The Sports Report: Lakers continue surge with win over Charlotte

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

From Dan Woike: In the back of the house at the Spectrum Center, the Hornets’ home arena, workers are greeted with a wall of quotations from an array of famous people, from Jeff Bezos to Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, all surrounding an incredibly basic quote from their former boss, Michael Jordan.

“Just play” it reads on the wall. “Have fun. Enjoy the game.”

For a time on the Lakers’ road trip that ended Monday with a 124-118 win in that same building, the Lakers were doing none of the three.

Blowout losses to Houston and Atlanta completely erased any of the momentum built after their two-overtime win against Stephen Curry and the Warriors. LeBron James’ hourglass emoji post only escalated trade-deadline tensions, and Thursday when it was determined that he and Anthony Davis would miss the Lakers’ game with the Celtics, a sense of dread kicked in.

Then, the Lakers won and won again, and by the time they took the court in the first half on Monday, they were playing. Having fun. Enjoying the game.

D’Angelo Russell wagged his head and celebrated with the Lakers’ bench after splashing a three. Austin Reaves flipped no-look passes while Davis and James traded turns slamming home dunks, the Lakers looking very healthy against a short-handed 10-win Hornets team playing on the second night of back-to-back games.

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CLIPPERS

Kawhi Leonard scored 36 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, and the Clippers finished off a long road trip in style with a 149-144 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night.

James Harden had 30 points and 10 assists, and Paul George scored 18 for the Clippers.

Trae Young, the Eastern Conference player of the week, had 25 points and De’Andre Hunter matched a season high with 27 off the bench for the Hawks, who had won four in a row.

The Clippers went 6-1 on a 13-day trip and improved to 26-5 since Nov. 30. They won at Miami on Sunday, the front end of this back-to-back.

“To go 6-1 against the caliber of teams we played on this trip, coming into it, we knew tonight was going to be tough,” coach Tyronn Lue said. “Got down early in the second half, continued to keep fighting. It was a total team effort.”

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SUPER BOWL

From Sam Farmer: Everything, everywhere, all at once.

That’s pretty much the job description of CBS announcer Jim Nantz, who will call Super Bowl LVIII from Las Vegas with color analyst Tony Romo at his side.

Even after retiring from his March Madness duties, Nantz still has a frenetic schedule in which NFL games roll right into the PGA Tour.

“People say, ‘Are you enjoying being semi-retired?’” said Nantz, 64. “I’m down to like 40 weeks of travel. … It’s not like I’m on a beach somewhere.”

He was decidedly not on the beach the day before the AFC championship game in Baltimore, even though millions of viewers surely thought he was. Instead, he was in a cramped trailer beneath M&T Bank Stadium remotely calling the Farmers Insurance Open in La Jolla.

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Super Bowl LVIII: Start time, teams, betting odds and halftime show

Sunday
at Las Vegas
Kansas City vs. San Francisco, 3:30 p.m. PT, CBS, Paramount+

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Days before pitchers and catchers report to spring training in Arizona, the Dodgers’ bullpen situation became a little more clear Monday.

The team and veteran reliever Ryan Brasier agreed to a two-year, $9-million contract, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly, to keep the right-hander in Los Angeles after his resurgent performance last season.

In a related move, the Dodgers also traded left-hander Caleb Ferguson to the New York Yankees.

Shohei Ohtani bobblehead night for two? Prices start at $300

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UCLA BASKETBALL

From Ben Bolch: One of the first voices Dylan Andrews hears every morning belongs to his godmother.

At 7:45 a.m., barring the rare idle weekend with no game or big homework assignment that needs completing, she will call the UCLA point guard to deliver the same message.

It is time to move through the day with a purpose. The purpose starts now.

They’re the same sorts of words Andrews once heard from “Pops,” the man no single word or phrase could encapsulate.

He was a father figure. Role model. Mentor. Confidant. Best friend.

“That was my like everything, man,” Andrews said.

Pops drove Andrews to the gym three hours before youth basketball practices, telling him if he was on time it meant he was late. Pops took him to the apartment complexes he owned, showing the boy how good he had it by comparison. Pops was even there when the teenager who was technically his grandson took his official visit to UCLA, oohing and aahing at every Bruins legend adorning the walls.

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KINGS

From Helene Elliott: Kings general manager Rob Blake said his desire to hear a new voice and see renewed energy within the team led him to fire coach Todd McLellan and elevate assistant Jim Hiller to the head coaching job for the rest of what has been an erratic and disappointing season.

If firing a coach who received strong support from key players recently doesn’t jolt the Kings out of a slump in which they’ve won three of their last 17 games and plummeted to a wild-card playoff position, the next voice Blake hears will come from his bosses and it will tell him he should find another job. And it would be deserved.

“I fully understand the repercussions if this team does not win or have success,” Blake said at a news conference Monday, his first public comments since he fired McLellan last Friday.

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1958 — Ted Williams signs a contract with the Boston Red Sox for $135,000, making him the highest paid player in major league history.

1967 — Muhammad Ali successfully defends his world heavyweight title with a 15-round decision over Ernest Terrell in the Houston Astrodome.

1970 — The NBA expands to 18 teams with the addition of franchises in Buffalo, Cleveland, Houston and Portland.

1988 — Chicago’s Michael Jordan wins the NBA Slam Dunk contest with a perfect score of 50 on his final dunk, in front of a hometown crowd at Chicago Stadium.

1990 — Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues scores his 50th goal, making him and his Hall of Famer father, Bobby Hull, the only father-son combination in NHL history to reach that milestone.

1993 — Riddick Bowe easily wins his first defense of his WBA and IBF heavyweight boxing titles by beating Michael Dokes in the first round of their championship bout held at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

2005 — The New England Patriots win their third Super Bowl in four years, 24-21 over the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s their ninth straight postseason victory, equaling Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers.

2011 — Aaron Rodgers throws three touchdown passes and Nick Collins returns an interception for another score, leading the Green Bay Packers to a 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.

Compiled by the Associated Press