California Sports Fan Blog

This Wednesday night on June 16th Strikeforce will have a special fight card in Los Angeles. It will be a 6 fight special attraction on Showtime starting at 11pm eastern. The main event is a battle between Robbie Lawler vs Renato “Babalu” Sobral. This fight while be a classic striker vs. grappler match. This will be a good match but I can see Lawler getting the advantage in the stand up and ending the match by TKO in the second round.

In the co-main event its Marius Zaromskis vs. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos . This is going to be a great striking battle. Marius is a much better striker than Santos and a see him winning by TKO in the first round. In a the card is decent just because its a free card on a Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Lakers played more like they were trying to avoid a sweep rather than complete one.

The Lakers stormed out to a 22-point lead in the first half, then withstood a brief surge by Utah in the third quarter before regaining control in the fourth and winning 111-96 on Monday night, sweeping the second-round series and advancing to the Western Conference finals for the third straight year.

Pau Gasol added 33 points and 14 rebounds for the Lakers, who are off until hosting the Phoenix Suns next Monday in Game 1 of the West finals.

The Lakers quickly ended Utah’s hopes of extending the series by dominating the second quarter both offensively and defensively, holding Utah to just 17 points in the period. Utah’s push in the third made it at least competitive and exciting for a little while, but the Jazz couldn’t sustain the comeback against the defending NBA champions.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

Kobe Bryant sometimes thinks the Los Angeles Lakers are an orchestra in need of a conductor. He picked up the baton in Game 5, driving the lane aggressively and defending Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook with zeal.

The result was a businesslike blowout that showed exactly what Bryant meant when he said the upstart Thunder had captured the mighty Lakers’ attention.
Pau Gasol had 25 points and 11 rebounds, Andrew Bynum added 21 points and the Lakers vigorously rebounded from back-to-back losses with a 111-87 victory over Oklahoma City on Tuesday night, taking a 3-2 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Gasol and Bynum followed Bryant’s no-nonsense lead, relentlessly scoring inside while giving up no easy buckets on the other end. Even Ron Artest shaved off his goofy blond dye job before playing another standout defensive game against Kevin Durant in support of Bryant, who volunteered to guard Westbrook.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

Throughout the season, the Lakers’ bench has been the target of criticism. But Wednesday, coach Phil Jackson was generally complimentary of how his reserves performed over the first two games of their first-round matchup against Oklahoma City.

“I have to give them credit,” he said. “They’ve held their own against the Oklahoma bench. We’ve really survived that well.”

Still, heading into Ford Center for Thursday’s Game 3, Jackson believes he’ll need better play from his bench players, starting with the most prominent member of the group. “I think Lamar [Odom] has to give us an imprint in the ballgame,” he said.

Through the first two games, Odom has scored a total of 11 points on only 13 attempts. Jackson believes Odom can have a far greater impact.

“It’s an understanding of what the game is. Opportunities are going to be in shots and little things like that and probably little pockets he finds to make penetration,” Jackson said. “He found a couple in the second half [of Game 2], or one for sure in the second half that looked like he had established the kind of game he plays.”

Click here to read the full article – By Brian Kamenetzky and Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com

Kobe Bryant had been waiting for a breakout game, the kind of high-scoring effort he’s made his reputation on. He got it just in time.

Playing with a broken finger, sore knee and bum ankle, Bryant scored 39 points, carrying the Lakers in the fourth quarter when they lost the lead three times, and Los Angeles beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 95-92 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference playoff series.

“What did Mark Twain say? Rumors of my demise or whatever,” said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who predicted before the game that Bryant would strongly return to form.
Bryant was 13 of 15 from the free throw line, but just 12 of 28 from the floor in front of his dad Joe, who sat next to the Lakers’ bench.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

Andrew Bynum leaned over, his hands on his knees, his chest heaving from his first minutes of game action in nearly a month.

Other than being out of breath, Bynum displayed little rust in teaming with Pau Gasol to dominate the middle in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 87-79 victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder in their playoff series opener Sunday.
Bynum ignited the Staples Center crowd with a monster one-handed dunk over a defenseless Nenad Krstic in the second quarter that pushed the Lakers’ lead to 17.
“It kind of got me going,” Bynum said. “It hyped the team up. That’s the kind of player I can be — exciting.”

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

Considering the Los Angeles Lakers’ only remaining goal in the regular season is to avoid adding more players to their lengthy injury list, their final home victory wasn’t much of a success

And while Jordan Farmar could be a problem with his strained hamstring, Pau Gasol is just grateful he didn’t turn into another.

Gasol had 28 points and eight rebounds, Shannon Brown scored 24 points and Kobe Bryant rested as the Lakers hung on for a 106-100 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night.
Sasha Vujacic scored 13 points for the Lakers, who lost six of nine before Gasol and the reserves pulled away in the second half of their sixth straight win over the Kings, their formerly fierce Pacific Division rivals.
Yet the Western Conference’s top playoff seed didn’t emerge unscathed from a meaningless game against the 14th-place team. Farmar, the backup guard who regularly plays key minutes, strained his left hamstring in the first half, and the Lakers don’t know the injury’s severity.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

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The top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers will take on their Staples Center co-tenant tonight, the Los Angeles Clippers, in a tuneup before the playoffs.

The Lakers haven’t been playing like a playoff team, however, having lost three of their last five games, but are coming off Tuesday’s 106-100 win versus the Sacramento Kings in Hollywood. With Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum sitting out the final games of the regular season for the Lakers, Pau Gasol stepped up with 28 points and Shannon Brown added 24 in the win.

Sasha Vujacic added 13 points for LA, which is slated to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs.

“We got the ball moving tonight, everybody got touches,” Brown said. “I am taking shots, what’s given to me. I’m just trying to get a nice rhythm for the playoffs.”

The Pacific Division-champion Lakers are 23-17 as the guest this season.

Click here to read the full article – By of http://www.sportsnetwork.com

The comparisons start simply enough: The kid is left-handed. And when Clayton Kershaw snaps off his curveball while wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform, his fate is sealed.
Kershaw is 22 and living with comparisons to Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.

“I’d rather just go and pitch,” says Kershaw, who concedes that he is both humbled and embarrassed by the references to the Dodgers legend from the 1950s and ’60s.

He will just go and pitch tonight at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park in the Dodgers’ second game of the season.

That he’s starting Game 2 is the source of different questions around the Dodgers, but not totally disconnected from the Koufax comparisons.

Kershaw has a similar response.

“I’m not worried about when I pitch,” he says. “I just want to get ready and do the best I can.”

Click here to read the full article – By Paul White of USA Today

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Ervin Santana will start the Angels’ third game of the season tonight against Minnesota, following Jered Weaver and Joe Saunders.

It’s a fitting trio of pitchers to open the season — all of them having been mentored in a way by departed ace John Lackey.

“It’s totally different (than a few years ago) when John had to lead three young guys,” said Weaver. “For me, Saunders and Santana, he set a tone. Now we all know what it’s like. We all know what a playoff atmosphere is like. There’s nobody holding anybody’s hands anymore.”

The Angels stuck with their first night batting order.

Jeff Mathis was behind the plate again, having earned the lead spot at catcher over slugger Mike Napoli with his defensive skills. It didn’t hurt that his first at-bat of the season was a home run Monday. He hit safely again Tuesday.

Click here to read the full article – By GREGG PATTON of The Press-Enterprise

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