Laker Foes Already Get Post-Mortem

The NBA playoffs are barely underway and Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post has already conceded the title to the Lakers.

“I’m trying to find a playoff challenger for [the Lakers]. I want to believe before the finals in June, some team will be healthy enough and playing well enough and unafraid enough to push the Lakers and create a compelling seven-game series. But it’s not going to happen.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the NBA playoff record for free throws made in a game without a miss?

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Comfort zone: Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants’ star player, has had a large, black reclining chair delivered to his clubhouse stall rather than be stuck with a standard team stool.

“I’m waiting for the water bed,” teammate Russ Davis said.

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Surprise, surprise: Bud Geracie in the San Jose Mercury News: “For the first time in a year, a Kenyan won the annual Boston Marathon.”

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The whack file: Michael Murphy of the Houston Chronicle, on the New Jersey Nets’ 13 coaches since 1976: “Coaches in New Jersey are like extras in ‘The Sopranos.’ They exist merely to be whacked.”

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The old tree question: Dan Le Batard in the Miami Herald: “Very quietly Lennox Lewis fights undefeated Michael Grant on Saturday. If a heavyweight falls and nobody is watching, does it make a sound?”

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More Le Batard: “How wrong is it that Dan Marino retires without a championship while Laker John Salley is about to get his fourth?”

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Career move: Lewis said he wants to be a movie actor when he quits the ring. The Sun tabloid in London said the heavyweight champion got a taste for films while helping Denzel Washington prepare for “The Hurricane.”

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Top that! Atlanta Brave Manager Bobby Cox, whose team has dealt with the John Rocker controversy, John Smoltz’s season-ending injury and Andres Galarraga’s return from cancer, on whether he has ever had a spring this tumultuous:

“I was with the Yankees the spring [Mike] Kekich and [Fritz] Peterson switched wives.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1905, Jack McCarthy of the Chicago Cubs became the only outfielder in major league history to throw out three runners at the plate, each of whom became the second out of a double play.

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Hungry audience: Mike Curto, the radio announcer for the triple-A Tacoma (Wash.) Raineers of the Pacific Coast League, reports that on Easter Sunday the club gave away a ham for every strikeout by 6-foot-11 flamethrower Ryan “Space Needle” Anderson against Tucson.

His seven strikeouts raised his league-leading total to 35--in 21 2/3 innings. Every time he had two strikes on a hitter, the fans chanted: “Ham! . . . Ham! . . . Ham!”

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Here comes the King: Lee Trevino said in Golf Digest that Arnold Palmer was the most intimidating player of all time. “When his name popped up on the leaderboard, guys froze. I mean, they started choking because there was no telling what Arnold was up to.

“He was unbelievably confident, and you knew he just might shoot 30 on the back nine and leave you in the dust.”

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Trivia answer: Utah’s Karl Malone, 18 against the Lakers on May 10, 1997.

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And finally: While sorting through his CD collection at home, Luc Longley of the Phoenix Suns felt a burning sensation on his foot. Turns out a scorpion had stung him.

He got up from the floor, poured a glass of water and returned to the same spot, when the scorpion got him a second time, in the behind.

“If I’m unable to play, I’ll be the first player ever to have ‘DNP-ass bite’ on the box score,” he said.