FanHouse Celtics

Not only have the Lakers been dominant since the return of Pau Gasol, but they've been fun to watch, too. The home win over the Thunder was a complete circus, where you had Kobe Bryant hitting shots from behind the backboard, followed by an impromptu performance from Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, who was handed a mic during a fourth quarter timeout to "spontaneously" do one of his hit songs. Things are good right now in L.A., and the rest of the league has a lot of catching up to do -- read on to see where they all rank this week.

We hear quite a bit about how well Kobe Bryant and LeBron James play at Madison Square Garden, the so-called Mecca of basketball. But Sunday's action reminded us that Paul Pierce belongs in that discussion, too.

Pierce scored 33 points in Boston's overtime win against the Knicks Sunday. It was the sixth career 30-point game at MSG for the longtime Celtics, matching Kobe, Dirk Nowitzki and Allen Iverson for the lead among active (or very recently active, in A.I.'s case) players. LeBron has five 30-point games at the Garden.

Of course, Pierce has been around quite a bit longer than LeBron, and as an Eastern Conference player he plays at MSG twice as frequently as Bryant and Nowitzki. But the mark is still impressive. (In case you're wondering, Michael Jordan holds the modern era record for 30-point games at MSG as a visitor, with at least 17. Basketball-Reference only has a game-by-game box score data going back to 1986-87.) Pierce was the fourth visitor to hit 30 at the Garden this season, following James, Andre Iguodala and Chris Paul.

Magic star Rashard Lewis tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing drug sometime before the NBA Finals last season. A follow-up test was given during the Finals, where Orlando fell 4-1 to the Lakers. But based on when that first test happens, Lewis's former teammate Ray Allen wonders if it might have been the Celtics in the Finals.

Allen told the Boston Globe this weekend that if Lewis has tested positive during the Magic-Celtics Eastern Conference semifinals series, he should have been suspended then. Allen follows that up by suggesting that without Lewis Orlando would have fallen to Boston (a fair retrodiction). The Magic beat the Celtics and Cavaliers on their way to the Finals.

The NBA never announced the timing of that first test, and news of Lewis's positive test didn't break until the start of August -- some nine weeks after the start of the Finals.

When the Celtics signed Rasheed Wallace over the summer as their big offseason acquisition, they may have thought they were getting a big man who would stretch the floor with his three-point shooting, and one who would force the centers on the other contenders to come out of the paint to try and stop him.

But 13 games into the Sheed experiment in Boston, Wallace's three-point shooting has hurt his new team far more than it has helped them. And Friday night's 0-for-8 performance from beyond the arc?

That one was so bad, it made history.

The Atlanta Hawks find themselves at the top of our rankings this week, thanks to a five-game winning streak against some strong competition -- a gritty overtime win over the Blazers and a road win in Boston were both impressive. Now, let's see if they can avoid the top-spot-jinx on Wednesday night, when they'll host Miami in a rematch of last year's first round playoff series. As for the other 29 teams? Read on to see how they stacked up.

Kevin Garnett has a reputation as a villain on the basketball court, at least to those wearing the uniform of the team he's going up against that particular night. While he's sometimes been criticized for taking things too far, It's understandable to a point, because in the heat of the game, it's not exactly to your advantage to play well with others.

But what about off the court?

When there's no game, the cameras aren't rolling, and no one else is around, that's when a person's true self is exposed, good or bad. And this little story about how Garnett treated a couple of the Pacers' rookies over the summer shows that his off-the-court persona might be just as rough as the one we're accustomed to seeing on it.

I wrote in September that perhaps there would be no worthy center to start for the West in the All-Star Game.

But this isn't the way I want to see that solved. Do it on the court, not with the ballot.

When the All-Star ballot came out Tuesday, Phoenix power forward Amar'e Stoudemire strangely was listed as a center. Yes, Stoudemire has played center before, but he's started all eight games for Suns this season at power forward, with Channing Frye being the starting center.

It is true the ballot, which was selected by six media members from around the country, had to be decided upon before the season began in order to provide time for printing. But it has been apparent since at least September that Frye would Phoenix's starting center, with Stoudemire at power forward.

We're just eight games into the season, but there's no doubt who the surprise team is at this point. The Phoenix Suns are off to a 7-1 start, and have road wins over two of the three remaining one-loss teams. They've done it with Steve Nash leading the league in assists at almost 13 per game, and with the team leading the league in three-point shooting at a ridiculous 47 percent. But all of that only got the Suns to No. 2 in this week's rankings -- read on to see who's on top.