FanHouse Luke Walton

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Jordan Farmar is trying to make a dream of his come true: to build a green room at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, where kids could come in and forget about all of their medical treatments, even for just a little while. To make it happen, Jordan is in need of a lot of money, so he recently held a special fundraiser gala to help raise money. In this exclusive video we visit the party and catch up with Jordan, his family, Luke Walton and Marla Gibbs of The Jeffersons.

Check out the video after the jump.

ORLANDO -- Phil Jackson might not be around to see this through – how about Pat Riley for his replacement? – but it looks like the Lakers are well positioned to become the first team to successfully defend an NBA title since they made it three in a row earlier this decade.

All the key guys will be back next season. Mark it down. Winning will make it happen.

Whenever the Lakers win this 2009 title – Game 5, 6 or 7, take your choice -- they will go into the summer prepared to start talking about a repeat.

Free agency doesn't scare them. Not when you're one of the richest franchises in the league, determined to keep this title run going. Not when they saw what happened to the Celtics, who let role-playing James Posey leave in free agency after they won a championship, only to regret his absence all season.

The Larry O'Brien itself is plenty of motivation for the participants in the 2009 Finals. But there will also be a few individual goals driving those involved.

Kobe Bryant: The commercial failure of Kobe Doin' Work made it apparent No. 24 needs much more face time. Can he get an ad campaign, maybe something with a puppet? It's evident Kobe can only get the media and popular culture attention he deserves by winning a championship. (Let's be honest, though: after that 2002 championship jacket, Kobe doesn't deserve to touch the trophy ever again.)

Andrew Bynum: Drew really needs Kareem to get off his back. Oh, did I say Kareem? I meant Nicole Narain. It's hard to show on the pick-and-roll with a playmate on your shoulders!

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The clock is ticking on the Denver Nuggets. They seem like they're good enough to beat the L.A. Lakers in a seven-game series, but if they're going to get it done, it would probably behoove them to get a win tonight.

Will the Lakers prove to be resilient once again on their home floor? Or will the Nuggets make the right plays, close out a game and push the Lakers to the brink? Oh, and here are five more questions about tonight ...

HOUSTON -- The way Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals was setting up, the Los Angeles Lakers seemed vulnerable to the Houston Rockets on Friday night.

But fighting through adversity that included the one-game suspension of its starting point guard and coming into a hostile environment after the Rockets had stolen home court advantage, the Lakers reclaimed momentum in the series with an impressive 108-94 win at the Toyota Center. Los Angeles has now won two straight in the best-of-seven series to claim a 2-1 edge heading into Sunday's Game 4.

A win Sunday would all but deliver the series to the Lakers and quiet any chatter about the re-emergence of Clutch City in Houston.

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FanHouse previews the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

The Lakers versus the Jazz was a competitive and physical second round series a season ago, but this year it looks to be (on paper) one of the most lopsided matchups of the first round. So what's changed? Well, while the Lakers have gotten better with the return of Andrew Bynum, injuries and a lack of continuity have sent the Jazz limping to the finish line.

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After the Lakers' bench gave back almost all of a 19-point fourth quarter lead to the Clippers on Sunday -- something the group has done more than a few times this season -- it doesn't take a genius to tell you that they'll get a much-needed boost when Andrew Bynum returns to the court.

Bynum's rehab has been going so well that he could be back as soon as this Thursday. But that boost to the bench unit won't come from him directly; it's likely to come in the form of Lamar Odom returning to run with the reserves.

It was pretty simple, actually. All Arizona had to do in the last seven days was get in a tournament they had no business being in, catch a lucky draw against a squad that couldn't handle the speed or pressure the Wildcats could bring and hope for the only 13-seed upset of the tournament to be their opponent in the second round. Pshhhh. That was simple.

In the second-round meeting against 13th-seeded Cleveland State, the Wildcats did what they've done best all year: rely on the big three and hope the reserve players don't hack the opposition with two seconds left when the game is tied. Oh, and in related news, Jamelle Horne had 15 points.

They were two of the most boneheaded plays you may ever see in college basketball, like Chris Webber somehow calling two timeouts instead of one.

The University of Arizona, battling the University of Alabama-Birmingham, was trailing most of the night in a contest to see who would advance to Madison Square Garden to face Oklahoma in the NIT semifinals, but then late in the game they started to come back. That comeback ended with two "seriously, guys?" fouls that could best be described as poorly coached and poorly executed.

After the Wildcats put together a comeback that had the team down three, Arizona's Garland Judkins got fouled, and after making the first and missing the second, freshman Kyle Fogg made a great play on the rebound, snatching it up, avoiding the defender and laying the ball in with just over 26 seconds left in the game. All tied at 71-71. Great. But what Fogg did next was inexplicable. The freshman, obviously confused on where he was or what the score was -- or even what game he was playing -- fouled Aaron Johnson right as the ball was inbounded, putting UAB on the line in a one-and-one opportunity.

As the foul happened, interim head coach Russ Pennell could only put his hands on his head in disbelief. You could almost read his mind, as you could most Wildcat fans, who probably have never played college basketball in their lives but know that when the game is tied you don't foul to put a guy on the line.