The Sports Report: Anze Kopitar is the greatest King of all time. Who’s your pick?

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

Who is the greatest King of all time? Helene Elliott make her opinion known:

On balance, Anze Kopitar is No. 1.

The Kings will honor him Jan. 24 for having scored his 400th career goal on Nov. 9, breaking Brown’s games-played record and Dionne’s assist standard, and for moving up to No. 2 in points behind Dionne this season. But he’s content to hold off on assessing his career until he’s done. Which won’t be for a while: Last summer he signed an extension through 2025-26.

“It’s really hard for me to sit here and say I’m the greatest King. That’s just not my personality. Far from it,” he said. “There’s been great Kings in this organization, with Marcel, Luc, Dave, Wayne, Blakey. The list can go on for a little bit. Brownie. Individually, yes, but it’s about collective wins.

“Yes, my numbers are good or decent or whatever you want to call it. But I’ve always been a guy that wanted to win. Numbers are all great, but it’s the two Stanley Cups that stick out. You can’t do that individually. We had great teams. Great chemistry. A lot of camaraderie. I feel like it’s a little bit more measurable toward that, maybe, than just goals and assists.”

Continue reading here and see Elliott’s entire top 10 here.

Now that Hockey Hall of Famer Helene Elliott unveiled her choices for the 10 greatest Kings of all time, along with Jim Fox and Nick Nickson (click here for their picks), we’d like to hear from readers. Who do you consider the 10 greatest Kings of all time? Wayne Gretzky? Marcel Dionne? Anze Kopitar? Gary Shuchuk? Rank them in order from 1-10, or your ballot won’t count. Email them to me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. Points will be awarded based on where you rank each player (12 points for first, nine for second, eight for third, etc.) Results will be announced Friday.

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Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist as the Kings beat the San José Sharks 4-1 on Tuesday night.

The Kings improved to 13-1-1 on the road, the best mark in the NHL. Trevor Moore scored his team-leading 15th goal, Alex Laferriere also had a goal and Trevor Lewis added an empty-netter for the Kings. Kevin Fiala had two assists.

David Rittich made 14 saves in his Kings debut and nearly completed the shutout. The veteran goalie was called up from the AHL after backup Pheonix Copley was put on long-term injured reserve Sunday after suffering an injury during practice.

The Kings took a 3-0 lead in the second period with goals 67 seconds apart by Moore and Laferriere. Moore’s goal came on a breakaway at 4:07, set up by a spinning pass from Fiala in the neutral zone. Laferriere then tipped in a shot from the point by defenseman Jordan Spence.

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Kings box score

NHL scores

NHL standings

LAKERS

From Helene Elliott: We talkin’ about the Lakers unveiling a banner to celebrate winning the NBA’s first in-season tournament?

Really?

The Lakers — the 17-time NBA world champion Lakers — hanging something on the wall at Crypto.com Arena other than an 18th NBA championship banner?

That feels beneath them. Trivial.

But there it was Monday night, no doubt at the insistence of the league, revealed after a brief ceremony that included video highlights of the tournament and an appearance by the trophy they had hoisted after they beat Indiana on Dec. 9 in Las Vegas.

The modestly sized banner, in black and gold, is grouped with banners honoring the five titles the Lakers won while based in Minneapolis and it has room to add the years of future triumphs. Given the competitive and ratings success of the first edition of the tournament and commissioner Adam Silver’s strong backing of his pet project, it’s pretty much a lock that there will be other tournaments in the years to come.

“It’s the first one and it was cool,” Lakers guard Austin Reaves said of the appropriately brief pregame ceremony.

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‘Humpty’ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar puts humorous spin after breaking hip from ‘great fall’

Why was there an 80-pound dog sitting courtside at Lakers game next to Kevin Bacon?

NBA scores

NBA standings

CLIPPERS

From Andrew Greif: Three weeks before the Clippers began their December transformation into the NBA’s hottest team, they were leaving Dallas as perhaps its most ill-fitting.

Their stars were struggling to find their roles. Their rotations were a mix-and-match experiment. And their coach remarked that the last three quarters of the loss, their fourth consecutive, looked like “the worst that you can be.” Tyronn Lue’s comment, in a tone of gallows humor, made its way around the internet within minutes.

Only a fraction heard what he said next.

“[Opponents] better take advantage of it now,” Lue said, before walking back to the locker room on Nov. 10. “We’ll be all right.”

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DODGERS

From Jack Harris: There is an old saying in business that you need to have money to make money.

The Dodgers are one of baseball’s richest teams, and thanks to the highly unusual structure of their contract with Shohei Ohtani, they are about to have, and potentially make, a whole lot more than they already do.

In the week since Ohtani inked his heavily-deferred, 10-year, $700-million deal with the Dodgers, the unprecedented pact has been viewed around Major League Baseball in a number of ways.

As a record-breaking contract with the biggest guarantee in sports history. As the selfless act of a superstar player hellbent on winning. As a relative steal for the Dodgers, keeping payroll free for other impact acquisitions.

“You get the player, and you’ve got the freedom to do whatever you want around him,” said one person with knowledge of the situation, who was granted anonymity to speak freely. “The upside is endless. Because this has never been done.”

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UCLA FOOTBALL

From Ben Bolch: While dipping heavily into the transfer portal is widely referred to as plug and play, UCLA’s recent approach under Chip Kelly might be best described as plug and pray.

Largely shunning high school recruiting in favor of transfers has landed the Bruins several high-end talents, such as edge rusher Laiatu Latu, running back Zach Charbonnet and wide receiver Jake Bobo.

It also left massive holes on the offensive line that UCLA could not adequately fill last season, when its quarterbacks continually went down with injuries and the team’s 42 sacks allowed ranked as the ninth-highest total in major college football.

Given the relatively small high school class the Bruins expect to sign Wednesday, they appear once again to be crossing their fingers that the heaviest influx of talent will arrive in the weeks to come through the transfer portal.

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Dante Moore committed to Oregon before coming to UCLA. Now quarterback will be a Duck

UCLA BASKETBALL

From Ben Bolch: The streak is over. The stink is spreading.

Bullied on its home court by Cal State Northridge on Tuesday night, UCLA was softer and sloppier than a fearless opponent from the Big West Conference.

The Bruins’ seasonlong offensive struggles, combined with unusually sagging defense, cost them against what was supposed to be a far lesser foe, the Matadors emerging with a 76-72 victory inside Pauley Pavilion that ended UCLA’s home winning streak that was the longest in the nation at 29 games.

It was UCLA’s first home loss since a setback against Oregon in January 2022 and arguably its worst since a defeat to Cal State Fullerton in December 2019. For Northridge, it was a rare moment of glory in a series dominated by the Bruins, who had won nine of 10 previous meetings, their only other stumble coming in November 2000.

UCLA’s last-gasp comeback hopes ended after Dylan Andrews buried a three-pointer to pull the Bruins within 71-67 with 1:45 left. Northridge’s Dionte Bostick buried a turnaround jumper and UCLA’s Adem Bona missed two free throws on a night his team made only 23 of 35.

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UCLA box score

USC BASKETBALL

Arrinten Page scored 12 points and Bronny James provided a second-half spark with two quick three-pointers in USC‘s 79-59 victory over Alabama State on Tuesday night.

A few days shy of five months after suffering cardiac arrest, James had a strong second half to help the Trojans (6-5) get their first win since Nov. 29. The son of Lakers superstar LeBron James hit a pair of threes in less than two minutes after Alabama State (4-6) dropped a 26-point margin down to 14.

“He’s a terrific shooter,” USC coach Andy Enfield said. “He just needs to be able to shoot when he gets winded. Tonight it was nice to see him because he was able to run up and down the court and was able to make a couple of threes when he was somewhat tired.

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USC box score

CHARGERS

From Jeff Miller: He stepped before the assembled media Tuesday for the first time as an interim NFL head coach and sounded as if he was ready for the assignment.

Well, almost.

“I wish that I would’ve lost some weight a few weeks back,” Giff Smith said, smiling. “That would have been a positive. I wasn’t expecting this.”

He opened with a joke, the Chargers’ latest leader did, Smith making his news conference debut after leading the team through its first practice since Brandon Staley was fired Friday.

In his eighth year with the team, Smith was promoted from coaching edge rushers to guiding the 5-9 Chargers through their final three games.

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NFL scores

NFL standings

RAMS

From Gary Klein: Raheem Morris was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was interim coach of the Atlanta Falcons.

Will 2024 be the year that Morris, the Rams defensive coordinator, gets another shot?

The Carolina Panthers and the Chargers are searching for new coaches. After the season, several other teams will almost certainly be doing the same.

Morris said Tuesday he remained focused on the Rams (7-7), who play the New Orleans Saints (7-7) on Thursday night at SoFi Stadium in a game with NFC playoff implications.

“When those opportunities present themselves, I’ve just got to be ready to present myself in the best version,” Morris said of head coach interviews. “But to say you’re preparing or doing anything that you would do differently other than trying to win the next football game, I’d be lying to you.”

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NFL scores

NFL standings

SOCCER

From Kevin Baxter: The first sign that something was wrong, Dave Sarachan said, were the sirens.

“Incredible sirens that I had never heard before,” he said. “Then I heard a couple of things like thunder, but it wasn’t cloudy.”

It was just before sunrise on Oct. 7 and Israel was under attack. About 3,000 armed Hamas fighters poured into the country from the Gaza Strip while an equal number of rockets, fired from the Palestinian territories, rained down in the first 20 minutes of the surprise attack. Some sounded like thunder as they pierced the skies over Tel Aviv while Sarachan, a longtime assistant coach with the Galaxy and men’s national team, watched from the balcony of his high-rise apartment building.

By the end of the day more than 1,200 Israelis were dead, another 240 had been taken hostage and Sarachan, four months into his job as an assistant with Maccabi Tel Aviv, was on a plane to safety in Greece.

It would be a month before Sarachan and the team’s other foreign-born coaches reunited with their players in Poland for a Europa Conference League group-stage match with Zorya Luhansk, a Ukrainian team that, like Maccabi, had been displaced from its homeland by war.

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BOWL SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Tuesday’s result
Frisco Bowl
UTSA 35, Marshall 17

Thursday
Boca Raton Bowl
5 p.m., ESPN
South Florida vs. Syracuse

Friday
Gasparilla Bowl
3:30 p.m., ESPN
UCF vs. Duke

Saturday
Birmingham Bowl
9 a.m., ABC
Georgia Tech vs. Troy

Camellia Bowl
9 a.m., ESPN
Arkansas State vs. Northern Illinois

Armed Forces Bowl
12:30 p.m., ABC
James Madison vs. Air Force

Potato Bowl
12:30 p.m., ESPN
Utah State vs. Georgia State

68 Ventures Bowl
4 p.m., ESPN
South Alabama vs. Eastern Michigan

Las Vegas Bowl
4:30 p.m., ABC
Northwestern vs. Utah

Hawaii Bowl
7:30 p.m., ESPN
San Jose State vs. Coastal Carolina

Tuesday, Dec. 26
Quick Lane Bowl
11 a.m., ESPN
Bowling Green vs. Minnesota

First Responder Bowl
2:30 p.m., ESPN
Texas State vs. Rice

Guaranteed Rate Bowl
3 p.m., ESPN
Kansas vs. UNLV

Wednesday, Dec. 27
Military Bowl
11 a.m., ESPN
Tulane vs. Virginia Tech

Duke’s Mayo Bowl
2:30 p.m., ESPN
North Carolina vs. West Virginia

Holiday Bowl
5 p.m., Fox
No. 15 Louisville vs. USC

Texas Bowl
6 p.m., Fox
No. 20 Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M

Thursday, Dec. 28
Fenway Bowl
8 a.m., ESPN
No. 24 SMU vs. Boston College

Pinstripe Bowl
11:15 a.m., ESPN
Miami vs. Rutgers

Pop-Tarts Bowl
2:45 p.m., ESPN
NC State vs. Kansas State

Alamo Bowl
6:15 p.m., ESPN
No. 12 Oklahoma vs. No. 14 Arizona

Friday, Dec. 29
Gator Bowl
9 a.m., ESPN
No. 22 Clemson vs. Kentucky

Sun Bowl
11 a.m., CBS
No. 19 Oregon State vs. No. 16 Notre Dame

Liberty Bowl
12:30 p.m., ESPN
Iowa State vs. Memphis

Cotton Bowl
5 p.m., ESPN
No. 7 Ohio State vs. No. 9 Missouri

Saturday, Dec. 30
Peach Bowl
9 a.m., ESPN
No. 10 Penn State vs. No. 11 Ole Miss

Music City Bowl
11 a.m., ABC
Auburn vs. Maryland

Orange Bowl
1 p.m., ESPN
No. 5 Florida State vs. No. 6 Georgia

Arizona Bowl
1:30 p.m., The CW
Toledo vs. Wyoming

Monday, Jan. 1
ReliaQuest Bowl
9 a.m., ESPN2
No. 13 LSU vs. Wisconsin

Citrus Bowl
9 a.m., ABC
No. 17 Iowa vs. No. 21 Tennessee

Fiesta Bowl
9 a.m., ESPN
No. 8 Oregon vs. No. 23 Liberty

Rose Bowl
2 p.m., ESPN
No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 4 Alabama

Sugar Bowl
5:45 p.m., ESPN
No. 2 Washington vs. No. 3 Texas

Monday, Jan. 8
1:30 p.m., ESPN
National Championship Game

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1921 — Baseball Commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis casts the deciding vote to return to best-of-seven World Series from the best-of-nine format. The American League votes to return to best-of-seven World Series, while National League votes for the best-of-nine format. The a best-of-nine series was used in 1903 and 1919 through 1921.

1966 — The NBA grants a franchise to Seattle, expanding the league to 11 teams for the 1967-68 season.

1973 — Henri Richard of the Montreal Canadiens scores his 1,000th point, getting an assist in a 2-2 tie with the Buffalo Sabres.

1980 — NBC experiments by not providing commentators for the national broadcast of the game between New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. The Jets win 24-17.

1981 — Winnipeg’s Doug Smail scores a goal five seconds into the game to set a NHL record for fastest goal from the start of a game. The Jets beat the St. Louis Blues 5-4.

1983 — Montreal’s Guy Lafleur scores his 500th goal as the Canadiens beat the New Jersey Devils 6-0. Lafleur scores the milestone goal at 8:34 of the third, beating Glenn Resch with a rising 30-footer.

1998 — Green Bay’s Brett Favre becomes the first NFL player to throw for more than 30 touchdowns in five different seasons. Favre connects three times with Antonio Freeman in the first half of a 30-22 win over Tennessee to break a tie with Dan Marino.

2005 — Kobe Bryant scores a career-high 62 points and the Lakers beat Dallas 112-90. Bryant scores a franchise-record 30 points in the third quarter and sits out the fourth after outscoring the Mavericks 62-61 over the three quarters.

2006 — Bode Miller wins the super-giant slalom in Hinterstoder, Austria, 90 minutes after Lindsey Kildow and Julia Mancuso finish 1-2 in a downhill at Val d’Isere, France. Those successes give the U.S. team five wins and an unprecedented nine podium results over six days. It’s the most impressive streak for the American team since 1983.

Compiled by the Associated Press