Is Nate Robinson’s performance as a diminutive, dynamic scoring inferno of a backup point guard driving up the stock of the Wolves own Jose Juan Barea?

Recent comments on the redundancy in the Wolves lineup by Flip Saunders could give one the inclination he hopes so. Luke Ridnour and Barea certainly fit that redundant description — as do Derrick Williams, Kevin Love and to a lesser extent, Dante Cunningham — but Ridnour and Barea’s redundancies are of position rather than role, as Luke facilitates with a steady hand while Barea is a destroyer of a team’s rhythm, be it his opponent’s or his own.

The point of that tortured explanation is simply that Barea, Ridnour, Williams and Brandon Roy are currently on the books for 4.3, 4.6, 5 and 5.3 million next year. With Roy’s contract being a potentially valuable and waivable team-option and Ridnour’s also set to expire after next season, there are movable parts with value that could add up to a nicely paid, and hopefully skilled, shooting guard.

Barea’s change-of-pace role may be benefitting from a higher profile thanks to Robinson, but his contract also runs two more years at over $9 million. That, folks, is a Kahn-tract.

Nate Robinson was spitting blood in the first half, then delivered the deepest cuts of the night in the final moments. And the Chicago Bulls reminded the Miami Heat that no one in the NBA plays them any tougher.

Robinson scored 27 points, Jimmy Butler added 21 points and a career-high-tying 14 rebounds, and the Bulls beat Miami 93-86 on Monday night in Game 1 of the teams’ Eastern Conference semifinal series. The team that snapped Miami’s 27-game winning streak in the regular season — the second-longest in NBA history — found a way to topple the champs again, this time ending a run of 12 straight Heat victories overall.

“I’ve played on some tough teams,” Robinson said. “But this one, there’s something a little different, something special about this group.”

“There’s no excuses,” said Spoelstra, whose team had not played in more than a week. “We’re not making any excuses for time off or anything else.”

If anyone could have made excuses, it was Robinson. He needed 10 stitches, five in his lip and five more inside his mouth, to close a nasty cut that came when he dove for a loose ball with James and struck his head on the court late in the first half.

And then not only did he play the whole second half, he scored 24 points in those 24 minutes, including the last seven points that finished the job for Chicago.

Mar. 24, 2013; Phoenix, AZ, USA: Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez celebrates a basket in the first half against the Phoenix Suns at the US Airways Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

If it seems like the least inspiring matchups are all out East, consider this: the Bulls won 4 games less than the Nets with a barrage of injuries close to as damaging as the Wolves sustained this year, and yet they still missed out on home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs by 4 games.

Joakim Noah is going to miss more time with his bad foot. The Plantar Fasciitis Fun Police has been reaping their share of games this year, but Noah and the Bulls were complete idiots and earlier this season gave him minimal rest instead of shutting him down — you know, cuz that franchise point guard is still out will his knee injury from last Spring. So why not have your top 2 guys healthy next year instead of possibly ruining one of them? Because this is the state of mind the Bulls are in and when you’re paying big bucks you win now. Or something.

Nets probable starting lineup:

PG Deron Williams

SG Joe Johnson

SF Gerald Wallace

PF Who Cares

C Mr. Roboto

The Nets shelled out 10 million freaking dollars to retain the services of Kris Humphries and then started Reggie Evans at power forward for a huge chunk of the season. Nevermind the anemic rebounding numbers of Lopez — they’re actually really good this year, for him — the fact you’d spend Andrei Kirilenko money on Hump and then have to ditch him for a journeyman  rebounding specialist — Evans is a rebounding “specialist” in the same way a can opener is a special can opening tool — it’s the Russian reality in Brooklyn. The possibility they could win this series and call their season a success is hilarious. The best team money could be wasted on. The last-second pull-up jumpers of Joe Johnson will carry this team as long as iso-Joe can pry the ball from Williams before he jacks up his own.

Iso-Joe did have one of the more impressive highlights of the year, though.

We’ll give him that.

Bulls probable starting lineup:

PG Kirk Hinrich

SG Jimmy Butler

SF Luol Deng

PF Carlos Boozer

C Taj Gibson

Given Derrick Rose’s absence from this lineup all season, you have to tip your hat to the Bulls and Thommy Thibodeau phor maximizing the production from spare parts, Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli, et al. The problem with the Bulls is where their money is going. Between Deng making 13 million (14 million next year), Boozer making 15 million (with 15 next year and 16 after that) and Gibson set for a raise from 2 to 7.5 and then 8 — what on Earth are the Bulls thinking letting Omer Asik walk? I like Deng and all, but Butler is proving to be quite the find in his 2nd year and should be resigned at a fraction — A FRACTION — of the price.

Maybe I’m being too hard on the Bulls with revisionist history, but the idea of a Noah, Gibson Asik frontline seems more palatable than a Boozer, Gibson, Nazr Mohammed frontline heading into battle against Lopez and Wallace.

Whatever, this series is going to be unwatchable for anyone not residing in Brooklyn. And even they will only be watching ironically.

Prediction: OMG, who cares? Brooklyn, I guess. In 7.