Hoop it up: Drivers who best sum up NBA playoffs

As the rain continued to pour at Texas Motor Speedway and the NBA playoffs rolled across television screens all across America on Sunday, idle thoughts tickled the brain.

What if, for instance, the top 16 Sprint Cup teams in the current point standings were basketball teams? Which NBA teams would they be?

The Zen Master and the pit boss.

Stupid? Maybe. Crazy? Perhaps. Pointless? Not necessarily. We're just looking to have a little fun here while the track finally dries up.

And look, when rain washes out a second consecutive day of racing at a track and all other pre-race subjects have been completely exhausted to the point of ad nauseam, why not?

So with no further ado, here are the drivers and their teams who made the best matches with the 16 NBA clubs presently battling it out in the playoffs:

Cleveland Cavaliers -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his No. 88 Chevrolet team. Hey, who else? The Cavaliers are led by LeBron James, whose nickname is The Chosen One -- but they have yet to win a championship. Need we say more?

Los Angeles Lakers -- Four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 Chevy team is the obvious choice. Until someone knocks off the defending champs, they're the favorites. And crew chief Chad Knaus is Phil Jackson-like atop the pit box.

Orlando Magic -- What? The Magic have Superman in center Dwight Howard and that's supposed to be Johnson's NASCAR nickname. But let's face it. The nickname hasn't really stuck, and the real Superman in Sprint Cup these days is Tony Stewart. The pole-sitter of (hopefully) Monday's Samsung Mobile 500 at TMS is doing it all these days as driver of the No. 14 Chevy and owner of Stewart-Haas Racing.

Dallas Mavericks -- This one is easy. Dallas star Dirk Nowitzki seems like he's been playing as long as Mark Martin has been driving (even though, actually, he hasn't). They might be the best two athletes in the nation at what they do who never have won a championship, and both sense that time to get it done is running out. (Continued)