With All-Star festivities done, players return for playoff push

Trade deadline is Thursday and some big names could be involved.
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Time for Allen Iverson, Pat Riley, Steve Nash and the rest of the NBA to get back to work.
Jason Kidd, too, though even he wasn't sure how much longer he'll be doing it in New Jersey.
The show is over in Las Vegas, where the NBA capped its weekend of All-Star festivities with the West's victory over the East Sunday night.
Now it's time to get serious again.
"Being in Vegas, it's a great place to be, a great place to chill," Minnesota's Kevin Garnett said. "But it's out with the fantasy and back to reality."
Riley back on bench
That means trade talk for some teams, playoff pushes for others. It all gets started tonight when play resumes with 10 games. Riley returns to Miami's bench the following night, and the next big event on the league's calendar comes quickly after that.
The trade deadline is Thursday, with Pau Gasol and Kidd among the big names who will wait to see if they have a new destination.
Gasol has asked out of Memphis and the Grizzlies are trying to accommodate him, while Kidd, who missed the All-Star game because of a back injury, acknowledged during the break that teams have asked about getting him out of New Jersey.
In the East, landing one proven star could be all a team needs to seize control in a mediocre conference. Teams in the West could be looking to deal for a better chance to compete with powerful Dallas and Phoenix.
Denver hoped it had done that when it acquired Iverson from Philadelphia in December to pair with Carmelo Anthony, but the results haven't been there yet, mostly because the duo hasn't been on the court enough.
Anthony was serving his 15-game suspension when Iverson was acquired, and Iverson missed eight of the last nine games because of a sprained ankle.
Nuggets set to make move
So despite having two of the NBA's top five scorers, Denver is only seventh in the West, two games ahead of the ninth-place Clippers. But Anthony thinks the Nuggets are ready to make their move.
"Now that this is over with, I can focus on my season, the rest of the season," Anthony said after the All-Star game. "A.I. told me today he'd be ready to play [tonight], so that was a good sign."
Nash joined Iverson on the West bench because of a shoulder injury that forced him to miss the last four games, though he hopes to return tonight.
The Suns couldn't keep up their sizzling pace without their two-time MVP, losing three times to fall 41/2 games behind Dallas for the league's best record.
The Heat already know their big piece is ready.
Riley is set to take the coaching reins back from Ron Rothstein when Miami visits Houston Wednesday night.
He returns to a team that looks much different from the one he left Jan. 3 to have knee and hip surgery.
O'Neal back as force
Shaquille O'Neal has since come back and the Heat have won seven of their last eight games, rebounding from a horrendous start and moving into eighth place in the Eastern Conference. The defending NBA champions are only four games behind Washington in the Southeast Division.
"We wanted at the beginning of the year to come out of the blocks strong but it wasn't scripted that way," Dwyane Wade said. "So we have to take what we have and go into the second half of the season, and hopefully Jason Williams gets back healthy and we have all our guns and we have our coach back and just try to defend our title. It's going to be very tough and whatever happens, we can say we all did it together."
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