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Air Jordan Jeter Clutch to be released on 10th May 2008

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"No, no one’s contacted me....It did (bother me), but I guess that’s life," Ewing said during an interview with TNT. "I’m in a great situation here in Orlando working (as an assistant coach) with (Dwight Howard). If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. But yes, it did bother me."

Ewing, who has worked for the Wizards, Rockets, Magic and NBA TV since retiring, has said in the past he would love to return to the Knicks either as a head coach or assistant coach.

"Obviously I played in New York, I know the area, I know the team, I know the fans, I know everybody," he said. "I know the media. So naturally I would love to interview." [NY Daily News]

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David West and Chris Paul were on the bench, smiling as they watched thousands of fans headed to their cars.

They were soaking it all in because it might be their last glimpse of Dallas for a while.

West bounced back from a miserable Game 3 with a determined effort in Game 4, scoring 10 points in an early second half rally that sent the Hornets surging past the Mavericks 97-84 on Sunday night, giving them a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.

West had 24 points and nine rebounds, Paul had 16 points, eight assists and seven rebounds and the Hornets ended an 0-for-14 drought in Dallas that dated to January 1998. Now they're headed to New Orleans, hoping to win Game 5 on Tuesday night and avoid coming back to Big D until next season. The Mavericks are on the brink of a second straight first-round exit.

"It's a great feeling to be up 3-1, but it doesn't mean too much right now,'' Paul said. "It's tough to close out a team, to get that fourth win. That's what coach has been preaching to us. We feel pretty confident going back in front of our fans.''

Dirk Nowitzki had 22 points and 13 rebounds and Jason Terry scored 20 points, but they didn't get much help. Josh Howard was 3-for-16 and Jason Kidd had only three points, three assists and four rebounds before getting ejected with 7:16 left for a flagrant foul on Jannero Pargo. The exodus in the aisles came soon after, even before Hornets coach Byron Scott pulled his starters.

"At that point, we'd done close to what we needed to get the result we wanted,'' West said.

The Mavs went from scoring 30 points in the first quarter to 14 in the second quarter, then 40 in the entire second half.

Dallas' meltdown - in this game, in this series and since being up 2-0 on Miami in the finals two years ago - might end up costing coach Avery Johnson his job. Nowitzki already was using the past tense in his postgame comments, saying they just didn't have enough offense in the series.

"I don't really have an answer for it,'' said Nowitzki, exhaling loudly and running a hand through his hair in frustration. "All season long, we've lost leads way too quick. ... Everybody has to be in attack mode. You have to make shots to win in this league.''

New Orleans did, hitting 50 percent. Peja Stojakovic scored 19 points and Julian Wright added 11, including a tremendous dunk off a midcourt steal of Jerry Stackhouse, a play that emphasized the difference in the age and agility of these teams.

"I thought Julian was athletic enough to match up with Josh and Jerry,'' Scott said. "He didn't play like a rookie. He's active, he runs the floor. He's a pretty good player.''

Pargo also scored 11 and Morris Peterson had 10.

West was 10-of-21, but the most important part came at the start of the second half, when New Orleans turned a 48-44 halftime lead into a 64-51 advantage.

West made all four shots he took in that spurt and added a pair of free throws. All came against Erick Dampier, including a 1-hander that prompted an immediate timeout by Johnson and a huge chest bump from Paul. West never hit anything like that in Game 3, when he started 3-of-14 and finished 6-of-20.

The big guy was practically silent since then, stewing over his performance. Scott considered that a good thing.

"Everything was stirring up in him,'' Scott said. "He wasn't going to play the way he played in Game 3. We were banking on that. He was in an aggressive mind-set from the start and he came up big.''

Several Hornets said Saturday they thought they'd taken Dallas' best shot in Game 3 and could handle it from here. It sure didn't seem like it when the Mavericks came out taking turns going to the basket and getting out in transition. They didn't take many jumpers, but hit most they did take, and were up 32-23 early in the second quarter. Then Johnson had to dip deeper into his bench and it all fell apart.

Even with Pargo running the offense instead of Paul, the Hornets went on a 15-2 run to regain the lead, with Wright's big dunk coming in that spurt.

"I thought after the first quarter, everything we talked about worked,'' Scott said. "Our running game got going and that's why we won this game.''

Johnson went back to his starters, but they played the rest of the half as if they'd used up their allotment of time in the paint during the first quarter, settling for jumpers. The best evidence was their free throws - not a single one in the period. They shot just 16 for the game, after averaging 38.3 over the first three games.

"We just got kind of got stuck in the second quarter,'' Johnson said. "They were more aggressive and we went to old habits and we paid for it.''

Notes: New Orleans' Mardi Gras-esque yellow road uniforms made their postseason debut, a low point in fashion history. ... Weird start: Both centers whiffed on the opening tip, forcing a do over, then midway through the first quarter Paul and Nowitzki traded airballs.

King James lost his crown.

All right, so it was his burgundy headband that went flying when LeBron James took a shot to the noggin from DeShawn Stevenson, their simmering feud nearly boiling over. James kept his cool, allowing the flagrant foul to spark him and his Cleveland Cavaliers.

At game's end, James was just as collected, drawing waves of Washington Wizards defenders before dishing to Delonte West for a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 5.4 seconds left. That shot, along with James' 34 points and 12 rebounds, led the Cavaliers to a 100-97 victory on Sunday and a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.

"There's been some extracurricular activities going on outside and inside this series," James said, "but I've been able to stay focused."

The Wizards were ahead by a point with 3 1/2 minutes left in the first half when James drove to the basket, and Stevenson came from behind and swiped a hand out, clipping the Cavs' star with what appeared to be a closed fist before tumbling to the court. James kept his balance and stepped toward Stevenson, who got up and stepped toward James.

They exchanged words, but that was it, before teammates stepped in between.

"If we was on the park, something definitely would have escalated," James said. "But, you know, I guess that's what they want to do. They want to hurt LeBron James this series. It ain't working."

Stevenson's take?

"That's how it goes," he said. "It was a big game for us."

Now the Cavaliers, who eliminated the Wizards in each of the previous two postseasons, have control, with Game 5 on Wednesday at Cleveland.

James got help Sunday from more than just West, whose career playoff-high 21 points included five 3-pointers. Daniel Gibson made four 3s, and Ben Wallace had 12 rebounds -- part of a remarkable 51-31 edge on the boards for Cleveland.

One small sequence that epitomized things: At the end of the third quarter, Joe Smith's three-point play followed two offensive rebounds and gave the Cavaliers an 80-73 edge.

Wizards coach Eddie Jordan was succinct: "We didn't rebound."

Antawn Jamison led Washington with 23 points and 11 rebounds, while Caron Butler added 19 points. But it was Stevenson who was at the center of the key play.

LeBron vs. DeShawn had been mainly an off-court rivalry, prompted in part by Stevenson calling James overrated, and extending to involve rap megastar Jay-Z and one-hit wonder Soulja Boy. James' pal Jay-Z created a song dissing Stevenson that was played at a D.C. club this weekend.

"He's worth $500 million, and he's writing songs about me," Stevenson said before tipoff. "What does that say about DeShawn Stevenson? Ballin'!"

But besides getting outscored by 21 points by James, Stevenson appeared to give him some motivation.

"Was it a flagrant foul? I really don't know," said Wizards center Brendan Haywood, ejected from Game 2 after shoving James. "All I know is we weren't trying to give up a layup."

James went 1-for-2 at the line after the foul, then made a 3 on the ensuing possession, all part of a 13-0 Cavaliers spurt.

"That," Gilbert Arenas said, "got him mad."

And yet, thanks to a suddenly effective Arenas, Washington had a chance to win what turned out to be a gem of a game, a nice change after Cleveland's 30-point victory in Game 2, and Washington's 36-point margin in Game 3.

Arenas made two free throws with 57 seconds left to get Washington within two points. After James missed a jumper -- part of an 0-for-3 fourth quarter -- Arenas' 8-foot fadeaway with 28 seconds remaining made it 97-all.

And from there, as West put it: "I'm pretty sure everybody in the gym, including their defense, thought [James] was going to take the last shot. And I think sometimes we forget this guy has great court vision. He made the right play."

Which was dishing to an open West, who went to high school in nearby Maryland.

It was strikingly similar to what happened in the first-round series between these teams in 2006. That time, the Cavaliers eliminated the Wizards in Game 6 when James found Damon Jones open for a go-ahead baseline jumper in the closing seconds of overtime.

"Washington definitely probably had a flashback," James said.

Even after West came through, Arenas had enough time to try to tie it again.

But a player who built a reputation for clutch late-game performances before having two operations on his left knee hesitated before badly missing a 3 over West.

Arenas was so "distracted" and "flustered" by the way things ended, he forgot about his postgame ritual of throwing his jersey into the stands to give a fan a souvenir.

Whatever emotional lift he might have given his teammates, whatever excitement his mere presence might have given the crowd, Arenas was not exactly helpful at the outset. When he sat with 3 1/2 minutes left in the first quarter, his line gave whole new meaning to his nickname "Agent Zero": zero points, zero field-goal attempts, zero foul shots, one assist, one foul, and four of Washington's five turnovers.

Arenas' first points didn't come until a reverse layup in the third quarter, and he finished with 10 in a series-high 32 minutes.

"This is not my team," Arenas said. "This is Antawn's and Caron's team."

Game notes
Above Stevenson's locker, there was a sheet of blue construction paper Jordan gave his players before the series began. Drawn by a member of team's basketball operations department at Jordan's behest, it's labeled "Wizards Climb" and includes drawings and phrases meant to inspire. There are stick-figure men swimming to ".500" shore, others are climbing a rock labeled "Cleveland." There are boxes around words such as "Disciplined Aggression" and "Will and Determination."

As usual, Jamario Moon made a joke.

The affable 27-year-old had just watched his team lose Game 4 to the Orlando Magic, sending his Toronto Raptors to a 3-1 series deficit. To boot, he strained his right groin early in the third quarter, and did not return to the game.

The pain was serious, Moon said sAturday. "I wouldn't wish that pain on anybody," he added as Kris Humphries, whose locker is next to Moon's in Toronto's locker room, walked by him. "Except for Hump."

Fortunately, the injury will likely not keep Moon out of Monday's Game 5, meaning he should make his third straight start.

"He said he was a little sore but I would expect him to play," coach Sam Mitchell said in Orlando on Sunday. "We need that energy and we need the intangibles that Jamario gives us."

Moon said that he could have returned to Saturday's game if Mitchell had wanted to use him.