The 2007-08 Los Angeles Lakers are being touted as one of the best teams Kobe Bryant has every played on. That’s high praise, and that’s why the Lakers were 5-8 at press time to win the NBA championship.

Before the start of the Western Conference finals between Los Angeles and the San Antonio Spurs, Charles Barkley called the Lakers Kobe’s best-ever team. John Hollinger crunched the numbers for ESPN and came to much the same conclusion.

If the Lakers go on to win the title, it will be a moment of redemption for GM Mitch Kupchak. Fans weren’t pleased when Kupchak traded Shaquille O’Neal; the merits of that deal will be debated for some time, but there can be no doubt that the Pau Gasol trade has lifted the Lakers from very good to great. The question for handicappers is whether L.A. is great enough to win the title without home-court advantage.

The NBA Finals are finally here.

Annual awards are a fixture on the MLB futures market. Odds for the MVP and the Cy Young will be posted later on down the road, but it’s never too early to make an early prediction.

National League

MVP: Chipper Jones, Atlanta. Houston’s Lance Berkman is the most productive player in the majors at 44.7 VORP. But Jones (37.8 VORP) is hitting .410 and has a higher media profile.

Cy Young: Brandon Webb, Arizona. The collapse of the Padres makes it hard for Jake Peavy to collect enough wins, and now he’s on the DL with elbow problems. Webb is already 9-1 with the Snakes with a 2.69 ERA.

American League

MVP: Magglio Ordonez, Detroit. The three hottest hitters in the junior circuit are Josh Hamilton, Kevin Youkilis and Milton Bradley. Writers won’t vote for any of those three.

Cy Young: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston. Matsuzaka (8-0, 2.40 ERA) plays for the team with the best record in the majors at 30-19.

If you’ve watched the NHL on television for at least a couple of years, you’re surely aware by now of this oft-repeated factoid: Only two teams have ever come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a best-of-seven series in the playoffs. The Dallas Stars and Philadelphia Flyers are trying to make it four.

Dallas got the breaks in Wednesday’s Game 4, holding off elimination with a 3-1 win as a +150 home dog. The next day, it was Philly’s turn to shine in a 4-2 victory that had the flavor of the Broad Street Bullies of the mid-70s. The Flyers collected 23 hits to Pittsburgh’s 18 and cashed in at +155.

The Red Wings will be gigantic favorites at home for Saturday’s Game 6. Top scorer Johan Franzen (12 goals in 11 games) remains out with a concussion, while in the Eastern final, the Flyers hope to have defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn ready for their Game 6 on Sunday.

With their backs against the wall, the Dallas Stars made a game out of it on Wednesday night at home and in doing so they finally won a game in their series against the Detroit Red Wings, scoring three goals to their one. It’s about time Mike Modano and Brenden Morrow showed up…

“It was a pretty intense, desperate game from everyone on our side,” said Dallas’ goaltender Marty Turco, who made 34 saves on the night. “We needed that to be successful. We’ll have to continue like that just to have a chance.”

In order to do that, however, they’ll have to pull one out of the hat in Detroit, where Turco hasn’t had the best of luck.

Currently, the Dallas Stars are 75/1 odds of winning the Stanley Cup; and the Detroit Red Wings are the 1/2 odds on favorites to win the Stanley Cup.

Over in the Western Conference you’ve got the Dallas Stars taking on the Detroit Red Wings; and over in the Eastern Conference it’s the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. We’re finally down to four teams.

The Detroit Red Wings have won 10 Stanley Cup titles in its history, more than any other American franchise, but nothing since 2002. The Dallas Stars, on the other hand, have won only one Stanley Cup and that was back in 1998-99.

For the time being, let’s forget the obvious skills advantage the Red Wings have over the Stars and instead focus on how these two teams have played together in the past. The Red Wings have won three of the four regular-season meetings they’ve had with Dallas. And the last time they played each other in the playoffs was back in the 1998 conference finals, when the Red Wings beat Dallas in six games en route to their second straight Stanley Cup crown. My prediction? Detroit in five.

Over in the East, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers will be battling a rivalry all of their own.

“It’s going to be a spirited series, no question about that,” Flyers coach John Stevens told reporters.

“If you want a rivalry, there’s one right there,” Penguins star center Sidney Crosby told the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette. “I’m sure everyone’s well aware of it. As players, we know that the playoffs are always intense, but it throws some spice into it when it’s Pittsburgh-Philadelphia.”

My prediction? The Red Wings in seven.

The Dallas Stars are listed at 3/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup; the Detroit Red Wings are at 3/2 odds to win; the Flyers are 11/2 odds to win the Cup; and the Penguins are the 2/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup.

You can bet on the Stanley Cup playoffs here.