Russell Westbrook was pretty locked in on Tuesday (Getty Images)

Entering Tuesday night, it was completely feasible that even an enthused and executing Oklahoma City Thunder team could lose to the Utah Jazz. The Jazz are rather beastly at home — 29-10 entering Tuesday — and Tyrone Corbin’s team is locked in a desperate battle with the Los Angeles Lakers (who were given the luxury of taking on the lowly New Orleans Hornets at home on Tuesday) for the final playoff spot in the West.

After nearly a quarter’s worth of ugly, low-scoring basketball, Russell Westbrook decided to send a message. It looked a lot like this:

Russell kept trying to send message after message to the Jazz in the three-plus quarters following, and that’s why he ended up launching 21 shots on his way to 25 points, finishing with just two assists and often passing on the easy make for the tougher chuck. Still, with their dog in full teeth-baring mode, the rest of the Thunder could work the offense and take advantage of what usually turns out to be an alternately over-aggressive and step-slow Jazz defense. OKC hung on for the win, 90-80.

Kobe Bryant nearly scored up to his own number in the fourth quarter on Tuesday (Getty Images)

A home game against the lowly New Orleans Hornets shouldn’t come down to needing Kobe Bryant to score 23 fourth-quarter points in order to secure a close win, but this is where the Los Angeles Lakers are right now. Near the end of a massively disappointing season that started with championship ambitions, the limping and often listless Lakers got behind Kobe’s huge final frame in order to eke out a win and move a half-game ahead of the Utah Jazz for a playoff spot on Tuesday.

That’s correct. A half-game over the Jazz for the final spot in the West … and it’s the second week in April.

(And Utah owns the tiebreaker if both teams finish with the same record.)

For Tuesday, though, with the Jazz falling in Oklahoma City earlier in the evening and Kobe doing damage, all was right. Watch the highlights:

Two of the better NBA uniforms available for purchase at prices you can't afford (Getty Images)

The NBA is back in business after a night spent in deference to a terrific NCAA final on Monday night. There are 10 games to take in, all featuring various combinations of busted stars, tanking teams, playoff hopefuls and honest-to-goodness great matchups.

Because this is the internet, we’ve decided to rank each game in terms of watch-o-bility. Click the jump for our viewing guide.

After a scrappy, inspired, and breakthrough performance in a much-needed Utah Jazz win over the New Orleans Hornets on Friday, Jazz forward DeMarre Carroll dropped this line to the media after his significant role in Utah’s 95-83 conquest:

''I scraped my knee, but that's part of who I am,'' said Carroll, who often goes to a fitness club with reserve guard Earl Watson after practice to continue honing his skills. ''That why I think the fans love me so much. I go out there and leave it all on the floor. A guy like me, I don't take nothing for granted and I don't take no opportunities for granted.''

Yeah, we’re guessing that that particular fitness club may be sending the fourth-year forward a heightened bill later this month. Look at what DeMarre tweeted out to his followers on Monday afternoon:

Perhaps it's time to bust out the street clothes in November, as well as April (Getty Images)

For the entirety of my NBA obsession, I have heard countless times from fans about how the league would be better off with a shorter schedule. The sport was originally conceived as a wintertime distraction, and yet training camps routinely tip off during the heat of an extended summer in early October, and the season often lasts until the third week in June. This, to many observers outside of the game, is wearying.

And for the entirety of my NBA obsession, I’ve been annoyed at the catcalls – usually coming from hoops fans that understandably don’t have the same weird devotion to the regular season as I do. The league continues to get stronger, more athletic, and faster, though. And the commitments placed on superstars or even middling players on lottery teams are growing more and more as the NBA lines up its overseas influence and bloated playoff revenue.

Even those that will skip right to the comment section can’t help but admit that averaging 35 minutes in an NBA game in 2013 is far more taxing than doing as much 30 years ago, or even in Michael Jordan’s era. It’s true that modern science and a plusher lifestyle help buttress some of these wearying concerns, but as the game continues to grow, the injuries continue to pile up.

It’s not that these players are wimps, or that they’re pampered. You simply cannot easily and artlessly compare different generations of NBA players for various reasons, and expecting modern NBA players to make it through a modern NBA season without significant levels of fatigue and/or injury is to be overlooking a litany of dangerous signs.

John Wall and Roy Hibbert try to meet in the middle (Getty Images)

The Indiana Pacers, like a few other very good defensive teams like Tom Thibodeau’s Chicago Bulls and various San Antonio Spurs teams through the years, play “soft” on pick and rolls. The team doesn’t ask its big men to over-commit past the 3-point line on an attacking guard, preferring to sag back into the lane and force either the big man setting the screen or the guard initiating the play to take a contested, long jumper. The scheme works, too, as the Pacers are far and away the best defensive team in the NBA this year.

“Soft” isn’t a word that NBA players or teams like applied to them, though. And Pacer big men Roy Hibbert and David West are two of the toughest dudes in the league. So when Washington Wizards guard John Wall let slip that the Indiana “bigs were playing soft” following Washington’s dismantling of the Pacers on Saturday, Hibbert (working without context or explanation) fired back. First Wall’s comments, from NBA.com:

“Just coming out, we talked about it before the game that their bigs were playing soft. My bigs did a great job setting screens. I came out focused tonight and I was able to knock down shots right away.”

Wall sure did. The Wizards destroyed Indiana by a 104-85 score, with Wall coming through with a fabulous night that included 37 points on 16 for 25 shooting and just two turnovers against what is, again, a knockout defense.

And again, devoid of context or explanation, Hibbert didn’t care for the “soft” designation. From the same NBA.com report by Scott Agness:

Rick Adelman is presented with a jersey following his milestone win (Getty Images)

Rick Adelman’s NBA coaching career, if you’ll pardon the cliché, is a lesson in adaptability. The longtime NBA coach has moved through a series of disparate outfits in Portland, Golden State, Sacramento, Houston and Minnesota, bringing sound spacing and pointed leadership to each stop, and it’s brought him great acclaim as one of the NBA’s best coaches.

Now that acclaim has hit the “all-time”-level, as Adelman became the eighth NBA coach in history to record 1000 career wins. That’s 240 more, many have pointed out, that the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise has to their name – and they’ve been playing for just as long as Rick has been coaching. Adelman achieved the milestone on Sunday after his rebuilding Wolves downed the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night, leading to this celebration on a Minnesota home court that has seen more defeat than conquest in a disappointing 2012-13.

Via Pro Basketball Talk, watch:

Bernard King and Gary Payton (Getty Images)

The Basketball Hall of Fame announced on Monday that they will be inducting Gary Payton, Bernard King, Jerry Tarkanian and Rick Pitino into its ranks this September. Though earlier on Monday we lamented the Hall of Fame’s insipid exclusion of Spencer Haywood, each of the particulars revealed in this class are more than deserving of the honor. International star Oscar Schmidt and ABA legend Roger Brown were also given the honor, bestowed by their respective committees, and the veterans committee also elected Richie Guerin to the Hall. Hall of Famer Magic Johnson was awarded the Mannie Jackson Award for his charity work off the court, as was longtime Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit.

Click the jump for a brief look at each of the more NBA-tinged inductees. And once again, we should remind that longer, more thorough tributes to each of the inductees will go up at Ball Don’t Lie this summer, during the week of the Hall of Fame ceremonies.