The Sports Report: Clippers routed by the Knicks

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

From Andrew Greif: While trailing by as many as 26 points to a Knicks team that had bumbled its way to a 3-17 since Jan. 17 entering Sunday, the Clippers missed from all distances, from a dunk, layups, mid-range jumpers and hoists from deep in a 116-93 loss to New York.

They missed in all manners. A three-pointer by Robert Covington circled the circumference of the rim twice before cruelly spinning out. Another three by Terance Mann banked too hard off the backboard. Isaiah Hartenstein’s one-handed floater in the fourth quarter didn’t touch iron, at all.

Three days after the Clippers’ dead-eye accuracy against the Lakers marked one extreme – the Clippers’ 63% three-point shooting was their best against the Lakers since 1994 – Sunday’s revealed the other in stark contrast. The Clippers needed six minutes and 14 attempts to make their first shot of the second quarter.

But their most consequential miss wasn’t one shot but felt over the course of four minutes. With their 26-point deficit cut to just 12 entering the fourth quarter, another comeback seemingly in the offing, the Clippers didn’t score from the time 43 seconds remaining in the third quarter until 8:31 was left to play in the fourth– a span in which the Knicks’ lead was back to a healthy 22, and led Clippers coach Tyronn Lue to insert rarely used reserves, his team’s five-game winning streak ended by a New York team that has struggled against almost everybody but the Clippers during the past six weeks.

Amir Coffey scored 16 points off the bench to lead the Clippers, who also got 14 points from Hartenstein. Only Terance Mann (11 points) and Reggie Jackson (10, with 0-of-8 shooting from deep) scored in double figures, the last stat line jarring when compared to Jackson’s 36-point masterpiece only three days earlier against the Lakers.

Just as the Knicks grabbed 12 more rebounds and saw R.J. Barrett score 28 points in their matinee victory against the Clippers in January, Barrett dropped 24 points and the Knicks’ size, led by center Mitchell Robinson, caused problems yet again.

LAKERS

From Dan Woike: With the good vibes from LeBron James’ 56-point game still filling the back rooms of Crypto.com Arena, Lakers teammate Carmelo Anthony smiled as he tried to make an important distinction in the hooper’s glossary.

“We all know he can score the ball,” Anthony said. “I think the difference is some people aren’t pure scorers. Some people have a knack for scoring, know how to score and it just comes to them, skill sets and things of that nature. And then you have players like LeBron who know how to put the ball in the hole, who know how to score the basketball.

“It’s totally different types of players, different dynamics.”

As he tried to explain the difference between someone who knows how to score and someone who is a “pure” scorer, Anthony stumbled into what will undoubtedly be a debate talking point over the next year as James tries to track down Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA’s all-time scoring record.

Anthony said even James would admit there’s a difference.

Anthony’s opinion matters — James is the only player currently in the NBA to put the ball in the basket more than Anthony.

“There are guys who are out there in the league … he would attest to that … the [Kevin Durant’s], myself, the guys who just score. That’s what we do. That’s not what he does,” Anthony said. “He just knows how to do it at high clip and a high level.”

Eventually, assuming injuries don’t stop him, James will have done it at a higher level than anyone. It’s a unique situation, a player who seemed to fight off the “scorer” label who ends up doing it better than everyone else.

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LAFC

Mamadou Fall scored the tying goal for LAFC in a 1-1 draw with the Portland Timbers.

Fall’s goal came in the third minute of stoppage time for LAFC (1-0-1). Brian Rodriguez had an assist on the goal.

Yimmi Chara was the only member of the Timbers (0-0-2) to score.

LAFC outshot the Timbers 14-5, with six shots on goal to three for the Timbers.

Maxime Crepeau saved two of the three shots he faced for LAFC. Aljaz Ivacic had five saves for the Timbers.

Portland played a man down for about 30 minutes after Claudio Bravo was shown yellow cards in the 36th and 62nd minutes.

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KINGS

Andreas Athanasiou scored twice, including the 100th of his career, Cal Petersen stopped 19 shots and the Kings defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-0.

After Athanasiou opening the scoring with 3:05 left in the second period, he and Dustin Brown sealed the win by scoring into an empty net in the final minute. Petersen earned his second shutout of the season and fourth of his career, while facing the team that initially drafted him.

Los Angeles, which rallied from a 3-1 third-period deficit for a 4-3 overtime win at Columbus on Friday, has won seven of nine and improved to 10-1-2 over its last 13 road games. At 31-19-7, the Kings have the most victories through 57 games since 2015-16, when they were 33-20-4.

DUCKS

Rickard Rakell scored 14 seconds into overtime, and the Ducks beat the Sharks 3-2 for their second win over San Jose during a six-game homestand.

Adam Henrique had a goal and an assist, while Anthony Stolarz made 20 saves in Anaheim’s fourth victory in 11 games. The Ducks went 3-3-0 on their longest homestand of the season.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic ended his 76-game goal drought and Logan Couture also scored for the Sharks, who have lost 11 of 13. Zach Sawchenko stopped 33 shots for San Jose, which rebounded solidly from an embarrassing 8-0 loss to Nashville one night earlier.

USC

From Ryan Kartje: USC men’s and women’s swimming coach Jeremy Kipp has resigned amid an investigation into multiple allegations of abusive treatment of Trojans swimmers .

Kipp stepped down Sunday after two seasons at the helm of a program he once told The Times was his “dream job.” The coach said in a statement announcing his resignation that he was stepping down “due to the difficulty of these last few months.”

Kipp had been on administrative leave since October while the university investigated allegations against the coach, who in 2020 became one of the first coaching hires made by current USC athletic director Mike Bohn.

In a statement announcing that Kipp resigned, Bohn expressed USC’s appreciation for “Jeremy’s nearly 10 years of service to our swim programs. We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1921 — Cy Denneny of the Ottawa Senators scores six goals in a 12-5 victory over the Hamilton Tigers.

1951 — Ezzard Charles wins a unanimous 15-round decision over Jersey Joe Walcott to retain the world heavyweight title in Detroit.

1954 — The Minneapolis Lakers and Milwaukee Hawks experiment with the baskets raised from 10 feet to 12 feet during an exhibition game. George Mikan and the Lakers win 65-63.

1970 — Austin Carr scores an NCAA tournament record 61 points as Notre Dame routs Ohio University 112-82. Carr hits 25 of 44 field goals and 11 of 14 free throws.

1974 — New Orleans is granted an NBA franchise.

1977 — Anthony Roberts of Oral Roberts scores 65 points in a 90-89 loss to Oregon in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.

1983 — Phil Mahre wins the Alpine World Cup championship for the third straight year to become the third person to win three consecutive titles.

1987 — Thomas Hearns wins his third championship, the WBC light heavyweight title, with a 10-round TKO of Dennis Andries.

1996 — Magic Johnson becomes the second NBA player to reach 10,000 career assists, getting the milestone on the go-ahead basket in the Lakers’ 102-90 victory over Sacramento.

2012 — Lionel Messi becomes the first player to score five goals in a Champions League soccer match, helping defending champion Barcelona crush Bayer Leverkusen 7-1 to advance to the quarterfinals with a 10-2 aggregate win.

2012 — Kikkan Randall adds a World Cup crystal globe to her stash and carves out another slice of history for the U.S ski team. Randall is the first American in 30 years to win a cross country championship by clinching the overall sprint title. Randall’s 11th-place finish at a race in Norway secures the championship with one race left in the season.

2014 — The U.S. women’s soccer team’s two-year unbeaten streak ends at 43 games with a 1-0 loss to Sweden at the Algarve Cup in Albufiera, Portugal. The U.S. had been 36-0-7 since a 1-0 loss to Japan at the Algarve Cup on March 5, 2012.

2015 — Kentucky (31-0) becomes the first men’s basketball team from a major conference to go undefeated in the regular season since Indiana in 1976. Wichita State of the Missouri Valley Conference went undefeated in the regular season in 2014.

2016 — Stephen Curry scores 41 points and becomes the first player in NBA history to make 300 3-pointers in a season, and the Golden State Warriors set another record by holding off the Orlando Magic 119-113 for their 45th straight home victory.

Supplied by the Associated Press

And finally

Magic Johnson gets his 10,000th assist. Watch and listen here.