It looks like the ball is still in Miller’s hand when the red light goes. Good call.

This year, we’re doing a division-by-division preview with quick-hitting analysis for every team in the league. If a franchise is a legitimate championship contender, I’ll focus on what stars have to line up for a title run. If a team is a playoff “also-ran,” I’ll identify the weaknesses that have to be shored up via trade, free agency or draft over the next couple of seasons to make it a contender. If a team is likely to miss the playoffs, I’ll take a look at the salary cap, and provide a blueprint for how the team should proceed in the near future to get back in the postseason. At the end of each divisional preview, I’ll provide some (random) thoughts for the fantasy hoopsters out there.

For each division, I’ll pick the order of finish. You’ll also see the team’s league-wide preseason rank in parenthesis. Be sure to check back over the course of the next couple of weeks for previews of each division.

Denver Nuggets (6)
The Nuggets are coming off a 54-28 record and a Northwest Division title. Of their top rotation players, they return all but Linas Kleiza (Olympiakos) and Dahntay Jones (Indiana). HC George Karl hopes that J.R. Smith can be a consistent starting shooting guard, but he won’t be afraid to use Arron Afflalo if Smith doesn’t play solid defense (or with his head on straight). Much of the credit to Denver’s fine season is given to Chauncey Billups, who provided steady play and leadership at point guard, but the health of Nene and Kenyon Martin should not be overlooked. The Nuggets re-signed Chris “The Birdman” Andersen to provide energy, rebounding and shot blocking off the bench. If the front line can stay healthy, Billups can stay productive at 33, and Smith can fulfill his considerable potential, then the Nuggets have enough talent to reach the Western Conference Finals for a second straight season. Even so, it’s hard to see Denver upending a healthy Lakers or Spurs squad in a seven-game series.

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Olympiakos has plucked another young NBA player in his prime. Denver’s Linas Kleiza is headed to Greece.

Per Yahoo Sports…

Denver Nuggets restricted free-agent forward Linas Kleiza(notes) has agreed to a two-year, $12.2 million contract with Greek team Olympiakos, his agent Bill Duffy told Yahoo! Sports on Monday.

The contract has an opt-out clause, which allows Kleiza to again become a restricted free agent next summer.

Duffy said that while Kleiza attracted interest from other NBA teams, his client’s restricted free-agency status limited his options.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — the NBA needs to do away with restricted free agency. Most RFAs are left in limbo for a year, and instead of playing the season for peanuts, guys like Josh Childress and Linas Kleiza are bolting for Europe. If they were unrestricted, they would have probably stayed in the NBA.

Hockey fans rejoice!

The conference finals were a big yawn, but the Stanley Cup offers an intriguing matchup. Sid the Kid looks to dethrone Hockeytown and spoil the back-to-back title party being planned in the Motor City. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings were the preseason favorites to meet once again in the Cup finals, and both encountered a rough road back to this anticipated rematch.

Oh, and the Lakers and Magic look to close out their respective series this weekend.

All times ET…

NBA Playoffs
Fri, 9 PM: Los Angeles Lakers @ Denver Nuggets (ESPN)
Sat, 8:30 PM: Cleveland Cavaliers @ Orlando Magic (TNT)
Sun, 8:30 PM: Denver Nuggets @ Los Angeles Lakers *if necessary (ABC)

Stanley Cup Finals
Sat, 8 PM: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Detroit Red Wings (NBC)
Sun, TBD: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Detroit Red Wings (NBC)

MLB
Sat, 4:10 PM: Minnesota Twins @ Tampa Bay Rays (FOX)
Sun., 12:40 PM: New York Yankees @ Cleveland Indians (TBS)
Sun., 8 PM: Los Angeles Dodgers @ Chicago Cubs (ESPN)

French Open
Fri, 5 AM: Opening Round Matches (Tennis Channel)
Fri, 12 PM: Opening Round Matches (ESPN2)
Sat, 5 AM: Opening Round Matches (Tennis Channel)
Sat, 1:30 PM: Opening Round Matches (NBC)
Sun, 5 AM: Round of 16 (Tennis Channel)
Sun, 3 PM: Round of 16 (NBC)

Pau Gasol can’t understand why the Lakers aren’t utilizing their advantage inside to better effect.

“I wish we would take more advantage of our height and the inside game, because it’s pretty effective. It’s unfortunate that we don’t recognize it enough,” Gasol said, according to the Daily News.

“It’s frustrating because we lose games,” Gasol said, according to the report. “I don’t mind when we win, because the bottom line is, I want to win. But I feel like we have an advantage, and I’m effective, we should stay with what works and what’s effective and not get away from it. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Gasol is shooting almost 63% in the series and should be getting the ball more. The Nuggets have been reluctant to double team, so if the Lakers start feeding him the ball and let him go to work, it will force Denver to adjust (or let him score efficiently). Derek Fisher has been awful from the perimeter, and Lamar Odom isn’t bringing much to the table, so the Lakers might as well go with what’s been working. After all, he is their second-best player.

While this story is a few days old, it brings up an important problem in sports-spectating today (the picture represents the reaction of Ms. Vasquez). We start off with the recent interview of Carmelo Anthony’s fiancée, Lala Vasquez concerning an incident at the Western semis Game 5 between her and a group of fans as posted on Mom Logic:

They began yelling ‘F*** the Nuggets!’ right in front of my son.” Then she says they started calling the Nuggets players “n*****s.” She was shocked. “I’ve been at a ton of games — but I have NEVER heard fans say things like that.” Then, looking directly at her while taunting Anthony on the court, Lala says the fans called her son a “bastard.”

While this seems a case taken to an extreme, it certainly isn’t so uncommon to anyone bringing their children to a game. Especially this year’s playoffs (with Mark Cuban dumping on somebody’s mom and children being tossed aside by large men) it seems like sports, specifically basketball, have become less and less family friendly.

OK, OK. I’m blowing this a little out of proportion, besides I’m a single, young guy. Why should I care about this anyway? Well, come on, some things belong in sports and some don’t. The kind of language and behavior I’m talking about goes far beyond anything acceptable at a bar, let alone a public all-ages event. So it’d be nice to see something done at least to dissuade people from unloading a salvo of vulgarity at the back of an 8-year-old’s head. What if they rise up against us? Look at that face up there and tell me you wouldn’t run for it.

“Gentlemen, start your engines.”

These four words begin one of the grandest traditions in auto racing, as the 93rd Indianapolis 500 will take place this weekend. The Old Brickyard has been home to some memorable finishes and characters that make this one of the marquee events on the racing season.

The NBA Conference Finals are really heating up. Arguably, the four best players (LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard) in the league are fighting tooth and nail for a title. All four have shown the determination and drive needed to win a NBA crown.

All times ET…

NBA Playoffs
Fri, 8:30 PM: Orlando Magic @ Cleveland Cavaliers (TNT)
Sat, 8:30 PM: Los Angeles Lakers @ Denver Nuggets (ABC)
Sun, 8:30 PM: Cleveland Cavaliers @ Orlando Magic (TNT)

NHL Playoffs
Fri, 8 PM: Detroit Red Wings @ Chicago Blackhawks (Versus)
Sat, 7:30 PM: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Carolina Hurricanes (Versus)
Sun, 3 PM: Detroit Red Wings @ Chicago Blackhawks (NBC)

MLB
Sat, 4:10 PM: Philadelphia Phillies @ New York Yankees (FOX)
Sun., 1:30 PM: New York Mets @ Boston Red Sox (TBS)
Sun., 8 PM: Milwaukee Brewers @ Minnesota Twins (ESPN)

Auto Racing
Sun, 1 PM: The 93rd Indianapolis 500 @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway (ABC)

Tennis
Sun, 5 AM: The French Open (ESPN2)

Kobe Bryant called his team “bipolar” and the Lakers have done nothing to disprove that diagnosis in these playoffs. They were pushed to a Game 7 by a Rockets team that had no business winning Game 4 or Game 6 without Yao Ming. When the Lakers are on their game, there aren’t too many teams in the league that can hang with them. When they are scatterbrained and unfocused, they lose. For Kobe and Co., it’s more of a question of chemistry and psychology than it is strategy, tactics or personnel. The Nuggets don’t have anyone that can stop (or even slow down) Kobe, so if the rest of the Lakers show up, they should win this series.

How do the Nuggets pull off an upset? First, they need Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony to get hot. Melo’s matchup with Trevor Ariza is important — Anthony needs to dominate. They need to find a way to score even when the Lakers are focused defensively, and that means they need to feed Nene the ball inside. He averaged 16 points and seven boards against Dallas, and needs to continue that fine play in the Conference Finals. It’s important that he keep Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom engaged defensively.

Off the Denver bench, J.R. Smith has been hot and he needs to stay hot. There isn’t anyone on the Laker bench that can stay with him, other than maybe Shannon Brown. If Sasha Vujacic tries his over-aggressive “humping” style defense, Smith is going to make short work of him. If Smith averages 18+ in this series, the Nuggets have a puncher’s chance of springing the upset. Conversely, the Denver bench really needs to make the Laker role players work for their points. Denver needs to force Kobe into taking 25 or 30 shots per game. If they do, it will mean that the triangle offense isn’t working very well.

The Lakers won the season series, 3-1, and with home court advantage, it’s no surprise that they are a 2:5 favorite in the series. These Nuggets won’t lay down, and they are playing some great basketball right now. If L.A. phones it in, especially at home, Denver could pounce.

We’re down to four teams…Cavs/Magic…Lakers/Nuggets…

What do they have in common? Star power, efficient offense, pretty solid defense, good coaching…check, check, check and check.

But how about an aggressive front office?

Each of these four teams made a major trade in the last two years.

July 11, 2007: The Magic sign Rashard Lewis
This was a sign-and-trade, not a straight free agent signing, but the Magic only had to give up a conditional second round pick. The upside for the then-Seattle Supersonics was a trade exception worth $9 million. The contract (six years, $110 million) seemed outlandish at the time, and Lewis is still overpaid, but the Magic did what they had to do to get him. He’s a great fit for what Orlando is trying to do. They are built like the Rockets were in the Hakeem Olajuwon era — find a big man who commands a double-team, and surround him with great shooters. Lewis is the Magic’s version of Robert Horry in that he’s a lanky, versatile, sharpshooting big man. Strength-wise, he’s not built like a typical power forward, but since the NBA has gotten smaller and quicker over the past few years, he can get by against most teams. Offensively, he creates all sorts of problems for opposing power forwards as he can drill the long ball (career 39% from 3PT) or take it to the rack. He’s also pretty good in the post when teams try to defend him with a smaller player.

Sure, the Magic overpaid on that contract, but I think it’s safe to say that if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t be in the Eastern Conference Finals right now. Lewis is a big, big part of Orlando’s recent success. GM Otis Smith deserves a lot of credit for having the cojones to pull the trigger on this deal.

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Mark Cuban hoped to put his feud with Kenyon Martin (and Martin’s mom) behind him when he apologized on his blog for referring to Martin as a thug after Game 3 in Dallas. But Martin doesn’t think Cuban’s apology is good enough.

“He’s a coward,” Martin said about Cuban, according to HoopsHype.com. “He couldn’t face it. You all read the only apology that he’s made [on his blog].

“The world got to see it before the person who it was meant for got to see it. That tells you how that goes. I ain’t never known nobody apology to somebody through other people.”

For his part, Cuban called his blog apology a mistake, telling the Web site in an e-mail that he regretted not having contacted Martin’s mother in person and in a timely fashion.

“I still intend to apologize to Ms. Moore,” Cuban wrote of Lydia Moore, Martin’s mother. “I made a mistake and will keep my commitment.”

“I would also like to know if Kenyon is going to take responsibility for his actions rather than hiding behind ‘no comment,’ ” Cuban wrote. “Will he apologize to the wife of our staff member that he called a [expletive] fat pig’ immediately after Game 3? Will he apologize to fans that he threatened to, and I’m paraphrasing here, ‘[expletive] beat the [expletive] down’ during Game 4?

“Or to the fans he walked by after Game 4, [Martin] cursed and gave the finger to? Will he take responsibility for what he said and did? Is there some reason he has not?”

This isn’t a huge deal, but it probably isn’t going away until the two speak to each other. They both like to talk to the press, so reporters will keep asking them about the status of the feud, which is only going to add fuel to the fire.