The Sports Report: Baker Mayfield rallies Rams to victory

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

From Gary Klein: Sean McVay did not waste any time.

Check that: The Rams coach allowed more than 12 minutes to expire before he could not control himself any longer.

The evaluation of new quarterback Baker Mayfield needed to commence.

Forget that Mayfield arrived only 48 hours earlier.

Mayfield came on in place of starter John Wolford for the second series of Thursday night’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders. And on his first snap, he completed a 21-yard pass.

But it was the finish that fans will remember.

Mayfield engineered two fourth-quarter scoring drives, capping his debut with a touchdown pass to Van Jefferson with 10 seconds left for a 17-16 victory before a Raiders-heavy crowd of 74,738 at SoFi Stadium, which for one night anyway was Baker’s Field.

“I don’t know if you could write it any better than that,” Mayfield said.

The Rams could not have felt better. They ended a six-game losing streak and improved their record to 4-9.

“You forget what winning’s like,” McVay said, “and it sure is fun.”

The night was all about Mayfield, and whether the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NFL draft can be a viable option as Matthew Stafford’s backup next season—and perhaps beyond.

The initial read: Absolutely.

Read more by clicking here

————

House committee report: Commanders owner Daniel Snyder had role in ‘toxic’ culture

BRITTNEY GRINER

From Steve Henson and Tracy Wilkinson: Brittney Griner is home after 294 days in Russian detention.

Russia freed the WNBA star Thursday in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, with the U.S. releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, U.S. officials said. The swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieved a top goal for President Biden but carried a heavy price — and left behind another American who has been jailed for nearly four years in Russia.

“This is a day we’ve worked toward for a long time,” Biden said from the White House, alongside Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.

The news prompted swift and joyous response across the sports landscape, with many WNBA stars and LGBTQ athletes helping lead the public advocacy for extracting Griner from a country known for its hostility toward the LGBTQ community.

Read more by clicking here >>

————

Plaschke: An American is coming home. So why are so many Americans upset Brittney Griner is free?

‘BG is FREE!!!’: Reactions to Brittney Griner’s release from Russian prison

CHARGERS

From Jeff Miller: In a career during which so much has been pronounced, few things ever have stood out so starkly for Justin Herbert.

On four occasions in his 44 NFL starts, the Chargers quarterback has been sacked as many as four times. Three of those occasions have happened in succession over the last three weeks.

“We have to get guys open faster,” offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said Thursday. “There has been a lot of shuffling of the O-line and then facing some pretty good rush teams. It’s a combination of things but certainly something that we are aware of and need to do better.”

Read more by clicking here

CLIPPERS

From Andrew Greif: rying to protect a withering lead Wednesday in Orlando, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue saw a defense unable to stop the Magic’s comeback.

One night later in south Florida, with the Clippers this time in the position of having to play from behind and needing their defense once again, Miami’s Jimmy Butler hit every big shot that mattered.

Butler made a tough runner with 2:43 to play to push the Heat’s lead to six. He scored again with 2:05 left to push it to eight. For good measure, his jumper from 15 feet with 57 seconds to play held the advantage at five.

In all, Butler scored Miami’s final eight points in a 115-110 win — and in a fourth quarter Miami won by eight points — and he finished with 26 points, with eight assists to push the Clippers (14-13) to a second consecutive loss. In a game with no flow, each team taking turns making small runs and never leading by more than 10 points, Butler’s late buckets broke the deadlock.

Read more by clicking here

LAKERS

We asked you, and subscribers to our Lakers newsletter, to vote for the top 10 Lakers of all time. Here are the results. For a more detailed look, check out and subscribe to our Lakers newsletter.

1. Magic Johnson, (2,714 first-place votes), 60,262 points (ranked first by our experts)
2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, (1,320), 53,000 points (3rd)
3. Kobe Bryant (1,045), 49,185 points (2nd)
4. Jerry West (682), 46,379 points (4th)
5. Elgin Baylor (12), 29,140 points (5th)
6. Shaquille O’Neal (18), 27,747 points (6th)
7. Wilt Chamberlain (146), 21,603 points (10th)
8. James Worthy (3), 16,817 points (9th)
9. George Mikan (92), 12,635 points (t7th)
10. Chick Hearn (128), 7,830 points (Not ranked)
11. Jerry Buss (91), 5,896 points (Not ranked)
12. Gail Goodrich, 4,869 points (11th)
13. LeBron James (21), 3,920 (t7th)
14. Pau Gasol, 3,524 points (12th)
15. Michael Cooper, 2,076 points (16th)
16. Pat Riley, 2,035 points (Not ranked)
17. Phil Jackson, 1,485 points (Not ranked)
18. Jamaal Wilkes, 1,375 points (t14th)
19. Derek Fisher, 1,082 points (t20th)
20. Robert Horry, 605 points (t26th)
21. Byron Scott, 458 points (t14th)
22. Norm Nixon, 385 points (19th)
23. Anthony Davis, 311 points (18th)
24. Kurt Rambis, 275 points (30th)
25. Jack Kent Cooke, 238 points (not ranked)

Other receiving votes, in order:

Slater Martin, A.C. Green, Mychal Thompson, Jim McMillian, Bill Sharman, Nick Van Exel, Happy Hairston, Walt Hazzard, Eddie Jones, Jeanie Buss, Vern Mikkelsen, Bill Bertka, Laker Girls, Alex Caruso, Dancing Barry, Ron Harper, Stu Lantz, Rudy LaRusso, Jack Nicholson, Jim Pollard, Gary Vitti and Russell Westbrook.

Players who made experts’ top 25 but not readers’: Vern Mikkelsen (13th), Slater Martin (17th), A.C. Green (20th), Clyde Lovelette (t22nd), Jim Pollard (t22nd), Happy Hairston (24th), Lamar Odom (25th).

So there you have it. Thanks to everyone who took the time to send in a ballot.

UCLA BASKETBALL

From Ben Bolch: Asked to transform the way he plays, becoming a high-volume shooter in addition to a steady facilitator, Tyger Campbell hasn’t completely changed his stripes.

The UCLA point guard still favors the play that best helps his team.

“If there was one stat that I prioritize,” Campbell said this week, “it’s winning.”

His team has done plenty of that since leaving Las Vegas last month with two losses against nationally ranked opponents. The No. 19 Bruins (7-2) have rolled off four consecutive victories, including two to open Pac-12 Conference play, heading into another nonconference game against Denver (8-1) on Saturday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion.

Read more by clicking here

USC FOOTBALL

USC quarterback Caleb Williams is the Associated Press college football player of the year, becoming the school’s first winner of the award since 2005 with his stellar debut season for the Trojans.

Williams received 32 of the 46 first-place votes and 117 total points from AP top 25 poll voters to win the award presented by Regions Bank. The Heisman Trophy favorite finished well ahead of Texas Christian quarterback Max Duggan, who came in second with six first-place votes and 64 points.

Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud was third, with Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker in fourth and Georgia’s Stetson Bennett fifth.

Also Thursday, Williams also won the Maxwell Award as the most outstanding player in college football,

Read more by clicking here

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Since taking over the Dodgers’ front office nearly a decade ago, Andrew Friedman has tried to strike a careful balance while constructing the club’s roster:

Maximize the team’s chances of winning the World Series in each new season, while also maintaining its ability to remain a contender in the years to come.

Call it the doctrine of sustained success; the belief that championship windows don’t have to swing from completely open to all the way closed, but can rather be pried open permanently through shrewd top-to-bottom organizational execution.

“We’ve seen a lot of large-market teams compete over a short period of time, and then fall off a cliff,” Friedman said during this week’s annual winter meetings in San Diego, where his calculated philosophies were under the microscope again.

While many teams indulged in a nearly unprecedented spending spree, the Dodgers stuck to their principles and kept a tight grip on their purse strings.

They engaged in negotiations with several big-name players but didn’t splurge in an inflated market that has already seen more than $2 billion of guaranteed money dolled out.

Instead, the Dodgers evaluated the market, talked to agents and deemed the going rate for many players surpassed what they felt was a responsible, manageable, sustainable amount.

Read more by clicking here

————

Hernández: Dodgers’ puzzling offseason strategy can be justified by signing Shohei Ohtani next year

Dodgers hoping veteran outfielder Jason Heyward can resurrect his career

KINGS

Mitch Marner extended his franchise-record points streak to 21 games with a second-period goal and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Kings 5-0 on Thursday night.

Toronto has won seven of eight to improve to 17-5-6.

The Kings dropped to 14-11-4 with their seventh loss in 10 games. Goalie Jonathan Quick made 36 saves.

WORLD CUP

From Kevin Baxter in Qatar: Argentina and Brazil share a 750-mile border and a long tradition of World Cup excellence, having combined to win seven titles and reach the semifinals together in four of the last five tournaments.

No other two neighbors are even close to that level of accomplishment.

Yet for all they share, there is a huge difference in how they’ve greeted that success. While the cheerful Brazilians have danced and sang their way into the final eight of this World Cup, where they will meet Croatia on Friday, Argentina has displayed all the joy and spontaneity of someone preparing for a root canal heading into its quarterfinal with the Netherlands.

France plays England while Morocco, the biggest surprise of this World Cup, faces Portugal in the other quarterfinal on Saturday.

Brazil has been wild, boisterous and cocky in Qatar, especially in its round-of-16 game, where it played at a different level than South Korea while winning its way into the World Cup quarterfinals for an eighth straight time. Argentina, meanwhile, has been weighed down by pressure since opening its tournament with a loss to Saudi Arabia that ended the team’s 36-game unbeaten streak and raised questions about its talent and fitness.

Read more by clicking here

————

Schedule
All times Pacific
Quarterfinals

Today
Croatia vs. Brazil, 7 a.m., Fox, Telemundo, Peacock
Netherlands vs. Argentina, 11 a.m., Fox, Telemundo, Peacock

Saturday
Morocco vs. Portugal, 7 a.m., Fox, Telemundo, Peacock
England vs. France, 11 a.m., Fox, Telemundo, Peacock

Semifinals
Tuesday
Matchup TBD, 11 a.m., Fox, Telemundo, Peacock

Wednesday
Matchup TBD, 11 a.m., Fox, Telemundo, Peacock

Third-place match
Saturday, Dec. 17
Matchup TBD, 7 a.m., Fox, Telemundo, Peacock

Championship match
Sunday, Dec. 18
Matchup TBD, 7 a.m., Fox, Telemundo, Peacock

————

Complete World Cup coverage

Qatar World Cup: Start times for every match and how to watch

GALAXY

From Kevin Baxter: The Galaxy on Thursday sent winger Kévin Cabral to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for $1 million in allocation money over during the next two seasons, freeing up a designated-player spot heading into the winter transfer period.

The allocation money — $600,000 to be paid in 2023 and the rest in 2024 — will offset the $1-million fine the team was assessed by MLS when the league determined the Galaxy had violated salary budget and roster guidelines in the signing of Argentine World Cup player Cristian Pavón in 2019.

Read more by clicking here

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1934 — The New York Giants wins the NFL championship by beating the Chicago Bears 30-13 in the famous “Sneakers Game.” With the temperature at 9 degrees and the Polo Grounds field a sheet of ice, the Giants open the second half wearing basketball shoes and score 27 points in the final period to overcome a 13-3 Chicago lead.

1938 — The Chicago Cardinals select TCU center Ki Aldrich with the first pick of the NFL Draft.

1939 — The Chicago Cardinals select Tennessee half back George Cafego with the first pick of the NFL Draft.

1949 — The All-America Conference merges with the National Football League. Three teams from the AAFC — the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts — join the 10-team NFL. The league is called the National-American Football League, but months later the National Football League name is restored.

1973 — Jim Bakken of the St. Louis Cardinals kicks six field goals in a 32-10 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

1977 — Moses Malone scores 20 points and grabs nine rebounds in the second half to lead the Houston Rockets to a 116-105 win over the Lakers. The game is marred by a one-punch knockout of Rockets’ forward Rudy Tomjanovich by Los Angeles forward Kermit Washington.

1984 — Eric Dickerson of the Rams rushes for 215 yards and two touchdowns against the Houston Oilers, breaking O.J. Simpson’s NFL single-season rushing record of 2,003 yards. Dickerson ends the season with 2,105 yards.

1993 — Kevin Johnson of Phoenix becomes the 13th player to record 10 steals in an NBA game, during the Suns’ 114-95 win over Washington.

2000 — Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith rushes for a season-high 150 yards, putting him over 1,000 for a record-tying 10th straight season and joins Walter Payton and Barry Sanders as the only players in NFL history with 15,000 career yards.

2001 — Bode Miller becomes the first American since 1983 to win a World Cup giant slalom race. Miller, third after the opening leg, has an excellent second run to win in a combined time of 2 minutes, 36.02 seconds in Val D’Isere, France.

2007 — Peyton Manning of Indianapolis becomes the fifth quarterback in NFL history to throw 300 touchdown passes, getting four and going 13-for-17 for 249 yards in a 44-20 win over Baltimore.

2009 — Cassidy Schaub rolls consecutive 300 games and sets a Professional Bowlers Assn. 16-game scoring record, averaging 257.25 to retain the second-round lead in the Pepsi Red, White and Blue Open. Schaub had a 16-game total of 4,116 pins to erase the PBA record of 4,095 set by John Mazza in Las Vegas in 1996.

2016 — Russia’s sports reputation is ripped apart again when a new report into systematic doping details a vast “institutional conspiracy” that covers more than 1,000 athletes in over 30 sports and a corrupted drug-testing system at the 2012 and 2014 Olympics. This second and final report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren says the conspiracy involves the Russian Sports Ministry, national anti-doping agency and the FSB intelligence service, providing further details of state involvement in a massive program of cheating and cover-ups that operated on an “unprecedented scale” from 2011-15.

2017 — Jozy Altidore opens the scoring in the 67th minute and Toronto FC beats the Seattle Sounders 2-0 in the MLS Cup to become the first Canadian champion in league history.

2018 - New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady breaks Peyton Manning’s record for most touchdown passes in NFL history.

2021 - Chicago Blackhawks goalie Marc-Andre Fleury becomes 3rd NHL goaltender to reach 500 wins.

Compiled by the Associated Press

And finally

Highlights from Eric Dickerson’s career. Watch and listen here.