A weekly wrap of the things you should know in basketball.

* Tony Parker’s Game 1 dagger in super slow motion.

* Lance Stephenson hits up the Miami strip clubs after their Game 7 loss to the Heat.

* Kawhi Leonard’s dad was murdered when he was 16-years-old.

* Gregg Popovich allows Tony Parker to coach the Spurs late in the fourth quarter.

* The Believe The Hype lads catch up with Andrew Bogut.

* The Milwaukee Bucks have reportedly offered Monta Ellis a three-year extension averaging $12 million per season. Madness.

* An excellent feature by ESPN on the dreaded (but hilarious) sideline interview with Gregg Popovich.

* When it mattered most in Game 1 LeBron found himself on an island again and that won’t cut it against the Spurs.

* Roy Hibbert skulls a Gatorade in 6 seconds.

* Some old school footage of Craig Sager dunking on a very low rim.

* Why it’s time to move away from ‘retread’ head coaches.

* Shane Battier wipes down LeBron….

* A two-year-old boy beats Shaq in a shooting competition. For real.

* Remember when LeBron said this: “I don’t flop. I’ve never been one of those guys.”? Courtesy of Dime, here’s 11 of his best/worst.

DJ Leon Smith: The Spurs are the personification of that “well-oiled unit” (no homo, shoutout to Roy Hibbert) sporting cliché that gets thrown about way too often. Pop calls the shots, Tim Duncan buys into it, and it filters through the rest of the team. They’re a team that never beats themselves, and because they’ve been deep into the playoffs so often, nothing rattles them. Against the Heat, this unflappable nature can literally be worth 8-10 points – younger/dumber teams drop their heads after a couple of spectacular LeBron plays, and that’s how those crazy Miami runs start.

In this series the Spurs have the obvious matchup advantage at point guard with Tony Parker, down low with Turn Back Time Tim and on the sidelines with Coach Pop (and can’t forget Patty’s towel waving!). As great as Duncan is, Parker will continue to be the key for San Antonio. Him getting into the lane forces the best defences to break down and creates open shots for himself and his teammates. One interesting sub-plot – will the Heat put LeBron on Parker or Duncan as the series unfolds? He’s got both the size and quickness to effectively guard San Antonio’s two best players.

Speaking of LeBron, he’s hit that point in his career where any team he’s on should be the favourite to win. The Heat, and specifically LeBron, also have that “beast mode” switch they can flick on at a moment’s notice. For some reason though they sometimes wait until it’s almost too late to flick that switch – I thought it would be permanently on after their tough series against Chicago, but the Pacers did almost enough to extinguish Miami’s back-to-back ambitions. It took a Game 7 beast mode activation to make the Finals, and the Spurs aren’t a team you can take games/quarters/possessions off against.

I can’t use the coin flip analogy again (wasted that one on the Spurs-Grizzlies prediction, thanks Memphis), but this series is ridiculously close to call. With the Spurs you know what you’re getting, with the Heat you don’t. BUT there’s probably a better chance of LeBron taking his game to an even higher level (as crazy as that sounds) and their underperforming guys stepping up, than there is of LeBron’s supporting cast continuing to lay eggs (insert Chris Bosh dinosaur joke here). Heat in 6.

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Yup.

“NBA isn’t MLB. At the end of the day, this analytic stuff doesn’t work in basketball.”
- Former coach Larry Brown.

Yeah, stats lie….

“I’m calling on the Supreme Leader of North Korea or as I call him ‘Kim’, to do me a solid and cut Kenneth Bae loose.”
- Dennis Rodman on Twitter to his ‘good friend’ Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, to do him a ’solid’ and release American prisoner Kenneth Bae. Bae, a devout Christian who worked as a tour operator near the China-North Korea border, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour earlier this month for undisclosed ‘hostile acts’.

This guy.

“Is Tom Thibodeau fun to play for? I wouldn’t . . . eh . . . no. Let’s not get carried away.”
- Chicago’s Joakim Noah when asked if it’s fun playing for coach Tom Thibodeau.

If a coach is ‘fun’ to play for, he’s probably not a great coach.

“player, can you pass a drug test? [grabs table] TODAY?!?”

And this:

“anyone who is projected ahead of U that U think U R better than?” ALL OF THEM “Have you ever seen them play?” NEVER”
- Houston GM Daryl Morey on Twitter revealing some of the best interview answers he’s ever heard from prospective draft picks.

Gold!!

“Losses have an amazing property for us. It cleans the wax out of our ears.”
- Miami’s Shane Battier after the Heat won Game 3 in Indiana, having previously dropped Game 2 at home.

Yeah, it does appear that they need that from time to time.

“It was clear to us that Larry’s track record in Atlanta … make him the right choice to lead our club.”
- Bucks GM John Hammond on hiring former Atlanta head coach Larry Drew.

Is their mandate to be mediocre? It sure looks like it.

“No offense to New York, but I’m so, so happy I didn’t fall to them in the draft.”
- The Warriors’ Steph Curry. Curry was selected 7th in the 2009 draft; New York had the 8th pick.

Ha.

“There’s been general talk to consider expansion in the future after the TV deal is negotiated.”
- NBA Commissioner David Stern after the relocation committee voted in favour of the Kings staying in Sacramento, opening the possibility that Seattle could still get an NBA franchise via expansion.

Expansion? That’s nuts; if anything, they should be contracting.

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A weekly wrap of the things you should know in basketball.

* LeBron James rallies the troops, gets angry.

* CBSSports’ Ken Berger says flopping is out of control in these playoffs, despite the new rules. I agree, get that shit out of the game.

* Flop Opera with Shane Battier.

* TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott explains why Gregg Popovich is in a class of his own when it comes to turning prospects into producers.

* Everything you need to know about Lance Stephenson.

* LeBron’s huge block on George Hill in Game 4.

* Quincy Pondexter chats up Miss Tennessee on Twitter, and gets a date. Smooth.

* Is Dwyane Wade the dirtiest player in the NBA? This dude thinks so.

* Bizarre incident of the week – Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins shoves Jerryd Bayless to the bench in their Game 4 loss to the Spurs.

* Brittney Griner dunks twice in her WNBA debut.

Where to for Memphis?

The Grizzlies had a very nice season. They had a very nice postseason run. They’ve done a very nice job putting together a very nice roster. Unfortunately they were unceremoniously swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the WCF, so now they need to figure out how to go from “very nice” to “legitimate NBA championship threat”.

With Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol and Mike Conley, they’re set in the post and at the point. Tayshaun Prince does seasoned vet things on the wing, Tony Allen can slow down most swingmen (and has gradually become more treats than tricks on the offensive end of the court), but outside of that there’s not much else. They’re not exactly a young team so internal improvement won’t move the needle that much. They don’t have too many (any?) sexy trade pieces, they don’t have masses of cap space and Memphis isn’t a free agent hotspot anyway.

There’s talk of head coach Lionel Hollins being replaced, but will that improve much? As it stands the worst case scenario for the Grizzlies is being pencilled in as a Western Conference Semi-Finalist for the foreseeable future, which isn’t so bad. Still, Memphis will need to make some serious tweaks if they want to make that jump to legitimate contender, or they risk being overtaken by the one of the emerging threats out West (like the now-confident Warriors or the Del Negro-less Clippers).

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What flopping policy?

Best bench cheerleader in the NBA, and it’s not close.