Kobe and the Lakers fly to their first win. AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian LA Lakers defeat Portland Trail Blazers 96-76. Um wow. If that's what the Lakers will look like all season, I might have underestimated them. For years the words "Lakers" and "defense" couldn't be said in the same sentence without a snicker, but seeing the beat down they handed to Blazers just changed all of that. Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 23......

It would have been a much prettier victory had the Lakers played the New York Knicks at home three weeks ago. Today’s Knicks are hardly the bruisers of yesteryear, and it often appears as though Isiah Thomas rates coaching his team a distant third priority behind office poon and gourmet popcorn. But these last few weeks have been tough on the Lakers, with Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza out for 8 weeks each, resulting in......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers......

Knicks 102, Clippers 90 - Each team had five players score in double digits with just four other players adding 16 points to the game. The Clippers dominated the first half, leading by as many as 12 and going into the locker room up by 10. Something pretty inspirational must have happened at intermission, because New York scored the first ten points to even it up, then went on to win by 12. What did......

Current Record: 24-23, 3rd Pacific, T-7th West Last Week: The Clippers showed further signs of life, with a solid home performance over the Bulls, one of the stronger East teams, and a good win against the pathetic Celtics in Boston for their seventh victory in eight tries. However, Toronto torched the Clips defense for a season-worst 122 points, showing that the team still hasn’t quite learned how to bring a consistent effort every game.......

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. Austinist is......