Kobe (photo. Chris Sembrot)

Most of the time, DeShawn Stevenson is just “a guy” on an NBA court: decent defender, decent shooter, gets buckets sometimes. If he didn’t have all the tats and the Che Guevara beard, he’d be Devin Brown with more hops. But the line DeShawn up against either one of the two best basketball players in the world and he turns into an All-Star. A couple of weeks ago Stevenson arguably outplayed LeBron in the game that sparked the whole “LeBron is overrated”/Jay-Z vs. Soulja Boy beef, and then last night he gave Kobe the business to the point where Black Enterprise approached DeShawn about a cover shoot. Defensively, he held Kobe to 6 points in the first half and 7-for-24 shooting overall, as Mamba (26 pts, 13 asts) narrowly avoided a subpar stat line by getting to the free throw line. Offensively, DeShawn was raining on Kobe all night. After Stevenson (27 pts, 8 threes) hit his fifth three, Lakers announcer Joel Meyers said, “He’s got 16 (points) on five threes and a free throw. What is he, allergic to the rim?” … The Wizards erased a 17-point third-quarter hole to force overtime behind Stevenson, Nick Young (27 pts) and Caron Butler (17 pts, 12 rebs, 12 asts), but the Lakers pulled it out by making free throws and taking advantage of some poor decisions by the Wizards … Young was gunning, lighting up Jordan Farmar to the point where Eddie Jordan decided to give the rookie the ball and a green light multiple times down the stretch in crucial situations. Meanwhile, Caron and Antawn Jamison stood and watched Nick turn it over or miss shots … Caron did have one huge shot, a tough three over Derek Fisher that tied it up with 10 seconds left in regulation at the shot-clock buzzer. After hitting the shot, Caron did his version of the Sam Cassell Big Balls dance and screamed something R-rated at the L.A. crowd … Lakers announcer Stu Lantz — who was getting increasingly agitated as L.A. blew its big lead in the second half — described a play where Roger Mason tried to tie up Luke Walton but still gave up and and-one like this: “You gotta bear hug him. Pretend like, well, don’t pretend like that, but you gotta hold ‘em tight.” Wonder what Stu almost said … Another time, Lantz said Caron has “one of the best crossovers in the League.” Agree or disagree? … The Warriors’ win over Dallas last night made it a three-way tie between GS, Dallas and Denver for the 7th playoff spot. As it stands now, the Warriors would be the one left in the Lottery due to their regular-season record against the other two squads. Josh Howard (36 pts) did what he could, but GS just had too many weapons, coming back from a 12-0 deficit right out of the gate behind Monta Ellis‘ 30 points … Quick, come up with two teams who a lot of people want to see get past the first round of the playoffs but seem destined to fail. Did you say the Rockets and Raptors? T-Mac got the clamps put on him in San Antonio yesterday; aside from a vicious dunk over Jacque Vaughn where Jacque played Shawn Bradley to T-Mac’s, um, T-Mac, he got nothing (5-for-22 FG’s). A lot of Bruce Bowen and a little Ime Udoka can do that to you … Meanwhile, the Raptors at least showed some grit. They were getting mopped through three quarters against the Hornets at home, but came back in the fourth to at least make it respectable. “Basically, their bench just ate our lunch,” said Byron Scott, who had to bring Chris Paul (20 pts, 16 asts) and David West (32 pts) off the bench late in the fourth when the Raps got too close … Looking bogged down in Detroit the other day, LeBron was extra-bouncy back at home against Philly yesterday. Putting up 26 point, 9 boards and 9 assists, ‘Bron had at least two dunks where he had to move his head in mid-air to avoid smacking it on the rim or the backboard, and was in full “You’re not stopping me” mode on the driving layup that proved to be the game-winner … Delonte West kind of owned Andre Miller, giving him 18 points and 11 assists and one time turning into a 6-9 skywalking small forward to pin one of Miller’s layups on the glass … In case you missed it last Friday, we posted the behind-the-scenes video from when we shot Delonte’s ink for Dime #40 (on newsstands now) … How frustrating must it be to play with Ron Artest? It’s one thing when he breaks off every offensive play just to go for his, either holding the ball too long or taking a bad shot, like he did on the first possession against Seattle when he ignored the play to drive inside and get swatted by two guys. Then on top of that, you can’t really call him out on it because he might flip you like Fenster. Not that Ron’s antics hurt Sacto against Seattle’s always-generous D. Artest finished with 29 points, 12 boards and 4 steals in a win, while Kevin Martin added 31 … Kansas barely survived Davidson to get their Final Four berth. Even going box-and-one against Stephen Curry, the Jayhawks still allowed the Dell’s kid to drop 25 points and were in position to lose on Davidson’s last possession. Curry brought the ball up and was clearly the 1st, 2nd and 3rd option on the play; he had a couple of options on a pick-and-pop that he ignored, then when he got in trouble, had to hand-off to Jason Richards who missed a deep three at the buzzer … Was Kansas’ obvious talent advantage nullified by the fact that they were basically playing a road game? You wouldn’t have found anyone in the building not already affiliated with KU who wasn’t pulling for Davidson … Props to Memphis for laying the hammer down on Texas and getting their Final Four spot, but the officiating was kind of janky in that one. There were waves of Tigers flying over the backs of smaller Longhorns who were doing a good job of boxing them out but not getting any calls. That had nothing to do, however, with Memphis’ backcourt; Derrick Rose (21 pts, 6 rebs, 9 asts) and Chris Douglas-Roberts (25 pts) simply got the best of D.J. Augustin and A.J. Abrams … Clark Kellogg while recapping the Memphis game: “The shot by Anderson Hunt. I mean, Anderson Anderson. Uh, ANTONIO Anderson!” … We’re out like America’s underdog …