The Sports Report: Lakers are not playing at an elite level
Howdy, I’m your host, Austin Knoblauch, filling in for Houston Mitchell, who is probably dashing through the snow somewhere. Let’s get right to the news.
From Helene Elliott: If the Lakers’ game against the East-leading Boston Celtics was a barometer of where they stand, as coach Darvin Ham suggested it would be before they met on Monday, the answer was clear after the Lakers absorbed a 126-115 loss before a crowd that had wanted a victory for Christmas but instead left Crypto.com Arena with a lump of coal.
The Lakers, as they are now structured and playing, are not an elite team. They competed in spurts against the Celtics, erasing an early 18-point deficit to creep ahead by a couple of points in the third quarter, but they got into foul trouble and sent the Celtics to the free-throw line too early and too often. They committed 12 turnovers that became 19 points for the Celtics, and they couldn’t come close to matching Boston’s consistency, cohesiveness or quality depth.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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Every Celtics starter scored at least 18 points, led by Kristaps Porzingis’ 28 and Jayson Tatum’s 25. Anthony Davis scored a season-high (and game-high) 40 points, but two Lakers starters didn’t even hit double digits, with Cam Reddish scoring five and Jarred Vanderbilt six.
It was the end of a happy trip to Southern California for the Celtics, who crushed the Clippers on Saturday, 145-108. On Monday against the Lakers, the Celtics bent a bit in the third quarter but had enough energy and poise to take control in the fourth and expand the nine-point lead they’d built after three quarters.
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USC FOOTBALL
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: USC hasn’t played a game in nearly six weeks, but the time has been far from restful.
Since losing to UCLA in a demoralizing regular-season finale on Nov. 18, the Trojans have overhauled the defensive coaching staff, lost 17 players to transfers with more to sit out because of NFL draft preparations, and added the next wave of players during a busy early signing period. Transfers are already starting to trickle in for next season.
For a program working to put a disappointing season in the rear-view mirror, Wednesday’s Holiday Bowl at 5 p.m. in Petco Park against No. 15 Louisville feels more like an inconvenient chore than an opportunity for a silver lining.
Caleb Williams’ USC career is already unceremoniously over as he will not play in the game. While the Heisman Trophy winner has not formally announced his intention to pursue an NFL career, he said last month it would be unlikely that he would skip the bowl game while returning to college. In Williams’ place, Miller Moss will get his first start as just one of the players hoping to finish this season with a strong audition for next year.
“It’s unique now,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said last week, “because part of you feels like, it’s almost like you’re halfway into this year and halfway into next year. … I’m looking forward to so many of these young guys, new guys that are with us right now. They’re gonna get a way different, and in some ways, probably better opportunity than they had all year to really go showcase themselves.”
COLLEGE SPORTS
From Ben Bolch: Heroes can change you forever and go on to crumble out of sight. It’s not often they piece themselves back together and sit down to tell you about it.
Erik Kramer has high-tech plastic in his skull. Teeth realigned through surgery. Bullet fragments lingering from the hazy night he put a gun under his chin in a Calabasas hotel room and pulled the trigger.
“Basically,” Kramer said over breakfast a while back, pointing toward his forehead, “what you see here is not mine.”
What kind of hero is that?
Well, you wouldn’t be reading this if, many years earlier, the emerging college quarterback who later starred for the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears had not saved a 12-year-old suffering from paralyzing anxiety and depression who didn’t understand it at the time.
Yep, that’s me.
HORSE RACING
From John Cherwa: Near the end of the 1999 movie “Runaway Bride,” Julia Roberts, hops on the back of a FedEx truck fleeing yet another potential marriage.
Those in attendance are dumbfounded but not surprised. The character played by Rita Wilson, the potential groom’s ex-wife, asks her husband, and the groom’s editor, played by Hector Elizondo: “Where is she going?”
Elizondo responds: “I don’t know, but she’ll be there by 10:30 tomorrow.”
If only it were that simple today.
FedEx is now the only major air carrier that moves horses, but that takes a back seat to moving parcels come December. It suspended transporting horses from Dec. 3 through Christmas.
DODGERS
From Sam Farmer: Remember last holiday season when those Philadelphia Eagles offensive linemen made a big splash crooning those Christmas carols?
This performance hits a little closer to home.
Dodgers great Orel Hershiser has teamed up with a couple of professional musicians for a rendition of “We Three Kings” in which the World Series MVP pitcher does a bit of background singing but mostly reads Scripture.
The classic song is performed by Las Vegas entertainer Frankie Moreno and singer-songwriter John Ondrasik, also known as the platinum-selling “Five for Fighting.”
PRO FOOTBALL
From the Associated Press: Las Vegas got a pair of defensive touchdowns for the second straight week, including a pick-six of the struggling Patrick Mahomes, and the resurgent Raiders held off the sloppy Kansas City Chiefs 20-14 on Monday to keep their slim postseason hopes alive.
Big defensive tackle Bilal Nichols returned a fumble 8 yards for a touchdown, and Jack Jones took an interception 33 yards for another score 7 seconds later, helping the Raiders (7-8) snap a six-game losing streak to the Chiefs.
Kansas City (9-6) squandered an opportunity to clinch the AFC West for the eighth consecutive year with one of their worst performances of the Mahomes era.
Along with two defensive touchdowns, Harrison Butker missed a chip-shot field goal, penalties and dropped passes were again a problem, and twice they failed to convert on fourth down in the second half.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1908 — Jack Johnson becomes the first black man to win the world heavyweight boxing title, with a 14th-round knockout of Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.
1917 — Toronto’s Harry Cameron becomes the first defenseman to score four goals in a game as the Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens 7-5.
1919 — Yankees and Boston Red Sox reach agreement to move future Baseball Hall of Fame pitching slugger Babe Ruth to New York.
1943 — Sid Luckman throws five touchdown passes to lead the Chicago Bears to a 41-21 victory over the Washington Redskins for the NFL championship.
1946 — The United States wins the Davis Cup with a 5-0 sweep of Australia, the worst defeat for a defending champion.
1954 — Otto Graham scores three touchdowns and passes for three more to lead the Cleveland Browns to a 56-10 rout of the Detroit Lions for the NFL title.
1955 — The Cleveland Browns intercept six passes, one of which is returned 65 yards for a touchdown by Don Paul, in a 38-14 victory over the Los Angeles Rams for the NFL championship.
1960 — The Philadelphia Eagles come from behind twice on a 35-yard pass to Tommy McDonald from Norm Van Brocklin and a 5-yard run by Ted Dean to beat the Green Bay Packers 17-13 for the NFL title.
1964 — Wray Carlton and Jack Kemp each score touchdowns and Pete Gogolak kicks two field goals to give the Buffalo Bills a 20-7 victory over the San Diego Chargers in the AFL championship.
1965 — The Buffalo Bills win their second straight AFL championship with a 27-0 victory over the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers are able to get inside Buffalo’s 25-yard line only once.
1971 — Muhammad Ali finishes off German Jürgen Blin with a thundering right cross for a 7th-round knockout in a non-title heavyweight boxing contest in Zurich, Switzerland.
1986 — Center Doug Jarvis of the Hartford Whalers plays his 915th consecutive game, setting an NHL record.
1992 - The NHL’s San Jose Sharks end a 13-game losing streak with a 7-2 win over the LA Kings, albeit allowing 59 shots, the most in team history; Jeff Hacket makes 57 saves
1999 — Mike Vanderjagt’s 21-yard field goal with four seconds left gives the Indianapolis Colts a 29-28 win over the Cleveland Browns. Indianapolis, which went 3-13 in 1998, makes NFL history by winning 10 more games than they did the previous season.
2001 — Colorado’s Patrick Roy becomes the first NHL goalie to win 500 games as he records his seventh shutout of the season, a 2-0 win over Dallas.
2004 — Peyton Manning breaks Dan Marino’s single-season touchdown pass record when he throws his 48th and 49th of the season, rallying Indianapolis from a 31-16 fourth-quarter deficit to win 34-31 in overtime over San Diego.
2007 — Chris Summers kicks a 40-yard field goal as time expired in the Motor City Bowl, lifting Purdue to a 51-48 win over Central Michigan. The 99 points ties the second-highest total in a bowl game that ended in regulation, trailing only the 2003 Insight Bowl, where California beat Virginia Tech 52-49.
2011 — Drew Brees sets the NFL record for yards passing in a season, breaking a mark that Dan Marino had held since 1984, and the New Orleans Saints clinch the NFC South title with a 45-16 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night. Brees throws for 307 yards and four touchdown passes, the last a 9-yard strike to Darren Sproles that set the record with 2:51 to go. It was Brees’ final pass of the game and it gave him 5,087 yards passing, to break the record by three yards.
Compiled by the Associated Press
And finally
Check out the biggest L.A. Sports moments of 2023 in our online photo gallery here.
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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