LA Lakers defeat Washington Wizards 115-103. Perhaps meeting President Obama yesterday did the Lakers some good as they demolished the Wizards. Then again with the turmoil going on with the Wizards it shouldn’t have been that hard to beat them. But the Lakers came up struggling in the first quarter just taking a one-point lead after one quarter. The bench came in the second quarter and ratcheted up the defense holding the Wiz to 15 points while going up by 16 at the half. While the Lakers relaxed a little in the second half, the Wiz couldn’t dig out of the hole they dug themselves. Wizards forward Antawn Jamison led all scorers with 27 points while Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol both got 26 points with Gasol adding 10 rebounds. Shannon Brown energized the Lakers from the bench scoring 11 points and getting three steals. The Lakers, now 2-2 on this road trip, move on to Indianapolis tomorrow for a game against the Pacers. more ›

When we last left the Dodgers they had a lot of things to address for the playoffs. Manager Joe Torre had no idea who would start in St. Louis for game three of the National League Divisional Series nor who would start at second base. These two questions finally had some sort of closure today. The starter for game three will be Vicente Padilla while Chad Billingsley will start if there’s a game four in St. Louis. more ›

The Dodgers surely have a luxury item in infielder Ronnie Belliard. When he was traded by the Washington Nati(o)nals on August 30, I immediately thought he was this year’s Julio Lugo: an average player with experience but not much else. At Washington this season he had a .246 batting average and an OPS+ of 75 (100 being an average player). more ›

The Dodgers acquired infielder Ronnie Belliard from the Washington Nationals for right handed minor league pitcher Luis Garcia and a player to be named later. The 34-year old Bronx, NY native has a .246 batting average with five homers and 22 RBI in 86 games. Belliard started slow but in the month of August has posted a .361 average with five doubles and three homers. So there you have it: this year's Julio Lugo. more ›