P.J. Carlesimo keeps calm and carries wait they have more offensive rebounds than us?!? (Getty Images)

It’s a surprisingly under-reported story. The coach leading the fourth-best team in the Eastern playoff bracket, a coach that owns the sixth-best winning percentage under his time with the team, is still being termed as an “interim” head coach. And, for various reasons, both NBA observers, the Brooklyn Nets, and Brooklyn Nets interim head coach P.J. Carlesimo seem to have no problem with that.

Carlesimo is an NBA lifer, coaching his fourth NBA team amongst several stints as an assistant, following a successful NCAA career. As Nets coach, he weathered an up-and-down season from Deron Williams to take advantage of D-Will’s fantastic end to the campaign, and P.J.’s 35-19 record as coach would round out to a 53-win season over the course of a full year. And yet, the Nets have given him no assurances beyond this season, with rumors long abounding that the team would attempt to go for a higher-profile coach in the offseason.

Stuck in a tough first-round battle with the resilient Chicago Bulls, Carlesimo spoke to the media over a conference call on Tuesday, and professed that his uncertain future with the team really isn’t getting to him. It’s hard not to believe the guy. From the New York Post:

Celtics coach Doc Rivers directs his team. (Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBA/Getty Images)

The Boston Celtics haven't played a home game since April 10, when Deron Williams' Brooklyn Nets beat their hosts by eight. They were supposed to take on the Indiana Pacers on April 16, but the NBA canceled that game after the city had been rocked by the prior day's bombings at the 2013 Boston Marathon.

Since those tragic events, the Celtics and their fans have been honored in opposing arenas, and Boston's players have taken the court wearing commemorative warm-up shirts and jersey patches to show support for residents affected by the bombings. But Boston has yet to actually suit up in front of the TD Garden faithful since before Boylston Street became an active crime scene. That will change Friday night, when the Celtics finally return home for Game 3 of their first-round series with the New York Knicks.

[Also: Spurs sweep of Lakers looks inevitable]

With the Celtics leaving New York in an 0-2 hole and in desperate need of a win to get back into the series, you'd expect the Garden to be rocking under normal circumstances; given everything that's transpired in Boston over the past two weeks, it's likely that the emotion in the stands will be palpable and that the crowd will be at a fever pitch all night. That's fine for fans eager for both a Boston win and a sense of release, but Celtics coach Doc Rivers won't look to leverage the highly charged atmosphere to stoke his team's competitive fire, according to Jeff Zilgitt of USA TODAY Sports:

"I won't use that [for motivation], I can tell you that. I don't do that. I don't use tragedy for sports," Rivers said. "I just don't think it's right. We want to win for the city. It would be terrific. But that is not anything I'm going to use in a press conference or with our players. We should want to win because we want to win. If we win, it would be great for the city. That's as far as I'll go with it."

Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan keep an eye on the sky (Getty Images)

In 2012-13, San Antonio Spurs big man Tim Duncan led the NBA in Defensive Rating (an estimate of how many points an individual defender allows per 100 possessions spent guarding someone). His Defensive Win Shares shot way up to their highest mark in years, and he was the guiding on-court force behind a Spurs team that jumped from 10th in defensive efficiency last year to third this season. As the San Antonio Express News’ Mike Monroe pointed out, Duncan’s blocks per minute were the highest in his career by a wide margin … and the guy just turned 37 on Thursday.

Amazing. So why did NBA voters essentially rank Duncan as the league’s sixth-best defender on Wednesday? Because of a voting system that both Duncan teammate Manu Ginobili and Duncan appreciator Kelly Dwyer see as flawed. From Monroe’s report at Spurs Nation:

“It is the toughest award they give away because players don’t vote,” Ginobili said. “It’s the player that [goes] against other players who know. Sometimes the best rebounder is not the best defender; or the best in steals is not a great defender. He just gambles a lot.

“It could be [an award for players to choose], but it’s been going on for so many years. It’s not that I’m complaining, but probably we do know better than the media.”

The defensive principle, illustrated. (Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports)Matt Bonner kind of disappeared from the San Antonio Spurs' rotation earlier this season, averaging just over nine minutes per game between early December and late January. As the campaign wore on, though, injuries cropped up and minutes required management, leading to Bonner being bumped up the bench and averaging a little over 16 minutes per game over his final 33 appearances.

He's nearly doubled that thus far in the 2013 NBA playoffs, because while Bonner doesn't necessarily rush to mind when you think of the league's premier post defenders — although he's better than you think, ranking among the league's top 50 players in points allowed per post-up possession defended over the last two seasons, according to Synergy Sports Technology's game-charting data — he's been called upon by coach Gregg Popovich to play a bigger role against the Los Angeles Lakers' frontcourt duo of Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. By and large, Bonner's held his own, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds in each of the series' first two games, and he even added three steals and a block in the Spurs' Game 2 win.

He's had to pay the price for it at times — like when Howard waylaid him with an unwhistled elbow on Wednesday — but he's held up better than some might have expected. So what's the key to Bonner's defensive work? The "Red Mamba" reached back to the '90s for the answer, according to Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News:

He made shots Wednesday, which is what he does best. But he mostly made Dwight Howard work when he didn’t make him mad.

Bonner called it, for those who would like to Google the phrase, “Chumbawamba defense.”

Personally, Buck, I'd prefer they'd Yahoo! the phrase. Or, y'know, they could just check out the explanation Bonner offered by NBA.com's Fran Blinebury:

Sometimes it's fun to note how much work can go into making something simple happen. Case in point: This sweet alley-oop hookup between Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard early in the second quarter of Wednesday's Game 2 between the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers.

As the ball crosses half-court, Parker fires a pass to guard Gary Neal on the right wing. Meanwhile, Danny Green runs to the paint on the right side of the floor and runs defender Metta World Peace into teammate Antawn Jamison. Green then sprints up to set a high screen for Neal, who dribbles left and passes to Leonard above the break on the left wing, as Parker circles from above the arc on the right side down along the baseline to the left corner to receive a feed from Leonard. Tim Duncan, who began the play by setting a soft high pick for Parker before retreating to the left block, takes a slight step forward to set up directly behind Jamison, who has no idea he's there.

Leonard makes a quick cut to the middle of the floor, which has been cleaned, paved and swept by the attention demanded by Parker and Duncan on the strong side and the action of Neal and Green on the weak side. Parker lofts the lob, Jamison tries to step around Duncan but is about an eon late to recover, World Peace is two steps slow to rotate to the cutter and Leonard's got a loud, stylish slam set up by about eight precise movements unfolding in the span of nine seconds (and, of course, some ball-watching Lakers defense). Tic, tac, toe.

The Houston Rockets faced a serious challenge heading into Game 2 of their opening-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. After getting blown out 120-91 in Game 1, Houston needed an excellent performance and several breaks. For the most part, they got the game they needed, riding a small-ball lineup and a successful 2-3 zone to come back from a 15-point deficit and take a four-point lead in the fourth quarter. And while the Thunder fought back to lead 98-97 with just over a minute left in regulation, the Rockets had to feel good about their chances in a very tough road contest.

Unfortunately, they were on the wrong side of one of the worst breaks a team can get. With 60 seconds on the clock, Kevin Durant drove left, drew the attention of the Houston defense and found a wide open Thabo Sefolosha on the right wing for a game-changing 3-pointer. The shot pushed the lead to two possessions, and the Rockets never got a real possession with the lead at three points or less again (Carlos Delfino's 81-foot heave at the buzzer would have tied the game, but that doesn't really count). The Thunder won 105-102, and this basket was a big reason why.

However, video evidence shows that Sefolosha's shot probably shouldn't have counted. He was so open in part because Thunder center Kendrick Perkins grabbed the right arm of Houston wing Chandler Parsons as he attempted to close out on the shot. Both Parsons and Rockets head coach Kevin McHale complained after the play, but their cries fell on deaf ears.

[Also: Spurs sweep of Lakers looks inevitable]

Watch the video above, and follow us after the jump for more discussion of the play and its impact.