- Kyrie Irving is falling into a bad habit of embellishing his injuries, which are already lengthy and well-chronicled. Irving insinuated the other night that his sprained shoulder is still bothering him, but the Cavaliers have been extremely cautious in their handling of Irving's injuries and insist they would not be playing him if his shoulder still hurt - particularly with nothing left to play for this season.

In answering a question last week about whether he has given up on the season, Irving said no because "I'm out here playing with basically a still-sprained AC joint without a care in the world because I just want to play out there with my teammates."

- That's the second time Irving made an injury sound worse than it is. He missed three games after hyperextending his knee, then said after returning it was still bothering him and the only way it would heal completely is if he missed the rest of the season. That surprised Cavaliers coach Byron Scott, who was under the impression Irving was 100 percent, so Scott responded he would sit Irving if the knee still bothered him. Ultimately, it turned out to be much ado about nothing and Irving backtracked from saying his knee was still bothering him. It appears he might be at it again.

- Forbes compiled a list of the 10 most overpaid players in the NBA, and some of the names might surprise you. The magazine's big issue was "scorers that don't do other things well and that don't shoot a solid percentage from the field tend to be overvalued." At the top of their list? Carmelo Anthony and his $19.4 million salary this year. Anthony, of course, is one of the hottest players in the league right now (chalk that up to bad timing on Forbes' part).

- The rest of the list in order: the Charlotte Bobcats' Ben Gordon ($12.4 million), the Brooklyn Nets' Joe Johnson ($19.75 million), the Orlando Magic's Hedo Turkoglu ($11.8 million), the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki ($20.9 million), the Detroit Pistons' Corey Maggette ($10.9 million), the Toronto Raptors' Rudy Gay ($16.5 million), the San Antonio Spurs' Stephen Jackson ($10.1 million), the Mavericks' Chris Kaman ($8 million) and the Magic's Arron Afflalo ($7.8 million).

- CBS' 60 Minutes is airing a piece Sunday night on the Houston Rockets' Jeremy Lin, asking, among other things, why no major colleges were recruiting him out of high school. "I think the obvious thing in my mind is that I was Asian-American," Lin tells interviewer Charlie Rose. "I think that was a barrier. . . . It's a stereotype."

- The Cavaliers have a vested interest in the Los Angeles Lakers making the playoffs this season, since it means the difference in about 15 slots in the draft. But Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is pessimistic about the Lakers' postseason chances. "It's going to be tough," he told the Los Angeles Daily News. "If they do make it, I don't know how far they're going to go." Cavs fans don't care how far they advance, they just need the Lakers to make the playoffs. They enter the weekend leading the Utah Jazz by one game in the loss column for the eighth and final spot in the West. "They had been trying to figure out a whole new system," Abdul-Jabbar said, referring to the early-season coaching change. "That just makes for confusion. They may have to wait until next year."

- All-Star Kevin Love was not cleared for practice Friday, as he was hoping, and instead will return to New York this week for another visit with the hand specialist who performed his surgery, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. That means Love's season is likely over.

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