STEPHEN DUNN / Getty Images The Lakers' Sasha Vujacic grabs the ball in front of Paul Millsap.

What's Inside At last, a baseball giveaway you can use Double amputee wins appeal for Olympic bid Spring turkey call: Big birds up, but jakes down Losing racehorses in Puerto Rico put to death On the air / local events Hard feelings still linger over Winning Colors Three HRs Werthwhile night for this Phillie James takes charge late, forces Game 7 in Boston More Sports

SALT LAKE CITY – After Utah won Game 3 on its home floor, a Jazz fan got in Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak's face and hooted in celebration a statement that began with three words: “We kicked your . . . ” Last night, after Game 6 with neither Mehmet Okur nor Deron Williams able to sink a tying three-point shot in the Lakers' second consecutive wire-to-wire victory, Kupchak could rightly scream in unfettered celebration that he and the Lakers are truly back among the NBA elite.

SEATTLE – Over the years, there has been a formula to Padres wins. Take a lead, the size being of little importance, into the seventh and turn it over the bullpen. Have the setup guys get through the seventh and eighth, then let Trevor Hoffman nail the deal shut.

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O.J. Mayo insists he has done nothing wrong. He says his brief basketball career at USC was unblemished by under-the-table transactions; that he accepted rides, but not riches; that he would not compromise himself or his family for so small a sum as $30,000. A trail of receipts tells a different story, and a familiar one, of big-time talent and small-time hustlers, of a prominent college athlete getting an advance on his anticipated income from people with motives other than altruism.

It boils down to, Kent Desormeaux said, a combination of speed and intelligence. That's what sets Big Brown above the other horses the Hall of Fame jockey has ridden, including his two Kentucky Derby winners, Real Quiet in 1998 and Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000.

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