Tuesday Bolts – 3.22.16

Kevin Pelton of ESPN Insider predicts the All-NBA teams: “James, Durant and Leonard

are all among the NBA’s five best players, but because they happen to play the same position, one of them will end up on the second team. The model suggests James and Leonard are about equally likely to be the odd man out, with Durant closer to a lock because of his superior scoring average. My guess is Durant and James will edge out Leonard because of their longer track records as elite superstars.”

Erik Horne: “A day after Durant hosted his first ever charity fundraiser, Westbrook continued his unyielding support of Oklahoma City community education and family service programs. While looking to see which Thunder player was bowling the highest score, you’d likely catch a glimpse of a sponsor sign underneath the video monitors. The sponsor signs went from wall-to-wall, on nearly every lane of the bowling alley. The Why Not? Bowl is just one extension of Westbrook’s charity work, which includes his Russell’s Reading Rooms, a literacy initiative created to provide children in Oklahoma City and Los Angeles access to books and a safe environment to read.”

KD is questionable for tonight.

Zach Lowe of ESPN.com: “The Cavs’ current art is both dull and self-serious, with curving flourishes in the word mark and a sword meant to evoke old-school bravery. Bring back the simpler mark the team uses on some throwback nights, and that delightful “V” rendered as a hoop. It’s clean, with just the right amount of kitsch. Bonus points if they work in the lighter shade of blue the Cavs used to feature.”

Chandler Parsons is done for the season. The Mavs may be slipping out of the playoffs.

Marc Stein of ESPN.com: “We had some harsh words in this cyberspace last week for Russell Westbrook thanks to his recent fourth-quarter struggles, as well as a fairly steep three-spot drop down for his Thunder, but you still have to acknowledge that Angry Russ is a one-of-a-kind force of nature even when his late-game touch has been lacking. Triple-double No. 14 of the season, in Saturday night’s win in Indiana, marked Westbrook’s 11th triple-double in the past 30 games alone. According to Elias, Michael Jordan is the only other player with that many triple-doubles in a 30-game span since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976-77.”