Richard Hamilton preps for absolutely nothing (Getty Images)

Take away the incredible 142 points scored in the Chicago Bulls’ triple overtime victory over the Brooklyn Nets in Game 4 of their opening round series, and you have a severely lacking Bulls offense. With those numbers out of the equation, Chicago is averaging just 88.9 points per game during these playoffs, worked up mostly against a Nets team that has major issues defensively. Kirk Hinrich, signed last summer to hold down the fort while Derrick Rose recovers from ACL surgery, has been out since that Game 4 with a calf injury. Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli, onetime end-of-the-bench guys, have had to play the hero. Daequan Cook is getting significant minutes in the second round. Chicago needs offensive help, badly.

[Related: LeBron James, Heat frustrate Bulls in historic Game 2 blowout]

And through it all, a shooting guard who used to routinely average over 19 points per game sits on the bench. Richard Hamilton has played just over ten minutes during this year’s postseason, and this is coming off of a regular season that saw the 2004 NBA champion start 45 out of the 50 contests he played with Chicago. After a disastrous run in the first game of Chicago’s postseason run (Hamilton turned the ball over, missed two shots, and a miscommunication with teammate Nate Robinson led to another turnover for Nate), Hamilton has been handed “Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision”-status in seven of the team’s eight subsequent games.

You'd be forgiven for not having paid super close attention to the second half of the Miami Heat's historic Game 2 beatdown of the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday evening. A game that was already starting to get out of hand late in the second, as Miami opened up a 14-point lead, quickly became a total laugher in the early stages of the third quarter and devolved from there into a game that Miami led at one point by 46 points. No judge in the land would convict you for choosing to flip around some.

If you did, though, here's something you missed: LeBron James decided to start dealing midway through the third, providing magnificent service to Dwyane Wade:

... and Ray Allen:

Masai Ujiri in the press conference introducing Andre Iguodala to Denver last August (Getty Images)

Denver Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri has won the 2012-13 Executive of the Year award, the rare NBA honor that is actually voted on by colleagues and front office peers. NBA observers may never have quaked in fear in anticipation of the presence of the 2012-13 Nuggets, and the team may have bowed out of the first round in a one-sided defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, but these Nuggies did do incredible work during the regular season. The Nuggets won 57 out of 82 games despite starting the season with what could have been a destructive road-heavy schedule, all while playing without a single starter that even sniffed the midseason NBA All-Star Game.

[Also: George Karl wins the 2012-13 NBA Coach of the Year award]

The Denver Post’s Benjamin Hochman was the first to report the news late Wednesday night, handing the first African-born GM in major North American sports a deserved award that will stand along Nuggets coach George Karl’s Coach of the Year award as some consolation for an injury-plagued early end to Denver’s season. Ujiri has quite a bit of work ahead of him as the Nuggets attempt to overcome that first-round hurdle for the third time in the franchise’s last quarter-century, but for now the award stands as a tangible tribute to Ujiri and Karl’s vision for a transition-based team featuring a different hero every night.

Klay Thompson exploded into the national consciousness on Wednesday night, pouring in 29 first-half points in a scintillating shooting display that left the San Antonio Spurs stunned and helped propel the Golden State Warriors to a convincing 100-91 win. As we bask in the glow of yet another marvelous scoring deluge from the Golden State backcourt, here are five stat notes of interest from the 23-year-old sophomore's brilliant Game 2 coming-out party:

[Also: LeBron James, Heat frustrate Bulls in historic Game 2 blowout]

1. Thompson became just the fifth player in the last 10 years to put up 29 points in the first half of a playoff game, joining Dwight Howard (31 first-half points against the Atlanta Hawks in 2011), Tony Parker (31 against the Dallas Mavericks in 2009), Ray Allen (29 against the Chicago Bulls five days after Parker's big first half) and LeBron James (Game 6). Pretty good company, dog.

2. He scored more points, made more field goals (11) and hit more 3-pointers (seven) in the first 24 minutes on Wednesday than he had in any of his first seven full playoff games. When you do that, you can fall off a little bit in the second half — and he did, scoring just five points on 2 for 8 shooting and going scoreless in the fourth quarter — and nobody's really going to mind that much. (It's not like Thompson just disappeared, though; his defense in the second half, especially on Parker, was exemplary.)

Good morning!

Goodnight!

[gets back in bed, pulls covers over head, tries to forget those terrifying eyes]

Video via the NBA. Hat-tip to friend of the program Seth Rosenthal at SB Nation.

Klay Thompson fends off Manu Ginobili (D. Clarke Evans/ Getty).

For several minutes of Game 2 of their Western Conference Semifinals series against the San Antonio Spurs, it looked as if the Golden State Warriors were headed for a repeat of a devastating Game 1 loss that included blowing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead. After building a 62-43 halftime lead on the strength of a burning-hot performance from Klay Thompson (29 points in the half, including seven three-pointers), Golden State let the game get away once again in the second half. From the 3:49 to 1:23 marks of the third quarter, the Spurs went on a 14-2 run to cut the deficit 19 to seven points. They looked headed for disaster.

Except they didn't. The Warriors scored six points in the last 67 seconds the period (including a huge Thompson three-pointer at the buzzer) to bring the lead back up to 11. And while the Spurs managed to cut the lead to six points within the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, they never got closer over the rest of the game. It wasn't always pretty, but the Warriors managed to make enough plays late to come out on top 100-91 in the franchise's first win in San Antonio since Valentine's Day 1997. The series is now tied at 1-1 as the action shifts to what should be a raucous Oracle Arena for Games 3 and 4.

[Also: LeBron James, Heat frustrate Bulls in historic Game 2 blowout]

Join us after the jump for more analysis of the game and the issues at play in the rest of the series.

Hey, Miami Heat fan: How do you feel about Joakim Noah, the Chicago Bulls center who just got ejected for arguing with a referee early in the fourth quarter of Game 2 on Wednesday night?

Neat. (Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports/BDL Illustration)

Oh, OK, cool.

[Related: Filomena Tobias, fan who flipped off Joakim Noah, has crazy backstory]

Two nights after the Bulls bested the Heat in one of the most remarkable wins of the NBA season, Miami handed Chicago the worst loss in Bulls franchise history, a nasty, physical 37-point drubbing that featured nine technical fouls and ejections for Bulls reserve Taj Gibson and All-Star center Noah.

[Also: LeBron James, Heat frustrate Bulls in historic Game 2 blowout]

Check out video of the ejections, plus Noah's postgame reaction, after the jump.

The Chicago Bulls' win over the Miami Heat in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Semifinals series was one of the most stunning wins of the season, a case of an overmatched, injury-riddled side out-playing the clear title favorites as if it were the climax of an inspirational movie. It also recast this series as something more interesting than the dominant Heat performance most of us assumed it would be when the matchup was set on Saturday night. The Bulls were given life.

In Wednesday night's Game 2, the Heat did everything they could to obliterate that sense of hope. While Chicago played Miami close for the bulk of the first half, the home team looked far more comfortable than they had in Game 1, relying on LeBron James for early scoring and moving the ball with newfound ease.

Yet that improved start was mere prelude to the dominance to come. After a Jimmy Butler three-point play made the score 42-38 Heat with 3:42 left in the first half, the Heat closed out the period on a 13-3 run to stake themselves a sizable halftime lead. They won the third quarter by a lopsided 30-15 score and opened the fourth quarter on an 18-2 run. From that Butler and-one to the 8:27 mark of the fourth quarter, the Heat outscored the Bulls 62-20 to put the game well beyond reach. The final score of 115-78 makes it the worst loss in Bulls playoff history and the biggest win in Heat playoff history.