The Sports Report: Lakers get past pesky Sacramento Kings

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. How do athletes stay so cool? By sitting in front of all those fans.

LAKERS

For a moment, the lane to the basket was open. Anthony Davis closed it quickly.

The All-Star forward stonewalled Harrison Barnes’ drive on a game-tying layup at the buzzer as the Lakers held on for a 99-97 win over the Sacramento Kings at Staples Center on Friday.

The Lakers (10-2) held hold the Kings to less than 100 points, which is the first time Sacramento has been held below 100 since Oct. 28. The Kings, who started the season with five straight losses, had won four of their past five games.

Coached by former Lakers coach Luke Walton, the Kings tied the game late with a layup from Bogdan Bogdanovic, but LeBron James hit the game-winning free throws with 5.5 seconds remaining. James finished with 29 points and 11 assists.

The Lakers fell behind by 13 at one point in the first half. The Kings rained three-pointers. The Lakers missed their first six shots from deep.

It was a three-pointer from Kyle Kuzma that sparked a Lakers second-quarter comeback. The forward contributed five straight points to a 14-0 run that turned a 13-point deficit into a brief one-point lead. Kuzma finished the first half with 13 points, including 10 in the second quarter.

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Lakers guard Avery Bradley has a hairline fracture in a non-weight-bearing bone in his right leg, an MRI exam performed Thursday night confirmed.

The Lakers announced that the injury was on the fibular head of Bradley’s leg and that he will be reevaluated in one to two weeks.

“We have the No. 1 defense in the league in large part because of him and the tone that he sets,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “So he’ll be missed.”

BASEBALL

Dylan Hernandez has an excellent column on Yu Darvish you should check out here. An excerpt:

As reports surfaced this week detailing how the Houston Astros used electronic equipment to steal signs in 2017, Yu Darvish wasn’t upset.

He was conflicted.

“Because I had that experience, I was able to work hard these last two years and become the person I am now,” Darvish said in Japanese in a video he uploaded to his popular YouTube channel Thursday night.

As a starting pitcher for the Dodgers that season, Darvish had a disastrous World Series against the Astros. He was charged with four runs and lasted only 1⅔ innings in a Game 3 loss. His performance in Game 7 was even worse, as he gave up five runs in an equally short start that delivered the Astros their first-ever championship.

“I feel that if I absolve myself and say it was the Astros’ fault I was bad in Game 7, in the World Series, I can’t develop as a person,” he said. “In life, I think huge failures are extremely important. I’ve had a few up to this point. The World Series was one of them. I think it will remain a point of reference for me. I’ve already learned a lot from it. So regarding that, I can’t view myself charitably. I think I have to continue to accept the results.”

He acknowledged his World Series failures have bothered him the last two years, in particular because he could never make sense of what happened.

In the immediate aftermath, Astros players said Darvish was tipping his pitches. He was never satisfied by the story. Alarmed by how the Astros reacted to his pitches in Game 3, the Dodgers carefully studied video of him and were unable to come up with any definitive conclusions. Players on that Astros team later told him they watched how he brought the ball into his glove in the set position. With that in mind, Darvish rewatched Game 7. What he saw did not match up with what he heard.

Darvish was surprised by the allegations that surfaced this week in a story by the Athletic. Four people who were with the Astros in 2017, including pitcher Mike Fiers, said the team used a camera in the outfield to steal signs at home games.

Darvish wondered about Game 7 of the World Series, which was at Dodger Stadium.

“What’s been reported up to this point is that they used cameras at their home field, so I don’t know if there was anything like that,” Darvish said. “But what they were doing was so high-level that I can’t honestly say there’s no chance they were also doing it on the road.”

But Darvish didn’t want to overthink the possibilities.

“If you ask me if I got hit in Game 7 because they stole signs, I don’t think so,” he said. “The Astros have great players who don’t have to do that. So I think that whether or not they stole signs, the results wouldn’t have changed.”

UCLA BASKETBALL

Chris Smith had 16 points and eight rebounds, Tyger Campbell added 15 points, and UCLA defeated Nevada Las Vegas 71-54 on Friday night at Pauley Pavilion.

The Bruins (3-0) led by 22 points in the first half, when they shot 48% from the field and scored 18 points off the Runnin’ Rebels’ 10 turnovers.

UCLA made a season-high 10 three-pointers, led by Campbell’s three. The Bruins hit a combined 11 threes in their first two games.

They opened the game on a 19-5 run, including 14 unanswered points. Smith scored seven points and Cody Riley added four in the spurt.

SOCCER

Coach Gregg Berhalter and the U.S. men’s national team got the development and the result they were seeking, with Gyasi Zardes scoring twice and teenager Sergino Dest picking up an assist two minutes into his first competitive game with the U.S., leading a 4-1 rout of Canada in a Nations League group-play match.

Considering the opponent, a Canadian team riding a wave of momentum and leading the group after beating the U.S. last month for the first time in 34 years, it might have been the Americans’ most important victory of the year.

It was certainly the most emphatic, with the U.S. scoring three times in the opening 33 minutes and never looking back. And that not only rescued the Americans’ pride and earned Berhalter some welcome breathing room, but it also erased Canada’s goal-differential lead atop the group table, leaving the U.S. needing only a win over Cuba on Tuesday to advance to the tournament semifinals.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” Berhalter cautioned. “We had an objective to go to the next round. We’re not in the next round yet.”

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Jorge Vergara, the mercurial owner of Mexican soccer club Chivas of Guadalajara and former owner of failed MLS club Chivas USA, died Friday after a heart attack. He was 64.

Vergara suffered cardiac failure while in New York City, his son Amaury said in a statement.

“With deep sadness and pain in my heart, I communicate to you that my father, Jorge Carlos Vergara Madrigal, passed from this life due to cardiac failure,” the younger Vergara wrote in Spanish.

“We honor my father the way he always taught us with his example: working day in and day out, taking care of others and reaching our dreams.”

CLIPPERS

If Thursday‘s game was a loss for the Clippers, it was also a sigh of relief.

Paul George was back. So was the team’s long-dormant three-point shooting.

George, the All-Star forward who missed the season’s first 11 games while recovering from offseason shoulder surgeries, absorbed contact while bouncing off defenders in the 132-127 loss to the Pelicans in New Orleans and felt no worse for the wear while scoring 33 points in 24 minutes, the fourth-highest-scoring debut in Clippers history.

“My body feels good,” George said. “I knew I was healthy and I knew I was 100%, shoulder-wise.”

UCLA FOOTBALL

Breaking down the on-field matchups for UCLA (4-5, 4-2) at No. 7 Utah (8-1, 5-1) today at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

Marquee matchup

UCLA running back Joshua Kelley vs. the Utah defense. Simply put, this is best versus best. Kelley leads the Pac-12 Conference in rushing with 107.6 yards per game, helping the Bruins surpass 200 yards on the ground in five consecutive games for the first time since 1978. He’s topped 100 yards in three consecutive games and has moved into 15th place on UCLA’s career rushing list with 2,104 yards in less than two full seasons. Standing in his way of another big game will be Utah’s best-in-the-nation run defense that is giving up only 56 yards per game and 2.45 yards per carry while holding eight of its last nine opponents under 100 yards rushing.

Read the rest of the matchups by clicking here.

UCLA FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

All times Pacific. Radio: AM 1150

at Cincinnati 24, UCLA 14

San Diego State 23, at UCLA 14

Oklahoma 48, at UCLA 14

UCLA 67, at Washington State 63

at Arizona 20, UCLA 17

Oregon State 48, at UCLA 31

UCLA 34, at Stanford 16

at UCLA 42, Arizona State 32

at UCLA 31, Colorado 14

Nov. 16 at Utah, 5 p.m., Fox

Nov. 23 at USC, TBD

Nov. 30 vs. California, TBD

USC FOOTBALL

Breaking down the on-field matchups for USC (6-4, 5-2) at California (5-4, 2-4) on Saturday at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.

Marquee matchup

USC freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis vs. the Cal secondary. No quarterback in the last 15 years of college football had a quarter quite like Slovis did last week in Tempe, where he lit up Arizona State for 279 yards and four touchdowns in the first 15 minutes. Slovis slowed from there, but it was a brief reminder of how good the freshman can be with USC’s offense clicking. He could have a harder time against a Cal pass defense that ranks among the best in the Pac-12. Just two quarterbacks have managed to hit the 250-yard mark against the Golden Bears and both needed 48 or more passes to get there.

Read the rest of the matchups by clicking here.

USC FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

All times Pacific. Radio: 790 KABC

USC 31, Fresno State 23

USC 45, Stanford 20

at BYU 30, USC 27 (OT)

at USC 30, Utah 23

at Washington 28, USC 14

at Notre Dame 30, USC 27

at USC 41, Arizona 14

USC 35, at Colorado 31

Oregon 56, at USC 24

USC 31, at Arizona State 26

Nov. 16 at California, 8 p.m., FS1

Nov. 23 vs. UCLA, TBD

NFL

The NFL has suspended Myles Garrett indefinitely without pay after the Cleveland Browns defensive end used a helmet to strike the uncovered head of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph.

In a statement released Friday morning, the league said Garrett’s suspension will be “at a minimum for the remainder of the regular season and postseason.” He was also fined an unspecified amount.

Garrett apologized later that morning in a statement released by the Browns, calling his actions “a terrible mistake.”

“I want to apologize to Mason Rudolph, my teammates, our entire organization, our fans and to the NFL,” Garrett said. “I know I have to be accountable for what happened, learn from my mistake and I fully intend to do so.”

TODAY’S LOCAL MAJOR SPORTS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Vegas at Kings, 1 p.m., FSW

Ducks at St. Louis, 5 p.m., FSW

Atlanta at Clippers, 7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Prime Ticket, AM 570

UCLA (football) at Utah, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 1150

USC (football) at California, 8 p.m., FS1, 790 KABC

USC (basketball) at Nevada, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network, 790 KABC

BORN ON THIS DATE

1924: Sprinter Mel Patton (d. 2014)

1946: Basketball player Jo Jo White (d. 2018)

1954: Golf caddie Bruce Edwards (d. 2004)

1956: Race car driver Terry Labonte

1959: Golfer Corey Pavin

1961: Boxer Frank Bruno

1962: Former Angel Chuck Finley

1963: Tennis player Zina Garrison

1964: Baseball player Dwight Gooden

1977: Figure skater Oksana Baiul

1982: Basketball player Amar’e Stoudemire

DIED ON THIS DATE

1987: Former Dodger Jim Brewer, 50

2009: Race horse trainer Robert J. Frankel, 68

AND FINALLY

Dwight Gooden strikes out the side in the 1984 All-Star game. Watch it here.

That concludes the newsletter for today. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, please email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. If you want to subscribe, click here.