Two unidentified Hawks fans watch Game 5 (Getty Images)

The Indiana Pacers/Atlanta Hawks first round series has been miserable to watch to an almost absurd degree. The teams have traded bouts of excellent play with swoons on both ends of the floor, pairing terrible timing all along the way in a series that has featured five mostly one-sided games. Neither club has explicitly slacked off for long stretches, the effort has been there, but sound decision making and clarity of purpose hasn’t been in long supply for either side.

Befitting this expectancy is the home record for each team: Indiana has taken all three in Indianapolis, while the Hawks took two games in Atlanta, extending the team’s home winning streak over the Pacers to 13 consecutive games.

Because of this streak, Pacer coach Frank Vogel has gone all out in the superstitious realm to guarantee that Friday night’s Game 6 will not be more of the same.

(The previous sentence was brought to you by Opposite Day, because Frank Vogel has just about guaranteed that the Pacers and Hawks will play a terrible Game 6 that will end in yet another Hawks win. Mike Wells at the Indianapolis Star has the story.)

David Kahn at the 2010 NBA draft lottery (Getty Images)

When word filtered out on Thursday night that the long-rumored separation between David Kahn and the Minnesota Timberwolves was nigh, many of us giddily rubbed our hands in anticipation of how the outgoing Wolves general manager would somehow make a bad situation worse by talking his way out of it. Kahn has made an NBA career out of insulting others’ intelligence, and in an interview with the Associated Press’ John Krawczynski, he got the ball rolling exactly as you’d expect:

Kahn to AP: "I've taken a lot of bullets for the team and will continue to do so. I'm happy to do it. That's what we're hired to do."

— Jon Krawczynski (@APkrawczynski) May 2, 2013

Martyrdom … engaged!

Not content to sit on that potshot after a disastrous personnel choosing career that left the Timberwolves with the same top two assets (Kevin Love, and Nikola Pekovic, both drafted by Kevin McHale) that were on the team’s books when Kahn entered the fray, David took to the local Star Tribune for a massive four-part interview with Wolves beat writer Jerry Zgoda. The results are expected, sometimes infuriating, with the notable anecdotes too ridiculously to ably paraphrase.

Allow us to introduce you to some of Kahn’s finer, final, moments.

P.J. Carlesimo, in the moments before Thursday's Game 6 (Getty Images)

CHICAGO — Don’t be so quick to discredit these Brooklyn Nets. The Chicago Bulls may be literally limping into the arena each night and losing their lunch on the bench midgame, but the Nets have made all the right moves on their way toward a 3-3 series tie in this ever-evolving first round series. Once again, the Nets needed every single miniscule advantage to win two straight and tie the series, as the team earned a chance at a Game 7 by taking down the Bulls by a 95-92 score, sneaking out of Chicago by the hair of its chinny-chin-chin.

It’s true that Chicago cannot seem to catch a break — the team was already working through injuries to center Joakim Noah and star guard Derrick Rose before Game 5 on Tuesday when word leaked out that guard Kirk Hinrich could be out for the entire series with a badly bruised calf. Following that loss, both Luol Deng and Taj Gibson missed Wednesday’s Bulls practice with a nasty case of the flu, and though Gibson gutted out nearly 18 minutes of play before fouling out, Deng could not bring himself to suit up. Worse for all involved, Nate Robinson was seen getting sick on the Bulls bench during the game.

The Nets took advantage. The team roared out of the gate early behind opportunistic scoring from Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson, as both teams put together an uncharacteristically offense-heavy first half. The various Chicago lineup shifts forced the Bulls to start Marco Belinelli in the backcourt as Jimmy Butler moved up front, and while Butler’s defense was active as usual, the Chicago team defense featured a series of lanes and angles defensively that just haven’t been typical of a Bulls team that at times ranks as one of the league’s toughest teams to score on.

Mark Jackson and George Karl have made themselves the story (Getty Images)

It’s an NBA certainty that a playoff series will become more and more physical the longer they go. Familiarity breeds contempt, and adjustments and changing assignments have a way of forcing both sides into chippy play as teams meet each other for the fifth or sixth time in a just over a week and a half. Par for the course with Indiana and Atlanta, or Boston and New York, and especially the Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies – two teams that have met 14 times over the last 15 months.

Strangely, of the eight first round playoffs series, the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets have outpaced the rest of the NBA when it comes to both potentially dirty play, and the endless talk about cheap shots both during (Warriors coach Mark Jackson brought it up during a mid-game TNT interview) and after the game (Nuggets coach George Karl called Warriors forward Festus Ezeli a name that I won’t even use on Twitter, much less this website).

This is the top story heading into Thursday night’s Game 6. And, as a public service to the greater NBA fandom, I have to humbly offer this suggestion to referees Danny Crawford, Marc Davis, and Michael Smith:

Please, please, let these guys play.

LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal during their MVP seasons (Getty Images)

LeBron James will be awarded the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award sometime next week. I don’t have a vote nor any inside information on the voting process, but it’s as easy a call as expecting May to provide warmer weather as the month moves along, or predicting that Kelly Dwyer will probably give some stupid hipster in a hat a withering glare around last call this Sunday morning. It’s going to happen.

What is nearly as assured is the potential for LeBron James to become the first unanimous MVP selection in NBA history. After a season like LeBron’s it’s entirely possible, and certainly appropriate. And it’s also unprecedented due to the work of one man, former CNN and ESPN anchor Fred Hickman, who decided to cast an MVP vote for Allen Iverson in 2000, denying Shaquille O’Neal a deserved unanimous voting record.

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

FOX Sports’ Chris Tomasson caught up with Hickman recently to discuss the fallout of that non-event:

“It was crazy,’’ Hickman remembers about the fallout. “I got death threats.’’

Brook Lopez has dominated Joakim Noah in the first round (Getty Images)

When the Chicago Bulls hung on to defeat the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday in a thrilling triple overtime classic, the logical assumption had the Bulls following through on their 3-1 lead and topping the Nets in their first round matchup. After all, Chicago’s defense and preparation had made mincemeat out of the Nets at times, with the Nets giving off the image of a team that was “gutless” and “heartless” to those who weren’t paying attention.

Those who were paying attention knew that the Nets won in a walk during Game 1, they had their chances to down the feisty Bulls in Game 2, Brooklyn had an open shot to tie Game 3 at the buzzer in Chicago, and a measly extra point at the end of regulation, overtime numero uno, or the second extra session could have resulted in the Nets tying the series and heading home for a best of three with home court advantage.

Even before Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich went down with a debilitating calf injury, this was a far closer series than most gave it credit for. And now that Hinrich is out for Thursday evening’s Game 6, is it possible that this Nets team should be favored to win the whole thing? Even if it means having to beat the Bulls in Chicago in Game 6 and back home in Brooklyn in Game 7? Even if it means taking three straight from a Bulls team that doesn’t tend to tilt that often?

Possibly. Things tend to go haywire when you lose your starting point guard. Ask the Bulls – they’ve done it twice in 12 months.

David West gutted out a 24-point game (Getty Images)

INDIANAPOLIS – Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but Wednesday night’s Indiana Pacers/Atlanta Hawks game was a one-sided affair mostly dominated by the team that seemed to showcase more effort, with the losing squad sent to the showers after a night partly spent complaining to the referees about calls gone wrong. The Pacers and Hawks just can’t seem to stop playing according to script.

This doesn’t mean there weren’t advancements, as the Pacers downed the Hawks by a 106-83 score in Game 5 of their first round series. The Pacers took a 3-2 lead in this back and forth by recommitting to the inside game, with both center Roy Hibbert and power forward David West (who finished with a game-high 24 points) receiving look after look in their respective comfort zones. The two combined for 30 first half points and 42 overall, with Hibbert being afforded sound low post looks and West picking his spots with both drives and jumpers from the top of the key.

[Also: Celtics outclass misfiring Knicks, live to force Game 6]

By the time the third quarter hit, the Hawks began to sink a bit defensively in anticipation of continued Pacer interior play, which allowed Indiana All-Star wing Paul George and guard George Hill to take over. George had been dominated in the two previous games by Hawks forward Josh Smith, but with Smith receiving his third, fourth and fifth fouls in quick order in four and a half third quarter minutes, George was allowed to pile up his efficient tally – making his first seven shots before missing his final attempt, scoring 21 points while pulling in 10 rebounds and dishing four assists.

Shane Battier debuts his mustache as an onlooker shields his eyes (Courtesy Twitter.com/TomHaberstroh)

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 Basketball Jones. Shane Battier now has a relief pitcher-styled mustache, is officially bored.
PF: Hardwood Paroxysm. Ananth Pandian rolls through eBay, looking for potential Jason Collins buys, and finds out that people are actually handling his big announcement appropriately.
SF: A Wolf Among Wolves. Zach Harper delves into what a Minnesota Timberwolves team would have looked like in 2008 had the team drafted Stephen Curry.
SG: SB Nation. A day after Mark Jackson went off on the Denver Nuggets’ supposed dirty play, Mike Prada breaks down the tape to see just how filthy George Karl’s crew were on Tuesday night.
PG: Gentleman’s Quarterly. Writing for GQ, Eric Freeman discusses the many reasons that made Jason Collins perhaps the perfect person to break down the team sports barrier he bashed open on Monday.