The Golden State Warriors entered the fourth quarter of Game 6 against the Denver Nuggets poised to complete an inspirational closeout win over the third-seeded team in the West. After struggling to a 42-40 halftime deficit, the Warriors turned things around to take the third quarter 33-20 on the strength of four 3-pointers from star shooter Stephen Curry. The Nuggets looked slow to loose balls and without momentum — in other words, defeated.

Then pretty much the exact opposite happened. After taking an 80-62 lead with 9:11 on the clock, Golden State went scoreless for 4:43 to allow the Nuggets to cut the lead to five points. And while the Warriors did manage to score 12 more points the rest of the way, they did so in the least impressive way imaginable, having trouble completing basic basketball tasks like inbounding the ball and passing out of traps to turn it over nine times in the final eight minutes.

[Related: Bulls, Nets going to Game 7]

The good news for the Warriors is that they held on, making just enough plays in the final minutes to come away with a 92-88 win to knock the Nuggets out of the playoffs in six games. Yet, while a series win is supposed to feel triumphant, the exact form of the moment gave considerable reason for concern.

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.

David Lee will be available for Golden State in Game 6. (Garrett Ellwood/NBA/Getty Images)

Just 12 days after suffering a torn right hip flexor that was expected to end his season, All-Star forward David Lee has been cleared to play in Game 6 of the Golden State Warriors' first-round series against the Denver Nuggets at Oracle Arena in Oakland on Thursday.

Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com broke the news, citing a source who said Lee "has been cleared and could play limited minutes Thursday night in Game 6 despite the injury." David Aldridge of NBA.com followed shortly thereafter with report that Lee would "give it a go" despite the injury. The Warriors later eliminated all suspense, posting a video of the team running out of the tunnel "led by an activated @DLee042." The 30-year-old big man will reportedly not start, but is available for Golden State coach Mark Jackson off the bench.

The Chicago Bulls entered Thursday's Game 6 against the Brooklyn Nets shorthanded, with starting point guard Kirk Hinrich sidelined by a calf injury and starting small forward Luol Deng hampered by an illness so severe that he reportedly spent time in a Chicago emergency room Wednesday undergoing tests to make sure he didn't have viral meningitis (he doesn't) and that lingered long enough for him to be sent home before Thursday's tip.

Bulls reserves Nate Robinson and Taj Gibson played Thursday, but they were battling flu-like symptoms, too. And in Nate's case, he was battling a churning stomach even on the bench, placing a trash cash beneath him during timeouts and draping a towel over his head to provide cover as he, um, booted:

As one might expect from the man responsible for the Bulls' remarkable triple-overtime Game 4 win, though, Robinson followed his boot by rallying, continuing to play as the Bulls worked to try to close out the Nets and move on to the second round. And he fought

How much trouble are the Thunder really in. (Layne Murdoch/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 Point Forward. The awesome Rob Mahoney evaluates the six active first-round series, all of which are now knotted at 3-2, and ranks the odds of comebacks from most likely ("Upset Threat Level: Moderate") to least likely ("Upset Threat Level: Chilly").

PF: GQ. Friend of the program Jason Concepcion (a.k.a. the great @netw3rk) presents his Lakers Franchise Power Rankings, one-stop shopping for evaluating who's really in control of the Los Angeles Lakers' present and future, and "your character guide to the most fascinatingly [expletived]-up team in sports."

SF: The Brooklyn Game. Devin Kharpertian can't believe he's writing this, but with the Brooklyn Nets' season on the line in a do-or-die Game 6 against the Chicago Bulls on Thursday, he thinks coach P.J. Carlesimo should start Andray Blatche. And you know what? He might just have a point.

Joe Johnson (left) and Yonsan Johnson. (Getty Images/Sporting Life Arkansas)

One of my favorite pieces of basketball art ever is "Remain Anonymous," in which Jacob Weinstein of the FreeDarko collective presents an all-too-common urban scene of people waiting at a bus stop that's differentiated from the everyday blahs by one key element — All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson, then of the Atlanta Hawks, is standing at the bus stop with them. Yet despite Johnson being dressed in full game uniform, a gym bag slung over his shoulder and a basketball in his hand, none of his fellow commuters so much as nod in his direction — even as a hyper-successful, hyper-wealthy and (theoretically) hyper-famous athlete, Johnson's nondescript name and game rate zero oogles and ogles, even in his own town.

That's the way most of us have probably always thought of Johnson — a professional shot-maker who's always been just this side of great and who, despite the All-Star berths and max money, never moved (or even really nudged) the needle for the lion's share of NBA fans. Apparently, though, that's not the case in China, where a small but energetic group of young people led by one very, very dedicated man celebrate the Brooklyn Nets guard's career with a passion typically reserved for megastars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

From Evin Demirel's story for Vice, a longer version of which originally appeared in Sporting Life Arkansas:

For Yonsan Johnson, formerly Yonsan Uranus, ne Zhu Yan-Qing (like many people in China, Yonson has adopted a more English-sounding name), the inciting event came in the form of the cover of an issue of Dime magazine he found in his military barracks in 2009—he looked down and saw the eyes of a resolute, dignified foreign warrior peering out at him.

Inside the magazine, Yonsan read about Johnson’s great love for the single mother who’d raised him, his quiet manner on the court, and how he’d rather stay home and play videos games than go clubbing. In Johnson, he had found a hero, someone who seemed to embody his country's ancient ideals of patience, strength, and respect toward elders. Johnson became not only Yonsan’s favorite player, but a 6-foot-8, 240-pound prism through which he learned about American culture. Not long after he saw Johnson’s image, he founded the Chinese Joe Johnson Fan Club.

By day, Yonsan is an electrical engineer who ekes out the equivalent of $2,400 a year in a factory in northern China. By night, though, as founder of the JJFC, he manages the Joe Johnson Chinese Baidu Tiebar, which he describes as a forum that has 497 members. In this role he has accumulated and edited what is likely the world’s largest cache of Joe Johnson-related pictures and videos. His life’s dream is to one day speak to Johnson directly.

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.’’