men's pro basketball

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Lakers are back among the NBA's elite, competing in a Western Conference final just like the old days, and the old days before that, and the old days before that.But it feels like something is missing. Hmm, what could it be?Let's see, do they have an MVP in their midst? Check.

BOSTON -- After a grueling, emotional seven-game series -- two back-to-back, in fact -- the Boston Celtics could use a few days of rest before lacing them up for a matchup with the Detroit Pistons. No such luck.

BOSTON -- He has long been a curious player in Boston Celtics history; the great scorer whose fate it was to be on too many teams that went nowhere. The great player in the wrong era, as if it was his fate to forever play in too many games that didn't really count, too many games that slipped away into the mists of time. Until Sunday.

BOSTON -- Wednesday night was Game Five. Basketball dij` vu. It was just two weeks ago that the Boston Celtics had been in the same game with the upstart Atlanta Hawks, back when that series was inexplicably tied, 2-2, and the Celtics went into that game as if the sky was falling. So it was again on this night. Only it was different, too.

LOS ANGELES -- You kind of wondered if the Los Angeles Lakers would need an "I am Spartacus" moment Wednesday night. You know, like in the old movie.

I first reviewed Doug Collins' NBA work in May 1991, mentioning that he had a squeaky TV voice similar to that of Fred Savage, the adolescent hero on "The Wonder Years."I also mentioned that Collins, on TNT, was the best NBA analyst on television.

Winning on the road is not easy in basketball. Not in college, not in high school, not on someone else's playground. But winning on the road in the NBA playoffs has become like beating the IRS in an audit. So why is it so difficult when the court dimensions are the same and the baskets are still 10 feet off the floor?

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.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Yeah, about that Los Angeles Lakers' coronation. Hold off on the mailing of the invitations. Ease up on the presumptions of moving up and on. Chuck them all into the same heap with the brooms and the unearned arrogance.

From where Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was to where he is now must be an object lesson to the Denver Nuggets' Carmelo Anthony. None of Anthony's mishaps with the law or with society, nor any of teammate Allen Iverson's come to that, can compare to Bryant, now the Most Valuable Player in basketball.