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Even when the Los Angeles Lakers find a way to win, the losses continue to mount. The Lakers snapped their five-game losing streak last night against the San Antonio Spurs, but an injury plague struck the team at the worst possible time.

With the playoffs just three days away, the statuses of several key contributors remains up in the air. Andrew Bynum hyperextended his right knee in the second quarter of last night’s win, Steve Blake was sidelined with chicken pox and Matt Barnes woke up with pain in his surgically repaired right knee.

Bynum will undergo an MRI later this morning and then the Lakers will decide the best course of action. He won’t travel to Sacramento for the team’s final regular season game. The center has had three knee surgeries in three years, and missed the first 24 games of this season as he rehabilitated the same knee.

"There’s always concern because we’ve seen him go down a few times that have been debilitating," Phil Jackson said after the game. "There’s that concern and it was kind of a freaky play, but they usually are. That’s the way basketball is."

"I went in at halftime to talk to him and he said, ‘I’m going to be alright. I hyper-extended, but it’s going to be okay.’ He could be out a couple of games because there could be a bone bruise involved when you hyperextend a knee, but his reassurance was, ‘I’m going to be okay.’ I think he might have a good idea about it because he’s been through this before," Jackson added.

Bynum’s teammates also spoke with him at halftime and are optimistic that he’ll be able to return soon.

"He said he was feeling okay," Kobe Bryant said. "I mean, it’s tough to tell right after so we’ll see how he feels tomorrow. I don’t think anybody was thinking about it, we just had to go out and play. We’ve played through so many injuries before so you just have to do what you’ve got to do."

"I talked to him and he seemed to be in pretty good spirits," Derek Fisher added. "We’ll see what happens from here and hopefully he’ll be okay. He seemed to be in a pretty positive mindset though."

Blake’s course of treatment is much stranger. Because chicken pox is extremely contagious, he’ll be quarantined from the team. He will miss one to two weeks as he recovers from the virus.

However, there is some concern that the diagnosis came too late. He had already taken part in a video session with teammates. In attendance were three Lakers that have never had chicken pox – Bryant, Bynum and Ron Artest – which increases their likelihood of contracting the illness. Symptoms usually don’t appear until 14 to 16 days after a person is exposed to someone with chicken pox, which means other Lakers may be shelved just as Blake is able to return to the lineup.

Barnes’ soreness comes as a surprise because he hadn’t felt severe pain in his knee since January. He had been feeling great since returning in early March and he’ll be reevaluated today.

Two weeks ago, the Lakers had won seventeen of eighteen games and they were expected to march into the postseason with momentum. Now, it appears they’ll limp into the playoffs, both literally and figuratively.

Big Three Ready for Playoffs: It seems like just yesterday that LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were inking their contracts and celebrating their arrival in Miami. But tonight, the Big Three will conclude their first regular season together and take their talents to the postseason.

Chris Bosh recently spoke with Eric Koreen of the National Post and looked back on the season and ahead to the playoffs, where Miami really hopes to make their mark.

"We did have an up-and-down year," Bosh told Koreen. "Every loss we had was magnified. We had tons of big games and we had a lot of teams that were really up and ready to play us. Sometimes we were ready for it, sometimes we weren’t. It has been up and down. But it’s been a learning experience. I know a lot of people will try to downplay what we did. But at the end of the day in our first year together, we got the No. 2 seed in the East. I think that’s what’s important."

As the second seed in the East, the Heat will draw the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round and advancing would lead to a showdown against either the Boston Celtics or New York Knicks.

"We’re confident," Bosh said. "We’re confident. We’re focused. We all know what we need to do to make sure we compete for a championship. That’s all we’re thinking about: competing for a championship. We’re taking everything seriously. We have that mind frame going into each practice, each shoot-around. We’re really developing our team to be ready for that, to be fully prepared for that."

{AUTHOR_BOX}Miami has become the NBA’s villain and they know that the majority of basketball fans will be rooting against them this weekend. Bosh could care less and has gotten used to that role and the pressure associated with it.

"I think [the scrutiny] will be a little bit more concentrated, be it’s nothing we haven’t seen," Bosh said. "We’ve seen it all, almost. We’ve seen almost everything this year. It’s good for us. I was actually talking to [Zydrunas Ilgauskas] the other day, and he was telling me just how the playoffs are. You win and one minute you’re going to win it all. You lose the next game and it’s over, you’re done, what’s going to happen? That’s going to happen. Some teams that have been there, they’re used to it. We’ve been there with some of our guys and we’ve been there as a team. When that happens we can just stay calm and focus on what we need to do to improve."

When James, Wade and Bosh decided to sign with the HEAT, they were friends, but had only played together a number of times. It didn’t take long for Bosh to realize that the other two super friends approach games differently than he does.

"They like to have fun. They’re some fun guys. They make things a little bit more relaxed in the locker room. They’re not as serious. I tend to be really, really serious sometimes. They’re more laid back most of the time. Not when we’re on the floor, but when we’re in the locker room, they know how to have a good time. They can be the life of the bus or the plane sometimes, and that can be entertaining," Bosh said.

When it comes to making individual sacrifices, Bosh believes that he has had to change his role more than James or Wade. When asked if he anyone has had to modify their game as much as he has, Bosh stressed just how much he has had to adjust this season.

"I don’t think so," Bosh said. "If you look at scoring averages, there’s not too much off with LeBron and Dwyane. They’re still top five. They still handle the ball. They still have to make decisions and make plays. It was kind of different for me because I [used to get] it in the post a lot more, but now I’m setting screens and I’m rolling to the basket more. I get the ball, but it’s just in different positions. That’s a little different for me sometimes."

Paul Shoots Down Charlotte Rumors: On Tuesday, Chris Paul conducted several interviews regarding the Jordan Brand Classic, a high school tournament sponsored by the company that Paul endorses.

The discussion eventually shifted to Paul’s relationship with Michael Jordan and whether or not he would consider playing for the legend when his contract expires.

The Associated Press quoted Paul as saying the following:

•  "It would definitely be something to think about. But right now it’s all about trying to win a championship here with the Hornets."

•  "I think guys do and will want to play for MJ. Who better to learn from?"

•  "To have a personal relationship with him now and for him to be a mentor of mine, it’s something when you’re growing up as a kid in North Carolina you would never expect."

•  "Now that he has a team, he’s like a kid in a candy store. He’s so happy because he’s one of those guys that no matter what, he can’t get away from the game."

• "I thought about [playing in North Carolina] when I got drafted. But that feels like that was so long ago now."

Rumors about Paul being interested in playing for Jordan and the Bobcats quickly spread, but the point guard was quick to shoot them down on Twitter.

Paul tweeted the following angry rant and suggested that his comments were taken out of context.

"Come on now people," Paul tweeted, "I did 3 different interviews about the Jordan Brand Classic this morning and was asked if Michael Jordan had influence on free agent signings and I said at the end of the day guys want to win…they askd would I want to return home and I told them I’m focused here in NO and that’s the future and anything can happen…Hate when people try to turn things around just to make it a story…#slowdown."

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