Be honest, how fair is today's NBA?  We have 'superstar calls' which favor a certain team over another out of sheer presence.  A call could go one way or another depending on who your name is or what team you play for.  Just ask Byron Russell of the Utah Jazz or Pacer Brad Miller and they?ll tell you.

There is some  inconsistency on the basketball court that can be accepted.  For starters different referees could call identical scenarios differently out of differences in opinion, and they also have to make a decision in a split second minus the luxury of instant replay like us folks at home.  

But this is just one side of the NBA, and should the punishment department of NBA headquarters receive the same benefit of the doubt?  They have time to review incidents many times over from many different angles, having discussions before drawing conclusions.  Do they use precedents to help form the basis of their outcomes, or are their conclusions purely case by case?

It is inconsistencies in this area which has Peter Vecsey of the New York Post up in arms in his latest column.  Stu Jackson, the ex-Grizzlies head man who morphed into the NBA?s Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations, is the person who hands out the punishments to players.  He has been far from consistent.

Take last week?s game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons for instance.  With 1:16 left in the Pistons win over the Pacers, Detroit up by 22 at the time, Corliss Williamson drives baseline past center Brad Miller.  Jermaine O?Neal comes over to help, banged hard into Williamson and was called for the flagarant foul.  O?Neal caught Williamson?s leg and hip on the way down, preventing him from falling and hurting himself, but Corliss still took exception to the contact and proceeded to throw the ball hard at O?Neal from only a few feet away in retaliation.  The ball hit O?Neal on the shoulder,  and he couldn't believe what had just happened.  The result: O?Neal confronted Williamson and Pistons peacemakers Ben Wallace and Michael Curry, while a Pacers trio of Jonathan Bender, Bruno Sundov and Primoz Brezec all left the bench.

Jermaine O?Neal was fined $10,000 and was suspended two games for his part in the altercation, while Bender, Sundov and Brezec all received $5,000 fines and 1 game suspensions for leaving the bench.  Williamson?  He received a $5,000 fine and no loss of court time despite sparking the controversy with his reaction.  Had he not thrown the ball at O?Neal the chances are that Jermaine would have been accessed with the flagarant and both teams would have proceeded as if nothing happened.

The major points here?  Ball thrown at player, no suspension.  Vecsey takes a look at the other projectile related suspensions in the NBA this season then summarizes the punishment scale which he refers to as ?Jackson Justice?:

? Throw a TV on the floor in the direction of no one in particular and you get suspended two games and fined $10,000
? Flick a wad of gum and get one game and a fine
? Hurl a fully inflated basketball at an opponent five feet away and you lose $5,000 in chump change but no court time

Sound fair?  It all comes down to one word, inconsistency, although there may be another extremely powerful word that Jackson has now exposed.  That word, of course, is precedent.

To be consistent and fair Jackson should now treat each ball-throwing incident just as he has for the Williamson-O?Neal fiasco, regardless of the ramifications.  

We can see it now.  Shaq fouls player.  Player throws ball at Shaq.  Shaq retaliates, opening up a suspension possibility.  Player is fined $5,000 but misses no games.  Who needs Hack-a-Shaq when you can eliminate him all together?  The precedent has now been set folks, so it may not be as far fetched as you think.

After showing the heart of a true fighter to come back from their horrific start to the season, the Miami Heat seem to have fallen back into old habits.  The Heat, who lost to Boston last night despite holding both Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce to under 20 points, have now lost three straight and its fifth and seven games.

''I still believe in them,'' Heat coach Pat Riley said. ``It's a daunting, daunting task. You don't ever, ever, ever, count yourself out until the numbers say you're out. It's just going to get more and more difficult.''

The Heat fell to eleventh in the East, four games behind #8 Indiana and five behind #7 Charlotte.

It wasn't the shot coach Paul Silas was expecting, but he sure wasn't going to turn it down. Neither was Baron Davis.

Finding himself suddenly wide open on the wing with his team skidding through the final minutes, Davis launched a three-pointer that provided the winning points Wednesday night as the Hornets slipped by Indiana 94-88 for their fourth consecutive victory.

"If I get that shot 10 times, I'm going to take it each time," Davis said. "Especially with the game on the line."

It was a big shot and a big win, not only allowing the Hornets to maintain their late-season momentum with five victories now in a six-game stretch, but also lifting them into a tie with the Pacers for the seventh of eight available playoff positions in the Eastern Conference. Each team is 34-33.

It's the second time since the first week of the season the Hornets have been above .500.

The hot streak ironically came in the Charlotte Coliseum, where the Hornets have struggled all season while fighting the distractions of sparse crowds and talk about the owners' bid to move the franchise to New Orleans.

They completed their home stand with a 4-0 record and now try to keep moving upward as they return to the road for games Friday at Orlando and Sunday at Indiana.

"We've got to go on the road and make it happen," Silas said. "We've got our team back and we're healthy. Now it's time for us to make a push.

"If we play good defense, no matter where we play, we'll give ourselves a chance to win."

Defense has been the mainstay part of the winning streak, with a liberal amount of timely offense mixed in.

Davis was the Hornets' overall leader Wednesday, with 25 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

Other big numbers came on the boards, where the Hornets used their superior size to outrebound Indiana 47-41 and take a 19-10 advantage on the offensive boards. That gave them 17 more shots than the Pacers, resulting in a 23-15 scoring edge on second-chance points.

The leader was P.J. Brown, who grabbed eight rebounds in the first quarter and finished with 13.

"We do a good job of defending, make them miss, but then they go get the ball and it creates extra shots for them," Pacers coach Isiah Thomas said. "They are a big, strong team and we're aware of that and we talk about it. But we still get beat by it."

The Pacers nevertheless surged at the finish, coming from nine points down to within 89-88 with 50.2 seconds remaining. At that stage they had scored on five straight possessions, the Hornets on one of five.

Charlotte took a timeout with 24.8 seconds to play, then got the ball in to Davis. He dribbled almost 10 seconds off the clock, then started to work a pick-and-roll with Jamal Mashburn. When the Pacers didn't switch defenders, leaving Davis open, he delivered.

It was the most dramatic, perhaps, of several big shots for the Hornets in the late going. David Wesley provided two of them, one a three-pointer, with a little over three minutes left as Charlotte built its nine-point lead. And, after the Pacers cut it to three, Mashburn hit a baseline jumper that ended the brief drought.

Indiana MIN FG-A FT-A OR-TR A F Pt
Totals 240 31-75 20-24 10-41 20 16 88
O'Neal  40 6-15 8-8 3-16 1 2 20
Artest  25 4-10 1-2 0-5 0 2 11
BMiller  19 2-3 2-2 1-2 2 3 6
Tinsley  31 1-9 2-2 2-2 8 2 4
RMiller  35 6-13 0-0 0-2 3 2 12
Foster  9 0-2 0-0 2-5 0 0 0
Croshere  28 7-13 0-0 1-5 2 3 16
Bender  28 3-6 5-6 0-1 1 2 13
Ollie  17 1-1 2-4 0-1 3 0 4
Mercer  8 1-3 0-0 1-2 0 0 2

Percentages: FG .413, FT .833. Three-Point Goals: 6-17, .353 (Croshere 2-3, Bender 2-3, Artest 2-3, O'Neal 0-1, Tinsley 0-1, R.Miller 0-6). Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots: 7 (Croshere 3, O'Neal 2, Bender, Artest). Turnovers: 9 (Tinsley 4, O'Neal 2, Croshere, B.Miller, Ollie). Steals: 6 (Artest 2, B.Miller 2, R.Miller, Tinsley). Technical Fouls: B.Miller, 4:14 first

Charlotte MIN FG-A FT-A OR-TR A F Pt
Totals 240 37-92 15-18 19-47 20 23 94
Mashburn  37 7-24 5-5 1-4 2 1 19
Brown  27 1-3 0-0 8-13 2 3 2
Campbell  31 6-9 6-7 0-6 1 3 18
Davis  45 10-21 2-2 4-8 10 3 25
Wesley  33 6-16 0-0 1-2 3 5 14
Augmon  18 2-5 0-0 2-2 0 4 4
Magloire  17 1-6 2-4 2-6 0 3 4
Lynch  20 2-5 0-0 0-3 1 0 4
Nailon  12 2-3 0-0 1-3 1 1 4

Percentages: FG .402, FT .833. Three-Point Goals: 5-16, .312 (Davis 3-8, Wesley 2-7, Mashburn 0-1). Team Rebounds: 14. Blocked Shots: 4 (Brown 2, Augmon, Magloire). Turnovers: 9 (Mashburn 2, Lynch 2, Wesley, Davis, Augmon, Magloire, Nailon). Steals: 5 (Lynch 2, Brown, Campbell, Davis). Technical Fouls: Magloire, 3:25 first.

Indiana 28 21 19 20 -- 88
Charlotte 32 19 23 20 -- 94

Att.--6,684 (19,925). T--2:10.

Officials--Joe Forte, Leon Wood, Bennie Adams.

That old confidence is coming back. So too are the big shots and the critical defensive stops.

At long last the Hornets are starting to look in the mirror and feel better about what they see. Their timing couldn't be much better.

"I liked our team last season," guard David Wesley said. "And I'm starting to like our team again this season."

Like almost everyone else in the NBA's Eastern Conference, the Hornets are scrambling furiously for playoff position as they count down the last 16 games of the regular season.

Their newfound outlook won't make life any easier for them when they go to the Charlotte Coliseum today at 7 p.m. to face Indiana in a game coach Paul Silas describes as "very, very tough, with playoff implications." But they're clearly at a better starting place than they have been.

The Hornets have won three in a row and four of their past five, modest streaks but good in light of the ups-and-downs of their injury-plagued season. They are again back at .500 with a 33-33 record.

Indiana is 34-32 and in seventh place in the East, one game ahead of Charlotte. It has a four-game winning streak, matching its longest of the season.

"Three wins aren't that many, but they're a start for us," said Wesley.

"I don't think a winning streak in itself is all that important. Teams in the East have all been choppy with streaks this season, the way the standings are. What's more important is continuing to play well.

"We haven't been able to win three or four, lose one, then win three or four more. That's what we need to do now."

Silas said he senses a change now that the starters from last season - Wesley, Baron Davis, Elden Campbell, Jamal Mashburn and P.J. Brown - are together again after Mashburn and Wesley recovered from injuries.

"We're finding ways to win again and that's the most important thing," Silas said. "I've been hoping for this. But now I'm starting to see it.

"You have the banter in the locker room about winning, about where we are (in the standings). And I wasn't hearing that before.

"We're winning at home now, too, and that's important. Now that we have all our players back we feel like we can win anywhere, if we play well. Before I think all the distractions (of sparse crowds and franchise relocation talk) really had an effect on us at the Coliseum.

"The margin of error was so thin when we had all the injuries, we had to really play well to win, no matter where we were."

The Hornets and Pacers have split two games this season, with each team winning at home. This will be the first game since Indiana acquired starting center (and former Hornet) Brad Miller and forward Ron Artest from Chicago.

"I think they're a much better team with those two," Wesley said. "They're getting good defense out of both of them. They can both score around the basket and draw fouls. It's given Indiana a really different look."

It's one the Hornets will have to rapidly adjust to. After today's game they play at Orlando on Friday, then face the Pacers again in Indianapolis on Sunday afternoon.

Starting lineups  
Hornets Pos. Pacers
Baron Davis PG Jamaal Tinsley
Jamal Mashburn SG Reggie Miller
Elden Campbell C Brad Miller
P.J. Brown PF Jermaine O'Neal
George Lynch SF Ron Artest

Scouting Report

? The Pacers come in with a different look than the last time they were here. They acquired two new starters -- former Hornet Brad Miller (13.0 ppg, 8.2 rpg) and Ron Artest (14.5, 4.9) -- in last month's trade with Chicago.

? Indiana is one game ahead of Charlotte in the fight for seventh place in the East. The Pacers have a four-game winning streak.

? The Hornets and Pacers split their two previous games this season, with each winning at home. They'll meet again Sunday in Indianapolis.

One month ago today, the Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls engaged in their seven-player swap that redesigned both teams.

The Pacers, riding a four-game winning streak, are thrilled with the results. The Bulls have no complaints, either.

 




"When you make trades in the NBA, you like the other team to feel good about what it got," said Pacers coach Isiah Thomas, who once was in the position of making trades for Toronto.

"When you sit in that GM's

It seems everybody who knows Kevin Ollie thinks he's a great person. It seems everyone who's seen him play thinks he's a good player.

Which raises a question: why has he been kicked around the NBA like an empty can of deodorant?

 




The Indiana Pacers, the latest team happy to have him on their roster, represent the 11th stop along his wandering NBA trail, including the teams that waived him during the preseason. And then there's the Connecticut Pride of the Continental Basketball Association, where he played most of two seasons, nearly half of a third and two games of a fourth before securing a posi

The Hawks will get to see the other side of the trade deadline deal that sent Jalen Rose and Tracis Best to the Bulls from the Pacers for Ron Artest, Brad Miller, and Ron Mercer.

The Hawks were blistered by the Pacers Sunday afternoon, and will tonight face the Bulls in Chicago.

Michael Carvell of the AJC writes that the Hawks will know after tonight who may have received the better end of that deal.

In a season of mostly low spots, the Hawks took a couple of more plunges Sunday.

In an 85-68 loss to the Indiana Pacers, the Hawks tied a franchise record for fewest points in the first half (28), finished with their lowest point total of the season and had only one player score in double figures -- Nazr Mohammed with 15.

Roam the hallways at Conseco Fieldhouse, and you'll find plenty of people with praise for Bruno Sundov and Primoz Brezec.

You'll have to take the word of those privy to the Indiana Pacers' practice sessions, though. Game sightings of the European towers have been rare this season -- too rare for their liking.

 




Brezec, 7-1 and 22 years old, has played in 17 games for 136 minutes in his rookie NBA season.

For 12 minutes Friday night, all seemed right with the Timberwolves. Their offense was finally in rhythm. Kevin Garnett had that glare in his eyes. And their swagger seemed to return.

But then, poof! Just like that, it was gone. The offense bogged down. The defense sprung leaks. The body language changed. It happened so swiftly and resoundingly, the Wolves heard boos from their home fans for the second time in three days.

The night began with promise but ended with more frustration after the Wolves lost their sixth consecutive game, 98-85, against the Indiana Pacers before 19,143 at Target Center.

The Wolves are mired in their longest losing streak since December 1999, when they lost eight consecutive.

"It's like code red now," Garnett said.