With the Utah Jazz well on their way to a fifth straight win on Monday night, holding a 14-point lead over the Portland Trail Blazers with three minutes remaining, coach Ty Corbin decided to end star forward Paul Millsap's night a bit early and give little-used third-year pro Jeremy Evans a few minutes of run. For the most part, this is Evans' lot in life — after appearing in just 78 of 148 games during his first two seasons, he's gotten in 34 of Utah's 75 games this year, playing six minutes or fewer in 25 of them. We know Evans can dunk (and that he's something of a painter, if perhaps a misunderstood one), but in Utah's stacked frontcourt rotation, he's rarely shown enough of an all-around game to get an opportunity to translate his athleticism into meaningful on-court production. (Outside of preseason games, that is.)

[NBA Power Rankings: Heat in control]

Three minutes of burn at the end of a game isn't exactly a ton of time to do something noteworthy. But the 6-foot-9 jumping jack managed to shake us from our garbage-time slumber after a missed midrange jumper by Blazers guard Will Barton, thanks to a very optimistic lob from veteran Jazz point guard Jamaal Tinsley that forced us to rewind the ol' DVR a few times:

Whoa.

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: Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. After coming back to the Wells Fargo Center for his commemorative bobblehead night, former Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson spoke with CSN's Dei Lynam about his career in Philly, his absence from the NBA and more, including the prospect for an NBA comeback: "I put it in God's hands. He has done so much for me and given me so much [...] The NBA has given me so much obviously, making me a household name, and I have accomplished a lot in the NBA. And if the road ends here, then it does and I am not bitter about it."

PF: Hardwood Paroxysm. After last Thursday's announcement that Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger will miss the remainder of the season to undergo surgery on his left knee, friend of the program Noam Schiller thinks about not only what the definitive end of Granger's year means for the Pacers' chances, but also what it means for Granger's place in Indiana's future.

SF: St. Paul Pioneer Press. Tucked into this Charley Walters notes column is an item about Brandon Roy, who's been out since early November, having two weeks of hard workouts under his belt and planning to talk to Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Rick Adelman this week about returning. We've been here before, we refuse to get our hopes up too much and we'll believe it when we see it, but if nothing else, we continue to appreciate the former All-Star guard's raging against the dying of the light. (Even if it makes us kind of sad.)

Because you are a comedy connoisseur, I don't have to tell you that Cleveland is the funniest city in America — you already know that, based on the existence of the sitcom "Hot in Cleveland," the existence of the animated series "The Cleveland Show," and the former existence of the sitcom "The Drew Carey Show." But even if you somehow didn't know that all the little chicks with the crimson lips love Cleveland's jokes (Cleveland's jokes), you'd be able to tell just how critical comedy is to the city's culture by its clear positioning as the NBA's 2013 April Fools' Day Capital.

Why, just check out this riotous rib-tickler from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Zing! (Image via @WFNYScott)

Oh, man — LeBron James leaving the Miami Heat to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Could you even imagine? (Um, yes, actually.)

With starters LeBron James (strained right hamstring), Dwyane Wade (sprained right ankle) and Mario Chalmers (ditto) all sitting out Sunday night's game between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs — a perhaps not-so-subtle return of the favor from the Heat to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who famously sat San Antonio starters Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Danny Green, as well as key reserve Manu Ginobili, before the teams' first meeting of the season back in November, earning the Spurs a $250,000 fine from NBA Commissioner David Stern — coach Erik Spoelstra was banking on his experienced reserves and role players to take care of business in a pivotal game between the teams with the top two records in the league. On the game's biggest possession, though, it was his lone active All-Star who took the reins:

"I love you, Christopher Bosh."

Oh, man, it's really great to have Andre Drummond back. After missing 22 games with a stress fracture in his lower back, the rookie big man returned to the Detroit Pistons' lineup this weekend. While it didn't lead to a reversal of Detroit's fortunes — they lost to both the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls, wrapping up a dismal 1-13 month of March — the 19-year-old giant at least offered Pistons fans something to be psyched about, showcasing some of the explosiveness and athleticism that made him one of the team's few true bright spots prior to his injury. It was a nice reminder of the kind of thing that you might tend to forget after a player spends nearly two months on the shelf.

Unfortunately, during the fourth quarter of Sunday's game against the Bulls, we were also reminded of something else we might have forgotten ... just how bad Andre is at the charity stripe. Check out the rook's poor form as captured by our pals at the Yahoo! Sports Minute:

Woof. Pulled the string a bit there, eh, Andre?

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: Detroit Free Press. After 22 games on the shelf with a stress fracture in his lower back, Detroit Pistons rookie center Andre Drummond will be in the lineup tonight when Lawrence Frank's team takes on the Toronto Raptors ... and not only that, he'll be making his first career NBA start, too. Get excited, y'all.

PF: Hardwood Paroxysm, twice. If you're a fan of an team that's headed to the 2013 NBA Draft Lottery, you might be watching the NCAA tournament with great interest in the hope of identifying some players that could give your woebegone squadron a boost come this summer's draft. But which players might match up best with which teams for which purposes? If you want the answers to these and other questions, this two-part roundtable discussion with writers from ProBasketballDraft.com seems right up your alley.

SF: Hickory High. Myles Ma attempted to figure out whether the amount of sleep that J.R. Smith gets at night impacts his productivity for the New York Knicks positively, negatively or not at all. The survey relied primarily on the time and nature of J.R.'s Tweeting, which makes it unscientific, unreliable and absolutely essential.

Marquis Daniels just saw 'Garden State,' so, y'know, give him a break. (AP/Jeffrey Phelps)

The NBA season is long, you guys. Months and months of games, with long flights, late nights, lots of video study and plenty of obligations along the way. Sometimes it's hard to get and stay focused — to summon the competitive fire needed to perform at your absolute peak — even in the midst of a playoff push.

That's why Milwaukee Bucks swingman Marquis Daniels uses a little trick his old acting coach taught him — the tactic of visualization — to his advantage. Whenever he feels his intensity flagging in the middle of a game, he just imagines someone messing with his custom van — sometimes keying the side, sometimes kicking the rear bumper, sometimes writing "THIS VAN IS A FART" in the dirt on the windshield — to get himself riled up. Sometimes it works a little too well, and he winds up flat on his back on the floor, screaming to the heavens, but Jim Boylan's OK with that. When you're trying to lock down the eighth seed, it's better to have too much intensity than not enough.

What do you think has Marquis yelling, and what exactly do you think's coming out from behind that mouthguard? Best caption wins quality chamois clothes you can use to clean any van and avoid that "fart" thing. Good luck.

In our last adventure: Real Mike Jameses don't dance, they just pull up their pants and do the Rockaway.

With all due respect to Tyreke Evans and his Wile E. Coyote: Super Genius layup, the real star of the Sacramento Kings' 117-103 win over the Phoenix Suns was Kings center DeMarcus Cousins, who was an absolute monster on Thursday night for whom the Suns had no answer ... especially early on.

Between the 3:48 mark of the first quarter and the 11:31 mark of the second quarter, Cousins was the only King to score ... and he scored 17 consecutive Sacramento points. During that four-minute, 17-second stretch, he shot a perfect 7 for 7 from the floor and 2 for 2 from the foul line, outscoring the Suns 17-12. He scored inside and out, using his quickness to maneuver around defenders on the block, bulling his way to the rim, scoring off the offensive glass and showcasing perimeter touch; he even smoothly stroked a 3-pointer when defender Hamed Hadaddi showed a lack of respect for his range by giving him too much space on a catch at the top of the key. The stretch accounted for half of Cousins' game-high 34 points, which he tallied on 12 for 16 shooting from the field and 9 for 9 from the stripe, to go with 14 rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block in just 30 minutes of play; he sat the entire fourth quarter, his services not really required as Sacramento held Phoenix at bay.

Granted, a Phoenix team that entered Thursday ranked 22nd among 30 NBA teams in points allowed per possession and 26th in points allowed in the paint (according to NBA.com's stat tool), has been outperformed on a per-minute basis by opposing power forwards and centers all season, is playing without injured starting center Marcin Gortat and is, in the words of SB Nation's Tom Ziller, "unabashedly tanking" as it counts down the days before another draft lottery appearance wouldn't necessarily figure to pose the stiffest defensive challenge. And sure, it's not a record-setting run or anything — we've seen LeBron James score 25 in a row in the playoffs against the Detroit Pistons, Manu Ginobili score 24 straight against the Atlanta Hawks and other more potent performances.

Still, it's kind of neat to watch a player, perhaps especially one as (fairly) maligned as Cousins has been this season, just step into a groove. Also neat: Cousins' reaction to being told about his run after the game, and his reaction to his coach's reaction, both of which comes to us from Jonathan Dalton of the Associated Press: