L&E Cosmetic : Good morning. Damian Lillard must be stopped.

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Good morning. Damian Lillard is not only impressing himself into the All-Star Game whether we like it or not, but he's gunning for some more MVP talk. Coming off of a killer performance in triple OT against the Spurs last week, Dame hit a nasty tying three against OKC Tuesday to send the game to overtime, where Portland won. The play and the shot looked basically identical to Lillard's famous backbreaker against Houston last postseason. (As seen side by side in the link above.) Guard that spot on the floor, opponents!

Portland is 23-7 and in second place in the West. The win gave them a 9.5-game lead on Oklahoma City in the Northwest; unlike the other West powers, there's basically no race for the division title now for the Blazers, so they are going to be guaranteed a top-4 spot barring a collapse or a 30-game OKC win streak.

Let's basketball.

ON OLADIPO: Paul Flannery reported out an excellent piece on how Victor Oladipo went from a backup as a freshman at Indiana University to a budding NBA star through hard work and patience.

WELP: It wasn't all good at Blazers-Thunder -- a brawl broke out in the stands, and friends of the Thunder may have been involved.

UH, MERRY CHRISTMAS? The Suns' strength coach dressed up like Buddy the Elf for the Suns' win over the Mavericks.

SO! Kobe Bryant was rested on Tuesday. He did not play. And ... the Lakers beat the No. 1 seed Warriors ... by 10. Nick Young explains.

ALSO: At the game, former Laker Vlade turned King Vlade Divac had an opportunity to win $90,000 for charity by sinking a halfcourt shot. Of course he made it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS PART 2: "What'd you get for Christmas, Billy?" "Uh, a Big Baby fell right into my lap."

AND A HAPPY HANUKKAH! Oh my goodness, the Hawks' Hanukkah (Hawkknukkah?!) was completely unglued.

AND MORE: Recaps galore from some nutty action right here at our NBA Scores hub. And by "nutty action" I mean Miami blowing a massive lead against the Sixers.

HUBRIS: I wrote about why Stan Van Gundy ought to take heat for the Josh Smith debacle.

KLAY ON KLAY: Really awesome Q&A between Ethan Strauss and Klay Thompson.

NICE PIECE: The Hawks vs. Atlanta, a war of attrition.

DON'T READ THIS TWEET, KNICKS FANS.

AWESOME: Jon Stewart defends LeBron from an unreasonable, inaccurate character attack.

WELL: This is completely over-the-top, but ... it's a Salon piece titled "The NBA's Socialist Revolution" so I'm not sure what you expected. Still interesting.

THE INJURY WHISPERER: Chris Ballard with an interesting look at the guy NBA teams call to get injury data.

HUH: Apparently the Sixers want Andre Kirilenko to report and play, despite everyone assuming they'd waive him after trading for him.

QUEEN OF BASKETBALL: Really good interview with Doris Burke.