Forgive this piece, before you even read it. This isn’t a real rumor, nor is it even a fake rumor. It’s simply a what-if scenario J.A. Adande offered up on TrueHoop. And a scary what-if scenario, at that.

It’s not that hard to envision a scenario that brings Paul to the Lakers. It starts with Jackson retiring, a move he said he is “leaning toward.” Then bring in Byron Scott to replace him, as has long been rumored. Out goes the triangle offense, which probably wouldn’t suit Paul. In comes Paul, who maintained a good relationship with Scott even after Scott was fired by the Hornets. (That’s more than could be said with Scott’s previous two point guards, Baron Davis and Jason Kidd.) Meanwhile, Scott and Kobe Bryant go way back to Kobe’s rookie year, when they were teammates, so that would work, too.

Why would any of this work for the Hornets? They need to shed salary, with the four years and $52 million remaining on Emeka Okafor’s contract sticking out on their spreadsheet like a nun on Bourbon Street. The best way to entice a team to take on that contract would be to include Paul in the deal, painful though it may be for the Hornets. Besides, if they really like Paul and want to repay him for everything he’s done for that franchise and the New Orleans community they’ll give him a chance to play for a championship contender.

They could send Paul (owed $14.9 million in 2010-11) and Okafor ($11.5 million), with contracts totaling $26.4 million, to the Lakers for the combined $27.5 million in 2010-11 contracts of Andrew Bynum ($13.8 million), Lamar Odom ($8.2 million) and Sasha Vujacic ($5.5 million).

The Lakers are scary enough with Derek Fisher running point and Andrew Bynum limping his way through a semi-productive Finals. Add Paul to the team and a center with two functioning knees (although Okafor is no healthy Harry either) and suddenly that offense is lethal. My knees are shaking right now like I’m Chris Webber at the foul line during crunch-time.

Losing Lamar and Bynum would hurt the Lakers, but the thought of adding CP3 to that squad is enough to make me seriously consider a drug binge.

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

Steph: "Yo, it was me who hacked your Twitter account." Pierce: "I was wondering what you were up to now."

Rich Levine, CSNNE – “Essentially, everything about Pierce’s tweeting was a lesson in how not to act in the NBA playoffs. But still, in the face of all sorts of common sense, we believed it. And I think I know why. It’s because even though, on paper, Pierce’s statements were antagonizing and offensive, to anyone who’d watched the first two games of the series they made complete sense. It’s because even though the words on Pierce’s Twitter page may not have been his own, deep down, we know that they mirror exactly what the real Paul Pierce and his Celtics are thinking. Bottom line: They think they’re going to sweep the Magic, and they don’t think anyone or anything can stop them. Not Orlando. Or an insane Amway Arena crowd. Or an enraged Dwight Howard. Not the fact that the Magic had beaten them three out of four times. Or that Orlando hadn’t lost two games in a row at home all year. Or that a majority of the experts had picked the C’s to lose. Nothing. They feel like anything they want on a basketball court is rightfully theirs.”

Jessica Camerato, WEEI – “‘I’d love to guard Pierce,’ Barnes told the Sentinel. ‘I got the chance to guard him a little bit the last game and felt that I did a pretty good job. But he’s really rolling right now, so we need to slow him down somehow.’ [...] ‘My third foul in the third quarter, when I tried to beat him over the screen, he fell down like I threw him,’ he said. ‘It was ridiculous. But the refs called it so it was a good play. It was a flop, 100 percent, and that’s how some guys like to play. But if the refs call it, it’s effective.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – By leaving Perkins to deal one-on-one with the No. 4 player in MVP voting, the Celtics are accepting the consequences. The sacrificial Perk is not disturbed. ‘Not at all,’ he said yesterday, comforted more by the 2-0 series lead on Orlando. ‘And if he scores, then you live with some of them. A few of the 30 points he had were too easy baskets that I thought we could have taken away, but we’re just trying to make it tough on him. You know, we’re not trying to overreact to him scoring. We’re not trapping or nothing like that. We’re just trying to make it tough on him, make it hard on him to score – not letting him get deep post-ups and stuff like that.’ Doc Rivers acknowledged the situation, though he didn’t think the Celts executed as well as in Game 1. ‘We don’t want him to go for 30, but when he goes for 30, he goes for 30,’ the coach said. ‘As long as he doesn’t go for 30 and then get everybody else involved, we can live with it.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Boston rookie Oliver Lafayette played AAU ball with Davis in Louisiana. He recalls Davis’ demeanor and focus seemed to change for the better when they faced some of the better teams, ones that featured future NBA talent like New Orleans Emeka Okafor. ‘He always gets excited for those games,’ Lafayette said. “He wants to show his best. He wants to prove he’s one of the best guys that plays this game at his position.’ Following Wednesday’s practice, coach Doc Rivers spoke with CSNNE.com about Davis and his knack for stepping up in big games. ‘He’s crazy enough to be confident,’ Rivers said. ‘That’s what we say. That’s what (former Marquette coach and Hall of Famer) Al McGuire used to say. He used to say, ‘Give me 12 unaware players and I’ll beat 12 aware players every time.’ Glen falls into that category. He just comes out and plays. He doesn’t give a crap where he’s at. That’s confidence.’ Rivers added that Davis’ problems usually come about in games where the pressure isn’t nearly as intense. ‘In non-pressurized games, he’s thinking . . . he’s thinking about putting on a show and doing all that stuff,’ Rivers said. ‘When he just shows up to play, he’s a really good basketball player. In the big games, he does that more. I love it. Now if we can get him to do that all year, he’d be perfect.’”

Frank Dell’Apa, Boston Globe – “‘They’ve beaten us twice here in the regular season,’ guard Rajon Rondo said yesterday. ‘We didn’t come into this season to win five games in a row in the playoffs. It’s about winning a championship and put another banner up, and we haven’t done that.’ Coach Doc Rivers is attempting to keep the Celtics focused, cautioning against complacency and overconfidence as the team has compiled a 10-3 playoff record. The Celtics’ 92-88 and 95-92 wins in Orlando extended their winning streak to those five games. ‘We’ve done nothing, we really haven’t,’ Rivers said. ‘We’re up, 2-0, but we’ve got to keep playing. Orlando was the favorite for a reason. They were playing better than anyone else in the playoffs, for a reason. Either game could have gone either way. This series is going to be that way. There’s not going to be a game where there’s comfort. Both teams are very good, both teams are very close, both teams are very similar in a lot of ways. So it’s not going to be a comfort game, whether at home or on the road. They have to think both games they could have won. You just keep focusing on execution and improving and getting ready. And each game is a single game. That’s what we talk about — that’s been our speech through this playoff series, all of the series.’”

Jarrod N. Rudolph, Boston Globe – “Magic coach Stan Van Gundy acknowledged the team would make some changes to help Lewis, but he wasn’t willing to reveal any of his plans. ‘No, I’d rather not,’ Van Gundy said. ‘We certainly had a little bit of a focus today both on some things that Rashard has to sort of do differently on his own, and we are going to try to do a couple of things for him. Nothing revolutionary and nothing that’s going to cause Doc [Rivers] and the Celtics coaching staff to go, ‘Wow, how the hell are we going to guard that?’ I don’t have those moments of genius inspiration, and they’re a very good team. But we are going to try a couple of things to give him more opportunities.’”

Shaun Powell, NBA.com – “LeBron James will be a free agent this summer; maybe you’ve heard. And Kobe Bryant is licking his lips because the aroma of another championship is strong once again. Also, the Orlando Magic swept a pair of playoff series and flashed some swagger. Yes, this dominated the NBA postseason discussion. For good reason. And now, another topic has sprung this spring, perhaps the most surprising of all. An old Celtics team came to a city built on amusement parks and like many tourists who flock here have looked young. Revived. Refreshed, even. And at times, convincing. They’re up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference finals, after stealing a pair against a home team that hadn’t lost since early April. Yes, the same Celtics accused of being beyond their years, and injury-prone, and too unpredictable given their often-bumpy ride through the endurance test known as the NBA regular season. But these Celtics aren’t bringing along much from their recent past, unless you mean the triumphant 2008 season. In which case, yes, there is a championship vibe going on right now.”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “He did have something for the national television audience when asked about the possibility of a letdown going home. ‘Our fans aren’t going to let us relax,’ he said. ‘Y’all not going to let us relax. We’re going to try to close this out in two games. Y’all hear me? We’re coming home to close it out.’ Pierce then winked and told the Orlando crowd, ‘See you next year.’ While the Magic fans stew over the statements, the Celtics captain hasn’t taken any local heat. ‘No, I haven’t gotten any feedback,’ he said. ‘Yesterday I was pretty much home with my daughter all day, and she didn’t say nothing. It wasn’t a big deal to me. I’m just saying I want us to go home, I want our crowd to be ready, I want us to play our best, and I want us to win two games. That’s it.’ It’s fair to assume Pierce received a word or two from Doc Rivers. ‘I didn’t like it,’ the coach said of the comments. ‘I don’t mind the confidence part. That’s good. You’ve got to have confidence, but we want to be humble. And we haven’t achieved anything. I think that’s what he was trying to say; it just came out at the end. I wish they would have taken the mic away at the last couple of words. But up until then, he was pretty good. We do have to go home and our fans will help us, but we’ve got to do it on the floor.’”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter.