NBA Notebook: Kobe wins first MVP

LOS ANGELES -- Finally, an MVP award for Kobe Bryant.

Regarded as the NBA's best player for several years but never its most valuable, Bryant earned the honor at last on Tuesday after leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference.

He entered the season as the league's two-time defending scoring champion. He had finished as high as third in the MVP voting twice -- after the 2002-03 season, when he averaged 30 points for the first time, and last year when Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki won.

This season there was no denying the Lakers' 6-foot-6 star. Los Angeles rose to the top of the West despite key injuries and following Bryant's trade demands.

Bryant averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.84 steals while playing all 82 games. The knock on Bryant, 29, had been that he didn't make those around him better -- not anymore.

"He's deserving in this particular season with all of the question marks and everything going on coming into the season and the uncertainty," teammate Derek Fisher said. "Not only did he statistically have an MVP type of season, everybody can reasonably say they were better this year because of what he did."

CELTICS HOLD OFF CAVS: LeBron James couldn't make a basket down the stretch -- or at virtually any other time -- and the Celtics eked out a 76-72 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Boston in the opener of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Kevin Garnett scored 28 points to make up for an off night for the rest of Boston's Big Three.

James was held to 12 points on 2-of-18 shooting. He missed three drives and a 3-pointer in the final minute.

Rajon Rondo scored all 15 of his points in the first half, and Kendrick Perkins grabbed 12 rebounds for the Celtics. Paul Pierce drew two charging fouls while guarding James but scored just four points on 2-of-14 shooting, and Ray Allen (0-for-4) didn't score.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 22 points and 12 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who shot 31 percent and couldn't make a basket at the end of the game.

CLOCK MALFUNCTION: The NBA admitted Chauncey Billups' 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter of Monday's Detroit-Orlando playoff game should not have counted, but said referees weren't allowed to review instant replay to determine that.

League president Joel Litvin also said the disputed shot, which gave Detroit a 78-76 lead in its 100-93 victory, could not have been replayed after the clock malfunction was discovered.

Billups was bringing the ball up the court when the clock froze at 4.8 seconds because of a problem with the arena's timing system. After he made the shot, the game referees had to estimate how long the play took without the aid of replay because the league's rules don't allow for reviewing a play to determine when the clock started.

The league said the timekeeper who worked the game was from a "neutral" city, standard procedure for all games.

MVP VOTING

Voting is on a 10-7-5-3-1 basis with first through fifth place votes and total points:

Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Total
Kobe Bryant	Los Angeles Lakers	82	32	10	2	-	1,100
Chris Paul	New Orleans Hornets	28	64	32	2	-	894
Kevin Garnett	Boston Celtics	15	23	56	26	1	670
LeBron James	Cleveland Cavaliers	1	7	28	77	8	438