LOS ANGELES — The Lakers are in Oklahoma City, trying to salvage their playoff hopes, down three games to one against the Thunder after splitting a pair in STAPLES Center.
After taking a 3-0 lead, the hockey Kings suffered only their second playoff loss of 2012 Sunday afternoon, and are in Arizona, where they'll try to earn a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals by beating the Phoenix Coyotes on Tuesday night.
The Clippers saw their magic run end when the San Antonio Spurs swept the upstarts into their summer vacations.
And despite putting their eighth player on the disabled list — Mark Ellis — the Dodgers continue to stun the baseball world with a 28-13 record, best in both leagues. They just swept the world-champion St. Louis Cardinals.
All of this took place over the weekend as the Los Angeles locals competed in nine games. Throw in the Amgen Tour of California bicycle race, and it was a sports fan's nirvana near downtown L.A.
L.A. sports fan Ty Tosian was at every game and said via Facebook, "Kinda disappointing, but what can u do?"
He raved about the atmosphere, however.
"For the Kings, before and during the games, the crowd was electric," Tosian said. "Same with the Clippers and Lakers. I just wish they all wore the same T-shirts or something. Good crowds, though."
STAPLES Center was obviously the hub of the action and excitement, with the Lakers and Clippers each playing two games within 48 hours, and the Kings taking the ice twice in 72 hours. Meanwhile, Dodger Stadium proved to be L.A.'s most successful venue, with the Dodgers taking all three from the Cards, including a 6-5, come-from-behind win Sunday night. That came courtesy of rookie Scott Van Slyke's three-run, pinch-hit home run, the first long ball of his young career.
In all the years I've covered sports in this town, I've never received more phone calls from people wanting to know if I could get them tickets, especially hockey tickets. The Kings have always been tremendously popular with a small portion of the L.A. sports fans, but their unexpected run to the conference finals and possible trip to the Stanley Cup Finals has caused their popularity to explode. My cell phone voicemail was literally filled by Friday night, and 26 of the messages were friends — and friends of friends— pleading with me to get them into the Kings' Game 4.
Longtime friend Tom left seven of those messages, saying that he "had to see the Kings advance to the Cup Finals" but would be OK "with a pair of tickets to the Dodgers game on Saturday."
Jokingly — maybe a little seriously, too — I texted him the Ticketmaster and StubHub websites, secure in the knowledge that if the Kings are back in town Thursday for a Game 6, I'll be hearing from Tom again.
I'm sure there were many fans who attended all the games and participated in the festivities all weekend long, a weekend that is already being nicknamed "Fan-a-palozza" or "Fan-ageddon." Those are the truly lucky ones, because we may never see a situation again in our lifetimes when three teams play six playoffs games in 72 hours in the same arena. That's a lot to type, let alone be involved in. And the memorable moments might continue, if the Lakers can find a way to stun the Thunder and take the series and join the Kings for another few games at STAPLES Center.
If not, and hockey rules the roost, that's fine with me, too.
After all these years of unmet expectations, the Kings certainly deserve the spotlight to themselves.
And their fans deserve to rock the house.
