men's pro basketball

Just because the Los Angeles Lakers' are off to a perfect 7-0 start this season doesn't mean their execution late in games has been.

They continue to rely heavily on star Kobe Bryant's playmaking abilities in fourth quarters of close games, a tendency that has produced victories but can also make their offense stagnant and predictable.

NEW ORLEANS -- Walk through the doors to the visiting locker room at New Orleans Arena, and it feels like stumbling through a wormhole to the Las Vegas Strip.

The expectations would squash anyone else his size. In an NBA department store, this is a player who buys his clothes in the petite section. He is 6-foot tall, maybe. He weighs 165 pounds, maybe. He is 33 years old -- no, maybe about that.

Yet there is nothing undersized about Allen Iverson's skills or his shoulders.

The Nuggets' long nightmare -- or rather short dream as it applies to Allen Iverson himself and to his wasted tenure in Denver -- is over.

Reserve your NBA Finals tickets now.

OK. Maybe not that. But the Nuggets are a better team today than they were Monday, a better team than they were at any time after Iverson arrived, a better team as much by subtraction as addition.

The last time the Los Angeles Lakers began a season with such high expectations was five years ago, when the team welded fading All-Stars Karl Malone and Gary Payton to the disturbingly bitter Shaquille O'Neal-Kobe Bryant stew.

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Last spring the Boston Celtics won their first NBA title in 22 years.

Now comes the hard part.

Now they want to repeat.

"We want to be remembered as one of the great Celtics' teams," said Paul Pierce. "We want to be talked about when our careers are long gone."

Pierce knows.

He finally gets it.

Growing up in a blue-collar household in Pennsylvania, Denver Nuggets coach George Karl has always leaned to the left when it comes to politics -- though he admits to writing checks to Republican friends in the past.

Reggie Theus is one of the fortunate ones. He still has a job. He also has health insurance, a nice car and a nicer car, and homes in Northern and Southern California. If not the perfect life, the Kings' head coach certainly enjoys a comfortable existence.

What he lacks is security.

The Boston Celtics started last season at the Vatican for training camp and ended it as National Basketball Association champions at the White House.

President George Bush greeted the NBA team at the White House Friday to honor the players, coaches and team owners.

It was tough to tell over the shrieking celebration with noisemakers and streamers, but they'll love the Ron Artest trade in Houston, too.