WGTB Talks

The New York Knicks on Thursday outlined the lucrative parameters of a five-year deal they’re prepared to give new No. 1 coaching target Mike D’Antoni, according to NBA coaching sources.

A rival proposal from the Chicago Bulls — the team many still favor to land D’Antoni — is expected by Sunday at the latest, sources said.

Although Knicks president Donnie Walsh, through a team spokesman, insisted Thursday night that the Knicks have not offered “anyone” a coaching contract, that might just be a technicality. Sources close to the process say D’Antoni, who celebrated his 57th birthday Thursday, has had advanced discussions with the Knicks about leaving the desert for Manhattan.

Rick Carlisle is still on the verge of becoming the next coach of the Dallas Mavericks.

Carlisle is the only candidate the team has interviewed since firing Avery Johnson last Wednesday. Negotiations turned serious over the weekend and have continued all week, but as of Wednesday night there were some points still not settled.

However, the most important point — Dallas wanting Carlisle and Carlisle wanting Dallas — seems to be done.

Before this year’s NBA playoffs began, most basketball experts predicted that the competition in the Western Conference was going to be brutal. Each of the top eight teams finished the regular season with at least 50 victories and only seven games separated No. 1 from No. 8.

But five games into the Lakers’ postseason run, they have made a joke out of their Western Conference competition. After completing an easy four-game sweep over the Denver Nuggets in the first round (covering the point spread in each game), the Lakers rolled to an 11-point victory over Utah in Game 1 on Sunday.

As expected, their dominance has been noticed by Las Vegas oddsmakers, who have made them 6 1/2 -point favorites for tonight’s Game 2.

Since a mini-slump late in the regular season, the Lakers are 9-2 against the spread over their last 11 games, including the playoffs. An impressive record for a team that has been favored for 18 of its last 19 games overall and often overcame inflated point spreads.

In recent years, the Lakers — 7-0 against the point spread in their last seven games against Western Conference opponents this season — have done well when they’ve been expected to win in the playoffs.

Over their last 12 postseason games when they’ve been favored by at least five points, the Lakers are 8-3-1 against the spread.

Regarded as the NBA’s best player for several years but never its most valuable, Bryant earned the honor at last on Tuesday after leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference.

Kobe Bryant had to say “finally” after he matched the longest wait in NBA history before winning a first MVP award.

He entered the season as the league’s two-time defending scoring champion. He had finished as high as third in the MVP voting twice — after the 2002-03 season, when he averaged 30 points for the first time, and last year when Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki won.

Mike D’Antoni’s strong interest in coaching the Chicago Bulls emerged last week. Now it’s being officially reciprocated.

NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com on Monday night that Bulls general manager John Paxson came away from two interviews with D’Antoni in Phoenix impressed and seriously interested in the coach who wants to leave the Suns in part because of a tense working relationship with Paxson’s good friend Steve Kerr.