Report out of Sacramento this evening says that the Kings have requested permission to speak with Lakers assistant Kurt Rambis.

Rambis interviewed with Philadelphia for its coaching vacancy Monday.

The report indicated the Lakers will give their permission, but would prefer the interview take place between playoff series’ or after the Lakers have been eliminated by Denver.

EL SEGUNDO — And all along, we thought the only wrestling going on the Western Conference Finals would be under the baskets as the Lakers and Nuggets fought for rebounds.

Though Game 1 Tuesday night was rugged, it turned out to be nothing compared to the behind-the-scenes wrestling between WWE chairman Vince McMahon and Kroenke Sports Enterprises over a scheduling conflict at Denver’s Pepsi Center.

Wednesday, the WWE laid the smackdown on the arena … with a little help from an unexpected tag team partner as the Staples Center jumped into the ring.

The arena, owned by Kroenke Sports, had been scheduled to host the WWE Monday Night RAW event, but ran into conflict when the Nuggets advanced to the conference finals and Game 4 was scheduled for the same Monday.

“They bumped us right out of the building, hardly an apology,” McMahon said Wednesday. “They didn’t do anything for us at all, and the media was talking about someone has to write a check. They didn’t want to write anything and they wanted to give us a Sunday night. And the name of the show is Monday
Night Raw.”

Staples Center spokesman Michael Roth said that his group approached the WWE when news of the schedule conflict surfaced.

“WWE has been a good partner for Staples and when we saw they were having a scheduling conflict, we reached out to them,” Roth said. “We were really pleased our schedule allowed us to accomodate WWE and their shows for Monday and Tuesday.”

Tickets for the Staples Center event went on sale at 8 p.m. Wednesday and will be available until they are sold out. Roth said previous WWE shows have done well at the arena.

More than 10,000 tickets had been sold to the now-cancelled Denver event, but fans with tickets can get a refund through Ticketmaster or exchange them for tickets to a new show set for Aug. 7 at the Denver Coliseum.
Not that this story is settled just yet.
The always-bombastic McMahon hinted that there will be a confrontation between himself and an actor posing as Stan Kroenke, owner of the Nuggets and the Pepsi Center.
Kroenke Sports issued a statement Wednesday afternoon that asserted WWE had gone back on a verbal agreement to reschedule the show for Sunday night.
“We had hoped for, and worked hard toward an amicable resolution – which we verbally had on Tuesday,” said KSE Executive Vice President Paul Andrews. “It’s unfortunate and disappointing that WWE executives ultimately chose this path. The sensationalism employed by WWE in this instance is not surprising. The amount of publicity and coverage enjoyed by their group over the last few days has clearly become their new business goal instead of finalizing what we thought was a favorable solution and would have ultimately allowed their fans to attend the event.”

Two things about the final play of the Lakers’ victory over the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 on Tuesday night. First, after talking to Kobe Bryant after practice today, he did not dribble out of traffic after snaring the rebound of J.R. Smith’s free throw with 3.2 seconds left. He leaped out of the paint and then did kind of a pivot move that he admitted might have been traveling. Second, after Smith made the first free throw to cut the Lakers lead to 105-103, he missed the second one off the front of the rim on purpose. I had written in print that it was the back of the rim because no one in their right might would ever try to miss it short on purpose. If you miss it long, it bounces around and your team might get it. If you miss it short, it’s an airball and a whistle and the Lakers’ ball automatically. So, there you go.

Here are a couple of injury updates that got lost in the shuffle in the aftermath of Game 1. The Lakers’ Trevor Ariza was hit in the groin and wasn’t feeling great afterwards. No kidding, right? He limped out of the locker room more than an hour after the final buzzer. Denver’s J.R. Smith suffered a hyper-extended knee, according to Nuggets coach George Karl. Ariza and Smith were injured during that mad scramble for the ball after Smith missed the second of two free throws with 3.2 seconds left in the Lakers’ 105-103 victory.

The Lakers came up with the big plays to beat the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals tonight at Staples Center. They refused to say they stole the game from the Nuggets, but I will say it for them. They stole the game from the Nuggets.

Here’s some of the postgame chatter from both locker rooms:

Lakers coach Phil Jackson: “We kind of won that game just on energy and gutting it out, finding a way to get some stops at the end of the game and make some plays at the other end of the floor, some big ones. I think they outplayed us, but we won the game.”

Denver coach George Karl: “I’m not going to analyze it, They (the Lakers) are a great team. They were great in the game. They have the best closer in the sport (Kobe Bryant), and we didn’t do enough. We didn’t do enough to win the game.”

Bryant, who scored 18 of his team-leading 40 points in the fourth quarter: “We just had to gut it out. It was a tough game. We were down virtually the whole game. We just had to dig deep a little bit and see if we couldn’t pull it out. … It’s a little bit of desperation. You have to have that. It’s a sense of urgency. It’s not sit back and let the game come to us. Now is the time, the moment. This is what we’ve been waiting for all year.”

Denver’s Carmelo Anthony, who had 39 points: “I’m sitting up here thinking that we had a lot of chances to win the basketball game. I know a lot of people think it came down to that steal (Trevor Ariza’s interception of Anthony Carter’s inbounds pass with 30.5 seconds remaining). But us missing 12 free throws, (coming out on the wrong side of) 22-10 on second-chance points. That’s a lot. You can’t win no game like that.”

The Lakers were down by seven points midway through the fourth quarter, but Kobe Bryant took over the game. Bryant scored 18 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter. He made all nine of his free throw attempts, including six in the final 30 seconds. He also had the rebound on a missed free throw in the game’s waning seconds.
Trevor Ariza had the play of the night. The Lakers were nursing a two-point lead with 30 seconds left, and Phil Jackson put Ariza back in the game for his defense. Great call. Ariza stepped in front of Chauncey Billups and stole Anthony Carter’s inbounds pass. On that possession, Kobe Bryant was fouled and made both of his free throws with 10 seconds left to give the Lakers a 103-99 lead.

THIRD QUARTER
The quarter started with Kobe Bryant missing a long-range jumper and Andrew Bynum fouling Anthony (for his fourth foul). It didn’t get much better as the Lakers had embarrassing miscues with 8-second and 3-second violations and were booed during a turnover-happy stretch.
Nuggets lead 76-74

SECOND QUARTER
The Lakers came storming back even though Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum picked up their third fouls. Anthony was held in check and was assessed a technical foul. Derek Fisher made a baseline 3-pointer at the end of the half to give the Lakers the lead.
Lakers 55, Nuggets 54 halftime

Kurt Rambis confirmed an Associated Press report that he has interviewed with the Philadelphia 76ers. After he left the pre-game warmups, I asked him how his interview with Philadelphia went today. He said: “It wasn’t today.” He confirmed there was an interview but said he had no further comment as he hurried into the Lakers locker room.

FIRST QUARTER
Carmelo Anthony was on fire, making 7 of 8 shots for 16 points. He already had more points in one quarter than he averaged in each of the previous four regular-season games against the Lakers. The Lakers starters missed 13 of 21 shots.
Nuggets 31, Lakers 23