By GREGG PATTON, The Press-Enterprise

SALT LAKE CITY -- Forgive an entire region of Los Angeles Lakers fans if they're holding their lower back feeling sympathy pains today. The Lakers' postseason may be hanging on Kobe Bryant's aching lumbar. Ouch! That probably hurts some people just thinking about it. Expect hourly updates between now and Wednesday's Game 5 with Utah.

LOS ANGELES -- So what happens if the Los Angeles Lakers ever lose a game? Does the bubble burst, and this purple-and-gold fantasy end, and doubt start to creep in? And just what kind of question is that, because the Lakers and their adoring legions still don't have to contemplate such negativity. Not yet, anyway.

LOS ANGELES -- Another team, another game, another double-digit win and the Los Angeles Lakers are on their way. That might be how it looks through a pretty purple-and-gold prism, but not so fast there, Skippy. The Utah Jazz are not the Denver Nuggets.

LOS ANGELES -- The law of college basketball percentages just caught up to UCLA. Coach Ben Howland, who beat the odds and took his past three Bruins teams to the Final Four, may have to do it the hard way if he gets there next year -- starting over. Howland, like most coaches, has a firm, controlling grip over virtually every aspect of his program. Except one.

It was a comment made in passing, and no doubt sincere. Just a bit overly enthusiastic. O. J. Mayo -- once the country's most sought-after high school player who chose to play his college basketball at historically mediocre Southern Cal -- liked to say that winning an NCAA championship was a reachable goal.

LOS ANGELES -- Jack Nicholson was so animated, jumping up and gesturing at the officials from his courtside seat, you wanted to check the calendar. What was this, a Memorial Day weekend game -- something deep into the postseason?

Roger Clemens will be regarded as a trendsetter. No, not the kind of trendsetter who ignores time-honored legal strategy and talks his way deeper and deeper into trouble. We're talking about the kind of guy who decides that when you can't give it your all as an athlete anymore, maybe you can give half.

You don't have to know where a restrictor plate goes -- let's see, underneath? -- to know which big-time rivalry in recent years has helped make NASCAR go round. And round and round.

LOS ANGELES -- They showed pre-game highlights of the Lakers' new championship-caliber catalyst, Pau Gasol, to the Staples Center crowd, and people all the way up to the skyscraper seats roared. At Gasol's first LA introduction Tuesday night, giddy fans stood and exploded again, giving him a Kobe Bryant-style reception. Hungry or something, folks?

LOS ANGELES -- Ugh. UCLA has some work to do. The sixth-ranked Bruins may have beaten USC Sunday night in their Pacific-10 Conference rematch, but it wasn't one to frame.