It didn't appear as if that would be the case only days ago when Clifford felt chest pains Thursday and was rushed to the hospital, where he would have two stents placed in his heart the following day.

"I was just at a restaurant and I had significant pain in my chest and I was having trouble breathing," Clifford said before the game Monday. "It was scary enough, so I had them call 911. I was lucky that I did."

With the health scare behind him, Clifford is now excited to get back to basketball. He first returned to his team on Sunday, leading practice only days after undergoing a heart procedure.

Since feeling chest pains Thursday, Clifford has been free of trouble.

"I haven't had any even minor pain at all since the initial incident," Clifford said. "Once I got there I felt good, and so, no, I feel fine."

Clifford is aware that things could have been worse, and he plans to make sure there are no problems in the near future.

"I was lucky and at least I got a warning signal," Clifford said. "Things worked out well and they have me on a good plan. I'm going to follow it."

The Hawks beat the Bobcats 103-94.


NASH OUT AT LEAST TWO WEEKS


The Los Angeles Lakers are playing without the services of a former league MVP in Kobe Bryant, and now will be without a former two-time league MVP.

Point guard Steve Nash saw a back specialist Monday about pain that forced the 39-year-old to exit the Lakers' 113-90 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The diagnosis? Nash has a nerve root irritation, and is expected to miss at least two weeks.

The team released a statement detailing the 18-year veteran's situation. From the release:

"Steve Nash was examined [Monday] by back specialist Dr. Robert Watkins, who diagnosed Nash as having nerve root irritation. Treatment will include an epidural block, which Nash is expected to receive tomorrow, and Nash is expected to be out of action for a minimum of two weeks. He will be re-evaluated in approximately ten days, and an update will be given at that time."

Bryant is recovering from offseason Achilles surgery, so the loss of another veteran would be tough on the Lakers' largely inexperienced roster.

Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni anticipated his point guard would be playing through injury issues this year as early as the preseason, when he said "I think this will happen off and on all year, but he's going to give you a good season and good stuff. We have to take care of him."


SURGERY FOR SANDERS


Bucks center Larry Sanders has been in headlines for all the wrong reasons so far this season.

Sanders had surgery on his right thumb Monday, Charles Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. He is expected to be out about six weeks.

Sanders initially said he sustained the injury during the Bucks' 97-90 home-opening loss to the Toronto Raptors, but the team now says it happened off the court.

Sanders was involved in a bar fight after the loss to the Raptors during the early hours of Nov. 3. He sat out the Bucks' next game — against the Cleveland Cavaliers — with a thumb injury likely resulting from the incident. Sanders apologized to his teammates soon after, and vowed to personally apologize to team owner Herb Kohl.

No criminal charges have been filed in the case.

Sanders signed a four-year, $44 million contract over the summer, and has expressed his displeasure with the limited minutes he has received thus far this season.


HARDEN PAYS FOR FLOP


Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden has been fined $5,000 for violating the NBA's anti-flopping policy, the league announced Monday.

The incident in question occurred at 4:00 in the fourth quarter of the Rockets' 107-94 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday.

Something tells me this won't be the last time Harden is fined. Harden is a known flopper. His game is similar to the Spurs' Manu Ginobili, another elite flopper.

Harden led the NBA in free-throw attempts last season, and his ability to draw fouls through exaggeration had a lot to do with that. The video of Harden's most recent flop can be seen here.


JAMES NOT HAPPY WITH DEFENSE


The Miami Heat recently lost to the Boston Celtics on a Jeff Green game-winner, and, of course, the final shot received all of the attention.

Looking beyond that, though, the Heat shot 57.7 percent and still lost to the Celtics. What that suggests is the Heat didn't play proper defense, and the numbers reflect that. The Celtics shot 51.7 percent from the field and hit 75 percent of their 3-pointers.  

This has been a trend for the Heat over their first seven games, and LeBron James addressed that problem head on.

"We've been playing like s-- defensively," James said, according to Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report.

James' point is clear in the statistics. As Skolnick pointed out, the Heat are rated 27th in opponent field-goal percentage and 22nd in points allowed, at 100.9 points per game. They were fourth and fifth in both categories last season, respectively.

"We're terrible on defense, and we have to change that," James said.

Their troubles on defense have led to uncharacteristic losses to the Philadelphia 76ers and Celtics, and those pitfalls have caused the Heat to recognize the error in their ways.

"Right now on defense, we're bad all the way around," Chris Bosh said. "We need to get better with our on-the-ball defense, with our help defense, points in the paint, rebounding, our principles, pick-and-roll, post line, all the way around. We're better than this. We know we're better than this, and we have to put the effort into being better."


KOBE LOSES BET


Kobe Bryant is ultra-competitive, so much so that he made a bet with Louisville's Kevin Ware over who could return from injury the quickest.

Ware, speaking in an ESPN Conversation, said the coolest thing he experienced since suffering a broken leg was having Bryant reach out to him. And in their conversations, Ware revealed, the bet was hatched (via ProBasketballTalk).

Here was the deal: whichever player came back first would have the other attend his game.

Well, at this point, we know that Ware won the bet. Although Bryant hates to lose at anything, he made a good gesture that will go a long way with Ware. Both players suffered injuries with the world watching and later endured major scrutiny in their rehab.

But while Ware is on the road back, Bryant, who suffered an Achilles injury last April, still hasn't returned to the Lakers and has no timetable to do so.

Contributors: DeAntae Prince, The Associated Press, Jason O. Boyd