NBA Capsules: LeBron to Mavs? Web-savvy fans trying to help

DALLAS — LeBron James in a Dallas Mavericks uniform? It’s already happening — on the Internet.

Mavs fans are the latest to do their part to woo the NBA superstar to their city by launching the website lebrontothemavs.com. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban tweeted a link to the site Thursday, writing: "Gotta love Mavs fans !!"

The home page plays a song and doctored photos include James’ face on a J.R. Ewing picture and him dunking over the Dallas skyline.

The Mavs are a perennial contender with superstars in Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, with whom James won a gold medal in Beijing in 2008. The team could easily free up cap space for a sign-and-trade deal with the Cavaliers, who, if forced into a deal, would prefer sending the marquee free agent to the Western Conference. James also is a big Cowboys fan.

Mavs owner Cuban says he wants to acquire LeBron

Mark Cuban is no stranger to bold statements, and the Dallas Mavericks owner has expressed his interest in acquiring soon-to-be free agent LeBron James.

The outspoken billionaire, in an interview this week with CNNMoney.com, said "anybody" would be interested in James. Cuban said it would be tough to sign the two-time defending league MVP in free agency, but a sign-and-trade deal with Cleveland is something he would look at.

If James does not reach a deal with the Cavaliers by July 1, he would become an unrestricted free agent.

Cuban’s remarks could fall under the league’s tampering rules. NBA rules state that a "no comment" is the proper response when the media asks about pending free agents before July 1.

NBA Playoffs

Western Conference finals

Lakers’ offense steamrolling defenseless Suns

PHOENIX — One week ago, the Phoenix Suns were talking about how they no longer were marshmallows on defense, that this team had a toughness its predecessors sorely lacked.

That idea was buried by a scoring avalanche in Los Angeles, where the Lakers amassed a total of 252 points to go up 2-0 in the Western Conference finals, shooting 58 percent in each game.

Now the Suns have three days before Game 3 in Phoenix to try to figure out how to slow a team that seems primed for another title.

Neither team practiced on Thursday. Both will resume workouts on Friday in preparation for Sunday night’s contest.

The Lakers’ Pau Gasol acknowledged that "it must be frustrating" for the Suns to essentially be beaten at their own high-scoring, hot-shooting game. He expects a stiffer challenge as the series shifts to Phoenix.

"It’s going to take a much bigger mindset or focus to go there and be successful and put the type of games and wins that we put in here," Gasol said.

History certainly is against the Suns. The Lakers are 41-1 when they are up 2-0 in a best-of-seven series. Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson is 46-0 when his teams have won the first two games of a series. And no team has come back from 0-2 to win the West finals.

"We’re not about to give up," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. "... You know when we won our two home games against San Antonio (in the conference semifinals), everybody just said, ‘Well, the only thing they’ve done is what they’re supposed to do.’ So the only thing they’ve done is what they’re supposed to do. We’ll go with that."

Game 2 was much more competitive than the Lakers’ 128-107 blowout in Game 1. A strong third quarter by Phoenix tied it at 90 entering the fourth.

"They got their offensive game rolling out there," Jackson said, "and we had to find a way to kind of buckle down and get our game going for us in the fourth quarter."

Steve Nash had two of the Suns’ three turnovers to start the final quarter.

"They went down and got baskets," Gentry said, "and we never really got any control after that. We made a couple of baskets here and there, but we can’t afford to turn it over, especially on three straight possessions."

Offense, though, hasn’t been the primary problem for Phoenix. Jason Richardson scored 27, only the fifth time in 36 games this season that the Suns have lost when he scores at least 20. Grant Hill scored 23 and led the third-quarter comeback and Jared Dudley made all five of his 3-point attempts.

Sure, the Suns could use something — anything — from Channing Frye (1 of 13 for the series) and a more dominating offensive performance from Amare Stoudemire.

But Los Angeles is averaging 30 points more than the Suns allowed in the first two series.

As Nash astutely noted after Game 1, the Lakers probably will remain taller than Phoenix the rest of the series. That means the Suns need at least some defense from their big men. Robin Lopez returned from an absence of nearly two months (bulging disk) to play with surprising effectiveness, but Stoudemire has been torched repeatedly by Gasol and Lamar Odom.

Perhaps the Suns’ All-Star forward has been distracted by the weekend arrest of his mother for failing to have the ignition interlock device she is required to use because of her alcohol-related problems with the law. Carrie Stoudemire has been in and out of jail throughout her son’s life and recently served prison time in Arizona for aggravated DUI.

For whatever reason, Stoudemire, to Gentry’s’ chagrin, said Odom had a "lucky game" after the Lakers’ forward had 19 points and 19 rebounds in the series opener. Odom got "lucky" again for 17 points and 11 boards in Game 2. Gasol burned Stoudemire and the rest of the Suns with repeated layups in the final quarter to finish with 29 points and nine rebounds. Andrew Bynum, ineffective in Game 1, came back with 13 points and seven boards in a little over 18 minutes.

Ron Artest scored 18, including 3 of 6 shooting from 3-point range. Jordan Farmar, meanwhile, made all three of his 3-point tries. And Kobe Bryant followed up his 40-point effort in Game 1 with 21 points and a career playoff-high 13 assists. No Laker has had that many assists in a playoff game since Magic Johnson in 1996.

This — for the second game in a row — was the kind of offensive performance Johnson’s "Showtime" Lakers could admire.

-- Bob Baum

Eastern Conference finals

Surging Celtics guard against overconfidence

WALTHAM, Mass. — Two wins away from the NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics have plenty of reasons to be confident.

But overconfident? Don’t count on it, no matter what Paul Pierce said.

Before leaving the court after the Celtics took a 2-0 lead over the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night, Pierce looked straight into the camera and said in a live, 60-second television interview, "We’re coming home and close it out."

Coach Doc Rivers wasn’t pleased.

"I didn’t like it," he said Thursday. "I don’t mind the confidence part. That’s good. You’ve got to have confidence, but we want to be humble and we haven’t achieved anything. I think that’s what he was trying to say. ... I wish they had taken the mike away (before) the last couple of words."

The Celtics’ 95-92 win in which Pierce scored 28 points sent them home with a chance to sweep the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals by winning Saturday and Monday nights.

Most players who returned to practice after an off day Wednesday don’t like the three-day break between games, but it gives them more time to prepare. Had Game 3 been just two days after the Celtics went up 2-0, the remaining glow might have left them overconfident.

"We still haven’t played our best basketball," Pierce said. "This team is real humble. We’re not taking these games that we won in Orlando for granted, knowing that they beat us here a couple of times during the season."

Rivers reminded his players of Orlando’s 2-0 record in Boston during the regular season. He also knows the first two games were decided by a total of seven points.

"We did our job there but we haven’t done our job at home," he said. "As far as we’re concerned, until that happens nothing’s happened in the series."

Pierce chose his words more carefully before Thursday’s practice than he did two days earlier.

Answering the first two questions Tuesday, he praised the Magic and said his offense has improved because he doesn’t have to focus on guarding LeBron James as he did in the previous round. In response to the third and final question, he said Celtics fans wouldn’t let the team relax with a 2-0 lead, but finished with the phrase that bothered Rivers.

"It wasn’t a big deal for me," Pierce said. "I’m just saying I wanted us to go home. I want our crowd to be ready. I want us to play our best and I want us to win two games. And that’s it."

Did he receive any feedback for his comment?

"I was pretty much at home with my daughter all day (Wednesday)," Pierce said. "She didn’t say anything."

Different teammates had different reactions.

"I’m behind him," Rajon Rondo said.

Ray Allen, one of the team’s more serious players, was less supportive.

"It doesn’t bum me out," he said, "but I think Paul just has to understand that we’re a classy organization and we always have to make sure we operate that way."

Pierce also had to deal with comments he apparently didn’t make. Shortly after Game 2, a tweet on his Twitter account seemed like prime bulletin board material for the Magic. "Anybody got a BROOM?" it asked, referring to a possible Celtics sweep.

On Thursday, Pierce said he didn’t post that. Earlier, his Twitter account had this message: "Hacked in game and post game while on podium. Disregard chatter."

The hack by Dwight Howard that left two horizontal scars on the left side of Pierce’s forehead was very real. The Magic center received a flagrant foul but wasn’t suspended and that was fine with Pierce.

"We want (to face) the teams’ best," he said. "In order to be the best, you want to get their best."

So far the Magic have provided much less than that.

Forward Rashard Lewis has just 11 points in two games, and, in Game 2, Jameer Nelson was held to 9 points and Vince Carter missed two key free throws in the final minute.

With big bodies Kendrick Perkins, Glen Davis and Rasheed Wallace taking turns guarding the muscular Howard, the Celtics don’t have to double team him and leave other players open.

"I’m sure he’ll be really aggressive in Game 3," Kevin Garnett said of Lewis.

The Celtics, who have won five straight games, expect to be ready.

"We didn’t come into this season to win five games in a row in the playoffs," Rondo said. "It’s about winning the championship and putting another (championship) banner up. We haven’t done that yet, so we’ve done nothing."

-- Howard Ulman

Lewis’ numbers not so Magic-al in East finals

ORLANDO, Fla. — There might always be pressure from the lucrative contract Rashard Lewis signed with the Orlando Magic, and his statistics through two games in the Eastern Conference finals isn’t making that go away.

Eleven points. Four made shots. About $18.8 million this season.

The highest paid Magic player, Lewis’ series slump is a big reason why they’re in an 0-2 hole entering Game 3 at the Boston Celtics on Saturday night, and he knows it.

"After we lost that second game on our home court, it’s been tough ever since," Lewis said following Thursday’s practice. "You don’t point the finger. You don’t want to blame. You just look yourself in the mirror and see what you could do to help this team win."

The Magic would take anything more at this point.

A clutch playoff performer in the past, Lewis has been blanketed by a revived Kevin Garnett and a relentless Celtics defense. Lewis is 4-for-17 from the floor, including 1 of 9 from 3-point range.

Garnett and Co. have often face-guarded Lewis, staying with him no matter where the ball is being passed. The formula, thus far, has all but taken Lewis out of the series.

"I’m just trying to keep a hand up and run him off 3s and make him do things he doesn’t want to do," Garnett said.

After hitting several game-winning shots in last year’s run to the NBA finals, Lewis averaged 17 points per game in the second round against Atlanta only a couple weeks ago. That has disappeared against a Celtics team closing out fast on Orlando’s shooters.

Lewis heard criticism after averaging 14.1 points per game this season, the lowest of his career since he became a regular starter in 1999-2000 with Seattle. Some felt the production was not enough for a player who signed a $118 million, six-year contract with Orlando in 2007.

But the converted power forward shot 43 percent this season, the same as when he was an All-Star last year. The difference was, with the addition of Vince Carter and a talent-rich roster, Lewis had almost 400 fewer shot attempts.

He backed up the contract with stellar shooting in sweeps of Atlanta and Charlotte in the first two rounds. But Lewis has become the symbol of the team’s problems against Boston.

The Magic shot 39 percent in Game 2.

"No pressure on myself at all. I’m playing loose," Lewis said. "The first two games I thought I played pretty well, just on offense I haven’t gotten very many shots."

Lewis often spoke about sacrificing individual goals, and he wasn’t discouraged about his numbers dipping. That is, so long as the unselfishness translated into wins.

That hasn’t happened in the conference finals. Boston is devoting many of its efforts on him — not Dwight Howard.

"You can say it’s a compliment, but at the same time it’s frustrating when you don’t win and you want to help your team win ball games," Lewis said.

The Celtics have swarmed Howard with four different big men, no longer double-teaming the All-Star center. That’s allowed them to contest shots by Lewis and the rest of Orlando’s perimeter players.

Lewis said he will be more active with offensive rebounding, and he’s been working on putting the ball on the floor and taking a mid-range jumper — something he rarely does. He also wants to post-up more in transition instead of always fading to the corner.

The Magic are making an extra effort to get Lewis going offensively, even designing a few plays in practice.

"I feel like we need to get Rashard some more opportunities," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "But the major thing is your team has to be more efficient offensively, with the idea that Rashard can help you do that."

As streaky shooters go, sometimes it’s just a matter of making shots.

Lewis said that’s part of it, but he also believes he’s not helping himself. The Celtics have forced him to rush 3-pointers, and he said he needs to attack the basket more.

Regardless, the Magic need "Sweet Lew" to find his touch or an unwanted summer break could be starting soon.

"The ball will go in the basket for him. So what if Rashard didn’t have a good first two games?" Howard said. "Just make Game 3 a better game."

— Antonio Gonzalez

Other NBA Playoffs News

Ref suspended for throwing ball at fan in Orlando

Other NBA News

Wait is on for free agency, Lakers-Celtics finals

MIAMI — Doc Rivers knows his Boston Celtics aren’t the NBA’s biggest story right now.

Take a back seat, Celtics, despite being on the cusp of another trip to the NBA finals. Same for you, defending champ Lakers. The Magic and Suns, well, they’re basketball afterthoughts right now as well.

Unless you’re in Los Angeles, Boston, Orlando or Phoenix, the NBA’s final four might almost be like a forgotten four.

Welcome to LeBron Watch 2010, simultaneously going on alongside D-Wade Watch, Bosh Watch ... oh, yeah, and sweeps month in the NBA playoffs. The calendar still says May, the finals start in June, yet with the Celtics and Lakers up 2-0 in the conference finals and three of the previous four series ending in sweeps, there seems to be more interest in waiting for the free-agency window to open.

"It’s the biggest story I can remember since I’ve been in the league," said Rivers, the Celtics’ coach.

Indeed, it overshadows all right now, and even NBA commissioner David Stern isn’t downplaying the significance of what looms at 12:01 a.m. on July 1, when some of the game’s biggest stars like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will have their cell phones ringing like mad with potential suitors on the other end of the line.

"It actually shows the importance, I guess, to the culture that that’s a subject of some discussion that will continue to be heated as we head to July 1 and beyond," Stern said. "That just shows what a fixture the NBA has become, and that the comings and goings of our players have become stories unto themselves."

Not just stories. They’re the story.

"It’s overshadowing world hunger and the oil spill and everything else," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said sarcastically. "It’s the biggest story in the United States right now — where LeBron is going to play. You know, health care? Oil spill? But LeBron, we gotta know where he’s going to play.

"I guess a lot of people must be very interested in it."

Face it, many of the playoff series so far haven’t exactly been scintillating battles — half of the 12 series completed so far have ended in either four or five games. There’s been only one Game 7, and the way things look right now, the conference finals could end fairly quickly on both coasts. If both end in sweeps, there will be nine off days before the finals open June 3.

And that’s another problem: Fast-ending series have given some teams long breaks between rounds, lulls that just let all the storylines surrounding free agency pick up even more steam.

Celtics guard Ray Allen acknowledged free agency is a big story, adding "but we’re here. This is what we’re talking about now."

For his part, the commissioner also insists he’s still fixated on the Lakers-Suns and Celtics-Magic series. He and Allen might be in the minority.

In Ohio, Gov. Ted Strickland was part of a song written in James’ honor and sung to the tune of "We Are the World," the lyrics begging the two-time MVP to stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In Miami, a website the Heat put up about how to keep Wade in South Florida crashed hours after launch because it was getting 300 hits per second. In New York, it’s almost like a LeBron-or-bust campaign is going on, with both the Knicks and Nets hoping.

"Come July 1, just about everything goes. Before July 1, nothing goes," Stern said. "I suppose if the governor wants to sing a song to the tune of ‘We Are the World’ or New York Magazine wants to do a cover with LeBron in a Knick uniform, the last time I looked, my jurisdiction had its limitations and it doesn’t include those two instances. So it’s kind of interesting and some fun. "

Two years ago, all the rage at this point in the conference final round was the potential for another Lakers-Celtics matchup in the finals, East vs. West, storied franchise vs. storied franchise.

It could happen again next month. No buzz this year, at least, not yet.

No, the rage is all about James, who won’t play another game that matters to the NBA for about 5½ months. It’s all about Wade, too, and whether he’ll leave the Heat. And then there’s Bosh, whose decision whether or not to stay with the Toronto Raptors may influence what James and Wade choose to do with their next contracts.

"Sports in general is politics, especially at the professional level," said Jared Dudley of the Phoenix Suns. "Brett Favre, is he playing or not? I think it’s good for the NBA, them talking about that."

James is the biggest domino out there, of course.

"That guy is a franchise changer," Rivers said. "And if he decides to leave, it’s going to change two franchises. If he decides to stay, it changes one or it continues one, so it’s a huge story. ... It would be like if Michael Jordan had become a free agent and decided that he was going to leave. That story would have been just as crazy, so it deserves what it gets."

It’s only going to get better — or worse, depending on perspective — in the coming days.

"I am seriously sick of talking about LeBron James — every little whim, dissecting everything he says," NBA legend and analyst Charles Barkley said on ESPN radio.

Get used to it, Chuck.

"The only thing that is worse," Van Gundy groaned, "is the lead-up to the NFL draft."

Some players who are still playing this season don’t seem all that interested, either.

"We’ve got our hands full with what we’re trying to do," Lakers guard Derek Fisher said. "And anything else would be a distraction for us."

James is dominating headlines almost everywhere, even with both conference finals going on without him. Wade, who has been in court in Miami for the past week because two ex-partners are suing him for $25 million in a failed restaurant deal, gets about as many questions at that courthouse about free agency than his legal issues. Bosh has surely picked up more Twitter followers in recent days, especially after he used his feed to ask the world if he should stay in Toronto or leave.

All attention is good attention, Rivers thinks.

"I’ve got to think it’s good for our league overall," Rivers said. "When they’re leading off talking about the NBA over the NFL on most nights, that’s pretty good. And so I think it’s probably good for us."

-- Tim Reynolds

Turner, Wall already in tight competition

CHICAGO — Already, John Wall is thinking about the possibilities.