Newsletter: The Sports Report: Lakers’ bad luck strikes again as LeBron James watches another loss
Howdy, I’m your host, Iliana Limón Romero, filling in for Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.
From Dan Woike: Gregg Popovich called a timeout, walking directly from his bench across the court in an angered rush. He pointed at a fan in a blue, collared shirt in the second row and motioned for him to get in the game.
That fan? Hall of Famer David Robinson.
Turns out, the Spurs didn’t need him — San Antonio gaining a game on the Lakers in the race for one of the final play-in tournament spots with a 117-110 victory.
The win ties Popovich with Don Nelson for the most NBA coaching wins with 1,335 regular-season victories.
Plenty of the greats were at the Spurs-Lakers game Monday night in San Antonio, and like Robinson, most of them weren’t in uniform.
Just like Popovich wished he could’ve had Robinson in the game patrolling the paint, Lakers coach Frank Vogel just had to look down his bench for players he wished he could use — a group that Monday included LeBron James.
James sat out the game against the Spurs, swelling and soreness in his left knee coming just two days after he scored 56 points in a win the Lakers desperately needed against the Golden State Warriors.
“Every time we win and get some momentum, something happens,” Russell Westbrook said.
READ MORE:
Russell Westbrook says fans are harassing family as Lakers continue to struggle
LeBron James won’t play for Lakers vs. Spurs because of knee injury
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SOCCER
From Kevin Baxter: The images coming out of the main soccer stadium in the central Mexican city of Querétaro are as indelible as they are indefensible.
On Saturday, early in the second half of a Mexican league game between visiting Atlas, the reigning champion, and Querétaro FC, a team that has never finished better than sixth in the standings, a riot broke out in Estadio Corregidora, named for a hero in Mexico’s war of independence.
Fans attacked one another with chairs, metal bars, knifes, belts, fists and feet, with official reports saying as many as 26 people were hospitalized, three in critical condition. A competing report said the number was nearly twice that high.
On Sunday, the local government said there were no fatalities, but images of bloody and unconscious bodies — including one of a man lying naked in a pool of his own blood — as well as interviews with some victims and family members indicated fans were killed.
Reports cited by independent observers, including TV Azteca journalist David Medrano, said 17 people had died. Others reported the toll was higher.
On Sunday, Medrano tweeted out a photo and confirmation of one of the dead fans, an Atlas fan. At least two other videos surfaced Sunday of Atlas fans who insisted they had friends who died in the stadium attacks.
In response, Liga MX, Mexico’s domestic soccer league, pointed back to the state’s statement that no one had died. Many questioned it.
“Mexico’s had a history of distrust with government officials over death tolls, whether that’s students gone missing, whether that’s femicide, whether that’s COVID deaths,” said Hérculez Gómez, a former U.S. national team player who spent six seasons in the Mexican league. “There’s a history of government misinformation and distrust amongst its people. And that’s going on right now.
“That’s the worst part. That’s the scary part.”
READ MORE: Everything we know about the Atlas vs. Querétaro soccer match that turned violent
From Kevin Baxter: Crystal Dunn has two dates circled on her calendar.
One is in mid-May, when she is scheduled to give birth to her first child, a boy. The other is in July 2023, when she hopes to play in her second Women’s World Cup.
Getting from one such milestone to the next was once considered difficult, if not dangerous for world-class athletes like Dunn. But now soccer moms have become commonplace around the U.S. national team.
Because the prime years of a soccer career are also the safest and most common years to give birth, women once had to choose whether they wanted to play soccer or start a family. Now, increasingly, they’re deciding they want to do both. If Dunn makes the roster in 2023, she will become the seventh woman since 2012 to play for the national team after giving birth and the 14th overall.
“I always wanted to be a mom alongside my playing career,” said Dunn, 29, a World Cup champion and two-time Olympian. “I think it was just about waiting for the right time. These last couple of years have been a lot physically, mentally, emotionally. Those were the years that really got me realizing that I want to be a mom.”
That realization hit Alex Morgan just after the last World Cup, where she scored a tournament-high six goals and had three assists in winning her second straight championship. At 30, she was in the best form of her career and acknowledged she had “that fear of not being able to get back to where I was 100%.”
The reality has been just the opposite. Her daughter, Charlie, who turns 2 in May, has given Morgan’s career a boost.
“The best part of the game is getting to see Charlie after,” she said. “As much as I love playing soccer, and doing that every single day, I now play for more than myself. I don’t know if I would say I’m a different player. I just think that I’m more evolved.”
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TENNIS
From Helene Elliott: Most of the top tennis players in the world will assemble this week in Indian Wells for the BNP Paribas Open, always a popular stop because of its lush surroundings and high-caliber competition. But amid the picturesque desert setting the hearts of some players will be half a world away.
Tennis has been jolted by the repercussions of Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine. The International Tennis Federation, responding to Russia’s aggression and Belarus’ support of Russia, banned the tennis federations of Russia and Belarus from competing in ITF competitions and suspended an event scheduled in October in Moscow. Players from the two countries will be allowed to compete as individuals but can’t display the name or flag of Russia or Belarus.
The toll has been heavy on a human level. Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine took shelter in an underground parking garage for two nights before her parents sent her and her 15-year-old sister, Ivanna, to safety in France. She reached the final of an event in Lyon and on Sunday was given a main draw wild card at Indian Wells. Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, ranked No. 15 in the world, led the movement to ban the Russian and Belarusian flags at tournaments. She vowed to give her winnings last week in Monterrey, Mexico, to the Ukrainian army.
“I was on a mission for my country,” Svitolina said before she lost in the quarterfinals.
Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, who last Monday became the first man outside the “Big Four” of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray to be ranked No. 1 since Feb. 1, 2004, deleted the Russian flag that had been on his Instagram profile. “It is a huge honor to take over this spot. I am sure everyone can understand it comes with mixed emotions that it happens this week,” he said. He added a request for “peace in the world, for peace between countries.”
A tennis tournament seems insignificant in the grand scheme of things. But competing has a higher purpose than usual if the court can be a refuge for players and give them a platform to raise support for people under siege in Ukraine.
BASEBALL
From Bill Shaikin: It would be too much to say Bill James and Rob Manfred are kindred spirits. But, when the father of modern analytics talks, we listen.
“Baseball has terrible aesthetic problems,” James said. “We all know that. But, in many cases, it isn’t the rules that are causing them. It’s the lack of new rules.”
These days, Manfred is the face of the owners’ lockout, the chosen representative of the billionaires who stand between America and spring training. In happier times, and for years now, Manfred has tried to nudge a tradition-bound sport toward changes that he believes could make baseball more exciting to watch.
Stephen Curry is one of the most popular players in NBA history, but he might not be without a radical rules change. Curry is the all-time leader in three-pointers.
The addition of a completely different way to score did not destroy the fabric of the NBA. More than 40 years later, baseball is still arguing about how many seconds a pitcher can take between pitches.
The players’ union indicated Sunday it is willing to accept a pitch clock in 2023, as well as restrictions on defensive shifts, provided players and owners reach agreement on a collective bargaining agreement for the 2022 season. In terms of aesthetics, James suggests a far more radical change.
Today, a batter can foul off an infinite number of pitches with two strikes, with no penalty. Pitchers throw harder than ever, batters swing harder than ever, and foul territory in modern ballparks is smaller than ever.
READ MORE: Despite vitriol, MLB owners, locked-out players closing gap
KINGS
From the Associated Press: Getting routed at home to Boston stuck with the Kings, and they knew they’d have a chance to quickly make amends a week later.
“We got embarrassed at home,” Kings goalie Cal Petersen said on Monday night after the Kings rallied to beat the Bruins 3-2 in overtime. “Yeah, we were looking for some revenge.”
The Kings came back from a 2-1 deficit, with Trevor Moore tying the game with 26 seconds left in regulation and winning it on a breakaway by Andreas Athanasiou in overtime.
Petersen stopped 30 shots and Blake Lizotte also scored for the Kings, who have won eight of their last 10 games. One of the losses was a 7-0 Boston blowout on Feb. 28.
”That’s a phenomenal hockey team — one of the best in the league. We think that we should be right there, and for us to to put in an effort like that [last week], where we got blown out, it wasn’t acceptable,“ Petersen said.
HIGH SCHOOLS
From Eric Sondheimer: Sylmar High didn’t start its baseball season until Feb. 25.
“Everybody started early in my opinion,” coach Ray Rivera said.
The Spartans are making up for their patience. They improved to 3-1-1 on Monday with a 6-0 victory over Verdugo Hills. Matt Benzor threw a complete game, striking out four while giving up seven hits. Jorge Sosa had two hits and Adrian Jaime had two RBIs in the win.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1954 — The Milwaukee Hawks beat the Baltimore Bullets twice 64-54 and 65-54, in the only doubleheader in NBA history involving the same two teams.
1958 — Silky Sullivan, ridden by Bill Shoemaker, wins the Santa Anita Derby by three lengths after trailing by 40 early in the race and by 20 entering the final turn.
1971 — Joe Frazier wins the world heavyweight title with a unanimous 15-round decision over Muhammad Ali at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
1990 — Kurt Browning becomes the first Canadian to defend a title in the World Figure Skating Championships as he edges early leader Viktor Petrenko of the Soviet Union.
1992 — Ray Floyd, 49, holds off Fred Couples for a two-stroke victory in the Doral Open and joins Sam Snead as the only men to win PGA Tour titles in four decades.
1997 — In the World Indoor Championship in Paris, Kevin Little becomes the first white American sprinter in 41 years to win a major international competition, matching the U.S. 200 record of 20.40 seconds.
2008 — At age 60, Saoul Mamby loses a unanimous 10-round decision to Anthony Osbourne in Grand Cayman. Mamby, a former super lightweight champion, becomes the oldest boxer in a sanctioned fight.
2008 — Lindsey Vonn wins her 10th career World Cup downhill to break the U.S. record held by Picabo Street and Daron Rahlves. Vonn breaks the record with her fifth downhill of the season in 1:23.57 on the 1.4-mile Crans-Montana, Switzerland course.
2010 — The top-ranked Connecticut Huskies set an NCAA women’s record by winning their 71st straight game, a 59-44 victory over No. 6 Notre Dame in the semifinals of the Big East tournament. UConn surpasses its own mark set from Nov. 9, 2001, to March 11, 2003.
2013 — The Big East Conference announces the departure of DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Villanova, allowing them to separate from the football schools and create their own conference on July 1.
2014 — Doug McDermott scores a career-high 45 points to become the eighth player in Division I history to go over 3,000 for a career and Creighton rolls past Providence 88-73.
2015 — Leonardo Mayer defeats Joao Souza in the longest Davis Cup singles match ever, winning 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 5-7, 5-7, 15-13 to keep Argentina alive against Brazil in their first round series. Mayer needed 6 hours, 42 minutes to beat Souza, which is also longer than the record for a clay-court match on the ATP tour.
And finally
The Kings pulled off a dramatic game-winning goal in overtime on the road against Bruins. Listen to the call:
Until next time...
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
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