The Lakers will be missing two frontcourt starters when they take on the Nets. (Harry How/Getty Images)

On Monday, I wrote that I suspected the NBA's disciplinary czars would take a second look at the maybe-possibly-kind-of-sort-of punch thrown by Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace to the chin of Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Knight on Sunday, but that I wasn't sure whether the video would prove conclusive enough to actually punish World Peace. Well, as we learned Tuesday morning, it did. From the NBA's release on the incident, via the Lakers' official website:

[Also: NBA Power Rankings: Little movement at the top]

Metta World Peace of the Los Angeles Lakers has been suspended one game without pay for grabbing Brandon Knight of the Detroit Pistons around the neck and striking him in the jaw, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.

The incident occurred with 1:43 remaining in the 2nd period, of the Lakers’ 98-97 win over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, Feb. 3 at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

World Peace will serve his suspension tonight when the Lakers visit the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center.

The play again, in case you missed it the first time around:

As if that news wasn't bad enough, Lakers fans were dealt another blow right around the same time as the league made its announcement, as center Dwight Howard — who's missed the last two games with a right shoulder injury suffered during last Wednesday's loss to the Phoenix Suns — declared himself out for L.A.'s Tuesday night visit to the Barclays Center, too.

Ah, the joys of being J.R. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

If we're being totally honest, Monday night's game between the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons wasn't an especially thrilling watch, even for Knicks fans psyched to see the 'Bockers finish off their first 5-0 homestand in 16 years with a 95-88 win. The Knicks made as many 3-pointers (six) as the Pistons had field goals in the first quarter, led by 15 after 12 minutes and extended the advantage to 21 at halftime after shooting a scorching 63.2 percent from the floor in the second; while Detroit came within a last-second miss of erasing a similar deficit against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, the Pistons never drew closer than 12 during a second-half that felt kind of like an unnecessary formality.

In paint-by-numbers games like this, every little injection of fun helps. Luckily for those in attendance at Madison Square Garden and watching at home, the Knicks employ noted fun injector J.R. Smith. From Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press:

Things were so easy that Knicks players — though not [coach Mike] Woodson — had a good laugh when Smith threw up an airball on a free throw in the first half. Perhaps seeking some extra shooting, or maybe tougher competition, Smith came out during the halftime break, where a youth game was taking place. Smith tried to defend the inbound passer, then ran up the court with the kids, waving his arms to call for the ball.

That's right — early in the second quarter, Smith, a 74.5 percent career free-throw shooter who's hitting just under 79 percent of his freebies this season, authored about as complete a miss as anything Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan or Dwight Howard have mustered (although not quite as bad the one taken by Appalachian State center Brian Okam back in December). Behold:

Don't look so shocked, DeMarcus. (AP/Rick Bowmer)

With 2:23 left in the first half of Monday's matchup with the Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins received a technical foul for what looked like carping to the referees after missing a shot at the rim on which he thought he was fouled by Paul Millsap. At the time, the Kings trailed Utah 40-32 and were hanging in there with the West's No. 7 seed; Cousins was a large part of that, leading Sacramento with eight points, five rebounds and two steals in 17 minutes.

[Also: NBA Power Rankings: Little movement at the top]

Upset at the T, Cousins walked across the court to ask why referee Tre Maddox had rung him up; teammate Tyreke Evans walked over and wrangled his big man, and nothing came of the interaction. After the halftime buzzer, though, Cousins re-engaged Maddox, and the outcome was a bit more volatile:

The second tech, issued by referee Scott Foster, was Cousins' 12th of the season and ensured his third ejection; both lead the league. As a result, Kings coach Keith Smart didn't have his leading scorer and rebounder available for the balance of a game that went into overtime, an extra frame in which the Jazz doubled up Sacramento to come away with a 98-91 win.

After the game, Cousins explained what happened during the just-before-half chat to reporters, including Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee:

Let's get Derrick Rose some taller guys to work out with. (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBA/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: NBA.com's Hang Time Blog. With the Chicago Bulls having been bitten by the injury bug and possibly considering making a move to add some depth, it's clear that healthy bodies are in short supply for Tom Thibodeau's team. So if, as general manager Jim Paxson has said, injured point guard Derrick Rose needs a "high volume of practices" before he can be considered ready to come back, and the big-league club doesn't have enough bodies to really accomodate that necessity, then why not send the former MVP down to the D-League for a spell? Steve Aschburner makes a pretty compelling case.

PF: BBall Breakdown. Coach Nick offers his picks for the top five power forwards in the NBA, analyzing their individual strengths and what makes them such a handful for opponents night in and night out. (Hat tip to Straight Outta Vancouver's Kevin Lipe on this one.)

SF: HoopSpeak. Josh Smith thinks he's worth a max-level contract in free agency, and whether or not you agree, it seems likely he'll be offered just that when he hits the market this summer. Kevin Draper considers how the Atlanta Hawks forward might actually make himself more worthy of the richest deal possible, and comes up with a potentially unlikely answer — by doing less.

Ballgame. (Brian Babineau/NBA/Getty Images)

The Los Angeles Clippers had roared back from a 19-point halftime deficit against the Boston Celtics on Sunday, riding a monster second half from the backcourt duo of Eric Bledsoe and Jamal Crawford (37 total points on 14 for 23 shooting, nine assists and four steals after intermission) and some cold Boston shooting (just 5 for 14 from the floor in the fourth) all the way back to contention. A 15-3 mid-fourth run brought the Clippers within three with just over three minutes left, and a Bledsoe 3-pointer cut Boston's lead to 103-101 with 56.3 seconds left.

That final minute would come down to which team's playmakers could finish the job. First, for the Celtics, it was defensive stopper Avery Bradley, getting into Crawford's chest and drawing an offensive foul as the Clippers sixth man looked for an equalizer. Then, with the clock winding down, as it's been so many times, it was Paul Pierce:

Thanks for playing, Matt Barnes. Everyone drive home safely.

Pierce's step-back triple fell through the net with 2.5 seconds remaining, putting the Celtics up five; a last-second Crawford 3 established the final margin of victory, 106-104, for Boston's fourth straight win since Rajon Rondo's season-ending ACL tear and their second W since losing rookie Jared Sullinger for the year to a back injury.

With just under two minutes remaining in the first half of Sunday's early tip between the Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit Pistons — to which we're sure you were all glued because there wasn't much else going on yesterday, sports-wise — Lakers big man Pau Gasol took the ball to the basket against Pistons center Greg Monroe and got fouled. Just a few feet away, L.A. forward Metta World Peace and Detroit guard Brandon Knight were tangled up under the rim, battling for post/rebounding position ... and it sure looked like Metta took his "battling" a bit too seriously:

"I guess this building brings out the 'Ron Artest' in Metta World Peace." Well done, Pistons play-by-play man George Blaha.

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed after the scrum and no "Malice at the Palace" redux ensued. World Peace was hit with a flagrant foul-1, the Pistons were granted two foul shots (Knight made both) and the ball (Knight missed a jumper), and the game continued apace, with the Lakers taking an 11-point lead into halftime and barely hanging on late for a 98-97 win.

After the game, the Pistons' sophomore guard was asked whether World Peace's grab around the neck and subsequent clinch work went a bit too far ... and he answered in the affirmative, according to Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News:

LeBron James is a pretty valuable dude. (Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

LeBron James is making $17,545,000 to play for the Miami Heat this year. That's quite a lot of money, but it's not the most money in the league; Kobe Bryant ($27,849,149) is the league's highest-paid player this season. Actually, nine players are being paid either higher salaries than James or the same amount this season — Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Amar'e Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Pau Gasol, Chris Paul and James' Miami Heat teammate, Chris Bosh. Considering James is clearly better than all nine of them, an unparalleled game-changer on both ends of the floor, the league's reigning MVP and (with all due respect to Kevin Durant) the most deserving recipient thus far of this year's award, you can make an argument that he is underpaid. (Many Americans disagree.)

[Also: Celtics lose rookie Jared Sullinger for rest of season]

While chatting with reporters on Friday about whether the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed following the 2011 lockout would preclude future "Big Three" team-ups like James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade joining forces in Miami, the topic reportedly changed to the question of James' value and whether he was being accurately compensated for what he brings to the court. According to ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst, James answered honestly:

"What I do on the floor shows my value. At the end of the day, I don't think my value on the floor can really be compensated for, anyways, because of the [collective bargaining agreement]," James said Friday [...]

"If you want the truth. If this was baseball, it'd be up, I mean way up there."

Yeah, what IS up with that? (Chris Covatta/NBA/Getty Images)

Friday's edition of the Los Angeles Times featured a lengthy, interesting chat between columnist T.J. Simers — whom you might remember from such endeavors as Messing With Mike D'Antoni and Messing With Jim Mora Jr. — and Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant. It's not the most fascinating interview Bryant's given recently — that honor belongs to his mind-bending talk with ESPN's Chris Palmer, but it's still a wide-ranging sit-down that touches on a load of topics relevant to both his career writ large and the nitty-gritty specifics of this year's struggling 20-26 Lakers, who will be without injured center Dwight Howard when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.

[Also: Celtics lose rookie Jared Sullinger for rest of season]

But amid discussion of matters like whether he's worried Howard might bolt this offseason ("Yeah, a little bit"), his own reportedly testy relationship with Howard ("I've been through much worse") and his recently ramped-up quotability ("I find myself talking sometimes and I can't believe what I just said"), the conversation somehow turned to a peculiar quirk Bryant's showcased on the court over the years — the habit of putting the collar of his jersey in his mouth, appearing to chew or suck on it, sometimes even in the middle of actual game action. As it turns out, there's a simple explanation:

He will be remembered, of course, for being one of the game's greats, willing to eat your young, or his own jersey to win.

"It's disgusting, but my father taught me when your mouth gets dry, just suck the sweat out of your own jersey," he says. "There's no bravado to any of it; it's just a disgusting little trick."