La La will bless a charity of her choice with a portion of the proceeds.

“Jay-Z, I always respected him. Always. But I didn’t always like his music. I guess because I was too young, and I couldn’t understand what he was saying. … I got signed when I was 16 years old. Before I got signed, I heard the song, and I was like, ‘That’s Jay-Z.’

My favorite song from him was ‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder.’ I guess I liked the beat or the way he was flowing on there. Any other song I used to hear, I ain’t really vibe with it like that. I used to listen to a lot of Down South artists like Three 6 Mafia or Gucci Mane. But recently, since I’m older now and I grew up, I like Jay-Z now. I’m a fan of his music. At first, I used to just respect him because he was Jay-Z; now I’m a fan of his music and I wanna work with him. In the car ride over here, we was listening to ‘Brooklyn Go Hard,’ He said, ‘I’m Jackie Robinson — I jack, I rob, I sin.’ I didn’t know he was snapping like that. Back then, I couldn’t understand none of what he was saying.”

Making easy shots and tough ones from everywhere, the Magic won their first game in two visits to the NBA finals as Dwight Howard(notes) and Rashard Lewis(notes) scored 21 points apiece in a 108-104 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 on Tuesday night to pull within 2-1.

Orlando shot a finals record 63 percent—including another record 75 percent in the first half—to snap a six-game finals losing streak and avoid falling into an 0-3 hole that 88 previous teams in postseason history have been unable to escape.

“Well, it was going in the basket. That always works,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. “That formula’s always tried and true.”

In the series opener, the Magic couldn’t hit the Pacific Ocean, making only 29.9 percent and were blown out by 25 points. In Game 2, they were only slightly better, shooting 42 percent in an overtime loss. But back on their home court, where the baskets seem wider and more welcoming, the Magic shot their way back into this series. As Shaquille O’Neal(notes), still a presence long after leaving both franchises, posted on his Twitter page following the game: “By george I think we have a series.”

The Magic have a shot. No doubt.

Kobe Bryant(notes), seeking a fourth title and his first since 2002, scored 31 points for the Lakers but the superstar had just 10 points in the second half and went only 4 of 15 from the field after the first quarter. He also missed five free throws, points that could have given the Lakers that 3-0 lead.

Game 4 is Thursday night, and Game 5—now necessary—will be at Amway Arena on Sunday.

The Lakers, going for their 15th title and looking to redeem themselves for losing to Boston last season, have lost their stranglehold over the Magic.

“This is a tough team, not a cupcake team,” Bryant said. “Extremely well coached, execute well and we’ve got our work cut out.”

With their season 48 minutes from all but disappearing, the Magic, hosting their first finals game since 1995, had five players score at least 18 points. Rafer Alston(notes), who was just 3 of 17 from the field in the first two games, had 20 and Hedo Turkoglu(notes) and Mickael Pietrus(notes) 18 each.

“We lost two games, but there’s no need to roll over,” Howard said. “It’s a seven-game series. A team has to beat you four times to end the series and we felt good knowing that we had three games at home.”

Pau Gasol(notes) scored 23 points but had just three rebounds and the Lakers were only 16 of 26 from the line.

For a while, it appeared the Magic, who shot just 36 percent while dropping Games 1 and 2 at Staples Center, couldn’t or wouldn’t miss.

From 20 feet, swish. From 10 feet, nothing but net. Layups, runners, banks, pull-ups, didn’t matter. You name it, if it went up, more times than not it went in.

“We lost this game on the defensive end,” Bryant said. “We had been playing very good defense and the team tonight shoots 62 percent from the field.”

Orlando made 24 of 32 shots in the first half and only cooled off a little in the third quarter as they entered the fourth at a 65 percent clip and clinging to an 81-75 lead.

Bryant sat out the first 4:47 of the fourth, and when he finally subbed in, the Lakers were still down by five and unable to do anything to stop the Magic’s marksmanship.

But then, Orlando began to misfire at the worst time possible.

After Pietrus was long with a wide-open 3, Gasol was fouled at the other end and made two free throws to make it 99 all with 2:41 remaining. Orlando’s rowdy crowd, which waited 14 years for a chance to welcome the Larry O’Brien Trophy to town, grew nervous.

“Oh, boy,” muttered one fan near the media section.

But Pietrus calmed fears by dunking in a rare miss to put the Magic up two, and when Lewis hit a jumper—it was originally called a 3 but replays showed his right foot was on the line—Orlando was up 104-101.

Howard was called for a questionable foul on a drive by Bryant, who then split his two free throws. When he went to the Lakers bench during a timeout that followed, Bryant hit himself in the head for letting two more valuable points slip away.

Orlando couldn’t capitalize, though, and the Lakers got the ball back when Lewis missed a baseline jumper and the rebound went off him and out of bounds.

Bryant, who scored 17 in the first quarter and 21 by halftime, then maybe tried to do too much. He crossed over to get past Pietrus, but Howard, the league’s defensive player of the year known mostly for his blocks underneath, made like a point guard and tipped the ball away. Pietrus was fouled and made both to make it 106-102.

The Lakers suddenly became desperate. Instead of working the ball into Gasol or Lamar Odom(notes), they fired away from outside.

They couldn’t shoot with the Magic.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson couldn’t find any fault with his team’s low rebounding total.

“What kind of rebounds are they going to get?” he said. “Making the amount of shots they made, there’s not a whole lot of rebounds to be had out there.”

Bryant missed a 3, Trevor Ariza(notes) misfired on one, Bryant clanged another and Derek Fisher(notes) was long as the Lakers went 0 for 4 on a possession where they had to have points. Bryant did score on a putback with .05 seconds left, but it was too late and although there was still time left, confetti began to fall to the court.

Orlando Magic’s Rafer Alst…
AP – Jun 10, 12:50 am EDT
Jackson felt Bryant looked tired down the stretch.

“We’re all frail as humans,” he said. “Sometimes not as much as others.”

Orlando, which was swept by the Houston Rockets 14 years ago, could finally celebrate winning one on pro basketball’s biggest stage.

Bryant fouled Lewis with 0.2 seconds to go, and as Magic fans hugged and danced at an outcome they longed for, he dropped two more to seal it.

The last time Orlando hosted a finals game, Howard was a 9-year-old kid in Atlanta and Shaquille O’Neal was the Magic’s Superman.

Outside the cramped arena, which had a red Superman cape hanging off one wall, Orlando fans, one of them dressed as Jack Nicholson and carrying a sign that read: “Jack, You Can’t Handle The Truth,” gathered on the sidewalks hoping this would be a night their team could get back into the series.

They believed.

This was their magic night.

Prosecutors accused Max B., born Charly Wingate, of coordinating the robbery of two men at a Holiday Inn located in Northern New Jersey.

Max B.‘s ex-girlfriend Gina Conway testified that she and a stepbrother named Kelvin Leerdam were to rob two men of over $40,000 in cash during the robbery.

The plan went awry and resulted in the death of one of the robbery victims, David Taylor, who was shot at point-blank range in the face by Leerdam.

Conway testified against Max B. and Leerdam, in exchange for a sentence of 18 years on armed robbery and manslaughter charges.

Sources have told AllHipHop.com that Max B. was convicted on nine out of the 11 charges stacked against him.

Max B is scheduled to be sentenced July 30.

He faces up to 25 years in prison for his part in the crime.

They were lucky and relieved, but hardly satisfied.

It’s not time for that.

“What’s there to be happy about?” Bryant asked, unwilling to crack a smile on the menacing game face he has maintained for a week. “The job is not finished.”

The Lakers needed a miss by Orlando rookie guard Courtney Lee(notes) on a perfectly executed alley-oop play in the final second of regulation to get to overtime, then escaped with a 101-96 win over the Magic on Sunday night to take a 2-0 lead in the NBA finals.

So dominant in winning the opener, the Lakers squeaked by.

But by 25 points or by one, they had a victory. “I don’t think we dodged a bullet,” Bryant said. “They bounced back like we knew they would, played extremely well, and we got out of here with a win.”

Pau Gasol(notes) scored seven of his 24 points in overtime and Bryant finished with 29 for the Lakers, who became the fifth straight team to win the first two games of the series at home. In that span, only the 2006 Dallas Mavericks failed to win a title after being up 2-0.

And since the NBA went to the 2-3-2 format in 1985, 11 of 12 teams winning the first two games have gone on to win the championship.

The Lakers are now off to Florida for Game 3 on Tuesday night at Amway Arena. They’ll play at least two games there with a chance to win their 15th title.

“We just did our job defending our home court,” Bryant said. “Now it’s time to go to Orlando and see if we can’t get one.”

The Magic had their chance in Game 2. Lee missed it—and he actually had two shots at putting Orlando ahead.

With the score tied at 88-88, he drove the lane and misfired on a contested layup with 10.5 seconds remaining.

The Lakers called time with 9.1 seconds to play, and after Lamar Odom(notes) caught the inbound pass, he quickly gave it to Bryant, who drove into a crowd. Bryant attempted an off-balance 12-footer, but his shot was blocked from behind by Turkoglu with 1.8 seconds left.

The horn sounded and the star-studded Staples Center crowd braced for overtime.

But the officials huddled at the scorer’s table and decided to put 0.6 seconds back on the clock because Turkoglu grabbed the ball and called timeout.

Turkoglu couldn’t find anyone open on the initial inbound play and had to call time again. On the Magic’s second attempt, Lee got free on a perfectly executed play and caught Turkoglu’s long lob pass as he neared the left side of the basket.

But with 7-foot Gasol closing in on him, Lee slightly altered his shot, which caromed off the backboard and the front of the rim.

“I caught it and just tried to make a play,” Lee said. “We didn’t lose the game just because I missed the layup. We could have won the game.”

Penny Marshall, center, talks …
AP – Jun 8, 12:56 am EDT
Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy, able to speak at length on any topic, struggled to explain Lee’s miss.

“Hedo made a great pass, and we missed it,” Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said. “I just don’t know what else to say about it. It was a great pass, it was right there, and he missed it.”

Bryant knew how fortunate the Lakers were to hang on.

“It was just a brilliant play,” Bryant said. “It was just a very, very smart play that he (Van Gundy) drew up. He knew my eye was more on the shooters coming up and just a hell of a play by a hell of a coach.”

Rashard Lewis(notes) scored 34, Howard had 17 points and 16 rebounds and Turkoglu 22 points.

Fourteen years to the day, the Magic got another dose of finals misery.

On June 7, 1995, Orlando had a chance to put Houston away in Game 1, but Magic guard Nick Anderson missed four late free throws in a 120-118 loss to the Rockets, who went on to sweep Orlando in its only previous finals visit.

The Magic will head home thinking about what might have been. They could be tied 1-1, and with the next three games scheduled in front of their frenzied fans, they could have denied Bryant and the Lakers their first title since 2002.

“We’ve just got to go home and take care of business,” Howard said. “We’ve been in some tough situations. We’ve

Kelis continued, concluding that in relationships, women should “take more responsibility,” and that “men are driven by something different [than] we are.”

As previously reported [click to read], Kelis cited irreconcilable differences as the reason behind the divorce. Numerous theories, including the aforementioned infidelity, as well as a Kelis sex tape have been circulating.

Kelis is currently eight months pregnant with Nas’ child.