Surgery

Dietrich Riley wore a Cheshire cat-like grin as he sat on a bench outside Morgan Center at UCLA. His expression was the polar opposite from the hangdog look he carried around spring football practice a year ago. Riley has dealt with the unknown. He had been rushed to a hospital after a head-first collision with California running back Isi Sofele during a 2011 game. To play football again, he needed neck surgery. And there were no guarantees. The kind of direct, point-A-to-point-B path that Riley employed on the field as a hard-hitting safety didn't help him off the field.

If ever there's a time for the Lakers to sweep a back-to-back set, it's now. Age and injuries could always be blamed, but inconsistency would be the biggest, saddest mark of a team that hasn't won on back-to-back days this season. "It's a good time to start," Kobe Bryant said Monday. The Lakers have never gone a whole season without sweeping a back-to-back series in their 64-year history. Even their worst team, the 1957-58 Minneapolis Lakers who finished 19-53, managed to nail a back-to-back.

Metta World Peace beat the forecast for his return by 30 days. So Lakers fans recognized his toughness or eagerness or recklessness or whatever it was with an ovation when he checked into Tuesday's game against New Orleans. Twelve days had passed since his surgery to remove torn cartilage in his left knee. Taking to the Internet, World Peace did his own research to determine the fastest anyone had returned from a similar procedure. "I heard about the surgery . . . I went online," he said.

SAN DIEGO - Kenley Jansen should be able to attend his newborn daughter's graduation and wedding ceremonies. No longer does the Dodgers' hard-throwing setup man have to worry that playing baseball could cost him his life. His heart now functions normally. Nearly six months ago, Jansen underwent a cardiac operation that scared him out of his usual laid-back persona. "It's finally fixed," Jansen, 25, said with a smile. Heading into the Dodgers' series opener against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on Tuesday, Jansen has pitched three times.

After his team's embarrassing finish to the 2012 season, USC Coach Lane Kiffin began spring practice determined to implement a more physical style to workouts. The switch has generally resulted in spirited, hard-hitting practices. But the approach comes with a cost. Kiffin announced Thursday that highly regarded freshman safety Su'a Cravens would have knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus Friday. Cravens, USA Today's 2012 defensive player of the year at Vista Murrieta High, had worked extensively with USC's first-team defense and appeared on track for a large role in the fall.

On Wednesday, Lakers forward Metta World Peace said his injured knee is doing "really well. " "I can't tell you how well it's doing, but it's good," World Peace said.  "Just wait and see. " The Lakers forward had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee Thursday. He injured it on March 25 at Golden State in a loss to the Warriors. "I was posting up in the second quarter and my foot kind of went out and the knee kind of went in," he said. "I fell back when I was trying to get post-up position.

Veteran Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell, who has been out all season, required a second surgery this week on his injured knee, according to his agent Mike Liut. The procedure was designed to clean up "some debris" in the knee, Luit said. Previously, Mitchell tried at least one round of platelet-rich plasma therapy.  Mitchell, a big piece of the Kings' run to the Stanley Cup, injured his knee during the lockout and had surgery to remove some cartilage. He reinjured the knee during his rehabilitation, pushing too hard too soon before training camp.

A San Diego area man died after what was supposed to be a routine procedure to remove two wisdom teeth, his family said. Marek Lapinski, 25, began coughing during the March 21 surgery in Temecula, according to medical records his family provided Fox 5 San Diego . Medical personnel administered propofol, his family told the television station, and Lapinski went into cardiac arrest. He was taken to an area hospital, where he died March 24, according to a website set up in his honor.

Louisville guard Kevin Ware received quite a get-well present from Coach Rick Pitino on Sunday night after awaking from successful surgery on his broken right leg. The Midwest Regional championship trophy. “He was groggy, in good spirits. He saw us win the trophy and was crying and said it was all worthwhile,” Pitino told the Associated Press. “We didn't cut down the net, but I left him the trophy.” Ware suffered the gruesome injury while defending a shot with 6:33 remaining in the first half of the Cardinals' eventual 85-63 victory in Indianapolis.

Consider this: The Kings might be able to enhance their roster with a valuable addition, just in time for the playoffs, and the defenseman would come with zero acquisition cost. Hello, Matt Greene. The Kings have been without the services of Greene this season with the exception of one game. Greene, who had back surgery in January, has resumed skating, and his projected return to the lineup is for late April, according to General Manager Dean Lombardi. Greene, who is not on this five-game trip with the Kings, skated for 15 minutes Thursday.