SH Blog: LeBron James records career-high 16 assists, scores 40 points, Heat win 12th in a row

The Indiana Pacers got into a mini-brawl, best encaptioned by Bob Kravitz of the Indi Star:

Admit it, when you saw Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert swatting away Golden State guard Stephen Curry like baseball’s Pedro Martinez dispatching of Don Zimmer, you thought to yourself: Please, Lord, not another Brawl. Not another Detroit. Not again.

Here’s a video of the incident. Roy Hibbert was the only one ejected, but there will likely be other fines handed down by the league:

Our own James Park summed it up earlier with Marcus Thompson’s Tweet of the Night.

The Pacers won the game 108-97 behind Paul George’s 28 points. Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 38 points.

• In case you missed it earlier, Dennis Rodman is in North Korea. This development is priceless and we hope to catch you up on his trip as it unfolds. Hopefully, Rodman behaves himself and makes it back to the states safely.

• Andrew Bynum’s knees were spoken about today. Should the 76ers and Bynum stay together and see this ordeal out through til the bitter end? Ian Thomsen tackles the question here:

One rival team executive projects that the 76ers will negotiate language into Bynum’s contract that provides them with some level of protection — maybe a team option after two years, based on incentives — in case his knees fail him. It will be worthwhile for them to continue to manage Bynum’s health in order to derive the benefits of his potential. The worst alternative would be for the Sixers to let go of a 25-year-old with a sophisticated low-post game as well as All-Star and championship experience — and then watch him thrive elsewhere. As long as the Sixers believe Bynum can salvage his career, then it makes sense for them to maintain their investment in him. “But if they don’t sign him,” the rival executive said, “then we’d all better run the other direction. Because they’ll know his situation better than everybody.”

The rival executive hit the (rather obvious) nail on the head.

If the 76ers and Bynum can’t agree on a contract after this season, it’ll be a major sign that Bynum’s wobbly legs aren’t in good enough condition to sign him to a lucrative deal, despite the potential he has.

The bottom line is that whether he feels indebted to the city of Philadelphia or not, staying in Philly is in Bynum’s best interests because it’ll show that he is motivated to put his injury-plagued 2012-13 season behind him while trying to help a franchise who traded their best player for him a summer ago.

Whether the 76ers and Bynum can work something out remains to be seen, but it would be a blow to both Bynum and the organization if they can’t come to an agreement.

• The Boston Celtics were the ones who pulled out of trading Paul Pierce and / or Kevin Garnett, right? Not so fast.

“Most of the other guys in this league are not as confident as we are in making trades,” Grousbeck said. “We are aggressive in exploring things through. I’m not saying we’re always right. But we are more likely to make a trade and stick to it than anybody else in the league. The rest of them are afraid to do anything. They’ll say they’ll do it and then they won’t.

“It takes two teams to trade, and it’s very incorrect to accuse us of not looking for things.”

Whether Grousbeck was trying to appease the media or not, his statements are serious.

Nobody on the Celtics roster is safe because the C’s number one priority is winning.

• Can Kobe Bryant carry the Lakers to the playoffs this year? Despite reaching the playoffs in 15-of-16 seasons, and making it out of the first round 13 times, there are, of course, reasons to doubt the 28-30 Lakers. Ben Golliver from SI has a column that features this debate in its entirety, but here’s his closing summary: