The Sports Report: Short-handed Lakers fall to the Warriors

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

From Dan Woike: Nearly a year ago, Golden State coach Steve Kerr sat in a back room in Los Angeles before playing the Lakers and called the playoff race “a sprint to the finish.”

The possibility of avoiding the play-in tournament and the fear of slipping entirely out of the top 10 existed for Kerr’s Warriors and the Lakers then just like it does for his team and the Lakers now, the two meeting for the first game out of the All-Star break in consecutive years.

Things don’t feel quite as frantic as they did a year ago — the Lakers are not five games under .500 at the break like they were then. But make no mistake, there’s going to be a sprint, especially with the Lakers and the Warriors both eyeing the No. 6 seed from the back-end of the play-in picture.

And if this is going to be a race, the Lakers didn’t look great out of the blocks, struggling to contain Stephen Curry while taking on the Warriors without LeBron James in a 128-110 loss.

James, who missed his second straight game (with a brief cameo Sunday at the All-Star Game), is “day to day” after receiving an ankle treatment designed to keep him as healthy as possible as the Lakers make their postseason push.

The team also didn’t get Cam Reddish back, as his ramp-up process from a knee injury continues. He worked with trainers on the court during the Lakers’ Thursday morning shootaround.

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CLIPPERS

From Broderick Turner: The Oklahoma City Thunder presented a significant opportunity for the Clippers to prove they belong at the top of the uber-competitive Western Conference.

Instead, they missed another opportunity to show they can beat one of the NBA’s top teams.

The Clippers’ 129-107 loss to the Thunder on Thursday night coming out of the All-Star break marked their second straight to a team ahead of them in the standings, following their 121-100 loss to the first-place Minnesota Timberwolves on Feb. 12.

Oklahoma City (38-17), which viewed the game as a measuring stick against top teams, secured the regular-season tiebreaker between the clubs.

“I t was a big game as far as just the tiebreaker situation,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “But they’ve been playing great all year. I think it’s been times where we played really well. It’s been times we won games because we won with talent.

“And, so, like I said, I don’t think it’s barometer game. I think the barometer game is when we get to the playoffs and see what happens then. And, so, for us, we know we have to get a lot better, especially cleaning up stuff at the defensive end, being better with that, understanding the coverages and being better with our schemes at times. And so we got to do a better job with that.”

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DODGERS

From Jack Harris: And now, a couple weeks into this year’s spring camp, his exact timetable to return remains unclear.

“I don’t want to put pressure on the training staff or Walker,” manager Dave Roberts said. “When he gets into the regular routine of facing hitters, extending [his outings], getting some length, then I think it will be more clear to project. But right now, I don’t even know time to return.”

It isn’t an unexpected development.

Throughout the winter, the Dodgers had hinted at the idea of delaying Buehler’s start to the season, hoping to manage the right-hander’s innings total and keep him fresh for a potential October run.

Buehler himself isn’t rushing the process, either, especially as he tries to become one of only a handful of MLB pitchers to successfully recover from a second Tommy John surgery (Buehler first had his first operation shortly after being drafted by the Dodgers in 2015).

“We’ve just left ourselves a lot of leeway to build up however I need to,” Buehler said. “I’ve got plenty of time. … I just need to get to a spot where I’m not hampering our team from an innings perspective, to be on the roster and be part of the rotation.”

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Hernández: Ex-Dodger Andre Ethier relishes role of mentor with focus on Miguel Vargas

Trevor Bauer wants back in majors: ‘I don’t believe that I was given a lifetime ban’

Q&A: What might an MLB owner ask Trevor Bauer? Here’s a transcript of what he had to say

UCLA BASKETBALL

From Ben Bolch: UCLA hasn’t played in the National Invitation Tournament in nearly 40 years, and that streak might not end this season even if the Bruins get selected.

Coach Mick Cronin suggested Tuesday a few things he might nitpick about the NIT that could prompt him to pass on college basketball’s second-tier tournament.

Drawbacks could include exacerbating injuries — Lazar Stefanovic has a bothersome foot and Sebastian Mack a sore toe — and diverting the coaching staff’s attention at a time when it needs to prioritize setting its roster for next season. The 45-day spring transfer portal window opens March 18, the day after Selection Sunday.

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From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The shots kept falling. The crowd’s cheers grew louder. Londynn Jones’ face stayed straight.

Draining threes is just what the UCLA sophomore does.

Jones’ career-high 23 points, including seven-of-10 three-point shooting, led No. 12 UCLA to an 82-52 win over No. 18 Utah on Thursday at Pauley Pavilion. Jones’ red-hot shooting started UCLA’s final push toward the postseason with a dominant victory that avenged an overtime loss to the Utes in Salt Lake City last month.

Sophomore Lauren Betts added 14 points and six rebounds, and fifth-year guard Charisma Osborne, playing in the final regular-season homestand of her career, had 13 points and seven assists.

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USC BASKETBALL

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: After a sixth consecutive loss, Andy Enfield’s patience appeared to be wearing thin. USC had just given up 17 offensive rebounds in a nine-point loss to Oregon at Galen Center. The previous game, the Trojans got outrebounded by 14 against UCLA at home. The coach, often so calculated in his media appearances, called his top four post players “poor” defensive rebounders. He yearned for USC’s big men of old. He missed their toughness.

Three weeks later, when asked where his players stood in terms of toughness required to battle on the boards, Enfield paused in a mostly empty practice gym. He considered his words carefully.

“They work hard, they’re trying to be tough,” the coach said, “but the rebounding thing is not necessarily natural for a lot of guys.”

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RAMS

From Gary Klein: The Rams were confident that they found star quarterback Matthew Stafford’s backup — and possible successor — when they selected Stetson Bennett in the fourth round of last year’s NFL draft,

It did not play out as planned.

Bennett, who led Georgia to two consecutive national titles, was placed on the nonfootball injury/illness list for an undisclosed issue after the preseason and has not been a part of the team since.

Brett Rypien was released at midseason after proving not to be the answer as Stafford’s backup, and Carson Wentz is a pending unrestricted free agent.

That leaves Stafford, 36, as the only quarterback on the roster.

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KINGS

Colton Sissons had a goal and two assists and Juuse Saros made 27 saves, helping the Nashville Predators beat the Kings 4-1 on Thursday night.

Nashville has won three in a row for the first time since a four-game streak Dec. 10-16. Jeremy Lauzon had a goal and an assist for the Predators, and Mark Jankowski and Yakov Trenin also scored.

Kevin Fiala scored for the Kings, who had won four in a row. David Rittich made 17 stops in the team’s second loss in seven games under interim coach Jim Hiller.

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1935 — George “The Iceman” Woolf makes history, riding Azucar to victory in the inaugural Santa Anita Handicap. Azucar beats such greats as Equipoise and Twenty Grand in the first $100,000 horse race.

1938 — Joe Louis knocks out Nathan Mann in the third round to defend his world heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York.

1960 — Carol Heiss captures the first gold medal for the United States in the Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, Calif., winning the figure skating event.

1968 — Wilt Chamberlain becomes first player to score 25,000 points in the NBA.

1980 — Eric Heiden wins his fifth gold medal and shatters the world record by six seconds in 10,000-meter speed skating at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. His time is 14:28.13.

1985 — Indiana coach Bob Knight is ejected five minutes into the Hoosiers’ 72-63 loss to Purdue when he throws a chair across the court. Knight, after two fouls called on his team, is hit with his first technical. While Purdue was shooting the technical, Knight picks up a chair from the bench area and throws it across the court, earning his second technical.

2002 — The Americans end nearly a half-century of Olympic frustration for the U.S. men’s bobsled team, driving to the silver and bronze medals in the four-man race at the Salt Lake Olympic Games.

2007 — Tiger Woods’ winning streak on the PGA Tour, which began in July, comes to a shocking end. Woods fails to notice a ball mark in the line of his 4-foot birdie putt that would have won his third-round match against Nick O’Hern. Woods misses, then loses in 20 holes when O’Hern saves par with a 12-foot putt at the Accenture Match Play Championship.

2013 — Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche makes history just by stepping into the UFC cage. Rousey wins the UFC’s first women’s bout, beating Carmouche on an armbar, her signature move, with 11 seconds left in the first round of their bantamweight title fight at UFC 157.

2014 — Jason Collins becomes the first openly gay athlete in the United States four major pro leagues, playing 10 scoreless minutes with two rebounds and five fouls in the New Jersey’s 108-102 victory over the Lakers.

2014 — Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins a rain-delayed Daytona 500, a decade after his first victory in the “Great American Race.”

Compiled by the Associated Press