Roderick Boone of Newsday: Thrilled that the blood clots found on his lungs are gone, the Nets' Mirza Teletovic opted to take a few moments Monday night to extend a hand in the direction of Heat star Chris Bosh. "I really want to use this opportunity to reach out to Chris Bosh and tell him he doesn't have to worry," Teletovic said in his first extended chat with the media since he was diagnosed with bilateral pulmonary embolus -- or multiple blood clots -- in the lungs Jan. 23, the same situation Bosh is dealing with. "He's going to get better and he's going to start working out pretty soon." Teletovic said he's been doing just that now that tests show his lungs are free of clots, something he said the doctors are about "80 percent'' certain he developed from a hip pointer he suffered against the Cavaliers on Dec. 8. He said he started working out three weeks ago and has been doing everything -- running, jumping, dunking -- except contact. That will happen once he's off blood thinners in July. He fully expects to play basketball next season, which excites him, given the severity of the situation initially.

Diamond Leung of The Oakland Tribune: Warriors forward Harrison Barnes has enjoyed a bounce-back season after returning to the starting lineup. His disappearing act quietly comes before games. Barnes more often than not is absent when the public address announcer calls his name unlike the other four starters who high-five their teammates. He is usually missing during the playing of the national anthem while Warriors players and coaches stand shoulder to shoulder on the court. The reason according to Barnes is certainly nothing against the anthem or his teammates. “I just go to the bathroom, man,” he said, smiling. “It just always happens to be on the same time every game. Mother Nature, I can’t control that. Every once in a while you see me out there, but Mother Nature just calls. You’ve got to go to the bathroom.” And so in a season when the Warriors have laid waste on their opponents on their way to earning the NBA’s best record, Barnes’ quirk have led to pregame smirks.

Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: Tempers had been simmering between Whiteside and Suns center Alex Len since the beginning of the game. The two players locked arms momentarily after the Heat’s first basket, a dunk by Whiteside on Len less than a minute into the game. The wayward elbowsand hard fouls continued until the third quarter when Whiteside dunked on Len again. Whiteside’s elbow came down Len, and Len took offense, slinging Whiteside to the ground. Whiteside then went after Len’s legs and took the Suns center to the floor. Both players were ejected following a review. “I just retaliated,” Whiteside said. “I shouldn’t have retaliated. I should have just walked away, but when you’re in the Heat of the moment …After I came down on him, after I dunked on him, I guess he felt like my arm hit him in the face.” Whiteside finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds. From the beginning of the game, the Heat’s guards made a point to get the Heat’s young center involved in the offense. That wasn’t the case Saturday in the team’s loss to the Hawks. “I’m starting to realize a lot more teams are being physical with me, and I’m down for it,” Whiteside said. “That’s what I lift weights for.”

Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Goran Dragic said he was stung by the Suns front office casting him as a selfish player after he felt like he had been a team player for two stints of 2 ½ seasons in Phoenix. The criticism from Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough and President of Basketball Operations President Lon Babby was prompted by Dragic's public expression of a desire to be traded and mistrust in Suns management. Dragic regretted how harshly his comment sounded before that day was over, even saying so on social media at the time, but he stood by the sentiment Monday. Just as McDonough and Babby took it personally to have Dragic question their trustworthiness, Dragic said it was difficult for him to be called selfish by them and was surprised by it. "Hard," Dragic said. "But at the same time, I know that's not true. A lot of people (former teammates, coaches and executives), they text me why they came like that out. That's their opinion. I cannot do nothing else. Everybody has their own opinion and it's, how you say, a free country. Everybody can speak freely."

Dan Woike of The Orange County Register: Doc Rivers hasn’t seen Blake Griffin in a week, with the team making four stops on the road. But while the Clippers have been out on the road winning, their star has been back in Los Angeles working. According to a team official, Griffin has “ramped up” his workouts over the past two days. Rivers went further, saying Griffin’s given the team some reasons for optimism. “He's running, he's sweating, he’s going full-tilt now and that’s good,” Rivers said before Monday’s game. “(I’m) not sure what that means not being there. He’s working out and that's all we can hope for right now. It’s a good sign.” Rivers also said Griffin has begun shooting and a return Sunday against Golden State is possible, though that seems a little early. Griffin last played Feb. 6 at Toronto.

Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press: Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers was concerned about Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett's mental state when he held up the trade from Minnesota to Boston. The trade meant Garnett would go from a losing Wolves team to the Celtics, who had a chance to win the NBA title. "We had to do some convincing; I was amazed by that," said Rivers, who was coaching the Celtics at the time. "I was worried about him for a while, mentally, what's wrong with this guy?" Garnett finally acquiesced to the trade in 2007, and Rivers and Garnett won the NBA title in 2008, their first of six seasons together. The reason for Garnett's reluctance was allegiance to his current home. "It's almost nutty loyalty," Rivers said. "He held up the trade in Boston twice. The original one he blew up. All the sense for him basketball-wise, it was to come to Boston to have a chance (at a ring). Then the second time when we got Ray (Allen), and would have Paul (Pierce) and Kevin, he still held the trade up because he didn't want to feel like he was bailing on Minnesota." Rivers then understood once Garnett joined him in Boston. "Then you find when you get him, you get it," Rivers said.

Josh Rubin of the Toronto Star: Throw in a Raptors team that has been mired in its worst slump of the season, and sitting and watching becomes even harder. But the fiery point guard says he’s had to learn to think about the long game. In this case, the NBA post-season. For the second straight game, Lowry sat out as the Raptors played his hometown Philadelphia 76ers Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center. Against the woeful Sixers, it turns out they didn’t need him after all, as they snapped a five-game losing streak with a 114-103 victory. If left to his own devices, Lowry admitted, he probably would have been out on the court. “At the same time, you are getting older in your career and you’ve got bigger plans than to try to go out there and force and force something, especially when you have bumps and bruises, where you can take some time to get healthy, the long term is the plan, the long term for our season is really the goal in mind,” said Lowry.

Tom Moore of The Intelligencer: JaVale McGee, we hardly knew thee. The 76ers waived McGee on Monday, 11 days after the team acquired him in a Feb. 19 trade for the Thunder's top-18 protected pick. McGee, a 6-foot-11 big man, averaged 3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 10.2 minutes in six games as a Sixer. The Sixers are responsible for the remainder of McGee's $11.25 million 2014-15 salary, as well as reportedly his entire $12 million next season. ... “The move was done more because it was the right thing to do, we felt, to give him the opportunity to go play with a playoff team,” Brett Brown said. “He was maligned. In my view, he was a hell of a teammate. He did nothing wrong. We're going to move on with younger guys.” Brown cited the “logjam” at power forward and wanting to take a longer look at recent signee Thomas Robinson and Turkey native Furkan Aldemir, who has two more guaranteed years at just under $6 million, as an additional reason McGee is no longer a Sixer.

Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: Mark Cuban weighed in for the first time since the Rajon Rondo-Rick Carlisle spat before Monday’s Dallas Mavericks game against New Orleans. The owner’s take: Nothing to see here. When asked if he thought the coach and point guard could coexist, Cuban said: “No question in my mind. When you have strong, smart guys, they bash heads and that’s not a bad thing. They’re communicating more. I don’t see it as a problem. “The best companies have people who are confident enough to yell at each other. My partners have had more knock-down, drag-out screaming matches. That doesn’t bother me at all.” Cuban said he believes Carlisle will devise ways to make the offense more efficient while still utilizing Rondo’s best assets. It just may take a little time.

John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Coach Monty Williams didn't make enough defensive adjustments to keep the Mavericks from driving to the basket for shots. Maybe, he should have tried some zone defenses or traps to force more jump shots. The Mavericks, however, spaced the floor and got their desired shots in the lane. The Pelicans looked fatigue from playing on Monday against Denver. Their guards couldn't stay in front of the Mavericks' guards and centers Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca were unable to provide enough effective rim protection.

Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: On Monday, Nuggets coach Brian Shaw denied his players were referring to the remaining time this season when they broke a huddle chanting with "1, 2, 3, six weeks!" in Friday night's home game against Utah. The chant, reported first in Sunday's Denver Post, drew national attention in the past day. Shaw said he referenced the long home losing streak in practice last week. "I said, probably three or four days ago in practice, that we hadn't won a home game in six weeks," Shaw said. "Which dated back to Jan.14, against the Dallas Mavericks, was the last time we won a home game here, which was six weeks ago. So, the comment that the players made when they got together and said '1, 2, 3, six weeks!' was the players saying 'this is the end of the six weeks, we're going to get a win tonight on our home court and break the six-week losing spell on our home court.' Not six weeks that it's the end of the season. Now, coincidentally it does happen to be a little over six weeks from then, that it's the end of the season. But I think our players and the Denver Nuggets as a whole were misrepresented in how that was reported."