71.   Life as a backup center on the Lakers is rough these days.

72.   Lawson, forward Chuck Kornegay and backup center Ron Wilson provided the muscle.

73.   Mavericks coach Don Nelson said backup center Wang Zhizhi has earned himself some more playing time with his performance Saturday against Washington.

74.   Meanwhile, their backup center, Chris Dudley, will very likely have his contract bought out at the end of this season.

75.   Meanwhile, the search for a backup center, which last week included a Darryl Dawkins workout, centered Wednesday on the itinerant Tito Horford.

76.   Mike Devlin, veteran backup center on the Cardinals, says age plays a bigger role than invincibility.

77.   Mike Gisler, a backup center who once started for Bill Parcells at New England, has been signed by the Jets as a free agent.

78.   Minor scuffle at practice between backup center Adam Schreiber and a practice-squad player, Darnell Gilliard.

79.   Michael Cage is gone from the front line and Bill Cartwright is on board as a backup center.

80.   Offensive line depth should improve in two weeks when backup center and long-snapper Dale Hellestrae returns from a broken thumb injury.