Lakers 123, Warriors 113 - We're still pretty sure this is a .500 team masquerading with an occasional good run, and now even their Phil Jackson is down on Kobe and Co. The Laker's coach told the media that a 50-win season is out of reach. His squad, however, responded by out-scoring the nation's hottest team on Sunday night. Kobe Bryant led the way with 28 and both Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum hit double......

Due to "human error" in tallying the votes, the crown that was placed on the head of Koreatown's Christina Silva, aka Miss Los Angeles, was placed on the head of Miss Barstow Raquel Beezley yesterday in Beverly Hills, and Breezley is now the winner in the all-important Miss California pageant. - AP Guess who's getting naked for Peta now? Film star Eva Mendez. And if her poster is any indication, she's really behind this......

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,......

Bruins 83, Colonials 60 - UCLA (ranked #1 by ESPN/USA Today and #2 by the AP) hammered George Washington at home and got a lot of players involved. Darren Collison returned from a pre-season knee injury to score 14 and Alfred Aboya had six points despite a broken bone under his eye. Three other players scored in double digits, including highly touted freshman Kevin Love who had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Kings 3, Sharks......

Phil Jackson, Tuesday - "We call this a 'Brokeback Mountain' game, because there's so much penetration and kickouts ... It was one of those games." Phil Jackson, Wednesday - "If I've offended any horses, Texans, cowboys or gays, I apologize." Lakers 93, Rockets 90 - The Lakers split their Texas two-step, taking down Houston after Tracy McGrady had to leave with an injured elbow. Kobe Bryant led the way with 30 points in a game......

- The Beastie Boys will play some mellow, intimate, laid back classy shows in support of their upcoming all-instrumental cd The Mix-Up (6/26). They will also do seven full on old school hip hop shows around the country and one of them is within an hour and a half drive of LA, up in the hills of Santa Barbara at the beautiful County Bowl (8/23) - Pitchfork - Frustrating 9-1-1 calls from King-Harbor showing......

Is Kobe on drugs? Should he be following Lindsay Lohan into rehab? We ask because after repeatedly talking to media outlets everywhere, and after telling Stephen A. Smith that the Lakers have lied to him and aren't interested in making the Lakers champs again any time soon, he just called into KLAC and took back everything saying that wants to stay. Claiming it's "his" team and that after a long, emotional talk with coach......

The crashing and burning relationship between Kobe Bryant and the Laker front office hit a new low this morning — Kobe asked to be traded. For a couple of days now, Kobe has talked to every media outlet that called him and said, basically, that he was told the Lakers were going to build a contender as fast as they could after Shaq was traded. Instead, he learns from Phil Jackson that the Lakers have......

"Do something and do it now. Personally for me, it’s beyond frustration — three years and still being at ground zero. This summer’s a big summer. We have to see what direction we want to take as an organization and make those steps and make them now." --Kobe Bryant Wednesday night Kobe Bryant is frustrated. He should be. When the Kobe/Shaq feud reached the point that one of them had to go three years ago......

Now that the Lakers have been eliminated from the playoffs after last night’s 119-110 loss to the Phoenix Suns, local sports writers weighed in this morning about where to place the blame. Times columnist J.A. Adande joins a growing number of people who are looking to coach Phil Jackson for some answers. Jackson is a Hall of Famer and is considered by many to be one of the best coaches in NBA history, but......

The Lakers head into a must win game tonight in Phoenix (7:30 on KCAL 9 or TNT) with many fans and pundits thinking this is more a nationally televised execution than a playoff game. Look at the reports from yesterday’s Laker practice and the same feeling seems to have washed over the team. Not to worry though Laker fans, you’ve got Phil Jackson’s amazing motivational tools: “I did tell them that they had the brainpower......

Despite all the talk about the Lakers’ newly revitalized motivation after reading about how the Phoenix Suns and their coach put them down in a book about last year’s playoff series, no one realistically expects the Lakers to beat the Suns in this year’s playoffs. Recent projections by four “NBA experts” printed in Sports Illustrated called Phoenix to win in either five or six games. Couple that with the Times reporting Lakers coach Phil......

There was a strange look in Kobe Bryant’s face during Friday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns: It was a look of defeat. Kobe seemed tired and listless, playing only 17 points in their 93-85 loss. We shouldn’t waste too much sympathy on a multi-millionaire, but it’s been hard not to feel for Kobe, who has been playing some of the best basketball of his career without getting any consistent help from the rest......

Phil Jackson has a gift for getting his teams to play well at the end of the season. In his 15 seasons as an NBA coach, the worst one of his teams has done in the last 10 games heading into the playoffs is 6-4. But that was before your 2006-07 Lakers. These Lakers are 2-4 in their last six, with four games left in the season. Sure, they could go 6-4 in those last......

Though the two teams were neck and neck most of the night, the Lakers ended up falling to the Denver Nuggets 111-105 Tuesday night. The game was especially important since both teams are jockeying for sixth place in the Western conference. This loss leaves the Lakers at 39-35 W-L and the Nuggets at 37-36 W-L. The game was fast and competitive all night and with the league’s two top scorers – Kobe Bryant and......

Gators 76, Bruins 66 - Florida spoiled UCLA's championship hopes a round earlier than last year. After a low scoring first half, the Gators opened up fast in the second. The Bruins couldn't maintain the pace and were barely averaging a point per minute well into the second. All American Arron Afflalo was scoreless in the first half and finished with 17. Afflalo fouled out, as did Lorenzo Mata and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.......

Illinois teens arrested in Hollywood Hills fire A wildfire that authorities say was ignited by two teenagers tore through the brush-covered hills surrounding the famous Hollywood sign Friday, putting a scare into the city but doing little damage other than coating the area in a thick blanket of smoke. Spears finalises divorce settlement with Federline Celebrity Web site TMZ.com quoted unnamed sources as saying that Federline, who has tried to launch a new career as......

Coming off of a five-game winning streak, the Lakers lost 88 to 86 to the Memphis Grizzlies - the worst team in the league- on Tuesday night. Kobe played poorly, missing his first two free throws of the game and scoring only 23 points overall. The score was tied with one minute to go, but a three-pointer from Memphis' Tarence Kinsey brought the Grizzlies back up and the Lakers never really recovered. At one......

Lakers 115, Warriors 113 - Kobe joked about having an "off-night" after scoring 43 against Golden State, the first time in five games that he failed to reach the 50 mark. The Lakers have won all five of those games to recover from a seven game losing streak that was the worst of Phil Jackson's career. Kobe also had nine rebounds in the winning effort, but contributed seven turnovers to the Laker's season high 24.......

Kobe has been amazing. The only guy who has scored 50+points in more consecutive games than Kobe is Wilt Chamberlain. It’s heady company, basically the answer to every NBA scoring trivia question is Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt did a lot of things that were amazing. But not only has Kobe scored 175 total points the last three times he stepped on the court, he’s done it efficiently. Most players who score that much take and miss......

Trojans 87, Longhorns 68 - USC earned hard court revenge against the school that ruined their bid for a third consecutive national championship on the gridiron. The Trojans trounced Texas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to advance to the sweet sixteen for the first time since their elite eight run in 2001. The upset means USC will play North Carolina this week. Lakers 109, Timberwolves 102 - Kobe almost stole the headlines......

Lakers 116, Blazers 111, OT - Maybe he's got a chip on his shoulder because he never played college ball and everybody's talking about March Madness. Maybe he's angry about all those NBA suspensions and the so-called witch hunt. Either way, Kobe was on fire with 65 points in the Laker's OT victory over Portland. The second highest point total in his career propelled Los Angeles to its first win in their last eight games......

Nuggets 113, Lakers 86 - When Phil Jackson went to bed on Wednesday, he was probably looking forward to the day ahead. Things were set up nicely for a home game with Lamar Odom and Luke Walton both returning from injuries. Then his alarm clock rang. Within a few hours, the NBA dished out $100,000 in fines for his comments about a Kobe "witchhunt" and the Lakers lost for the seventh time in a row.......

Dallas 108, Lakers 72 - The last time the Lakers lost at home this bad, "home" was Minneapolis. Things got so ugly that LAist writers were wondering if Smush Parker's ejection (after a second technical) might help the team. But with three players sidelined with injuries, the it turns out a streamlined roster wasn't much of a solution. Dallas rolled to its 17th win in a row and held Los Angeles to within two points......

It seems as if the Lakers are inventing new ways to lose of late. Last night’s double overtime loss to Minnesota included some beauties –- including failing to throw the ball in bounds to the open man, something successfully pulled off by junior high teams. Laker veteran Aaron McKie couldn’t see Brian Cook waiting for the ball with a wide-open shot to win the game. Then, on top of it all, Kobe has been suspended......

Maybe it’s time to call in a Shaman, or a voodoo priestess with a few live chickens, or go riding down a hill in a beat-up VW van with Hurley from Lost. The Lakers need to do something to break the curse that keeps raining injuries down on them the second half of this season. After two games where Lamar Odom finally started to look like the aggressive Odom the Lakers patiently have been......

Lakers 122, Celtics 96 - Oh what a relief it is! The Lakers snapped their six game slide against the woeful Boston Celtics. Kobe showed why he earned the All Star MVP award last weekend by scoring 22 points -- in the first quarter. Phil Jackson, who just suffered the longest loosing streak of his career, only played Kobe for 31 minutes so his 38 points, 9 assists, and 5 steals seemed nearly mundane. In......

The trading deadline came and went Thursday with the Lakers' brass deciding to play the hand dealt them. Which has the fan base frustrated. Loudly frustrated. Angrily frustrated. Not so much that youngster Andrew Bynum wasn’t traded for Jason Kidd -- people seemed split on that and you could make a good argument either way -- but rather that nothing happened to give a team that has lost six in a row a swift kick......

- Is LAX really trying to more than double the rent on several low-cost airlines? - Daily News - Speaking of LAX, SkyWest celebrated their 30th anniversary with the airport - Yahoo - Speaking of anniversaries, Little Ethiopia is preparing to celebrate Big Ethiopia's millennium - Nazret - Brandy is being sued by the sons of the woman who died in last year's car crash - AP - The LA Daily News takes a......

Trailblazers 112, Lakers 108 - When your best player wins the All Star MVP award and a guy from the bench scores 23, things should be clicking. Instead, the Lakers lost their sixth in a row. This is the longest loosing streak in Phil Jackson's career. When he joined the Lakers in 1999 there was a distant memory of a five game loosing streak with the Bulls. He added another five game streak last season.......