One thing’s for sure, there are a lot more hotter women’s tennis players than we are led to believe. One such player we’ve already discussed in Elena Dementieva; and now we have Alona Bondarenko (Hooked on Fonix werked 4 me), another stunner from the Slavic region of the globe.

But like I indicated, these examples aren’t the only ones.

In Alona’s case, she rose to blogger fame on the strength of her K-Swiss advertisement (above) that showed up a little while ago, well, that and her ability to hit a tennis ball. However, in the case of the blogosphere, it was probably more for the K-Swiss image.

Eh, we are what we are. Without further adieu, I present more Alona Bondarenko. Congratulations on your IEC award.

Bonus: a video comparison of Alona and Maria Sharapova for your Friday enjoyment.

Thanks to LWS, we are now aware of a follow-up to the Duke “This Is Why You Suck” video, this time, aimed at the Florida Gators universe.

Sounds a lot like hate to me. Of course, news about dead women, dead teammates and stolen credit cards doesn’t help your cause that much.

Backed by a combined 62 points from Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and a 11 made 3-pointers (is Michael Finely STILL in the league?), the Spurs clawed their way back into their series with the Hornets with a 100-99 victory.

The Parker/Ginobili duo did just about everything in their power to counter a Hornets attack spearheaded by Chris Paul, who again showed brilliance beyond his experience by posting 35 points and 9 assists. Unfortunately for Paul, the only other Hornet to make an impact in the scoring column was David West.

Peja, where were you (8 total points)?

While the Spurs did hit shots and Ginobiliparker played brilliantly, you get the feeling the Hornets are still in control of the series and not just because they have a 2-1 lead. San Antonio had to shoot almost 50% from beyond the arc (11-25) to win this game, something that doesn’t happen on a game-in, game-out basis. As for the Hornets, they only shot 2-11 from downtown.

The questions for the Spurs are these: will they have to rely on 62 points and 17 assists from Ginobiliparker just to beat the Hornets? How about 3-point shooting? Can they expect to keep hitting at the rate they did last night or will they revert back to their outside ineptitude they displayed in Games 1 and 2?

Unfortunately, because of some stupid TV scheduling considerations, we won’t find out UNTIL SUNDAY, a fact that brings up another interesting point — Do NBA teams REALLY need almost three days off between games or did the league set it up this way so the defending champs can get plenty of rest between contests?

Whatever the case, these two teams should be playing again on Saturday. Hell, Game 4 isn’t even on ABC; a fact that makes this ridiculous two-and-half day wait seem all the more like bad planning (or favorable scheduling for the defending champs).

8-42, LeBron? Eight for forty-two shooting in the first two games of this series? Really? After opening the series with a blistering 2-14, King James followed that explosion up with 6-24 outing.

Could this be bad-tipping karma coming home to roost or is his (lack of) performance a combination of stifling Celtics defense and bad shooting? To hear Paul Pierce tell it, it’s the defense, although some folks at the XO Prime Steaks restaurant might disagree.

Whatever the case, because of LeBron’s disappearance on the offensive end, the Cavaliers find themselves down 0-2 to the best regular season team in the Eastern Conference.

Working in the Cavs’ favor is the fact that Games 3 and 4 will be played in Cleveland and if Boston repeats their Atlanta Hawks series road woes, LeBron and company have a good chance of getting right back into this series. However, the Cavaliers are not the Hawks in relation to talent beyond their star. In Atlanta, Joe Johnson had Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith, and Al Horford to back him up.

With LeBron, not so much.

While he does have a completely competent Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the Big Z is really, really slow and nowhere near as explosive as Joe Johnson’s counterparts (not that Johnson is LeBron clone, although, he is the Hawks best player). If Gibson, West and Szczerbiak start consistently making the shots LeBron provides, the should be able to at least make things difficult on the Celtics.

But if LeBron keeps this newfound shooting prowess up, they are liable to get swept out of the playoffs; a distinction I’m not sure a defending Eastern Conference champion wants to experience.

Apparently, King James didn’t learn anything from the Roy Williams/pizza delivery incident — that, or perhaps he just doesn’t care for his subjects the way we hoped he might. According to the Cleveland Scene (via FanHouse), there are reports of The Chosen One being a really bad tipper; I mean really, REALLY bad — provided this report has merit.

The final bill comes to $800. By the feudal laws of decorum, which stipulate that the affluent should administer a 20 percent gratuity, staffers figured they’d be pocketing an extra $160. But when they fetched the autographed bill after His Heinousness bolted back to Akron, their expectation turned to disbelief, then anger.

LeBron stiffed them with a meager $10 tip. This is what French nobles like to call your requisite Bourgeois Bitch-Slap.

Judging by the salaciousness of the originating post, this report rings like it’s exaggerated, if not completely hollow. Although, if true, perhaps the report of the server is a little bit, um, skewered. Perhaps his service sucked and LeBron let him know about it by leaving an insulting tip.

Or maybe King James is like every other monarch — make and keep your money by relying on the work of the peasants.

By now, most of the free-speaking world has seen the stories about the arrest of Cedric Benson, his boat, maritime police, public drunkenness and “black friends” getting beat up by the police. Now we have a picture from the event (courtesy of the Chicago Tribune):

Looks like a normal party to me, although, there were reports of the boating police cracking down on these types of aquatic celebrations in the area. In the picture, you can see a bottle of Grey Goose vodka (or perhaps, Belvedere), so it’s pretty safe to assume there was a good time being had on Benson’s boat. However, what it is NOT safe to assume is that Benson looks drunk in the above picture.

Just because he’s obviously having a good time and lets it show for the camera doesn’t mean he’s already tanked. While his mugshot might tell a different story, I’m not sure you can honestly say a person with a happy smile and sunglasses on can be considered drunk just because it looks like they are having a good time.

But maybe that’s just me.

In other news, Cedric sure does party with a lot of bikini-clad women… And his mom. There has to be something deeply meaningful there, but damn if I can figure it out.

As pointed out by NESW Sports, this has to be one of the stranger baseball commercials I’ve ever seen. And that doesn’t include the fact it stars an Asian man in his underwear swinging what looks like a whiffle-ball bat that could double as a lightsaber.

The issue is figuring out just what the hell this commercial is for.

Is this a TBS ad or is it for an Asian league/team? Ethanator indicates he understood the words “home run” but it still doesn’t explain exactly what’s being pushed by this commercial. Confusion aside, I think I love the graphic that pops over his face as he’s completing his swing.

One of the greatest attributes of all great NBA players is the ability to make their teammates better. Be it with nice passes, strong floor leadership, or just plain drawing the attention of opposing defenses, the truly great NBA players are also the primary facilitators of their team’s success. The following video is a perfect example of these skills, on a just about all-in-one scale.

While everyone was focused on the pass — rightfully so — what stood out to me is how the defense reacts to Kobe when he has the ball and is in attack mode. With his nifty dribbling exhibition, Kobe draws the attention of three defenders, leaving his main target, Pau Gasol, WIDE OPEN to finish any pass he might receive.

Of course, with his typical flair, Kobe delivers a wrap-around pass that allows Gasol to dunk the ball while further demonstrating the ineptitude of Utah’s defense in the series thus far.

Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images

While Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis were spectacularly brilliant last night, the indelible image from Game 3 of the Detroit/Orlando series is the one of Chauncey Billups falling awkwardly with this his legs in Van Damme-like split. However, in Billups’ case, the splits he was doing wasn’t purposeful and if the news about his hamstring doesn’t improve, they (the splits) could very well determine the Pistons’ post-season chances.

As indicated, the Magic — who jumped on the Pistons right from the tip and actually led 20-3 at one point during the 1st quarter — were led by Superman Howard and his sidekick, Rashard Lewis. Lewis was absolutely deadly from the beyond arc last night, hitting 5-6 and finishing with 33 points, a career playoff high. While Lewis controlled the perimeter, Howard dominated the paint, finishing with 20 points, 12 rebounds and 6 blocked shots.

The only inside player the Pistons could throw at him last night that might have made a difference — Rasheed Wallace — was completely ineffective, finishing with 11 points on 4-15 shooting and only 4 rebounds. Meanwhile, Jason Maxiell scored a whooping zero points and only grabbed 2 rebounds. To say Superman controlled these particular match-ups is an understatement.

Meanwhile, the focus for the remainder of the series, at least for the Pistons, has to be health of Billups. If he is hobbled by his hamstring, expect the Magic to advance. If he recovers without any residual issues, Detroit is still in a position to appear in their sixth-straight Eastern Conference Finals. According to reports, the Pistons are slightly optimistic Billups will make it back for Game 4:

“We’re shooting for him to play on Saturday,” said Detroit coach Flip Saunders. “It’s sore right now [and] we won’t know for the next 24 hours where he’s really at, but all indications are we’re shooting for him to go on Saturday.”

We’ll see.

Something funny happened during Kobe’s coronation last night — the Jazz forgot how to play defense. That and Deron Williams decided to disappear for stretches at time. While the aforementioned Williams did finish with a respectable stat line (25 points, 10 assists), nine of his points came in the last minute or so of the game when he FINALLY decided to shoot the ball.

After another slow start, Williams had a great 3rd quarter (while being guarded primarily by Jordan Farmar) but when Phil Jackson put the criminally underrated Derek Fisher back in, Williams was content to spend the 4th quarter being a distributor. It wasn’t until the game was just about decided when Williams decided to contribute to the final stanza.

However, this post isn’t about Deron Williams. Just the first couple of paragraphs. The rest is and should be about the Lakers.

While we aren’t convinced they are the favorite to win the whole enchilada (the Lakers play NO DEFENSE), they are playing really good offensive basketball and of course, they have the MVP. Just ask the Lakers crowd — a paragon of basketball knowledge is there ever was one.

I’m sorry, what, exactly, were the “UTAH SUCKS” chants for?

I did hear Craig Sager say something about Utah fans booing Derek Fisher, but for some reason, I’m having a hard time believing Lakers fans pay that much attention to the NBA to equate the two. Perhaps I’m wrong.

Nevertheless, led by Bryant (34 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists) the Lakers dusted the Jazz, 120-110 and while Kobe gets the lion’s share of the credit, he owes a great deal to his supporting cast and the free throw line. Joining Kobe in the offensive explosion were Fisher, who had 22 points while knocking down every open jump shot that came to him; Lamar Odom, who posted an incredible stat line consisting of 19 points, 16 rebounds and 2 blocked shots; and Pau Gasol with his 20 points and 5 blocked shots.

As for the free throw line thing, the Lakers shot 43, while the Jazz shot 16. You can draw your own conclusions about this discrepancy.

Whenever an NBA superstar — or in this case, the league MVP — can get this kind of support from his teammates, there’s not much the opposition can do BUT improve their defense, a concept the Utah Jazz had better figure out before they lose control of this series (something that might have already happened).

Before we close this post, I’d just like to ask something about Doug Collins: when did he become Kobe’s official mouthpiece? His slurping of Bryant was so severe last night, I was afraid he might get a case of lock-jaw.

Game 3 is in Utah on Friday night. I would expect a raucous crowd.