A day later, we still don't know what to make of Metta World Peace's elbow and ejection from Sunday's Laker win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Whether MWP purposely intended to fling a violent elbow at OKC's James Harden or not, we can all agree that World Peace put himself in a terrible situation by flinging his arms as he did, that a suspension should result, even as I concur with Eric Freeman that "the exact intent of the action might be impossible to determine."

Metta, as we all probably would have done in this case, took to Twitter for a half-apology/half-save-my-ass turn on Sunday night.

(Courtesy twitter.com/MettaWorldPeace)

Jayson Williams dunks as Keith Van Horn (age 14) and Tracy McGrady (age 12) look on (Getty Images)

For a while, there, Jayson Williams was Mr. Net. He eschewed larger free agent offers to stay with the team in 1995, developing into one of the league's better rebounders -- a more verbose version of Dennis Rodman with everyman appeal. Following the NBA's lockout in 1998, Williams even donated thousands of dollars to displaced staffers at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.; where the Nets played back then. Soon after, a broken leg and broken post-NBA lifestyle resulted in a string of arrests that led to 18 months spent on Rikers Island, a facility he was released from earlier this month.

The Nets did not contact Williams upon his release from jail. And, as you'd expect, Williams was not invited to the ceremony intended to celebrate the team's final game in New Jersey on Monday night. Through a spokesman, though, Jayson appears to be taking the team's denouement in stride. From the New York Daily News:

"I don't think there is a person who loves the Nets as much as I do — from our fans, all the employees in the arenas, the front office personnel and the owners," Williams said through his longtime friend and manager, Akhtar Farzaie. "I will always be loyal to our fans and the Nets."

Gerald Henderson will not make this shot (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: Basketball Prospectus. The Charlotte Bobcats get a fantastic once-over from Kevin Pelton.
PF: Grantland. Jonathan Abrams with an engaging detail of Gerald Green's comeback turn.
SF: Boston Herald. Glen Davis may not have grown up, but he's certainly improved quite a bit.
SG: Alone in the Green Room. The Frank Reynolds Trashman All-Star Team.
PG. NBA.com. Get ready for Larry Brown to chide you, sensually.

Robin Lopez prepares to pick Blake Griffin up and throw him through a saloon window (Getty Images)

TNT analyst Charles Barkley hasn't been much of a force in terms of dunking on poor saps in about 20 years. That's nothing against Chuck. He was an MVP-level player in a couple of seasons after his development as an all-around scorer, and he ably played in the NBA until the 1999-00 season, but his time spent as a Blake Griffin-type ended about two decades ago. His body, based on the type of physical abuse the typical rim-basher puts up with, is probably thanking him for developing that jump shot and that low post footwork.

Blake Griffin is still dunking away without much of a post game to show for it, and though he's led his Los Angeles Clippers to the playoffs this season, he's still a bit miffed that he seems to get hit harder than the average bear on his way towards the rim -- like when Phoenix's Robin Lopez tackled his way through Griffin on Thursday night. This might partially be a function of jealousy, or resentment at the league-wide posters Griffin tends to create, but it's mostly a function (as we pointed out earlier this week) of the fact that Griffin makes just over half of his free-throw attempts. Why get dunked on, opponents think, when you can wrap the guy up and watch as he typically splits a pair?

Griffin is "sick" of the hard fouls, and Barkley appears to be pretty sick of watching Blake get tossed around without much retribution from his Clipper teammates. Clipper teammates that, as you'll see in a video after the jump, are a lovable bunch of goofballs that like to do the robot during practice. First, let's watch Charles look directly into the camera to tell Blake's iffy footwork and Clipper teammates off:

It's been a week since we learned that the Maloof Brothers, owners of the Sacramento Kings, weaseled their way out of a handshake agreement to commit to the city of Sacramento's plan for a new stadium. And if you're not on the up and up regarding what Sactown Royalty's Tom Ziller referred to as the pair's latest "insane attempt at spin," perhaps you can agree with Yahoo! Sports' Marc J. Spears when he details the exact way that the Maloofs are messing with Kings fans:

Yowza. Certainly not worse than "The Toy," Kings fans, but not that far off.

David Stern meets with the press (Getty Images)

From the Houston Chronicle:

The result has been frequent compelling matchups and tight playoff races in both conferences with a week left in what Commissioner David Stern called a "barnburner of a season" during a meeting with Associated Press Sports Editors.

Merriam-Webster defines "barn burner" as something "that arouses much interest or excitement," utilizing the sentence "the game should be a real barn burner" to showcase the phrase's usefulness. Though I prefer to use the description in a comment like, "looks like the barn burner set fire to another barn, and all the cows and chicken and pigs and fireman have sprained ankles, knee tendonitis, and plantar fasciitis from attempting to flee the scene and douse the flames." That's just me, though. Hardly a wordsmith.

Monty Williams introduces New Orleans' 2012 lottery selection (Getty Images)

Fresh start, and a bright future in New Orleans, right? There's that new owner Tom Benson, ready to make it so that opposing teams know exactly who they're negotiating with when they pick up the phone. There's Chris Kaman, done for the season, off the books in the summer. Plenty of cap space, especially once the team passes on bringing back Carl Landry (coach Monty Williams: "We've been evaluating older guys, even when they're not on the floor."), and possibly uses the amnesty clause on big man Emeka Okafor. And the draft picks — O, the draft picks. Slated to mathematically rank third and 10th entering mid-May's draft lottery, with a few games left to lose go in the season.

The hope in New Orleans, we're assuming, is that general manager Dell Demps quickly takes to rebuilding with actual and available cash on hand, filling his roster with free agents and possibly using a draft pick to finagle some sort of rotation-aiding deal. Should Eric Gordon split, the team could see a cap space number in the mid-$30 million range, enough to pull in all sorts of superstar goodness. After one year in the abyss, the Hornets would be right back in that Western Conference playoff bracket.

Possibly. There are other options, though. And fans of the team should not be upset if Demps and Benson don't race out to lock down every in-prime star that accepts their pen and paper. And until the rebuilding plan reveals itself, the team's fans should revel in the organization's true franchise cornerstone in coach Monty Williams.

Joakim Noah, during Thursday's loss to the Miami Heat (Getty Images)

Without Derrick Rose, and with Luol Deng struggling to pull off double-duty on both ends of the court, of course the Chicago Bulls were going to be no match for the Miami Heat on Thursday. The Heat, even without Chris Bosh on the active roster and with Dwyane Wade starting slowly with his shooting stroke (1-6 to begin the game), absolutely loaded up defensively on the Chicago guards, forcing the team into a series of tough shots and completely overwhelming the team's offensive balance. The result was a nasty 83-72 loss.

Chicago, in the eye of this particular hurricane, doesn't seem particularly enthused about making excuses for its play. They're likely looking to a series of makeable open shots that the team clanged, or the fact that this seemed like a winnable contest for the Bulls as late as the third quarter. Maybe the team is frustrated with losing the season series (and, potentially, the tiebreaker in the race for the conference's top playoff seed) with Miami, or the fact that the team has lost two in a row.

Whatever the impetus, Chicago wasn't in much mood to talk following the loss. Normally one of the more upstanding and accessible locker rooms in the NBA, most of the Bulls weren't around to deal with the media after Miami conquered. When the Chicago Tribune's K.C. Johnson, NBA.com's Sam Smith and ESPN Chicago's Nick Friedell (amongst others) entered the room, they found that most of the Bulls had just … split.