Ricky Rubio is so amped about all the fun he's about to have. (Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports Images)

For the Minnesota Timberwolves, what started as a season full of hope for a playoff berth and a leap back into the ranks of legitimate NBA contention has fallen off a cliff. The team has lost 11 of its last 15 games, including five straight after a 90-77 loss to a Chris Paul-less Los Angeles Clippers team on Thursday night, as crushing injuries just keep piling up.

After missing the first nine games of the season with a broken bone in his right hand, Kevin Love made it through just 18 games before reinjuring the paw, requiring surgery that's likely to keep him out for at least another two months. Brandon Roy's chronically haunted knees have kept him sidelined since early November, and it remains unclear when (or if) he'll return to the floor. Key wing piece Chase Budinger might not be back from left knee surgery until March; veteran Josh Howard was brought into help bridge the gap on the wing, tore his ACL and was promptly waived; rotation guard Malcolm Lee is out for the season after knee and hip surgeries.

Things got even worse on Thursday, as starting center Nikola Pekovic left in the third quarter after bruising his thigh and rookie shooting guard Alexey Shved exited in the fourth after badly rolling his left ankle. Neither returned, leaving the Wolves with an even shorter bench and even fewer scoring options; Minnesota managed just 14 points on 5 for 16 shooting in the final frame of Thursday's loss. And all the on-court carnage comes as the Wolves' sideline leader, head coach Rick Adelman, remains away from the team dealing with the awful off-court reality of the hospitalization of his wife, leaving lead assistant Terry Porter to try to adjust to the team's new injury-impacted reality on the fly.

One of the few healthy(ish) Wolves at the moment, ironically enough, is point guard Ricky Rubio, who made his first start of the season Thursday after coming off the bench for a month following his return from left knee surgery. And while people like me might think the rash of injuries is a pretty reasonable explanation for the team's struggles, the second-year pro from Spain doesn't want to hear that noise, according to Ray Richardson of the Pioneer Press:

Joakim Noah attempts to box out Tyson Chandler (Getty Images)

You’ve done it, NBA fans. You’ve done hired the hitmakers – your 2013 NBA All-Star Game starters. Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo out East; with Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin out West. Two sterling crews, with 10 players that truly deserve not only the All-Star nod, but the starting designation. After weeks of worry about Andrew Bynum or Jeremy Lin taking a slot, this was a fantastic outcome.

Now that you’ve nailed it, fans, we hand the baton to NBA coaches to fill out the rest of the All-Star roster. And those coaches, apparently too conflicted to check a few boxes, will no doubt hand that baton to their assistant coaches. Who will then utilize per-game stats and name recognition to send seven reserves to Houston for the game on Feb. 17. Weird, seeing as how they tend to watch more game film before a Tuesday morning shootaround than most of us do all week.

To help these coaches in their quest to get it right, we humbly present our choices for the Eastern bench. Three front court, two back court, and two wild card selections are asked of the voters. Our picks are listed after the jump.

Beno Udrih battles for the honor of all Bucks who came before him (Christian Petersen/ Getty).

On Thursday night, the Milwaukee Bucks overcame an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit and beat the Suns 98-94 in Phoenix behind a 10-point, perfect-shooting final period from scoring guard Monta Ellis. That fact in itself is not news. The Bucks are a solid team, seventh in the East at 20-18 and reinvigorated after replacing not particularly well-liked head coach Scott Skiles with seasoned interim coach Jim Boylan. The Suns, on the other hand, are really bad, last in the West at 13-28 and well on their way to a high draft pick.

It's a major win, though, because it ended the longest active NBA losing streak (in terms of years, not games) of one team in one city. The Bucks hadn't won in Phoenix since a 115-107 victory on Feb. 21, 1987 — a run of 24 games and more than 25 years. That means seven members of the Bucks — Tobias Harris, John Henson, Ersan Ilyasova, Brandon Jennings, Doron Lamb, Larry Sanders, and Ekpe Udoh — hadn't even been born the last time the Bucks beat the Suns in Phoenix. It was also the Bucks' first win in US Airways Center, where the Suns started playing way back in the 1992-93 season.

Oddly enough, the Bucks didn't make a very big deal out of the victory. From Brett Pollakoff for ProBasketballTalk:

It wasn't just the season-high point total; it was how he got them, by making 17 of his 25 shots, including a perfect 15 for 15 in the restricted area. LeBron James set up shop in that little semi-circle throughout the Miami Heat's Thursday night road win over the Los Angeles Lakers, both in transition opportunities created by the 20 L.A. turnovers that Miami forced and in repeated half-court rim runs around whichever Laker defender happened to be standing in front of him — Earl Clark, Metta World Peace, Dwight Howard or even reinvigorated defensive specialist Kobe Bryant.

It wasn't just the assists; it was what they led to, with five creating dunks, layups or open 3-pointers, and how he delivered them, like this ridiculous curling two-hand whiplash bounce pass to a cutting Dwyane Wade in the first quarter:

LeBron James and Kobe Bryant chat during the 2012 All-Star Game (Ronald Martinez/ Getty).

From February 15 to 17, the NBA will descend upon Houston for its annual All-Star Game. With only a month left until the event, the participants at the weekend's various events are beginning to come into focus. On Thursday night, the NBA revealed the stars of the show: the All-Star Game starters, as voted by the league's many fans around the world.

For the third time in his career, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant was the leading vote-getter overall. With 1,591,437 votes, Kobe beat out Miami Heat superstar LeBron James by fewer than 8,000 votes to become the winner of the NBA's ultimate popularity contest. While virtually all analysts would agree that James is the superior player, Bryant is having one of his best offensive seasons in years, leading the NBA in scoring at 29.9 points per game. In 17 seasons, Kobe has now made 15 All-Star teams (and would almost certainly have 16 appearances if they'd played the game during the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season).

[More NBA news: NBPA head Billy Hunter under investigation]

After the jump, check out the rest of the starters, as well as some thoughts on whether or not they deserve the honor.

Rudy Gay, Zach Randolph, Mike Conley and company are struggling. (D. Clarke Evans/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: Straight Outta Vancouver. After a 21-point thumping at the hands of the division rival San Antonio Spurs, which came on the heels of 20-plus-point losses to both the Mavericks and the Chris Paul-less Clippers, Kevin Lipe goes through a very thorough search for an answer to just what the hell is going on with the Memphis Grizzlies, a "team that started 12–2 and has been .500 ever since, and which appears to be flaming out before our very eyes."

PF: CBSSports.com. Nestled beneath a detail-rich report on the independent analysis of the NBPA that must have Billy Hunter feeling tight around the collar right about now, Ken Berger updates recent reports that former No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden is planning on making a comeback next season with news that the Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers are among the teams monitoring Oden's progress. Could Oden wind up inking a deal before the end of this season?

SF: RealGM. Jonathan Tjarks runs through the history of Mike D'Antoni's one-in, four-out spread pick-and-roll offense, considering what's made it successful over time, what can make it successful with the Los Angeles Lakers, why Earl Clark's more valuable now than he's ever been before and why Pau Gasol can probably expect to keep hearing his name in trade talks.

Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant has been a part of the NBA for 17 seasons. During that time, he's seen several different eras, from the end of Michael Jordan's dominance to the recent ascendance of LeBron James and Kevin Durant. The only constant, really, has been Kobe. He's been so good and so relevant for so long that a certain kind of fan — anyone younger than 30, basically — may have a hard time conceiving of the NBA without him.

In other words, he's a constant. It's exactly that idea that gives the new Kobe-centric Nike ad it's power. In the spot, a British woman narrates Kobe's daily routine and performances as a part of the natural cycle of the world, a sure thing much like the sun shining, rain falling, and grass growing. He's a fixed part of our lives.

[Related: Kobe Bryant and LeBron James headline 2013 NBA All-Star game starters]

Opinions on Kobe change, of course, and it's not as if he's the exact same player or personality every season. But this commercial nevertheless nails the Kobe experience very, very well. He really is an essential part of the sports landscape, a defining figure in NBA history.

As if to hammer home his unique importance, Bryant also happened to give an instant-classic interview with Chris Palmer for ESPN.com. The conversation touches on many aspects of Kobe's life, including his belief that he's the greatest one-on-one player ever, his similarities to the common man, and his lifelong crusade against dog poop.

In the question and answer session, Bryant went out of his way to tell Palmer that, nearly 17 full years into his professional career, that he's never come out on the losing end of a one-on-one game. Accept that with however many grains of salt you typically prefer with Bryant, but that's his quote. From the interview:

I love going one-on-one with someone. That’s what I do. I’ve never lost. It’s a whole different game, just to have them right in front of you and be able to do whatever you want.

Check out some other highlights after the jump.

Kevin Durant daydreams about dinosaurs. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

Every team in the league would love to have Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant on their roster. But as a young NBA fan growing up in Washington, D.C., which roster did Durant himself wish he could join? Surprisingly, the answer wasn't his hometown Washington Bullets/Wizards; as a matter of fact, as the 24-year-old three-time scoring champ said during an appearance on Thursday's episode of "The Dan Patrick Show," it wasn't even a team in the United States.

From that interview, by way of Mike Johnston of Sportsnet.ca:

"Believe it or not, I wanted to play for the Toronto Raptors, that was my favorite team. [...] They were a new team when I was growing up, so I wanted to be a part of that," Durant said.

Another reason Durant cheered for the Raptors was because he was a big fan of Vince Carter, Toronto's former franchise player.

"His enthusiasm he showed, just his athleticism, and how he brought Toronto from being one of the newer teams in the league to almost going to the finals. He changed the culture there in Toronto."