P.J. Carlesimo, in the moments before Thursday's Game 6 (Getty Images)

CHICAGO – Don’t be so quick to discredit these Brooklyn Nets. The Chicago Bulls may be literally limping into the arena each night and losing their lunch on the bench midgame, but the Nets have made all the right moves on their way toward a 3-3 series tie in this ever-evolving first round series. Once again, the Nets needed every single miniscule advantage to win two straight and tie the series, as the team earned a chance at a Game 7 by taking down the Bulls by a 95-92 score, sneaking out of Chicago by the hair of its chinny-chin-chin.

It’s true that Chicago cannot seem to catch a break, the team was already working through injuries to center Joakim Noah and star guard Derrick Rose before Game 5 on Tuesday when word leaked out that guard Kirk Hinrich could be out for the entire series with a badly bruised calf. Following that loss, both Luol Deng and Taj Gibson missed Wednesday’s Bulls practice with a nasty case of the flu, and though Gibson gutted out nearly 18 minutes of play before fouling out, Deng could not bring himself to suit up. Worse for all involved, Nate Robinson was seen getting sick on the Bulls bench during the game.

The Nets took advantage. The team roared out of the gate early behind opportunistic scoring from Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson, as both teams put together an uncharacteristically offense-heavy first half. The various Chicago lineup shifts forced the Bulls to start Marco Belinelli in the backcourt as Jimmy Butler moved up front, and while Butler’s defense was active as usual, the Chicago team defense featured a series of lanes and angles defensively that just haven’t been typical of a Bulls team that at times ranks as one of the league’s toughest teams to score on.

Mark Jackson and George Karl have made themselves the story (Getty Images)

It’s an NBA certainty that a playoff series will become more and more physical the longer they go. Familiarity breeds contempt, and adjustments and changing assignments have a way of forcing both sides into chippy play as teams meet each other for the fifth or sixth time in a just over a week and a half. Par for the course with Indiana and Atlanta, or Boston and New York, and especially the Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies – two teams that have met 14 times over the last 15 months.

Strangely, of the eight first round playoffs series, the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets have outpaced the rest of the NBA when it comes to both potentially dirty play, and the endless talk about cheap shots both during (Warriors coach Mark Jackson brought it up during a mid-game TNT interview) and after the game (Nuggets coach George Karl called Warriors forward Festus Ezeli a name that I won’t even use on Twitter, much less this website).

This is the top story heading into Thursday night’s Game 6. And, as a public service to the greater NBA fandom, I have to humbly offer this suggestion to referees Danny Crawford, Marc Davis, and Michael Smith:

Please, please, let these guys play.

LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal during their MVP seasons (Getty Images)

LeBron James will be awarded the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award sometime next week. I don’t have a vote nor any inside information on the voting process, but it’s as easy a call as expecting May to provide warmer weather as the month moves along, or predicting that Kelly Dwyer will probably give some stupid hipster in a hat a withering glare around last call this Sunday morning. It’s going to happen.

What is nearly as assured is the potential for LeBron James to become the first unanimous MVP selection in NBA history. After a season like LeBron’s it’s entirely possible, and certainly appropriate. And it’s also unprecedented due to the work of one man, former CNN and ESPN anchor Fred Hickman, who decided to cast an MVP vote for Allen Iverson in 2000, denying Shaquille O’Neal a deserved unanimous voting record.

FOX Sports’ Chris Tomasson caught up with Hickman recently to discuss the fallout of that non-event:

“It was crazy,’’ Hickman remembers about the fallout. “I got death threats.’’

Brook Lopez has dominated Joakim Noah in the first round (Getty Images)

When the Chicago Bulls hung on to defeat the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday in a thrilling triple overtime classic, the logical assumption had the Bulls following through on their 3-1 lead and topping the Nets in their first round matchup. After all, Chicago’s defense and preparation had made mincemeat out of the Nets at times, with the Nets giving off the image of a team that was “gutless” and “heartless” to those who weren’t paying attention.

Those who were paying attention knew that the Nets won in a walk during Game 1, they had their chances to down the feisty Bulls in Game 2, Brooklyn had an open shot to tie Game 3 at the buzzer in Chicago, and a measly extra point at the end of regulation, overtime numero uno, or the second extra session could have resulted in the Nets tying the series and heading home for a best of three with home court advantage.

Even before Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich went down with a debilitating calf injury, this was a far closer series than most gave it credit for. And now that Hinrich is out for Thursday evening’s Game 6, is it possible that this Nets team should be favored to win the whole thing? Even if it means having to beat the Bulls in Chicago in Game 6 and back home in Brooklyn in Game 7? Even if it means taking three straight from a Bulls team that doesn’t tend to tilt that often?

Possibly. Things tend to go haywire when you lose your starting point guard. Ask the Bulls – they’ve done it twice in 12 months.

David West gutted out a 24-point game (Getty Images)

INDIANAPOLIS – Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but Wednesday night’s Indiana Pacers/Atlanta Hawks game was a one-sided affair mostly dominated by the team that seemed to showcase more effort, with the losing squad sent to the showers after a night partly spent complaining to the referees about calls gone wrong. The Pacers and Hawks just can’t seem to stop playing according to script.

This doesn’t mean there weren’t advancements, as the Pacers downed the Hawks by a 106-83 score in Game 5 of their first round series. The Pacers took a 3-2 lead in this back and forth by recommitting to the inside game, with both center Roy Hibbert and power forward David West (who finished with a game-high 24 points) receiving look after look in their respective comfort zones. The two combined for 30 first half points and 42 overall, with Hibbert being afforded sound low post looks and West picking his spots with both drives and jumpers from the top of the key.

By the time the third quarter hit, the Hawks began to sink a bit defensively in anticipation of continued Pacer interior play, which allowed Indiana All-Star wing Paul George and guard George Hill to take over. George had been dominated in the two previous games by Hawks forward Josh Smith, but with Smith receiving his third, fourth and fifth fouls in quick order in four and a half third quarter minutes, George was allowed to pile up his efficient tally – making his first seven shots before missing his final attempt, scoring 21 points while pulling in 10 rebounds and dishing four assists.

Shane Battier debuts his mustache as an onlooker shields his eyes (Courtesy Twitter.com/TomHaberstroh)

A look around the league and the web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: The Basketball Jones. Shane Battier now has a relief pitcher-styled mustache, is officially bored.
PF: Hardwood Paroxysm. Ananth Pandian rolls through eBay, looking for potential Jason Collins buys, and finds out that people are actually handling his big announcement appropriately.
SF: A Wolf Among Wolves. Zach Harper delves into what a Minnesota Timberwolves team would have looked like in 2008 had the team drafted Stephen Curry.
SG: SB Nation. A day after Mark Jackson went off on the Denver Nuggets’ supposed dirty play, Mike Prada breaks down the tape to see just how filthy George Karl’s crew were on Tuesday night.
PG: Gentleman’s Quarterly. Writing for GQ, Eric Freeman discusses the many reasons that made Jason Collins perhaps the perfect person to break down the team sports barrier he bashed open on Monday.

Your Atlanta Hawks, and your Indiana Pacers (Getty Images)

Sadly – because these are genuinely two very talented teams – the Atlanta Hawks/Indiana Pacers first round pairing has lived up to its reputation as the NBA’s “NBA TV Series” thus far. The two teams have given us four games of mostly one-sided basketball, with only a pair of semi-comebacks from the Hawks and Pacers livening up Games 2 and 4 (respectively) to entertain. Sometimes two pretty or very good teams pair up to provide some pretty bad basketball, and though we respect both sides, the product just hasn’t been a fun watch.

So un-fun, in fact, that San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker (in a rare instance of NBA players calling out their own, even jokingly) dismissed the series as unwatchable. Something to ignore, with the celebrated Boston Celtics attempting to stay alive on Wednesday night and the Oklahoma City Thunder challenging themselves in a post-Russell Westbrook world.

Has it been unwatchable? Not technically. It hasn’t been fun to watch at times, but it’s still actually “watchable” in the same way that something that is not “eatable” may still be “edible.” This is still a best-of three series between two pretty good pro teams, though, and because of various adjustments and the chance for retribution from several of this series’ key elements, this might be something to click over to on Wednesday, and beyond.

Seriously.

Tony Parker on holiday

Without much muss or fuss, the San Antonio Spurs dispatched the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday evening, tying the bow on a decisive four game sweep of an injury-plagued Laker squad. In making their kill swift and painless, the Spurs allowed themselves to receive one of the few perks in what can be a chaotic NBA regular and postseason – the team now gets to rest, and rest, and rest, and rest …

The first game of the team’s second round series likely won’t tip off until Monday, even if the Golden State Warriors manage to hold off a resurgent Denver Nuggets squad and win their opening round series on Thursday. That’s seven whole days “off,” a massive chunk of time in an NBA season that usually turns its All-Star “break” into a series of mandatory appearances and travel days, and an 82-game marathon of a regular season with so much travel that teams are often forced into resting mostly healthy players, and canceling most in-season practices.

What do the Spurs plan to do with their downtime? Tim Duncan has his swords, Matt Bonner has his sandwiches, but All-Star guard Tony Parker most definitely does not have his Indiana Pacers/Atlanta Hawks series all lined up on the DVR to catch up on. Parker loves his hoops, and he’ll have plenty of time to catch up on the rest of the league this week, but he’s giving that series a miss. From the San Antonio Express-News: