Once again: buckets-buckets-bong-bong

No one wants any part of Kobe Bryant right now. Two nights after hanging 65 points on the Blazers, Kobe dropped 50 on the T’Wolves. Forget about the “getting teammates involved and taking over in the second half” thing — Mamba was out for blood from the get-go, netting 22 in the first quarter. He went 17-for-35 from the field, 4-for-8 from deep, and 12-for-14 at the line, and he didn’t hit Marko Jaric in the face (not literally, that is) … Lost in the Kobe storyline was Smush Parker having maybe his best all-around game of the year with 19 points, 9 dimes and 7 boards. Smush must have MInnesota’s number, too, because he scored 24 the last time these two played. Kevin Garnett (26 pts, 15 rebs, 6 asts, 3 blks) and Ricky Davis (33 pts, 6 rebs, 6 asts) weren’t bad either, and actually brought Minnesota to within three points late in the fourth before L.A. held them off … But the Wolves still didn’t get served as badly as the Sixers got it on Sunday. Philly didn’t let one guy score 50, but they got 50-pieced as a team, losing 124-74 to Houston. At home, too. Yao Ming scored 24 points and T-Mac had 21, and the Sixers fans were of course not feelin’ it. Philly’s D was just gross. One time T-Mac lost his man on a pump-fake, slowly went from the perimeter to the foul line for a runner, and no one came within five feet of him … The Sweet 16 field is complete, and Kevin Durant won’t be there. College ball’s biggest star went for 30 points against USC yesterday, but he wasn’t stopping the Trojans by himself. Nick Young (22 pts), Daniel Hackett (20 pts), Taj Gibson (17 pts, 14 rebs) won in a blowout. A lot of people — us included — saw potential for a Carmelo-like run out of Durant in this year’s Tournament, but the inescapable fact is that ‘Melo had a much better supporting case than Durant. There is no Hakim Warrick or Gerry McNamara on this Longhorns squad … Durant’s 903 total points were the second-most for a D-1 freshman. Chris Jackson (aka Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) holds the record with 951, while Fly Williams at Austin Peay (ya know, Fly from the ‘Ville) is third … While KD is done, Greg Oden’s squad is still alive in the tourney. But when this summer’s NBA Draft comes around, if both Oden and Durant are there, who would you pick? Every hoop fan has an opinion; we wanna hear yours … One more Durant item: The Celtics were fined $30,000 for Danny Ainge’s “excessive contact” with the Durant family during the Big 12 tourney a couple weeks back. Remember when Ainge was spotted sitting next to KD’s mom in the stands? We figured that wouldn’t go over well … Sunday’s NCAA games weren’t nearly as exciting as Saturday’s. Kansas/Kentucky, Oregon/Winthrop, Memphis/Nevada and Southern Illinois/Virginia Tech were all double-digit blowouts, with the higher seeds winning. The best game was Tennessee’s win over Virginia, a game that the Vols by all rights should have won more comfortably, but UVA refused to go away. Sean Singletary had a good look at a three that would have tied it at the buzzer, but it spun out … UNLV is back, pulling an upset on No. 2-seed Wisconsin. The Runnin’ Rebels outplayed the Badgers throughout, and even after losing its lead in the second half, came back to get the W. That begs the question: Will UNLV become a national presencse again? Can a Sweet 16 appearance and an ex-NBA coach in Lon Kruger start drawing big-time recruits to Vegas? Tim Floyd has shown it can work at USC, no matter how lame that NBA resume is … Florida got a battle from Purdue, but the smallish Boilermakers eventually fell to the defending champs’ size advantage inside … Chauncey Billups (groin) not being there took some luster away, but the Mavs beat the Pistons in a possible Finals preview at The Palace. A couple days after Detroit waxed Phoenix on its home floor, they blew a fourth quarter lead and watched Dirk Nowitzki hit them for 28 points with jumpers from everywhere on the floor. Flip Murray (22 pts) led the Pistons in scoring again, taking the minutes Billups would have played … “We just got rolled.” That was Pat Riley’s take on the Heat getting, well, rolled by the Magic at home, losing by 14. Hedo Turkoglu dropped 20 points, while Darko (12 pts, 10 rebs) and Dwight Howard (17 pts, 11 rebs) had double-doubles. The Magic aren’t dead yet for a possible playoff spot … Jason Kidd’s line last night against the Clippers: 23 points, 13 dimes, 6 boards, 6 steals. Not yet, Deron and Chris. Not yet … Bostjan Nachbar did it again, cramming on Elton Brand’s head almost as bad as he got the Dalembeast a while back … The Knicks put the Raptors to bed during a 27-5 second-half run in which Clyde Frazier broke out “provocative,” “vociferous,” “swishin’ and dishin’,” and “breathin’ and achievin’.” Clyde also said Stephon Marbury “is very catalytic,” “continues to percolate” and “wears No. 3 as a metaphor for his prowess from downtown,” and that a Renaldo Balkman follow dunk was “indicative of how the Knicks have run amok.” Why can’t we get Clyde doing All-Star Game commentary? … Later in the day at MSG, the Dime crew went to the NYC public school league championship game between Lincoln H.S. and Boys & Girls H.S. Seriously, no joking, it was almost a riot. At least three major brawls broke out in the stands, with probably 4-5 smaller fights on the side. For most of the second half you weren’t even watching the game; you were looking around to see where the next fight was gonna pop off. The players weren’t even all the way focused — a few times we saw them looking into the stands after the crowd’s attention turned to another ruckus. According to the TV news out here, there were shots fired afterwards; some of us actually heard what was probably gunfire in a parking lot after the game. Overall, it was 100 times worse than Nuggets/Knicks. Oh, then there was the game. Lincoln pieced Boys & Girls, with Lance Stephenson (Class of ‘09, next NYC superstar) dropping about 30 points … Last weekend, Class of ‘07 superstars Kevin Love (UCLA) and Kyle Singler (Duke) went head-to-head in the 4A Oregon state championship game. K-Love scored 24 straight points during one stretch and ended up with 37 and 15 bounds, but it was Singler (18 pts) whose team got the chip. And as far as we know, no brawls erupted at that one … We’re out like KD …