San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. (AP)

Can Pop kick it? Yes, he can. Obviously. Duh.

Best caption wins kicks with the power of punches, which really aren't that useful in a punch-fight, it turns out. Good luck.

In our last adventure: The 2011-12 Portland Trail Blazers are brought to you by Struggleface.

The beef between the Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks has been broiling for the past month, according to Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings. Back on March 24, Bucks reserve Mike Dunleavy Jr. laid a hard foul on Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough, busting the former Tar Heel's nose and cheekbone. "Ever since then, it's been little cheap shots back and forth," Jennings told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Charles F. Gardner.

On April 14, Indy retaliated, with David West taking a high-and-tight shot at Dunleavy in a rematch at the Bradley Center. Tensions flared again when the teams faced off Thursday night, with Leandro Barbosa picking up a flagrant foul for cleaning Dunleavy out on a fourth-quarter drive. That primed the pump for Bucks center Larry Sanders, who's been feeling himself a little bit of late, to explode ... which, as you can see in the clip above, he did. From Gardner at the Journal Sentinel:

The Bucks were trailing, 106-94, Thursday when Sanders drew his first technical foul for arguing after being called for fouling [Danny] Granger. Just 20 seconds later, Sanders was called for his sixth foul and then another technical.

Sanders pointed in the direction of West and the teams circled near midcourt before Bucks forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute pulled Sanders away and he headed to the dressing room to a chorus of boos.

"You just don't want things to get out of hand," Mbah a Moute said. "It was a hard-fought game and emotions get involved. I just didn't want him to do something stupid.

"I saw he was very upset and was trying to go at [West] so I just held him back."

Before we go any further: Check out Pacers coach Frank Vogel getting his JVG on, stepping in and pushing Granger out of the fray! Big ups to Coach Vogel for throwing himself in harm's way to try to play peacemaker. For comedy's sake, though, I would have greatly preferred it had he wound up on the floor, wrapped around Roy Hibbert's leg, because he got confused.

[ Y! Sports exclusive: NBA players union president wants Derek Fisher out ]

Only you, friends, can provide the answer. (It's Dan. Pick Dan.)

Listen, guys, I'm not sitting here and looking for challenges. But sometimes an All-NBA-caliber power forward tweets out a picture of his brand new mustache, and when that happens, Your Man feels compelled to respond.

Now, I may not have the Minnesota Timberwolves star's fancy salons, staffed 24 hours a day by Parisian groomers equipped with the finest liniments and hair tonics in the land, but I've got heart. I've got gumption. I've got the ability to grow a 'stache that didn't get no fancy UCLA book learnin'. (Actually, I went to Providence!) Plus, check out our eyebrows. There's more fight in my eyebrows than in Kevin Love's eyebrows by a COUNTRY MILE.

So, 'stache-wise, who ya got? The first-round draft pick, All-Star anointed one? Or the hardscrabble, livin'-by-his-wits underdog from the mean streets of nice neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Staten Island? Let us know in the comments, and also, please, please pick me.

Delonte West was knocked down with a $25,000 fine. (Getty Images)

It turns out sticking your finger into the ear of Utah Jazz swingman Gordon Hayward during an NBA game, as Dallas Mavericks guard Delonte West did Monday night, costs $25,000. So get your Kickstarter game on point, I guess, ear weirdos.

(Let us remember that, dominant reporting aside, it is not a "wet willy" unless you wet your finger, which West did not do, and it is not a "dry willy," because that somehow sounds even grosser than the other thing.)

That's a considerable sum even for someone making many times that for a single season of NBA work; as a result, even though he was clearly in the wrong on the infraction in question, it wouldn't have been shocking if West had decided to exercise his collectively bargained right to appeal the fine levied by the commissioner's office through the National Basketball Players Association. It would be like showing up to the court date for your speeding ticket, even though you know you were lead-footed, just to see if you had a nice judge in a good mood who'd slash your summons in half.

Instead, though, West decided against raising a stink, according to Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News:

"When you've been to the principal's office," West said, "you don't really want to go back and see that ruler again." [...]

At least he didn't lose his sense of humor over the fine, which is considerable since he makes the NBA veteran's minimum of $1.18 million.

"I didn't think it was going to be that steep," West said before Wednesday's game against Houston. "That's a whole month's check for me. I probably won't have cable in a couple days."

The dream of last season's not alive in Portland. (AP)

Pretty reasonable left-to-right downward slope. If this was a PowerPoint presentation, you'd get the point — our profits are down. If you move to the right of Nicolas Batum, you have utter indifference, which is what the Portland Trail Blazers will likely feel this offseason, as they will be in a weird, in-between limbo state that does not involve postseason work. Weird times.

Best caption wins a pretty good song by the Faces, irrespective of which soundtrack this YouTube clip comes from. Good luck.

In our last adventure: Hustling for the ball, hitting the deck, calling a heady timeout, playing the right way — that's the J.R. Smith none of us know!

Playing without starting point guard Rajon Rondo and sharpshooter Ray Allen, the Boston Celtics still had enough to take down a Dwight Howard-less Orlando Magic team on Wednesday, scoring a 102-98 win at the TD Garden. The victory, keyed by a dominant all-around performance by Paul Pierce (29 points on 14 shots, a career-high 14 assists with just three turnovers, five rebounds and two steals in 35 minutes), clinched Boston's fifth consecutive Atlantic Division crown, which will either give them the longest streak of divisional dominance in the NBA or, if the Los Angeles Lakers can hold off the Los Angeles Clippers in the Pacific, a tie for that mark.

That's a division title in each year Allen and Kevin Garnett have been Celtics, if you're keeping score, and Garnett's pretty proud of this one. He heard us all downplaying Boston's chances and the surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer did what he always does — turned it into motivation. When it was time to answer to a postgame question about what this division title means to the Celtics' players, he took the opportunity to revel in the moment.

"Never count us out," he answered. "I mean, you guys called us old, over.

"You know, I read some of your pathetic articles and some of your lousy analysis," Garnett continued, pausing to slowly look back and forth over the faces of each member of the media surrounding him. "It's opinion. I mean, obviously, you don't know what drive is. We thank y'all for those articles. Appreciate it. Because it lit a fire under us."

I won't presume to speak for Kelly or Eric, but I'd like to say: You're welcome, Kevin. I am glad that my pathetic articles and lousy analysis could help.

We are not lying. (Image courtesy of www.gerbenfineart.com)

Carmelo Anthony's wife, La La Anthony (née Vazquez), recently spoke with the New York Post about her reality TV show, her role in the upcoming film "Think Like a Man," and the couple's place in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan. The only piece of critical information in the Post's story is that, as you can see above, the Anthonys have a huge painting of Carmelo Anthony's head hanging above their fireplace.

From the Post:

How much input has Carmelo had in the design of your home or did you manage the project yourself?

Believe it or not, he has more input and gets more involved than I do. He was really into working with the decorator, Alicia Darby, who also decorated our home in LA.

Have you recently purchased any artwork? What is your favorite piece?

This past Christmas, we purchased a huge, modern picture of my husband from the artist Paul Gerben, whose studio is located in SoHo. It was great to be directly in touch with the artist himself, which enabled us to create this fantastic, very large and abstract piece that we love.

Gerben, who has done commissioned work for the likes of Tommy Hilfiger, Russell Simmons and Donna Karan, also painted the family a portrait of their son, Kiyan, which is nice. As Trey Kerby of The Basketball Jones noted, though, "that's not the one that's hanging above their fireplace."

[Video: Classic Lionel Richie song becomes parody of Knicks' Carmelo Anthony]

While I do have several handsome Jacob Weinstein prints in my living room and some of Brandon Bird's work in my hallway, I am not an art critic, so help me out here: When you buy paintings, is size the primary determinant of value? LaLa mentions the size of the painting as many times as she mentions what kind of painting it is, so I guess it is important.

First thing's first: Neither Manu Ginobili nor Tyreke Evans got hurt on this face-first collision during the fourth quarter of the San Antonio Spurs' 127-102 win over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night. Evans played on, missing just 2:30 of the final frame. Ginobili didn't return after suffering "a laceration inside his right ear" on the play, but it was judged by the Spurs trainers not to be too serious, needing only a bandage rather than stitches, according to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. About that, we should all be thankful, because yikes.

[Related: Spurs' title hopes rest on Manu Ginobili's health]

With all due respect to Kings fans, who are great and passionate and don't deserve the treatment they are getting, that is a way bigger relief for supporters of the Spurs, who swept their second back-to-back-to-back set of the season with the win. San Antonio now stands at a Western Conference-leading 45-16; with five games left in their regular season, the Spurs' focus is now tuning up for what they hope is a longer postseason run than last year's first-round exit at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies. For that, they'll need Ginobili, who's missed nearly half this lockout-shortened season with myriad injuries, on the floor.

More from McDonald at the Express-News: