News and Notes: May 19th

Much ado in the NBA world today, featuring a big win by the Heat in Game 2 of the ECF, teams reacting to their placement in the draft, and everyone else still trying to figure out how exactly to define how good Dirk Nowitzki was in Game 1 of the WCF.

Personally, I like to think of it as ‘Slash leaving the wedding in the November Rain video to dominate the guitar solo in the middle of the desert’ good, but that’s probably just because I’m a nerd.

I was sent this post, which basically introduces a new stat specifically calculated to measure exactly how effective Dirk’s game was last night (Hint: it was insanely effective).

Here are some additional bits to chew on:

• Josh Hill with Pippen Ain’t Easy takes a look at last night’s Bulls loss to Miami.
• Sam McPhee from King James Gospel reviews the game from Miami’s lens.
• James Grayson from Swarm and Sting has news about Hornets Assistant Mike Malone and the Golden State Warriors.
• Charles Barkley speaks out about Rick Welts.
• Kyrie Irving elects to skip the NBA Draft Combine. His agent is reporting that he’s working out on his own, suggesting that the Cavs are already set to draft him #1 overall.

Want more NBA discussion? Be sure to follow the crew on Twitter: Blake Lovell (@theblakelovell), Steve Rivers (@TheKidSkoob), Steven Gelis (@thatsthedagger), Marco Romo (@SerenityNowDDL), Andrew Lynch (@snghoops), Dan Jepperson (@Kobesmokey).