Basketball Championships

They embody the NBA's fusion of hip-hop and pick and roll, oozing of swagger, boasting of athleticism and as the unofficial titleholders of the team with the most body art. These Denver Nuggets are star-studded and expensive, carrying one of the league's highest payrolls. They scratched and clawed their way to the playoffs, finally curling their fingers around the Western Conference's eighth spot and earning a first-round matchup against the Lakers.

Twenty-three times Sunday, the Utah Jazz left Kobe Bryant wide open. Twenty-three times, the bumping, bruising Utah Jazz stood still and just let him shoot. Twenty-one times, Kobe Bryant scored. Twenty-one times, he jabbed a 10-foot sword into a puffed-out chest. And basketball folks still have the nerve to call it a free throw? Not here. Not Sunday. Not Kobe. The final score in the first game of the Western Conference semifinals was 109-98, but the bottom line was the foul line.

Staff writer Mike Bresnahan ties up some loose ends before Lakers playoff games. Q&A of the day Question: I "click" on the Times every morning before anything else and mumble a little prayer. Then say hello to my wife. I have to ask the local padre to light a candle for the Lakers to remember defense. -- John H. Answer: You might want to request three or four candles. Carlos Boozer was that good in Game 3. Worst-case Lakers scenario The decibel level somehow rises higher than in Game 3.

The Lakers are three-point road underdogs for today's Game 4 against Utah in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals. In Game 3, the Jazz was favored by five points and won, 104-99, for a betting push (no winner), giving the Lakers nine consecutive games without a point-spread defeat. The last time the Lakers failed to cover a point line was April 11, when they were five-point favorites over New Orleans and won, 107-104.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Lakers can be physical, too, though it cost them in Game 4. Ronny Turiaf was ejected because of a flagrant foul after sending Ronnie Price crashing to the court on a drive by the Utah guard with 10:07 to go in the second quarter. Price suffered a cut above the right eye that required four stitches. The league will automatically review the foul, and a suspension for Game 5 is possible, though not likely, for Turiaf. Turiaf's exit left the Lakers short-handed at center.

SAN ANTONIO -- Left reeling from two frustrating Western Conference finals games, San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili started performing as he had done throughout the regular season by wheeling and dealing. He scored eight points in the second half. Not much of a footnote as the Spurs had already pulled away by then in Sunday's Game 3. It was the first half in which Ginobili, who has taken on a bigger scoring load for the Spurs this season, did his real damage.

By the time the Lakers tipped off against San Antonio on Thursday night for Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, they were listed as 7 1/2 -point favorites. It turned out to be a sizable point spread that attracted plenty of support for the Spurs, who needed a victory to stay alive in the best-of-seven series.

The titles were easier to win than the rings. Frank Ramsey was a Hall of Fame forward on the Boston Celtics in the 1950s and '60s, an era when Bill Russell ruled in the paint and the Celtics won 11 NBA titles in 13 years. Ramsey played on seven Celtics title teams -- he got only one championship ring. "There wasn't enough money to buy them," he said. For most of this period, the Celtics gave out rings only to players winning their first championship.

The tradition has been well-documented, from Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, but who's going to guard whom in the latest version of Lakers vs. Celtics? The teams start the NBA Finals on Thursday, but there was still a bit of uncertainty, perhaps even coyness, on the Lakers' behalf as far as matchups. Derek Fisher will guard second-year point guard Rajon Rondo and Kobe Bryant will start out on Ray Allen, but the frontcourt is somewhat unsettled.

With the start of the NBA Finals approaching, the chance to rub elbows with history isn't being lost among the Boston Celtics. "Two nights ago, before I went to sleep, it crept into my mind a little bit and I started thinking about the atmosphere, about what exactly this whole thing meant and I couldn't sleep," Ray Allen said. "If you think about it too much, then you're going to just sit up and think about it and your thoughts are going to take over your body."