He’s worn out. At least that’s what this column in the Los Angeles Times talks about, using a veritable festival of one-sentence paragraphs. Maybe he is. He has every right to be. But he’s also just as entitled as anyone else to have an off-night once in a great while.

Besides, it’s not as if he’s out there playing alongside a Laker team for the ages.

After reading about Tuesday night’s game in all sorts of places, I still have to marvel at how experienced media people still, after all these years, have such a tendency to jump on the bandwagon of whatever team won the most recent game in these series.

And by the way, if Courtney Lee had made that shot at the end of Game 2, would the media have been heavy on Bryant’s ass by now or what?

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Times, NBA Finals, Orlando Magic

You must see this to believe this. This is under a heading of “Los Angeles Times reporters break down Game 1.”

Yeah, it’s a breakdown all right.

Newspapers are now thinking they must add video to draw people to their websites. Problem is, well . . . you go ahead and see for yourself. Seems sort of like one of those deals where the guys don’t actually think anyone is really going to watch the video in the first place.

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Tags: Bill Plaschke, Broderick Turner, Dwight Jaynes, Los Angeles Times, The Bill and Brad Show, video

And my old pal, Mark Heisler, a Hall of Fame NBA writer, saves the best quote for last.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Los Angeles Times, Mark Heisler, Portland Trail Blazers

Several things in the LA Times story today by Lisa Dillman that you may not have heard about. She says that the Clippers’ Ricky Davis put up a $500 bounty for the first guy to dunk on Oden during last night’s exhibition loss to the Trail Blazers. He had read about the $1,000 bet between Sacramento players Monday night that led to Kevin Martin earning $1,000. Nobody earned the $500 Wednesday.

You know you’re good when opposing teams start figuring out financial incentives for their teammates to do things against you that they ought to be trying to do, anyway. The story also said that Oden needed four stitches after the game to close a cut near an eye.

Here’s what Clippers’ center Chris Kaman said about Oden:

“He’s a big boy,” Kaman said. ” . . . I think he had all dunks tonight and one left-handed jumper. Once he figures it all out defensively, I think he’s going to be a monster.”

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Tags: Chris Kaman, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Times, Portland Trail Blazers