Jimmy Bramlett

On Jan. 12, 2011, the Clippers upset the might Miami Heat 111-105 breaking the Heat’s 13-game road winning streak. The Clippers were an upstart team that lacked the experience to be taken seriously. Fast forward one year, there were questions as to how the Clippers would respond now that they have been anointed as contenders. It turned out the Clippers proved their mettle in their 95-89 overtime win over the Miami Heat.

In New Orleans the nation watched as the Saints performed an offensive clinic in the second half dispatching the Detroit Lions 45-28 in the wild card round of the NFL Playoffs. That offensive mojo obviously did not visit the STAPLES Center today with the Kings losing in regulation for the first time in the Darryl Sutter era 1-0 to the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets and the Clippers edged the Milwaukee Bucks 92-86.

Andrew Bynum was a player Kobe Bryant hated. Maybe it wasn’t a personal hatred, but before Pau Gasol came to Los Angeles it seemed that Kobe saw Bynum as the symbol of the Lakers’ front office incompetence after Shaquille O’Neal was traded. Bryant to this day still grouses about the fact that Smush Parker was a starting point guard for the Lakers.

With a new year comes the hope of having a clearer perspective in life. Unfortunately the only perspective I have to offer is about sports since that’s what my life revolves around now. Or at least it’s the only perspective I can afford to have, but really no one cares about what I can or can’t afford. Nevertheless the Lakers and Clippers are neither as good nor as bad as previously thought.

Never have preseason NBA games been this entertaining. A livelier Lakers team made things interesting as the Clippers swept the two preseason games with a 108-103 victory on the red-and-blue floor.

I’ve heard many adjectives used to describe new Kings’ head coach Darryl Sutter: intense, fiery, genius, disciplinarian, tyrant. But the one thing I didn’t expect from Sutter was to see someone unassuming.

One of the most surreal moments I’ve ever experienced was on May 1, 2006. The seventh-seed Lakers led the second-seed Phoenix Suns three games to one, just one game away from the second round of the playoffs. I was at the STAPLES Center watching Game 5 of the first round of the NBA Playoffs where the Clippers led by Corey Maggete’s and Cuttino Mobley’s 23 points each dismantled the Denver Nuggets marking their first playoff series win since leaving Buffalo in 1978. At that moment, the Clippers-Lakers series looked inevitable.

A little less than a week after the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers was vetoed by NBA commissioner David Stern, it looks like Paul will finally make it to Los Angeles. However instead of the Lakers, Paul will be joining Blake Griffin and the Clippers according to ESPN's Marc Stein.

When at first you don't succeed, try and try again. After the Chris Paul trade was infamously cancelled by NBA commissioner (and de facto New Orleans Hornets owner) David Stern involving Lamar Odom, the Lakers did manage to trade Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks. This time it looks like it will stick.

It was a sublime performance from Narbonne Gaucho’s running back Tray Boone. His 301 rushing yards and six touchdowns fuelled the Gauchos to a 48-32 victory over their Marine League foes Carson Colts in the CIF Los Angeles City Section Division I Championship Game.

Somewhere in between the time it took for me to park my car in Downtown Los Angeles at 6:00 p.m. and the seven-block walk to the STAPLES Center, the Lakers' Chris Paul trade has been called off.

USC Trojans defeat UCLA Bruins 50-0. So there you saw the Pac-12 South Champions get their asses handed to them by the team that ends the season in first place in the Pac-12 South. Thanks to the NCAA, that sentence is not only factual but completely logical. Go figure.