Results tagged “kobebryant”

Tonight the entire fight world turns its attention to Las Vegas, the site of the highly anticipated fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. Last week, however, Pacquiao stood center stage in his adopted city of Los Angeles before a packed crowd of supporters at the Montalban Theater.

With the World Series upon us, college football reaching it's half-way point and an exciting NFL season heating up, you may not have realized that NBA is tipping off tonight. One guy who's definitely aware of this is J.E. Skeets, Yahoo! Sports NBA Blogger.

Bill Simmons is simply known by many as "The Sports Guy." But anyone who's ever read his columns on ESPN.com or heard an episode of his podcast, The B.S. Report, knows his interests extend far beyond the field. A Simmons column will take you from Kobe Bryant to Karate Kid, theories about Knicks' centers to jokes about late-night Cinemax starlets, Mike Dunleavy to Las Vegas travel tips.

I’ll admit it. I’ve been pretty down since the final out of the NLCS. I simply could not shake my visions of Joe Torre sadly sipping his Bigelow green tea, Matt Kemp listening to sad early 90s R&B love ballads (in my mind it's Toni Braxton) and Andre Ethier staring dejectedly out the window of his plane back to Arizona.

Daniel Tosh, who told us he'd prefer the title of "The Most Famous Man in Show Business Who Doesn't Have to Work" over "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business," took some time out from his busy schedule to talk to LAist about his similarity to Jesus, rubber-band ball statistics, his pitch for Michael Richards, the Internet's impact on comedy and telling Kobe Bryant jokes in front of Jerry Buss.

CoCo's doing a nice job taking advantage of his new couch's proximity to our city's best and brighest. Dodgers skipper Joe Torre appeared early in the week, and last night he brought on the NBA Finals MVP for two segments. Part two appears after the jump...

LA Lakers defeat Orlando Magic 100-75. This certainly was not what I had in mind coming into this NBA Finals. The Lakers were led by Kobe Bryant scoring 40 points and getting eight rebounds and eight assists. This was the first time Kobe has scored 40 or more in the NBA Finals in his career. The game started out with both teams feeling each other out in the first quarter. The Magic took a five point lead at the end of the quarter. But in the second quarter despite surprisingly good play by Jameer Nelson, the Lakers started to pull away taking a 10 point lead into the half.

Laker's guard Derek Fisher has been suspended by the NBA for Friday's game 3 against the Houston Rockets at Houston. He bodychecked Rockets forward Luis Scola in the waning minutes of the third quarter that was a ruled a flagrant-two foul resulting in an ejection. Kobe Bryant's elbow to Ron Artest in the fourth quarter was upgraded to a flagrant-one foul and will not result in any suspension.

Late night radio isn't typically where you'll find an energetic sportstalker -- much less one who would easily reference Brett Favre's retirement to the ‘80s movie “Can’t Buy Me Love.” ESPN radio host Jason Smith does that five nights a week (Sunday through Thursday.) Heard locally on 710AM, from 10:00 at night to 2:00, All Night with Jason Smith is high quality radio at an hour where most station's broadcast as though their audience is half-dead.

This was another statement game for the Lakers, and the Lakers answered.

Elie Seckback of NBA FanHouse knows how to celebrate the Festival of Lights. He turned his camera on several athletes and entertainers, all who want to wish you a-- Happy Hanukkah!

LA Lakers defeat Portland Trail Blazers 96-76. Um wow. If that's what the Lakers will look like all season, I might have underestimated them. For years the words "Lakers" and "defense" couldn't be said in the same sentence without a snicker, but seeing the beat down they handed to Blazers just changed all of that. Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 23 points while ex-Bruin Trevor Ariza notched a surprising 11. The word of the night was indeed defense with the Lakers holding the Blazers down to 34.5% shooting. Playing in his first NBA after rehabbing his knee last season, Greg Oden left the game in the first half after injuring his right foot. Oden went scoreless in 12:51.

As we mentioned earlier today, Los Angeles native Baron Davis is headed home and he's bringing his beard and 21 points per game with him. The former Crossroads School and UCLA standout came to a verbal agreement with the LA's other team, making the Clippers suddenly relevant and a playoff contender. Baron credits the community for his decision telling ESPN, "I'm happy with where I'm going. A big reason is because of the impact and the things that I can do going forward. I knew I could have done them here and created all kinds of good things and positive things in the community, and ultimately, me going home helps me make an impact on young kids." Elton Brand, who opted out Monday is expected to re-sign with the Clips for a hometown discount. Baron and Brand! Clipper Nation hasn't been this excited since the Red, White and Blue marched all the way into the second round of the playoffs in 2006.

Shaq is on the attack again.

Something funny happened after game four of the Western Conference Finals. After the Lakers escaped San Antonio for the three games to one series lead, for the very first time I truly believed the Lakers could actually win the NBA Championship.

I am a little confused right now.

Arizona Diamondbacks (16-6) defeat LA Dodgers (9-13) 6-4. The good news: the Dodgers scored more than one run. The bad news: the Dodgers still lost. Chad Billingsley (0-4) started off shakily but eventually struck out six of eight consecutive batters. Jeff Kent and Joe Torre were ejected from the game in the top of the ninth for arguing a blown call in the eighth inning when second base umpire Andy Fletcher said Kent was off the base when trying to record an out at second.

Kobe Jumps Over an Aston Martin.

Dallas Stars defeat Anaheim Ducks 4-0. 11 penalties by the Ducks, excellent penalty killing by the Stars. That's the story of the game. The Stars score all four goals during the power play, and the Ducks just couldn't get anything going. The Ducks only had 23 shots-on-goal compared to the 37 by the Stars. This was not the way the Ducks wanted to start their defense of the Stanley Cup.

Lakers 108, Mavs 104, OT - The Laker's season just keeps getting sweeter. This time, it was all Kobe Bryant -- who managed to score even when triple-teamed. End result? 52 points, including 22 in the 4th quarter and 8 in OT. It was the first game between the refurbished Laker's (Pau Gasol had 17 points and 14 rebounds) and the refurbished Mavs (Jason Kidd had 15 points and 11 assists).

Celtics 104, Clippers 76 - The NBA's top team won last night in the Staples Center, and it wasn't the Lakers.

Lakers 122, Hawks 93 - Atlanta had a bad draw. They were coming into a pumped-up Staples Center that hadn't seen the Lakers play a home game in weeks. They were coming in against a team rejuvenated by Pau Gasol. They were coming in against a Kobe Bryant with something to prove. Before halftime, the Lakers had a 41 point lead.

While all the local teams have Valentines Day off, some news just broke that Laker fans aren't going to love.

Will Leitch, Deadspin editor, New York Times contributor, and author is in Los Angeles today presenting and signing copies of his new book God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It Back) at Book Soup. LAist caught up with Leitch on his drive into Los Angeles from Phoenix, where he had spent a week covering the Super Bowl for both Deadspin and The Times.

Lakers 103, Washington Wizards 91 - The game wasn’t as close as the final score indicates. The Lakers led by 22 at halftime, and led by as much as 25 points in the third quarter. Kobe Bryant, who outscored the Wizards in the first quarter 19-15, ended up with 30 points on 10-15 shooting with eight free throws. Vladamir Radmanovic, Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf rounded out the starters with double-figure scoring, and Sasha Vujacic came off the bench with 12 points (contract year anyone?).

It would have been a much prettier victory had the Lakers played the New York Knicks at home three weeks ago. Today’s Knicks are hardly the bruisers of yesteryear, and it often appears as though Isiah Thomas rates coaching his team a distant third priority behind office poon and gourmet popcorn. But these last few weeks have been tough on the Lakers, with Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza out for 8 weeks each, resulting in a steady slip from #1 in the western conference to three and a half games back after losing 4 of their last 5, making last night’s contest a little tougher than it should have been.

Dude, strange things are afoot in Lakerland. Last night, en route to the Lakers beating the Nuggets 116-99, Kobe Bryant passed the ball. He made shit happen. And then, postgame, with a smile on his face, Kobe spoke in approving terms about his team, citing the fullness of their “passion bucket”. WHO IS THIS MAN?

You can halt production on that purple and gold 2008 NBA Champions afghan you’ve been crocheting so diligently -- Lakers center Andrew Bynum is going to be out for the next 8 weeks. Bynum suffered a dislocated kneecap and a bone bruise courtesy of Lamar Odom’s big ass foot during the Laker’s victory over Memphis on Sunday. The good news is that the injury will not require surgery and the 20 year old big man is expected to recover fully.

Lakers 112, Pacers 96 - The purple and gold have won six of seven and 12 of their last 15 games. Against Indiana, several players had big nights. All five starters hit double-digits in scoring, including 26 from Kobe Bryant, 23 from Andrew Bynum, and 22 from Derek Fisher. The Pacers are 0-9 against the Lakers in Staples Center.

Photo by Ryan Jesena in his Photo Essay of Burning Man 2007