When Russell Westbrook went down in Game 2 against the Houston Rockets, the Oklahoma City Thunder knew that their ability to fulfill their championship aspirations would be seriously compromised. It seems as if the severity of Westbrook's loss couldn't communicate just how difficult that path would be.

Despite a late push by the Thunder and several missed free throws by the Grizzlies to give Kevin Durant a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, Memphis escaped Oklahoma City with an 88-84 victory in Game 5 to finish off a 4-1 series win over the West's top seed. They will now move on to the Western Conference Finals to face either the San Antonio Spurs or Golden State Warriors for a chance to move on to the NBA Finals.

Well, here's something you don't see every day.

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Derek Fisher attempted a 3-pointer with his team trailing by 11 points and just over five minutes remaining in the third quarter of Game 5 of his team's Western Conference semifinals series with the Memphis Grizzlies. As Fisher let his corner 3 fly, Grizzlies guard Tony Allen — who was up out of his seat on the Memphis bench and standing before the ball ever moved to Fisher — raised his right arm.

Maybe he was just reacting to the pass hitting the open man; maybe he was actively trying to distract Fisher to decrease the likelihood that the 38-year-old veteran would knock down the shot. Either way, Allen probably didn't intend what happened next:

Yep, that light blue projectile was Allen's warm-up shirt. He was holding it in his hand, and he inadvertently flung it out onto the court as Fisher was shooting.

When the Memphis Grizzlies traded small forward Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors in late January, one of the criticisms of the deal was that they had sacrificed much needed scoring and wing athleticism for the more virtual gain of long-term financial health. Veteran Tayshaun Prince, his replacement, was considered a good player on the wrong side of his career.

The Grizzlies' post-trade performance has silenced most critics, but it's still the case that Prince isn't thought of as an athletic dynamo. On Wednesday night, in Game 5 of the Grizzlies' Western Conference Semifinals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Prince proved that his athleticism deserves some notice.

Dwyane Wade somehow rose above in the deciding Game 5 (Getty Images)

Dwyane Wade may have entered the league less than a decade ago, and his youthful indiscretions may still making national news, but the man has been around for long enough to know how to drag a team to victory. The Miami Heat star worked his 158th playoff contest in Wednesday night’s Game 5, against a Chicago Bulls team he grew up rooting for. And despite a debilitating knee injury that forced him to hit the locker room to “re-adjust” (read: manually move his right kneecap back into place) during the third quarter, he still had enough to put his Heat over the top, and knock off the Bulls on Miami’s way to its fifth Eastern Conference final in the last nine years.

Wade dunked once in that pivotal fourth quarter, but the biggest damage he did to Chicago’s attack came by way of a loping, veteran style of misdirection movement, setting the Bulls’ defenders off course while raised for either in-between drives or long jumpers. Game 5 didn’t provide Wade the finest box score of his playoff career, but the setting and the stumbling blocks were enough to remind Heat fans of what a special player they’ve had the pleasure to have known since 2003.

Sacramento Kings fans show love for their team at this season's final game (Rocky Widner/ Getty).

After a messy, drawn-out saga involving several potential moves, the long-term future of the Sacramento Kings looks near a resolution. As first reported by Sam Amick of USA Today and announced shortly thereafter by NBA commissioner David Stern and his successor Adam Silver in a press conference, the NBA's Board of Governors has voted not to authorize Joe and Gavin Maloof's pending sale of the Kings to a Seattle-based ownership group headed by hedge fund manager Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Initial reports state that the final vote came in 22-8 in favor of keeping the Kings in Sacramento.

While the Sacto-averse Maloofs have expressed little interest of selling the team to a local owner, it's expected that the Kings will stay in the city they've called home since 1985. In the press conference, Stern said that he believes the Maloofs will start talks with the local ownership group headed by tech entrepreneur and current Golden State Warriors minority owner Vivek Ranadive

Benny the Bull is carried in the arms of cheerleaders (Jonathan Daniel/ Getty).

Mascots are an important part of the NBA, serving as furry mirth-makers in a league that often becomes too self-serious for its own good. There's no joy a mascot can't bring, whether it involves choreographed dancing or simply forcing fans to consider the ridiculousness of an anthropomorphic blue blob's existence.

However, the fact of the matter is that most mascots are very similar, both in their antics and looks. It's pretty much impossible to differentiate between the bear mascots of the Utah Jazz and Memphis Grizzlies, for instance, and that's even before you see them jumping off trampolines and high-fiving children.

So, when a mascot stands out as something special, you know that it's done some amazing work. Kudos to Benny the Bull of the Chicago Bulls, then, for being listed by Forbes as the most popular mascot in America (via TBJ). From Tom Van Riper:

George Hill and the Pacers are for real. (Nathaniel S. Butler/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: SB Nation. While we try to figure out what's wrong with the New York Knicks and who's to blame for the 3-1 hole they're in, Paul Flannery takes the radical step of suggesting we take a look at the team that's beating them — the Indiana Pacers, a marvelous collection of defensive monsters and rising talents that's very much for real.

PF: Memphis Flyer. Chris Herrington's got 10 dynamite notes and nuggets to digest before Wednesday's Game 5 between the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder, including a doozy about the Grizzlies' "clutch" defense that had me racing to NBA.com's stat tool to double-check it.

SF: The Classical. Whether he's authoring legendary victories, flaming out during horrendous defeats or just vomiting uncontrollably on the bench, it's almost impossible to know precisely what Nate Robinson will do next, which is what makes him one of the most compulsively watchable players in the NBA, as Jim Cavan writes.

Cute dog alert:

D'awwwwwwww. (Robert Beck/Sports Illustrated)

That's Buckets, a very cute puppy who belongs to Memphis Grizzlies swingman Quincy Pondexter, and who recently tagged to a Grizzlies practice that was documented by Sports Illustrated as part of NBA-feature-writing beast Lee Jenkins' not-yet-online regional cover story on the Grizz. Buckets is a Husky, which makes sense, what with Pondexter having played his college ball at the University of Washington.

As if we didn't have enough to love about the Grizzlies, between their brilliantly bruising play, Zach Randolph being a jackin' dude who loves dogs and is scared of cats, Marc Gasol being a super crafty defensive monster and the whole team's love for cramming into elevators, now we've got Buckets. No fair, Memphis. Leave some lovability for the other teams.

Hey, want some more Buckets? Sure you do. We all do.

Just got done getting up some shots.. Couldn't leave home without my son.. 'Buckets' is a natural instagram.com/p/Xa-9Owml79/

— Quincy Pondexter (@QuincyPondexter) March 29, 2013

Way to close out hard, Buckets. (Photo via quincypondexter on Instagram)***

Off to PetCo.. Bane or Buckets? instagram.com/p/XNEbQ7Gl3p/ — Quincy Pondexter (@QuincyPondexter) March 23, 2013

Hey, Buckets. (Photo via quincypondexter on Instagram)

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