No one expected the Los Angeles Lakers to be in the position they are at the moment. That is to say no one except maybe the Lakers. The start to the 2007-2008 NBA season brought with it a legion of doubters and for good reason. The off season catalyzed an already uncertain situation between Kobe Bryant and management that culminated in Kobe demanding a trade. He also publicly lashed out at management by belittling poor defenseless 7 foot Andrew Bynum. Now things seemed to have worked out just fine as the Lakers are just five wins away from a trip to the Finals, where they will be commanding favorites no matter who the Eastern representative is. All the off season tumult eventually gave way to some shrewd moves by Mr. Mitch (hello Pau…goodbye Kwame!).

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

The Lakers look like they might be the best team in the NBA right now. They continue their playoff run this week. Both the Dodgers and Angels have been hot lately, and look to build off their recent success.

NBA

Lakers

• vs Utah, Wednesday, 7:30, TNT
• at Utah, Friday, 6:00, ESPN
• at Utah, Sunday, 12:30, ABC

The Lakers rolled over the Jazz 109-98 on Sunday in a game that dragged horribly near the end, with 24 fouls called in the 4^th quarter. The Jazz probably won’t go down that easily in the rest of the series, but the Lakers seem to be peaking right now and may be able to make it through the series without too many issues. Something to look out for is the Jazz’ success at home – they lost only four games at EnergySolutions Arena over the entire regular season, although Houston did win there once in the first round.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

The Western Conference Playoffs have thus far been hugely disappointing not unlike this years Final Four. Just like the Final Four, all the heads were talking about how it would be the greatest we’ve ever seen. Never before have we had four #1 seeds in the tourney since it had expanded to 64 teams. Both games were blowouts. The championship, however, told a different story with an overtime game that was truly riveting. The NBA has to be hoping for a similar turn of events in these Playoffs because so far its been pretty blase save for game one of Spurs Suns series.

It was supposed to be the best Playoffs ever, the most competitive to date. It has not been. Not even close. In fact last year’s playoffs were much better, at least up to this point. You had an upstart team in the Golden State Warriors take down the number one seed with the best record in the NBA, a 60 plus win team that boasted last years MVP. The Suns vs. Spurs series was one of the most exciting we’ve ever seen and that only went 6 games. It doesn’t look like we’ll get even one 7 game series in a first round that was supposed to give us at least two. Assuming the Western teams that are ahead all advance to the second round (can’t think of a safer bet), here are some things to look forward to in a potentially much better second round

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

The Lakers continue their march through the first round. Both baseball teams have put together good weeks and look to continue their success. We have one of our last chances to see a Los Angeles sports icon, Oscar de la Hoya, who has found himself an easy fight. Find out about all of this week’s big sporting events in L.A.

NBA

Lakers

• at Denver, Monday, 7:30, TNT
• vs Denver, Wednesday, time TBA, ESPN (if necessary)
• at Denver, Friday, time TBA, ESPN (if necessary)
• vs Denver, Sunday, time TBA, ABC (if necessary)

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

The Lakers begin the playoffs this week after a superb weekend showing. Also in the playoffs are the Ducks, who had a miserable week, falling into an 0-2 hole. The Dodgers and Angels both have a full slate of games against opponents they should beat.

NBA

Lakers

• vs. Sacramento, Tuesday, 7:30, FSW
• vs. Undetermined Playoff Opponent later in week

The Lakers wrapped up an extremely impressive week with victories over both New Orleans and San Antonio over the weekend. They currently hold the number one seed in the West and the tiebreaker over the Hornets, their nearest competition. The Tuesday game against Sacramento should be a tune-up for the postseason, which begins on Saturday. The Nuggets are the most likely opponent for the Lakers, though they could still face Dallas or Golden State. Both Denver and Golden State pose easy matchups for the Lakers, but Dallas would be a little tougher. Either way, the Lakers should make it through to the second round with no real problems.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

The Lakers have a couple of big games this weekend that could decide playoff seeding, while the Ducks have already reached the playoffs and begin their title defense on Thursday. Both the Dodgers and the Angels face their top rivals for division titles this week.

Lakers

• @ Portland, Tuesday, 7:00, KCAL
• @ Clippers, Thursday, 7:30, TNT
• vs. New Orleans, Friday, 7:30, FSW
• vs. San Antonio, Sunday, 12:30, ABC

The Lakers have only five games left in their season before the real work begins. These last few games are still important, however, because they will determine seeding in the extremely competitive Western Conference. Portland and the Clippers should be easy work for the powerhouse Lakers, but the Hornets and Spurs are the other top teams in the Conference. Beating either one would go far in helping the Lakers get the #1 seed, but neither game will be easy. Expect the Lakers to win one of the two games.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

Baseball was in full swing this weekend. Opening day, in America, was held yesterday in the nation’s capital where the Nationals faced the Atlanta Braves. President Bust threw out the first pitch in the new $611 million Nationals Park. It was a great first game that came down to the wire. The score was 2-2 in the bottom of the 9th, when third base man Ryan Zimmerman came to bat for the Nationals. The Braves pitchers retired 24 consecutive batters before Zimmerman hit a solo shot to win the game 3-2.

The Dodgers play their home opener today at 1pm against their long time rivals, the San Francisco Giants. They wrapped up their spring training on a high note, beating the Boston Red Sox, two out of three games this weekend. In first game was a win at Dodger Stadium. Chad Billingsly struck out seven batters and gave up only one run in five innings. The loss came at the Collesium, where over 115,000 fans came to see how the Dodgers played when they first came to Los Angeles 50 years ago. [ Read The Full Story -> ]

Kobe Bryant is leading the league in technical fouls this year with 15. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Here’s why. When you give the refs the evil eye stare down every time you miss a shot looking for a bail out foul even if no opposing player is within 5 feet, well, you can expect to get T’d up regularly. The real surprise is that he isn’t challenging what might be one of the most untouchable records in sports. Forget Joe DiMaggio hitting safely in 56 straight games. Forget Barry’s 73 home runs, which will probably be broken as soon as the next masking agent hits the market. Rasheed Wallace owns the NBA record for most technical fouls in one season. Wanna know how many times he pushed the wrong buttons with the zebras? Incredibly, Sheed set the record in 99-00 with 38 technical fouls only to break his own record the following year with 40. FORTY! Now that’s impressive. Basically, if Sheed made eye contact with a ref he was getting blown for a tech. The real head scratcher is why doesn’t Kobe get called more often? Here are a couple possible reasons…

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

The Bruins appeared in trouble when point guard Darren Collison fouled out for the first time this year, with 5:39 to play. Collison had only four points and four turnovers. UCLA led 41-20 at halftime, but Western Kentucky wouldn’t go away. The Hilltoppers began pressing, and the Bruins started to fall apart. They had 12 turnovers in the first 15 minutes of the second half and finished with 19, a season high. Kevin Love scored a career-high 29 points, had 14 rebounds and hit 10-of-14 shots from the floor. Without Love, the Bruins would be done.

Love had help from James Keefe, who scored 18 points and pulled 12 rebounds, both career highs. Russell Westbrook added 14 points and 11 rebounds. The Bruins nearly frittered away a 21-point halftime lead and hung on to defeat Western Kentucky 88-78. UCLA will play No. 3 seed Xavier on Saturday at 3:30 for a trip to its third consecutive Final Four. Louisville and North Carolina will also play for a spot in the Final Four on Saturday at 6. Tonight is Stanford versus Texas, and Michigan State versus Memphis.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

Los Angeles Lakers lost at Staples Center last night against Golden State. The Warriors blew a 26 point lead, but Stephen Jackson hit some dangerous shots from three point land. Kobe Bryant tried to counter with a couple clutch shots of his own, but the Warriors were too much in the end. Jackson finished with 31 as did Monte Ellis. Kobe dropped 36 but a poor first half proved to be too big a hole to climb out of. The Warriors scored 72 points in the first half, and retain the 8th seed in the playoffs with that victory. The Lakers can take revenge tonight on the Warriors home floor at 7:30 on KCAL channel 9.

The Dodgers lost against the National League Champion Colorado Rockies. Chad Billingsly had a rough game, giving up 8 hits and five runs. He is set to be 3rd in the Dodger pitching rotation, but neither he or Joe Torre were alarmed by his outing. Billingsley, has always relied on his fastball, and is trying to add the off-speed pitch to his repertoire. “I never really threw a changeup. I’m trying to learn it,” said Billingsly after the game. Meanwhile Brad Hawpe and Matt Holiday had two hits a piece and six RBI’s between them. The final score was 8-2.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

The Lakers closed out a four game road trip with two big wins, the first in Dallas on Tuesday, then in Utah last night. Their victories have put them in sole control of the top seed in the west, even though they lost the first two games of the trip to the number two and three seeded, Hornets and Rockets. It was a successful week, considering they lost Pau Gasol at the start of it. They held off some good teams and kept their position, with certain players stepping up. They got off to great starts in both wins, and managed hold on, though the games became close in the end.

Last night, Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 27 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. Odom had another great performance, 21 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists. Since Gasol’s bsence, he has risen his game to a more aggressive level, looking to score, and being focused on rebounding and finding his teammates. Vladamir Radmanovic and Sasha Vujacic have also shown their ability to threaten teams from beyond the arc. They both went 3-4 last night and are shooting threes at over 40%.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

The Lakers had a tough weekend, first with a loss to the Hornets on Friday. They lost more than just the game, Pau Gasol going out in the first quarter with a sprained ankle. He’ll most likely be out another two weeks. Chris Paul took advantage of the center lane with the absence of Gasol and a quality point guard. Paul scored 27 points and had 17 assists. Tyson Chandler pulled 20 rebounds and scored 14 points in front of his home town. Kobe Bryant 36 points but it was far from enough.

Sunday the Lakers traveled to Houston to try and stop the Rockets streak at 21, they were unsuccessful. Both teams had a record of 45-20 and were fighting for the number one seed in the west. Once again, the point guard killed the Lakers. Rafer Alston had a career high 31 points hitting eight three pointers. The Rockets played excellent defense, particularly Shane Battier on Kobe Bryant. He forced him to take tough shots, frustrating Bryant, making him increasingly selfish.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]