Bring Back the Lockout! - NYTimes.com We interrupt this N.F.L. playoff season with the disturbing news that the N.B.A. season is going on. While the conclusion of the league's shameful lockout did bring a few benefits, including festive Christmas Day openers and a blissfully shortened season, it turns out the benefits quickly developed downsides. Christmas Day was, alas, only one day. And the blissfully shortened season came with a microscopic preseason, creating teams with all the organization of New Jersey traffic, and has been condensed like a can of tomato soup. There are games on top of games on top of games, all held together by xanthan gum. Those games have been about as tasty as eating condensed soup, cold and with a fork. This is not restricted to games involving the Wizards or Nets or Pistons or the dozen or so teams hoping a midseason surge lifts them to mediocre. The Lakers played the Mavericks on Monday in a rematch of last year's mesmerizing playoff series that was so decidedly unmesmerizing (73-70? Really?) that in the end, there might have even been Mavericks fans happy that Derek Fisher's game-winning shot put the game out of its misery. The Eastern Conference countered with a Magic-Knicks clash that would have been a marquee matchup had the marquee not short-circuited. Orlando's Dwight Howard did not score a basket until the third quarter and fouled out in the fourth, and the Knicks still lost by 9. This came with the lovely sidelight of the Howard trade standoff mini-drama, with none other than Patrick Ewing telling Howard to steer clear of New York, as Frank Isola writes in The Daily News, and Howard trying to pretend it's all not actually happening, writes Ken Berger on CBSSports.com. Still, the Lakers-Mavericks game still took the award for the day's ugliest (no small feat considering the 1-12 Wizards were playing on Monday). The Lakers scored seven points in the third quarter. And still won. The Mavericks shot 28-for-80. And still almost won. As J.A. Adande wrote on ESPN.com, they were the L.S.U.-Alabama of the N.B.A. And no, he did not mean it as a compliment. Kobe Bryant continued his season trend of taking more shots than breaths, a development that Lakers Coach Mike Brown insists is short-term, but in the meantime prompts Zach Lowe of SI.com to compile some of his not-so-greatest hits. College basketball rumbled along in its own little orbit, Kansas making the biggest headlines of the day by handing Baylor its first loss. Tyshawn Taylor had a big game at the right time, writes Seth Davis on SI.com, and Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com believes the Jayhawks have a Final Four-caliber team. In defeat, at least Baylor's Scott Drew did not pull a Roy Williams in defeat - North Carolina's coach having to apologize to his bench-warmers, whom he left on the court while clearing the rest of his team out early (theoretically for safety purposes) in his team's horrendous loss at Florida State. The N.F.L. playoff news is still swirling around the Giants after their impressive win over the Packers in Green Bay, with Dan Wetzel of Yahoo.com hailing Coach Tom Coughlin for his unflappable approach and Peter King of SI.com congratulating them for the trade they never made to deal disgruntled defensive end Osi Umenyiora. The victory does send them back to San Francisco, the scene of their oh-so-memorable playoff collapse nine years ago, where Jim Harbaugh has the 49ers thinking big again, writes Nancy Gay on Foxsports.com. His success has made it difficult on his parents, however, who have to divide their attention between two sons coaching playoff teams. The Patriots are hogging attention in the A.F.C., with Mike Freeman arguing on CBSSports.com that they are the most dangerous team in the playoffs, while Joe Posnanski of SI.com believes they won't be so successful as an outdoor team trying to overcome a leaky defense with lots of offense. The team they sent packing on Saturday, the Broncos, have settled on Tim Tebow as next year's starter. While Bill Williamson argues on ESPN.com that he can be the team's long-term solution at quarterback, Les Carpenter writes on Yahoo.com that John Elway doesn't seem so convinced. In the middle of all that, you might take a minute stop to appreciate Muhammad Ali on his 70th birthday. It is odd to think of him as 70, writes Kevin Iole on Yahoo.com, because he seems so frozen in time as a young, unforgettable champion. That would be a worthwhile minute and at least one you won't be spending watching an unwatchable N.B.A. game.