Steve Blake

Below is a Q&A segment featuring Lakers guard Steve Blake, who's hosting basketball camps today through July 13 at Lake Oswego High School in Oregon and July 30-Aug.3 at Discovery Sports Center in Germantown, Md. This is the first part of an occasional series with Lakers players highlighting off-the-court questions. Favorite music: It all depends on the day and how I'm feeling. I have periods where I listen to regular rap, Jay-Z, Eminem and Lil Wayne. The next day I might have some Christian alternative music.

The Lakers' locker room was an inexplicably steamy 77 degrees an hour before their playoff game. Yeah, they felt the heat. They got pushed off the court by the San Antonio Spurs and almost surely will be ejected soon from the Western Conference playoffs after an 120-89 loss Friday at Staples Center. Fans booed in the second quarter, somehow sensing this could be the Lakers' worst home playoff loss ever. It was. No longer holding that title was a 106-77 loss to Portland in the 2000 Western Conference finals.

The moment Steve Blake's potential game-winning shot hit off the rim, various reactions ensued. Once the Lakers' 77-75 Game 2 loss Wednesday to the Oklahoma City Thunder became official, Kobe Bryant looked frustrated Metta World Peace didn't pass him the ball. Most other teammates walked off the court with a solemn expression. Andrew Bynum, for some reason, left with a smile on his face. But there was one particular reaction that struck Blake the most. It went beyond any disappointment for missing the final shot, lamenting the Lakers blowing a seven-point lead or assessing their chances of overcoming a 0-2 deficit.

The Lakers will have a most valuable player in their backcourt Friday. It won't be Kobe Bryant. It may not be Steve Nash. That could leave Andrew Goudelock, selected as MVP of the NBA's Development League on Thursday after a season's worth of memorable performances against such teams as the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and the Maine Red Claws. Next up for Goudelock: the San Antonio Spurs, in Game 3 of the Lakers' Western Conference first-round playoff series at Staples Center. A Lakers season that has included some surprising backcourt combinations - Bryant as a point guard, Nash as a hybrid shooting guard - could yield an even more unlikely union after another wave of injuries to Nash, Steve Blake and Jodie Meeks.

The humanity struck the Blake family through the simplest gestures. After writing to their sponsored child in Rwanda for the past three years, Lakers guard Steve Blake and his wife, Kristen, visited her in person. On their seven-day trip through Africa New Life Ministries , the Blakes saw everything. They witnessed poverty.  They saw the traces of genocide inflicted on this land 18 years ago. They sensed hope amid the destruction. They noticed how the Blakes' ties with sports, the Lakers, and their Christian faith cemented a bond with the community.

This is the ninth post in a series focusing on five things each Lakers player must do to have a successful 2012-13 season. 1. Steve Blake needs to help decrease the minutes played by Steve Nash. Whether he does it by finding a consistent shot, connecting with teammates or just securing a lead, Blake has to play solidly enough to ensure the 38-year-old Nash isn't playing heavy minutes. Of course, Lakers Coach Mike Brown will determine this. Regardless of Blake's performance, the Lakers will feature their new prized point guard when games are close.

This is the eighth in a series of posts grading the Lakers on the 2011-12 season. Player: Steve Blake How he performed: 5.2 points on 37.7% shooting in regular season; 6.3 points on 41.9% shooting in the playoffs. The good: At least for one round of the playoffs, Blake provided everything the Lakers always wanted from him. He nailed critical three-pointers at opportune moments. Blake sank three consecutive threes to open Game 1 against Denver.

Laker fans haven't just scratched their heads wondering if Steve Blake will ever become that consistent three-point shooter the Purple & Gold hoped he'd become. Through two seasons with the Lakers, Blake has experienced several odd mishaps that left him sidelined. Blake sat out for a week, including the first game of the 2011 NBA playoffs, when he suddenly contracted chicken pox from an unknown source. Last season, Blake also missed 13 games because of a rib injury that worsened after making an awkward twist during a regular-season contest.

The defenses continued scrambling. Denver couldn't leave Kobe Bryant open on the perimeter. After Pau Gasol set a solid pick that sent Danilo Gallinari flopping to the ground, the Nuggets couldn't leave the Lakers' forward open in the post. Yet there stood one man open behind the three-point line, ready to fire away. Once Gasol found him, Ramon Sessions drilled the open three-pointer, giving the Lakers' a three-point cushion with 48.1 seconds left. The defenses continued scrambling.

As he headed toward his truck barefoot in a Manhattan Beach parking lot, Lakers guard Steve Blake turned his head. Somebody called his name and Blake looked up. At that instant, Blake stepped on a spike strip that left a puncture in his left foot, an incident he described as an "unfortunate situation. " "When you step on something like that, it's pretty painful," Blake said. "All the blood made me realize something was wrong. It's unfortunate. You move past it and go from there.

Spurs 120, Lakers 89 (final) The San Antonio Spurs dominated the Lakers in Game 3 of their first-round playoff matchup to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series with a 120-89 victory on Friday night at Staples Center. The Lakers couldn't overcome injuries to Steve Nash (hamstring/hip), Steve Blake (hamstring), Jodie Meeks (high-ankle sprain) and Kobe Bryant (Achilles). The starting backcourt of Darius Morris (24 points) and Andrew Goudelock (20) was strong offensively but the Lakers had no answer on defense for San Antonio.

Lakers forward Metta World Peace took to Twitter to announce he had a cyst in his knee drained. "My knee is in really good shape," World Peace tweeted with a photo of himself holding a syringe filled with fluid. "The last two games this Bakers Cyst was tough to play with. Just drained it. Whoa!" World Peace underwent surgery on March 28 after a left knee injury (torn meniscus). He was originally expected to be out for a minimum of six weeks but returned just 12 days later.

Doc Rivers, the straight-shooting coach of the Celtics, has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for his criticism of the referees following Game 2 of Boston's playoff series against the New York Knicks, who have a 2-0 lead following an 87-71 victory Wednesday night. Rivers is candid in giving his responses to questions, and evidently league officials didn't like how he answered when asked about Celtics center Kevin Garnett's drawing two fouls in an 18-second span a little more than three minutes into the game.

The NBA Development League has selected Lakers guard Andrew Goudelock as the 2012-13 most valuable player. Goudelock averaged 21.4 points and 5.8 assists for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of Hidalgo, Texas. The 6-foot-3 guard also played for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. “Andrew truly had a standout season in the NBA D-League this year,” said Chris Alpert, vice president of basketball operations and player personnel for the league. “His tireless work ethic, dedication to development and impressive skill set were not only a huge asset for his team, but earned him an NBA D-League All-Star selection and a call-up to the NBA. I congratulate Andrew on his tremendous season this year, and on returning to the NBA with the Lakers.” The Lakers might call upon Goudelock to play a major role throughout the remainder of the postseason with starter Kobe Bryant out (Achilles' tendon)

The Lakers needed more than 33½ minutes from Dwight Howard in Game 2 of their series against the San Antonio Spurs. Howard committed his fourth personal foul with 8:37 left in the third quarter. The Lakers, down 11, lost their All-Star center for the remainder of the period with foul trouble. The Lakers have almost no margin for error. Without Howard dominating the game, their chances hover around slim and none. Five minutes into the fourth, with the Spurs up by 14, Howard collected his fifth penalty.

As the season began, so will it presumably end for the Lakers. The Lakers announced on Thursday that Steve Blake is out indefinitely after an ultrasound confirmed a moderate strain of his right hamstring. Steve Nash received two additional epidural injections in his back and a cortisone shot in his right hip and is considered doubtful for Game 3 against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday. Jodie Meeks is still scheduled to have an MRI on his sprained ankle and is also doubtful for Friday.

There's suddenly a common bond that has developed between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James: Both players disappeared in the fourth quarter of their respective Game 2 losses. Yet there's an obvious difference between the two. After missing his last five shots in the game, Bryant looked visibly upset that Metta World Peace ignored him and passed to an open Steve Blake, whose missed three-pointer allowed the Thunder to escape with a 77-75 Game 2 victory. A day after missing a pair of free throws in the final minutes of Miami's Game 2 loss to Indiana, James defended both World Peace's inbounds play and Blake shooting the open trey.

The moment Ramon Sessions hit the deck, Pau Gasol and Josh McRoberts rushed to pick him up. After all, Sessions has become the Lakers' most prized possession. The moment Sessions runs the offense, finds an open teammates or drives to the rack, the crowd at Staples Center gazes in amazement. No Laker fan has seen this kind of speed when Derek Fisher played point guard. The moment Sessions details the varying lengths he's crammed about the offense, the reporters around him remain astonished.

SAN ANTONIO - - Maybe Kobe Bryant should go back to tweeting during games. Maybe Metta World Peace should try harder to get in touch with the Dalai Lama. Maybe the Lakers' injuries will finally recede, because they're quickly running out of backcourt players. The sky continued to fall amid too many maybes Wednesday, the Lakers losing to the San Antonio Spurs, 102-91, in Game 2 of their first-round Western Conference series. BOX SCORE: Spurs 102, Lakers 91 Then they lined up in the trainer's room, seemingly one by one. Steve Blake will get an ultrasound exam Thursday after sustaining a strained right hamstring on a fourth-quarter drive.

Steve Nash participated in half-court five-on-five in practice with the Lakers on Friday, his first practice since being sidelined with hip and hamstring soreness during a brief appearance against the Milwaukee Bucks on March 30. The veteran guard said he's hopeful he'll be ready for Game 1 of the Lakers' first-round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs. "Mentally, I'm chomping at the bit. Physically, I'm getting there,”  Nash said. “I'm very optimistic that I'll play on Sunday.