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No one said repeating as NBA champions would be a simple task for the Los Angeles Lakers, and the young Oklahoma City Thunder gave the men from Tinseltown all they could handle during a grueling, six-game, Western Conference first-round series. But, the Lakers finally managed to dispatch of the Thunder due to great defense, superior play by Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant, timely baskets by Shannon Brown, and of course a ...

Now that the first month of the National Basketball Association playoffs has kicked off, it's time to start paying closer attention to the cagers. The best athletes in the world still don't seem to be totally focused on the task at hand, which is the reason my enthusiasm for the hardwood has waned of late. I just refuse to believe you get 20-point swings if both teams are concentrating and such ...

It’s the equivalent of perplexing drama and craftiness the Los Angeles Lakers expose on a large population in Hollywood, among a postseason of uncertainty and unpredictability. At times, it’s really mind-blowing to figure out a ravishing franchise representing Hollywood, with its symbolic convention of inheriting multiple championship banners and assembling the deepest and most talented cast. For once, the up and down commodity plunged in a critical Game Six against the emerging ...

With the selection of Scott Brooks as the NBA’s Coach of the Year last week, what may be the greatest slight in the history of sports awards has carried on for another year. If the headline didn’t give it away, I am referring to the fact that Jerry Sloan has never been given the award as the best head coach in the NBA, an award determined by a group of sportswriters. If ...

Did the past addition of Allen Iverson ultimately dictate the "me first" attitude of the Denver Nuggets?  Although Iverson is long gone, did his demeanor leave a lasting legacy of selfishness and entitlement for his young teammates?  Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, and Kenyon Martin provide a powerful core for the often exciting Nuggets squad.  Chauncey Billups provides the class and killer instincts which each Western Conference contender needs, but does the leadership of one player ...

Bloody, bloody heck. After six games of wondering if this Los Angeles Lakers team is ever going to learn how to win the games that matter on the road, I can finally say, at the top of my lungs, "Good riddance, OKC!" For a few fleeting seconds, I thought Pau Gasol was going to be the goat for sending this heady best-of-seven NBA Western Conference Quarterfinal into a Game Seven. There are ...

I remember exactly where I was the last time a Wisconsin professional sports franchise won a championship.  I was 16 years old, sitting in my living room with my older brother, watching the Green Bay Packers hold on to defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. As I recall that magical night, the highlights of that game are like snapshots in my subconscious. There's Desmond Howard returning a kickoff return 99 ...

So it begins.  The King, LeBron James, is trying to expand his fiefdom beyond MVP status. The dreaded green monster, the Boston Celtics, once again stand in his way. He has surrounded himself with a giant of a man in Shaquille O'Neal and, of course, his serfs. But for the story of the king to gain significance, the king must suffer some type of mortal wound to rise against the ...

Kobe Bryant scored 32 points in the Lakers' 95-94 Game Six win over Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night, but it wasn't No. 24 that sealed the deal. It was Pau Gasol. With half a second left on the clock, Bryant missed what looked like a routine, dagger-delivering shot that we've all grown accustomed to seeing from the star. But, the 7'0" Gasol was there to put it ...

  As John Sterling (the voice of the New York Yankees) would put it if he were calling this game, the Lakers Win! Theeeee Lakers Win! Yes, the Lakers beat the Thunder in a Game Six thriller, 95-94 that was as thrilling and fun to watch as any game so far this playoff season (well, maybe that Game Four in the Miami-Boston series would rank up there for me personally, since I'm ...