- Reggie Miller keeps having one hell of a farewell party.  39 points versus the Lakers and then he reaches the 25,000 point plateau against the Spurs.  He will catch Jerry West in a few games leaving the game at the 12th spot on the all-time scoring list.

Be sure to schedule the April 5th game on your calendar, as that will be Miller's last one at Madison Square Garden.

- Are the Lakers officially out of the playoffs?  Right now no, but it doesn't look good.

- Tracy McGrady's comments on Magic GM John Weisbrod were more amusing than they were surprising. In December Weisbrod looked like a genius, but with the Rockets now a top-5 or 6 team in the league, after turning over nearly their entire roster in the last year is making Carroll Dawson a candidate for Executive of the Year.

- Don Nelson closed out one of the most fascinating coaching careers in recent history this past week.  His eccentric thinking and his embracing of foreign players such as Sarunas Marciulionis helped pave the way for the game as we know it today.

Maui will be kind to him, but here?s hoping he returns somewhere again, highly doubt it though.  

- The Mavericks have managed to build a team of twin players.

Dirk Nowitzki and Keith Van Horn
Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels
Michael Finley and Jerry Stackhouse
Jason Terry and Darrell Armstrong
Erick Dampier and DJ Mbenga
Shawn Bradley and Pavel Podkolzin

Despite all the Mavericks wheeling and dealing they remain one stellar player short of advancing deep into the playoffs, with their roster filled with Dirk and a collection of nice, but far from outstanding players.

- Example 67 of why Dirk Nowitzki is a mismatch nightmare: The Warriors forced to place Jason Richardson on the German national for the majority of the game on Wednesday.  Adonal Foyle, an inch or two shorter and a step or three too slow to stay with Dirk.  Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion will be able to guard him in the first round of the playoffs though.

- Victims of the Let's fire him before he has a chance to turn it around syndrome...Paul Silas and Johnny Davis.  Both coaches were leading their teams in the wrong direction and both GM's didn't want to risk a winning streak, which would have prevented them from hiring a different coach this offseason.

- Only Jalen Rose could guarantee victory playing for a lottery team.  This is actually another example of why a team like Timberwolves could really use Rose.

- Somebody somewhere has lit a fire under Mike Dunleavy, Jr.  He?s grown some occasional facial hair and he looked like Ron Artest when he was ejected from Wednesday night?s game versus Dallas.  As he walked towards the tunnel and threw his jersey into the stands, he appeared pleased with himself.  A Dunleavy with this kind of emotion is a promising sign for the Warriors, though as Mickael Pietrus continues to improve (22 points versus Dallas), Dunleavy remains the one player that Chris Mullin should deal this summer.

Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy are fine young ballplayers, but their deficiencies of athleticism become points that good teams can easily exploit.  Teaming Murphy and Dunleavy with another poor athlete in Adonal Foyle and there is no way that the Warriors can compete on the frontline.  An athletic forward is necessary to be teamed up with two of these three players.  Not trading Dunleavy for Eddy Curry, if that trade was indeed on the table from John Paxson, was a mistake.

- Rick Adelman reaches 700 wins?never thought I?d live to see that.  This guy must have been Lazerus? cat two thousand years ago with all the lives he?s had.

MVP Tracker
1. Steve Nash:
2. Shaquille O?Neal:

Rookie Of The Year
1. Ben Gordon: The only thing keeping Howard from a ROY award are the minutes Scott Skiles gives him.
2. Emeka Okafor: Being able to pencil in a double-double each and every night from a rookie is pretty rare.
3. Dwight Howard: Being able to pencil in a double-double each and every night from a rookie is pretty rare.  Howard is behind Okafor here because the Magic forward has a lot more help.  Check back in one year and Howard will be an All-Star while Okafor toils in above average adequacy.

Finals Favorites
Suns and Heat: With each day that passes it appears more and more certain, especially now with Tim Duncan limping into the playoffs and we?ll see the match-up on Friday.

Christopher.Reina@realGM.com