TED SOBEL SPORTS AUDIO VAULT: Your Inside Access to TOUCHING GREATNESS

After a lackluster loss in their series opener, the Lakers came out and trailed New Orleans early again 20-11. But they looked a little more like back to back champions in the 2nd quarter surging to their own 12 pt. lead and went on to beat the Hornets 87-78 at Staples Center and even the first round series at a game apiece.

Kobe Bryant decided to play more defense on Chris Paul then worry about his own scoring and CP3 ended up with 20 points which was 13 less than he had in game one. While Kobe only made one bucket before halftime and finished with 11. But it was the points in the paint differential that was the big difference tonight with L.A. winning that battle by 18 led by Andrew Bynum’s 17 and 11 rebounds, while the newly named 6th man of the year in the NBA Lamar Odom stepped it up with 16 points and Ron Artest added 15. It was another off night for Pao Gasol making just 2 of 10 for 8 points and we talked after the game about how he needs to continue to be more aggressive and get easier shots down low. The Lakers practice tomorrow and then immediately fly to New Orleans for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday. The following are the principle Lakers postgame interviews…
Kobe Bryant with Ted Sobel:

Derek Fisher with Ted Sobel:

Lamar Odom with Ted Sobel:

Pao Gasol with Ted Sobel:

Shannon Brown with Ted Sobel:

As the late great Jack Buck once announced after calling Kirk Gibson’s historic World Series homerun, “I can’t believe what I just saw!” WoW, what a start for the L.A. Kings as in 2 goals in a 13 second span, less than 3 minutes into the hockey game and they went on to take a 4-0 un-catchable lead right? WRONG, Miracle on Manchester Breath! The Kings unthinkably allowed 5 goals in the 2nd period before giving up the embarrasing overtime game loser to Devin Setoguchi and suffered their worst loss in franchise history 6-5. And the crowd was extra noisy, not just due to the early hometeam lead but also the local payback for a rediculous newspaper story by a San Jose Mercury News columnist stating “the Sharks may struggle to pick up a victory on their trip south but it will have nothing to do with a smothering crowd atmosphere, unless you count the odor of some movie star’s perfume. And more of them go to Lakers games anyway. Staples Center is a jewel of an arena. Yet as hockey venues go … well, if HP Pavilion can be a Metallica concert when the puck drops, Staples is more of a Kenny G experience”.

Oh really???? Well Mr. G would’ve needed earplugs for most of this one until the Kings blew the lead of course, and then the crowd tried to get into it but it was never the same.

Kings Defenseman Willie Mitchell opened the scoring just 2:26 in and 13 seconds later his buddy Kyle Clifford also beat Sharks goalie Antii Niemi for a quick 2-0 lead while L.A. netminder Jonathon Quick was sitting back enjoying the action from his front crease seat. And the Kings closed out the first period with a great pass by Dustin Penner setting up Michael Handzus for a 3-0 start. And L.A. scored AGAIN at 0:44 secs. into the 2nd on a beautiful steal and individual effort for that 4-0 lead that blew up in So-Cal’s faces and it’s a loss that will never be forgotten around these parts-or around the entire NHL.

I hustled into both locker rooms after this historic event for your listening pleasure (or disgust if you’re a diehard Kings fan) so at least try to enjoy some of the principles involved.

Sharks RW Devin Setoguchi with Ted Sobel:

Sharks LW Ryane Clowe with Ted Sobel:

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick with Ted Sobel:

Kings RW Wayne Simmonds with Ted Sobel:

Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi with Ted Sobel:

Kings defenseman Matt Greene with Ted Sobel:

Kings Hall of Fame announcer Bob Miller with Ted Sobel:

Kings radio color commentator Darryl Evans (of ‘Miracle on Manchester fame’ with Ted Sobel:

TSN color analsyt (and ex-King) Ray Ferraro with Ted Sobel:

Who’d a thunk it that Marc and not Pao Gasol would be the brother to take game one of their Western Conference opener (Memphis at top seed San Antonio) and for Marc it was the first playoff win in Memphis Grizzlies history. Meanwhile big brother Pao was trying to (once again) peel the label of ‘soft’ off of himself against the much smaller New Orleans Hornets who held him to just 8 points on 2 of 9 shooting and 6 rebounds in a 109-100 stunner at Staples. And Chris Paul turned into CP3 the great again with 33 points, 14 assists and 7 rebounds helping roundout the first time since the current playoff seeding was in place (1983-84) that the top 2 seeds in a conference lost their first round home openers together. The Lakers sort of took over where they left off in the past few weeks with another lackluster performance but no stat stood out like the points in the paint number that little New Orleans dominated by 18 over the downtown L.A. skyscrapers who apparently never got their wake up calls for the early 12:30 start? The Hornets quickly jumped out to a 12-4 lead before the Lakers only go-ahead (10-0) run of the entire game wore out and N’Orleans took an 8 point advantage at the half. And that was when Kobe Bryant had a little collision with one of the big bucks courtside seats which made him woosy from a stiffened neck (which we didn’t know the severity of as he laid there for a couple of minutes before being helped back to the locker room). But little can keep Kobe away from doing his thing as he scored 18 of his game-high 34 in the 2nd half but didn’t get enough help from his friends to pull it out. Also late in the 2nd quarter Pao Gasol’s face collided with ex-teammate DJ Mbenga and it opened a cut reminiscent of a boxer’s just below his left eye. Well he has a great cut man in trainer Gary Vitti but they couldn’t draw as much aggressiveness out of Pao today as they did blood (as you can see in the picture).

After the game, Kobe spoke with us about all of his emotions and disappointment in losing to a club who his guys had beaten in all 4 other attempts this season…

Kobe Bryant with Ted Sobel et al:

Pao Gasol who’s always a standup guy then dealt with all of the how’s and why’s of the much less than his usual all-world effort in this one that he knows must change if his Lakers are to not be embarrassed again by the big underdog Hornets…

Pao Gasol with Ted Sobel et al:

The other L.A. ‘Big’ Andrew Bynum who only had a so-so game for him lately with 13 points and 9 rebounds in almost 26 minutes but he was his usual candid post-game self when it came to what his team was doing wrong and how to fix it?…

Andrew Bynum with Ted Sobel et al:

Veteran Laker guard Derek Fisher (who had to guard the quicker Paul for most of his night) will normally answer all of our questions (some admittedly stupid or redundant) and tonight was no different although he had to repeat himself a few more times than I’m sure he would’ve liked…

Derek Fisher with Ted Sobel et al:

Another Lakers guard Shannon Brown came off the bench with 8 points and several other mental points for me in front of his locker as he tried to explain this loss..

Shannon Brown with Ted Sobel:

and so it’s on to game 2 here on Wednesday night and the Lakers will likely be close to double digit favorites again but will they be doubly tough when they need to be? Not even the Zen Master knows that answer but we’ll see if Phil Jackson knows the right buttons to push to get his team back to championship form? Next up for me, the hockey Kings try to take a 2-1 series edge on visiting San Jose on Tuesday night.

After losing the opener, game 2 of the NHL Stanley Cup first round series was almost a must win for the Anaheim Ducks and they scored twice and early on the power play and evened this series with a 5-3 victory over the Nashville Predators. 50 goal scorer during the regular season Corey Perry hit the back of the net at 5:24 of the first period with the extra man and 38 seconds later it was 40 year old Teemu Selanne burying one past Preds goalie Pekka Rinne also on the PP for a quick 2 goal Ducks lead. Nashville fell behind 4-1 but scored 2 straight in the 3rd period to make it close before Bobby Ryan’s empty netter in the final minute put it away. Ray Emery made his first start of the series in goal for the Ducks and stopped 31 shots including a handful of beauties. And after the game, I was able to speak with a few of the key Ducks who helped them win this one including their very happy standout goaltender…

Ducks goalie Ray Emery with Ted Sobel:

The always personable Bobby Ryan tallied his first 2 goals of the playoffs (his second career postseason multi-goal and multi-point game) and then I did better than Rinne, and was able to ‘stop’ him in the locker room…{remember that most pictures can be enlarged by just clicking on it with your mouse}

Bobby Ryan with Ted Sobel:

With another goal tonight, Selanne in 73 career postseason contests with Anaheim leads the club in all-time scoring (28-27=55). And like vintage wine Mr. Selanne will be able to score goals when he’s 80 but since he’s only half way there, he gave me a few precious moments to discuss this nice win…

Teemu Selanne with Ted Sobel:

With the win the Ducks improved their all-time postseason record at HOME to 32-17 (.653 win percentage) and the 2 clubs now head to Tennessee for games 3 and 4 while guaranteeing a game 5 back here at Honda Center a week from tonight. And while the Ducks are now even in their series the Kings will try to do the same in less than 24 hours in San Jose. Next up for me, game one Sunday afternoon at Staples between the 2nd seeded Lakers and #7 seed New Orleans Hornets in what figures to be a lopsided first round series for the back to back champs. Although as Kobe labeled them recently as “weird” (since we never know what team will show up lately) they need to prove that they are capable of sending Phil Jackson into retirement as the first in basketball history to coach 4 seperate 3-peats? Stop and think about how amazing that is! Also some great news ‘FINALLY’, Phil’s mentor and friend (and one of my mentors when I called his games at Long Beach State) Tex Winter is a Hall of Famer and you know he’ll be watching this Lakers team just like all of us. So let the games begin!

Just hours after Barry Bonds became a convicted felon for obstruction of justice, his old team the Giants hit 2 legitimate homeruns on a balmy San Francisco 54 degree night at the start to beat the Dodgers 4-3 and take the series 2 games to 1. Jonathan Sanchez outdueled fellow lefty Ted Lilly for his first win of the early season while Lilly’s record fell to 0-2 and his ERA dropped to an even 6.

Ted (no relation to me-as far as I know) was involved in a mini altercation when hitting Giants clean-up man Buster Posey on 2 straight at bats, which caused home plate ump Greg Gibson to send warnings to both managers. Nothing further developed from there and afterwards, Dodger skipper Don Mattingly and Lilly took questions from us on that matter and the rest of what went on during this series finale…

Don Mattingly with Ted Sobel et al:

Ted Lilly with Ted Sobel et al:

The Dodgers simply left too many men on base the last 2 nights including my picture of Matt Kemp striking out to end the 7th inning after a 2 out single by Andre Ethier. It was the first time that Kemp went 0 for 4 since April 5th while Ethier extended his hitting streak to 10 games. L.A. catcher Rod Barajas did hit his 2nd homer of the series with a man aboard in the 4th inning off of Sanchez but as he told me afterwards, it just wasn’t enough…

Rod Barajas with Ted Sobel:

So the Dodgers head home for a weekend series with the St. Louis Cardinals while I head home for some playoff action. Friday night in Anaheim with the Ducks already down a game to Nashville in the first round of their Stanley Cup run. And then Sunday afternoon, the Lakers open their post-season quest for a 3-peat (please don’t sue me Pat Riley for using your patented term) vs. New Orleans after barely earning the #2 seed in the West when beating the Kings in overtime in what is almost a given final game ever in Sacramento. The Lakers beat the sting-less Hornets all 4 games this season, so no excuses in the opening round guys and let the fun begin!

It was Tim Linecum vs. Chad Billingsley in what looked like a pitcher’s duel as advertised for the first 3 inngs. But then Timmy got nailed for 3 in the 4th and Chad couldn’t hold the lead or get out of the 6th inning and the Giants went on to even the 3 game series with a 5-4 win at coooooooold AT&T Park where the temperature dropped to 48 degrees in the 9th inning with a ‘feels like’ temp at a tooooooooo low 41 and wind gusts up to 22 mph. The main thing is that the almost 49,000 in the house continued to behave themselves as semi-responsible adults and not get into any physical altercations with their rival Dodger fans (as far as I know of?). These last 2 nights are my first tastes of those horrid ‘Beat L.A.’ chants in this stadium and it certainly came to a head in the 9th inng. when Giants closer ‘Mr. Fear the Beard himself’ Brian Wilson shut the door on the Dodgers with a 1-2-3 save. After the game I entered the quiet Dodgers locker room where manager Don Mattingly did his usual post-mortem on what happened?…

Don Mattingly with Ted Sobel et al:

As for Billingsley he tried to be as cordial as possible after a disappointing outing where he couldn’t finish the job…

Chad Billingsley with Ted Sobel et al:

It was also a tough night for Dodgers leftfielder Tony Gwynn, Jr. who went 0 for 5 but the class act accepted my questions along with giving me thoughts on Wednesday night’s foe-Giants lefty Jonathon Sanchez…

Tony Gwynn, Jr. with Ted Sobel:

One of the bright spots for L.A. was Marcus Thames belting his first homer in his new Dodger blues which was also his 6th career jack as a pinch hitter, so at least I got some smiles out of him…

Marcus Thames with Ted Sobel:

So it’s one more game here in San Francisco where they’re now forcasting some rain on Wednesday, and of course my umbrella is currently protecting my closet back home! Hopefully it won’t affect me or the game much before I head home on Thursday and then it’s time for the Stanley Cup first round opener in Anaheim on Friday night between the Ducks and Nashville Predators. While the hockey Kings open on the road here in the bay area against San Jose. Of course by then, we’ll also know who the Lakers will be playing in their first round series…what a great time of year!