The Sports Report: Tyronn Lue wants Clippers to focus more on regular season

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

From Andrew Greif: Clippers coach Tyronn Lue is spending this summer and next on Steve Kerr’s Team USA coaching staff. A journeyman guard, Lue wasn’t good enough as a player — his words — to represent Team USA, so last winter he jumped at an invitation from USA Basketball’s Grant Hill to assist with Kerr’s offense, defense and substitutions.

It is an assignment he has taken seriously. Anticipating travel to Spain, Abu Dhabi and the Philippines during the next five weeks, before the mentally and physically taxing NBA regular season begins, Lue lost 20 pounds this summer in hopes of staving off fatigue.

When the Team USA job ends next month and Lue opens training camp in Hawaii, he will walk into a fourth season coaching the Clippers that won’t feel out of place with Team USA’s win-or-bust expectations.

Entering the fifth season of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George’s partnership, the Clippers have won three playoff series. Injuries to one or both of their stars have cut short each of the last three seasons. Within the Clippers, there is a belief that some wounds have been in part self-inflicted.

In April, following a first-round playoff loss, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said the team had to “get back to honoring and respecting the regular season” and “compete harder every single night.”

Lue, who won NBA championships as a player with the Lakers and coach in Cleveland, said Monday he has seen enough to believe the Clippers belong in the class of contenders but echoed Frank that clinching a top-three playoff seed will require “a different approach and play more games of the regular season, see if that helps us going forward.”

“The biggest thing for us is making sure our players are healthy and making sure that we’re doing right by the players, but with that being said we’ve also got to take the regular season more serious as far as coming in and playing hard every night and winning games and playing games,” Lue said. “Our fans deserve that. They’ve been behind us for a long time and like I said, there have been some unfortunate injuries that we’ve had. That’s part of the game. When we are healthy and we are feeling good, then we’ve got to make sure that we’re trying to play every single night.

“But then most importantly, just try to get one of those good seeds where the last 10 games of the season, you’re not fighting and clawing trying to stay out of the play-in game. Those are games you can kind of rest and get your body ready for the playoffs.”

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DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Julio Urías officially has a scoreless streak going.

A week after tossing five shutout innings against the last-place Oakland A’s — an incremental step forward in his up-and-down season — the Dodgers left-hander delivered a more resounding statement Tuesday, blanking the Arizona Diamondbacks over six impressive innings in the team’s 5-4 win at Chase Field.

In vintage Urías fashion, the 26-year-old southpaw played to all his strengths in a four-hit, five-strikeout display.

His fastball command was sharp, locating it to all corners of the strike zone. His breaking ball was effective, as the Diamondbacks managed to put only one of his 26 slurves into play.

And where big innings, bouts of frustration and inconsistent command had plagued Urías earlier in the season -- leading a career-worse 4.69 ERA entering Tuesday -- the Dodgers’ opening-day starter avoided any such stumbling blocks in their series-opener in Phoenix, completing scoreless starts in consecutive outings for the first time all year.

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Dodgers deny Seth Lugo’s claim they were signaling his pitches: ‘Sounds like an excuse’

Dodgers box score

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NL WEST STANDINGS

Dodgers, 66-46
San Francisco, 62-52, 5 GB
Arizona, 57-57, 10 GB
San Diego, 55-59, 12 GB
Colorado, 45-68, 21.5 GB

WILD-CARD STANDINGS
top three teams qualify

San Francisco, 62-52
Philadelphia, 62-51
Chicago, 59-55

Cincinnati, 60-56, 0 GB
Miami, 59-56, 0.5 GB
Arizona, 57-57, 2 GB
San Diego, 55-59, 4 GB
New York, 51-62, 7.5 GB
Pittsburgh, 51-62, 7.5 GB

For full standings, go here

ANGELS

From Annika Johnson: There’s still no timeline for Mike Trout‘s return, but he’s progressing each day and is itching to get back on the field as the Angels’ playoff chances are dwindling.

“Once I feel comfortable, you know, not altered my swings and the pain tolerance is pretty low, I’ll be out there,” Trout said Tuesday, adding that the pain is getting better and better each day.

Trout has been out for more than one month now after suffering a left hamate fracture and undergoing surgery.

Manager Phil Nevin and the team feel encouraged by what Trout did Monday, hitting from a tee and trying about 10 flips. “He took a lot more swings yesterday and feels good,” Nevin said Tuesday.

“There’s some pain when he swings, but he feels like it’s something that he’s gonna have to live with for now to get back on the field. And it’ll eventually get better. ... Today’s kind of an off day from that, do some recovery stuff, but we’re getting close.”

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From Annika Johnson: Lucas Giolito pitched four clean innings in his first home start with the Angels, who beat the San Francisco Giants 7–5 Tuesday, ending their losing streak at seven games. This marks their first win since the trade deadline and brings them to within one win of .500.

The Angels started fast, scoring four runs in the first inning. They chased the Giants’ starting pitcher before he could record an out.

Luis Rengifo hit a leadoff double and Shohei Ohtani — who was one for four— sliced a run-scoring single. One out later, Mike Moustakas hit a run-scoring single and he and Brandon Drury scored on a double by Hunter Renfroe, and the Angels ended the first innning ahead 4-0. .

Giolito (1-2) gave up three runs and three hits, striking out seven and walking three. He threw 101 pitches before being replaced by Aaron Loup in the seventh inning.

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Angels box score

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AL WEST STANDINGS

Texas, 68-46
Houston, 65-49, 3 GB
Seattle, 61-52, 6.5 GB
Angels, 57-58, 11.5 GB
Oakland, 32-82, 36 GB

WILD-CARD STANDINGS
top three teams qualify

Tampa Bay, 69-46
Houston, 65-49
Toronto, 64-51

Seattle, 61-52, 2 GB
New York, 59-55, 4.5 GB
Boston, 58-55, 5 GB
Angels, 57-58, 7 GB
Cleveland, 55-59, 8.5 GB

For full standings, go here

UCLA FOOTBALL

From Ben Bolch: It’s going to be a reunion of sorts when UCLA and USC join the Big Ten in 2024. Oregon and Washington are now coming along as part of a superconference that might need some rebranding to reflect its growing size.

“I’m fired up for the Big Eighteen,” UCLA coach Chip Kelly cracked Tuesday.

Kelly coached at Oregon several years before he arrived in Westwood, meaning he fully understands how adding two more West Coast teams to the Big Ten could lessen travel concerns, preserve rivalries and intensify recruiting battles in the old Pac-12 geographic footprint.

Yet the move won’t alleviate the travel worries of teams in other sports that will play more games, often in harsher weather while traveling to the Midwest and the East Coast. Kelly has an idea for how to resolve that issue, expanding upon the proposal for realignment he unveiled to reporters last week.

As part of the Kelly Plan, football would be uncoupled from all other sports at every school to mitigate all those unnecessary airline miles. There’s an example of one school already doing it in the Midwest.

“Notre Dame is an independent in football, but they’re in a conference for everything else,” Kelly said, alluding to the Fighting Irish’s other sports primarily playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference. “Why aren’t we all independent for football? Take the 64 teams in Power Five and make that one division, take the 64 teams in Group of Five, make that another division. We play for a championship, they play for a championship and no one else gets affected.”

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RAMS

From Helene Elliott: The vapor trails left by Rams players as they dashed off the field at UC Irvine were still hanging in the air Tuesday when workers swooped in to pack mats, nets and other equipment for the transition to the team’s Thousand Oaks training facility. The first part of training camp had ended. But the work for the Rams, coming off a dismal and injury-marred 5-12 season and a seventh straight draft without a first-round pick, has only just begun.

Prepare to hear the word “patience” a lot this season, as in coach Sean McVay learning to be patient with new and young players; as in those players being patient during the process of getting to get to know each other and their roles.

Also, as in fans being asked to patiently sit through what might be another five-win season and wait for the Rams’ front office to spend big money on premier free agents next season, after keeping the purse strings tight this off-season, and drafting with smarts.

The Rams are selling hope, and that’s a tough sell in Los Angeles. They went all in for their Super Bowl title in 2021, which was the right thing to do. They have that championship and those rings but the mortgage on their future is coming due.

There might be days when McVay, who had hinted at retiring because of the stress he experienced last season, might wish he had taken a cushy broadcasting job instead of saying in January that he would return. There were times during training camp that he appeared frustrated. Prepare to see a lot of that this season, too, though he’s trying to cast the situation in the most positive light possible.

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SPARKS

Nneka Ogwumike had 20 points and 11 rebounds, Layshia Clarendon added 17 points and the Sparks beat the Indiana Fever 87-80 on Tuesday night.

Los Angeles trailed 71-64 before scoring 15 of the next 17 points, capped by Jasmine Thomas’ wide open 3-pointer from the corner to take a 79-73 lead with 3:17 remaining. Thomas added a baseline jumper with 44.1 seconds left, after her initial shot was blocked, for an 81-76 lead.

Indiana guard Grace Berger was called for a technical foul with 36.1 seconds left and Jordin Canada sealed it with a free throw for a six-point lead.

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SOCCER

From Kevin Baxter: The circus might be coming to town.

That’s what Orlando City coach Oscar Pareja calls Lionel Messi and Friends, who are more a rock band or, yes, a traveling circus, than they are a soccer team.

“The attention that we get with all that is happening, it becomes a circus,” Pareja said after Messi scored twice to lift Inter Barcelona over Orlando City in a Leagues Cup match last week. And that circus could be headed this way, although there is still a lot of work to do.

Messi and Friends — former FC Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets are along for the ride — pitched their big top in Dallas over the weekend, where Messi scored twice, then made his try in a penalty-kick shootout to get his team into the quarterfinals of the tournament, which includes all 29 MLS teams and the 18 Liga MX clubs. LAFC will clinch a quarterfinal spot of its own if it beats Real Salt Lake at home on Tuesday.

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WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

Who will win the World Cup? Japan is the favorite, but others may surprise

Column: U.S. women’s World Cup loss proves ‘Barbie’s’ point: Women are not allowed to fail

Schedule, results
All times Pacific

ROUND OF 16

Aug. 4
Spain 5, Switzerland 1

Aug. 5
Japan 3, Norway 1
Netherlands 2, South Africa 0

Sunday
Sweden 0, United States 0
Sweden wins on penalty kicks, 5-4

Monday
England 0, Nigeria 0
England wins on penalty kicks, 4-2

Australia 2, Denmark 0

Tuesday
Colombia 1, Jamaica 0
France 4, Morocco 0

Quarterfinals

Thursday
Spain vs. Netherlands, 6 p.m., Fox

Friday
Japan vs. Sweden, 12:30 a.m., Fox

Saturday
Australia vs. France, 12 a.m., Fox
England vs. Colombia, 3:30 a.m., Fox

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1936 — Jesse Owens becomes the first American to win four Olympic gold medals as the United States sets a world record in the 4x100 relay at the Berlin Games. The record time of 39.8 seconds lasts for 20 years.

1981 — Larry Nelson beats Fuzzy Zoeller by three strokes to take the PGA Championship.

1984 — Britain’s Daley Thompson wins his second Olympic decathlon with a record 8,797 points and Valerie Brisco-Hooks sets her second Olympic record with a 21.81 time in the 200-meter run.

1987 — Larry Nelson sinks a 6-foot putt in the first hole of a playoff to beat Lanny Wadkins in the PGA Championship.

1988 — The Edmonton Oilers trade Wayne Gretzky to the Kings.

1992 — The Summer Olympics ends with the Unified Team holding a 112-108 lead in medals over the United States, the closest race since America won 90-86 in 1964 at Tokyo.

2007 — David Beckham makes his long-awaited Major League Soccer debut, entering in the 72nd minute of the Galaxy’s 1-0 loss to D.C. United.

2008 — Mariel Zagunis leads a U.S. sweep of the women’s saber fencing for the first American medals of the Beijing Games. Zagunis, the 2004 gold Olympic champion, beats Sada Jacobson 15-8 for the gold medal. Becca Ward takes the bronze.

2009 — Jennifer Song becomes the second woman to win two U.S. Golf Association championships in the same year, beating Jennifer Johnson 3 and 1 in the U.S. Women’s Amateur final at Old Warson. The 19-year-old Song, coming off her freshman year at USC, won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links in June. Pearl Sinn is the only other woman to win two USGA titles in a year, taking the 1988 Amateur and Public Links.

2010 — No American player appears in the top 10 for the first time since the men’s tennis computer rankings began in 1973. Andy Roddick drops from No. 9 to No. 11 in the latest ATP rankings.

2012 — Usain Bolt wins the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds, making him the only man with two Olympic titles in that event. He adds it to the 100 gold he won Aug. 5, duplicating the 100-200 double he produced at the Beijing Games four years ago.

2012 — The U.S. women’s soccer team wins the Olympic gold medal, avenging one of its most painful defeats with a 2-1 victory over Japan. Carli Lloyd scores in the eighth and 54th minutes for the Americans, who lost to the Japanese in penalty kicks at last year’s World Cup final.

2012 — Maggie Steffens scored five times and the U.S. women’s water polo team beat Spain 8-5 to take the Olympic tournament for the first time. U.S. middleweight Claressa Shields caps her swift rise to the top of women’s Olympic boxing with a 19-12 victory over Russia’s Nadezda Torlopova. The 17-year-old Shields dances and slugs her way past her 33-year-old opponent.

2016 — Michael Phelps adds to his Olympic record medal haul twice. He avenges his London 2012 loss to South African rival Chad le Clos with a 200-meter butterfly victory and his 20th career gold. Then, he anchors the 4x200 freestyle relay team for his 21st gold.

2016 — American swimmer Katie Ledecky wins her second gold medal of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 1:53.73 in the women’s 200m freestyle ahead of Sarah Sjöström of Sweden and Australian Emma McKeon.

—Compiled by the Associated Press