The Sports Report: New-look Lakers struggle in loss to Charlotte

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Dan Woike: JJ Redick, renewed by the All-Star break, bounded through the halls of the Lakers’ arena like a rested golden retriever. His team had a week off and a clean injury report, a 30-game sprint to the finish with a chance to have their best regular-season finish since their 2020 title run.

There were reasons everywhere to be excited. The 48 minutes that followed in a miserable 100-97 loss, though, wouldn’t provide any of them, the Lakers bad on offense for most of the night and unable to get a stop down the stretch.

“I think we played, I don’t even know, 39 to 44 minutes of pretty poor offense,” Redick said postgame. “And some of that’s to be expected. Some of it was sloppiness, some of it was poor spacing, some of it was poor execution. I don’t, I’m not going to, the reason I’m not going to read too much into that is because I think our guys competed tonight and they played extremely hard.”

LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges broke down the Lakers’ defense time and again in the fourth quarter, the Hornets hunting Luka Doncic and attacking a defense sorely lacking rim protection.

The Lakers missed a pair of key free throws, and while a LeBron James bailout three gave them some hope, his two chances at forcing overtime on the Lakers’ final possession rattled out.

Continue reading here

Lakers box score

NBA scores

NBA standings

USC BASKETBALL

From Anthony De Leon: When the stakes are highest against ranked opponents, JuJu Watkins plays her best basketball — and Wednesday’s game versus No. 22 Michigan State was no exception.

Entering the matchup, Watkins was averaging 24.4 points and 8.0 rebounds against Top 25 opponents. Against the Spartans, she scored 28 points and had eight rebounds in leading led USC to an 83-75 win at the Galen Center, securing the team’s seventh victory over a ranked opponent.

And even when Watkins was slowed down with an early injury, USC (24-2 overall, 14-1 Big Ten) showed why it is one of the nation’s best teams, relying on its depth to step up.

While the win is largely credited to Watkins’ performance, teammate Kiki Iriafen also played at a level comparable to the superstar, something she’s quietly done all season. Both scored in double figures and led the Trojans during crucial moments, securing the victory.

“JuJu and Kiki are the best duo in the country,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “They played like it tonight. It was the type of game where they were trying to make it chaotic. And sometimes players have just had to make plays.”

Continue reading here

USC box score

Big Ten standings

AP top 25 rankings

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Troy Tulowitzki never knew Mookie Betts particularly well during their time together in Major League Baseball.

A five-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove shortstop, Tulowitzki played against Betts plenty near the end of his 13-year career, overlapping with the start of Betts’ rise to stardom with the Boston Red Sox. The two had mutual friends and were division foes for three years while Tulowitzki was with the Toronto Blue Jays from 2015 to 2017.

But as Betts embarked on a tireless training program this offseason, preparing to play the position full-time for the Dodgers after his inconsistent three-month stretch last season, he reached out to Tulowitzki and asked to spend some time training together.

Tulowitzki, now an assistant coach with the Texas Longhorns, happily obliged — excited to work with a player of Betts’ caliber and, like the rest of the baseball world, also curious to see how the six-time Gold Glove right fielder would fare in his virtually unprecedented position switch.

Fast-forward a few months, however, and you can count Tulowitzki among the growing contingent of those sold on Betts’ potential at shortstop.

“I wouldn’t say this for anybody else that’s just spent however many years in the outfield and then go to the infield,” Tulowitzki said of a position change that has no equivalent in recent baseball history. “But I can truly tell you, I think he can be an elite defender at the position — which is just crazy to say.”

Continue reading here

Dodgers rookie phenom Roki Sasaki pleased with first live session of spring training

The Dodgers have a record-setting payroll. Could their spending impact future CBA talks?

CHARGERS

From Sam Farmer and Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The Chargers will open Year 2 of the Jim Harbaugh era in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the NFL announced Wednesday, giving the team its first international game since 2019 in the league’s second regular-season game in South America.

Following last year’s Sao Paulo game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers that started the Super Bowl path for the eventual champion Eagles, the Chargers will open their season on Friday, Sept. 5, at Arena Corinthians, the venue that hosted last year’s historic NFL game, the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

The Chargers will become the NFL’s first franchise to play games on five continents, having played their first international game nearly 50 years ago. In 1976, they faced the then-St. Louis Cardinals in the preseason Mainichi Star Bowl in Tokyo. They later played preseason games in Berlin, Germany, and Sydney, Australia, with regular-season contests in London and Mexico City.

Continue reading here

USC FOOTBALL

From Ryan Kartje: After years of showcasing its football team at the end of every spring, USC will not host a spring game in 2025, a person familiar with the decision but not authorized to speak publicly told The Times.

Spring games had been held at USC since Pete Carroll strolled the sidelines of the Coliseum, giving fans a chance to get a first glimpse of the football team months ahead of the coming season.

But the decision to do away with the traditional exhibition comes as the major college football landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Big Ten counterparts Nebraska and Ohio State also moved recently to cancel their spring games, and it’s likely that others will be close behind.

Continue reading here

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1887 — The International Association, the first minor league baseball association, is organized in Pittsburgh.

1951 — The college point-shaving scandal prompts Long Island University to drop basketball and all other intercollegiate sports. LIU revives basketball in 1957.

1971 — En route to a record 76-goal season, Boston’s Phil Esposito becomes the first player to score his 50th goal in February, but the Bruins lose to the Kings, 5-4.

1972 — Larry Brown of the Denver Rockets sets ABA records for assists in a game (23), half (18) and quarter (10) during a 146-123 home win over the Pittsburgh Condors.

1974 — Gordie Howe, the NHL’s career scoring leader, comes out of retirement and signs a $1 million, four-year contract to play with the Houston Aeros of the WHA and sons Mark and Marty.

1976 — Muhammad Ali beats Jean-Pierre Coopman with a fifth-round knockout at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in Puerto Rico to defend his world heavyweight title.

1988 — In Calgary, Alberta, Brian Boitano of the U.S. wins the Olympic figure skating gold medal on a technical merit tiebreaker and nearly flawless free skate.

1993 — Julio Cesar Chavez records a fifth-round TKO over Greg Haugen in a WBC super lightweight title bout before a record crowd of 130,000 at Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium.

1998 — Tara Lipinski, 15, becomes the youngest Olympic figure skating champion, beating fellow teen and U.S. teammate Michelle Kwan to take the gold. Lipinski is two months younger than Sonja Henie was in her 1928 victory.

2006 — Tanith Belbin and partner Ben Agosto end the U.S. medals drought in Olympic ice dance competition with a silver. The last to do so were Colleen O’Connor and James Millns, who won bronze in 1976.

2009 — Lindsey Van of the U.S. becomes the first female ski jumping world champion. Women’s ski jumping makes its debut at this year’s Nordic world championships in the Czech Republic. Todd Lodwick wins the opening Nordic combined event to give the U.S. two golds in one day. Before Van’s victory, the U.S. had not won a gold at a Nordic worlds since 2003 when Johnny Spillane took a Nordic combined sprint.

2010 — Switzerland’s Simon Ammann wins the large hill at the Vancouver Games to become the first ski jumper with four individual Olympic titles.

2011 — Trevor Bayne, 20, wins the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s biggest race, in only his second Sprint Cup start.

2011 — Kobe Bryant wins his record-tying fourth All-Star game MVP award, scoring 37 points before his hometown fans and leading the West past the East 148-143.

2016 — Lindsey Vonn clinches a record 20th World Cup crystal globe title and surpasses Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark. It’s Vonn’s record eighth downhill title. Stenmark won 19 globes between 1975 and 1984.

2021 — Australian Open Women’s Tennis: Naomi Osaka of Japan wins her 4th major and second Australian title; beats American Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3.

2022 — Hannah Green of Australia becomes first woman to win a mix-gender golf tournament over 72 holes; closes with 5-under 66 for a 4-stroke win in TPS Murray River on the PGA Tour of Australasia.

Compiled by the Associated Press