3s (11th) and 714 free throws (24th) and even winning a Finals MVP (in 2008). Combining the regular season and playoffs, Pierce could approach 45,000 total minutes by the end of Boston's current playoff run. With no sign of slowing down.

The NBA trade deadline has us all sitting on the edge of our seats, or in the case of Brandon Jennings, sitting on the edge of our seats, looking like this guy. One guy who, despite all the specualtion, seems to be taking the speculation like a grown-up is Pau Gasol. And that could have something to do with the sporting culture from which Gasol comes.

Spain is a football country. In European football, rather than have trades, you have transfers. Sometimes a player agitates when he thinks more money or trophies can be found at a different club. In other cases, the club looks to sell the player, capitalizing on their initial investment. Rumors about prospective transfers are planted by clubs, player agents, and shadowy figures, and then published in periodicals with the most sympathy to their respective cause. It's all very sneaky, and very fascinating, and it can make you very cynical, very fast.

The NBA All-Star Weekend took me back to my freshman year in high school. When you arrive on campus, you think you're the man. You dominated junior high, you had a killer summer at camp, and you've officially come into your own. The braces are off, you've just started doing pushups at night, you held a girl's hand at the movies once, mom started letting you shop for yourself at Marshalls, and all signs point toward a growth spurt.

But much like the experience of being a freshman in high school, the reality of my serf-like position at the bottom of the All-Star Weekend feudal system became quite clear within minutes of settling in at my hotel in Orlando. By the end of my first week of high school, I understood that the rest of the year would entail athletes and older guys looking over me without acknowledging my presence, girls my age acting completely disinterested, and older girls sitting around, hating on the younger girls.

At first, I was bummed out, mainly because I'm an only child and used to getting at least some form of attention. But as the weekend progressed, I realized my insignificance could actually be a blessing in disguise. In this sea of NBA players, NBA insiders, wannabe NBA insiders, celebrities, and wannabe celebrities, here I was, almost invisible.

My various badges and passes got me close to most of the action but not too close. I could always see what was going on, but my invisibility cloak had its limits. Too close, and my cover is blown and next thing I know, Gym Class Heroes and Jesse Jackson are giving me swirlies in the bathroom between second and third period. There was always a buffer zone of lameness that separated me from the beautiful people, but at the same time, if they had the ability to actually notice me, they would have been thoroughly creeped out by me, staring at them, jotting down notes, always dying of laughter.

My beat for the weekend was to always be around, keeping my head on a swivel, noticing when hilarity ensued, watching as celebrities interacted, and most importantly, guessing what they were talking about, based on who they were and their mannerisms. This sounds like an easy task, but at an event like the NBA All-Star Weekend, it can cause a serious case of carpal tunnel. The observations are seemingly endless.

So here we go.

On Friday night, the New York Knicks outdueled Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden. Jeremy Lin, who recorded a career-high 38 points, was the story of the game. But his performance wasn't the only reason the matchup was notable. It also helped illustrate a lesser-known trend of this lockout-shortened season — teams are playing worse than ever on the road.

It's Wednesday night in Boston, and Toronto has just unraveled, falling 100-64 to the Celtics. It's a laugher of a victory, but also a best-case-scenario kind of win and Doc Rivers will take it. The lockout-shortened season is particularly threatening to a veteran roster, and Rivers must walk the tightrope between rest and Ws, development and improvement.

Part of the reason the tiresome LeBron James/Kobe Bryant debate lingers on is that they’ve never, ever played a meaningful game. All-Star antics and a handful of regular-season meetings aren’t enough to shift either party’s ideological platform. Kobe has five championship rings. LeBron is statistically superior. Kobe has played with an outlandish collection of talent. LeBron is a choker. Stop me if you’ve heard any of these arguments screamed at high, spittle-flecked volume before.

The Magic have just beaten the Knicks, and Dwight Howard’s in a good mood. Most of the Orlando players in MSG’s petite visitors’ locker room are strategically maneuvering orange towels while silently changing; meanwhile, Dwight’s riffing. The first target is Jameer Nelson, who just polished off a postgame Styrofoam platter of wings and fries and now can’t find his shower shoes. Howard offers a hand, ducking his head up to the top shelf of the 6-foot Nelson’s locker: “Oh, you can’t see 'em? Y'all got an apple box?” The assembled media scrum titters, and Howard moves on to one of the refs: “They need to send him to the D-League. He didn’t know what three seconds was. It’s when you’re in the paint for three seconds!” Then he spots ESPN’s news-breaking specialist Chris Broussard and rattles off an impersonation: “I talked to LeBron James … inside sources tell me … I just talked to Jesus and he said …"

I’ve attended the NBA D-League Showcase for five years. I’ve been to the event in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and watched prospects at South Padre Island, Texas.

But this year — after spending four days holed up in a small gym in Reno as I watched 12-hour sessions of middling basketball — I started to develop an interesting impression.

It seems like NBA Commissioner David Stern’s vision might finally be coming to fruition.

The NBA Development League is (slowly but surely) creeping toward its goal of becoming a proper minor league farm system for basketball, even if there’s still plenty of work left to do.

We are not all members of the Houston Rockets' front office, those kind, statistical miners and Grantland contributors who are at the forefront of the NBA's information age. They keep their secrets closely guarded. There is still a glimpse into the NBA's future to be had and where it may be headed from the players, coaches, and fans' perspectives.

Steve Hellmuth, the league's executive vice president of operations and technology for NBA Entertainment, recently guided Grantland through some of the league's recent technology advances. Hellmuth and a couple of basketball insiders offered the window into where the league may be headed now and in the next few years.

"It’s the best defense I’ve seen them play. It’s not anywhere near what I saw from the three games I watched prior. This was a totally different team tonight that we played against than what I saw on tape." — 76ers coach Doug Collins, after Philadelphia’s 85-79 loss to the Knicks on Wednesday

The Knicks’ best defensive effort of this truncated season came Wednesday night against the Sixers, a team that was playing its fifth game in six nights and third straight without its starting center. The Knicks stretched their streak of allowing fewer than 90 points to three games, but it has included opponents such as the Pistons and Bobcats — not exactly world beaters. Still, there are some assurances to be taken in the Knicks’ performance against Philadelphia and the temporarily cooling of Mike D’Antoni’s seemingly eternal hot seat.

Tucked into a corner of one of the NBA’s notoriously small visitors' locker rooms, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade sat side by side, their feet submerged in ice-filled plastic tubs, smiles on their faces. For the second straight night, the Heat had lost in overtime — this time to a Clippers team that used Wednesday’s game as a chance to announce its own arrival — but as James started to field questions, there was a strange sense of satisfaction.

“Tonight, when you play that game, possession after possession, we played Miami Heat basketball — we defended and we gave ourselves a chance to win," James said. "We don’t like to lose, but we’re not going to hang our heads about this one. “

James’ easy acceptance (and Wade’s: “You never want to lose in the game of basketball, but no team goes undefeated”) could conveniently be attributed to the realities of the 2011-12 season. The Heat left for Atlanta last week to begin a nine-day, five-game road trip that wraps up in Denver on Friday night. The compressed schedule has these sorts of pitfalls. Miami will only have one longer road trip all year, and a road back-to-back against a team eager to prove itself represents the type of loss built in before the season begins.

Tonight's The Night

For ... Knicks-Sixers!
In Philadelphia, you get your cheesesteaks wiz wit and you get your sports with hate. When you're not hating on Andy Reid, Juan Castillo, Raul Ibanez's peanut brittle frame, Brad Lidge's satanic soul patch, or the ghost of Donovan McNabb, you're hating on the New York Giants, the Atlanta Braves, the Dallas Cowboys, and the New York Mets. It's just how we get down.

This is the first installment of a fairly regular check-in with the worst team in the National Basketball Association, and possibly life. The author may or may not be receiving compensation in the form of food.

Vol. 1: Five Things the Washington Professional Basketball Team Can Do to Build on This

Oh sweet relief. After two full days of deserved wicked pixels from local and national outlets for Sunday's lifeless no-try against the T-Wolves, the Washington Professional Basketball Team avoided at least one historical stink-stain (pop the cork, New Jersey/Brooklyn, 0-18 is safe!) by conquering the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night. This was Toronto's fourth game in five nights, you say? KEEP THE WICKED PIXELS TO YOURSELF!

Jonathan Givony is spending a few days at the NBA D-League Showcase, where NBA scouts and executives are evaluating the talent in the league. Here’s a look at what’s happening in Reno this week.

In conversations at the NBA D-League Showcase this week, three names seem to pop up more than any others: Mickell Gladness, Squeaky Johnson, and Terrel Harris.

All three played multiple seasons as backups in the D-League, where they were cut or traded in favor of better prospects. All three struggled to produce in lower-level leagues in Europe, and all three found themselves back in the States, primarily owing to a lack of other professional basketball options.