More on USC’s dismissal of Chad Baker-Mazara
- Share via
More on USC and Chad Baker-Mazara
From Ryan Kartje: USC’s decision to dismiss top scorer and three-point shooter Chad Baker-Mazara on the doorstep of the postseason left many wondering Sunday why coach Eric Musselman seemingly would sabotage his team’s already-tenuous hopes of making the NCAA tournament.
To Gilbert Arenas, the former NBA star and podcast host whose son Alijah is a freshman guard with the Trojans, the move was particularly baffling. So he took to social media Sunday, wearing Baker-Mazara’s No. 4 USC jersey, to share his frustration.
“Right before the tournament? This is what we’re doing?” Arenas said in the video. “Our best player? Mr. I-Get-Buckets? Every night, he brings it every night. Guaranteed 18, 20 every night.”
“When you the best player on the team, whatever you say, you right,” he continued.
The move to part ways with Baker-Mazara was not based on an isolated incident, a person familiar with the decision but not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times, but rather the culmination of a season’s worth of issues that boiled over after the second half of Saturday’s home loss to Nebraska.
Clayton Kershaw sees WBC as icing on the cake
From Bill Shaikin: How do you improve on the perfect ending?
Clayton Kershaw stood in the desert heat Monday, wearing a far darker shade of blue than the Dodgers do. He does not need a medal, or a chance to fail. His election to the Hall of Fame will be a formality.
In his farewell year, the Dodgers won the World Series, becoming baseball’s first back-to-back champions in 25 years. He secured a critical out. He bathed in adoration at the championship rally, and he told the fans he would be one of them this year.
“I’m going to watch,” he hollered that day, “just like all of you.”
Four months later, he was back in uniform.
Mookie Betts predicts a return to form
From Jack Vita: Since his first full season in 2015, Mookie Betts had either been named an All-Star or received votes for most valuable player every year.
That held true until last year. In his sixth season with the Dodgers, Betts posted career lows in batting average (.258), on-base percentage (.326), and on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.732) while playing 148 games at shortstop.
Betts, now 33, believes last year was an outlier and he can get back to his previous form.
“That’s what I expect,” Betts said after making his Cactus League debut Sunday. “I haven’t felt this way in a long time. So, the way I feel now, I’m healthy, my swing’s in a really good spot. My head’s in a really good spot. I haven’t had any bad days in the cage. I haven’t had any bad days [taking batting practice]. Usually by now, I would have taken a thousand swings, trying to fix stuff, trying to get game-ready, and now I’m just cruising. I’m just cruising and I’m ready to go.”
Angels should reward Zach Neto
From Bill Shaikin: For Angels fans, these are the worst of times.
Their team is coming off back-to-back last-place finishes for the first time in 50 years. The team 30 miles up the freeway is coming off back-to-back World Series championships, led by a global icon who left Anaheim when the Angels could not deliver a winning team and would not promise him $700 million. The owner says he wants to win but also says winning does not rank among the top-five fan priorities. The Angels and the city of Anaheim remain at a stalemate over what to do about the aging stadium.
The negativity dissipates as a young man walks into the clubhouse, baseball cap on backward for the moment, energetic and respectful and joyful and supremely confident. This is his team, and he is here to win.
Zach Neto is the Angels’ best player. He is 25.
If the Angels could make one move to try to persuade fans better days are ahead, the suggestion here would be to sign Neto to a long-term contract. They could hold a signing ceremony with the same enormous red banner they used the day they signed Mike Trout to his last extension, with “LOYALTY” splashed across the banner and a halo atop the A.
Clippers rally to defeat Warriors
Kawhi Leonard had 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and the Clippers erased a 17-point deficit to beat the shorthanded Golden State Warriors 114-101 on Monday night.
Darius Garland scored 12 points in his Clippers debut, coming off the bench to play nearly 23 minutes in his first game since being acquired from Cleveland at the trade deadline last month in a deal that sent James Harden to the Cavaliers.
Garland had been nursing a toe injury, then he went down with 1:26 left in the second quarter after a collision with the Warriors’ Moses Moody when they both went for a loose ball and Moody’s right shoulder appeared to get Garland in the face. Both players were shaken but stayed in the game.
Kings’ rally comes up short
Devon Toews scored the tiebreaking goal late in the third period, Martin Necas added an empty-netter to go with two assists, and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Kings 4-2 on Monday night.
Toews got free in the slot and converted Nathan MacKinnon’s pass with 4:55 remaining to help the Avalanche (40-10-9) become the first NHL team with 40 wins this season.
Brandt Clarke had a power-play goal, Angus Booth scored in his NHL debut, and Anton Forsberg made 35 saves for the Kings, who were playing their first game since firing coach Jim Hiller on Sunday and replacing him on an interim basis with D.J. Smith.
This day in sports history
1920 — The Montreal Canadiens set an NHL record for most goals in a game with a 16-3 rout of the Quebec Bulldogs.
1951 — Temple’s Bill Mlkvy scores an NCAA-record 73 points in a 99-69 rout over Wilkes.
1966 — Buckpasser, ridden by Bill Shoemaker, wins the Flamingo Stakes by a nose. The colt is such a prohibitive favorite among the field of nine the race is declared a non-wagering contest. The race is known as “The Chicken Flamingo.”
1968 — Montreal’s Jean Beliveau becomes the second NHL player to score 1,000 points with a goal in a 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.
1984 — Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, is elected commissioner of baseball by major league team owners.
1985 — Bill Shoemaker becomes the first jockey to win $100 million in career purses after riding Lord at War to victory at the Santa Anita Handicap.
1985 — Kevin McHale of the Boston Celtics scores a team-record 56 points, making 22 of 28 shots in a 138-129 home victory over Detroit.
1987 — Mike Tyson adds the WBA heavyweight crown to his WBC heavyweight crown with a unanimous 12-round decision over James “Bonecrusher” Smith in Las Vegas.
2000 — Edward Fryatt ties a PGA Tour record with eight consecutive birdies in the second round of the Doral-Ryder Open. Fuzzy Zoeller did it in the 1976 Quad Cities Open, and Bob Goalby in the 1961 St. Petersburg Open.
2001 — A bloodied John Ruiz becomes the first Hispanic heavyweight champion by knocking down Evander Holyfield in the 11th round and earning a unanimous decision for the WBA title.
2012 — Wladimir Klitschko stops France’s Jean-Marc Mormeck in the fourth round to retain the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles. Klitschko is credited with the 50th KO of his career as he improves to 57-3.
2012 — No. 2 Syracuse beats No. 19 Louisville 58-49 to tie the Big East record for victories. The Orange (30-1, 17-1) match Connecticut’s 17 conference wins in 1995-96 and finishes the regular season with 30 wins for the first time in Jim Boeheim’s 36 years as coach.
2014 — LeBron James scores a career-high 61 points, breaking Glen Rice’s franchise record, and the Miami Heat defeat the Charlotte Bobcats 124-107.
2017 — Kyrie Irving scores 43 points, LeBron James has 38 and the Cleveland Cavaliers set the NBA regular-season record with 25 3-pointers in holding off the Atlanta Hawks 135-130.
2018 — Deontay Wilder survives a pummeling from Luis Ortiz, then knocks out the challenger in the 10th round to retain his WBC heavyweight title.
2024 — Iowa’s Caitlin Clark becomes the NCAA Division I all-time career scoring leader, surpassing Pete Maravich’s career total of 3,667. Her 35 points in a win over visiting Ohio State brings her total to 3,685 and counting
Compiled by the Associated Press
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. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
