The Tweener: Moore, OK, we're here for you.

On February 26 I wrote an inaugural Tweener column. It's that time of the week again - this issue's quick hitters are below with a special topic at the end.

• This is the worst part of the playoffs, where the time between televised games gets longer, and the entertainment factor within each game gets smaller.  You have to assume the NBA office is performing every sort of voodoo magic they can think of to prevent a Memphis-Indiana final. If there wasn't the possibility that at any moment Wade could throw an alley-oop pass to Lebron, and if the Spurs offense wasn't the prettiest thing to watch since Emma Watson in Harry Potter 7 Part I (the saving grace of that movie), I wouldn't watch any of these Conference Finals games.  And even though Miami and San Antonio aren't the largest markets out there, they're still pretty effing big. And the best part is, no one knows what to think about that match up. Seriously. They've basically never played each other at full strength. Can Popovich draw up the perfect Xs and Os to beat a small ball, athletic, we're-faster-than-you-because-you-play-3-old-men kind of attack? So here's to Indiana beating Miami so this intrigue can live on for another year!

No really, the Pacers are so boring Lance Stephenson tried choking himself.

Minor Tweaks to the Future of American Tennis

Sloane Stephens was the story of this Australian Open. Especially since Azarenka won and now everyone is flipping out (or at least making jokes) about how she inappropriately took a time out during her semifinal match against Sloane.  But Azarenka was in firm control of that match, and has pretty convincingly gotten past her obvious “nerve” issues over the past 18 months.  That doesn’t really excuse the timing of the time out she took nor does it mean she didn’t fake it, but it would be foolish to suggest Sloane was going to suddenly turn around a match against the second best player in women’s tennis the day after she almost botched turning it around against the world’s best player who couldn’t walk.