Tipsheet is disappointed. The much-hyped LeBron James-Kobe Bryant showdown won’t occur. Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic ruined all that by beating LeBron’s Cavaliers rather decisively.

So we’ll get to see a Stan Van Gundy-Phil Jackson coaching showdown instead. We’ll see the Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum battle Howard in the paint.

Here is what the pundits have been writing about the NBA playoffs:

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “I’m not saying NBA and ABC were shamelessly rooting for a LeBron-Kobe matchup, but I think I saw league and network executives holding a voodoo ceremony in front of the arena Saturday, sacrificing goats and chickens and placing the blood around Van Gundy’s parking space. The Magic were supposed to bow down and kiss LeBron’s Nikes. They were supposed to wear those ‘Witness’ T-shirts under their game jerseys. They were supposed to put on a decent show like some club fighter facing the heavyweight champ and then take a dive on some phantom punch midway through the match.”

Mike Lupica, New York Daily News: “It would have been nice to see LeBron and Kobe give the NBA what Bird vs. Magic gave us in college hoops 30 years ago. But losing LeBron doesn’t change one of the great months pro hoops has ever seen. These have been nights of pro basketball that even the refs couldn’t ruin, no matter how hard they keep trying in some of those fourth quarters they tried to make longer than long baseball games.”

Charley Rosen, FoxSports.com: “Clearly, the Cavs believed all of the hype that surrounded them throughout the regular season. As a result, they became unbearably arrogant — as demonstrated by their unseemly bench celebrations over dunks, shot blocks, and blowouts. While the media praised these antics as proof of the team’s ‘togetherness,’ the players were actually showing their disdain for their opponents and proving that they didn’t really understand what a difficult and serious task laid ahead of them.”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “If you concede that (Shaquille) O’Neal is a lock for induction, the Lakers have not won an NBA title without a Hall of Fame center. One could even argue that (George) Mikan, (Wilt) Chamberlain, (Kareem) Abdul-Jabbar and O’Neal are on the Mt. Rushmore of NBA centers. You’d have to dynamite Bill Russell’s visage into that mountainside, too, even if he’d refuse to pose. Can the Lakers win a title without a major force camped on the low block? Can they do it with Andrew Bynum (playoff averages: 17 minutes, 6.3 points. 3.6 rebounds)? That’s Kobe Bryant’s great quest, and if he does it, his legacy.”

Chris Sheridan, ESPN.com: “The Lakers have plenty of big men in their rotation along with several spare parts at the end of their bench who all have six fouls to use, so Superman can expect to get battered and bruised by not only the likes of Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol but probably also Josh Powell and D.J. Mbenga, if that’s the speed-bump-filled route Lakers coach Phil Jackson chooses to use to neutralize Orlando’s most powerful interior force.”

MAKING FUN OF THE TNT COVERAGE

If you watched a lot of hoops, you will probably like this:

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering Khalil Greene will ever play for the Cards again:

• Will anybody spend more than $900 million to buy the NFL’s 28th-ranked franchise?
• Who will become the next Albert Pujols in major league baseball?
• When will folks become more careful with their Facebook exchanges?
• How could the Cavaliers let this guy down?
• What’s more fun than stumping a Spelling Bee champion with Coach K’s surname?
  

SERENA WILLIAMS CARES NOT FOR CHEATERS

So when French Open foe Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez didn’t concede that she “earned” a point by “returning” a Williams shot with her arm, Serena went off.

“I didn’t think the ball touched her. The ball did touch her 100 percent on her arm,” Williams told reporters. “The rules of tennis is when the ball hits your body, then it’s out of play. You lose a point automatically. So the ball hit her body, and therefore, she should have lost the point instead of cheating. I hit that ball rather hard. She knew that ball hit her.”

In the heat of battle, Williams sounded ready to take matters into her own hands.

“She better not come to the net again,” she said.

And . . .

“I’m going to get you in the locker room for that, you don’t know me.”

Is that a ladylike way to approach this?

“Well,” she said, “I am from Compton, so, you know . . .”

Later, Williams realized she made headlines with her antics.

“I’m, like, drama. And I don’t want to be drama,” Williams said. “I’m like one of those girls on a reality show that has all the drama, and everyone in the house hates them because no matter what they do, like, drama follows them. I don’t want to be that girl.”

BUSCH-LEAGUE BARB

Times are tough for Dale Earnhardt Jr. The Hendrick Motorsports driver is running back in the pack this season, which is no way to live up to his father’s phenomenal legacy.

Team owner Rick Hendrick canned Junior’s long-time crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., looking to create a fresh start. The Associated Press tells us this did not escape the attention of rival driver Kyle Busch.

“It’s never Junior. It’s always the crew chief,” Busch sniffed.

Junior shrugged off the jab. “He’s always had a chip on his shoulder for me,” Earnhardt said. “I expect any opportunity to throw a jab at me, he’ll do it. That’s just his personality.”

MEGAPHONE

“We did some good things. I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. If we bury a couple of more chances, it could be a different game. We didn’t. We are where we are. We’ve got to play for one game.”

Penguins winger Bill Guerin, the former Blue, on his team’s 0-2 hole in the Stanley Cup Finals.