After the Houston Rockets went into Chesapeake Energy Arena and confidently took down the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 on Wednesday, CSN Houston brought gleeful Rockets fans all the relevant news and notes from the big series-extending road win — James Harden's fantastic shooting performance, the Thunder's failed "Hack-a-Whatever-His-Name-Is" strategy, the eighth-seeded Rockets' chances of forcing a winner-take-all Game 7 back in OKC ... and, of course, most importantly, the baby with its pants down wandering out into the middle of the camera shot.

Wait, what?

I'm going to guess that wasn't included in the pre-show production meeting.

David Lee will be available for Golden State in Game 6. (Garrett Ellwood/NBA/Getty Images)

Just 12 days after suffering a torn right hip flexor that was expected to end his season, All-Star forward David Lee has been cleared to play in Game 6 of the Golden State Warriors' first-round series against the Denver Nuggets at Oracle Arena in Oakland on Thursday.

Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com broke the news, citing a source who said Lee "has been cleared and could play limited minutes Thursday night in Game 6 despite the injury." David Aldridge of NBA.com followed shortly thereafter with report that Lee would "give it a go" despite the injury. The Warriors later eliminated all suspense, posting a video of the team running out of the tunnel "led by an activated @DLee042." The 30-year-old big man will reportedly not start, but is available for Golden State coach Mark Jackson off the bench.

The Chicago Bulls entered Thursday's Game 6 against the Brooklyn Nets shorthanded, with starting point guard Kirk Hinrich sidelined by a calf injury and starting small forward Luol Deng hampered by an illness so severe that he reportedly spent time in a Chicago emergency room Wednesday undergoing tests to make sure he didn't have viral meningitis (he doesn't) and that lingered long enough for him to be sent home before Thursday's tip.

Bulls reserves Nate Robinson and Taj Gibson played Thursday, but they were battling flu-like symptoms, too. And in Nate's case, he was battling a churning stomach even on the bench, placing a trash cash beneath him during timeouts and draping a towel over his head to provide cover as he, um, booted:

As one might expect from the man responsible for the Bulls' remarkable triple-overtime Game 4 win, though, Robinson followed his boot by rallying, continuing to play as the Bulls worked to try to close out the Nets and move on to the second round. And he fought

How much trouble are the Thunder really in. (Layne Murdoch/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: The Point Forward. The awesome Rob Mahoney evaluates the six active first-round series, all of which are now knotted at 3-2, and ranks the odds of comebacks from most likely ("Upset Threat Level: Moderate") to least likely ("Upset Threat Level: Chilly").

PF: GQ. Friend of the program Jason Concepcion (a.k.a. the great @netw3rk) presents his Lakers Franchise Power Rankings, one-stop shopping for evaluating who's really in control of the Los Angeles Lakers' present and future, and "your character guide to the most fascinatingly [expletived]-up team in sports."

SF: The Brooklyn Game. Devin Kharpertian can't believe he's writing this, but with the Brooklyn Nets' season on the line in a do-or-die Game 6 against the Chicago Bulls on Thursday, he thinks coach P.J. Carlesimo should start Andray Blatche. And you know what? He might just have a point.

Joe Johnson (left) and Yonsan Johnson. (Getty Images/Sporting Life Arkansas)

One of my favorite pieces of basketball art ever is "Remain Anonymous," in which Jacob Weinstein of the FreeDarko collective presents an all-too-common urban scene of people waiting at a bus stop that's differentiated from the everyday blahs by one key element — All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson, then of the Atlanta Hawks, is standing at the bus stop with them. Yet despite Johnson being dressed in full game uniform, a gym bag slung over his shoulder and a basketball in his hand, none of his fellow commuters so much as nod in his direction — even as a hyper-successful, hyper-wealthy and (theoretically) hyper-famous athlete, Johnson's nondescript name and game rate zero oogles and ogles, even in his own town.

That's the way most of us have probably always thought of Johnson — a professional shot-maker who's always been just this side of great and who, despite the All-Star berths and max money, never moved (or even really nudged) the needle for the lion's share of NBA fans. Apparently, though, that's not the case in China, where a small but energetic group of young people led by one very, very dedicated man celebrate the Brooklyn Nets guard's career with a passion typically reserved for megastars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

From Evin Demirel's story for Vice, a longer version of which originally appeared in Sporting Life Arkansas:

For Yonsan Johnson, formerly Yonsan Uranus, ne Zhu Yan-Qing (like many people in China, Yonson has adopted a more English-sounding name), the inciting event came in the form of the cover of an issue of Dime magazine he found in his military barracks in 2009—he looked down and saw the eyes of a resolute, dignified foreign warrior peering out at him.

Inside the magazine, Yonsan read about Johnson’s great love for the single mother who’d raised him, his quiet manner on the court, and how he’d rather stay home and play videos games than go clubbing. In Johnson, he had found a hero, someone who seemed to embody his country's ancient ideals of patience, strength, and respect toward elders. Johnson became not only Yonsan’s favorite player, but a 6-foot-8, 240-pound prism through which he learned about American culture. Not long after he saw Johnson’s image, he founded the Chinese Joe Johnson Fan Club.

By day, Yonsan is an electrical engineer who ekes out the equivalent of $2,400 a year in a factory in northern China. By night, though, as founder of the JJFC, he manages the Joe Johnson Chinese Baidu Tiebar, which he describes as a forum that has 497 members. In this role he has accumulated and edited what is likely the world’s largest cache of Joe Johnson-related pictures and videos. His life’s dream is to one day speak to Johnson directly.

Before Game 4 of the two teams' first-round series on Sunday, Boston Celtics guard Jason Terry reportedly told the New York Knicks, "You're not dancing at my funeral today." After the Celtics beat New York to stave off elimination, Knicks reserve Kenyon Martin said he told his teammates to "wear black" to the arena for Game 5, since "funeral colors" would be appropriate for the Knicks ending Boston's season. His teammates obliged in a display that struck some as classless, others as tacky and most as the needless prodding of an opponent already sure to be plenty motivated by the reality of needing a win to extend its season.

As Grantland's Zach Lowe reminded us, this sartorial choice echoed one made by Terry's own 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks for closeout games, a "secret tradition" adopted in the Dallas locker room during their NBA title run. As ESPN.com's Marc Stein wrote, "'Goin' to a funeral' was the Mavs' inside joke." Of course, this being the Knicks, Martin and Smith, "secret" and "inside" are bridges too far, so the whole world (including the Celtics) knew about the Knicks' wardrobe and the meaning behind it.

As we know, that didn't pan out too well for the Knicks, who managed somewhere between five and eight minutes of solid basketball on a night where Boston executed and defended enough to win, forcing what promised to be a very interesting Game 6 at TD Garden on Friday even before players from both sides engaged in a little postgame skirmish on the MSG floor. After the game, Martin — who got into foul trouble early, finished with five personals and chipped in just two points, two rebounds and an assist in 13 minutes — wasn't interested in discussing his role as the Knicks' funeral director and stylist-to-the-stars:

Sure, James Harden finished fifth in the league in scoring this year, Chandler Parsons put up a LeBron-style line in Game 4 and Patrick Beverley has proven to be a major thorn in Scott Brooks' side over the past few games, but any major dude will tell you that the real key to stopping the Houston Rockets is slowing down their dominant center, Turkish delight Omer Asik.

So kudos to you, Thunder guards Derek Fisher and Thabo Sefolosha, for standing together in the face of impending doom as Asik rolled to the cup after setting a screen for Harden at the right elbow midway through the second quarter of Wednesday's Game 5. I mean, the sheer force of the collision sent both Fisher and Sefolosha to the deck so immediately, forcefully and dramatically that it's remarkable the Oklahoma City defenders didn't just disintegrate into dust upon impact:

Such courage — which resulted in a charging call against Asik — will surely land these two brave Thunderers letters of commendation from the league office. Maybe with invoices inside.

Later in the game — which the underdog Rockets controlled throughout, trailing for a grand total of 16 seconds in the first quarter and leading by double-digits for large chunks of the second half — Thunder coach Brooks again turned his defense's attention to Asik, instructing his players to intentionally foul the center with Oklahoma City trailing by 10 and 6:23 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Just after the final buzzer of the Boston Celtics' impressive Game 5 road win over the New York Knicks on Thursday, several players from the two teams got heated and started a small skirmish that had to be separated by coaches.

The primary participants seemed to be Celtics reserve Jordan Crawford, who didn't play a second in the Celtics' 92-86 win, Knicks point guard Raymond Felton and New York forward Carmelo Anthony. What exactly was said remains unclear, although the Internet's just chock full of colorful interpretations of Crawford's portion of the discussion, which some self-proclaimed expert lip readers have suggested might be related to the scuffle between Anthony and Celtics center Kevin Garnett that took place at Madison Square Garden earlier this season.

[Also: Damian Lillard wins the NBA’s 2012-13 Rookie of the Year Award]

Whatever words passed between the players, Anthony wasn't interested in elaborating.

"I’m not thinking about no Jordan Crawford," he said after the game. "I don’t even think he deserves for you to be typing right now."

That's a sentiment Charles Barkley shared on TNT's "Inside the NBA" postgame show.

"Raymond Felton, let that go," Barkley said. "Never argue with guys who don't get in the game."