Kurt Helin

In the last 23 years, NBA playoff seven seeds have won four and lost 42 series of their first-round playoff series. Not good news for the seventh-seeded Lakers, who tip off against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday (noon on ABC). Still there is some hope -- last year in the playoffs against these Suns the Lakers took a 3-1 series lead (but eventually lost in seven games); and even during the recent Lakers slide some...

A few years back in the Kobe/Shaq championship era, during the obligatory "here are the celebrities in the stands" portion of any Lakers television broadcast, you'd get to a glimpse of Lou Gossett Jr. in and amongst your Jack and Denzel shots. Not so much lately. The reason -- he didn't pay for his seats. Which leads us to... the Lakers are suing Gossett for $40,000, the cost of two of those premium seats for...

They keep marketing it as a race, but the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach this weekend is far more party than race these days. Oh, there will be plenty of racing -- Champ Cars, the American Le Mans series, and you really need to check out the drifters. But if you've been to Long Beach for the race before, you know that it's really a people-watching party where there just happens to be cars...

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...

In a shocking move, Jerry Buss has sold the Los Angeles Lakers franchise to famed New York real estate tycoon Donald Trump, setting off a chain reaction of events within the organization. It had long been assumed Buss would leave the team to his children. However, he almost lost the Lakers to Phil Hellmuth in a late night, big money pot recently at the Mirage, but got bailed out with an inside straight on the...

While Kobe had an "off night" when he put up 43 against Golden State on Sunday, breaking his streak of games scoring 50 or more at four, he could return to his high scoring ways tonight against Memphis. The same Memphis he dropped 60 on last week. But is that a good thing? A few have questioned it, saying that Kobe's offensive dominance is stifling team growth, short-circuiting a return to the team play of...

Kobe has already made history in the last week, becoming only the second player ever in the NBA to score 50 or more points in four straight games. Not so coincidentally, those were four Laker wins. The way he's playing, there's no reason the streak can't reach six games. First up tonight is the Golden State Warriors (6:30 p.m. on Fox Sports) -- the team that plays at the fastest pace in the NBA. Under...

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...

While you were watching March Madness college games last weekend and thinking, "damn, I had Long Beach State in the sweet 16," NBA general managers and scouts were watching the games thinking, "damn, should I draft that guy?" The NCAA tournament is the ultimate smorgasbord for NBA scouts, a chance to see most of the top players playing against one another. So, among the local college crop, who should you be watching? Who do the...

Long Beach is ready to party -- their basketball team is the trendy bracket-buster pick to knock off Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA hoops Tournament. Long Beach students are pumped, ready for a big party at the Acapulco Inn. (Well, they'll party at the AI either way.) But we want to pass along a friendly note to Long Beach students: Regardless of what happens with the game, just remember that things could...