On the same night that the NBA-owned New Orleans Hornets won the league’s draft lottery (aka the Anthony Davis Sweepstakes), the NBA’s most talked-about team nearly doubled the free throw attempts of their opponent, en route to a crucial overtime victory.

The Miami Heat attempted 47 free throws in their Game 2 matchup with the Boston Celtics (24 of Miami’s free throws were taken by LeBron James). The Celtics attempted 29.

Miami was led by James who scored 34 points and added 10 rebounds. James had a chance to win the game in the final moments of regulation, but saw his pull-up jumper clank off the iron, pushing the game to OT.

Miami pulled away from a clearly tired Boston team down the stretch of the OT period, winning the game 115-111.

Boston likely wouldn’t have gotten to OT, though, without a gutty, virtuoso performance from Rajon Rondo, who played all 53 minutes, scoring a career-high 44 points, with 8 rebounds and 10 assist. However, it wasn’t enough. And now Boston will return north for a must-win Game 3 on Saturday night.

Last night’s US/Brazil match may have been a “friendly” but the match was a crucial measuring stick for the Jurgen Klinsmann era of American soccer. Let’s give last night’s effort a C+.

In front of a crowd of nearly 70,000 people at FedEx Field, the US played a fairly tightly contested 4-1 game (yes, that’s an oxymoron).  The Brazilians dominated possession for much of the first half, and looked likely to head into the break with a 2-0 lead until Hercules Gomez tallied a goal off of a beautifully placed Fabian Johnson assist.

Statistically, the second half was a disaster for the Americans, as they surrendered two goals to the Brazilians. But the game itself showed something very different. The US attacked the Brazilians and looks deft at times in doing so. In fact, the US should have had two more goals if not for great saves from Brazilian keeper Rafael.

The US will take a step down in competition in their next match when they play Canada in a friendly on Sunday in Toronto (7:00 p.m./NBCSN). The Yanks begin World Cup qualifying on June 8^thagainst something called Antigua & Barbuda.

It seems unnecessary to talk about a series that is already over, but it bears mentioning that the Boston Celtics closed out the Philadelphia 76ers in one of the most unnecessary 7 game series I have ever witnessed. The Celtics, both on paper and on the court, should have won this series in no more than 6 games. Give credit to the Sixers for not playing the game on paper. But, even in the absence of Avery Bradley, the Celtics played down to their competition.

Beginning last night, there was no playing down to the competition for the Celtics. There could not have been a more dramatic increase in level of competition for Boston than going from Philly to Miami.

People talk a lot about the Heat’s lack of depth. “They’re just LeBron, Wade, and 9 other guys” is the general narrative. Last night, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Heat showed just how good LeBron, Wade and 9 other guys could be even on an off night.

The Heat used their defense and ability to get to the basket to put away the Celtics in the second half of last night’s game, en route to a 93-79 win. Despite shooting just 20% from the 3-point line, Miami shot 66 % from inside the arc. They were led, as usual, by the unclutch LeBron James who scored just 32 points and added a measly 13 rebounds to go with his 3 blocks.

Out West, the Spurs used a 39 point 4^th quarter on Sunday to win Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. They have now won 19 games in a row. That is very good.

The New Jersey Devils netted an overtime goal on Friday to win the Eastern Conference Finals over the New York Rangers.

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals will be played some time in the next 3 weeks, apparently. Or tomorrow. Which may as well be 3 weeks from now. Again, remember this one thing: It’s important NOT to have 5 days off between any two games in your playoff season. We are a culture of distraction. You cannot allow your fans to become distracted if you’re the NHL.

-Angels starter Jered Weaver left last night’s game against the Yankees in the first inning with a  back injury. The extent of his malady is not known.

-Dodgers star Matt Kemp will return from the DL tonight after he suffered a hamstring strain.

-White Sox starter Chris Sale and Rays starter Matt Moore became the first pitchers under the age of 23 to strike out at least 25 batters in a Major League game yesterday. Sale had 15 Ks.

The Nats finally swept a series in the 2012 season and did it in style, knocking off the Atlanta Braves over the weekend. The Nats winning streak came to an end yesterday in Miami though, as they fell to the red-hot Marlins 5-3. Game 2 of that series is tonight at 7:05 (MASN2). Edwin Jackson will take the hill for the Nats. He’ll be opposed by Anibal Sanchez, who has never lost a game to the Nationals.

Other info:

-The Nats offense may be receiving a huge boost by week’s end when Michael Morse returns from a strained lat muscle that has kept him on the shelf for the entire season. Morse batted .303 last season with 31 HR.

-Ross Detwiler was removed from his role as the Nationals’ fifth starter, after another shaky outing on Friday and was replaced by Chien-Ming Wang. Detwiler was moved to the a bullpen role.

-Catcher Jesus Flores suffered a strained hamstring over the weekend, though the Nationals believe he will return to the lineup later this week.

-To add depth at the Catcher position, Washington sent Tyler Moore down to AAA Syracuse and called up Jhonathan Solano. Solano was getting on-base at a robut 29% clip in AAA. Consider his stay in Washington a brief one.

Oklahoma City @ San Antonio (SAS leads 1-0). 9 p.m./TNT

The Miami Heat were able to overcome the suspension of “key” “role” “player” Dexter Pittman last night, as they wrapped up their Eastern Conference Semi-finals series with the Indiana Pacers.

Miami was led by Dwyane Wade who scored 41 points, filling in much of what was missing when Pittman was suspended. Likewise, forward LeBron James shouldered much of the burden for the Heat, compensating for the loss of Pittman’s presence, by scoring at least 3 points and grabbing 2 rebounds. James finished with 28 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists, all but allowing the Miami Heat’s fans to forget that they were playing without the “integral” Pittman.

The Heat will now await the winner of tomorrow night’s Game 7 between the Celtics and the 76ers.

There were no other NBA games last night. The NHL also was missing in action. Even the Washington Nationals were off. Heck, half of Major League Baseball had the day off.  Even the Chicago Cubs didn’t lose yesterday, due in part to a scheduled day off.

*Shaquille O’Neal announced that he will not interview for the Orlando Magic’s vacant GM position. We await word on Penny Hardaway’s level of interest.

*Albert Pujols is still Albert Pujols. In his previous 4 games he’s 6-for-16 with 2 HR, and only 1 K. In fact, he’s got only one hitless game since May 11.

*Tim Tebow practiced with the New York Jets punt team yesterday.

The Nats will begin a 3-game series in Atlanta tonight. The Braves will be looking to bounce back following a 4-game sweep this week at the hands of the red-hot Reds. Washington holds a 1 game lead on Atlanta in the NL East. Here are your pitching matchups for the series:

Friday: Ross Detwiler vs. Tim Hudson (7:35 p.m.)

Saturday: Stephen Strasburg vs. Randall Delgado (4:05 p.m.)

Sunday: Gio Gonzalez vs. Brandon Beachy (8:05 p.m./ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball)

MLB: Sunday’s Nats/Braves game is a must watch.

NBA: Saturday’s Game 7 between Philly and Boston (8:00 p.m./ABC)

NHL: Tonight’s Game 6 between New York and New Jersey (8:00 p.m./NBCSN)

Auto Racing: Sunday’s running of the Indianapolis 500 (12:00 p.m./ABC)

Soccer: Today’s Copa del Ray Final between Athletic Bilbao and FC Barcelona (4:00 p.m./ESPN3 and ESPN Deportes)

I could go into great detail about the Boston Celtics. Part of me would like to go into great detail about the Boston Celtics. But for the purpose of this space, just know that they lost to the Philadelphia 76ers last night and will now have to host a Game 7 in Boston on Saturday. The entire series has had a see-saw effect. The Celtics have won the odd numbered games. The Sixers have won the evens. In their losses, the Celtics have scored 81, 83, and 75 points. In their wins, they’ve scored 92, 107, 101. You don’t have to be Antoine Walker to figure out that the Celtics lose if they don’t shoot well. Last night they put up a 33% shooting performance. That’s not good.

In what has been one of the least exciting series between two archrivals that you could ever imagine, the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils played one of the sloppiest playoff games you could ever imagine (not involving the Boston Celtics).

Henrik Lundvist, arguably the best goalie in the NHL, stopped just 12 of 16 total shots. Devils goalie Martin Brodeur fared slightly better, allowing 3 goals on 28 shots, but even the future Hall-of-Famer, Brodeur, allowed sloppy goals.

The Devils won 5-3 (they added an empty net goal). They’ll have a chance to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals on Friday in Newark.

A day after firing their very good Head Coach and their not-very-good General Manager, word leaked that the Orlando Magic would be interviewing former Center Shaquille O’Neal for their vacant GM position.

This might not seem strange to you. Players often transition to front office positions (in fact, the Magic’s recently fired GM, Otis Smith, was a former NBA player). The absurdity here comes from O’Neal having absolutely no front office experience. To the best of my knowledge, he has no managerial experience.  In fact, he has no basketball experience other than playing it. Yet, the Orlando Magic believe that the _________________ (fill in the blank with your favorite Shaq nickname) is just the man to spearhead a head coaching search, prepare for a draft, make major personnel decisions, and oversee all of the daily activities of a professional sports franchise.

Consider this the Magic buying Dwight Howard a new Bugatti.

Oh, and my favorite Shaq nickname is Wilt Chamberneezy.

The sun rose. The grass grew. And the Nats failed to sweep a series. And the circle of life continued.

Washington was dominated for 8 innings last night by Phillies starter Cole Hamels, who allowed just 4 hits and surrendered no runs.  In a game that was anticipated to contain some fireworks, the only story was Hamels’ pitching (something he’s actually good at). The Nats lone run in the 4-1 loss came on a 9^th inning home run by Adam LaRoche.

The Nats will have today off before beginning a weekend series with the Atlanta Braves. The Nats currently hold a ½ game lead over the Braves.  Atlanta plays Cincinnati today.

Only one playoff game tonight. That’ll be the Heat and Pacers in Game 6 (MIA leads 3-2). Game time is 8 p.m. on ESPN.

In baseball, the spotlight game will be the Tigers @ Indians. Justin Verlander will return to the mound following a near no-hitter last Friday. Game time is 12:05, meaning no one will actually watch this game.

Behind another ho-hum, unclutch game from LeBron James (30/10/8) the Miami Heat took a 3-2 series lead over the Pacers last night with a 32 point victory.

Of course, the story after the game was not LeBron’s performance, because he played well. No the story was instead about a series of hard fouls that eventually became cheap shots.

Early in the second quarter, Pacers Forward Tyler Hansborough (a man so renowned for his calm demeanor that his nickname is Psycho T) committed a hard foul on Dwyane Wade, who, in Dwyane Wade fashion, reacted as though he had been shot in the face from close range. Hansborough did draw blood on the Heat star, but his intention seemed to clearly be to prevent Wade from scoring.

A minute later, Heat Forward Udonis Haslem committed a foul on Hansborough that seemed more like a revenge shot than a means to prevent a basket. Primarily because Tyler Hansborough isn’t generally regarded as a deft slasher.

Not satisfied, Heat “player” Dexter Pittman decided to continue to enact revenge against the Pacers. With the game long-since decided, Pittman threw a vicious elbow into the throat of Pacers “player” Lance Stephenson, who earlier in the series had made a choking gesture to LeBron James (albeit while wearing warm-ups and earning a DNP-Coach’s Decision).

Haslem and Pittman will likely be suspended later today. Time will tell if the Heat can survive without Pittman’s “contributions.”

It took overtime (and nearly all of it), but the LA Kings were able to close out their Western Conference Finals series with the Phoenix Coyotes last night with a 4-3 victory. Dustin Penner scored the game-winner late in the first overtime period to send the Kings to their first Stanley Cup Final in nearly 20 years.

They await the winner of the New York Rangers/New Jersey Devils seriesssszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Baseball’s top 5 payrolls and those team’s current placement in their divisional standings:

1.) New York Yankees (4^th AL East)

2.) Philadelphia Phillies (5^th NL East)

3.) Boston Red Sox (5^th AL East)

4.) Los Angeles Angels (4^th AL West)

5.) Detroit Tigers (3^rd AL Central)

Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals, Cleveland Indians, and Baltimore Orioles find themselves in first place.

The Bulletin took some flak yesterday from some overzealous readers because it called Monday night’s Phillies/Nats game a “must-win” for Washington. The Bulletin stands by this statement. Games in May count just the same as games in September. When you’re playing your rival, on the road, and you have to face two all-stars later in the series, it is vital that you take the winnable game. No team wants to go into a game against Roy Halladay after losing the previous day to Kyle Kendrick.

Last year on May 22, the Atlanta Braves sent Derek Lowe to the mound to oppose (then) Angels pitcher Tyler Chatwood. The Braves lost that game. Had they won a very winnable game in May, they would have made the playoffs and the St. Louis Cardinals never would have won the World Series. Games in May are important. Winnable games (on paper) in May are very important. You can’t afford to leave Ws on the field. Curly or otherwise.

The Celtics will look to close out the 76ers tonight (8:00 p.m./ESPN) and the Rangers and Devils will play a pivotal Game 5 in New York (8 p.m./NBCSN), but the game of the day will come in Philadelphia as Cole Hamels will take the hill and face Bryce Harper and the Washington Nationals in front of a national TV audience. It’ll be Old School vs. New School at the CBP tonight. Game time is 7:05. If you’re in DC, you can find it on MASN. If you’re elsewhere, tune into ESPN2, as the Nats will look to complete their first series sweep of 2012.

I’ve never watched an episode of The Apprentice. TV is not really my deal unless its cable news or sports. But if I’m to understand correctly, hair-flip enthusiast Donald Trump hosts that TV show and fires people from it, because TV. If that’s true, perhaps Dwight Howard could put on a wig and get his own TV show.

Yesterday, in an act that reeked of desperation, sadness, and unrealistic expectations, the Orlando Magic fired head coach Stan Van Gundy and General Manager Otis Smith, all to make soon-to-be free agent Dwight Howard happy. You see, the Orlando Magic’s ownership believes that if they give Dwight Howard everything he wants, he will decide to stay in central Florida when his contract expires after next season. And Dwight Howard doesn’t like Stan Van Gundy, for reasons unclear to most people. Perhaps he’s too good looking.

Have you ever seen a relationship where one person does everything they possibly can do keep their partner from leaving them, even though everyone knows that they’re going to leave and they’re likely already cheating on them?  “Buy you fancy dinners? Sure!”  “Oh, you want one of those fancy three-wheeled motorcycles?  I’ll buy you two!!” “I love you soooooo much!!!!!!! DON’T YOU LOVE ME TOOOOOO???????????”

Meanwhile, the partner is already talking it up on the AIM with some hottie from Los Angeles. 

Well, yesterday, the Orlando Magic became a desperate boyfriend or girlfriend, trying unrealistically to make their partner happy. Doing everything they can (even firing a really good basketball coach with a  .641 career winning percentage) to trick themselves into thinking that they won’t get dumped for Kobe Bryant in a year.

If the Orlando Magic were a person, we’d feel bad for them. I know I would. You hate to see a good person have their heart broken. The Orlando Magic are not a person though. They’re an organization. A business. Businesses cannot be run to satisfy one employee. Even Donald Trump knows that.

Now that the LA Lakers have been eliminated, Kobe can have more time to get on AIM with Dwight Howard to talk about building their dream home together.

Even with a comfortable 3-1 series lead, the Oklahoma City Thunder did what they needed to do last night and knocked out the Lakers, behind two solid performances from Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. Kobe Bryant scored 41 points and had as many assists in the game as Max Young did.

OKC will now face the red-hot San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. Game 1 is Sunday in Texas.

In the East, the Boston Celtics dominated the Philadelphia 76ers, en route to a 101-85 victory. The Celtics can close out Philly, if they so choose, tomorrow night in the City of Battery Throwing.

The New Jersey Devilszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

In a game the Nationals needed to win (more on that in a second), they did. Barely.

Starting off a long inter-division road trip, the Nats had to travel first to Philadelphia. Gio Gonzalez turned in a solid outing, throwing 6 innings of shutout ball, surrendering only 3 hits, while striking out 9.

With a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Nats called on embattled closer Henry Rodriguez, who promptly got all “Henry” on the Phillies. That is to say, he threw a lot of wild pitches and had to be rescued by Sean Burnett (again). And so that, friends, should just about do it for the Henry Rodriguez era in Washington.

With their 2-1 victory, the Nats are now ½ game back of the Braves for first in the AL East. The win last night is big because they’ll have to face Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels in the next two games of the Phillies series. Jordan Zimmermann will oppose Halladay tonight. Game time is 7:05 p.m.

Pacers @ Heat (8:00 p.m./TNT) With the series tied 2-2, Miami will look to take back home court advantage while LeBron will continue to be not clutch and only put up a 40/18/9 line.

Kings @ Coyotes (9:00 p.m./NBCSN) The Kings will look to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since the Wayne Gretzky days.

Everywhere you turned weekend, there was an NBA game on.

The San Antonio Spurs get top billing as they swept the “much younger” (again, not true) Los Angeles Clippers. San Antonio is now 8-0 in the playoffs and have not lost a game since 1994. Or April 11.

The Spurs look to be on a collision course with the Oklahoma City Thunder, who now sit one game away from advancing to the Western Conference Finals for the second year in a row. The Thunder split their weekend games in LA, losing Friday night, but pulling out a win on Saturday, going on a 25-9 run to close the game, with Kevin Durant putting the final dagger into the Lakers, sealing a 103-100 win.

In the East, both series currently sit at a 2-2 draw. The Miami Heat played like the Miami Heat yesterday, getting a modest 40 pt, 18 rebound, 9 assist game from the overrated and not clutch LeBron James. Dwyane Wade also woke up before Sunday’s game and scored 30 points. Combine their totals with Udonis Haslem and the rest of the Heat team scored 17 points. Miami Heat basketball!

Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics cannot put away a game Philadelphia 76ers squad. David Stern waits in anticipation of a final four featuring the markets of Indianapolis, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City.

It turns out that the LA Kings aren’t quite as good as this space has made them out to be. That is to say that they are not invincible.

Yesterday, with an opportunity to complete their second consecutive playoff sweep, the LA Kings fell 2-0 to the Phoenix Coyotes. The win was Phoenix goalie Mike Smith’s third shutout in the 2012 playoffs and gives the Coyotes one more day of life against a team that has been better than them 75% of the time.

Out East, in a series that has captivated audiences (okay, not so much), the New York Rangers took a 2-1 series lead following a 3-0 win on Saturday in Newark. The Rangers scored each of their 3 goals in the third period.

You may not have noticed it, what with other things happening, but baseball reached the ¼ mark of its season this weekend.  Some notes:

If having the best record guaranteed a World Series berth, we’d be heading towards a Baltimore Orioles/Los Angeles Dodgers matchup. The Orioles have to be the surprise story of the first half. Their pitching has performed well above ceiling and they are getting an All-Star like performance out of Adam Jones.

The Dodgers themselves are a surprise front-runner. Despite possessing the game’s best hitter and pitcher, the Dodgers were seen mostly as an also-ran, due in large part to the other 23 guys on their roster. However, even with Clayton Kershaw taking some time to get his season on track, and with Matt Kemp currently on the DL, the Dodgers keep winning and aren’t showing any signs of letting up.

Individually, the Triple Crown is the focus in the American League as Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton currently holds a large lead in all 3 triple-crown categories (.Avg, HR, RBI).

Meanwhile, in the NL, Mets 3B David Wright is currently batting .412. No Major League hitter has batted .400 in a season since 1941.

There was a big soccer game this weekend in Munich. Bayern Munich and Chelsea played for the UEFA Champions League Title. Munich dominated most of regular time, but failed to score a goal until the 85^thminute on a smart header by Thomas Mueller. The neutral site crowd inside of Bayern Munich’s home stadium went nuts.  For 5 minutes, the buzz was deafening. And then, in an instant, the silence became deafening.

Didier Drogba, in perhaps his last game for Chelsea (because, soccer), scored on a savage header off of a corner kick to send the match to extra time.

In penalty kicks, Chelsea pulled it out, thanks again to Drogba. Much to the dismay of some and the joy of others.

NBA Playoffs:

Philadelphia @ Celtics (series tied 2-2): 7:00 p.m./TNT

Lakers@ Thunder (OKC leads 3-1): 9:30/TNT

NHL Playoffs:

Rangers @ Devils (NYR leads 2-1): 8:00 p.m./NBCSN

I’m not revealing a dark secret when I say that hockey is often regarded as “Canadian.” Accordingly, Americans tend to avoid the sport. My theory with Americans is that they really enjoy rooting for Americans. Put gymnastics on TV on a Saturday in April and you’ll get a (-0.8) rating. But put it on during the Olympics and everyone is a Nastia Liukin fan. During the World Cup, everyone stops what they’re doing to watch the National team. Once the world cup is over?  MLS games draw worse ratings than strong man competitions.

Hockey is no different. We rallied around the US National team during the 2010 Winter Olympics. We were pained when they lost. Some of us more than others. When the NHL regular season resumed though, we all went back to comparing hockey to Canadian bacon and Alanis Morissette.

Little did most people realize, though, that two of the best players in the NHL are not only Americans, but also play on the same team. And a team based in the most American of cities: Los Angeles, California.

The LA Kings are captained by Dustin Brown, who, if you read the previously linked bit, you’ll know was already one of my favorite players. Brown, born in Ithaca, has owned the NHL playoffs thus far. He is an all-everything player.

Between the pipes is Jonathan Quick. Quick was the third goalie on the 2010 Olympic team. He didn’t play. Come 2014, he’ll be the starter. Quick is a Connecticut kid who went to UMass and at only 26 is one of the NHL’s best goalies.

Led by Quick and Brown, the Kings have been one of the most surprisingly dominant playoff teams in recent memory. The Kings barely qualified for the playoffs. Now, as the 8^th seed in the Western Conference, they’re one game away from the Stanley Cup Finals, this after a 2-1 win last night over Phoenix. Once they close out the Coyotes (and they will) the Kings will have defeated the top 3 overall seeds in the West. To this point, they’ve played a total of 12 games in the playoffs. They’ve won 11 of them.

So why not celebrate this team as though they were our national team. They epitomize team hockey. They’re fun to watch. And their two best players happen to be from a country that eats real bacon and got rid of “Jagged Little Pill” a long time ago.

Today, someone will have to break some unfortunate news to Dwyane Wade. When the Heat guard showed up to Not-Market Square Arena in Indianapolis last night, he assumed that the Heat would be scrimmaging the Pacers for a game tonight.

As it turns out, the NBA had scheduled an actual playoff game between the two teams. With Wade scoring a total of 5 points, the Heat were unable to score more than 80 points, en route to a 19 point loss. Miami now finds itself in a 2-1 hole to a team most people assumed they would sweep. Now, the young Pacers have won two games in a row from the Heat and could realistically head back to Miami with a chance to close out the series.

That is all.

Thankfully, for the Washington Nationals, they will not have to face the Pittsburgh Pirates again this season. More importantly, they will not have to face Pirates CF Andrew McCutchen again this season.  Following last night’s 5-3 Pirates win, McCutchen brought his season line against the Nats to this: .647 avg, 4 HR, 6 RBI.

The Nats loss, combined with an Atlanta victory has the teams see-sawing again. Atlanta enters the weekend with a ½ game lead on Washington.

The Nats will begin the home leg of the Beltway Series tonight at the Navy Yard. The Orioles comes in tied with Tampa for the AL East lead. They’ll send Jake Arrieta to the hill to oppose Edwin Jackson. Game time is 7:05 on the MASNs.

Of course, the NHL and NBA playoffs will continue. All of those are “games of the weekend.”  For something a little different:

Soccer: UEFA Champions League Final: Chelsea v. Bayern Munich (Saturday, 2:30 p.m./FOX)

MLB: The Nats/Orioles series is a good one. Also look for the Braves/Rays series. This is a potential World Series matchup.  The Friday and Sunday games provide very good pitching matchups as well. Plus you can watch the games best manager and its worst go head-to-head.

A safe weekend to all. Enjoy!

“Kobe is better than LeBron because Kobe is clutch.”

The above is what can best be described as “The Narrative.”  Kobe Bryant is clutch. He makes big shots when it matters most. LeBron James, as seen Tuesday night, passes first, second, third, and fourth. He doesn’t want to take the big shot. Kobe revels in the moment.

So, last night, with the Lakers up by 7 with 2 minutes to play, it was important to note, as an observer, that Kobe Bryant wasn’t clutch. At all. Kobe was held without a made shot for the final six minutes of the Lakers’ game against the Thunder. Two missed shots by Kobe. Two Lakers turnovers. And all of a sudden, a 7 point deficit for OKC becomes a 2 point lead.

On the final play of the game, Ron Metta World Artest Peace tried to get the ball to Kobe Bryant. Except Kobe couldn’t get himself free. And so the final shot of the game was taken by future NBA Hall-of-Famer Steve Blake, who dutifully missed a corner 3. OKC 2. LAL 0.

Oh, and about that clutch thing?  Kobe hasn’t hit a game-winning shot in the playoffs, inside of 20 seconds to play, in 6 years. 2006 against the Suns.

Also, the Boston Celtics beat the 76ers by 16 points. As they should have. Celtics lead 2-1.

The New York Rangers could not unclog the space in front of goalie Henrik Lundqvist last night, and thus fell to the New Jersey Devils 3-2, in a game filled with pucks bouncing crazily off of people standing in front of the net.

The series (tied at 1-1) will now shift all the way across the Hudson River to Newark for Game 3 tomorrow. The Rangers set out last night, bindles in tow, and began the long 3 hour walk and ferry ride between the two arenas.  Some Rangers players, not wanting to take the walk, used the beautiful and clean public transportation options in the New York/New Jersey area ((MTA! PATH!)  to journey across the river. Thankfully, no players have been diagnosed with dysentery, to this point, on their journey.

Bryce Harper was not able to hit a HR in his third consecutive game, however, the young star did deliver a first inning triple, jumpstarting the Nationals offense en route to a 7-4 victory.

In a save situation, manager Davey Johnson went back to Henry Rodriguez, following two consecutive disastrous appearances. In a much cleaner fashion than he has recently done, Henry closed out the game for his 9^thsave of the season.

With the Braves loss to Miami, Washington jumped back into first place in the NL East. They’ll wrap up their two-game set with the Pirates tonight with a very good pitching matchup. Jordan Zimmermann will look to build off of a great start against Cincinnati on Saturday. He’ll be opposed by the surging James McDonald, who appears to be reaching his potential as a solid #2 starter. Game time is 7:05 p.m.

Of course, there are playoff games tonight. Lineup here:

Heat @ Pacers (Series tied 1-1): 7:00 p.m./TNT

Clippers @ Spurs (SAS leads 1-0): 9:30 p.m./TNT

Coyotes @ Kings (LAK leads 2-0): 9:00 p.m./NBC Sports Network

Also, a (potentially) very good baseball game:

St. Louis Cardinals @ San Francisco Giants (3:45 p.m.). Adam Wainwright opposes Matt Cain