LeBron James on Monday evening (Getty Images)

Despite the team’s reputation as hungry, young defensive go-getters, the Charlotte Bobcats are the NBA’s worst defensive team. They rank 30th out of 30 teams on that end, featuring an array of smallish guards and wings that have major trouble funneling scorers into defensive help from Bismack Biyombo, Tyrus Thomas, Jeff Adrien, and the much-missed Byron Mullens.

[Video: Warriors 'dark horse' in West]

This shouldn’t devalue in any way the performance that LeBron James put on during Miami’s 99-94 win over Charlotte on Monday night. The league’s reigning MVP shot 13-14 from the field, only missing a short jumper in the third quarter (that James claimed to be fouled on, ‘natch), and we have video from his brilliant 31-point, eight-assist night right here:

What's it going to take for Chris Paul to get you into this Toyota? (Chris Graythen/ Getty)

At this point, most of the NBA is on Twitter. It's a wild world of training updates, questions as to which movies they should go see, and explanations of their Call of Duty prowess. Every so often, though, you also get a picture into the more interesting aspects of NBA life. This feature is your window into that world.

As usual, America can't stop talking about the commercials of the Super Bowl. Among that group, Dodge's "Farmer" has been one of the most discussed spots. Over the past day, several NBA players have weighed in.

Let's get Derrick Rose some taller guys to work out with. (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: NBA.com's Hang Time Blog. With the Chicago Bulls having been bitten by the injury bug and possibly considering making a move to add some depth, it's clear that healthy bodies are in short supply for Tom Thibodeau's team. So if, as general manager Jim Paxson has said, injured point guard Derrick Rose needs a "high volume of practices" before he can be considered ready to come back, and the big-league club doesn't have enough bodies to really accomodate that necessity, then why not send the former MVP down to the D-League for a spell? Steve Aschburner makes a pretty compelling case.

PF: BBall Breakdown. Coach Nick offers his picks for the top five power forwards in the NBA, analyzing their individual strengths and what makes them such a handful for opponents night in and night out. (Hat tip to Straight Outta Vancouver's Kevin Lipe on this one.)

SF: HoopSpeak. Josh Smith thinks he's worth a max-level contract in free agency, and whether or not you agree, it seems likely he'll be offered just that when he hits the market this summer. Kevin Draper considers how the Atlanta Hawks forward might actually make himself more worthy of the richest deal possible, and comes up with a potentially unlikely answer — by doing less.

Stephen Curry (Gary Dineen/ Getty)Most every Thursday on TNT's "Inside the NBA," America's sweetheart Charles Barkley criticizes teams that take too many jump shots. By his reasoning, NBA games are won in the paint, not on the perimeter, because that's a more dependable way to score. This opinion is grounded in Barkley's own experience as a power forward, but it's also conventional basketball wisdom.

Nevertheless, there are good teams that subsist primarily on jump shots. For instance, take the Golden State Warriors, something of a surprise this season at 30-17 and fifth in the West. With Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the Warriors take a lot of jumpers. So far, it's working out for them just fine.

But is that a long-term problem? Ethan Sherwood Strauss of WarriorsWorld considers the team's approach:

One year ago today, on Feb. 4 2012, Jeremy Lin came off the New York Knick bench and completely turned the NBA on its ear. The previously unheralded D-League call-up entered a contest against the then-New Jersey Nets with his team already down 10, and completely took over the game. Lin finished with 25 points in the 99-92 Knick win, offering seven assists and five rebounds along the way. Smartly taking a cue from Lin and adding to his resume as one of the great scribes in NBA history, the New York Times’ Howard Beck nailed the moment:

At some point in this frantic and peculiar season, a less likely, less expected story may arise from the chaos. But it will be difficult to beat a night when an undrafted prospect from Harvard took over Madison Square Garden, outshined three of the N.B.A.’s biggest stars and ignited an instant love affair with New York.

It happened Saturday night, although even the 17,763 in attendance might still doubt what they saw.

Jim Goldstein, in all his glory (Getty Images)

SLAM contributor and all-around super-fan Myles Brown was the first to notice that NBA super-fan Jim Goldstein, in the news of the day, has created a Twitter account. Goldstein, an architectural maven that has been a fixture at NBA playoff games for years, is currently in Cambodia and not exactly dropping a wealth of NBA knowledge on his feed, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to tell you not to follow the guy. He remains one of the league’s most lovable curios, and most recognizable figures.

He’s also, alligator-skin jackets and arm candy aside, a guy that knows and loves the NBA inside and out. Though Goldstein gives away very little as to background about where and how he accrued his wealth (The Wall St. Journal estimates that Goldstein could be a billionaire, based off of shrewd work in the California real estate market), he parlayed a childhood gig working as a statistician for the Milwaukee Hawks into a lifelong obsession with the NBA. In a recent and very good interview with Derek Blasberg at Interview, NBA commissioner David Stern discusses one of his more unique NBA obsessives:

“James Goldstein is our largest investor in NBA tickets in the world,” says David Stern, commissioner of the NBA. “And, he’s the most uniquely dressed fan.” “He has a true love for fashion,” adds Jean Paul Gaultier, whose shows Goldstein has attended for years. “It’s reflected in the confident and unique way he dresses.”

Though Goldstein lives in California and owns season tickets to both Lakers and Clippers games, throughout the NBA's three-month playoff run he can be seen courtside at various arenas, mostly in the Western conference. Goldstein professes not to have a favorite team, and he remains a silent observer throughout most of the contests he attends -- rarely interacting with referees or making a scene.

[Also: Are the Lakers using Steve Nash correctly?]

Outside of that night's outfit, of course. Click the jump to take in some of the Goldstein glory years.

Kevin Garnett glares at his pal Blake Griffin (Getty Images)

On Sunday the Sporting News reported that the Boston Celtics had engaged in some discussions with the Los Angeles Clippers about possibly moving legendary big man Kevin Garnett to the Clips. On some levels, the rumored discussions checked off on all the boxes rumors need to. The Celtics are without Rajon Rondo for the foreseeable future, and even before Rondo’s season-ending ACL tear (and Boston’s four game winning streak following it) the team was struggling with its aging core. KG still has loads of game, All-Star level-game, and it would still find a home with a Clippers team that could still use some defensive mettle. On top of that, Garnett keeps an offseason home in Malibu.

Monday rolled around, though, and reports from both the Celtics and Clippers camps poured cold water on the KG-to-L.A. talk; though to be fair to Sporting News reporter Sean Deveney he went out of his way to de-hype his initial report as much as possible. SB Nation’s Paul Flannery wrote on Monday morning that the C’s “had no interest,” and that “it would take a lot more than that to get KG out of Boston and that’s before anyone gets around to asking him if he wanted to waive his no-trade clause to make it happen.” Eric Bledsoe and Caron Butler were reported to be the bounty, and while we think that the Celtics (and know that Flannery) appreciates Bledsoe’s remarkable all-around game, this is still Kevin Garnett we’re talking about.

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From out of California, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne tweeted that there’s not a lot of talking about Kevin Garnett going on at all:

Joakim Noah and Dwight Howard keep their eye on the hand (Getty Images)

We’re past the midpoint of the NBA season by now, about to dive into the whirlwind that tends to hit as teams try to tick off extra wins before the All-Star break and before the Feb. 21 trade deadline. Complicating matters for three significant teams is the health of All-Star big men Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, and Joakim Noah. All three have missed recent games, and all three act as a linchpin defensively for teams that rank from the very good to very poor to outright dominant on that end.

Tim Duncan’s injury is the least stressful of the three -- though all of San Antonio looked on in stunned silence as he limped to the locker room in partway into Saturday’s 96-86 win over the Washington Wizards. Wizards wing Martell Webster fell into Duncan’s legs, often a guaranteed ligament killer, but an MRI performed on Sunday revealed no structural damage in Duncan’s left knee. Duncan also rolled his right ankle on the play, which could keep him out for Wednesday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

[More NBA: Happy Happy one-year anniversary, 'Linsanity' (video)]

Luckily for San Antonio, that’s the only contest between the Wizards win and a trip to meet the lowly Detroit Pistons on Friday. The team has three days off in between current contests, an eternity at this point in the NBA’s year.