There was a wild one late last night in Los Angeles. Check out the highlights:

The loss puts the Suns at 35-34, three games behind Memphis for the #8 seed in the West, but they’re just two games behind the Grizzlies in the loss column. Unfortunately, the Suns don’t face the Grizzlies down the stretch, so it will be tough to catch them. It looks like Steve Nash and Co. will miss the playoffs this year.

I know, I know…when doesn’t Kobe think he was fouled? (ESPN)

“[Dwyane] Wade fouled the s— out of me,” Bryant said with his feet dipped in a bucket of ice water after the game. Bryant was referring to the 3-pointer he attempted with 1:06 left and the Lakers down 90-88.

“It was clearly evident,” Bryant said. “They missed it. … He fouled the hell out of me, they just missed it.”

“I couldn’t make that, he hit my whole arm,” said Bryant, who had made his previous two 3-point attempts at the time, including a long 28-footer to tie the score at 88. “That’s why I went so short. … I should have been shooting three free throws.”

Even with all of his other personality quirks, the thing that most drives me nuts about Kobe is his constant interaction with the officials. Nine times out of 10 if he loses the ball or misses a shot, he’ll have something to say or a nasty look for the ref. It’s almost as if he thinks he’s too good to fail on any particular possession without the defender doing something illegal to stop him.

The league has tried to cut down on all of the griping this season by implementing new “respect the game” rules for technicals, and for the most part I think it has worked. But Kobe is still Kobe and these comments prove that.

Maybe I’m being too nostalgic, but I don’t remember Michael Jordan or Larry Bird constantly complaining to (or about) the officials.

The little things that were going wrong down the stretch for the Miami Heat during their five-game losing streak didn’t go wrong tonight. Dwyane Wade had eight of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and the Heat got a few breaks on the defensive end — Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ non-goaltend, the no-call on Wade’s baseline reach-in on Kobe and LeBron’s box-out flop against Artest — and Miami was able to get one giant monkey off its back.

After a fairly nightmarish game against the Blazers on Tuesday (along with some fairly inappropriate grumbling about the quality of his looks), Chris Bosh came up big, posting 24 points and nine rebounds, outplaying Pau Gasol, who posted 20 points and five boards. Mike Miller (12 points, seven rebounds) was also big off the bench and Mike Bibby (six points) chipped in with two key three-pointers in the second half.

For his part, LeBron James (19 points, nine assists, eight rebounds) didn’t shoot the ball all that well, but his near-triple-double was crucial to the Heat’s success. He made a great decision with 2:49 to play with the Heat nursing a one-point lead. After Wade retrieved his own miss, he kicked it out to LeBron, who had a wide open three, but was 0-for-3 on the night. Instead of taking the open shot, LeBron waited for Wade to get open on the baseline and found him for the easy score. It was a mature play to pass up his own so-so shot to create a great shot for his teammate.

Kobe had 24 points, but after making his first four shots, he went just 4-of-17 for the remainder of the game. Wade did a nice job of staying in his grill and forcing him to take tough shots.

This is a huge win for the Heat, who can finally stop answering questions about why they’re playing so poorly. They host the Grizzlies on Saturday while the Lakers have to visit the Mavericks in Dallas.

The New York Daily News reports that a possible move by the Sacramento Kings to Anaheim is likely to be opposed by the two teams already in the L.A. area.

The move to Anaheim will be opposed by the Lakers and Clippers, who see it as an encroachment on their territory. But sources close to the Maloofs say they’re willing to pay the two L.A. teams whatever it takes to relocate. That would be in addition to the league’s relocation fee of $30 million.

Anaheim Honda Center and Ducks owner Henry Samueli is prepared to help the Maloofs with the financing, offering a $100 million loan. Samueli tried to buy the team last year.

I live about six miles from the Honda Center and I’d love to see the Kings play there. I go to about one or two Clippers/Lakers games a year, and I’m thinking about getting season tickets to see the the Anaheim Kings (or whatever they end up calling themselves), so I don’t see the Kings as major competition for the Lakers or Clippers. If either franchise (especially the Clippers) were serious about courting Orange County, they’d move to Anaheim. As it stands, the 45-mile trek into the city (oftentimes during rush hour) is more than most OC folks can handle.

Orange County has more than 3.0 million residents, while Los Angeles County boasts 9.8 million residents. The OC’s population is greater than the metro areas of these current NBA cities: Denver (2.5 M), Portland (2.2 M), Sacramento (2.1 M), Cleveland (2.1 M), Orlando (2.1 M), San Antonio (2.1 M), Charlotte (1.7 M), Indianapolis (1.7 M), Milwaukee (1.6 M), Memphis (1.3 M), Oklahoma City (1.2 M), New Orleans (1.2 M) and Salt Lake City (1.1 M).

In short, there’s plenty of room for a third team in SoCal, though the best move would be for the Clippers to head south. That isn’t going to happen as long as Donald Sterling is the owner, and he isn’t likely to sell anytime soon, so I don’t blame the Maloofs for trying to capitalize on a move to Anaheim.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (talk about a dumb name for a baseball team) were #5 in average attendance in 2010 and 2009. The Anaheim Ducks have been in the #15-#25 range over the past four seasons.

Orange County will support a professional team if it’s good. Southern Californians are notoriously front-running, and will only go out of their way to support a winner. A team that loses like the Kings have this season is unlikely to outdraw Sacramento or Las Vegas, but Anaheim has a respectable arena and the Maloofs are finding that they have a lot of support from Samueli, who owns the Ducks and the Honda Center.

So the Clippers and Lakers may oppose the move, and why not? There’s no downside for them. If they put up a stink, they’ll at the very least get some extra cash out of the deal to grease the wheels.

But it’s not fair to basketball fans in Orange County, who would like a local team to root for that wouldn’t require an hour-plus white knuckle drive to see in person. It’s nonsensical that a metro area this populous and spread out has two teams sharing an arena when there’s a comparable arena in Anaheim.

The Thunder’s 90-87 loss to the Lakers on Sunday is a great example of why Russell Westbrook holds the championship keys for this young Oklahoma City team. He posted 22 points, six assists and six rebounds, but turned the ball over seven times, including two bad turnovers in the final minute when the Thunder were trying to complete a comeback.

He’s super-aggressive and supremely talented, but the bottom line is that he’s a scoring guard playing the point, and he has to learn to keep himself under control, especially when he’s attacking the rim and there are defenders in position to take the charge. Unfortunately, his turnovers are actually up this year (3.8 vs 3.3 last season) so it doesn’t look like the light is going to go on anytime soon. He’s actually tied with Rajon Rondo with the most turnovers per game this season.

Can the Thunder emerge from the West? I think they can, but they’re going to have to play better offensively than they did on Sunday. OKC took the Lakers to a Game 7 last year, and once they get Kendrick Perkins into the mix — he sat out of Sunday’s game with sprained knee — they’ll fare better against the Lakers’ big front line. Serge Ibaka looks more than capable of playing power forward, while James Harden and Nick Collison anchor a very capable bench.

Believe it or not — even with the best scorer in the league in Kevin Durant, the Thunder have trouble executing offensively. Westbrook is not a natural playmaker so when he’s penetrating he’s looking for his own shot. The Thunder will probably have to play Harden at the two down the stretch if Ibaka and Perkins are also on the floor. Otherwise, the defense will be able to focus on Durant and Westbrook.

If Westbrook can raise his game and increase his assist-to-turnover ratio from the current 2.2 to 2.8 or 3.0, the Thunder will be very, very dangerous come playoff time.

In his annual trade value column, Bill Simmons discusses how Andrew Bynum’s first six seasons rank amongst his historical peers.

38. Andrew Bynum
A list of the most memorable centers and power forwards of the past 35 years organized by their first six regular seasons for “games played,” “games missed” and “number of seasons in which they played 90 percent of the games.”

Dwight Howard: 489 — 3 — 6
Karl Malone: 489 — 3 — 6
Tim Duncan: 451 — 9 — 5
David Robinson: 475 — 17 — 5
Kevin McHale: 475 — 17 — 5
Charles Barkley: 472 — 20 — 6
Dikembe Mutombo: 471 –21 — 5
Robert Parish: 469 — 23 — 5
Hakeem Olajuwon: 468 — 24 — 5
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 467 — 25 — 5
Dirk Nowitzki: 444 — 48 — 5
Kevin Garnett: 442 — 50 — 5
Patrick Ewing: 438 — 54 — 4
Moses Malone: 428 — 66 — 4
Alonzo Mourning: 409 — 83 — 2
Shaquille O’Neal: 408 — 84 — 2
Yao Ming: 404 — 88 — 3
Ralph Sampson: 395 — 97 — 3
Chris Webber: 329 — 131 — 1
Andrew Bynum: 309 — 169 — 1
Bill Walton: 223 — 269 — 0
Sam Bowie: 207 — 285 — 1
Greg Oden: 82 — 266 — 0

What jumps out? First, the durable guys remained durable throughout their careers, with just one exception: McHale, who ruined the second half of his career by bravely (and some would say foolishly) playing on a broken foot in the 1987 playoffs. Second, anyone who missed more than 80 games and couldn’t play in 90 percent of the games in at least four of their first six seasons went on to have injury-plagued careers. (That includes Shaq, who played more than 68 games in a season just six times and missed an average of 18 games per season.) And third, if you can’t stay on the court at your youngest/healthiest/freshest/most energetic, it’s a pretty safe bet that things won’t change as you get older. It’s straight DNA: Some dudes are structurally built for 82-game NBA seasons, others aren’t. So if you make the argument “If Bynum can stay healthy, he’s a franchise center,” just make sure you also mention that we have 35 years of evidence that there’s a tipping point when “If he can stay healthy …” becomes “… he’s not going to stay healthy.” We’re there with Andrew Bynum. He’s not going to stay healthy. If I were the Lakers, I would trade him right now.

(Actually, what am I saying? They should definitely keep him! The guy is built like solid oak!)

I still don’t know why the Lakers are so intent on holding onto Bynum in this scenario unless they are simply convinced that Carmelo wouldn’t fit in with the 2011 Lakers or are going all in, hoping that Bynum’s knees will hold up until the end of June so that Kobe can get his sixth ring.

Bynum doesn’t even finish games, so the Lakers are theoretically passing on a multiple All-NBA forward for a guy who always rides the pine in crunch time. It’s truly ponderous — I don’t care what Jon Barry says.

Mark Heisler of the L.A. Times asserts that the Worldwide Leader promoted the dead on arrival Carmelo Anthony/Andrew Bynum trade rumors just to get ratings and hits.

ESPN’s Chris Broussard reported “preliminary discussions about a blockbuster trade.”

Cellphones on the Lakers beat started ringing like the hot line from Moscow.

With the advantage of years developing Lakers sources . . . as opposed to trusting a single source, like the one who assured everyone Anthony was New Jersey-bound . . . local writers got denials across the board and, significantly, nothing suggesting Jim Buss doesn’t still dote on Bynum.

This is a beat writer (who has multiple sources with the team he covers) taking aim at a national writer (who may only have one source). Heisler’s accusation falls squarely on the shoulders of Broussard and those producers at ESPN who decided to promote this story/rumor based on Broussard’s source(s).

This doesn’t change the fact that the Lakers should absolutely trade Bynum for Carmelo, if they have the opportunity.

Supposedly Brown’s vertical was measured pre-draft (in 2006) by the Lakers at 44.5 inches, and based on the various dunks we’ve seen him finish, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s accurate. The guy has some serious hops.

Brown has a better than average Player Efficiency Rating (15.66) for the first time in his career, largely because he’s hitting almost 39% of his three-point shots. For a “point guard,” he’s still a poor playmaker (1.1 assists per game), but that’s not the role of the point guard in the triangle offense.

With his second of three three-pointers on the night, Ray Allen broke Reggie Miller’s all-time three-point record (2,560) against the Lakers, but Kobe Bryant was too much in the second half, and the Celtics fell, 92-86.

After struggling all season against the league’s top teams, the Lakers needed a “signature win” and they got it in Boston despite a rough start. L.A. trailed by 15 points in the middle of the second quarter, but closed with a 13-6 run to cut the lead to eight at halftime. A 10-0 Laker run to start the third quarter, and Boston’s lead was gone. The teams traded blows until a well-rested Kobe came off the bench with the Lakers nursing a three-point lead and 5:04 remaining in the fourth quarter, and effectively put the game away with 10 points in the final five minutes.

What does this win mean? Laker fans can take their fingers off the panic button, for one. Had the Celtics won by a wide margin, the Lakers would have been more likely to shake the roster up before the Feb. 24 trade deadline. With the win, they’re likely to do nothing at all, or possibly tinker with some of the players at the bottom of the rotation.

I still don’t understand why the Lakers wouldn’t pull a trigger on a Bynum-for-Carmelo swap, but Steve Kerr said last night that by giving up Bynum, they’d be giving up their height advantage. And who am I to argue with Kerr, who broke up that Suns team (to acquire Shaquille O’Neal) that was two bench-clearing suspensions away from upsetting the eventual-champion San Antonio Spurs in 2007? Kerr also wonders how difficult it would be to insert Carmelo into the triangle offense, but with the way Ron Artest is playing (i.e. not well), Anthony would be a huge upgrade. Even if it took him a while to fit in, he couldn’t be any worse than Artest.

Bynum definitely helps the Lakers against the Celtics. I just think Carmelo would help them more against everyone else they might play in the postseason. Plus, he’s not the injury risk that Bynum is.

Oh, and if you’re wondering how Reggie Miller felt about Allen breaking his record. Here’s what he said just before it happened:

“It just shows you, when people ask me, ‘you’ve got to be a little bit upset or bitter?’ Why? First of all, all records are made to be broken. I had a conversation with Ray earlier tonight and he was like, ‘when I was a rookie and I came to Market Square Arena and I saw you for three, three and a half hours before (the game) shooting, that’s how I wanted to patent my game.’ I’m just so happy for him because this is one of the best guys. He’s so humble, he’s so giving, he’s a great family man and I’m excited. This is great. This is great for the game of basketball. You know why? We’re focusing and talking about shooting, Steve. You know how many hours (we went) and we had keys to the gym, we’d go early. No one talks about shooting anymore.”

Those are two pretty classy individuals right there.

And the beat goes on…

Fred Kerber of the New York Post writes that the Nets could soon reenter the fray.

But around the NBA, there is a strong undercurrent that the Nets, while idle now and certainly not viewed as favorites in the hunt, are anything but done if there indeed is a trade in the Carmelo Anthony saga.

Though multiple sources said there is nothing going on at present, there exists a growing feeling the Nuggets will contact the Nets again while playing the drama out until the Feb. 24 trading deadline.

I don’t know about this one. Mikhail Prokhorov had a meeting set up with Carmelo when he elected to instruct management to stop pursuing a trade with the Nuggets. Why would he start the saga again? What’s changed?

Meanwhile, the Denver Post is reporting that Carmelo may be willing to sign an extension with the Nuggets if he isn’t traded by the trade deadline.

Anthony said he would “take a real hard look” at signing a three-year, $65 million contract extension that has been on the table since June if he is not dealt by the Feb. 24 trading deadline.

The team’s all-star said he hasn’t heard any updates from management about a possible trade, though team officials are talking to potential suitors throughout the league. Though Anthony has always said he was keeping his options open, he hadn’t talked publicly about possibly signing until Wednesday.

“As the days go on, that’s something that I think about, that nothing might happen, that I’ll be here, whether I have to deal with the free-agency market or re-sign the extension here with the Nuggets,” he said.

Asked specifically to clarify whether he might sign the extension if not traded, Anthony said, “Yeah.”

What? The Nuggets’ extension has been on the table for months and Carmelo has refused to sign it. Now that we’re just over two weeks away from the trade deadline, he’s suddenly willing to think about re-upping with Denver?

I don’t buy it. This has to be a ploy to get the Knicks (or Lakers) to step up and make a good trade offer. The Knicks may be sitting back thinking that they can get Carmelo as a free agent in the summer, but if he floats the idea that he may stay in Denver, it would encourage the Knicks to get something done now.

As for the rumored Carmelo/Bynum swap with the Lakers, Bynum isn’t thinking about it, per ESPN:

Bynum said that he has not been in contact with anyone within the Lakers organization about the possibility of being traded.

“I think they would [contact me] if it was more than a rumor,” Bynum said. “No one’s really said anything.”

Bynum has never been traded, so I’m not sure if his “they’d tell me” line of thinking is entirely accurate. Like anything else, management will wait as long as they can before informing a player/employee about something of this magnitude. They wouldn’t want to disrupt his morale until a move was definite.

But again, the Laker rumor was probably just a ploy by Anthony’s camp to encourage the Knicks to get something done. Of course, if I were Laker GM Mitch Kupchak, I’d trade Bynum for Anthony in a New York minute.

Rumors and innuendo are fun to discuss, but at this point, I just want something to happen so we can put Carmelo Anthony’s future to bed, at least for a while. I’ve said all along that the Nuggets should have traded him last summer instead of waiting until midseason when all the trade talk would become a distraction for the team. The Nuggets are just 30-23 and are in the #7 spot in the West. They’re on pace for 46 wins, and considering the franchise has been a 50-win team over the past three seasons, the rumor mill is clearly having a negative impact on the franchise.