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Kobe Bryant auction dispute headed for June trial

Kobe Bryant and an auction house that wants to sell memorabilia from his high school days and early pro career are heading for a trial next month, unless they can work out a deal before then.

U.S. District Judge Renee Bumb on Monday set June 17 as a trial date, but also set a court-guided mediation session for Friday in a case that’s the manifestation of an ugly family dispute that all sides seem to want to resolve quickly.

”Maybe I should have had you bring your witnesses today and we would have tried the case,” Bumb said at a hearing. ”You’re all so ready to go.”

The main reason she didn’t schedule the trial for an earlier date was that Bryant’s father, Joe ”Jellybean” Bryant, said he could not get to a trial sooner because he’s coaching a Thai team in the Asian Basketball League playoffs.

Reported by Geoff Mulvihill of the Associated Press

Iman Shumpert dealing with sore knee

The New York Knicks might be without Iman Shumpert for Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal with the Pacers.

The guard has a sore left knee. He did not participate in Tuesday morning’s shootaround after missing practice Sunday and Monday.

Coach Mike Woodson says a team doctor is flying to Indianapolis before the game to examine Shumpert. He was hurt during an awkward, twisting landing in Game 3. This is same knee that was operated on last May for a torn ligament.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Grizzlies beat Thunder in OT for 3-1 series lead

The Grizzlies are proving they know how to grab an advantage and hold onto it this postseason.

Tony Allen scored on a driving layup to open overtime and the Grizzlies held off the Oklahoma City Thunder 103-97 Monday night to push the defending Western Conference champions to the edge of elimination.

The Grizzlies shook off a first half in which they couldn’t hit shots and the Thunder seemingly couldn’t miss in building their largest lead in this series at 17 points. But the Grizzlies have yet to lose on their home court this postseason, and they won their third straight and seventh in eight games to grab a 3-1 lead in the series…

Kevin Durant scored 27 points but missed all five of his shots in the extra period, including a layup in the final seconds. Durant went 2 of 13 in the fourth quarter and overtime and had only five points. The All Star played 48 minutes and was just short on his shots as the game wore on.

Durant got the help from his teammates that he had been needing. Kevin Martin scored 18 points, Serge Ibaka had his best game of the series with 17 points and 14 rebounds, and Reggie Jackson had 15. Nick Collison even added 10.

Mike Conley led Memphis with 24 points and Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph each had double-doubles. Randolph had 23 and 12, while Gasol had 23 and 11 along with six blocks on the day the Defensive Player of Year was named to the NBA’s second All-Defensive team along with Conley, who had four steals.

Allen, who finished with 10 points, had three steals on the day he edged LeBron James for most points for the NBA’s All-Defensive team.

— Reported by Teresa M. Walker of the Associated Press

Heat crush Bulls, take 3-1 series lead

LeBron James and the Miami Heat didn’t even give the Chicago Bulls room to breathe, practically squeezing the playoff life out of them to take a commanding lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal.

Another effort like this will seal it.

James scored 27 points and the Heat nearly matched a franchise record for fewest points allowed in a playoff game, pounding the listless and short-handed Bulls 88-65 on Monday night to take a 3-1 lead in the series.

”We worked for it,” said Heat forward Chris Bosh. ”I never like to say that things are easy.”

The Heat sure made it look that way, though.

The 65 points allowed were only two more than the all-time postseason low for a Miami opponent, and it was easily the worst offensive performance by a Chicago team in the playoffs.

Never before had the Bulls scored fewer than 69 in a playoff game nor 10 or less in a quarter during the postseason, but both those marks fell on a night when they were dominated on both ends of the floor.

Miami led by 11 at the half and put this one away in the third quarter, outscoring Chicago 17-9 in the period.

Bosh finished with 14 points after scoring 20 and grabbing 19 rebounds in Game 3, and the Heat won again despite another quiet night from Dwyane Wade (six points), whose right knee was bothering him again. He appeared to land hard on it taking a fallaway jumper in the third quarter but was able to return to the game after getting re-taped.

— Reported by Andrew Seligman of the Associated Press

Kobe Bryant`s parents accuse him of lying

The obstacles facing Kobe Bryant no longer consist of healing from a torn left Achilles’ tendon.

Lately, it involves something far more suffocating than navigating a double team.

Bryant’s mother, Pamela, and father, Joe, filed statements in federal court in Camden, NJ. on Monday suggesting the Lakers’ star has lied during his recent efforts to Pamela’s hope to give a New Jersey-based auction house more than 100 of his basketball memorabilia from both his high school and early portion of his Lakers career.

In a declaration filed in federal court in Camden Monday, Pamela insisted sworn statements from Kobe and his wife, Vanessa, “contained many false statements.” That included Kobe’s account of a May 2 phone conversation, in which she allegedly agreed he had never told her she could have his belongings.

Pamela Bryant claimed sworn statements by her son and daughter-in-law contained “many false statements.”

— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Blog)

After 19-rebound effort, inside approach will not change for Chris Bosh

In the current playoff series against the Bulls, Bosh had six rebounds in Game 1 and five rebounds in Game 2. So, it begs the question: What happened in Game 3 for Bosh to pull down 19 rebounds, a career postseason high?

Bosh said on Monday after shootaround that much of his effort in the post during the regular season was focused on boxing out opponents, which allowed his teammates to grab rebounds. In Game 3 against the Bulls, Bosh’s strategy shifted. With everyone crashing the boards, securing rebounds became his primary objective.

“Boxing out, there’s a bunch of different techniques you can use and everything,” Bosh said. “I’ve really been searching this season to find what works best for me and a lot of times I’m in situations where people only pay attention to numbers. I never really got caught up in that.”

— Reported by Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald (Blog)

Carmelo Anthony plans to have a chat with Tyson Chandler

Carmelo Anthony wants to have a couple of words with Tyson Chandler before the Knicks try to even their series against Indiana Tuesday night.

Anthony didn’t sound too happy about Chandler saying the Knicks are playing selfishly and guys are trying to win games on their own. Chandler never mentioned anyone by name, but it’s widely believed he was referring to Anthony, who seemed eager to get his teammates’ point of view.

“I really don’t want to go back and forth about that, because I really don’t know exactly what he was talking about,” Anthony said after practice Monday. “But if he feels that way, we’re about to get together . . . we’ll discuss that among ourselves and figure that out, just get his take, his perspective on that comment.

“We’ll handle that internally and figure it out amongst ourselves.”

— Reported by Al Iannazzone of New York Newsday

Injury to calf hindered Tony Parker in Game 4

The knot in Spurs guard Tony Parker’s left calf had shrunk to less-than-baseball size by tipoff time, so the decision for him to play in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Warriors was easy.

Finding ways for him to be effective while dealing with lingering pain and stiffness was another matter.

Parker made only 6 of 17 shots and had only three assists in a 97-87 overtime loss that tied the best-of-7 series at two games apiece.

Afterwards, he acknowledged that the sore calf affected his play.

“I felt like I was limited a little bit, but nobody cares,” he said. “It’s the playoffs. You have to keep playing.

— Reported by Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News

Steve Clifford interviewing for Bucks head-coaching job

Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Steve Clifford is interviewing with the Milwaukee Bucks for their head-coaching job on Monday, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Milwaukee has interviewed Nate McMillan and Houston Rockets assistants Kelvin Sampson and J.B. Bickerstaff for its head-coaching job.

When Bucks general manager John Hammond reached out to gauge Stan Van Gundy’s interest in the job, Van Gundy declined but delivered a strong recommendation for Clifford, league sources said. Clifford spent five years on Van Gundy’s Orlando Magic staff before joining the Lakers in the summer of 2012.

— Reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports

Stoudemire feels no ill effects from return

There was no problematic aftermath for Amar’e Stoudemire.

After experiencing his first action for the Knicks in more than two months Saturday night, Stoudemire felt fine yesterday morning at a light team workout. There was no sure thing concerning how Stoudemire’s surgically-repaired right knee would respond.

He played nine minutes in the Knicks’ 82-71 loss to the Pacers in Game 3, having been shelved for the final 23 regular season games and the first eight playoff games following right knee debridement. Stoudemire’s last game prior to Saturday was on March 7 — before the Big East Tournament started.

“I feel good,” he said yesterday. “The minutes I played were only nine minutes, but the process before that — I was in shootaround, we’re going hard in shootaround and then the pregame of training — [was] equivalent to about an hour’s worth of work. Hard intensity work. I feel good today.”

— Reported by Mark Hale of the New York Post