It didn't take too long for the NBA to suspend Miami Heat's Udonis Haslem and Dexter Pittman for the over-the-top hits on Pacers' Tyler Hansbrough and Lance Stephenson respectively.

Haslem will be suspended for one game (Game 6) for a very hard foul on Hansbrough while Pittman will be suspended for three games for pretty much elbowing Stephenson's throat. It also didn't help  that Pittman winked after the foul on Stephenson.

Haslem's hard hit on Tyler was pretty much in retaliation of an early hard foul Hansbrough dished out to Dwayne Wade but unlike Haslem's hit, Hansbrough's foul wasn't as brutal.

Pittman, on the other hand, was pretty much head hunting when Stephenson went to the rim. It was clear Pittman was seeking to send a message to Lance after Lance had given the Heat the choke sign earlier in the series.

There was a time a few weeks ago when the Miami Heat seemed to feel that the Indiana Pacers were just another bump in the road to their ultimate goal. Just another team that stood idly in the way or their coronation. Maybe that is just how the national media felt.

After a bruising and physical Game Five though, the Heat are taking a few bumps and not overlooking the Pacers. Now Miami wants to get past Indiana just to be free of the constant bickering and attention-grabbing the Pacers seem to be after.

Indiana's narrative has been a return to past glory after wandering in the dark following the regrettable fight at the Palace of Auburn Hills. But that does not mean the Pacers are not looking for a fight.

Indiana has been physical and, according to some Miami players, doing a little bit more than that to try and bait Miami into a critical mistake.

That might have been some of the impetus for Tuesday night's extremely physical Game Five. After all, this series has seen Indiana needle Miami repeatedly.

The NBA Awards season is wrapping up and there have certainly been some odd votes cast (Josh Selby getting a third place Rookie Of The Year Vote comes to mind).  Today the NBA released its All-Defensive First and Second Teams, and, at first glance, it mostly made sense, but then it didn't (H/T to Ben Golliver).

Players were awarded two points for a First Team Selection and one point for a Second Team selection. Here's how the scoring broke down.

First Team: LeBron James (53 points), Serge Ibaka (47), Dwight Howard (41), Chris Paul (35), Tony Allen (33)

Second Team: Kevin Garnett (26), Luol Deng (20), Tyson Chandler (36), Rajon Rondo (29), Kobe Bryant (17)

First things first, it's important to note that the coaches (or someone on a team voting for the coaches) fill out these ballots, not the media. That mostly explains why Tyson Chandler, the Defensive Player of the Year as chosen by the media, made the second team.

Second, under no circumstances should the names Luol Deng and Kobe Bryant appear on a ballot before the names Andre Iguadola and Dwyane Wade. Those are probably the two biggest reputation votes of this entire season.

A couple of other really funny things happened though.

The Miami Heat-Indiana Pacers Game 5 has been full of antics.

Whether it be Lance Stevenson giving Miami the choke sign, Juwan Howard taking exception to Lance's act, Danny Granger's tough guy act to the plenty of hard fouls in Game 5.

But perhaps this could have been the proverbial cherry on top of the cake for this series.

According to Fox Sports Florida, police arrested a man from streaking across the court during the game.

A Miami police officer confirmed that a man was arrested during the second half of Miami's 115-83 playoff win over Indiana for attempting to run onto the court wearing a shirt but having no bottoms on. The man was spotted before he could make it onto the playing surface.

The officer said in addition to his streaking ploy, the man made physical contact with another officer, which was described as battery. The man then was hauled off to jail, although specifics were not immediately available on his identity or the exact charges he faced.

As much as this would have been hysterical, perhaps it is good the would-be streaker was stopped. According to the report, the man was 300 pounds! Many eyes were stopped from being melted right off people's face had this fat guy streaked.

Of course if anyone is going to attempt to streak during an NBA game, I hope they do it right and take a page from the best.

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Chesapeake Energy Arena in downtown Oklahoma City has been living up to that Energy portion of its name all year long. Thunder fans have that place rocking through television screens all over the country, and have done so ever since OKC first entered the playoffs a couple years ago. With Kevin Durant's first trip to the Western Conference Finals set to commence, it's only about to get louder.

The overflow of support has carried out into the street surrounding the arena. "Thunder Alley" as it's been dubbed, has called home to thousands of OKC fans surrounding the Arena taking in all the action on huge big screen monitors hanging outside. It's been cool to see, as Craig Sager and his matching blazer have been out in front of it reporting live during TNT telecasts, but things took a tragically sad turn on Monday.

The unfortunate shooting that occurred in the neighborhood around the Arena has local leaders in conjunction with the team calling for change to Thunder Alley as the WCF approach.

This according to CBS' Eye on Basketball:

After a shooting in Bricktown marred a big victory for the Thunder on Monday night, Oklahoma City's mayor Mick Cornett said the wildly popular "Thunder Alley" has to change. An estimated 10,000 fans gathered outside Chesapeake Energy Arena downtown to watch the game on a big screen to go with 19,000 inside the arena.

"The city manager and I spent some time with the chief of police and many members of our security detail (Monday),"said Mayor Cornett to News 9 in OKC. "We came to the conclusion that the manner in which we have known as 'Thunder Alley' has taken place and continued to grow just can't continue."

The team issued a statement saying that Thunder Alley will continue, but the watch part on Reno Ave. may not.

"We are working with the city and the police department to look at ways to control crowds and ensure safety," said Thunder spokesman Dan Mahoney. "We are strongly considering eliminating the watch party, but Thunder Alley, the pregame party on Reno, will continue as normal."

Hopefully the necessary changes officials are working to make do prevent any violence in the future. The way the community has rallied around OKC has always been cool, and I look forward to watching that continue in a peaceful manner. 

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Andrew Bynum is one of those players that you have to wonder if his level of talent is worth all the negatives he brings to the table. He’s had moments of brilliance over his 7-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, but he’s also caused some big headaches.

Bynum has always had the height to play in the NBA, there’s no doubt about that. He’s always had the skill as well, but at times it seems like he lacks the drive to have a successful career. You’ll see him sitting away from team huddles, going half speed on the court and being an all-around bad teammate. The guy should be one of the dominant big men in the NBA, but he’s just not.

Now the Lakers have to decide if they want to continue their run with Andrew Bynum. They have a team option on his contract for next year, which they will most likely use so they can at least trade him if they want to, but I’m not sure he’ll be a Laker for long.

As for Bynum, in his typical unenthusiastic fashion, he just says: “I’m not sure. It really doesn’t matter to me. I’ll play anywhere.”

Unless you have a coach and teammates that can really motivate the 7-footer, there’s no point in giving up much for Andrew Bynum. If he hasn’t found the drive to be one of the greats after 7 years of playing for one of the greatest NBA franchises of all time that has seen a number of hall-of-fame big men come through, he won’t find it anywhere else.

As for the Lakers, the Kobe Bryant era is in its final years. Even if Kobe can still play, he can’t carry the team with the supporting cast he has now. After losing in 5 games to the Oklahoma City Thunder, we know this team isn’t built to win a championship. The city of Los Angeles and the Lakers organization won’t tolerate mediocrity for long, so you can bet some big changes are coming. Will the future of this team revolve around Andrew Bynum? Probably not.

Now it just becomes a question of what the Lakers can get for the players they have now. We could be looking at a totally new Lakers franchise as early as next season.

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Every morning, we'll give you five things from the night before in the NBA to start your day.

1:  Miami takes Game 5...

The Miami Heat turned a relatively close first half into a monster blowout in the second as they took control of their series with the Pacers last night.  The Pacers didn't look like the tough squad that was going to give Miami a run for its money and maybe... just maybe... upset the Heat in the second round.  They looked over-matched and not ready for the brightest spotlight of the season.  

No Pacer scored more than 11 points.  Paul George, Danny Granger and David West combined to score 31, one more than LeBron James.  Against a Miami team lacking bigs, they were out-rebounded by 14 and no one aside from Roy Hibbert (12) grabbed more than 4.  

And Hibbert, the key to this series for the Pacers, was a non-factor.  After starting the series as the "X-factor," Hibbert has taken a step back.  8 points on 3-10 shooting and 1 block?  Not gonna cut it.  I don't need to dive into any more advanced a statistic than those to confirm that he lacked the aggression to be the guy that beats Miami.  And if Indiana is going to harbor those diminishing dreams of moving beyond this round, he's going to have to step up.

2: ... in a slug-fest that will get league attention

There were three flagrant fouls in this game.  Tyler Hansbrough started the festivities with a hard foul on Dwyane Wade that was ruled a flagrant 1.  That seemed right.  He went for the ball, overly-emphatic follow through, unnecessary contact... ok, I get it.  Then we really started rolling.

Udonis Haslem hit Hansbrough less than a minute later with a clear retaliation that, amazingly, was ruled a flagrant 1 when it obviously warranted more.  That was a two-handed chop to the face that had no intention of doing anything beyond sending a message to Psycho-T.  The ruling on the floor was big, because it allowed Haslem to stay in the game.  At that point, it was 32-25 in the second and the Pacers were still in the game.  A Haslem ejection on a flagrant-2 would have re-shaped the game and thrown Miami's lineups into disarray.  The way Indy was playing, it might not have mattered, but it also might have. 

And finally, the dirtiest play we've seen this side of a swinging Artest elbow... Dexter Pittman takes out Lance Stephenson in a dirty and dangerous play that should warrant a strong response from the league. 

Here's the video: 

Many are waiting with anticipation for the upcoming Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" which hits theaters in July. It is the last installment in director Chris Nolan's epic trilogy.

Perhaps one of the best Batman-related vehicles was the "Bat-Pod." A menacing, swift, motorcycle-like vehicle equipped with missile launchers and machine guns. It indeed was one of the more memorable vehicles of Batman lore but Detroit Pistons' Ben Wallace might be giving Batman a run for his money with his own version of the "Bat-Pod."

Check out "Big Ben's" ride (h/t Cosby Sweaters) that seems like something out of a Batman comic book and yes, it is fully operational. Now excuse me as I geek-out and wish I had one of these parked outside waiting for me.

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As the NBA postseason rolls on, more awards and honors continue to pour in.

This time, the NBA has announced the 2011-12 NBA All-Rookie team and to no one's surprise, Cleveland Cavaliers' Kyrie Irving and Minnesota Timberwolves' Ricky Rubio headline a solid first team.

Irving, who won Rookie of the Year, was joined by Ricky Rubio (Minnesota Timberwolves), Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets), Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs), Iman Shumpert (New York Knicks), Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors) and Brandon Knight (Detroit Pistons).

Here is the All-Rookie second team:

The All-Rookie Second Team had Chandler Parsons (Houston Rockets), Isaiah Thomas (Sacramento Kings), MarShon Brooks (New Jersey Nets), Derrick Williams (Timberwolves) and Tristan Thompson (Cavaliers).

Of all the rookies named on both teams, only Spurs' Leonard is still playing in the postseason.

Notably absent from either team is Bobcats' Kemba Walker. Despite playing for the worst team in the NBA, Walker put up some solid numbers (12.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 4.4 assists) and was the only shining light in an otherwise abysmal season for Charlotte.

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You know what they say: if you’re not getting your way, form special committees to do your bidding. Ok, maybe nobody says that, but that’s what NBA commissioner David Stern is doing.

Stern has made a special “competition committee” that will take rule-making decisions out of the hands of the league’s 30 General Managers, and place it in the hands of a group selected by Stern consisting of GMs, owners and coaches.

“Stern is looking for more control,” said a source. “He hasn’t been able to get some things done because he’s had to deal with 30 general managers and he can’t control them. But now he has his people on the committee.”

The committee consists of: owners Dan Gilbert (Cleveland) and Joe Lacob (Golden State); GMs Bryan Colangelo (Toronto), Mitch Kupchak (L.A. Lakers), Kevin O’Connor (Utah) and Sam Presti (Oklahoma City); and coaches Rick Carlisle (Dallas), Lionel Hollins (Memphis) and Doc Rivers (Boston).

The GMs will still get to vote, but in the past, rule changes wouldn’t even make it to a vote unless they wanted a change. This will make it easier for Stern to get things accomplished. The committee is expected to take a look at two big rule changes right away: goaltending and flopping.

Stern wants to adopt the international rule for goaltending where you can knock the ball off the rim or backboard without it being counted as a bucket. After watching some international basketball, it takes some getting used to and the players will have to make some adjustments, but I’m not opposed to the idea.

In terms of flopping, Stern wants to implement fines and even suspensions for players who do a little more acting than playing. He says he’s tried to sell this idea before but got shot down.

“I think it’s time to look at (flopping) in a more serious way, because it’s only designed to fool the referee,” Stern told ABC during Game 1 of the Heat-Pacers semifinal series. “It’s not a legitimate play in my judgment. I recognize if there’s contact (you) move a little bit, but some of this is acting. We should give out Oscars rather than MVP trophies.”

I’m interested to see how Stern wants to enforce this. Yes, there are some blatant flops in the NBA, but how do you train a ref to look for that? And if you decide to just punish after the game is over, that doesn’t make up for a missed call during the game. Flopping is such an arbitrary judgment call that this type of rule change will be very tough to enforce. I definitely would like to see less acting and more playing, but the NBA may be taking on more than they can handle here. Imagine how many players would want to appeal a suspension for flopping. This has the potential to get out of hand.

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