Rich Cho and Michael Jordan, Rich Cho and Michael Jordan (Getty Images)

After a wildly-impressive start — 7-5, a 12-game turn that seems miraculous at this point — the Charlotte Bobcats have faded badly. The team has lost 22 out of 24 games and fallen to second to last in the NBA in defense despite a group of hard-working youngsters, while generally looking outclassed even in a terrible Southeast Division. It’s just fine, though! The Bobcats are far more watchable in 2012-13, working under coach Mike Dunlap, and all indications point to owner Michael Jordan allowing GM Rich Cho to pull the strings as he works up a proper rebuilding plan.

And the reward for a season’s worth of losing? A chance at the top pick in the NBA draft, something the Bobcats have never earned. Because these are the Bobcats, though, some outsiders are wondering if this team should even bother with adding yet another lottery pick. The draft stinks, two NBA scouts tell the Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell, so run away accordingly:

The Observer consulted with two long-time scouts (neither connected to the Charlotte Bobcats) as conference seasons commence in the college game. Each works for a team likely to have a top-10 pick. Each spoke on condition of anonymity because neither is authorized by his employer to speak publicly on draft prospects.

While the two conversations were separate, each conveyed the same conclusion: This isn’t the year a franchise-changer will emerge from the draft process.

You've seen a hundred half-court heaves for cash, but you've never seen one quite like this. During halftime of the Atlanta Hawks' Friday night matchup with the Utah Jazz, a Hawks fan stuck the ball on the edge of the rim from half-court. Pretty impressive stuff, yes?

The ball was obviously a bit deflated from NBA standards; either that, or our man Kevin managed an against-all-odds dead-on corner wedge between the rim and the backboard. It's reminiscent of those old carnival games where the ball is just the tiniest bit smaller than the hoop. (Chances are the fans would have noticed if the Hawks had brought out a whole different hoop.)

[More NBA: Damian Lillard aims to make NBA All-Star team as rookie guard]

Anyway, congrats to Kevin, and he might get a coaching job out of this. The Washington Wizards are wondering how he was able to get the ball so close to the rim from that far out.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

Howard, Nash, and Kobe's numbers add up to the likely amount of wins needed to make the playoffs (Getty Images)

Prior to the team’s game against Cleveland, Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni suggested that the Lakers’ season started over on Sunday, even after a 15-21 start to a (pre?) season that some thought would end in the Lakers losing all of 21 contests over an 82-game turn. Sunday was the 2012-13 debut, D’Antoni declared, which was probably just fine for a Laker team setting up to take on a 9-29 Cleveland Cavaliers team in Los Angeles. The Lakers romped, if not entirely predictably (the team’s 36-game preseason has been that rough), in a 113-93 victory.

It was a hollow motivational ploy to most outsiders. Paired with a sterling defensive effort against a Cavaliers team that ranks amongst the five worst offensive teams in the NBA. An insignificant win amongst the 30 or so in 46 games that the Lakers will probably need just to make it back to this year’s postseason bracket. A game that answered absolutely no questions, because the same ailments that the Lakers face in mid-January were the ones we assumed of them after trading for Dwight Howard in early August.

What else do you want D’Antoni to do, though?

The hoop, the harm and the smooch. (Noah Graham/NBA/Getty Images)

Make a steal, make a fast-break dunk, get the and-one, kiss the girl — it sounds like something of a fairy-tale sequence for a basketball player. When you're dealing with Metta World Peace, though, every fairy tale must have its fracture; on Sunday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Los Angeles Lakers forward didn't exactly throw it down with authority:

Still, World Peace got the lucky bounce, then went looking for a Lady Luck to thank for the kind roll — just as he did back in October, when he strolled into the stands to smooch a fan's hand after making a nice defensive play during a preseason game against the Utah Jazz.

The rip, the basket and the extracurricular activity all added a bit of lighthearted spectacle to a desperately needed victory, as L.A. topped Cleveland 113-93 to snap a six-game losing streak and win for the first time in more than two weeks.

LeBron James pretends that Kobe Bryant does not exist (Mike Ehrmann/ Getty).

The Los Angeles Lakers had a lot of expectations this season and have met precisely none of them. With a starting lineup of four likely Hall of Famers, the Lakers looked like a juggernaut that even the most conservative estimates pegged for 60 wins and a pretty good shot at winning the West. Instead, they've gone 15-20, fired a coach, and looked like an aging team in need of several dozen infusions of energy and togetherness.

It's been tough for players like Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard, in part because there's a lot of pressure on all of them to succeed. But, according to LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, the Lakers are seeing nothing like what the Miami Heat experienced in the aftermath of "The Decision" in 2010. From Joseph Goodman for the Miami Herald (via EOB):

Damian Lillard's coming home. (Sam Forencich/NBA/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: The Columbian. On the occasion of Damian Lillard's return to the Bay Area to take on the Golden State Warriors on Friday night, Candace Buckner takes stock of what the Oakland-born point guard, hell-bent for Rookie of the Year and angling the Portland Trail Blazers toward a surprising playoff berth, learned from his hometown. It's a story about inspiration and perseverance and carrying bricks. This story explains why Lillard is fearless, and it's a brilliant piece of sports journalism offered by Candace Buckner, a reporter we're lucky to have working our beat.

PF: ESPN Boston. Chris Forsberg details the May-December bromance between Boston Celtics rookie Jared Sullinger and veteran Kevin Garnett in a story in which KG says of Sully, "He's a guy you want your daughter to bring home." We're guessing that Garnett hasn't yet taught Sullinger to allegedly say allegedly unspeakable things about his daughter, then, allegedly.

SF: BuzzFeed Sports. Counting down the 11 most difficult-to-explain-or-defend lottery picks of the 2000s. There is an animated GIF in here that is worth the price of admission, no matter what team you support.

Jim Buss (right) and sister Jeanie still believe in the Lakers. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

The Los Angeles Lakers are in the midst of a five-game losing streak that's seen them drop to 15-20 on the season — a record that puts them in 11th place in the West, a full five games south of the Denver Nuggets for the conference's eighth and final playoff spot. After firing Mike Brown and bringing in Mike D'Antoni to right the listing ship, the Lakers have gone 10-15, been the league's fifth-most permissive defense in terms of points allowed per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com's stat tool, won four games by 15 or more points, lost five games by five points or less, and generally been amazingly erratic and difficult to depend upon, thanks in part to an array of injuries suffered during the season's first 2 1/2 months. Their inability to stop anybody and Jekyll-and-Hyde offense have led fans of the boys in forum blue and gold, somewhat understandably, to panic. (Let's be honest: Many started to panic during the Lakers' seven-point opening night loss to the Dallas Mavericks and haven't stopped since.)

[Related: Wake up, Lakers; trade Dwight Howard now]

If the fans are losing the faith a bit, though, the front office isn't. During a Thursday interview with 710 ESPN Radio in Los Angeles, Jim Buss — the Lakers' executive vice president and son of Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss — emphasized his belief in an L.A. roster led by Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, and dismissed any notion of selling off high-priced assets at the Feb. 21 trade deadline, according to a transcription of Buss' interview by Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times:

"How can you not believe in this team? This team is built to win and it's a very, very solid team," Buss said. "In my mind, we would not consider a temporary fix or blow it up. Why blow up something that we have a future with?"

Well, "future" is kind of a relative term — the Lakers presently have one player under contract beyond next season, and while it would sure make sense for Howard to re-up in L.A. for the maximum amount of money and exposure he could get, he's yet to do so. With all due respect to Mr. Buss, this team was built not for the future, but for now, for today, for this very second. So when the seconds continue to pass without wins, continuity, structure or any seeming semblance of inherent identity, yes, people's beliefs start to get shaken.

Not Jim Buss', though. In the radio interview, Buss stressed the importance of remaining calm, citing that rash of injuries as the main cause of the team's difficulties and refusing to succumb to mounting fan anxiety:

After playing the Miami Heat to a 21-all stalemate after 12 minutes, the Portland Trail Blazers had fallen behind by 13 points with the clock winding down in the second quarter, thanks to a combination of offensive struggles (a 7 for 17 shooting mark in the quarter) and difficulty stopping the defending champs (Miami went 12 for 23, with Chris Bosh and Ray Allen finding seams in the Portland defense). With possession and the chance to cut into the Heat lead, the Blazers needed a crisp bit of play. They needed something to give them a bit of momentum heading into the second half.

They needed J.J. Hickson.

OK, so maybe they didn't need J.J. Hickson, especially if he was going to throw the ball a solid five feet over his teammate's head and about six rows back into the stands. Then again, considering the nearest Blazer was Sasha Pavlovic, who's shooting a robust 36.6 percent from the field (just the third-worst mark of his career!) off Portland's terrible bench, maybe throwing this one out of the back of the end zone was the right play.