Andrea Bargnani was wide open on the wing, but Melo ignores him and takes a contested shot. Bargs has been a much better shooter (50.9% to 42.4%) than Melo this year, and there’s a wide open lane for him to either drive or make an entry pass if he doesn’t want to shoot. Just an awful play by Melo.

Amare Stoudamire, never known for his defense, inexplicably made one of the worst defensive plays you’ll ever see. Pistons guard Peyton Siva got the ball about 8-9 feet from Amare, near the 3-point line. Amare looked at him but then turned his back to look at the hoop, assuming Siva was going to shoot. Siva puts the ball on the floor and drives right by Stoudemire, but N.Y. was bailed out on the play when the rookie point guard was called for travelling. Watch the play:

New York is now 3-8 for the season, losing to Detroit, 92-86, on Tuesday and falling to Indiana in overtime, 103-96, Wednesday. Anthony scored 30 points against the Pacers, but needed 28 shots to do it. Anthony has made just 18 of his 48 shots in his last two games.

The Wizards came into their game against Minnesota desperate for a win, and squeaked out a tight come-from-behind victory, 104-100, after trailing by 12 at halftime. They were playing well over .500 ball with Wall in the lineup last year before ending the season on a six-game losing streak. The team traded for center Marcin Gortat before this season started, eying a possible No. 6 or 7 seed in the playoffs. But poor shooting (43.3%, 20th in league) and awful defense (104.1, 26th in league) has plagued them so far.

Wall (14 points, 16 assists) kept up his top-notch distributing, now second in the league at 9.8 assists. Nene had 20 points, five rebounds, four assists and was 7-for-12 from the field. Bradley Beal poured in 25 points to lead Washington in scoring. Kevin Love had 25 points, 11 boards and four assists for the T-Wolves.

The Rockets destroyed the Celtics, 109-85, behind newly emerging stud power forward Terrence Jones (24 points, nine rebounds, two blocks, and 10-for-12 shooting). In his last five games, Jones is at 12.2/10.0/2.4 blocks, 53.2% as the Twin Towers lineup of Dwight and Omer Asik has quickly been discarded — Asik now seeking a trade. The ragtag Celtics shot 32.3%, as their starting backcourt of Avery Bradley and Jordan Crawford combined to go 6-for-30 (20%).

Sacramento got by Phoenix, 107-104, at home as DeMarcus Cousins (more below) was montrous inside and Ben McLemore (19 points, five rebounds) and Isaiah Thomas (19 points) chipped in as well. A shin bruise kept Eric Bledsoe out for the Suns, but Gerald Green (23 points, four assists, two blocks) had a fine effort in his place.

In a rather forgettable game, the Heat beat the Hawks, 104-88, even though Dwyane Wade rested. Atlanta had 24 turnovers in the game, and the only performance worth noting for either team was 15 points and 10 rebounds from Hawks backup PF Mike Scott — no relation to the Houston Astros star pitcher from the mid 1980s who shares the same name.

The Michael Jordan Award  — DeMarcus Cousins —  27 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 9 FTM, 4 steal, 2 block, 0 treys, and 9-for-18 shooting…While the consistency isn’t quite there yet – three of his first 10 games this year have been sub 12 points and sub 8 rebounds – Cousins (21.8/9.7 this year) is slowly becoming a regular 20/10 guy who can sprinkle in a few dimes, thefts, and fly swats. I’ve seen him make very nice passes before, but this year he’s only averaging 1.5 assists per game after coming in at 2.7 last season. But regarding steals (1.9) and blocks (1.5), he’s been splendid so far. He’s also shooting 47.8%, a career-high. As for his team, they’re now starting rookie SG Ben McLemore and ex-UCLA defensive specialist Luc Richard Mbah a Moute at SF, after trying guys like Patrick Patterson, John Salmons and Marcus Thornton in the starting lineup alongside Cousins and Vasquez, the only Kings to start all year.

The Nikoloz Tskitishvili Award —  Markieff Morris —  3 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 3 FTM, 0 steal, 0 block, 0 treys, and 0-0 shooting in 11 minutes…He also accumulated five fouls in those 11 minutes. The inconsistency of the lesser players in the NBA is fascinating. Remember a week or so ago and I was talking about how impressive this guy was over his last four games (22/8, 69% shooting). Now, in his last three games, he’s grabbed just 10 total rebounds while making only four of 17 shots. His twin brother Marcus (they’re both Suns) was quite nice for Phoenix last night, though. He poured in 19 points in only 24 minutes, though it was rather hollow – 3 rebounds, 0 dimes, steals, and blocks.

The Allan Houston Hollow Man Award — J.R. Smith — 18 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 2 FTM, 1 steal, 0 block, 2 treys, and 7-for-15 shooting in 34 minutes…J.R. has only played five games so far this year after sitting out the first few games while still recovering from left knee surgery. The early returns are ugly, like most of this season for N.Y. He’s shooting 27.9% on 68 total shots, with just 11 dimes.

Todd Robinson is the publisher of Speedburner on Sports. Click here to read more of his articles.

J.R. Smith signed a one-year contract with a pro team in China. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

DaJuan Summers had major issues adjusting to the European lifestyle while J.J. Hickson came home after a very short stint in Israel. Now, J.R. Smith suffered a knee injury while playing in China. Life abroad is not all peachy.

The Denver Nuggets shooting guard, who has committed to playing a full season in the Chinese league after signing a one-year deal with Zhejiang, injured his knee in his first game with the Golden Bulls. Early reports said Smith suffered a “major knee injury,” but doctors confirmed that it was just a pulled quad muscle. But now the bad news. According to Jon Pastuszek of NiuBBall.com, Zhejiang officials are disenchanted with Smith and his relationship with the club is off to a rocky start after a recent Twitter war. Pastuszek wrote:

Smith’s ordeal started on Sunday night during the Golden Bulls’ opening round game on the road at Guangdong Hongyuan. Midway through the fourth quarter, Smith fell awkwardly and injured himself while trying to stop and change direction under the opposing team’s basket. In visible pain, Smith was brought to the bench to receive initial treatment. He was taken into the locker room shortly after.

After the game, Smith, who was unable to walk on his own, refused to be taken to a nearby hospital in DongGuan, insisting that he instead be taken back to the team hotel. According to a Sina Sports report, once back in the hotel, the club agreed with Smith that he would have an MRI done in Yiwu, the city where the Golden Bulls are based out of, and scheduled him to fly back with the team the next day accordingly. If results showed that there was a major injury, then Smith would be allowed to fly back to the United States to undergo the next step in the recovery process.

But early yesterday morning, team general manager, Zhao Bing, received a surprising bit of news: Smith was not going back with the team to Yiwu visit with team doctors like he had originally agreed to. Instead, he had already boarded a plane to Beijing.

The change in itinerary went directly in the face of the Zhao, who told him under no circumstances was he allowed to get on a plane out of Yiwu. Smith had made up his mind, however, and once word got back to Zhao that Smith had landed in the capital, he went on Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter) to publicly warn Smith of the potential consequences for his actions.

“The club has looked into the situation and we have agreed to warn J.R. about his trip to Beijing,” Zhao tweeted. “We hope he can come back to the team as soon as possible, otherwise he will have to face the consequences.”

Soon after seeing Zhao’s comments, Smith responded on his own Sina Weibo, tweeting “My main goal is to get healthy! If you can’t understand that then maybe you should pick another profession!”

Smith won’t be able to return to the NBA soon even if the lockout ends because he is contractually obligated to his Chinese club for an entire season. This means Smith and Zhejiang are stuck with each other until March. Memo to J.R. Smith: Start learning how to tweet in Chinese.

With help from NBA247365.com, Smith, wearing No. 23, is shown here in a preseason game in which he scored 33 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out 10 assists and hit the game-winning shot. Watch the video.

Derrick Rose and John Wall are products of the one-and-done system that is currently in place in the NBA. (Getty Images photos)

Once the old collective bargaining agreement expires at midnight EST on June 30, NBA owners and players need to take a hard look at the current state of the early entry draft.

The way things are currently constructed, any American player who is 19 years of age and at least one year removed from high school can apply for the draft. With this option, the majority of high school standouts play one year in college and bolt for the NBA.

In the last five drafts, four one-and-done college players were the No. 1 overall selections: Greg Oden (2007), Derrick Rose (2008), John Wall (2010) and Kyrie Irving (2011).

Yahoo! Sports NBA writer Marc Spears wrote earlier this year that several high-ranking NBA team executives say they wouldn’t be surprised if the age limit in the new CBA is pushed to two years in college and 20 years old by the end of that calendar year. Spears said that one NBA general manager says about two-thirds of teams are in favor of that change.

That makes total sense because now the NBA and its owners have a vested interest in the college game thanks to the new14-year, $10.8 billion TV deal the NCAA inked with CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV to broadcast the men’s tournament.

Before the billion-dollar deal, the NBA could care less about players jumping to the league. With TNT now in the mix covering March Madness, it now becomes a major player in college hoops and would love to feature its college stars. Even though the NBA and TNT are two separate entities (wink, wink), they are in business together and what’s good for business is having more college All-Americans stay in school for at least two years to help to boost the ratings. At the same time, it keeps the teenagers out of the Association for a little longer, which means more jobs for the below-average NBA veterans.

As much as basketball analysts say college basketball is all about the names on the front of the jerseys instead of back of the jerseys, what attracts the non-hardcore basketball fans are the big-time athletes on the big-time teams.

High schoolers Martell Webster, Gerald Green, Eddy Curry, Sebastian Telfair, Dorell Wright and J.R. Smith would have benefited greatly from a year or two in college, but then again that argument gets swept away when you mention Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett and Amar’e Stoudemire. All of these phenoms were able to make the jump from high school to the pros with ease, and absolutely destroys the argument that you need to play college ball to be successful in the NBA.

So, what should Commissioner David Stern and the owners do about this one-and-done dilemma? Keep it or lose it? The answer lies in the dollar, and the new NCAA tournament TV deal makes the current early entry rule a chip the players could lose on the bargaining table.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter at: twitter.com/onemanfastbreak.

Anthony dropped a playoff career-high 42 points in Game 1 against the Utah Jazz, but it was Smith who turned a close game into a 126-113 blowout in favor of the home team Nuggets.

The game was tied at 90 in the fourth quarter when Smith went wild, scoring the Nuggets’ next 11 points (including three consecutive 3-pointers) to give Denver a 101-93 lead en route to a 1-0 series lead in the first round.

It was classic J.R. Smith – or, should I say, J.R. Swish.

Smith buried four of 10 shots from behind the arc and finished with 20 points in 27 minutes off the bench.

Each shot was taken without conscience or any regard for where he was on the court. Here’s a warning to the Jazz: when J.R. Swish exits the team bus, he is within shooting range. He has unlimited range and never seems to be concerned about shot selection, which at times drives his coaches crazy.

“You get a lot of opinions of J.R.,” Nuggets acting coach Adrian Dantley told the Denver Post. “I’m a J.R. fan. I might take some heat for leaving him in the game. When I visited Coach [George] Karl yesterday, we all made some comments about J.R., but I play J.R. more minutes than Coach Karl.”

There’s a high risk, high reward with Smith. He is a streak shooter who can shoot the Nuggets into victories and can shoot the Nuggets into losses. But when he’s on, the Nuggets are nearly unbeatable, which is why Karl and Dantley tolerate his immaturity.

And if the Nuggets are going to advance to the next round and be in contention for a NBA title, they are going to rely on J.R. Smith to provide some much-needed instant offense.