Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa yesterday defended the decision to stage a victory parade for the NBA champion Lakers, saying it's important to celebrate even at a time of high unemployment and home foreclosures.

Villaraigosa said that some of the city's wealthiest power brokers have kicked in $850,000 of nearly $1 million in city costs for today's parade and rally. The Lakers and AEG, which owns Staples Center, are paying for another $1 million in production costs.

"We intend to do everything we can to minimize the cost to the city," the mayor said at a news conference on the Lakers' practice court in El Segundo. "If we hadn't had a parade, you'd have a whole other bevy of people criticizing the city. How could we do that? How could we not celebrate this tremendous Laker victory?"

The mayor and other officials had sought donations after critics blasted the idea of using city money when Los Angeles is considering layoffs to close a half-billion-dollar budget gap.

Today's event begins at Staples Center and ends at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

TV RATINGS

LAKERS-MAGIC FINAL DIDN'T SCORE TOO WELL

Television ratings for the NBA finals are down from last year. The five games on ABC between the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic averaged an 8.4 rating.

That's down close to 10 percent from last season's 9.3 for the six-game Lakers-Celtics series, which was boosted by Boston's large market and traditional rivalry with L.A.

It's still up 35 percent from the record-low 6.2 for San Antonio's sweep of Cleveland two years ago.

Ratings represent the percentage of all households with televisions tuned into a program.