Candace Buckner of The Indianapolis Star: Indiana Pacers owner Herb Simon said he would personally be fine with bringing back Lance Stephenson in a trade, however the judgment would be up to the front office. "I'd be OK with it but it's not up to me. Larry (Bird) has to decide if he fits," Simon told The Star prior to Monday's game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Stephenson became eligible to be traded Monday and rumors persist that the Charlotte Hornets are looking for trade partners. ... Several deciding factors would determine the Pacers' interest in Stephenson, said Simon, and a huge consideration would be chemistry. "First of all, we don't know if they're really trading him, at least I don't know," Simon said about the Hornets. "I know they made some calls and we would have to (figure out) how he fits back into the team. Those are all basketball decisions and Larry and Kevin (Pritchard) are the best to answer that."

Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau suggested before the game that he should have played Kyle Korver more when he had him in Chicago. He marveled at how Korver has gotten better later in his career. He got to see it up close again. Korver finished with 12 points, making 4 of 8 3-pointers. It moved him into 15th place on the NBA’s all-time 3-point list, now at 1,579.

Jay King of MassLive.com: You will read a lot, I’m sure, about Kelly Olynyk’s confidence. During Monday night’s 105-87 win against the Philadelphia 76ers, he had a career-high 30 points. He strode into a pull-up three like Chauncey Billups. Olynyk kept shooting … and making … and even when he missed, he kept shooting some more. He played like he should play, with the eternal green light, with the mindset of a 7-foot gunslinger. How much better would Olynyk be, you might have wondered before, if he owned Jordan Crawford’s self-belief? If he strutted onto every court like nobody could guard him? If he always dared to be great? Why does Olynyk ever pass up shots, you might ask yourself, when he’s the best shooter the Celtics have? Why on earth has his usage rate decreased since his rookie season? The questions are natural. So after Olynyk’s career night, head coach Brad Stevens challenged the big man to do it again. “I think that what he needs to be able to do is do that every night,” Stevens told reporters in Philadelphia. “I don’t know if it’s as much he wouldn’t have done it a couple of weeks ago as he might have done it a couple of weeks ago on a Monday and not a Wednesday. And so you just need him to be aggressive every night.”

Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: It was a happy Bucks locker room after a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Khris Middleton lifted Milwaukee to a 96-94 victory Monday night. But the joy was mixed with sincere concern over rookie Jabari Parker, who suffered a left knee injury early in the third quarter. Parker's left knee buckled without contact as he made a drive in transition and he was unable to leave the floor under his own power. He was carried off the court by teammates Zaza Pachulia and Johnny O'Bryant. "As of right now we don't know anything. They'll do all the tests tomorrow and we'll be able to report something then," Bucks coach Jason Kidd said after the game. Pachulia, who played a key role in the Bucks' comeback victory, said all of Parker's teammates were wishing him the best. "I hope he's going to be OK," Pachulia said. "He's a great young player. This team and this organization, the whole city counts on him. He has a lot of years ahead of him in his great career. Injuries are part of the game. I hope it's not anything serious. We are all praying for him."

Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: Kevin Love in first quarters is 60-for-106 while Irving is 23-for-52. Love in fourth quarters is 17-for-45 and Irving is 49-for-107. Those attempts are almost perfectly inverted in both quarters. And remember what I wrote prior to that game at Utah early in the season: David Blatt made it clear to Irving that Love and LeBron James eat first, then Irving gets to make his plate later. That’s exactly what’s happening here. It’s hard to argue with the results, although ideally it would be nice if Love could sustain some of his early success. Throughout his career, however, he hasn’t. Love is shooting a crazy-good 61 percent on 3-pointers in the first quarter (22-for-36), yet he’s a 26-percent 3-point shooter (20-for-78) the rest of the night. Love has more 3-pointers in the first quarter than he does in the other three quarters combined. But that isn’t some weird transitioning-to-the-Cavs thing. Love shot 43 percent on 3-pointers in first quarters last year and only 30 percent in fourth quarters. His 2012-13 season was wrecked with injuries (he appeared in only 18 games) yet again he shot 40 percent on 3-pointers in the first quarter and then nothing the rest of the night (0-for-16 in fourth quarters).

Kerry Eggers of The Portland Tribune: A pall cast over the Trail Blazers' locker room after a 108-95 victory over San Antonio Monday night at the Moda Center, and it had nothing to do with the outcome. Portland center Robin Lopez sat by his locker with a wrap around a splint covering his right hand, which suffered a pair of broken bones when the hand hit the head of Spurs forward Boris Diaw going for a third-quarter rebound. Lopez will be lost to the team indefinitely. "I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it," teammate LaMarcus Aldridge said. "That's it. Can't get past 'I don't like it.' He's such a big part of our identity. He does so many things people don't notice. He's a hard worker, a guy that does thing nobody else does in the first unit. As soon as I got back from the end of the game, I went looking for him. I was going to go by his house if I didn't see him. But I saw him in the locker room. He had the little cast on." Lopez will end a streak of having played in 265 straight games dating to late in the 2010-11 season, when he was with Phoenix. The 7-foot center played in all 93 regular-season and playoff games last season and has been in 128 straight games in a Portland uniform since coming to the Blazers in a trade with New Orleans before the 2013-14 season.

Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times: The divergent fortunes of the Clippers and Lakers have not carried over to their television ratings. They're both on the decline. Nielsen ratings for the Clippers and Lakers in the Los Angeles market were down double digits percentage-wise over their first 20 games versus the same period last season. The Lakers averaged a 2.25 rating for those games on Time Warner Cable SportsNet, down 28% from the 3.14 at the start of last season. The Clippers averaged a 1.24 on Prime Ticket, down 16% from the 1.47 they achieved early last season. The Lakers' ratings are near the historic low of 2.11 they averaged all of last season, the worst on record for local Lakers telecasts and a 54% drop from the 2012-13 season, when they averaged a 4.63. There was one good piece of news for the Clippers: Their ratings in the highly coveted 18-34 demographic were up a staggering 41% over the first 20 games of last season. The Lakers were showing a decline of 13% in the same demographic. ... The Clippers' ratings decline seems a bit more puzzling given their 113-91 victory over the Detroit Pistons at Staples Center on Monday gave them a 17-7 record, a slight improvement over their 15-9 start a year ago. This represents the next-to-last season of the team's contract with Prime Ticket, which pays the Clippers $25 million to $30 million a year.

Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun: The Orlando Magic are a nice, developing young team, but they don’t have Kyle Lowry. For that reason, the Magic couldn’t close a winnable game against the Raptors on Monday, instead falling 95-82. The 19-6 Raptors continue to lead the East thanks to a sterling third quarter that was the latest masterpiece from Lowry, the team’s soon-to-be all-star point guard. Trailing by eight after a pretty wretched first half, the Raptors were read the riot act by head coach Dwane Casey. “Coach started off with his speech, getting on us, yelling at us and then it was just us teammates talking amongst each other,” explained Patrick Patterson, who was stellar with 10 points and a career-best six assists.

Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee: The square peg in the round hole doesn’t work anywhere, and certainly not in sports. Ask Jim Harbaugh. Ask former Warriors coach Mark Jackson. Ask Michael Malone, and frankly, the ex-Kings head coach probably will say he read the tea leaves and predicted his fate months ago. The owner hired the coach. Then the owner hired the general manager. Now, in the creative, innovative, ever-evolving world of high tech, maybe unconventional introductions succeed. But in the NBA – in most of pro sports, really – opposites rarely attract and almost never collaborate. The getting-to-know-you process is a precondition for long-term success and stability, for the slightest whiff of title contention. But this was an arranged marriage without the honeymoon, without a chance, with the divorce papers always within reach.

Diamond Leung of The Oakland Tribune: The Warriors will submit videotape to the NBA of what they say are “cheap shots” from New Orleans forward Dante Cunningham during their overtime win Sunday. Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green were struck in their faces in separate second-quarter incidents. Barnes after getting elbowed was left with a nasal fracture, chipped teeth and a mouth laceration that required stitches. He is questionable for Tuesday’s game at Memphis, as coach Steve Kerr said he would be surprised if Barnes didn’t play wearing a mask.