THE BOX OUT PICK AND POPS 1. It's not like he'll win the award, but Kobe Bryant has looked awfully MVP-esque the past week, scoring 40, 38, 42 and 35 in four straight wins. And he shot a respectable 46.5 while doing so, too. 2. After Tuesday's overtime loss to the Nuggets -- in which Jamal Crawford slipped and fell in the waning seconds to prevent the Bulls from attempting a game-tying 3-pointer, Bill Cartwright should let all calls from Jerry Krause go straight to voice mail. QUOTE OF THE DAY “The teams ahead of them aren't losing. They've got to win a lot of games to get the seventh or eighth spot. You have to wonder how much gas they have left." —Pacers guard Reggie Miller on the Lakers' playoff chances. NUMBER OF THE DAY $25M Nike's five-year contract offer to Kobe Bryant just to wear its shoes. TRASH TALK You had your say. So here are the best comments: The Lakers are not just going to the playoffs, they will also be No. 5 seed as well. The Kings should also be careful because the Lakers are not that far behind them. The No. 4 seed is also a possibility! Joe Carmel, St. Louis, Mo. I think all the Laker haters ought to just sit back and enjoy the ride on our way to a fourth NBA championship. Bobby Nash, Dallas, Texas I do not understand why the Lakers are a team that ESPN and the NBA love so much. Their slow-it-down, half-court offense makes me sick. Sufian Kassam, Houston, Texas I'm seriously tired of all the attention the Lakers are getting. Even though the Lakers have three rings, people are still reluctant to give the Kings their credit. They've always said the Kings can't play defense, scratch that, the Kings can't win on the road, scratch that, the Kings can't beat the Lakers, scratch that, the Kings can't win big games, scratch that, the Kings can't win a championship, scratch that -- in June. Tom Brown, Sacramento, Calif. The Lakers will probably still when the championship. It's going to break a lot of hearts when they do. Who wants to play them in the first round? Surely not the Queens or the Mavs. Neither one of them can beat the Lakers. Pernell McLean, Valhalla, N.Y.

So it looks like the Los Angeles Lakers are going to make the playoffs after all. The standings say they're not there yet, but that swagger -- the thing that Chris Webber says his Kings long for just as much as a championship ring -- has returned to the world champions' strut in their climb to .500.

Which brings up this formality: Who's not going to make the playoffs?

If the Lakers rise up into the Western Conference's top eight as we expect, then one of the West's first-half surprises must come down.

With Kobe Bryant's MVP-worthy play of late and Shaquille O'Neal's gradual return to his old self, we know some team's heart will be broken. Automatically excluding the West's locks for the playoffs -- the Mavericks, Kings, Spurs and Trail Blazers (yes, at 15 games over .500, they'll overcome their annual implosion to make the playoffs) -- the four candidates for heartbreak are the Timberwolves, Jazz, Suns and Rockets.

Here's what has to happen to the current five-through-eight teams -- short of a second-half injury to a key player -- to miss the postseason and make way for those upwardly mobile Lakers.