A Bewildering Night of Playoff Games Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist had perhaps his worst game of the playoffs in Game 5 Wednesday night against the Devils. Nobody said the playoffs were going to be pretty. At least the N.B.A. and N.H.L. games Wednesday night went light on barbarism, reversing the recent trend, but they went even lighter on aesthetics. There were whole stretches of the 76ers" victory over the Celtics that made James Naismith and his peach baskets look evolved by comparison. And the Devils" victory over the Rangers in the N.H.L. Eastern Conference finals? It was what happens when two normally outstanding goalies become suddenly mystified by that black rubber disc and their teammates take turns playing as if their shin pads are on fire. Naturally, the 76ers" victory means that demolition derby of a series is headed to a Game 7 to inflict the maximum possible damage on the sport. It was possible to feel warmly about the Sixers for a few minutes Wednesday night when Allen Iverson came out to present the game ball and the Philadelphia fans, who have been less than effusive about their current team, roared as in the old days. But then the game started. That's when the Sixers reverted to their "ugly, wretched, grinding style," as Les Carpenter described it on Yahoo.com, and he sort of meant that as a compliment. He finds the eighth-seeded Sixers compelling, but, as Matt Moore writes on CBSSports.com, heavens, this is hard to watch. The Celtics have cultivated a knack for the baffling, as Mark Murphy describes in The Boston Herald, but no finishing touch whatsoever, writes Sam Gardner on Foxsports.com. So, the underdogs have grabbed something of an upper hand even as Game 7 shifts to Boston, writes Ian Thomsen on SI.com, perhaps absorbing a little of Iverson magic while he cheered them on, writes John Smallwood in The Philadelphia Daily News. The Rangers-Devils game had a lot of the thrills the Celtics-76ers lacked - a three-goal lead, a blown three-goal lead and a game-winning goal late in the third - but was basically two teams taking turns forgetting how to play. The goalies, Martin Brodeur and Henrik Lundqvist, normally the most dependable of sorts, appeared at times to be auditioning for parts in "The Three Stooges on Ice." The Devils weathered all of that and won anyway, writes Scott Burnside on ESPN.com, and were abetted by a Rangers team seemingly intent on doing everything in the hardest way possible, writes Nicholas Cotsonika on Yahoo.com. Perhaps, Mike Vaccaro writes in The New York Post, playing those previous seven-game series have prepared the Rangers for this, but if they are capable of flipping some sort of switch to turn that three-goal deficit into a tie game, why haven't they reached for it a bit earlier in this series, wonders Dave D'Alessandro in The Star-Ledger of Newark. The Devils, meanwhile, are paying no heed to parallels to the 1994 series, writes Mark Everson in The Post, probably because almost every one of them outside of Brodeur was a toddler when it happened. To grab this win, they unveiled an addition to the unlikely hero roster, Ryan Carter, writes Steve Politi in The Star-Ledger. In fact, it was the entire fourth line that sparkled in this game, writes Sarah Kwak on SI.com. While the N.H.L. has little else to focus on aside from this baffling series, the N.B.A. has distractions around every corner. The Heat-Pacers series is headed for a seemingly decisive Game 6, with the Heat having taken their lumps in the form of suspensions to Udonis Haslem (one game) and Dexter Pittman (three games, but no one will miss him). Christine Brennan argues in USA Today that the N.B.A. got that half right, with one game fitting for Haslem's flagrant foul but three too lenient for Pittman's assault. Linda Robertson suggests in The Miami Herald that perhaps it is time to start issuing red cards in the N.B.A. to punish the muggings. The nonplayoff wackiness is either centered in Orlando, where the Magic are apparently willing to entertain the idea of Shaquille O'Neal as their general manager, or in Los Angeles, where Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak tried to sound tough and promise changes to his underachieving team. Which means Pau Gasol might consider interviewing real estate agents, writes Mike Bresnahan in The Los Angeles Times. Baseball might have come up with the best distraction of all in The Daily News report that maybe, perhaps, possibly, conceivably the Steinbrenners could, if all conditions were right and Jupiter starts orbiting Saturn, consider maybe perhaps selling the Yankees. (Was there enough equivocation in that? If not, add a few more maybes.) Mike Lupica argues in The Daily News that they would be crazy not to contemplate it, considering the ridiculous fortune paid for the Dodgers. Of course, the prospect of that sideshow might just drive you back to watching the Sixers-Celtics calamity. At least that painful experience has a Game 7 expiration date.