🏀 Lakers Still Talk Of NBA Despite Flaws

L.A. not being a contender generates just as many headlines, if not more. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider with Martin Rogers: The Lakers get most of the headlines when they're good. They might get even more of them when they're not … Ranking the NFL's top 10 teams through Week 6 … and more! The NBA's defending champion is smack — one heck of a smack, actually — in the middle of its biggest modern crisis, according to no less an authority than the team's own head coach. While Steve Kerr admits the Golden State Warriors are punch-drunk from Draymond Green's astonishing act of practice-court violence, the next-best team from last season is reeling, too, with the Boston Celtics left without their coach, for a minimum of a season, due to the rather novel reason of in-house infidelity. Yet while Punch-Gate (or Draygate, or Jordan Poole-gate, take your pick), combined with the saddening Ime Udoka scandal in Beantown, has given the league the kind of preseason spectacles to delight the TMZ crowd and send those drawn to chaos and salacity into a flurry of excitement, the most eye-catching plotline of the new campaign is, somehow, situated elsewhere. Yes, really. Even with last season's finalists mired in you-couldn't-make-it-up drama, the most talked-about slice of pro hoops gossip is guaranteed to come from a team that might not make the playoffs, involving a player who might not start on that team, in a development that will probably have zero impact on the outcome of the championship over the coming months. The Los Angeles Lakers march to the beat of their own drum. So too, in a way, does Russell Westbrook. And just as the Lakers are magnetized toward grand production, so too is the audience addicted to all things purple-and-gold, regardless of X's and O's and schemes and scorelines and all the rest of that paraphernalia. Basketball of the meaningful variety begins again Tuesday night, with the Lakers visiting the Warriors just after the Philadelphia 76ers hop up to Boston as part of an opening-evening doubleheader. It has been two years, and it feels like longer, since the Lakers have been competitively relevant, winning it all in the COVID-upturned 2020 season but following it with a first-round exit, then an 11th-place washout. But still, all eyes point toward the circus, and so it remains. The presence of LeBron James and Anthony Davis teases some potential for success, but before that can even be considered, the saga of Westbrook needs to be digested. For the rest of the story, [click here.]( [STORY IMAGE 1] [IN OTHER WORDS] - What stood out about Week 6 in the NFL? Former NFL scout Bucky Brooks tells you what he saw and [ranks the league's top 10 teams](. - Melissa Rohlin [breaks down every NBA team in the West]( from those playing for a championship to those playing for a chance to draft mega-prospect Victor Wembanyama. - How will the Commanders fair without Carson Wentz? Why are the Eagles struggling to close games? Ralph Vacchiano answers with [his latest NFC East takeaways](. - Michael Cohen examines Big Ten football, where the East is filled with firepower and [two clear-cut favorites]( while the West faces a much less certain season ahead. - Meet Mallory Pugh and Sophia Smith: 'Bonafide superstars' and the [future of USWNT]( Laken Litman writes. For the latest news and updates, [click here.]( [VIEWER'S GUIDE] Philadelphia Phillies at San Diego Padres (FS1, 8:03 p.m. ET) Zack Wheeler takes the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies, while Yu Darvish gets the start for the Padres in Game 1 of the NLCS. Cleveland Guardians at New York Yankees (TBS, 4:07 p.m. ET) Jose Ramirez and the Guardians face Aaron Judge and the Yankees in Game 5, with a trip to the ALCS against Houston on the line. Boston Celtics at Philadelphia 76ers (TNT, 7:30 p.m. ET) Jayson Tatum and the Celtics battle Joel Embiid and the Sixers on NBA’s opening night. Los Angeles Lakers at Golden State Warriors (TNT, 10 p.m. ET) LeBron James and the Lakers take on Stephen Curry and the defending-champion Warriors. For all of today's games and scores, [click here](. [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Philadelphia 76ers C Joel Embiid: +500 to win NBA MVP From FOX Sports NBA Analyst Ric Bucher: One of the most important elements for winning the award is desire, and no one might want it more than Joel Embiid. Giannis Antetokounmpo has flat-out stated that he doesn't care about winning it a third time, and I believe him. But Embiid has yet to put one in his trophy case and was frustrated about finishing second to Nikola Jokic last year. I suspected the addition of James Harden last season, acquired from Brooklyn, would undermine his chances. Still, Sixers coach Doc Rivers seems determined to make Embiid the undisputed No. 1 option this season on a squad that is primed to improve on last year's 51-win total and finish with the East's best record. Health is always a concern with Embiid, but he played 68 games last season, the most in his career. And he appears to be taking his conditioning more seriously. With Jokic's numbers likely to slide with the return of Jamal Murray and voters potentially reluctant to put Jokic in the Bill Russell-Wilt Chamberlain-Larry Bird circle by giving him a third-consecutive MVP title, the path is there for Embiid to snare his first. For the latest betting odds, [click here](. 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