Bulls

Phil Jackson never liked to compare Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan. Believe me, I tried everything. Sometimes I'd ask him after random Lakers practices or before games against Charlotte, the team Jordan owned. Or after games in Chicago, where nostalgia hopefully would add to the mix. There would be a little nugget here, a tiny nibble there, but nothing that mattered. It's coming out now, though, in Jackson's 339-page memoir co-written with Hugh Delehanty and available Tuesday: "Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and animal control officers were searching by air Thursday for four pit bulls believed to have mauled a woman to death earlier in the day in the Antelope Valley community of Littlerock. Hours after the attack, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the dogs' capture. The 63-year-old woman was out for her morning walk about 9 o'clock when she was mauled by the dogs. Her name has not been released.

In these troubled economic times, it's not hard to understand why people might want to protect their life savings by purchasing a hard asset like gold or silver. At least, that's the pitch of Monex, the big Newport Beach investment firm, which bills itself as "America's trusted name in precious metals investments" and assures clients that it's "committed to customer service. " So let's take a look at the experiences of some customers who say their trust in Monex was misplaced.

  NEW YORK - Another day, another milestone on Wall Street. The red-hot Dow Jones industrial average barreled past 15,000 to close Tuesday at its highest point in history. It marked the 16th record close for the blue-chip index this year and came just three months after it crossed 14,000 for the first time since the financial crisis. Bulls say the market could keep hitting new highs the rest of the year. They predict that investors who turned their backs on equities after being stung by crushing losses in 2008 will have no choice but to move into stocks to make up for lost time.

The price of the party palace that rapper Drake bought in Hidden Hills last month has yet to make its way into the public record. Listed at $16.9 million in 2009, it was most recently set at $8.65 million. Outside of its new owner, perhaps the striking feature of the nearly 3-acre property is the grotto-style swimming pool with back-lighted waterfalls and an 80-foot slide. Other outdoor amenities include a tennis court, stalls for five horses, a riding arena, a mechanic bull and a viewing pavilion.

In a recent letter to The Times, T. Downey of Glendale suggests a boycott of Tecate beer as a measure of our disgust and revulsion at the annual running of the "bulls" (calves) in that city. The barbarism and brutality of this event has been well-documented by the media. Downey's idea is a good one and may well be carried a step further by letting the mayor of Tecate know why we will no longer drink his city's cerveza. Address your protests to: Alcalde Cesar Moreno Martinez de Escobar, Tecate, Baja California, Mexico.

at Atlanta 118, Chicago 83: Jamal Crawford scored a season-high 29 points for the Hawks, who opened the second half with a 20-4 run. The Bulls have lost four games in a row and nine of 10. They trailed by as many as 30 points in the third quarter. Detroit 90, at Philadelphia 86: Rodney Stuckey scored 27 points and made the winning basket with 8.7 seconds left, sending the 76ers to their 11th consecutive loss. Allen Iverson scored 11 points for the 76ers and tied the score, 86-86, with 1:06 left.

MIAMI AT CHICAGO Saturday at 5 p.m. TV: NBA TV. In a welcome development, the attention the Heat gets now is for stuff that happens on the court, as opposed to conspiracy theories and dumb TV specials. This will be the fifth game of a five-game trip that began with Friday's win in Milwaukee and will take them to the West Coast and back... with the big question being whether anyone can beat them on the way. They're 20-1 since starting 9-8 when Coach Erik Spoelstra seemed to be dangling, including their Christmas rout of the Lakers.

The Chicago Bulls may be the top seed in the Eastern Conference, but their NBA title hopes took a serious hit when superstar Derrick Rose suffered a season-ending knee injury late in their 103-91 victory over Philadelphia in Game 1 of their opening-round series Saturday. Writers from around the Tribune Co. will discuss just how far the Bulls can make it without the defending league MVP. Check back throughout the day for their responses and join the conversation by voting in the poll and leaving a comment of your own. K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune The Bulls will lose to the Miami Heat in six games in the Eastern Conference finals.

Re "Pit Bull Kills Dog," July 12. As evidenced by two recent incidents in Canoga Park, neither innocent humans nor helpless pets are safe from pit bulls--not even in their own yards. While we still want to believe that "it is not the dog, just the owner," we must finally admit we are faced with an entirely different strain of dog now--one that is being inbred, abused and / or trained into a frenzied insanity. A few years ago an attack on a human by a pit bull was almost unheard of, but today [the dogs]

Eastern Conference semifinal No. 1 Miami vs. No. 5 Chicago Season series: Tied, 2-2. Key stat: Miami held Milwaukee to 85.3 points per game in its first-round sweep of the Bucks. Outlook: Chicago mucked things up for Miami in the regular season, ending the Heat's 27-game winning streak that fell only six games short of the NBA record. This isn't the regular season. This is the time of year when the Heat becomes unbearable, as evidenced by its romp over Milwaukee that was the closest thing the league had to a first-round bye. Miami is also enjoying the benefit of extra rest for Dwyane Wade's sore right knee, which kept him out of Game 4 against the Bucks.

This post has been corrected.  See the note at the bottom for details . Two young boys were in the hospital Tuesday after being attacked by a pit bull in San Bernardino County. Officials said the boys -- 1 and 2 years old -- were playing in the fenced backyard of family friends when the friends' family dog attacked. Both boys were rushed to the emergency room, officials said. The 8-year-old pit bull was quarantined and will be transferred to a humane facility, officials said.

When Patricia McCormick realized she didn't have a future in music, she chose a career as filled with drama, passion and death as any of the operas she longed to sing. She became a matadora, breaking long-standing barriers against women and Americans in machismo-saturated Mexican bullrings and performing before enthusiastic crowds in more than 300 fights. In 1963, Sports Illustrated wrote that McCormick "may well be the greatest woman bullfighter who ever lived. " Over more than 10 years, she was gored six times, once so brutally that a priest administered last rites over her mangled body.

A woman was mauled and killed by a pit bull Thursday night in Stockton. The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office got a call about the dog attacking the woman around 8 p.m. on North Lillian Avenue near East Fremont Street. They found the woman unresponsive in the driveway and said she had wounds on her body consistent with that of a dog attack. San Joaquin County investigators are still trying to determine who the victim is and whether she lived at the residence where they found her. Sgt. Tom Rees  told the Record in Stockton that there was "a lot of blood.

Wednesday morning, hours before the Bulls applied the brakes to the Heat's run at history, Chicago Coach Tom Thibodeau was asked if he had mentioned Miami's 27-game winning streak. "What streak?" Thibodeau said. Indeed, on a night in which the only Derrick Rose appearance came via a bobblehead doll and Joakim Noah, Richard Hamilton and Marco Belinelli also sat with injuries, the Bulls made history disappear. The second-longest winning streak in North American major professional sports league history is over thanks to a 101-97 victory that, out of nowhere, rekindled talk of a lengthy Bulls' postseason run. Heat, meet grit.

It took them long enough, but the Lakers finally made it to eighth place in the Western Conference. "Yippee," Kobe Bryant said. And they're two games over .500 for the first time this season. "We have to try to climb higher," Steve Nash said. No, the Lakers weren't giddy with delight after beating the Chicago Bulls, 90-81, Sunday at Staples Center, a game that was part mud run and part rock fight. The Lakers (33-31) were so low for so long that they'd take a victory any way they could, regardless of how pedestrian and uneventful (read: boring)

Danger is television's business. TV gives warm, slobbery bearhugs to thrills, conflict and action -- even when they're manufactured -- and it loves a good scare. Take the pre-fight "fight" between female pugilists Laila Ali and Christy Martin at a recent televised press conference to promote their Aug. 23 pay-per-view bout in Gulfport, Miss. What fury, what frenzy, what pandemonium, what wild swings by Martin, what hair-grabbing by Ali, who is Muhammad Ali's daughter.

Bulls 95 - Lakers 83 (end of regulation) With the game tied at 75, the Lakers were in position to close out on the road against a playoff team. Instead, the Bulls would go on 20-8 run to send the Lakers to their third straight loss, sixth in a row on the road. Kirk Hinrich was a major problem for the Lakers, scoring 22 points on 9-11 shooting with eight assists and seven rebounds. Marco Belinelli hit a pair of threes in the fourth, breaking the Lakers back. Belinelli finished with 15 points off the bench.

The Lakers (32-31) will face one of the best defensive teams in the league Sunday afternoon when the Chicago Bulls (35-27) visit Staples Center. The two met in Chicago on Jan. 21, with the Bulls dominating the fourth quarter, 26-14, to earn a 12-point victory. Kirk Hinrich had a huge game with 22 points on nine-for-11 shooting and eight assists. It's unclear whether Hinrich will be able to suit up Sunday as he struggles through a foot injury. Star guard Derrick Rose is trying to work his way back from a serious knee injury but isn't likely to play either.

When: 12:30 PST Where: Staples Center. On the air: TV: Channel 7; Radio: 710, 1330. Records: Lakers 32-31, Bulls 35-27. Record vs. Bulls: 0-1. Update: The Bulls did the Lakers a favor Friday by beating Utah, 89-88. A Lakers win today would move them ahead of the Jazz for eighth place in the West. Chicago beat the Lakers in January, 95-83, as Dwight Howard took only five shots, making two, and Kobe Bryant made only seven of 22 shots. Bulls guard Derrick Rose has begun practicing but hasn't returned after sustaining a torn ACL in his left knee last April.