Lakers can expect home calls

It wouldn't be an NBA postseason without complaints about the officiating, and Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson is Mr. Whine.

He wasn't happy about the free-throw disparity in Game 2 of the Finals against the Boston Celtics on Sunday, but Jackson also knows his Lakers could mix in an occasional drive to the basket to even up the numbers a little. They probably will in Game 3 tonight, but even more encouraging for the Lakers is their return to the Staples Center, though in an 0-2 hole.

Part of playing at home in the NBA is the increased benefit of the doubt by the officials, and Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan doesn't expect this time to be different.

"The Lakers will be extremely aggressive, and they will be rewarded," Ryan wrote. "The league has worked this way for 62 years, and it's very unlikely there will be a sudden climate change inside the Staples Center (tonight). If it's 38-10 the other way, Doc (Rivers, Celtics coach) can't say boo. He'd just better hope they miss a few."

• MVP IS MIA -- The Celtics' help defense has caused Kobe Bryant to settle for jump shots, but Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers wasn't about to absolve the star player of responsibility.

"If he's considered the game's best closer, how about throwing in a quality start?" Simers wrote. "How much of a difference would that have made in this one?

"He's the one who wanted this championship opportunity so badly, and as unstoppable as everyone knows he is, why stop himself with fall-away jumpers?

"He talks about getting his teammates going. How about getting himself on track when the game begins?"

• HEY, CURT HAS AN OPINION -- Outspoken Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling wore a Celtics jersey while sitting in the front row at Game 2, and later on his blog praised Boston's Kevin Garnett while taking shots at the Lakers' Bryant.

"From the first tip until about four minutes left in the game, I saw and heard this guy bitch at his teammates," Schilling wrote. "Every TO he came to the bench pissed, and a few of them he went to other guys and yelled about something they weren't doing, or something they did wrong."

• DON'T READ THIS IF YOU'RE UNDER 30 -- There was a McHale sighting at the Orleans Arena on Friday.

No, not Kevin McHale.

Ernest Borgnine, the Oscar-winning actor, introduced 2008 inductee Mel Larson at the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame banquet. Borgnine, 91, played Commander Quinton McHale in the 1960s television series "McHale's Navy."

Borgnine and Larson, a motor sports pioneer, have been longtime friends.

• BAD-CHOICE BEARS -- Those who wondered why the Chicago Bears kept unproven and character-challenged running back Cedric Benson last year over dependable performer Thomas Jones now feel justified.

"Benson was released Monday," wrote the Chicago Tribune's Steve Rosenbloom. "Our long gridiron nightmare is over."

COMPILED BY STEVE CARP REVIEW-JOURNAL