Lakers may respond more to Boston than Jerry West

Perhaps an impending Sunday date with the Boston Celtics had more to do with the Lakers’ tightening the screws than a few biting words from Jerry West.…

West picks the Celtics to dethrone the Lakers in June.…

West, who implied that the Lakers struggled defensively because they were “getting long in the tooth,” was nearly 35 when he made the NBA All-Defensive team in the spring of 1973.…

The Lakers and their nearly 37-year-old center, Wilt Chamberlain, lost to the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals.…

Jay Cutler, a much-sacked Type 1 diabetic, deserves better than to have his toughness questioned.…

He might, however, want to reconsider his body language.…

Few quarterbacks better combine arm strength, athleticism, mobility and playmaking ability than Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers, but they combined for zero touchdown passes and four interceptions in the conference championship games. …

Fox’s Howie Long, after Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji told Long that he sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber that simulates a 13,000-foot altitude: “So, you’re a 320-pound Sherpa.” …

Neither the New York Jets nor the Kansas City Chiefs, upset Super Bowl winners before the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, have made it back to the championship game since.…

Sorry to see you go, Chad Ochocinco.…

Chad Johnson is so 2008.…

Punter Shane Lechler of the Oakland Raiders is a six-time first-team All-Pro, which puts him three up on Ray Guy.…

Blake Griffin’s spectacular play does not disguise the fact that the Clippers, with or without Eric Gordon, aren’t good enough outside Staples Center to make a serious playoff push.…

According to odds posted at BetUS.com, Griffin is a 1-2 pick to win an MVP award during his Clippers tenure but a 30-1 longshot to bring Donald Sterling an NBA championship.…

The Lakers and Dallas Mavericks, annually among the top teams in the West, haven’t met in the playoffs since 1988.…

Doc Rivers, explaining why Shaquille O’Neal is always day to day: “Because he’s old as hell.” …

GQ’s list of the 25 coolest athletes of all time includes five each from the NFL (Jim Brown, Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, Bo Jackson and Tom Brady) and the NBA (Pete Maravich, Walt Frazier, Julius Erving, Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson).…

Not counting Jackson, it includes the same number of baseball players (Bob Gibson and Tim Lincecum) as it does tennis players (Arthur Ashe and Bjorn Borg), golfers (Arnold Palmer and Gary Player) and soccer players (Pele and George Best). …

You won’t find Magic Johnson or Sandy Koufax on the list, but Muhammad Ali, Mario Andretti, Jean-Claude Killy, Evel Knievel, Derek Sanderson, Kelly Slater and Ted Turner made it.…

Who would make a similar Southland-only list? …

If Ohio State can field title-contending teams in football and basketball, why can’t USC and UCLA? …

Tiger Woods, No. 3 in the world as he opens his season this week at Torrey Pines, has not been ranked lower since 1997….

“Even at 50 years old,” reader Molly Freedman of El Segundo e-mails to suggest, marking the Great One’s birthday, “Wayne Gretzky would be one of the Kings’ better players.” …

Rafael Nadal’s stumble at the Australian Open only underscores the greatness of Rod Laver, the only man in nearly 75 years to hold all four Grand Slam singles titles concurrently.…

And Laver did it twice. …

Baseball America, in ranking the Kansas City Royals’ farm system as baseball’s best, singled out “three stud hitters,” including former Chatsworth High third baseman Mike Moustakas, and “four quality lefties,” including John Lamb from Laguna Hills High, Mike Montgomery from Newhall Hart High and Danny Duffy from Lompoc Cabrillo High.…

Baseball’s No. 1 individual prospect, according to mlb.com, is Angels center fielder Mike Trout.…

Noting that 500 truckloads of dirt were spread over Dodger Stadium for a supercross race and a monster-truck show, reader Doug Thomson of West Los Angeles e-mails to ask, “Did all that dirt come from the McCourt divorce trial?”

jerome.crowe@latimes.com