Houston Astros defeat LA Dodgers 4-1. The Dodgers return to National League play and promptly continue their offensive futility. With Juan Pierre on the disabled list for the first time in his nine-year career, the Dodgers called up Jason Repko from the minors hit lead off. He struck out four times. The rest of the team managed 11 hits but couldn't do anything with those hits. Meanwhile Eric Stults coming off of his complete......

Something funny happened after game four of the Western Conference Finals. After the Lakers escaped San Antonio for the three games to one series lead, for the very first time I truly believed the Lakers could actually win the NBA Championship. Despite their marvelous play throughout the regular season and postseason, the specter of Laker teams from the last three years hung over in my mind. At some point the Lakers would fold and......

Luke Walton Kissing the Black Mamba Kobe Bryant. AP/Mark J. Terrill I am a little confused right now. I don’t know whether to be concerned that the Lakers fell to a 20-point deficit in the third quarter of game one of the NBA Western Conference Finals against the reigning champions San Antonio Spurs. Or should I be confident that the Lakers can overcome any deficit like they did in game one to get the......

Lakers 103, Washington Wizards 91 - The game wasn’t as close as the final score indicates. The Lakers led by 22 at halftime, and led by as much as 25 points in the third quarter. Kobe Bryant, who outscored the Wizards in the first quarter 19-15, ended up with 30 points on 10-15 shooting with eight free throws. Vladamir Radmanovic, Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf rounded out the starters with double-figure scoring, and Sasha Vujacic......

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......

Lakers 103, Bulls 91 - Los Angeles spread the scoring around to down Chicago. Sasha Vujacic scored 19, Kobe Bryant had 18, and Lamar Odom had 17 (plus 16 rebounds). Raptors 80, Clippers 77 - As if the Clip Show wasn't missing enough performers, Cuttino Mobley was out sick. Both teams shot under 40% from the field. UCLA 77, Western Illinois 52 - In a breeze of a game, K-Love was 5-of-5 for 16 points.......

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,......

Disgruntled Laker fans, it’s time to come back home. I know a lot of you went astray in the frustrating aftermath of the Shaq/Kobe split, when there wasn’t enough money to keep their enormous egos on the same court. The Kobe vs. The World teams for a couple years provided some cheap thrills but didn’t win your heart. Then many of you had a little affair with the Clippers last spring, but you are forgiven......

Is anyone else concerned about the Lakers point guard situation? Sure, we were glad to see Chucky Atkins pack his bags, but we assumed another point guard would be taking his place. So far all the Lakers have done is sign Smush Parker. Now Smush Parker may be a fun player, and LAist thinks the second-year man from Fordham has a decent game, but when he's your best point guard you've got a problem.......

It might not be a stretch to say that no player has hurt the Lakers more than Gary Payton. As a point guard in Seattle, Payton always seemed to save his best games against LA. As the Lakers point guard, Payton played so poorly, he may have cost the Lakers a championships. Now even as an ex-Laker, Payton is wreaking havoc. After demanding a trade out of LA, Payton rescinded it, and now refuses......

The Clippers drafted arguably the best player in the NBA Draft yesterday, by selecting high school phenom Shaun Livingston. The 6-6 point guard has exceptional passing skills and could wind up being a mini-Magic Johnson. The Clippers could have gone with college point guard like Devin Harris of Wisconsin, who would have had a better 2004-05 season, but a veteran point guard could be just as effective for this year as the Clips wait......