Shane Larkin really came out of nowhere in terms of finding NBA radars. His individual jump ultimately led to team success, as Miami earned itself a No. 2 seed in this year's NCAA tournament.

He averaged 14.5 points on 47.9 percent shooting and 40.6 percent from downtown to with 4.6 assists as a sophomore, all major improvements from a season ago.

With the majority of his teammates graduating, Larkin chose to leave on his own terms. He decided to forgo his junior year and enter an NBA draft that offers a very crackable first round.

Larkin has generated some serious buzz over the past few months despite an under-six-foot label you'd initially think would weigh heavily on his stock.

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With both series knotted up at one game apiece, the New York Knicks will look to regain home-court advantage against the Indiana Pacers, while the Memphis Grizzlies will try to exploit the one they have against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Both the Knicks and Grizzlies are coming off bounce-back wins, though each bounced back for different reasons.

Memphis blew at late lead in Game 1 to Kevin Durant and the Thunder. New York got embarrassed on its own turf. Both of these losses called for some serious regrouping, which each team managed to do with the pressure escalating.

Saturday night features two Games 3s which will require some scratching and clawing to steal. Let's take a look and see what we're about to get involved with.

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The Los Angeles Lakers' 2012-13 season was among the craziest in modern NBA history. It started with a franchise-altering trades for Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. Then came the Sports Illustrated cover and widespread predictions that Miami's one-year reign on the top was about to end. 

So much for that.

Instead, Nash and Pau Gasol struggled through early-season injuries, coach Mike Brown was canned five games into the season, and Mike D'Antoni was hired amid fans begging for Phil Jackson to return. 

It didn't help. In some ways, things got worse as D'Antoni prioritized his system over personnel while alienating Gasol. Oh yeah: Bryant and Howard seemed to be locked in a public cold war in which neither man seemed to care for the other's approach to life, let alone basketball.

The team couldn't win many games and floundered below .500 throughout the year. It got better near the end, as the Lakers rallied, won a few games and set themselves up to sneak into the playoffs.

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Los Angeles will once again be the center of the NBA free-agent universe this summer, though, by the sound of all the speculation surrounding the City of Angels, you'd think Dwight Howard and the Los Angeles Lakers were the only ones with crucial choices on their respective agendas.

Living in the Lakers' shadow is nothing new for the Los Angeles Clippers. They've played the part of "Second Fiddle" to the Purple and Gold since moving north from San Diego in 1984—at the height of "Showtime," no less.

For once, though, the Clips' relative anonymity appears to be a net positive for the reigning Pacific Division champions. You might've forgotten that Chris Paul (i.e. the best point guard on planet Earth at the moment) is scheduled to join Dwight on the open market this coming July.

And you'd hardly be at fault for forgetting. There's been far less chatter about Paul's future than about Howard's to this point.

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I took 10 of the most prominent names at the college level and decided to project their draft range and eventual destination.

Without knowing how the lottery will play out, it's difficult to get an exact read on each team's draft position. But you can pretty much predict where everyone will be selecting within a pick or two.

And regardless of where each team's actual draft slot is, they're all going to have a big board and a list of targets to aim for.

I matched each college basketball star with a team likely to target them in their particular draft range.

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The 2013 NBA playoffs are getting hot and heavy, to say the least. All four second-round series are knotted up at one game apiece, with some teams (i.e. the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls) already disposing of the niceties in favor of some good ol' fashioned basketball animus.

Figuring out where each squad fits in relation to the others in an orderly fashion is no easy task when the matchups are as even as they now appear to be.

Are the Golden State Warriors actually better than the San Antonio Spurs? Or has Gregg Popovich's squad simply been caught on the wrong end of two outstanding shooting performances, with an escape route planned for Game 1? Will the New York Knicks ever get a handle on their Jekyll-and-Hyde act? Or will the Indiana Pacers bludgeon them into oblivion before they do? And how long can Kevin Durant keep up this superhero act of his?

These questions (and many, many more) have all come into play during our "intensive" power ranking tabulations since our last edition hit the Interwebz. Here's what we came up with for this week's rankings after consulting on end with our resident experts and exhaustive simulations.

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The NBA playoffs offer double the excitement and intrigue despite half the league sitting at home.

Shaqtin' a Fool has responded in kind with twice the JaVale McGee in half the normal amount of time.

Not only does the hit segment's latest postseason episode feature the talented, ever-so-star-crossed center, but they also provide something you've probably never seen before.

That's right, the fabled "double flop" is real. The Oklahoma City Thunder, down to half their superstar complement, bust it out. Derek Fisher and Kevin Martin showcase teamwork of the highest, most laughable order.

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The Golden State Warriors’ future is outlined from behind the three-point arc with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the game’s most dynamic shooting backcourt. 

But it isn’t just hope of days to come. This is happening now, as the Warriors' playoff run is underwritten by the abilities of its pair of young guards.

In Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the San Antonio Spurs, Curry scored 44 points and hit six three-pointers. In Game 2, Thompson was 8-of-9 from three-point range and scored 34 points (29 of which came if the first half). 

No one expected this. Not now. Not this soon.

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