Earl

CHICAGO - Pau Gasol's up-and-down season continued Monday. He's no longer a starter. Coach Mike D'Antoni said it was a "gut feeling" to put Earl Clark alongside Dwight Howard in the Lakers' starting lineup for Monday's game against the Chicago Bulls. Not to mention that Howard and Gasol haven't played well together on the court, D'Antoni said. A throw-in from Orlando in the Howard trade last August, Clark has been a revelation this month since entering the Lakers' rotation and then the starting lineup for four games.

With Pau Gasol on the verge of a return from his concussion, Coach Mike D'Antoni has to find a new role for Earl Clark. Clark (6'10") emerged as a regular contributor and complement to Dwight Howard through Gasol's five-game absence, averaging a double-double with 11.2 points and 10 rebounds. He shot 50% from the field, dished 3.4 assists a game while blocking 1.6 shots. D'Antoni praised Clark's ability to defend multiple positions, trusting him to guard the likes of high-scoring Monta Ellis of the Milwaukee Bucks and long-time all-star Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs.

Earl Clark went from scoring 14 points all season (before Wednesday) to starting for the Lakers and guarding Kevin Durant on Friday. The fourth-year forward got the nod from Lakers Coach Mike D'Antoni after Pau Gasol was not medically cleared to play against Oklahoma City. Gasol will miss his third game because of a concussion. The Lakers' next game after Oklahoma City is Sunday against Cleveland. Gasol will be reevaluated before then. Clark had 22 points and 13 rebounds in the Lakers' 108-105 loss Wednesday to San Antonio.

Neither Mike D'Antoni nor Mike Brown gave Earl Clark much of an opportunity to play this season. The young forward came over in the Dwight Howard trade over the summer; an extra body to make a complicated deal work. Before injuries sidelined Howard (shoulder), Pau Gasol (concussion) and Jordan Hill (hip), Clark played in just 10 games for a total of 36 minutes this season. That includes an appearance against the Denver Nuggets where he shot free throws for an injured Gasol, scoring two points in "zero" minutes.

With a bio that's often read like a tragic country song, the Texas singer-songwriter Steve Earle has pulled his act together in recent years and regained a lot of the footing he'd lost after starting out so promisingly a quarter-century ago as one of the most acclaimed young writers of his era. Earle is back to relying on his own pen in one of his strongest collections of songs, full of sharply etched observations on mortality, faith, the dirty side...

Spurs 108 - Lakers 105 (end of regulation) The Spurs gave the Lakers almost every opportunity in the fourth quarter, as the Lakers stormed back within three-points with 54 seconds left in the game. Manu Ginobili hit a three pointer 11 seconds later, which seemed like the dagger. Instead, Earl Clark, with his best game as a Laker (and as a pro) hit a three with 31.7 seconds left on the clock. Tony Parker then turned the ball over with 10.4 seconds left, giving the Lakers an opportunity to tie the game at 108, but Kobe Bryant missed a contested three-pointer.

SAN ANTONIO - A throw-in from the Dwight Howard trade finally threw his weight around. Earl Clark had his first good game with the Lakers and maybe the only memorable one of his four-year NBA career, setting personal bests with 22 points and 13 rebounds in a 108-105 loss Wednesday to the San Antonio Spurs. He was active and athletic, things the Lakers have missed throughout the season, and scored more points in one game than he had all season (14). It was only the second career double-double for the former Phoenix Suns lottery pick (14th overall, Louisville, 2009)

Potential breakouts in the pop music world for 2013? Times pop music staffers throw the spotlight on another member of the hip-hop collective Odd Future that gave us Frank Ocean this year, along with a trio of pop-rock singing siblings from the San Fernando Valley and a bubbling-under country singer whose profile got a strong boost in 2012 from pal Miranda Lambert. Odd Future member Earl Sweatshirt helped out Ocean on his breakthrough debut, “Channel Orange,” and has a new album of his own coming in the new year, while sisters Alana, Este and Danielle Haim are anticipating their debut surfacing in the spring.

In assembling a list of several of the saddest holiday songs ever recorded for Calendar, I preemptively noted that “We can't claim these are definitively the saddest, because there are so many more available to choose from.” Sure enough, readers quickly started citing their own depressive/dysfunctional/downcast holiday favorites that I hadn't singled out: Willie Nelson's “Pretty Paper,” Randy Newman's “Snow,” the Pogues' “Fairytale of...

Alan Kirschenbaum, 51, a television producer and comedy writer who worked on such shows as "Raising Hope," "My Name is Earl" and "Yes, Dear," which he co-created, was found dead Friday at his Burbank home. Early reports indicate he may have committed suicide, according to a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office. No other details were released. An autopsy is pending. CBS, where Kirschenbaum had a new show in production, said in a statement it was "stunned and devastated" by his death and called him "a gifted and successful" comedy writer and producer.