AP - Kobe Bryant scored 34 points and Los Angeles held off a furious rally by the Utah Jazz for a 108-105 victory Friday night, putting the Lakers in the Western Conference finals for the first time in four years.

AP - The Cleveland Cavaliers packed for a weekend stay in Beantown — not a few weeks on Cape Cod. They've got at least one more game left, and in the NBA, it's as big as they ever get. Game 7. On Sunday. In Boston.

AP - New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick lashed out at the team's former video assistant Friday, saying in a televised interview that Matt Walsh was a low-level staffer who was fired for "poor job performance." "There's not a lot of credibility," Belichick said in an interview broadcast on "CBS Evening News."