With all of the intense, disturbing real-world stuff that went down in Boston all day Friday, basketball games don’t seem so important any more, do they? But here we are. It’s Saturday, the first day of the NBA Playoffs, and after the last week, we probably all need a major dose of basketball played by the world’s greatest athletes to take our minds off of current events.

This is what the schedule looks like:

Can you think of anything more entertaining than what we’re about to get with Nuggets/Warriors? It’s a shame that Danilo Gallinari is out; both teams at full strength would be wild…

Do you know who else is ready for the NBA Playoffs to start? Pat Riley:

On the next page, David Stern attacks flopping … and Sean Elliott??

To help product the product that is the NBA Playoffs, the League is getting out ahead of flopping, stepping up their policy and punishment for the second season:

And then we saw this:

… and within minutes we had an email in our inbox from our favorite teams asking us to fill out a survey critiquing their announcers and broadcasts. Sooo many more things to worry about and fix ahead of homer announcers (which, by the way, is exactly what hometown viewing audiences want). Why would Boston fans ever want a broadcast that is objective? Sean Elliott‘s behavior on Spurs telecasts is akin to a ridiculous WWE villain, but we’re pretty sure viewers in San Antonio love him. These local broadcasts aren’t ESPN productions, they’re not expected to be held to the same guidelines. If you’re on the League Pass and extreme homerism bothers you, you know who to avoid …