Today in the Daily Sports Roundup: Chris Paul and the Hornets take on Kobe Bryant’s Lakers, the Mavs battle the Rockets, and the Ducks travel up to Detroit.

Tipping off on the hardwood  . . .

The Hornets will be in Los Angeles to meet the Lakers in the top NBA matchup on a busy Friday slate for the league that features 11 games. The Hornets dealt center Tyson Chandler to the Thunder on Tuesday afternoon in exchange for forwards Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox, then beat Oklahoma City 100-98 that night.  However, Chandler failed a physical on Wednesday and the trade was reversed.

The struggling Thunder will be in Phoenix to play the Suns on Friday; Alvin Gentry guided his team to a 140-100 spanking of the Clippers in his debut as the Suns’ interim head coach on Tuesday night. As well, it’ll be Orlando at Charlotte, Toronto at New York, Sacramento at Memphis, Washington at New Jersey, Indiana at Minnesota, Denver at Chicago, and Atlanta at Portland, while LeBron James and his Cavaliers will hit the road for a game in Milwaukee vs. the Bucks.

Finally, the Mavericks will meet the Rockets in Houston in a big Western clash on Friday. The Rockets knocked off New Jersey 114-88 on Tuesday night thanks to 20 points and 12 boards from Yao Ming. However, Houston swingman Tracy McGrady is expected to miss the rest of the year thanks to a chronic knee injury.

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The march toward Madness . . .

None of the big conferences are in action on the college hoops schedule on Friday night; smaller matchups of note include Illinois State at Niagara, and VCU at Nevada. As well, Ivy League leaders Cornell will be on the road to take on Yale; the Big Red sit at 17-7 SU and 11-7 ATS through 24 games on the season.

Taking a trip around the rink . . .

The National Hockey League offers up just three games on Friday night, including Anaheim on the road in Detroit. Those two teams last met January 14 in Southern California, with the Wings winning 4-3. Niklas Kronwall had a pair of assists for Detroit in that game, while Ryan Getzlaf had three points for Anaheim. Also on the NHL schedule: Tampa Bay at Carolina, and Colorado at Washington.

Rounding out the Roundup . . .

The Sprint Cup Series will run its second race of the season, the Auto Club 500, this weekend, with Jimmie Johnson looking to pick up a Top-10 result after a disappointing finish in last week’s Daytona 500 (31^st place). The defending Cup champion, though, is still pegged as the big 3/1 favorite to take the series title again this year, with Kyle Busch the closest to him on the Vegas list at 4/1 odds.

Carl Edwards is listed at 5/1 odds to win the 2009 Sprint Cup Championship on the Vegas lines, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 8/1, Denny Hamlin at 10/1, and each of Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, and Matt Kenseth at 12/1. Rookie driver Joey Logano finished dead last in the Daytona 500, and he’s at 75/1 odds to get the Cup win.

Sports Headlines

The Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs are making the biggest rises in the odds to win the World Series…Tiger Woods will return from ACL surgery at next week’s World Golf Championships….Reports are that Boston Celtics superstar Kevin Garnett is heading back to Boston for an MRI.