Miami regroups, in the midst of a Game 4 loss (Getty Images)

Both the Eastern and Western conference finals are knotted at 2-2, with the home team having taken all eight games in the third round, in a turnout that is either not surprising in the least (that Oklahoma City/San Antonio matchup), and a little surprising considering the matchups heading in (Boston/Miami). All outfits are expected to make all manner of changes heading into what we're legally required to refer to as the "pivotal" Game 5, with potential rotation overhauls, philosophy changes, and even the return of an All-Star (Miami's Chris Bosh) in the offing.

Those adjustments would be fair, and needed moves. But they don't take away from what San Antonio and Miami — losers of two straight, an eternity in early June — need to do most. Namely, play better. Play much better, especially defensively, and not just because switches in personnel or defensive ideals will do the work for them heading into Game 5 and beyond.

No, both teams can blame failing to take a 3-1 stranglehold in their respective series on actual failures in execution, shocking for two teams that seemed to have the NBA by the scruff of its neck just one week ago.

Tyrus Thomas and the Bobcats work in front of a cast of dozens (Getty Images)

It's safe to say that things could not be going worse for the Charlotte Bobcats. Actually, that's not safe to say — Michael Jordan's team could have fallen to fourth overall in Wednesday's NBA draft lottery drawing, and instead came out with the second overall pick. That second overall pick, though, won't result in all-world Kentucky center Anthony Davis coming to Charlotte, despite whatever the hell Scoop Jackson was attempting to get across in his Friday column. And possibly as a reaction to this, the team's declining fortunes, and the 26th-ranked attendance figures from 2011-12, the Bobcats are offering season tickets at an incredibly cheap rate for 2012-13.

And, if you buy for 2012-13, you get 'em for 2013-14 as well. A two-for-one deal. We pass this along not to make fun, nor to sell these ducats, but to point out how bad it's gotten for the franchise, and how it might be getting much worse before things perk up. And what are the going rates? They don't rate highly. From Nicholas Schwartz at Business Insider:

Fans in Charlotte can buy a season ticket for the 2012-13 season — seats are available for as low as $537.50 — and get a season ticket for the 2013-14 season absolutely free. That's 82 games. For $537.50, or six dollars and 55 cents a game.

Jack Twyman with the Rochester Royals, in 1958 (Getty Images)

Jack Twyman passed away on Wednesday, at the age of 78. The former Rochester and Cincinnati Royal enjoyed an 11-year NBA career that included six trips to the All-Star game, and two Eastern Conference finals losses to the then-champion Boston Celtics. When Twyman retired at age 31, with his final year per-minute numbers nearly as stout then as they were in his prime, he was the NBA's second-leading scorer behind the mighty Wilt Chamberlain.

And this remains the secondary story behind Twyman's life and career, in a move no journalist should feel bad about. Because as you've no doubt heard by now, Twyman acted as former teammate Maurice Stokes' caretaker for the last 12 years of Stokes' life, after the former Royals forward suffered significant brain damage during an injury sustained in the final game of the 1957-58 season, cutting short a promising career (to say the absolute least) that saw Stokes average a combined 33.7 points/rebounds a contest for the Royals.

Worse, with Stokes' family hundreds of miles away and workers compensation failing to cover the costs of his care in the years before the NBA developed a strong union and significant pension plan, Stokes was just about left to his own devices as he grew more and more destitute. This is where Twyman came in, organizing fundraisers for his former teammate, visiting him weekly, and essentially acting as his caretaker (while working as an NBA All-Star, while running his own insurance company in the NBA's offseason, and while working as ABC's lead color analyst) until Stokes' passing in 1970.

Orlando Woolridge swoops toward the basket against Detroit in 1984 (Getty Images)

Former NBA forward Orlando Woolridge, apparently under hospice care for a heart condition in the recent months, died on Thursday. The former Bulls, Nets, Lakers, Nuggets, Pistons, Bucks and 76ers forward was 52. The Notre Dame product averaged 16 points per game in just 28 minutes a contest over his 13-year NBA career.

Woolridge was one of the more powerful dunkers in NBA history, an impressive leaper with good enough touch to be expected to rank amongst the NBA's top scorers upon his jump from Notre Dame to the NBA in 1981. Woolridge teamed with Ennis Whatley to form one of the NBA's earliest go-to alley-oop duos, and he was the leading scorer on the 1983-84 Bulls, the last Bulls team for a decade that did not feature Michael Jordan as its top points per game performer. The self-described "black Curt Gowdy" was an avid outdoorsman and fisherman, and the cousin of NBA Hall of Famer Willis Reed.

A video of Woolridge's exploits in the classic 1985 NBA Slam Dunk contest follows after the jump.

Kendrick Perkins wonders if Reggie Miller wants to step up (Getty Images)

Apparently Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins was so incensed by the TNT broadcast trio of Marv Albert, Steve Kerr and Reggie Miller's criticism of his Game 2 defense that he shouted incessantly at the triptych during Thursday night's Game 3 Thunder win. In what became a recurring theme throughout the first two quarters of the broadcast, Perkins could be seen glaring at the announcing crew (the video can be seen after the jump) in the first half of the contest, as a response for their pointing out that Perkins' Game 2 defense wasn't up to snuff because he didn't match up well with a quicker San Antonio team. An observation that Perkins, after Game 3 … agreed with? What?

Here's the Oklahoman's Jenni Carlson on Perkins' little first-half stew:

Apparently, the Thunder big fella had heard about the less-than-complimentary things the network announcers had said about his pick-and-roll defense in these Western Conference Finals. And apparently, he didn't like it. After at least two first-half defensive stops aided by his play, Perkins stared down the broadcast crew.

"Talk about that," he yelled.

Phil Jackson instructs Scottie Pippen during the 1995-96 season (Getty Images)

This is a strange story, but a somewhat believable one. Former Orlando Magic guard and Charlotte Bobcat coach Sam Vincent, according to Vincent, attempted to recruit Phil Jackson to take over the Magic's GM opening before Jackson pulled out on Thursday evening. And, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel's Brian Schmitz, it appears as if Jackson wanted to bring Scottie Pippen along for the ride as coach to fill in the empty seat left behind by Stan Van Gundy two weeks ago, before passing on the project altogether. Schmitz doesn't reveal Pippen by name, as the candidate Vincent named is currently working for another NBA team, but just a short bit of research reveals the former Bulls star fits all the criteria as hinted at by the Sentinel scribe, as relayed by Vincent.

We're starting to enjoy how much Vincent goes on record. You'll recall that, earlier this year, he was sober and sound in his judgment that former Chicago teammate and Charlotte Bobcats boss Michael Jordan may have surrounded himself with too many yes-men to make up for his sometimes dodgy work ethic as personnel boss (ethic that was fine for an owner, but not for a hands-on GM, which Jordan is not anymore) as he took to running the Bobcats, comments he only slightly backed off on later. And now, in talking to Schmitz, he outlined a since-abandoned plan briefly pitched to Orlando CEO Alex Martins in the hopes that it could keep All-Star center Dwight Howard from asking for another trade, or leaving as a 2013 free agent. Here's Brian:

"It drew some interest from Phil," Vincent said. "But in the end, Phil decided to go with another opportunity." Jackson is apparently headed back to the NBA in some capacity, but he pulled out here before Martins had a chance to run it by owner Rich DeVos. Martins learned of Jackson's exit Thursday, but would not comment.

Scott Brooks comes to the realization that he has to do this all over again on Saturday (Getty Images)

Oklahoma City Thunder 102, San Antonio Spurs 82 (Spurs lead series, 2-1)

There is a risk that you run denigrating both sides, two proud and driven and talented squads, by pointing out that one of the teams kind of gave up on what made it great, making it easier for the other side to win. But San Antonio's lack of in-game adjustments in Game 3 allowed the Oklahoma City Thunder to force their way back into this series, taking the Spurs out of their pick and roll bread and butter (delicious), forcing bad spacing, gagging the paint when necessary, and taking advantage as the Spurs more or less let the Thunder dictate the terms of engagement.

Which wasn't a bummer, because it was fantastic to watch the Thunder come alive in front of that home crowd. Mind you, it wasn't the finest of nights offensively for Oklahoma City, piling up 102 points and nearly doubling the Spurs up in the paint mainly because they had so many misses to run out on after the Spurs clanged away, but the team's dedication to aggressive defense was enough to make the difference, and leave you giddy for a Game 4 full of adjustments to the adjustments to the adjustments spurred on by a thunderous batch of adjustments.

It was reminiscent of Oklahoma City's strong start to this series, a Game 1 attack that saw the team force 14 first half turnovers against a Spurs team that was coming off of a week of rest and two weeks of relatively less than stellar competition from the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers. Forcing the Spurs into far more isolation sets after picked up dribbles and initial options that went nowhere, Oklahoma City this time caused 21 turnovers in total as San Antonio more or less conceded with its starters in the third quarter, and its reserves in the fourth.

Lil Wayne needs two (Getty Images)

We wouldn't purport to know much about the musical stylings of Lil Wayne, though we did see him do some rather distasteful things to a guitar once, but we do know that you usually need "tickets" to get into an "event." And if the tickets to the event are sold out, then you can't usually attend the event. And if you're going to make a request for a possible exception to that rule — even if you're attempting to get into a game that has already been sold out for weeks — don't do it with the caveat that you will be requesting front row seats only, all other ducats be damned. Like rapper Lil Wayne did, for Thursday's Game 3 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. The Thunder, with no seats to spare (least of all no front row seats to spare), politely declined. From the Associated Press:

Thunder spokesman Dan Mahoney says Lil Wayne's representatives did contact the team requesting tickets but insisted that he sit on the front row, and none of those seats was available. Oklahoma City sold out every home game during the regular season and playoffs this season.

Mahoney says: "We'd love to have him at a game, but like anyone else, he needs a ticket.''

Lil Wayne, spurned and stuck in Oklahoma City, classily took to Twitter to complain about being denied what apparently was rightfully his (at the last second, with a requested vantage point better than 99 percent of the game's 18,203 attendees):