- NESW SPORTS has video of Bill Simmons’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel.

- Over on BLEACHER REPORT, “Jersey Al Bracco” rips into Mike McCarthy for giving the beat reports the same old platitudes after the Packers’ embarrassing loss to the then 0-7 Bucs last week.

- THE BIG LEAD discusses statistical guru Nate Silver’s plan to try to predict the winner of the World Cup.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS has video of a WGN reporter dunking and talking trash to a little kid. The kid starts crying. Nice.

- FANHOUSE explains how those refs at the LSU/Alabama game could not see that Patrick Peterson’s feet were indeed inbounds. The televisions that they use to review plays are not in HD. Seriously.

The Cleveland faithful might think that LeBron was fouled on his last drive, but after taking a couple of looks at it, I think it was a clean play. The defender is entitled to his space, and he’s allowed to jump in the air as long as he doesn’t jump forward. This is called the “principle of verticality,” which means that a defensive player is entitled to his vertical cylinder. Joakim Noah’s defense on the play wasn’t a perfect example of this (as his body was drifting toward the basket a bit), but it was a good defensive play. LeBron was in a tough spot and obviously jumped into Noah looking for the call and the refs didn’t bail him out.

There are a couple of other things to take from this game:

1. Mo Williams’ ineffectiveness
He was 4-13 from the field (including 1-7 from long range). He did have six assists, but Mo is a scorer and he needs to be more efficient than this.

2. The Bulls’ balance
Chicago had seven players score at least seven points, and Luol Deng led the Bulls with 15. Derrick Rose didn’t shoot the ball well, but still scored 14 points and dropped 11 dimes.

The Cavs drop to 3-3 with the loss, while the Bulls are 3-2.

-SPORTSbyBROOKS has a nice photo essay of Chicago Bulls Joakim Noah’s vacation in the Caribbean with a topless woman.

-THELOVEOFSPORTS has an interesting story on the NHL’s new marketing plan to attract fans to their games.

-DEADSPIN offers a video report on the roving street party known to Bay Area residents as the 98th annual Bay to Breakers marathon race.

I’m exhausted.

So far, this Celtics/Bulls series has run six games; four went to overtime for a total of seven extra periods. It was the only playoff series ever to have three overtime games, and now that it’s gone to four, I’m starting to wonder if this is the best first round series in the history of the league. It’s certainly the best one that I can remember.

As a longtime Bucks fans, I found it hard at first to root for the Bulls, but I’m really starting to like this team. Joakim Noah plays with exceptional energy and passion, Kirk Hinrich does all the little things in the Chicago backcourt, John Salmons is an up-and-coming swingman, and Derrick Rose is one of the most dynamic players in the entire league.

There were so many great performances tonight. Salmons had 35 points, and broke down Paul Pierce every chance he had. Rose had 28 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and a huge block on Rajon Rondo’s go-ahead attempt in the waning seconds of the final overtime. Brad Miller bounced back from missing game-tying free throws (and nearly having his head removed from his body) in Game 5 to post 23 points, including two huge buckets — a three and a driving layup — at the end of regulation to bring the Bulls back from the dead. Noah had nine points and 15 rebounds, and had a monster steal that he turned into a three-point play (fouling Pierce out in the process) with less than a minute to go in the third overtime.

Ray Allen carried the Celtics for much of the game, finishing with 51 points on 18 for 32 shooting. Pierce and Rondo combined to shoot just 9 of 30 from the field, but Pierce made 11 free throws and Rondo dropped 19 dimes. The C’s wouldn’t have stayed in it without Glen Davis, who chipped in 23 points.

The series moves back to Boston for Game 7 on Saturday.

The trade deadline is Thursday, and trade talk is really heating up. Marc Stein gives us the latest.

Two rival executives we spoke with Sunday night immediately wondered whether the Suns’ decision to replace Terry Porter with Alvin Gentry would convince Phoenix to “tap the brakes,” as one put it, on its Stoudemire talks. If the Suns are going to try to recapture a semblance of what they had under Mike D’Antoni, with the only holdover from D’Antoni’s staff taking over, you can understand why Gentry would prefer to have Stoudemire for the rest of the season to help the cause.

Stoudemire is still under contract for another season, so it wouldn’t hurt the Suns if they wanted to see what Gentry could do with this group before moving their star player over the summer. I’d say that the Porter firing makes it more likely that Stoudemire stays put, though I’d still put the chances at better than 50/50 that Amare is moved before the trade deadline.

One source close to the situation maintains that the Suns have a standing offer from the Bulls for Stoudemire that would definitely deliver blossoming forward Tyrus Thomas and Drew Gooden’s $7.2 million expiring contract. The Suns like those two pieces. A lot.

Unclear is how much more Chicago would be willing to put into the deal.

Joakim Noah? Thabo Sefalosha? A first-round pick?

I mentioned to a buddy of mine that the Suns covet Thomas and his first reaction was, “Why?” Thomas has a rep for being a bit of a disappointment, especially with the way that LaMarcus Aldridge has blossomed in Portland. (The two were involved in a draft night trade back in 2006.)

But Thomas is playing well of late, averaging 15.6 points and 9.6 rebounds over the last nine games. Production-wise, he’s always done pretty well. His PER was 14.80 his first season, 14.91 in his second season and 15.47 this season. He’s just 22 and still has a lot of upside.

The conspiracy theorists among Joe Dumars’ front-office peers around the league will inevitably surmise that the Pistons might need the extra roster spot because they’re closing in on some sort of Stoudemire deal. The combination of Rasheed Wallace’s expiring contract and young forward Amir Johnson would appear to be Detroit’s best offer — and thus not quite in Chicago’s class — but there are a couple well-connected league insiders who believe that Dumars still has hope of winning the Amare Sweepstakes.

So the Suns would let Wallace’s contract expire and they’d ultimately keep Amir Johnson from this deal. The same Amir Johnson that is averaging 4.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in 17 minutes per game this season? Can’t the Suns do better than that?

The Kings could move to the top of the list if they were willing to part with rookie forward Jason Thompson, their two biggest expiring contracts (Bobby Jackson and Shelden Williams) and what will almost certainly be a top-five pick in June.

But the Kings aren’t willing. Not to part with all that. Not yet, anyway.

The 22 year-old Thompson is averaging 10.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game and is having a fine rookie season for a bad team. The key to this deal is the draft pick, as it projects to be in the top five come June. However, I don’t think that the Suns would want to trade Stoudemire within the division.

Sources say Oklahoma City is going after New Orleans center Tyson Chandler, with the Hornets known to be seriously interested in slicing payroll and with the Thunder capable of offering the Hornets two replacement big men with expiring contracts (Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox) as well as one of its five first-round picks in the next two drafts.

You’d like to think that the Hornets would first try to get through this season, see how far they go in the postseason and then shop Chandler closer to the draft if moving him remains their best money-saving option, since trading their interior defensive anchor — in spite of Chandler’s struggles this season — would force us to reevaluate New Orleans’ status as a contender.

The Hornets are 30-20 and currently sitting in the sixth playoff spot in the West. But keep in mind that they are only 1 1/2 games out of fourth and five games out of second. It would be a shame if they broke up the core to slash payroll, especially when the Hornets have $10.6 million coming off the books this summer in the form of Antonio Daniels and Rasual Butler’s expiring contracts. Looking at their payroll, the Hornets shouldn’t have any problem keeping this group together and still stay under the luxury tax threshold.

The problem in New Orleans is not Chandler, it’s Peja Stojakovic, as I’ve been saying all along. The Hornets made a mistake trading for him, and now that they owe him another $29.5 million over the next two seasons, they’re paying the price. His contract is untradeable and his game is degrading. That’s not a good combination.

…but the latest in circulation could furnish Portland with a new small forward and a new point guard: [Richard] Jefferson and University of Oregon-ex Luke Ridnour in exchange for Travis Outlaw, Sergio Rodriguez and Raef LaFrentz’s expiring contract.

As a Bucks fan, I’d like to see Ridnour moved to clear the way for Ramon Sessions to take over at the point, though it might be better to make that switch this summer after Sessions has been signed to an affordable contract. If they move Ridnour and Sessions blows up, it’s only going to increase his asking price. I’m lukewarm on Jefferson, but if they can get out from under his contract (via LaFrentz’s expiring deal) and get a couple of nice young players in Outlaw and Rodriguez, I’d be all for it.

Why did Miami consent to completing the long-discussed deal swapping Shawn Marion for Jermaine O’Neal nearly a week before the deadline instead of waiting a few more days to see what happens with Stoudemire?

One source close to the process says that the Heat were informed from the start that they had no shot at completing a direct Amare deal with the Suns because Phoenix did not want to bring back Marion — even for less than half a season — after last February’s emotional parting … and because Phoenix isn’t especially high on [Michael] Beasley, either.

Intuitively, this makes sense. Miami realized that it could not acquire Stoudemire, so they did the next best thing and acquired O’Neal. On the other hand, I don’t know why the Suns aren’t interested in Beasley. You’d think that he’d be a nice piece to build around, and he’ll be cheap for the next few years, but the Suns are more interested in Tyrus Thomas. Go figure.

The rosters for the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge have been announced and there are a few surprises.

The rookie roster consists of Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon, Rudy Fernandez, Michael Beasley, Brook Lopez, Greg Oden and Marc Gasol.

The sophomore roster includes Rodney Stuckey, Aaron Brooks, Kevin Durant, Wilson Chandler, Jeff Green, Al Thornton, Luis Scola, Al Horford and Thaddeus Young.

Kevin Love isn’t on the nine-man roster for the Rookie Challenge, and it’s a big, glaring snub. ESPN’s John Hollinger agrees.

For starters, the decision to select Eric Gordon ahead of Kevin Love for the rookies was completely inexcusable.

Don’t get me wrong; Gordon is going to have a fine career, it seems, and in almost any other year he’d be a shoo-in for the team. But he made this squad mainly because the forlorn Clippers have no choice but to play him extensive minutes.

As good as he’s looked, Gordon is the only rookie team member with a Player Efficiency Rating below the league average, while Love has a better PER than every player on the rookie team except Greg Oden. Love leads the league in offensive rebound rate, as I mentioned the other day, but his prodigious work on the boards has gone largely unnoticed because he plays only 23.2 minutes a game, far less than Gordon’s 32.2.

Love’s absence is especially surprising considering how the rookie roster is loaded with four guards (Rose, Westbrook, Mayo, Gordon), one G/F (Fernandez) and only one true forward (Beasley). You’d think that if it were a tossup between Gordon and Love (which it isn’t) that they’d at least want to get another true forward on the roster to balance things out.

Hollinger goes on to rail against the sophomore roster snubs, which included Wilson Chandler over Jamario Moon, Al Thornton over Carl Landry and the worst of all (he says) — Aaron Brooks over Ramon Sessions.

Interestingly, seven of the top 11 picks of the 2007 draft — Mike Conley, Yi Jianlian, Corey Brewer, Brandan Wright, Joakim Noah, Spencer Hawes and Acie Law — did NOT make the sophomore roster. (I counted Greg Oden amongst the four since he made the rookie roster.) Conversely, six of the top 11 picks in the 2008 draft did make the rookie team.