The Sports Report: Red-hot Lakers defeat struggling Clippers

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

From Dan Woike: JJ Redick has called these moments “blackouts,” but Sunday against the Clippers, Luka Doncic was very much alive.

At the start, he bounded up the left side of the floor, forced Ivica Zubac into the switch and stepped toward the Clippers’ bench before swishing a three-pointer that seemed like it scraped the scoreboard.

Then he made another, and he started to jaw at the opposing bench.

Later, Amir Coffey got the assignment to cover Doncic and the Lakers star made another three, goading the Clippers to get someone who could actually defend him.

Fire. Intensity. Showmanship. Skill.

Later, he made another three over ace Clippers defender Kris Dunn, spraying a spew of what sure seemed like obscenities at any Clippers player who thought they could stop him.

This was the place Doncic went; this was the place the Lakers needed him to be.

Playing without starters Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura and without emerging reserve guard Jordan Goodwin, the Lakers needed their stars to carry them — especially in their fourth game at Crypto.com Arena in the last six nights.

After struggling against Dallas and Minnesota and not having his best game against the Clippers on Friday despite scoring 31 points, Doncic carried the Lakers to a 108-102 win over the Clippers that was a showcase of both his spirit and production.

He finished with 29 points, six rebounds and nine assists.

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Lakers-Clippers box score

NBA scores

NBA standings

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From Broderick Turner: He didn’t want to talk about his best game of the season, about how he was a force, about how he played at such a high level.

The game wasn’t about his season-high 33 points, Kawhi Leonard said. It wasn’t about how he played nearly 40 minutes or his season-high 10 rebounds.

For Leonard, the game was just a reminder of the Clippers’ struggles since the All-Star break.

Even with Leonard playing arguably his best game of the season, the Clippers lost 108-102 to the Lakers Sunday night at Crypto.com Arena.

“Just got to get better,” Leonard. “It’s not about individual accolades. We got to get a team win. And I think I said we got to limit our mistakes and hopefully the ball falls for us in the future.”

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue, however, had high praise for Leonard. He liked that Leonard had four offensive rebounds and how he played with purpose.

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DODGERS

From Mike DiGiovanna: Jameson Taillon was among the 43,326 fans in Minute Park for Game 7 of the 2019 World Series, his arm in a brace following his second Tommy John surgery as he watched former Pittsburgh Pirates teammate Daniel Hudson, a fellow two-time Tommy John survivor, nail down the final three outs for the Washington Nationals.

“That was a little emotional for me to see him chuck his glove up in the air and save the World Series,” Taillon, now a Chicago Cubs right-hander, said of Hudson. “I’m sitting there in a brace and I don’t know if I’ll ever do this again. Then you see a success story, and it does matter.”

There have been 2,555 major league pitchers who had Tommy John surgery, according to a list compiled by baseball analyst Jon Roegele, beginning with the first elbow ligament replacement procedure that Dr. Frank Jobe performed on John, the former Dodgers left-hander, on Sept. 25, 1974.

Of those pitchers, 162 had a second Tommy John surgery — many of them a hybrid procedure, introduced in 2013, in which the ulnar collateral ligament is reinforced with an internal brace, providing extra stability and support and allowing for faster recovery times than the 12 to 18 months for traditional surgeries.

Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani is a member of the latter club, the three-time most valuable player undergoing his first Tommy John surgery with the Angels in 2018 and his second — a revision procedure with an internal brace — in his final month with the team in September 2023.

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KINGS

From Kevin Baxter: The Kings’ needs are obvious with Friday’s NHL deadline looming, but is the price to meet them too high? For the Ducks, the question is will they make a push to end their six-year playoff drought or continue their build for the future?

The Kings entered the weekend third in the Pacific Division, five points up on Vancouver for the division’s final automatic postseason berth. But after being eliminated by Edmonton in the first round in each of the last three postseasons, simply getting to the playoffs is no longer enough. The only way to show progress is to get past the first round for the first time in more than a decade. And this team may need help to do that.

The Kings’ biggest wants are a second-line center and a right-handed-shooting winger who can help a feeble offense that ranked 24th in the 32-team league in goals and 30th on the power play, where it had a 14.7% success rate, entering Saturday night’s game with the St. Louis Blues.

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GALAXY

Defender Sam Adekugbe scored early, Brian White scored late and the Vancouver Whitecaps beat the Galaxy 2-1 on Sunday, handing the defending MLS Cup champions a second straight defeat to begin the season.

Following the lead of some Canadian fans at hockey and basketball games, many fans booed during “The Star-Spangled Banner” in reaction to President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs and repeated remarks about making the country the 51st state.

Adekugbe scored unassisted in the third minute to give the Whitecaps (2-0-0) the lead. It was his second goal of the season and his third in 44 appearances with the club.

The Galaxy pulled even in the 39th minute when Gabriel Pec used assists from Miguel Berry and 21-year-old rookie midfielder Elijah Wynder to score L.A.’s first goal of the season. Pec had 16 goals and 14 assists as a rookie last season in the championship run. The Galaxy lost 2-0 to San Diego FC — an expansion team — in their home opener.

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Galaxy summary

MLS standings

DIANA TAURASI RETIRES

From Andrés Soto: Diana Taurasi dribbled up the court at Arroyo High School. It was 1999, the summer before her senior year, and the nationally ranked Don Lugo High star was feeling it. She looked over to the opposing bench and right at Bishop Amat coach Richard Wiard.

“Hey Richie, watch this,” Taurasi said as she let it fly from half court.

The shot went in, and she laughed hysterically.

“It was Larry Bird-esque,” recalled Wiard, who had coached Taurasi‘s AAU team since she was in seventh grade. “It was a summer league game, but she just had that supreme confidence that she was going to do that. And she did.”

Bird. Magic. Kobe. Jordan. There was no shortage of legendary comparisons dropped by teammates, coaches and WNBA peers when trying to describe Taurasi, who announced her retirement Tuesday at age 42. But Taurasi is a legend all her own. She’s walking away from a league that she was instrumental in building after 20 years — all with the Phoenix Mercury — as a three-time champion, a most valuable player and two-time Finals MVP, a 14-time All-WNBA selection, an 11-time All-Star and the WNBA’s all-time leader in scoring and three-pointers. Don’t forget about her three NCAA titles, six Olympic gold medals and six Euroleague championships, either.

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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 career 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