The 76ers defeated the Celtics tonight in an ugly, defensive affair to force a Game 7 on Saturday night in Boston. Early in the game, an ESPN reporter spoke with Allen Iverson who was in town to deliver the game ball to tonight's referees. Iverson said he still wants to play basketball, whether in the NBA or elsewhere. Here are other links from late Wednesday night:
- Arash Markazi and Pedro Moura from ESPN Los Angeles give their differing takes on whether Clippers stars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin will be teamed up in LA for the remainder of their careers.
- Derek Page of HoopsWorld says that for the Mavericks, in lieu of letting key pieces of their championship team leave via free agency, anything in the offseason short of Deron Williams would deem that decision a "momentous mistake." Meanwhile, Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News says via chat that Pau Gasol would not be a good fit in Dallas.
- Speaking of Deron Williams, Colin Stephenson of the Newark Star Ledger examined the Nets offseason uncertainties outside of their potential free-agent-to-be point guard. The Nets have only four players that are guaranteed to be under contact for next year's Brooklyn debut.
- The Bird Rights hearing between the NBA and NBA Players Association will be in mid-June, says Ian Begley of ESPN New York, citing an unnamed source. Begley notes that the Knicks will be particularly impacted due to waiver pickups of Steve Novak and Jeremy Lin.
- The 2012 Olympic schedule for Team USA was unveiled, according to Chris Sheridan of Sheridan Hoops.
- ESPN's Chris Broussard and Marc Stein offer their takes on Shaq as a potential fit as the future general manager of the Magic. Broussard says Shaq has acted as a mentor to Dwight Howard throughout the season as they apparently bonded over their dislike for Stan Van Gundy. Hiring O'Neal could be an attempt to persuade Howard to stay. Meanwhile, despite previous reports, Broussard adds that the Bobcats will in fact reach out to Van Gundy.