Los Angeles Lakers Basketball Team

Lamar Odom sat down, placed his Bible on a table and, with damp eyes, told the story of his summer. His infant son died while sleeping in a crib, a loss that has tugged at him since it happened in June. The autopsy report labeled it an "unremarkable" death, a seven-month-old's life snatched by sudden infant death syndrome, the latest in a line of losses traceable through Odom's years. Odom was in New York for the funeral of an aunt when Jayden Odom died.

Ready or not, Metta World Peace will return Saturday. It's been almost three weeks since his last game, and he's done a little of everything since then. Went on Conan O'Brien's talk show. Held a midnight movie party before a playoff game. Bought the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto fight for teammates. The big question: How will he do in Game 7 against the Denver Nuggets? "I feel pretty good," World Peace said. "Feel fresh. " He averaged 14.1 points in April and unleashed his most physically fiery play in three years with the Lakers -- a stirring dunk over Kevin Durant -- a few seconds before elbowing Oklahoma City guard James Harden in the head.

It was a day when he was lambasted on talk radio and the Internet, linked socially to Louis Farrakhan by a New York Post gossip columnist and threatened with fines by the NBA for not speaking publicly, and near the end of that day Shaquille O'Neal apologized. He said he was not a racist for his taunt of Houston center Yao Ming, said his relationship with the Nation of Islam leader was his business, and, simply by saying all of that, eased any pressure he might have felt from the NBA.

One of them finally showed up. The other re-emerged after continually flickering in and out. Together, Arron Afflalo and JaVale McGee helped the Denver Nuggets look formidable on a stage where they had been jittery and outclassed earlier in their first-round playoff series. McGee was more impressive than his Lakers counterpart for much of the Nuggets' 102-99 victory in Game 5 on Tuesday night at Staples Center, repeatedly dunking over Andrew Bynum on the way to 21 points on nine-for-12 shooting.

Everybody loves a winner, even during troubled economic times. The Lakers season-ticket holders renewed at a 99% rate for the upcoming season, an impressive percentage during robust financial periods, but much more so given the current slowdown. The Lakers were within two victories of winning an NBA championship last season, and their fans have followed, hoping for a continued uptick in the franchise's fortunes.

Kobe Bryant has said he wants to test the free-agent market this summer, maybe try life as a big Jordan in a small pond. Well, for the last five games, he has. With Shaquille O'Neal planted on the bench, Bryant has been the man, throwing up dozens of shots off hundreds of dribbles, jacking, jabbing, juking. And, oh yeah, losing. Which, in the last seven years, is what happens nearly half the time when Bryant plays and O'Neal doesn't.

Yeah, he said it. As a joke, Nick Van Exel insists. To get the guys laughing at a tough time. And he was misunderstood, he says now, not for the first, but for the worst and last time as a Laker. Van Exel said and did a lot of dead-serious things as a Laker, some wild, suspension-provoking things, and this is what he's going to be remembered for? "1-2-3 . . . Cancun!" It was a cold, cold time for the Lakers.

Deandre Hillman, 17, died in August of cardiac arrest. He died on an outdoor basketball court in Columbus, Ohio, two games into a hot night, while friends poured water over him. He was 6-foot-5, a varsity player at nearby Whitehall-Yearling High, with a chance to be very good. There was something else about Deandre Hillman. "He looked just like me," Laker forward Samaki Walker said Wednesday afternoon. Hillman was Walker's nephew, his brother's oldest child.

Old A.C. Green. Sitting like a dean. Watching the Lakers go far. Along came a bear, and sat on his hair. And everyone said, Dude, that's bizarre. * This is the story about the little green bear that sometimes sits atop the head of the Lakers' big power forward. Don't laugh. This is serious. He is an important figure. He represents an important ethic. He is about strength, endurance, respect. We're talking, of course, about the bear.

Laker Coach Phil Jackson underwent an angioplasty to unblock an artery in his heart Saturday, the day before a crucial Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals against the San Antonio Spurs. As the Lakers try for a fourth consecutive NBA championship, the procedure marks another turn in a tumultuous season that included the death of the team's legendary broadcaster, player injuries and inconsistency.

Those close-out games are apparently a little harder than Andrew Bynum expected. The only players that folded Tuesday were the Lakers, under the pressure of their own awful shooting until the final few minutes against the Denver Nuggets. The boos started early in the third quarter at Staples Center, receded with a late Lakers run, and were replaced by silence at the end of a 102-99 Nuggets victory in Game 5 of the first round. The Lakers must now make another trip to Denver for Game 6 on Thursday.

Who's folding now? A day after Andrew Bynum foolishly predicted that the Lakers' potential close-out game in their first-round series with the Denver Nuggets would be "kinda easy," he was kinda wrong. A day after Bynum claimed that the Nuggets would probably "fold," it was Bynum's team that wound up bent at the waist and taking the hard breaths of humiliation. Believe it and weep. Despite having a chance to finish off the Nuggets on Tuesday, the Lakers elected to keep playing by not playing, keeping the battle alive by falling asleep.

The Lakers' off-season, whenever it starts, becomes a little more intriguing whenever Ramon Sessions and Jordan Hill have strong games. They will probably be unrestricted free agents July 1. Their contributions are usually notable, though they each struggled Tuesday against the Denver Nuggets in Game 5 of the first round. Sessions, 26, becomes a free agent with a few strokes of a pen. He is expected to opt out of the final year of a contract that pays him $4.6 million next season.

It looks as if Kobe Bryant will return Friday in San Antonio. Will it be enough to keep the Lakers ahead of the Clippers for third place in the Western Conference? The Lakers (40-23) are half a game ahead of the unyielding Clippers, who won for the 13th time in 15 games by beating Denver on Wednesday, 104-98. The Clippers have won five consecutive games but finish with three of their last four on the road: at Phoenix, home against New Orleans, at New York and at Atlanta.

The Lakers couldn't possibly be thrilled with beating the injury-ravaged New Orleans Hornets, though Kobe Bryant was laughing afterward. He was relieved his three-for-21 shooting effort didn't cost his team a victory. The Lakers beat an NBA franchise Saturday, allegedly, their 88-85 victory reflected in the standings as such, though the Hornets were closer to Development League material. It made Bryant's woes much more obvious. He set a slew of personal marks with his inaccuracy but made the go-ahead three-pointer with 20.2 seconds left, surprising almost nobody at Staples Center.

Reactions from the Lakers and throughout the NBA that Magic Johnson's group is buying the Dodgers: Jerry Buss Lakers owner "Magic Johnson is probably the most beloved sports figure in Los Angeles history. In addition to being a phenomenal success on the court in leading the Lakers to five NBA championships, he has been a success in everything else he's become involved with, most notably his spectacular business career and also his educational campaign on behalf of HIV awareness.

Five years ago Thursday, Ron Artest was a part of one of the worst brawls in sports history when he and his Indiana Pacers teammates went into the stands during a game against the Detroit Pistons at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich. Five years later, on the anniversary of that unforgettable event, Artest was tracked down before the Lakers played the Chicago Bulls at Staples Center and asked what he recalled from that night. Artest maintained that he "didn't start any trouble" and that he should get some of his money back after being suspended for 73 games without pay. "I put it behind me immediately because I did nothing," Artest said.

Jerry West had been gone from the Lakers for a summer when Claire Kupchak told her husband, "You're becoming Jerry West." Mitch Kupchak considered that. On one hand, he was becoming Jerry West, only the best talent evaluator in the sport, only the man who helped build the Lakers of Showtime and then rebuilt them into the Lakers of Shaq and Kobe, and the man who over 14 years taught him how, and became a valued friend besides. Only Jerry West, is all.

Derek Fisher scraped the years off his age and left them strewn across the Staples Center court. He was 37 going on 25 for a few brief seconds Saturday, flying from the top of the three-point line to the sideline to track down a long rebound of his missed shot. He beat Denver speedster Ty Lawson to the ball, grabbed it as he hit the floor and called time out, an appropriate metaphor for the Lakers' 92-89 victory over the Nuggets. It keyed up his teammates and the crowd with 2 minutes 29 seconds to play, putting an exclamation point near the end of a game that belonged almost exclusively to Andrew Bynum, who had 29 points and 13 rebounds in his season debut.

Our Andrew Bynum interview is the first in a series of Q&As with prominent sports figures. The Q&A features will run every Monday. It's been three months since Lakers center Andrew Bynum delivered his infamous forearm shiver to the rib cage of diminutive Dallas Mavericks guard J.J. Barea, and stripped off his purple and gold jersey after being ejected. It was the parting shot by the defending champions in surrendering their NBA crown. The 23-year-old 7-footer apologized for his actions two days later.