With the series tied 3-3, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers played a Game 7 on Saturday night. Boston was at home and was favored to win. And thanks to a late rally, the Celtics were able to take home the victory and advance to play the Miami Heat in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals.

Kevin Garnett powered Boston with 18 points and 13 rebounds, however it was Rajon Rondo who came up big at the end.

Over the last 13 NBA seasons, there have been three teams from the Western Conference to play for an NBA championship.
The Dallas Mavericks have played twice, both times against the Miami Heat, winning one time and losing one time.
The Los Angeles Lakers have played seven NBA Finals, all under Kobe's watch, going 3-1 with Shaq and 2-1 with Gasol and Bynum.

Rajon Rondo and a cameraman got into an altercation after Tuesday night's game between the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks. Apparently Rajon Rondo didn't want to be on camera and went to the cameraman and told him to his face. You can watch the Rajon Rondo cameraman video below to see how it unfolded.

With ten days remaining before the end of the 2012 NBA season, it's time to take another look at the NBA power rankings. Who are the best basketball teams on the planet? That's the question we will be answering below.

Here is the April Edition of our NBA power rankings:

1. Chicago Bulls
With or without Derrick Rose, the Bulls are beastly.

Early goals, excitement in the middle, and losing the game late. These are all things that this season's New England Revolution are starting to do to us. The team debuted Jose Moreno, to minimal fanfare, and had the comeback of Benny Feilhaber held on a day where the Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, and Boston Red Sox were all playing.

With March drawing to a close, let's take a look at the best teams in the NBA. While this condensed lockout season has lowered the quality of basketball, there are still some great teams in the NBA. Here are our power rankings of the best of the best.

1. Miami Heat
The Heat remain the team to beat due to their talent.

The Knicks deserve to be rooted for. They haven't won a title in more than 35 years and their last two times in the Finals were respectable efforts with heartbreaking results.

The events during All-Star Saturday weren't very exciting. Surprisingly, the most exciting event might have been the Skills Challenge. The Skills Challenge had a ton of talent and there was good effort by each participate.

The players in the Skills Challenge were Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics, John Wall of the Washington Wizards, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Deron Williams of the New Jersey Nets and Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs.

When it comes down to comparing the great players in the NBA today, Kobe Bryant is someone that i've always kept as the gold standard because of his ability to compete, desire to win, and proven track record.
Boston Celtics great Larry Bird saw the Los Angeles Lakers as the enemy during his playing days, but sees Bryant as the one current player he'd like on his side if he were playing today.

Tom Thibodeau has transitioned from being an outstanding assistant coach in the NBA to the 2010-11 NBA Coach of the Year as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls.
Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun Times writes of what makes Thibodeau such a special coach.
‘‘Before we made the decision to hire him, we did an incredible amount of background work on all the candidates,'' says Bulls general manager Gar Forman, who with executive vice president for basketball operations John Paxson signed Thibodeau as the 18th head coach in franchise history on June 23, 2010.

Dwight Howard's wish list is growing. The superstar center for the Orlando Magic is now open to playing for the Chicago Bulls. Previously, Howard had left the Bulls off of his wish list.

"If I could play with Derrick right now and God wanted that to happen, it will happen. It has nothing to do with me not wanting to play with Derrick Rose.

Perhaps all the Boston Celtics needed was their best player. Losers of their first three games this season, the Celtics welcomed back Paul Pierce and then welcomed themselves to the win column with a 96-85 victory over the Detroit Pistons.

In his debut, Pierce had 12 points, five assists and four rebounds.

The transformation of Ron Artest has been a lengthy one. Probably, no one would have guessed that the guy who started the biggest riot in sports with fans would have come so full circle as he has done.
Earlier in his career, while playing for the Indiana Pacers as the visitor against the Detroit Pistons, he was the first of a group of players at the end of a game to physically challenge fans and go into the stands seeking them out.

Earlier today, an NBA trade rumor had Chris Paul getting traded to the Boston Celtics. The deal would have sent Rajon Rondo to the New Orleans Hornets. However, according to sources close to Chris Paul, the Celtics can quit their daydreaming because Paul won't sign an extension with Boston.

Without an extension, the Celtics wouldn't do the deal.

With the NBA back in business, trade rumors are flowing. One of the most interesting trade rumors is between the Boston Celtics and the New Orleans Hornets. The trade rumor has Rajon Rondo being traded in a package for Chris Paul.

Chris Paul is obviously a much better player than Rajon Rondo, so why is this trade even a possibility?

Go to any article on the MLS site that has anything to do with the Seattle Sounders or the Portland Timbers and you will find back and forth snide comments from Seattle and Timbers fans. Even in the Goal of the Year and Save of the Year articles you had the constant bickering between the two fan bases.

With the NBA lockout over, it's time to get back to thinking about basketball. In these NBA power rankings, we'll list the top ten NBA teams headed into the 2011-12 season. Did your favorite NBA team make the cut? Continue reading to find out ...

1. Miami Heat
The Heat are just too talented to not be No.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

Barney Battles.
A name worthy of echoing down the decades. And Scottish football can boast two of them.
Both with a tale to tell.
Barney Battles Senior played for Celtic, Liverpool, Dundee, Hearts and Kilmarnock and was capped for Scotland three times.
In 1896 he went on strike at Celtic because he'd been criticised by a number of journalists.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Marcelo looking indecisive over a selection of burned meat products (0:17)? Crispy going 'gangsta' in a garden chair as Higgy looks on (0.44)? Sergio Ramos squeezing other men's knees while wearing a Boston Celtics basketball jersey (0.

Delonte West isn't shy. Earlier this summer, the guard for the Boston Celtics admitted that he was running low on funds during the NBA lockout. Instead of pouting or going into debt, Delonte West did what a lot of us have to do he went out and got a second job.

Delonte West was hired by Regency Furniture.

The fourth edition of the annual Mia Hamm & Nomar Garciaparra Celebrity Soccer Challenge turned out to be quite a success in the D.C. area on Sunday.

The charity event, which is dedicated to raising awareness about registering as a bone marrow donor, featured NBA superstar Kobe Bryant along with several U.

Lawrence Frank is the new head coach of the Detroit Pistons. Frank will get a chance to turn around a franchise that was a near dynasty not too long ago. However, in the last few years, Detroit has fallen on rough times.

Enter Lawrence Frank.

Frank is the former head coach of the New Jersey Nets.

With NBA players locked out, many have decided not to waste any time and have hopped the pond to sign in Europe. Personally, I think it's a good idea. These players can make money while also putting pressure on NBA owners to come to the table and make a deal to end the NBA lockout.

Here are the NBA players who have signed in Europe:

Deron Williams
The All-Star point guard for the New Jersey Nets was the first big name to go overseas.

From Mike Jacobs' column, Evansville Courier Press, June 19, 2011
At a time when Isiah Thomas is referenced more for his lack of coaching and management success than for his brilliance on the basketball court as a player, a story offers a lesson from Thomas into being a part of a championship team.

The Boston Celtics appeared to be on their way to a Game 5 win against the Miami Heat. Then everything changed when LeBron James played like LeBron James down the stretch. Often criticized for not playing well at the end of playoff games, LeBron scored the Heat's final ten points as Miami sprinted to a 97-87 victory.