WGTB Talks

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.

David West stumbled toward the sideline after hitting a fadeaway as he was fouled, then turned toward the bench and slapped the extended hand of Hornets coach Byron Scott.

It was an impromptu but fitting exchange between a player and coach who had plenty to celebrate on Tuesday night.

On the day Scott was named NBA coach of the year for the first time, he gave fans in New Orleans another first: an NBA playoff series victory.

The NBA has ruled that Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Kidd will not be suspended or fined for Game 5 in New Orleans after his hard takedown of Hornets guard Jannero Pargo in Game 4.

Jason Kidd, left, was ejected with 7:16 to play in Game 4 after yanking the Hornets’ Jannero Pargo down on a fast break.

Kidd was ejected with 7:16 to play in Dallas’ 97-84 Game 4 loss to New Orleans after yanking Pargo down on a fast break. Kidd was hit with a Type 2 flagrant foul, which results in an automatic ejection, but he was spared a one-game suspension Monday after the league office reviewed the play.

The league made a similar ruling last week by declining to suspend Washington’s Brendan Haywood after Haywood’s hard Game 2 foul on Cleveland’s LeBron James.