The Sports Report: Lakers make some more deals

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

From Dan Woike: There were smiles – lots of smiles – in the back hallways of the Crypto.Com Arena Monday evening, the Lakers purging roster problems in the previous two days, re-stocking the roster with younger players more suited to compliment the team’s stars.

After trades that sent out Russell Westbrook, Thomas Bryant and Patrick Beverley and popular reserves Damian Jones and Juan Toscano-Anderson – the team’s locker room was suddenly vacant.

Austin Reaves sat by himself on one side of the room when Lonnie Walker IV bounced into the room.

“We made it!” he said with a laugh, two trade deadline survivors representing a quarter of the healthy main roster players available to the team Thursday against the Bucks.

The short-handed rotations were only temporary – D’Angelo Russel, Malik Beasley and Jarrad Vanderbilt are already with the team and watched Thursday’s game from the bench. They were able to get to Los Angeles following a three-team deal that sent Westbrook, Jones and Anderson to Utah and Jazz point guard Mike Conley Jr. and a future Lakers’ second-rounder to the Timberwolves.

The Lakers fought through and tested the Bucks before eventually losing 115-106.

Dennis Schroder scored 25 and Anthony Davis had 23 and 16. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 38 points for the Bucks.

The Lakers have now lost three in a row.

Ahead of Thursday’s deadline, the team made two other moves – trading Thomas Bryant to Denver for three second-round picks and Davon Reed. The team then routed one of those picks and Patrick Beverley to Orlando for center Mo Bamba.

“I just think we added some pieces that are young and still on an uptick that have proven themselves to be really effective NBA players and also fit the needs that we have in terms of creating more spacing for (James) and (Anthony Davis) -- while also brining in some guys making a huge impact on the defensive end and rim protection,” Ham said of the deals. “It’s great. You’re constantly in this league trying to make your team better. All 30 teams have that mindset. If there are ways that we can get better, we explore them.

“…And so we saw the opportunity to make our team better and we pushed the button on it. And it’s as simple as that, the business of basketball.”

Continue reading here

Column: A more mature D’Angelo Russell is ready to help the Lakers

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar seeks to develop bond with Lakers’ LeBron James

GREATEST NBA PLAYER POLL

Do you agree with Bill Plaschke that LeBron James is the greatest player in NBA history? Vote for your pick as the greatest by clicking here. Results will be announced Monday.

CLIPPERS

From Andrew Greif: Reggie Jackson and Luke Kennard were among the first Clippers to leave the team’s locker room Wednesday night after a loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

Less than 12 hours after they’d departed Crypto.com Arena, each was no longer on the team, traded away along with fellow backup guard John Wall as the Clippers worked to solve their central priority in the lead-up to Thursday’s noon PST trade deadline: How, in a difficult Western Conference, could they improve their playoff rotation?

The Clippers, who entered the day with a record of 31-27 and sixth in the West standings, also wanted to consolidate a guard rotation that had too many players for not enough spots, add youth, and not give up a future first-round pick or members of its young core, including Terance Mann and Brandon Boston Jr., to make it happen.

Those priorities beget a series of moves that were confirmed by people not authorized to discuss the matters because the league office had not yet made them official. To Charlotte went the team’s 2028 second-round pick and Jackson — the longtime starting point guard who lost his place in the rotation one month ago before finding footing as a reserve — in exchange for 6-foot-11 Mason Plumlee, who will fill their gaping need for a backup center behind starter Ivica Zubac.

Continue reading here

UCLA BASKETBALL

From Ben Bolch: The most important part of Mick Cronin’s scouting report on Oregon State might have been his sales job. The UCLA coach had to make his team believe the Beavers were a threat.

By any objective measure, Oregon State is not a good college basketball team. The Beavers have a toothless offense. Nearly twice as many losses as wins. A coach on the hottest of seats.

Listening to Cronin earlier this week, one would have thought his team was facing someone plenty capable of knocking off his seventh-ranked Bruins. The Beavers can shoot, Cronin said. They had a good record at home. Jordan Pope leads all Pac-12 freshmen in scoring.

It wasn’t enough to make the Beavers a threat.

Even with the Bruins slogging their way through what might have been their worst opening five-minute stretch of the season, their lockdown defense and infusion of points from two unexpected sources overwhelmed the Beavers during a 62-47 victory at Gill Coliseum.

Continue reading here

Jaylen Clark’s defensive intensity leaves no bone to pick for UCLA teammates

USC BASKETBALL

N’Faly Dante scored 17 points, Will Richardson added 16 and Oregon posted a wire-to-wire 78-60 victory over USC.

Dante sank 8 of 11 shots from the field for the Ducks (15-10, 9-5 Pac-12 Conference). He added five rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Richardson made 4 of 6 shots with two 3-pointers and hit all six of his free throws. Jermaine Couisnard had 13 points and Nate Bittle contributed 11 points and six rebounds.

Boogie Ellis led the Trojans (17-7, 9-4) with 19 points and four assists. Drew Peterson and Kobe Johnson added 11 points apiece. USC had a four-game win streak end.

Peterson hit a three-pointer seven minutes into the game to pull the Trojans within 11-10. It was all Ducks after that.

Dante answered with a three-point play, igniting an 18-1 run and Oregon led 29-11 with 12 minutes left in the half.

USC got no closer than 14 points in the second half. The Ducks pushed their lead to 20 on three occasions.

SUPER BOWL

From Sam Farmer: As Dan Meers can tell you, it’s not all fun and frivolity being an NFL mascot.

Meers, who plays KC Wolf for the Kansas City Chiefs, nearly lost his life on the job.

It happened Nov. 23, 2013, when Meers was practicing a stunt at Arrowhead Stadium for a game against the San Diego Chargers the next day. He was going to jump out of the lights at the top of the stadium on a bungee cord that would transition to a zip line carrying him safely down to the field. He was not in costume at the time.

There was a malfunction, however, and instead of falling 25 feet, he tumbled 75 feet into the seats on the top deck of the stadium. He landed with such force, he broke two of the seats and uprooted them from the concrete.

Astoundingly, Meers survived, although his injuries were severe: seven broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a fractured tailbone, a crushed sacrum and a broken T-12 vertebrae. He spent nine days in the hospital, six months on disability, and still has titanium rods in his back that stabilize his spine.

Yet Meers, 56, who is in his 33rd year suiting up for the Chiefs, feels only a deep sense of gratitude as he prepares for his third Super Bowl.

Continue reading here

Sunday
at Glendale, Ariz.
Philadelphia vs. Kansas City, 3:30 p.m. PT, Fox

Patrick Mahomes wins NFL MVP ahead of Super Bowl

Andy Reid’s fingerprints still on Eagles’ roster more than a decade after he left

Top Super Bowl LVII prop bets: Who will win MVP? How many TDs for Travis Kelce?

Rihanna’s upcoming Super Bowl performance is already so iconic it has a wax figure

Super Bowl LVII matchups, analysis and prediction: And the winner is...

SUPER BOWL POLL

We asked readers of this newsletter, Who will win the Super Bowl? The results, after 3,972 responses:

Philadelphia Eagles, 51.4%
Kansas City Chiefs, 37.9%
I’m just waiting for baseball to start, 10.7%

Super Bowl LVII: Start time, odds and halftime show

KINGS

From Helene Elliott: Dustin Brown entered Staples Center/Crypto.com Arena hundreds of times during his 18-year career, but his path didn’t take him through Star Plaza and the forest of outsized statues that immortalize some of Los Angeles’ greatest athletes.

Not until he retired and began using the public gates this season did he realize the glittery depth of a bronzed lineup that includes Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Elgin Baylor and announcers Chick Hearn and Bob Miller.

“I was like, ‘Wow,’ ” Brown said. “As a player you never walk in through those entrances.”

That distinguished lineup will grow Saturday when the Kings unveil a statue of Brown — the captain of their two Stanley Cup championship teams and career leader with 1,296 games played — and retire his No. 23 jersey. The kid from Ithaca, N.Y., whose speech impediment contributed to his shyness when he made his Kings debut at 18 in 2003 will stand tall among his adopted city’s best.

“It’s very surreal. You grow up, you’re not playing for a statue. I just wanted to be a player in the NHL,” he said. “Looking back at it, I’m extremely proud and extremely honored with everything, but it’s one of those things that you make small decisions, small choices each and every day, and then all of a sudden you’re here. It’s a very proud moment for me, but something I never would have imagined five, 10, 15, 20 years ago.”

Continue reading here

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1908 — Tommy Burns knocks out Jack Palmer in the fourth round to defend his world heavyweight title in London.

1949 — Joe Fulks of Philadelphia scores 63 points in a 108-87 win over Indianapolis to set an NBA scoring record which would last for nearly a decade.

1952 — The Baltimore Bullets play the 48-minute game without making a single substitution and beat the Fort Wayne Pistons 82-77.

1962 — Jim Beatty becomes the first American to break the 4-minute mile indoors with a 3:58.9 in Los Angeles.

1968 — Peggy Fleming wins the women’s Olympic figure skating gold medal in Grenoble, France.

1969 — LSU’s Pete Maravich scores 66 points in a 110-94 loss to Tulane.

1971 — Former first baseman Bill White becomes the first Black announcer in major baseball league history, signing to join the New York Yankees WPIX broadcast team.

1972 — Guy Lafleur becomes the first rookie in the NHL’s modern era to have three hat tricks in a season. Lafleur scores three goals and adds an assist in the Canadiens’ 7-1 win against the Chicago Black Hawks.

1989 — K.C. Jones of the Boston Celtics and Lenny Wilkens of the Cleveland Cavaliers are elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Also elected is William “Pop” Gates, who played during the game’s barnstorming years in the 1930s and 1940s.

1991 — Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76ers, playing with a stress fracture in his left foot, becomes the NBA All-Star MVP with 17 points and 22 rebounds after leading the East to a 116-114 victory.

1992 — Bonnie Blair becomes the first woman to successfully defend an Olympic gold medal in 500-meter speed skating and the first American woman in any sport to win gold medals in consecutive Olympics.

1998 — Picabo Street, Alpine skiing’s comeback kid, overcomes a mistake about midway through her run and charges to an Olympic gold by one-hundredth of a second in the women’s super-G — the games’ first Alpine medal after three days of snow-related postponements.

2003 — Detroit’s Brett Hull becomes the sixth NHL player to score 700 regular-season goals. Hull beats San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov with a wrist shot in a 5-4 win over the Sharks.

2007 — Jaromir Jagr has three assists in the New York Rangers’ 5-2 win over Washington and becomes the 12th player in NHL history to score 1,500 points.

2017 — Golden State’s Draymond Green becomes the first player in NBA history to record a triple-double with fewer than 10 points scored. Green had 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 steals and 4 points in a 122-107 win over Memphis. Green also had five blocks, which made him the first player to record 10 steals and five blocks in a game since steals and blocks were first tracked in 1973-74.

2018 — Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla wins the first gold medal of the Pyeongchang Games and Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjoergen takes silver in the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon to become the most decorated female Winter Olympian ever. Bjoergen captures her 11th career medal, breaking a three-way tie with Russian Raisa Smetanina and Italian Stefania Belmondo.

Compiled by the Associated Press

And finally

Picabo Street wins a gold medal by .01. Watch and listen here.