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The Spaniard Pau Gasol is certainly not the LA Lakers’ most loved player by the fans, but once in a while, even those who wished the franchise had transferred the Spaniard during the preseason, have to be thankful for having him around. It was the last shot of overtime of an 88-87 win by the LA Lakers over the Boston Celtics. Paul Pierce shot would had given the Celtics a win, but the ball bounced off the rim. Still, the game was not over, there was little over a second left and Ray Allen had the ball in his hands. That’s when Gasol made that key last second block that gave the Lakers an important win on the road, and builds up a bit of momentum to face the New York Knicks.

Paul Gasol finished the night with 24 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Lakers at the Boston Garden. Shooting guard Kobe Bryant scored 27 points and 5 rebounds to improve the Lakers season record to 15-11. But Perhaps we should also focus on Andrew Bynum clever performance under the baskets. The Lakers big man finished the night with 16 points and 17 rebounds to put an end to a two-game skid.

This was certainly a though game for the Boston Celtics, because it really puts a hold to the good rhythm the Celtics had been building. Consider for a moment that the Boston Celtics had won their last 5 straight games and had won 9 of the last 10 matches, finally coming back from what had been a very under-par start this season. Usually the Boston Celtics’ big three are very fine shooters, capable of making the basket when they need it most. Then again, this wasn’t the case against the Lakers. Sure enough, Ray Allen finished with 22 points and Kevin Garnett had 12 points and 12 rebounds for Boston, but their aim was very off. Garnett was 6 for 23 from the field and Pierce was 7 for 18, including a clean-look jumper at the end of overtime.

So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the Celtics head coach, Doc Rivers was a bit disappointed with his team’s overall performance. “I thought this was an awful game,” said Rivers in the postgame press conference. “If we had won, it would have been an awful game that we won. Give them credit — a lot of that was defense. But I thought a lot of it was self-inflicted.” And it certainly was. There is no way to work around the numbers: 6 of 23 and 7 of 18 from the field are certainly not numbers worthy of players that are bound to end up in the hall of fame.

Still, it would be up to Paul Pierce to lead the Celtics’ effort last night. But even Pierce, the better Celtics, wasn’t at his finest. Pierce finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Those are great numbers. He was also the one who could have finished off the game. He had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation and again in overtime. The first shot he picked up his dribble and got trapped with Allen open in the corner. His second shot simply rimmed out. Stay tuned for more NBA action at betias.com

The NFL lockout has finally been lifted and the new collective bargaining agreement is already in place. Considering that the lockout began in March, this is certainly a relief for both players and owners and particularly for the fans, which ultimately don’t really care that much about who’s making more money, players or owners. The NFL is back. The NBA, on the other hand, is not quite making that sort of improvements on their negotiations. The NFL will only lose one of its preseason matches. Rumor has it, the NBA might face a shortened 50 game regular season at best. And that’s making some NBA stars a little uneasy. Rumor has it that players in the caliber of Kobe Bryant are not only getting multimillion dollar offers to play abroad; it seems that some of them are actually considering playing in Turkey, Spain, China and other destinations abroad.

The latest NBA star to joint this group of players who might migrate this fall is one Amare Stoudemire from the Ney York Knicks. Amare Stoudemire has been diversifying his portfolio, if you will. Not only is he beginning to make some ground from himself in the social nightlife among Manhattan’s elite but also now he is going to venture into the fashion world. For the summer he rented a house out in Los Angeles where he joined designer Rachel Roy. They have been working together and just recently unveiled their women’s clothing line to members of the fashion world. After the presentation, sports reporters quickly asked Stoudemire about his notions in regards to the lockout and if he was considering sticking around or going abroad.

Amare Stoudemire said that he’s seen a flood of international phone numbers come his way. “All the clubs have called the office inquiring about me,” Stoudemire said. “Teams from Israel, China, Turkey, Spain. A lot of countries have been calling.”

Players are currently locked out after the two sides failed to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement. The NBA has been under the lockout for almost a month now, and even though Stoudemire first said that he would stay in New York and that his loyalty went to the Knicks, things could change quickly if the lockout proves to be more permanent then what we first expected.

Amare is still reluctant to confirm his future. It is evident that he will only consider playing abroad if the situation in the NBA worsens and there is an eminent threat of having a very short season, or in a worst-case scenario, if there is no basketball at all. For what we know, Amare is still resting his back. His doctors and therapist have said that he should take complete rest for the next three weeks. Stoudemire said that while he can move and bend over fine, his back is still sore and it’s slowly healing.

Some New York Knicks are planning to join him in Southern California next month. Considering that players can’t enter the team facilities, he will be organizing his own training camp with some of his teammates. They are probably going to practice in a large university’s campus. Stoudemire is expecting about 10 of his teammates to join him next month for this trainning camp. He said that both Carmelo Anthony and Landry Jones will be down there getting ready for the regular season with him. Now we’ll only have to wait to see if Stoudemire will play that regular season in the NBA or abroad.

This is the best thing that has happened to the Chicago Bulls since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen closed off the deal to their second three-peat back in 1998. And just like it happened back in the Jordan Era, the Bulls are leaning into their franchise player and the league’s MVP to get the job done. The Bulls finished the season with a league high 62 win record, and not only had in Derrick Rose the league’s most valuable asset; it also seemed that they were having the proper ingredients for making their own the recipe that had made the Bulls so successful in the 90’s.

Derrick Rose had a very rough start in this game. He had three turnovers in the first five minutes and he wasn’t just been able to get his game together. But when the halftime break came in, Rose stood up to his teammates and apologized. He said he was going to make it right. Well, he did. Rose scored 28 points, Luol Deng made a magnificent job guarding LeBron James and holding him to only 15 points for the night and the Chicago Bulls sent the first blow in the Eastern Conference finals, pulling away in the fourth quarter to beat the Miami Heat 103-82 in Game 1 on Sunday night.

Despite the home team advantage and the fact that they had finished the season with the best record in the league, not many would have taken the Chicago Bulls as the favorite to win this Eastern Conference Finals series. The fact is that at first glance, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh seemed like a little too much of a squad to be solely handled by Derrick Rose. And they were right.

Perhaps what many fans and sports commentators alike were not really considering was that Rose could actually get some help from the supporting cast and that, more importantly, Chicago’s defense could find a way to slow down LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. And here is the trick. I really believe that if the Bulls can keep up diversifying their portfolio, that is pitching in from the bench and the starting squad, and not depending all their production solely on Rose, the Heat could actually end up going home a little too early for the season.

Take this important win. Not only did the Chicago Bulls punch first, truth is, they did this while Loul Deng became the man of the game. Deng not only kept James under the radar, he also scored 21 points, recorded 7 rebounds and 4 steals. What about the rest of the crew? Well, check it out: Carlos Boozer finished the night with 14 points and nine rebounds. Joakim Noah had 14 boards to help outrebound the Heat 45-33, that is including 19 on the offensive end while outscoring Miami 31-8 on second-chance points. As if that was not enough, Derrick Rose scored 28.

Chris Bosh led Miami with 30 points and nine rebounds, but nothing else came from him. Dwyane Wade scored 18 points, and 3 rebounds. James had 15 points. That’s it. If the Chicago Bulls want to win the series, they might very well start by taking down James. If he is kept under 15 points a night, history says his team has lost every time that has happened.

It got ugly: the Mavericks were brilliant; the Lakers were an embarrassment to the sport and the franchise. Let’s get this straight: the Mavericks bench alone managed to outplay the LA Lakers team in the first half of a crushing 122-86 with which the Dallas Mavericks swept the defending champions out of the Playoffs. It was a sad, very sad, and somewhat embarrassing day to be a Lakers fan. Not only did the Mavericks outplay the Lakers in any positive statistic, they also exposed the Lakers as a group of insecure and at times unprofessional players that really never bounded as a team. Those cheap shots by Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom where nothing short of embarrassing and quite simply proved that the Lakers are in deed, sore losers.

For Phil Jackson, considering what his Lakers did out there, this was also a disappointing departure. Don’t get me wrong, I do realize that he is the most successful coach the NBA has ever seen. And yes, he has more championship rings that he can wear on his fingers, but this is certainly not that way that Phil Jackson deserved to say goodbye to the sport. The 65-year-old legend leaves the NBA with the sour taste of receiving his first sweep in 21 postseasons, and loosing by the second biggest margin (36 points) in his career. Some detractors would say that he isn’t that great of a coach. He just happened to coach three of the most talented players the sport has seen: Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. But there is certainly much more to his success as a coach then what meets the eye.

The Lakers are now in a complicated position. Perhaps it’s going to be more complicated for the Lakers fans than for the organization itself. It’s time to regroup and find a new direction. Jackson is now officially done with the Lakers so not only do they need to figure out who is going to step in and succeed Jackson, but also figure out what’s going to happen this summer. The Lakers need to rebuild their team from its foundation. At this point it seems that every player except for Kobe Bryant could be wearing a different shirt next season.

The last time the Lakers championship reign came to an end, that is, back in 2003, the Lakers responded with adding two veterans and future hall of famers into the team. They brought in Karl Malone and Gary Payton. It wasn’t like bringing together an all-star player and the league’s MVP together (as it seems to be the cool thing to do these days) but it was enough of a change to get them into the NBA Finals on the following season.

What happens this time around is that there are no good prospects out in the market. All eyes are out on Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, and Derron Williams. They will not become free agents until next year, but, the Lakers have at least three players who could easily give them some leverage for very decent trade. The trick here is that there might be a tougher salary cap starting next year, after the new collective bargaining agreement settles in, and the Lakers already have a 88.5 million payroll next season. So it’s not looking good. Let’s face it: the Lakers need to find a talented player to trade in. They need younger talent, a guy who can really step up and take the place of the aging Kobe Bryant. Because there is one thing that very few Hollywood stars know how to do well: age well. The Lakers are not too suave at getting old. The Lakers have not learned how to grow old and that’s going to hurt them in the next few years.