Sad news out of Oklahoma City, where a shooting in the city's Bricktown district marred the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Thunder's 4-1 series victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. Early reports have one victim in critical condition, thankfully no fatalities, but eight shooting victims in total. The incident took place less than a half-hour following the Thunder's win, just blocks away from the team's Chesapeake Energy Arena. Here's the Associated Press' report:

Capt. Dexter Nelson said some scuffles broke out in a crowd of people walking east toward the Bricktown district, a popular nightlife area. "Some girls got into it with a group of guys, and the guys opened fire on the women," Nelson said. He said the shooting occurred at 11:35 p.m. Police know of at least eight people wounded in the incident, but Nelson did not have information on their ages or genders.

The very good Thunder blog Daily Thunder glommed on to a cell phone video of an arrest following the incident, though at this early stage we have no idea whether or not the man in police custody is the alleged shooter. Here's the SFW clip:

When you play like Russell Westbrook does, you're allowed to be the guy wearing sunglasses indoors. Kind of. (Getty Images)

Oklahoma City Thunder 106, Los Angeles Lakers 90 (Thunder win series, 4-1)

We'll delve into the future of those ridiculous, marvelous, enervating, invigorating, fantastic, maddening, frustrating and ultimately obsession-worthy Los Angeles Lakers deeper on Tuesday. For now, the spotlight deservedly shines on the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have taken down two of the NBA's most respected teams in 23 days, working at an 8-1 clip along that span. We're completely and utterly correct as we fawn over the San Antonio Spurs, but that undefeated group hasn't had to deal with nearly the level of competition that Scott Brooks' crew has.

Any batch of Thunder-related praise has to begin with Russell Westbrook. Not only did he give his team a feature that the Lakers could not handle — the guy with the ability to frighten and shift defensive schemes just off of broken plays or transition work — but he ended the second round with a fascinating statistic to his credit. Westbrook played just under 180 minutes in this series, and turned the ball over four times. That's 36 minutes a night, full of active play that put Los Angeles on its heels, and he turned it over four times in five contests. Astonishing work.

Because he's played sporadic minutes, Oklahoma City Thunder center Nazr Mohammed hasn't contributed much since his fantastic fill-in work for injured Thunder starting center Kendrick Perkins in Game 1. As a result, he's taken to Twitter to help aid his team as it attempts to move past the Los Angeles Lakers and back into the Western Conference finals. And, in the hours following the team's inspiring win over the Lakers on Saturday night, Mohammed shot video of his team returning to Oklahoma City to the cheers of dozens of fans who had camped out in the rain at the airport at 5:30 in the morning to welcome the Thunder back.

This is a team in a second-round series, mind you. Watch:

Pretty impressive stuff, OKC faithful. For every person caught wearing this terrible T-shirt, there are probably a couple thousand knowledgeable Thunder fans pulling good stunts like this. Game 5 is set for late Monday night, and it figures to be a must-watch. Just not in the rain.

Stan Van Gundy and Otis Smith, in happier times (Getty Images)

In a move anticipated by just about everyone, the Orlando Magic have relieved coach Stan Van Gundy of his duties -- a line used in the team's press release that could have applied even when Van Gundy was coaching the team. In more surprising news, the Magic and GM Otis Smith have "parted ways." Smith may or may not have been fired, and if the former is true, it's a bummer of a fallout considering he appeared to adhere to the company line, which meant doing just about anything to keep All-Star center Dwight Howard happy.

There is no question that Howard is to blame for this mess. Smith's personnel misfires — wasting a lottery pick on Fran Vasquez, signing former forward Rashard Lewis to a contract that looked as legendarily bad the day of its inception as it does five years later, attempting to stay afloat by bringing in Howard-approved rotation parts at too high a price — certainly hamstrung the Magic on the court and in the payroll ledger. Howard, though, made sure the team was a living and quacking lame duck once he declined to sign a contract extension (claiming on record that he didn't know one was available, telling lies with a very telling lie) during the 2010-11 season, while complicating things even further with his will-he/won't-he trade demands during this season.

Orlando, frankly, made the right choice in dumping one of the league's finest coaches even if only for a last-ditch attempt to keep an immature and mercurial center. Though pandering to Dwight's whims won't guarantee he'll lead a team to a championship, much less stick around once his contract expires after the end of the 2012-13 season, the other way wasn't going to work. At least not with Van Gundy demanding Howard take responsibility for leading his team. And, at best, hiring a coach as demanding as Stan could kick in some guilt mechanism that turns his attitude around. So who do the Magic turn to?

The jerkiest t-shirt ever (Courtesy twitter.com/warpaintrags)

The New York Times' Howard Beck, on his way from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City to cover Monday's Game 5 between the Lakers and Thunder, uncovered this rather shady T-shirt design on Sunday. The Thunder aren't exactly giving these rags out at the door, but that didn't stop our initial post on the T-shirts on Monday morning from inspiring a world of outrage on Twitter, and apparent death threats sent the way of Warpaint Clothing, the company that humorlessly put the duds together -- utilizing the former Seattle SuperSonics logo along the way. Rightfully, just one Thunder fan deciding to purchase this and pull it over their head is enough for us to break out the Patented BDL Tsk-Tsk Geiger Counter -- and as a result Warpaint has decided to stop selling the shirts because of death threats sent its way in reaction.

To reiterate, Oklahoma City didn't wrest its current team out of Seattle because 37 selected fans and civic leaders won a free-throw shooting contest. It didn't "win" the team by being the quickest to press buttons in some trivia contest at a local chicken wing joint ("PRESS 'B!' It's 'Romancing the Stone!' Hurry!"), and the presiding genius of GM Sam Presti is no reflection on either level of fandom emanating from either Oklahoma City or Seattle.

No, the current Oklahoma City Thunder are not the former Seattle SuperSonics mainly because former owner (and current Guy That Bilks You Out of Money Every Day For Your Starbucks Fix, You Silly Twit) Howard Schultz didn't think twice before selling a basketball team needing a new stadium to an ownership group from a city that had already proven it could be a fantastic host for an NBA team, with a new stadium at its disposal.

[Related: Kobe, Metta World Peace technicals bury Lakers in Game 5]

Erik Spoelstra gives LeBron James a little boost (Getty Images)

Miami Heat 101, Indiana Pacers 93 (series tied, 2-2)

Dwyane Wade came alive and LeBron James had a game for the ages on Sunday afternoon. All signs pointed to the Heat's dynamic duo flipping the proverbial switch, as they put the Pacers away, so what took so long? Why, a week into this series, did it take four games for the Heat to come alive?

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was absolutely correct in pointing out that none of us should be surprised that a series between a second and third seed will be a long battle "without much variance," but we're probably just as correct in wondering where the heck Udonis Haslem was in Game 3 of his team's long series with the Indiana Pacers. Even before Haslem's jump shots helped put the Pacers away in Miami's Game 4 win over Indiana on Sunday, Spoelstra's adjustments won Miami this game. He put two of the best players in NBA history in a position to succeed, and his work (even when Indiana was up, in the first quarter) won the Heat this game.

Russell Westbrook exults as Metta World Peace and Pau Gasol try to figure out what happened (Getty Images)

Oklahoma City Thunder 103, Los Angeles Lakers 100 (Thunder lead series, 3-1)

You get the feeling that every quarter the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder play is worth a column of its own. Our wrists can't handle such an exercise, though, and in a series like this, I'm not sure I can handle another exhausting three games. Though I'd like to see the Lakers and Thunder try.

Where to start? Well, it's almost as if Kobe Bryant realized his own line of [nonsense] emanating from his high free-throw total in Game 3. Yes, he got to the line 18 times and secured the Lakers' win, but it wasn't as if he was driving and getting hit to get to the stripe. Most of his looks came on fouls on the perimeter, with Oklahoma City in the penalty, and not some head-down brand of dashing to the goal. Come on, Kobe.

So what did he do in Game 4? Come on, Kobe. Come on so damn good. He was brilliant, to start. Absolutely fantastic in dominating in the post against both Thabo Sefolosha and James Harden, and outpacing even his Game 3 rate (10 free-throw attempts at the end of the third quarter in Game 3, 14 of those bad boys at the same time in Game 4) at the free-throw line by, you guessed it, putting his head down and driving to the rim. Smart, tough and cerebral play from a man playing nearly his 51,000th combined regular-season and postseason minute, on the second night of a back-to-back.

Kobe Bryant has given up on some bad habits, but retains one curious one (Getty Images)

Los Angeles Lakers 99, Oklahoma City Thunder 96 (Thunder lead series 2-1)

Game 1 was the blowout, the startling realization that the Oklahoma City Thunder remained a championship-level force to be reckoned with, even after a week-long layoff. Game 2 was the ugly nail-biter, the one that Los Angeles let get away. Game 3? It wasn't perfect. But it was fantastic, end-to-end playoff basketball.

There were quibbles, to be sure. Thunder coach Scott Brooks probably shouldn't have left Derek Fisher try to guard Kobe Bryant after Kobe's entrance in the fourth quarter; Kevin Durant will get criticism for the pass he made (to Serge Ibaka, in the game's third-to-last possession); Ibaka will get criticism for the pass he didn't make (to Durant or Russell Westbrook with the Thunder down three with three seconds left); and Kobe Bryant's ability to goad referee Marc Davis into putting him at the line on a phantom foul late in the fourth quarter. There were mistakes.

[Photos: Lakers get back in series with win over Thunder]

Kobe, though, earned just about every other trip to the line. He hit double-figure free-throw attempts by the end of the third quarter, and did not fall victim to the low-percentage looks down the stretch like he did late in Game 2 (save for one instance, that led directly to OKC going up five in the middle of the fourth as Kobe admired his follow through). One drive and score over both Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka in the fourth probably saved Los Angeles' season. Whine all you want over the Lakers shooting 42 free throws and Kobe hitting 18 of 18, but by my count he earned all but four of those 18 (both on phantom fouls versus James Harden), and the Lakers earned this win.