The Sports Report: Athletes react to the Derek Chauvin verdict

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

David Wharton on the sports world’s reaction to the Derek Chauvin verdict: It was last summer that pro athletes raised their voices in unison to protest the death of Black men at the hands of police, their protest temporarily shutting down sports across the country.

So it makes sense that Tuesday, after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd, athletes spoke up again in tones that ranged from joyous to guarded.

“ACCOUNTABILITY,” LeBron James tweeted.

Magic Johnson was more effusive: “Thank God … guilty! Justice has been served!”

A little closer to the situation, the Minnesota Timberwolves and their WNBA colleagues, the Lynx, posted a statement: “We are hopeful that today’s decision will serve as a step forward, but it does not ease the physical and emotional pain that continues in an environment where systemic racism exists.”

The intersection of sports and social justice dates at least as far back as Jackie Robinson shattering baseball’s color barrier in 1947. The 1960s were marked by Muhammad Ali’s refusal to go to Vietnam and a protest from sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith, who raised their fists on an Olympic podium.

More recently, Colin Kaepernick added fuel to a national debate when he took a knee during the national anthem.

In the summer of 2020, after police in Kenosha, Wisc., shot a 29-year-old Black man named Jacob Blake, the Milwaukee Bucks decided to sit out an NBA playoff game, triggering walkouts that spread quickly to baseball, soccer, hockey and tennis.

At the time, James said: “I know people are getting tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as Black people in America. Black men, Black women, Black kids, we are terrified.”

Mookie Betts led the way for the Dodgers, deciding to sit out a game in San Francisco. His teammates quickly joined him, with Clayton Kershaw talking about “standing up for what we believe is right.”

The WNBA had played a particularly notable role dating back to 2016 when players drew league fines for wearing “Black Lives Matter” shirts during warmups.

Some responses were measured, even after the jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson said, “Love wins.”

Tennis star Naomi Osaka, whose father is Haitian and mother Japanese, tweeted this: “I was going to make a celebratory tweet but then I was hit with sadness because we are celebrating something that is clear as day. The fact that so many injustices occurred to make us hold our breath toward this outcome is really telling.”

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USC football postpones practice after Derek Chauvin guilty verdict

DODGERS

Jorge Castillo on the Dodgers: The best news the Dodgers could have received Tuesday, regardless of whatever happened on the field at T-Mobile Park, was confirmed before they beat the Seattle Mariners 1-0.

Manager Dave Roberts said X-rays on Mookie Betts’ right forearm were negative. He isn’t expected to miss extended time after he was hit by a pitch in the ninth inning Monday in a 4-3 loss to the Mariners.

Betts didn’t play Tuesday — he was available only as a pinch-runner — but he’s expected to start Thursday when the Dodgers (14-4) open a four-game series against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium.

“I was hoping it would be soft tissue, something soft tissue,” Roberts said. “As opposed to the wrist or elbow or something like that. So I guess [this is] best-case scenario and there was a slight exhale once he wanted to stay in there. So that’s part of it, the soreness, but I think that we dodged a bullet there.”

The game itself was a pitcher’s duel. The Dodgers struggled to score for the fourth straight game, but a three-man pitching crew made sure the one run held up. Julio Urías recorded the best start of his career, Victor Gonzalez tossed a scoreless eighth inning, and vintage Kenley Jansen emerged to shut the door in the ninth for the Dodgers’ fifth shutout win in 11 games.

Urías held Seattle to one hit and a walk with a career-high 11 strikeouts over seven innings. The Mainers’ only hit off him was Mitch Haniger’s two-out dribbler for an infield single in the third inning. Their only other baserunner against Urias reached on a walk in the first inning.

CLIPPERS

Andrew Greif on the Clippers: Considering the sizable holes in each roster Tuesday, it would have been easy to dismiss the Clippers’ 113-112 win in Portland as a shell of the first-round playoff preview this matchup currently appears on paper.

The Clippers, the Western Conference’s third-place team, were missing All-Star Kawhi Leonard — who will be out at least three games while managing soreness in his right foot — as well as starters Serge Ibaka and Patrick Beverley and because of it, used this season’s 21st different starting lineup.

The sixth-place Trail Blazers, with All-Star Damian Lillard out for a third straight game because of a hamstring, and center Enes Kanter sidelined, too, were missing their offensive engine and dominant rebounder.

And yet should these teams meet again for a seven-game series in late May, there could be lessons the Clippers draw on from one month earlier. They swept the regular-season series with Portland by doing the kind of thing that has happened so rarely — winning a tight game in the final minutes — by replicating some of the discomfort they had caused Portland’s backcourt in two previous wins, when they had trapped and blitzed Lillard into two ineffective performances.

ANGELS

Mike DiGiovanna on the Angels: Shohei Ohtani hopped off the mound and strode confidently toward the dugout after his fourth-inning strikeout of Isiah Kiner-Falefa on Tuesday night, the Angels right-hander having applied the finishing touches to an erratic but scoreless start that seemed to raise as much concern as hope.

The blister on the middle finger of Ohtani’s pitching hand that relegated the two-way star to just hitting for two weeks was not an issue, at least physically. Ohtani threw 80 pitches, five more than his soft 75-pitch limit, giving up one hit, striking out seven and walking six in a 6-2 win over the Texas Rangers.

While his average fastball velocity of 95.6 mph was down from 98.1mph in his previous start April 4, Ohtani’s final three four-seamers of the game clocked in at 97 mph or above, and his split-fingered fastball was devastating, the finishing pitch to six of his seven strikeout victims.

But Ohtani had trouble locating his fastball and threw only 37 of 80 pitches for strikes. He fell behind at some point on 13 of the 19 batters he faced. Four walks came on four pitches.

He walked the bases loaded with one out in the first inning but struck out Nick Solak and Willie Calhoun on splitters to escape the jam. He walked Adolis Garcia and hit Brock Holt with a pitch with two outs in the fourth before whiffing Kiner-Falefa.

Ohtani was both wild and dominant, a combination that garnered a piece of history: Since 1901, there had never been a game in which a pitcher tossed at least four scoreless innings with at least seven strikeouts and six walks.

KINGS-DUCKS

Andreas Athanasiou and Blake Lizotte each had a goal and two assists and the Kings defeated the Ducks 4-1 on Tuesday night.

Anze Kopitar and Carl Grundstrom also scored for the Kings, who had gone 14 games since their last win by at least three goals, against St. Louis on March 17. Cal Petersen made 24 saves.

“Had a bit of a rough stretch a little bit ago and we’re still within reach of a playoff spot we feel,” Lizotte said. “We believe that we can get there, so it’s playoff hockey this time of year and the intensity (will) just continue to ramp up. I think we just need to focus on our details of our game. When we take care of our details, we’re tough to beat.”

Cam Fowler scored, Anthony Stolarz made 18 saves and the Ducks lost their third straight.

UCLA MEN’S BASKETBALL

Ben Bolch on the Bruins: Johnny Juzang is about to find out how much his NCAA tournament scoring spree boosted his professional stock.

The UCLA sophomore guard announced on social media Tuesday that he would declare for the NBA draft while retaining his college eligibility, preserving his ability to return for one more college season.

The move allows Juzang, who averaged 22.8 points during the Bruins’ unexpected run to the Final Four, to gather information about where he might be selected in the draft before making his decision. He has until July 7 to withdraw from the draft and preserve his college eligibility.

Three NBA scouts who recently spoke with The Times said they were intrigued by Juzang’s scoring ability but did not consider him a probable first-round pick in what’s expected to be a deep draft. Two of the scouts said they would like to see Juzang develop more of an all-around game, including improved defense, and show he can sustain his scoring outburst over more than a handful of games before heading to the NBA.

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1951 — Bob Davies’ two foul shots and Jack Coleman’s layup give the Rochester Royals a 79-75 triumph over the New York Knicks in the seventh game of the NBA championship series.

1951 — The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in five years as they beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in the fifth game.

1980 — Bill Rodgers wins his third straight Boston Marathon. Rosie Ruiz is disqualified eight days later as women’s champion when it’s discovered she did not run the entire distance.

1995 — Defending champion Utah continues its domination of the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships, capturing its ninth national title since the event began in 1982 with a score of 196.650.

1996 — The Chicago Bulls wrap up the most successful regular season in NBA history with their 72nd victory, getting 26 points from Michael Jordan in a 103-93 decision over Washington. Jordan sets an NBA record by winning his eighth NBA scoring title, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record of seven.

2001 — Hasim Rahman flattens Lennox Lewis with a stunning right hand near the end of the fifth round to capture the WBC and IBF heavyweight titles in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history in Brakpan, South Africa.

2008 — Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya wins the Boston Marathon in 2:07:46 to become the fourth man to win the race four times. Ethiopia’s Dire Tune outkicks Alevtina Biktimirova after a back-and-forth last mile to win by 2 seconds in the closest finish in the history of the women’s race.

2012 — Phil Humber throws the first perfect game in the majors in almost two years, leading the Chicago White Sox to a 4-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

2013 — Raphael Jacquelin of France wins a record-tying playoff at the Spanish Open, edging Germany’s Maximilian Kieffer on their ninth try at the 18th hole. The only other European Tour event decided by a nine-hole playoff was the 1989 Dutch Open.

2013 — Takuma Sato becomes the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar race in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

2013 — Rookie Marc Marquez wins his first MotoGP race, capturing the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The 20-year-old Spaniard, last season’s Moto2 champion, becomes the youngest winner at motorcycle racing’s top level.

2013 — Joe Scarborough, a 50-year-old self-employed electrical contractor, rolls the first 900 series in Professional Bowlers Association history — three straight perfect games. He opened the first round of qualifying in the PBA50 Sun Bowl with three games of 300, throwing 36 consecutive strikes.

2014 — American Meb Keflezighi wins the Boston Marathon, a year after a bombing at the finish line left three dead and more than 260 people injured. No U.S. runner had won the race since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach took the women’s title in 1985; the last American man to win was Greg Meyer in 1983. Rita Jeptoo of Kenya successfully defends the Boston Marathon title, becoming the seventh three-time Boston Marathon champion.

And finally

A quick look at Rosie Ruiz and the Boston Marathon. Click here to watch.