There have been plenty of positive things about the Memphis Grizzlies' surge since trading starting small forward Rudy Gay as part of a three-team deal that was lambasted in some quarters and lauded in others, with the team's 16-6 mark since the move, of course, topping the list. One of the neatest from a basketball nerd perspective, though, is the increased amount of attention, both in the Grizzlies' attack and in subsequent analysis of it, that has been going to the work done by Marc Gasol.

[Also: LeBron James takes aim at NBA's longest win streak after rallying Heat by Celtics]

The Memphis center has been taking advantage of an increased number of opportunities to showcase his offensive wares ... like this lovely blind alley-oop feed from the left elbow for a cutting Tony Allen during the second quarter of the Grizzlies' Monday night win over the Minnesota Timberwolves:

Just beautiful, and an illustration of something we've been seeing more and more since Gay was shipped to the Toronto Raptors — the Grizzlies love running offense through Gasol at the elbows, and for good reason.

On a night where the Boston Celtics faced the hottest team in the NBA without defensive leader/spirit animal Kevin Garnett, reserve forward Jeff Green stepped up and turned in the game of his life. On a night where the Miami Heat sought to stretch a six-week winning streak into the second-longest run in NBA history but got blitzed early by a game Boston squad, LeBron James stepped up to drag his team back from 13 down with nine minutes to go.

With less than 30 seconds remaining after a Brandon Bass miss and the score knotted at 103, the two forwards faced off, Green defending as James dribbled down the clock just inside the 3-point line along the left wing. Much of the night had belonged to the 26-year-old Green, who has come back from heart surgery to become an integral piece for a tough Celtics team and was having the best night of his NBA career in front of a national audience eager to see whether the Heat could keep the streak alive. But this moment — like most of the season, really — would belong to LeBron.

Bang.

Hey, do you think Jason Terry can jump as high as LeBron James? No, me neither. As we learned during the second quarter of Monday night's marquee matchup between the streaking Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, though, the man they call "JET" thought he could fly as high as the reigning MVP.

He was wrong.

And so Terry joins Brandon Knight, Greg Monroe and Nikola Pekovic as this year's premier attempted but unsuccessful dunk defenders. You few. You (not-so) happy few.

'Get a load of this freakin' guy.' (Getty Images)

A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: Houston Chronicle. Via the stalwart Jonathan Feigen, we're treated to more Twitter shenanigans between the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors following the Dubs' 30-point smackdown of the Rox on Sunday. To wit:

“@jacksonmark13: @chandlerparsons Congrats on a great year. GREAT seeing U 2night!!!!!#Warriors”just be glad u don't have to c us again.

— Chandler Parsons (@ChandlerParsons) March 18, 2013

#Zings all around, for sure, but let's call this round in favor of the coach of the team that won 108-78, shall we?

PF: The Point Forward and SB Nation. Young squires Rob Mahoney and Andrew Sharp both come in praise of Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, who, as we discussed this morning, has been an absolute monster during Miami's 22-game winning streak.

SF: Eye on Basketball. Friend of the program Zach Harper delivers an entertaining and informative "tale of the tape" breakdown to see which Western Conference big man is most deserving of All-NBA First Team honors at the center position: The San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan or the Memphis Grizzlies' Marc Gasol.

That's telekinesis, Kyle. (Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)

After a super successful trip back to Orlando, consecutive wins following Kobe Bryant's severe ankle sprain, 14 straight games with at least 12 rebounds and a clear defensive resurgence that's helped pace the Los Angeles Lakers' 11-3 post-All-Star-break run, it seems evident that Dwight Howard — now just about 11 months clear of surgery to repair a herniated disk in his lower back — is closer to being the sort of healthy difference-maker in the middle that the L.A. brass believed they'd imported this summer. One might say he's looking more like Superman now than he has since heading west, after appearing much more like Clark Kent through the first few months of the season.

And apparently, Dwight's comeback has him cast as the John Byrne version of Superman, who can move objects touched by his "aura" through the sheer force of his will. (Which, y'know, ugh. Like Superman's powers weren't OK enough without adding "self-telekinesis" as an explanation.)

Either that or Dwight's superpowers are less Kal-El and more "Chronicle" ... in which case, the Lakers really could be trouble come the playoffs. Like, a "global catastrophe"-level problem. Yipes.

Best caption wins a game where you try to make free throws as Superman. (Sounds pretty relevant to Dwight's interests.) Good luck.

In our last adventure: Speaking of comic stuff, Ivan Johnson looks kind of like a Rob Liefeld character.

Bye-bye, Larry. Again. (AP/Alex Brandon)

When Larry Sanders got himself ejected during the closing stages of last Wednesday's loss to the Washington Wizards, his sarcastic triple-thumbs-up response gave the heave-ho a somewhat jovial feel that kind of took the edge off a double-digit defeat at the hands of a lottery team. But when the Milwaukee Bucks forward/center got tossed again during the fourth quarter of Friday night's loss to the streaking and soaring Miami Heat, it was no laughing matter for interim Bucks head coach Jim Boylan ... and NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson didn't find Sanders' postgame pop-off too funny, either.

Sanders' kettle started steaming with just over three minutes left and Miami holding an 11-point lead. After receiving a pass from teammate Ersan Ilyasova, Sanders was pinned against the baseline by Heat defender LeBron James; Sanders elevated for a layup, which missed and was rebounded by Chris Bosh, but Sanders felt he'd been fouled, and let referees Michael Smith and Olandis Poole know as much as he headed back down the court. On the ensuing Miami possession, Sanders wound up switched onto James at the 3-point line on the left wing; sensing a mismatch, James drove to the basket and attempted a short leaning jumper, which Sanders tried to block, knocking James to the floor and earning a foul call of his own.

This compounded Sanders' anger at the perceived no-call on the other end, so he stepped his griping up a notch, which netted him a technical foul. This, of course, only further incensed the 24-year-old shot-blocker, who continued to complain after the broadcast cut to commercial, resulting in a very quick second technical foul and an automatic ejection — Sanders' second ejection in two games — that took the Bucks' premier interior defender off the floor in the closing stages of a game against a team that loves driving to the basket.

After Sanders had picked up his 11th technical of the season — that ties him for seventh-most in the league and puts him within five T's of the automatic one-game suspension triggered by a player's 16th tech — and his league-leading fourth ejection of the year, Boylan promised to have "a serious discussion with Sanders about his on-court behavior," according to Bucks beat writer Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

When you have decided to adopt a DJ Khaled song as a practical philosophy, even winning can get a little ho-hum. It's not enough just to keep beating whatever opponent the schedule-maker puts in front of you for six straight weeks (and counting) — you've also got to do so in a way that keeps things spicy, just to avoid blunting your competitive edge and getting bored enough with perfection to slide back to mere excellence.

Hence the pregame dunk contests, the postgame videobombs ... and the in-game ZIP-code-clearing lobs, like this one that hit Dwyane Wade perfectly in stride for a flush on Sunday:

Norris Cole throws pinpoint 65-foot dimes just to feel something, y'all.

Adrian Dantley's been directing traffic for years. He just didn't have the title. (Doug Pensinger/Getty)

The last time most NBA fans saw or heard from Adrian Dantley, the legendary scoring forward and 2008 inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was crying foul over losing his job as an assistant coach with the Denver Nuggets because, he claims, he wouldn't switch seats on George Karl's bench. This sounded like a very odd reason for a man to lose a job — especially one who, just a season before, had served as Denver's interim head coach while Karl was undergoing cancer treatment. (Dantley held down the fort, going 13-12, but was a clear step down from Karl, as the Nuggets went from a Western Conference finalist in the summer of '09 to a first-round exit under his stewardship in '10.)

Whether it really was Musical Chairs that precipitated his ouster or something else entirely, it seems like we needn't worry too much about the employability of the man who scored the 25th most points in NBA history — as it turns out, he's gainfully employed in an industry that's got nothing to do with professional basketball. Since last fall, Dantley has apparently been working as a crossing guard outside Eastern Middle School in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring, Md., where he makes just under $15,000 a year.

[Related: Former NFL MVP Shaun Alexander begins second act]

But unlike some other ex-pros who have fallen on hard times after the end of their days in the league, D.C. native Dantley — who starred for perennial DMV hoops power DeMatha Catholic in early 1970s — isn't scratching out morning and afternoon shifts shuttling kids through crosswalks because he's in dire straits. No ... he's in it for the benefits, man.

Writing at Deadspin, longtime Washington City Paper sportswriter and D.C. sports mainstay Dave McKenna has the (kind of amazing) story: