Five-Star Review: What have you done, Sam Hinkie?

SAM HINKIE IS MAKING THE MOVIE GIGLI IN BASKETBALL FORM:The timing for Philadelphia 76ers' point guard and 2014 Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams could not have been worse/more perfect, depending on your sense of humor. After writing about how tanking is a media-driven narrative and that he likes to watch "Ellen" in order to escape from the losing that befalls his Sixers' team so often, his team went out and got burned by 53 points. The Dallas Mavericks showed plenty of mercy after a 73-29 first half score. The Sixers even won the third quarter 28-26. 

The final score of 123-70 doesn't even show how far apart these two teams were.

The Mavericks could have gone scoreless in the second half -- the entire second half -- and still won this game by three points. This was the 21st time in NBA history that a team won by at least 53 points. The largest margin of victory was a 68-point win by Cleveland Cavaliers over the Miami Heat back in 1991. Most recently, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Cavs by 55 points back in 2011. Had the Mavs wanted to truly join history, they could have made this a lot worse than it ended up looking.

Sixers shot 29.9 percent from the field, 25.9 percent from 3-point range, and 51.5 percent from the free throw line. They also had 27 turnovers to just 23 made shots. It was not pretty. 

THESE ARE MY FAVORITE FANS: At least this game gave Mavs fans the opportunity to catch up on some current events.

THE KINGS ARE REALLY GOOD IN THE FIRST QUARTER: The Kings have come out ready to play on the road against really good Western Conference opponents the last two games and have looked impressive early. They built up a 24-point lead early against the Dallas Mavericks Tuesday night by just shredding their suspect defense. While the Mavericks came back to win that game, it showed teams that the Kings are capable of jumping all over you.

Then when they went into Memphis Thursday night and jumped all over one of the best defensive teams in the league. They built an early 26-point lead over the Grizzlies in the first half by shooting a blistering 68.2 percent from the field in the first quarter. They also made Memphis look down right Sixers-esque by holding them to 27.3 percent from the field in the first. And then...

THE KINGS ARE NOT GOOD AT CLOSING GAMES: Blowing the lead against the Mavericks was a tough loss for a Sacramento team that has had hoops heads buzzing in the early parts of the season. Losing this game to the Grizzlies in a very similar fashion two days later is pretty tough for Kings fans to swallow.

At least this game saw the Kings nearly snatch away the road victory. The Mavericks had them handled so well in the second half that it was in doubt for Sacramento in the fourth quarter. This one tonight came down to the wire and the Grizzlies needed a prayer at the end to avoid the home loss. This will either be great for the development of the Kings or they'll start losing confidence in close games.

DEMARCUS COUSINS ALMOST BARBEQUED MEMPHIS: With 30 seconds left in a tie game, the Kings gave the ball to their franchise guy DeMarcus Cousins and asked him to get the go-ahead bucket against one of the best defensive big men in the league. He did it on a tough runner in the lane against Marc Gasol.

But then... 

MIKE CONLEY WASN'T GOING TO GO QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT: Grizzlies' point guard Mike Conley refused to go down without putting his fingerprints all over the end of this game. He hit a tough 3-point shot to put the Grizzlies up one with 10.7 seconds left in the game.

The Kings would then get two free throws from Cousins to go back up one before Zach Randolph missed a good look with a couple seconds left in the game. Ben McLemore went to the free throw line with 0.6 seconds left. He missed the first free throw on accident, then missed the second one on purpose to take even more time off a short clock.

Memphis had 0.3 seconds left to erase a one-point deficit...

COURTNEY LEE IS LIVING IN THE MATRIX WITH HIS TIME-BENDING ABILITIES: I'm not sure how Courtney Lee got this shot off in time, but the referees reviewed it and confirmed that 1) Ryan Hollins didn't tip the inbound pass and 2) Lee somehow got this shot off in time.

DERRICK ROSE WAS SUPER FUN FOR A WHILE: Chicago Bulls' star Derrick Rose looked pretty good against the Raptors for most of this game. He had 20 points on on 5-of-14 shooting, but got to the free throw line 10 times and made nine of them. He was leading the Bulls to victory with incredible efforts like these two plays:

And then...

THEN DERRICK ROSE WENT DOWN WITH A HAMSTRING INJURY: It looked like he rolled his left ankle but the Bulls are calling the latest Rose injury a hamstring injury. It's just always scary to see a player go down on non-contact injuries.

HOW CAN YOU NOT BE ENTHRALLED BY EVERYTHING TONY ALLEN DOES?  We can't leave you on something like the Rose injury for now, so let's check out Grizzlies' guard and noted gritter-and-grinder Tony Allen almost trying to play with his shooting shirt on.

It's the head knock at the end that really completes the moment.

MASON, THIS IS NO TIME TO SHOW OFF YOUR JUMPING SKILLS: 

And yes, Stephen Curry knocked down the wide-open 3-pointer after Mason Plumlee's fly-by.

IGUODALA WILL MAKE A FAN HOLLA:  Andre Iguodala went coast-to-coast like Space Ghost at the end of the first half.

It made this one fan start praying...

Warriors won the game 107-99.