Blazers 82, Clippers 80 - Portland blew a 14 point lead in Staples Center one night after blowing a 15 point lead on the very same court. This time they were playing the Clippers, so things worked out OK. Los Angeles managed a pathetic 29 points in the first half, but did make a noble effort in the second. Corey Maggette was hot with 32 points, but missed a big shot with eight ticks left.......

Clippers 97, Suns 90 - LA picked up their second win in the past 12 games and snapped a 4 game losing streak on the back of Sam Cassell, who scored 32 ... In their previous three meetings, Phoenix won by an average of 15 ... The Clippers are the lowest-scoring team in the NBA (92.6 points per game) while the Suns are the highest (110.3 ppg). Ducks 4, Stars 2 - Scott Niedermayer notched......

Suns 108, Clippers 88 - After getting pushed around by Laker's big man Andrew Bynum, Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire took his frustrations out on Clippers center Chris Kaman. Stoudemire had 30 points and 15 rebounds while limiting Kaman to just 9 points. Now lets all pause for a moment and appreciate that this is a picture of Clipper guard Dan Dickau doing, apparently, what he was born to do. Ducks 2, Oilers 1 - Doug Weight......

It's a rockin' Friday night in LA with Stevie, Van Halen, RZA, and R. Kelly in town, a XMAS Sweater Party at Crash Mansion featuring local indie up'n comers, and cow punk comes alive at Safari Sam's, with X side project (since 1982) The Knitters....

Lakers 127, Nuggets 99 - Phil Jackson signed a $24 million contract extension for two years. Two hours later, his Lakers ripped apart the Nuggets. Good day. Heck, even Sasha Vujacic had 22 points -- 19 in the 4th quarter. Luke Walton had 14 points in just 27 minutes. Both were career highs. The Lakers are 9-6 and have recently had some pretty impressive performances. Ducks 4, Flames 1 - After getting yanked in Vancouver,......

After stumbling out of the gate, your Los Angeles Kings have won 4 in a row, and suddenly find themselves back to .500 with a not-too embarrassing record of 6-6. A lot of credit for the recent surge goes to the solid play of goalie Jason LaBarbera. People in LA might not have noticed, but the good folks who run the NHL have, and consequently, today they named LaBarbera as the league’s #1 star......

Dodger 4, Orioles 2 - Zzzzzzz. Zzzzzz. Zzz ... snort ... huh? Oh. I just had the worst nightmare. I'm glad it was just a dream. Or was it? Ducks 5, Oilers 1 - One bad team deserves another. Los Angeles is still tied for last in the West, but can celebrate a commanding win over Edmonton. The Oilers have lost eight in a row and have scored just two goals in their past three......

USC 70, Washington State 61 - After loosing to the Cougars twice in league play, the Trojans avenged the regular season by beating Washington State in the Pac 10 Tournament semifinals. USC led most of the way, thanks in part to 24 of 33 shooting from the charity stripe compared to just 6 of 8 for the Cougs. The Trojan's tenacious D also held their opponent to 36.1 percent shooting. Oregon 81, Cal 63 -......

Timberwolves 101, Clippers 87 - Disappointing. That's the only word to describe this home loss. After a last-second victory in their last game, the Clippers should have been excited to move beyond .500 and into a better position in the playoff race. Instead, the team had a mere 12 assists and turned the ball over 26 times, resulting in 32 points for a Minnesota team that evened with Los Angeles for the 8th playoff seed......

Mavericks 114, Lakers 95 - Coming into the game, Dallas had won 18 of their last 19. The loss? Lakers. The revenge? Resounding. The Mavericks were up by as many as 28 and got double digit performances from six players. They did just about everything, including performing the national anthem before the game. Dallas is midway through the season and holds the best record in the league. They look to exact more revenge on Sunday......

Clippers 100, Hornets 90 - Sam Cassell came back from injury in a big way, scoring 10 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter to bury New Orleans (currently playing in Oklahoma City). The healthy Clippers took advantage of a not-so-healthy Hornets, who were missing three starters and were swept on their four game home stand. Oilers 2, Kings 1, OT - Los Angeles had an unexpected hero but Edmonton responded with one of......

Kings 7, Oilers 4 - You gotta' love a game where the boxscore looks more like the roster. The Kings layed a royal scoring blitz on Edmonton, scoring the final five goals in a game where no player scored more than once. Los Angeles will play in Calgary tomorrow and Detroit on New Years Eve before returning for a four game homestand to start the new year. Elsewhere - UCLA basketball remains undefeated after......

Lakers 132, Jazz 102 - A few years ago, it wouldn't be a big surprise to see the Lakers dump the Jazz and Kobe score more than 50 points. Back then, Kyra Sedgwick was Behind The Red Door. But this is 2006; Utah is in first place and Kobe has knee problems. None of that mattered tonight, as Kobe slammed the door on the Jazz by going 9-for-9 from the floor and 10-for-10 from......

Ducks 3, Oilers 2, OT - Anaheim captain Scott Niedermayer's 1,000th game was looking to be a bad night as the Ducks were down 2-0 in the second period, which thrilled the crowd in Edmonton who had come to boo the shit out of their former star Chris Pronger who helped them get one game from winning the cup last year before defecting to America. But after a power-play goal shot by Pronger and......

AP Photo by Jae C. Hong Probably the main reason for the Ducks being eliminated from last season's NHL playoffs was the tower of power on the Edmonton defense named Chris Pronger. So, in the spirit of not being able to lick something, so you join something or other, the Ducks traded for him this off season. Pronger, when combined with Scott Niedermayer, gives the Ducks the best one-two punch on defense that the......

At long last, the NHL is back! After a marathon negotiating session, the NHL finally agreed to a collective bargaining agreement with the players union. While we know hockey isn't the most popular sport, LAist is thrilled. We still remember the feeling in this city when the Kings reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1993. The whole city was buzzing with hockey. The Kings were sold out for the whole season. Times have changed......