The incident occurred with 3:00 remaining in the third quarter of the Celtics’ 96-81 loss to the Detroit Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Feb. 19.

Rondo will serve his suspension tonight when the Celtics play the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center and Wednesday, Feb. 22 when Boston plays the Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

In helping guide the Celtics to a 4-0 week, Pierce averaged a team-high 22.0 points to go along with 6.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds. In Boston’s 91-89 home win over New York Friday, Pierce scored a game-high 30 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists.

Parker averaged team highs in points (22.3 ppg), assists (8.0 apg) and steals (1.5 spg), as the Spurs went 4-0. Parker scored a season-high 42 points and added nine assists Saturday in a 107-96 win over the NBA’s top team, the Oklahoma City Thunder. In the process, Parker passed Avery Johnson as the franchise’s all-time leader in assists.

Kia NBA Tip-Off ’11 will launch on TNT with one of the NBA’s oldest and most intense rivalries. The Boston Celtics, featuring their All-Star foursome of Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Rajon Rondo, visit the New York Knicks (12 p.m. ET) with their dynamic tandem of Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire. Kia Motors, the Official Automotive Partner of the NBA, is in its second consecutive season as the title partner of NBA Tip-Off.

The action then will shift to ABC for an afternoon doubleheader when in a rematch of The Finals, 2011 Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki and All-Star Jason Kidd lead the reigning champion Dallas Mavericks against the Miami Heat and its power trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in the first game (2:30 p.m. ET). Prior to tip-off, Dallas will raise its NBA championship banner. The second game features 2011 Kia NBA MVP Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls, who won a league-best 62 games last season, visiting the Los Angeles Lakers (5 p.m. ET) with perennial All-Star Kobe Bryant making his record-tying 13th Christmas Day appearance.

ESPN will round out the day with a pair of matchups. Two-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant leads the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Orlando Magic, which features three-time Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard (8 p.m. ET). Afterward, the Los Angeles Clippers and 2010-11 NBA Rookie of the Year Blake Griffin visit the Golden State Warriors and rookie head coach and former NBA great Mark Jackson (10:30 p.m. ET).

ESPN UK have yet to announce their game schedule.

Firstly, here’s my official winners, with an almost-serious Bold Prediction for each:

East

Boston vs Miami

Miami in 5.

A wing-centric series, LeBron James will post a trip-dub. Rajon Rondo will come close to one but fall shy on rebounds by three or less.

Atlanta vs Chicago

Chicago in 6.

Carlos Boozer will return from his turf toe to post a near 20/20 with more than 15 points and rebounds.

West

Dallas vs Los Angeles

Los Angeles in 6.

Tyson Chandler has been a huge difference-maker for Dallas this season, but the difference here will be Andrew Bynum and his double-double average for the series.

Unless…

Memphis vs Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City in 5.

The Grizzlies are gritty and physical, and Kendrick Perkins can’t guard both Gasol the Greater and Z-Bo at the same time. However, this one will be decided on the perimeter. In one game Shane Battier will hold Kevin Durant to 20 points or less, and in another KD will drop 50.

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How to flip the script

Boston

With a Zombie Jermaine O’Neal and an always-hobbled Other O’Neal anchoring the defense after Danny Ainge inexplicably decided to implode what may have been the best team in the league at the time by trading away Perkins, the Celtics would need 2008 DPoY Kevin Garnett to hop into the Hot Tub Time Machine to take this series.

Rondo and Garnett would need to own the paint against the league’s sixth-best paint defense team this season, the Heat, hooking up for alley oops as they did when only the Chris Paul-to-Tyson Chandler connection could compete in that rare air of yesteryear.

Atlanta

The Atlanta Hawks have never been out of the second round of the playoffs. Ever.

Pretty much the only way they’re doing so this season is if the Bulls suddenly decide they’re just too green make a move yet. This is the farthest the Derrick Rose-led Bulls have yet been in the postseason, but they’re extremely balanced and well coached.

This marks the second straight series that rookie head coach Tom Thibodeau goes head-to-head with another rookie head coach, this time Larry Drew. Thibs seemed a little lost a times versus Frank Vogel and the Indiana Pacers.

Dallas

…Andrew Bynum goes down, as he is apt to do. This would result in Lakers Fan dubbing him Brittle Bynum as they collectively dash their free samples of Lamar Odom’s “Unbreakable” all over the SoCal streets.

We’ve had the Lakers’ length pounded into our skulls for years now, and there’s some speculation that Mavs coach Rick Carlisle will be forced to counter with a large lineup of Chandler, Haywood, and Dirk in order to compete.

However, I believe Shawn Marion can make a huge impact in this series in regards to Lamar Odom.

Odom (left) and Marion's (right) impact when on the court together

Look what happens to Odom’s numbers when Marion goes to the bench.

Memphis

Ibaka will struggle with Zach Randolph. Consequently, coach Scott Brooks will have to switch the scowling Perk onto him at times. This has the unfortunate result of freeing up Marc Gasol who has picked up the slack in a big way when Z-Bo takes stretches off, as he inevitably will.

However, this one will be decided on the perimeter.

If Durant gets hot there’s no stopping him, but if anyone can force the ball into Russell Westbrook’s hands, making him fancy himself a hero, it’s Shane Battier and his opponent PER of 10.0.

If we get this Tony Allen defending Westbrook the Thunder could fizzle with a whimper.

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You can follow Clint on Twitter at @Clintonite33

Would the outcome have been any different with the Knicks’ leader and best player at 100%? The brutal (if you’re a New York fan) or obvious (if you are anyone else) is a resounding “no”.

People may point to games 1 and 2 in Boston as proof the Knicks could hang with their higher-seeded opponents. But remember how badly the Celtics played in those opening games. And then remember how well the Knicks played only – thanks in the main to their mediocre late-game execution – to lose anyway.

Like an FA Cup game between a Premier League team and a side from the lower divisions of English football, New York had to play above themselves while the Celtics fell below their usual standards for the series to be close. Games 1 and 2 proved that can happen occasionally. Games 3 and 4 proved that sort of thing never lasts for the length of a series.

The manner in which Boston raised their game once they arrived in Madison Square Garden was impressive. Rajan Rondo controlled the game. Kevin Garnett took care of the intangibles. And Paul Pierce and Ray Allen shot like true assassins. All this while the Knicks took to the court with no point guard and an ailing superstar.

Which is why I can live with getting swept. More than anything this season, I wanted the Knicks to eradicate their statistical list of shame. Ten years since a winning season? Sorted. Seven years since their last playoff appearance? Never again. A decade since they last won a playoff game? That one is going to have to wait for a season. Still, two out of three ain’t bad.

Besides, the Knicks have too much to worry about in the coming weeks to sit around moping about being swept on their own floor.
First order of business is the future of Chauncey Billups. By the terms of his contract, the veteran guard’s future must be decided in the next few days. Either the Knicks pick up his $14m option or pay him just shy of $4m to take his talents elsewhere.

In Billups’ favour, he brings veteran leadership, a winning mentality and a playing relationship with Carmelo Anthony. On the flip, he is two steps slower than the player that took Detroit to a championship, took more time than anyone expected to get used to Mike D’Antoni’s methods and, most worryingly of all, is at that age when injuries take that much longer to recover from.

Could Billups’ $14m price tag be better spent on $4m to pay the point guard off and using the remaining cash to acquire a more durable point guard and a genuinely useful starting center? Maybe. Would a younger point guard be respected by Melo and Amare as much? I doubt it.

The addition of a tough Raymond Felton-like pick and roll point guard and Marc Gasol is not financially viable – especially given Gasol’s stellar playoff play at the time his contract is due to expire.

For what the Knicks will likely be able to afford, the defensive big man they so badly require is more likely to be someone like DJ Mbenga or Jeff Foster. Serviceable but not spectacular.

All of which brings things to the second – and most important – order of business. Whatever happens with Billups and potential additions to the roster, what remains essential is that Donnie Walsh remains as the man who makes these decisions.
Only the Knicks, or more accurately owner James Dolan, with an all-world executive at the helm fulfilling his remit of returning the franchise to non-lottery, winning seasons would fail to have locked up the man who made it possible.

If Walsh is forced to walk away in the off-season, all the (relative) stability at Madison Square Garden flies out of the window. The future becomes unclear. The chaos of the recent past (which I’ve visited far too many times and doesn’t need repeating) looms again.

But what if Walsh stays? Will he be able to acquire the aforementioned point guard and center to shore up the Knicks’ porous (and that is being generous) defence? If he does, would D’Antoni be able to fit them into his offence? Would the offence-preaching coach even play these players? Would he, in what would be an unprecedented move given his career history, even try adapt his coaching principles?

As always with the Knicks, there are more questions than answers. At least in the cases of Billups and Walsh, we won’t have to wait too long to find out what’s happening.

The 2010/11 season may have ended with a sweep but that doesn’t make it a failure. The Knicks improved by 13 wins, acquired two all-stars and went some way to erasing the doom-laden Clipper-esque statistics that have dogged them for the past decade.
More importantly, they have the potential to get much, much better. Only the front office will decide if this potential is to be realised. And Donnie Walsh must be the man making those crucial decisions.

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There were a few of us believers in the Memphis Grizzlies in this particular postseason. The Grizz have now won four of the last five meetings against the aged Spurs going back to since Rudy was knocked out the remainder of this season’s competition.

So how are they doing it?

With superior, more physical matchups.

Mike Conley has handled Tony Parker better than most believed he was capable of, and Gasol the Greater has dominated Tim Duncan, who crossed the threshold of maximum efficiency minutes, 35,000, late last season.

A short aside: I happened to be tracking Duncan’s career minutes at the time. It was eery how his numbers suddenly dropped off a cliff, virtually at the exact moment his mileage reached critical mass in March of 2010.

Duncan’s points and rebounds by month last season: Nov. 19.7 and 10.3, Dec. 21.1 and 9.8, Jan. 19.5 and 11.5, Feb. 16.7 and 11.9, and the plateau is topped, Mar. 14.2 and 7.9.

He rebounded a bit in the playoffs last spring, but it’s clear that his best days as a consistent force are done. We’ll see Timmy only in short dynamic spurts from now on.

But there’s another matchup I’d like to zoom in on for a moment; Manu Ginobili versus Tony Allen.

As the Spurs’ best player these days, they lean heavily on Ginobili now. But he struggles to score on the Grizz, at least at his usual levels of efficiency excellence, especially with one of the better wing defenders, Tony Allen, covering him.

Ginobili posted some of his worst statistical splits of the season against the suddenly defensive-minded Grizzlies, especially from the arc.

Manu is 1 for his last 11 threes versus the Grizzles, and 4-21 on the season in six games, including the regular and postseason. This from a career .371 3-shooter. 2010-11 is easily his worst career numbers from the arc in the playoffs.

He posted a regular season PER of 21.8, splitting minutes between the shooting guard and small forward spots.

While Allen was the league’s 76th-best overall defender out of 201 qualified players in opponent PER. (Overly simplified, 15.0 is considered the line between a good and bad player in PER)

You can see the entire season leaders’ list here

And Shane Battier gives up a stifling opponent PER of 10.0 at the 3-spot, for when Manu slides forward, which would have been good enough for third in the entire league had he played the season in one place.

Ginobili has put up more-than-solid numbers against Tony Allen in his two games in the playoff series versus the Grizzlies, playing his heart out and leading San Antonio to a close win in Game 2, and nearly doing so again in Game 3. Allen hasn’t been able to slow the amazing Manu much.

But the thing is, he might not have to, entirely.

What he has been giving has been enough to a Spurs team that’s beginning to show bruising like a softened, overly-ripe fruit hanging on a bare vine in a light breeze.

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There were a fair amount of major moves made in the NBA this season, some seemingly made just for the sake of it –I’m looking at you Otis Smith and Danny Ainge.

But only one team made the move they really needed to.

I’m talking about the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Not only have their brass built intelligently, but Sam Presti can now add “Top Trade Maker” to his resumé as well.

The Thunder were the only team that identified and fully addressed their needs for this season in the handful of major moves that were made by the February deadline.

An excellent defensive team last season, OKC found itself surprisingly hovering around the bottom third of the league in defensive efficiency ratings this go ’round.

2010-11 OKC Thunder defensive rating before the trade deadline

Already adequate offensively, Presti picked up the phone and made a fool of Boston’s Danny Ainge by stealing the scowl right out from under him.

Even though Kendrick Perkins played only 17 games in the regular season for the Thunder, you could immediaely see them trending the right direction on defense heading into the playoffs.

OKC Thunder defensive rating for 2010-11 regular season

Defensively, Perk has had a similar effect on the OKC that Tyson Chandler did for the Dallas Mavericks this season, both teams sporting a new swagger on the stopping side of the court with their respective robust defensive stalwarts patrolling the paint.

With Perkins strangely smiling after settling all the way into his new home he’s carried the Thunder to among the elite in the league, defensively. In the regular season, the league average DRtg was 107.3, in the playoffs, 105.4.

From here, go back through the same D-ratings, only this time tracking Boston back to the top to see a directly inverse effect on their respective ranking.

Back in a January post I predicted the Celtics would make a run at the title and win it. But that was based largely on their defense.

I have to hand the same respect to the Thunder now.

They’re legit contenders to leave fans of the Zombie Sonics planning a parade route come June.

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You can follow Clint on Twitter at @Clintonite33

Pierce led Boston to a 4-0 week, averaging 21.8 points on .587 shooting (27-for-46) to go along with 8.0 rebounds. On March 4 vs. Golden State, Pierce tallied 27 points and was a perfect 8-for-8 from the line to secure a 107-103 victory. This is the second time in the 2010-11 season that Pierce has garnered Player of the Week honors.

Westbrook led the Western Conference in scoring with 27.0 ppg, and his average of 9.7 assists ranked third in the conference, while his 3.0 steals ranked second. By scoring 20-plus points in all three games, including one 30-plus effort, the Thunder went 3-0 on the week. On March 4, Westbrook recorded a double-double with 32 points and 11 assists to help Oklahoma City knock off Phoenix 122-118 in overtime. This marks the fifth time this season Westbrook has garnered Player of the Week honors.

Check out the moment Allen broke the record.

Bradley, a 6’2” guard, averaged 17.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.0 steals in nine games with the Red Claws. Bradley tied a D-League record with nine steals against Tulsa on January 30. While on assignment, he recorded 20 or more points in four games with a high of 25 against the Dakota Wizards on February 4.