“It was inevitable” was how Kobe Bryant described him eventually passing Shaquille O’Neal to move into fifth on the all-time NBA scoring list — which he did with a long two pointer in the second quarter against the 76ers Monday night. Kobe had all 24 he needed to move past Shaq in the first half.

While he may play it down, make no mistake Kobe is savoring this — there is still no love lost between him and Shaquille. It was not all Phil Jackson, although Jackson used it to his advantage. Remember when Kobe won ring number five he couldn’t wait to remind everyone that is one more than Shaq? He will privately savor this.

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Reuters

Dirk Nowitzki was 2-of-15 from the field Wednesday as Dallas lost to Oklahoma City. I rewatched all his shots from the game on Thursday morning, and what’s disturbing is these are by and large good looks. Particularly by Nowitzki’s standards (open threes, turnarounds from the elbow).  This was not an isolated off night, Nowitzki is shooting 43 percent this season (down from 51.7 last season) and he is hitting 17 percent of his threes. He’s not rebounding as well. Basically, his whole game is off.

Which is why he had four games off last week, to rest a sore knee and work on conditioning. The knee is not the problem any more, but he still is not right.

The plan now is to keep his routine and try to get a rhythm back, he told the Star-Tribune.

“I’ve just got to keep on working, come in at night like what I always do,” Nowitzki said. “I lift on off days and get my shots up and just keep on working, and keep working in the right direction.

“I think it’s going to come eventually. I can’t tell you how long it’s going to take, but eventually it’s going to come back.”

Dallas hopes so. Without him they are not going very far this season.

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Before the Bulls took on the Nets, Derrick Rose said he was going to play — and face off against Deron Williams — despite a sore back. He was just going to play through it.

May not have been the best idea ever. As you can see in the video above, his back seized up and he left the game with just a few minutes left in the first half. He did not return in the second half, but the Bulls didn’t need him so they didn’t push it.

No word yet on the severity, although he walked off so it may not be that bad. Then again, backs are tricky and the Bulls may want to be cautious here. We’ll have the details when there is more information, as will CSNChicago.com.

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Reuters

Dirk Nowitzki was 2-of-15 from the field Wednesday as Dallas lost to Oklahoma City. I rewatched all his shots from the game on Thursday morning, and what’s disturbing is these are by and large good looks. Particularly by Nowitzki’s standards (open threes, turnarounds from the elbow).  This was not an isolated off night, Nowitzki is shooting 43 percent this season (down from 51.7 last season) and he is hitting 17 percent of his threes. He’s not rebounding as well. Basically, his whole game is off.

Which is why he had four games off last week, to rest a sore knee and work on conditioning. The knee is not the problem any more, but he still is not right.

The plan now is to keep his routine and try to get a rhythm back, he told the Star-Tribune.

“I’ve just got to keep on working, come in at night like what I always do,” Nowitzki said. “I lift on off days and get my shots up and just keep on working, and keep working in the right direction.

“I think it’s going to come eventually. I can’t tell you how long it’s going to take, but eventually it’s going to come back.”

Dallas hopes so. Without him they are not going very far this season.

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Mark Cuban came out and said what many have whispered this season — the officiating is worse. Then Cuban got fined for it and you realized why others were whispering it.

But in a season of sloppy play and games by the players, the officials felt like they were part of that trend. Nobody is getting enough rest, everything is compacted and everybody is missing plays. Or in this case, calls.

But the league disputes that, as they told David Aldridge of NBA.com.

“There has been no material change from last year in incorrect calls,” NBA President of League and Basketball Operations Joel Litvin said by telephone Sunday. “I think the total number of fouls called per game has gone down slightly. Accuracy wise, we’re monitoring that. It has not changed. Compared to prior seasons, season to date, it’s the same. I haven’t compared it to end of season. They’re not complaining about it much, and at a game (more) per month, it’s not a big difference. And fortunately we haven’t had the uptick in injuries that we’ve seen on the players’ side.”

According to Litvin, officials are working, on a four-week average, approximately 10.8 games, up slightly from the average of 9.6 games per four weeks they worked last season. (On average, teams are playing about two games more per week in the 66-games-in-four-months schedule.)

Some of this is always eye of the beholder — one day people think the refs are great, the next day terrible, all on how some borderline calls went at the end of the game. It’s the way of the world. To me things have seemed rougher around the edges with the officials this season, but I don’t have hard and fast data to back that up.

But the league looks at everything and they are defending their guys.

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Kenyon Martin and the Clippers look like a marriage that could work.

Martin wants to be on a contender, the Clippers are starting to look like one but they need depth along the front line and experience (both of which Martin brings). He wants consistent minutes, he can get them in Los Angeles (the drop off after Blake Griffin and D’Andre Jordan is steep) plus he can get Chris Paul feeding him lobs. Not to mention, Martin lives in Los Angeles in the off-season.

But it’s always about the money. Even in a shortened season. The Clippers might work out there pretty well too, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

Martin recently met with Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro and Neil Olshey, the team’s vice president of basketball operations, to gauge his interest in playing for the team, both people said.

The Clippers would be willing to offer Martin the mini mid-level exception of $2.5 million, though they haven’t made him an offer yet, one person said.

Martin cannot join a team until his team’s season ends in China. The regular season ends Feb. 15 but if his team makes the playoffs he cannot join an NBA squad until they are eliminated. Martin has already left his team and is back home in the States.

The Heat also have made an offer to Martin (although he may struggle to get steady minutes there, they have some depth at the four). The Lakers, Pacers and Spurs also have interest.

A decision could come this weekend or early next week, but for now everyone is waiting on the Chinese Basketball Association.

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AP

The fans wanted to see Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant as the Western Conference All-Star starters. (Durant is a gimme, but we can debate later if Griffin should really start.)

That leaves it to the coaches to pick the two or three forwards on the bench out of Pau Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Love, Paul Millsap, Danilo Gallinari, Al Harrington and more.

Dirk Nowitzki says it’s okay if you leave him off the list. Here is what he told ESPNDallas.com.

“Averaging whatever, 15, 16 points, I don’t think you should be an All-Star,” Nowitzki said. “But we’ll just have to wait and see. I think there is a lot of great young talent in this league that deserves to go. I think LaMarcus Aldridge has been stiff the last couple of years. He’s a great young player, fun to watch. You know Blake and Love are playing great. There is a lot of talent at my position.”

I left Nowitzki off my picks. To me you get three or four forwards, and Love and Aldridge should be locks. I felt Gallinari had to get in representing Denver and their fantastic season. I left it there, but I would still put Millsap ahead of Nowitzki based on the first half of this season. Clearly if you are taking last season into account Nowitzki is in for sure… but should last season be counted. I’m not on board there.

Whatever choices the coaches make, there are going to be some good and deserving people left off.

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Well fans, you got the game you wanted. And it should be a good one (as defenseless exhibitions go). Good on ya.

The NBA has announced the starters for the All-Star game, as voted in by the fans. Usually there are a painful choice or two, but this year it’s a solid group. We can quibble, but there is no outright disaster.

Here are the starters you picked:

Eastern Conference:

Guards: Derrick Rose (Chicago), Dwyane Wade (Miami)
Forwards: LeBron James (Miami), Carmelo Anthony (New York)
Center: Dwight Howard (Orlando)

Notes: Dwight Howard got the most votes of any player, 1.6 million, but Derrick Rose was only about 86,000 back of him and LeBron was third in the vote getting in the East.

Fan mistake: Not sure there was a glaring one. If I could make one change it would be to remove Carmelo Anthony and replace him with Orlando’s Ryan Anderson or Miami’s Chris Bosh, as ‘Melo has struggled in his point-forward role for the Knicks. Anderson has been a revelation for the Magic and Bosh has started to find his stride and space in Miami (at least with Wade out). But ‘Melo is still a guy putting up big numbers carrying the Knicks..

Western Conference

Guards: Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers), Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers)
Forwards: Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City), Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers)
Center: Andrew Bynum (Los Angeles Lakers)

Notes: This is Kobe’s 14th time an All-Star starter, moving him one ahead of Jordan on that list. (Most All-Star games ever? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at 18.) Kobe also led the West with 1.5 million votes (second most overall), Durant was second in the West with 1.3 million. Blake Griffin and Andrew Bynum are each making their first All-Star start.

Fan mistake: Four of the five starters are from Los Angeles? Again, nothing that really bothers me a lot, but I would swap Kevin Love into the starting lineup and have Blake Griffin come off the bench. I prefer Love’s well-rounded game and think he carries more of a load with his team. I might put LaMarcus Aldridge ahead of him, too. But Griffin is playing well, he is far from a bad choice.

Coaches will choose the reserves, and that is going to be where the hard decisions are. Those come in a week.

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To borrow a line from NFL Red Zone Channel man Andrew Siciliano:

Practicar? Hablamos de practicar?

After playing a couple years in Turkey but not being able to get a look from an NBA team, Allen Iverson is in negotiations to play in the Puerto Rican league, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.

Iverson’s business manger Gary Moore has talked with Puerto Rico officials, and the league’s teams are discussing a bidding process to woo Iverson.

The Puerto Rican league, which starts its 30-game season in March, pays its stars about $20,000 a month, plus living expenses, sources said. The league’s commissioner is selling Iverson on the chance to work his way back to a possible return to the NBA.

While there is a rich tradition of basketball in Peurto Rico (their international team will take part in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament this summer and have a solid shot at getting one of the three remaining spots in the London games), the national league itself does not see a lot of guys jump from there to the NBA. They have former NBA guys — Ike Diagu is signed for this year — but while the level of play is pretty good its steps below the NBA.

That said, Iverson would be a huge draw in the island nation.

Iverson and his representative reached out to a number of NBA teams before the season but there was no interest. In 2010 Iverson played parts of the season for the Grizzlies and 76ers, but in both cases was not terribly productive on the court and a distraction off it. Which has scared teams off. He played last season in Turkey.

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Because things were not going bad enough for the Bobcats….

Gerald Henderson — one of the few bright spots for the Bobcats this season — will be out 2-4 weeks due to a hamstring pull. Bet on the long end of that scale, hamstrings are injuries that are easy to re-aggravate if they don’t fully heal.

He injured it in the third quarter of the Bobcats blowout loss to the Trail Blazers Wednesday.

Henderson is averaging 15 points a game to lead the the Bobcats, having taken on more of a roll in their offense and kept his shooting percentage and other offensive numbers from dipping.

They will miss those points, Charlotte does not have a way to make them up — both D.J. Augustin and Corey Maggette out. They are

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