Pop quiz, hotshot: If I asked you which member of the Los Angeles Clippers would be most likely to commit a flagrant foul, and which member of the Memphis Grizzlies would be most likely to sincerely appreciate it, which two names would you come up? Wait — crud, their names are in the headline. Dangit. I would be a terrible high school teacher.

Anyway, at the halfway mark of the fourth quarter of Thursday's Game 3, with the Grizzlies leading the Clippers 78-71, Randolph sealed off Barnes on the right block and received an interior pass from center Marc Gasol and rose up to attempt a layup. Barnes' only chance to prevent an easy point-blank bucket was to foul Z-Bo hard, which he did, coming down with both hands on the burly power forward's shoulders, prompting a brief up-close-and-personal session between the two playoff veterans:

The refs immediately descended on the scrum to settle things down, which is totally understandable, because a collision between self-described "jackin' dude" Randolph and habitual line-stepper Barnes seems like the kind of thing you want to put a lid on as quickly as possible.

As it turned out, though, there would be no violence on the dance floor — instead, it was just two dudes who know the difference between a hard foul and a cheap shot dapping one another up (a bit awkwardly, in the case of Randolph's "friendly" headbutt), celebrating one another's respective crazy and sharing a quick hug. They were both smiling the whole time and they even shook hands after the refs got all worried. It was heartwarming, really.

New Rat Pack. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

During the New York Knicks' Thursday media session in Boston, where the team practiced and prepared for Game 3 of its opening-round series against the Boston Celtics, the talk turned, as it often does, to respected hit-making singers of the 1950s and '60s, and how best to enjoy their back catalogue.

Wait, what?

Carmelo Anthony quote of day:“I listen to Tony Bennett when I’m sitting home drinking wine by the fire at Christmastime.” #Knicks

— Barbara Barker (@meanbarb) April 25, 2013

That sounds like a really nice, fun, relaxing time. Especially when you remember that this is the living room/fireplace scene to which Carmelo Anthony is referring:

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

If there's anything more comfy-cozy than snuggling up with a nice glass of vino and listening to "Because of You" while a giant purply painting of yourself looking Terminator-y in a tux glares down on you, then boy, I've yet to hear about it.

Magic Johnson recruits a rapper-actor with experience playing a point guard. (Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images)

Already missing leading scorer Kobe Bryant and mired in an 0-2 deficit, the Los Angeles Lakers could be without their other three top guards for Game 3 against the San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center on Friday. And that, apparently, has convinced Magic Johnson to abandon all hope of a forum-blue-and-gold miracle.

The Lakers announced Thursday that an ultrasound confirmed a strained right hamstring for Steve Blake, a point guard by trade who started at shooting guard after starter Steve Nash's return for Game 1. The team also announced that Nash — the 39-year-old point guard who has gritted his way through hip, hamstring and back injuries for the last two games, but has looked like a shell of his former self in doing so — received two epidural injections in his back and a cortisone shot in his right hip Thursday, and that shooting guard Jodie Meeks would undergo an MRI on the sprained left ankle that kept him out of Game 2. Both Nash and Meeks are listed as doubtful for Game 3, while Blake has been ruled out indefinitely.

Moments after the announcements, legendary Hall of Fame point guard Johnson handed down his official proclamation that the Lakers are D-U-N done:

Laker Nation: With Steve Nash & Steve Blake down with injuries there's no way the @lakers have a chance to win.

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) April 25, 2013

Celtics coach Doc Rivers directs his team. (Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBA/Getty Images)

The Boston Celtics haven't played a home game since April 10, when Deron Williams' Brooklyn Nets beat their hosts by eight. They were supposed to take on the Indiana Pacers on April 16, but the NBA canceled that game after the city had been rocked by the prior day's bombings at the 2013 Boston Marathon.

Since those tragic events, the Celtics and their fans have been honored in opposing arenas, and Boston's players have taken the court wearing commemorative warm-up shirts and jersey patches to show support for residents affected by the bombings. But Boston has yet to actually suit up in front of the TD Garden faithful since before Boylston Street became an active crime scene. That will change Friday night, when the Celtics finally return home for Game 3 of their first-round series with the New York Knicks.

[Also: Spurs sweep of Lakers looks inevitable]

With the Celtics leaving New York in an 0-2 hole and in desperate need of a win to get back into the series, you'd expect the Garden to be rocking under normal circumstances; given everything that's transpired in Boston over the past two weeks, it's likely that the emotion in the stands will be palpable and that the crowd will be at a fever pitch all night. That's fine for fans eager for both a Boston win and a sense of release, but Celtics coach Doc Rivers won't look to leverage the highly charged atmosphere to stoke his team's competitive fire, according to Jeff Zilgitt of USA TODAY Sports:

"I won't use that [for motivation], I can tell you that. I don't do that. I don't use tragedy for sports," Rivers said. "I just don't think it's right. We want to win for the city. It would be terrific. But that is not anything I'm going to use in a press conference or with our players. We should want to win because we want to win. If we win, it would be great for the city. That's as far as I'll go with it."

The defensive principle, illustrated. (Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports)Matt Bonner kind of disappeared from the San Antonio Spurs' rotation earlier this season, averaging just over nine minutes per game between early December and late January. As the campaign wore on, though, injuries cropped up and minutes required management, leading to Bonner being bumped up the bench and averaging a little over 16 minutes per game over his final 33 appearances.

He's nearly doubled that thus far in the 2013 NBA playoffs, because while Bonner doesn't necessarily rush to mind when you think of the league's premier post defenders — although he's better than you think, ranking among the league's top 50 players in points allowed per post-up possession defended over the last two seasons, according to Synergy Sports Technology's game-charting data — he's been called upon by coach Gregg Popovich to play a bigger role against the Los Angeles Lakers' frontcourt duo of Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. By and large, Bonner's held his own, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds in each of the series' first two games, and he even added three steals and a block in the Spurs' Game 2 win.

He's had to pay the price for it at times — like when Howard waylaid him with an unwhistled elbow on Wednesday — but he's held up better than some might have expected. So what's the key to Bonner's defensive work? The "Red Mamba" reached back to the '90s for the answer, according to Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News:

He made shots Wednesday, which is what he does best. But he mostly made Dwight Howard work when he didn’t make him mad.

Bonner called it, for those who would like to Google the phrase, “Chumbawamba defense.”

Personally, Buck, I'd prefer they'd Yahoo! the phrase. Or, y'know, they could just check out the explanation Bonner offered by NBA.com's Fran Blinebury:

Jeremy Lin suffered what the Houston Rockets called a "chest contusion" in a collision with Oklahoma City Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha late in the second quarter of Wednesday's Game 2. The point guard issed the entire second half of the game, which the Thunder won 105-102 after weathering a furious fourth-quarter Rockets rally (and getting a pretty fortuitous final-minute no-call) to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Lin sustained the injury while lunging for a loose ball during a late-second-quarter scramble:

He came out to start the third quarter, but was clearly in pain and having trouble running, prompting the team's medical staff to take him back to the locker room for further examination. He would not return, finishing with seven points on 3 for 7 shooting, four rebounds, three assists and two turnovers in 19 1/2 minutes.

X-rays were negative, and Lin said after the game that he hoped to be back on the court for Saturday's Game 3 at the Toyota Center, provided the spasms subside.

After the game, Lin spoke with reporters, including Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, about the disappointment he felt after being shelved:

Sometimes it's fun to note how much work can go into making something simple happen. Case in point: This sweet alley-oop hookup between Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard early in the second quarter of Wednesday's Game 2 between the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers.

As the ball crosses half-court, Parker fires a pass to guard Gary Neal on the right wing. Meanwhile, Danny Green runs to the paint on the right side of the floor and runs defender Metta World Peace into teammate Antawn Jamison. Green then sprints up to set a high screen for Neal, who dribbles left and passes to Leonard above the break on the left wing, as Parker circles from above the arc on the right side down along the baseline to the left corner to receive a feed from Leonard. Tim Duncan, who began the play by setting a soft high pick for Parker before retreating to the left block, takes a slight step forward to set up directly behind Jamison, who has no idea he's there.

Leonard makes a quick cut to the middle of the floor, which has been cleaned, paved and swept by the attention demanded by Parker and Duncan on the strong side and the action of Neal and Green on the weak side. Parker lofts the lob, Jamison tries to step around Duncan but is about an eon late to recover, World Peace is two steps slow to rotate to the cutter and Leonard's got a loud, stylish slam set up by about eight precise movements unfolding in the span of nine seconds (and, of course, some ball-watching Lakers defense). Tic, tac, toe.

Gerald Green really doesn't appreciate Roy Hibbert trying to muscle in on his Arguably the Finest Dunker on the Indiana Pacers turf; the 2007 Slam Dunk Contest champion and 2008 runner-up has a reputation to uphold, after all.

That's why, just seven minutes of game time after Hibbert banged all over Atlanta Hawks center Ivan Johnson, Green made a slick reverse spin during the second quarter of Game 2, made a beeline for the basket and went hunting for even bigger game — Hawks star Josh Smith.

Yiiiiiiiiiiiikes. While I don't particularly enjoy the phrasing, Ian Eagle, it's hard to disagree with your analysis — that was a man's jam.

... Yep, still don't love the phrasing. Love the dunk, though. Now all we need is Paul George going VC-on-Weis on Johan Petro and we'll have a perfect trifecta. (Well, not so perfect if you're a Hawks fan, of course.)

If the clip above isn't rocking for you, please feel free to check out the facial elsewhere, thanks to CBSSports.com's Matt Moore.