Go beyond the scoreboard
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From Dylan Hernández: DodgerFest, the $10-to-enter iteration of what the Dodgers used to call FanFest, will be staged Saturday. The event will feel like a celebration. Following years in which they exercised a degree of financial restraint that limited their World Series prospects, the Dodgers finally won an offseason.
They kept together the nucleus of a 100-win team and bolstered it by signing the best player in baseball. The addition of Shohei Ohtani was just the start of a $1.2-billion winter splurge, with a significant part of that directed toward addressing the obvious shortcoming of the roster, starting pitching.
The Dodgers will have a luxury-tax payroll well over $300 million, which has obscured an uncomfortable reality: As much as they invested, they still might not be the World Series favorites.
The team will reach the postseason. There’s a very real possibility, however, the Dodgers could enter the playoffs similar to how they did last year, with virtually no chance of winning a championship.
To be clear, the Dodgers were right to spend as much as they did. They owed their loyal fans that much. What’s less clear is whether they were smart in how they spent their money.
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CLIPPERS
Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points, James Harden added 25 and the Clippers pulled away with a big third quarter to beat the Washington Wizards 125-109 on Wednesday night.
The Clippers outscored Washington 39-19 in the third after leading by 10 in the first half.
Harden’s pullup three from the top of the arc stretched the lead to 20 for the first time with 5:42 left in the period. Later, Leonard’s emphatic dunk off a driving, spinning feed from Russell Westbrook pushed it 25, and Norman Powell’s basket made it 106-79 at the end of the third.
Leonard and Harden each had nine rebounds. And Harden hit five three-pointers to help the Clippers snap out of a long-range shooting slump on a night they rested eight-time All-Star Paul George because of groin soreness.
SUPER BOWL
Super Bowl LVIII: Start time, teams, betting odds and halftime show
Sunday, Feb. 11
at Las Vegas
Kansas City vs. San Francisco, 3:30 p.m. PT, CBS, Paramount+
KINGS
Alex Turcotte had his first NHL goal and assist and the Kings beat the Nashville Predators 4-2 on Wednesday night to snap a four-game skid in the final game for both teams before the NHL All-Star break.
Playing his second NHL game of the season and 14th overall, Turcotte — the fifth overall pick in 2019 — made it 2-0 in the second period and had an assist on Trevor Lewis’ goal with 6:39 left that helped Los Angeles win for just the third time in 17 games.
DUCKS
Troy Terry tied it with 1:01 remaining in regulation and assisted on Frank Vatrano’s goal with 52 seconds left in overtime in the Ducks’ 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night.
Vatrano, the Ducks representative in the NHL All-Star Game this weekend, put a wrist shot past Kaapo Kahkonen for his 22nd goal of the season and Anaheim’s third win in four games.
Terry beat Kahkonen with a wrist shot with plenty of traffic around the net.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1914 — The Chicago White Sox and New York Giants play an exhibition game to promote baseball in Egypt. The game ends in a 3-3 tie.
1956 — Hayes Alan Jenkins leads the United States in a sweep of Olympic men’s figure skating in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The silver goes to Ronald Robertson, and Jenkins’ younger brother, David, wins the bronze.
1968 — Vince Lombardi steps down as NFL Green Bay Packers head coach in favor of longtime assistant Phil Bengtson; stays on as Packers’ general manager for 1968.
1995 — Utah guard John Stockton becomes the NBA’s career assist leader, setting up Karl Malone with 6:30 left in the first half of the Jazz’s 129-88 victory over Denver. Stockton’s 9,922nd assist moves him ahead of Magic Johnson.
1998 — David Graham wins the longest playoff in Senior PGA Tour history, beating Dave Stockton with a birdie on the 10th extra hole in the Royal Caribbean Classic.
2003 — Regina Jacobs becomes the first woman to break four minutes in the indoor 1,500 meters at the Boston Indoor Games. Jacobs finishes in 3:59.98 to break the world record of 4:00.27 set by Romanian Doina Melinte in 1990.
2004 — The New England Patriots win their second Super Bowl in three seasons after Adam Vinatieri kicks a field goal with 4 seconds left to lift his team to a 32-29 victory over the Carolina Panthers.
2006 — New York’s Epiphanny Prince scores 113 points for Murry Bergtraum High School in a 137-32 win over Brandeis High School, breaking a girls’ national prep record previously held by Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller.
2008 — Jockey Russell Baze is the first to win 10,000th races in North America when he leads Two Step Cat to victory in the third race at Golden Gate Fields.
2009 — Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh offense end a Super Bowl of incredible swings with a final-minute touchdown for a historic victory, 27-23 over the Arizona Cardinals. Santonio Holmes makes a brilliant 6-yard catch deep in the right corner of the end zone with 35 seconds remaining, lifting the Steelers to a record-setting sixth Super Bowl win.
2014 — Ray Guy becomes the first punter elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
2015 — Tom Brady throws for four touchdowns and Malcolm Butler intercepts Russell Wilson’s pass in the end zone with 20 seconds left, helping New England hold on to beat Seattle 28-24 for their fourth Super Bowl title.
2016 — For the first time in more than eight years, Duke is not in The Associated Press men’s basketball Top 25. The Blue Devils (15-6) had lost four of five, including two home games. They had been in every men’s poll since the preseason rankings of 2007-08.
2020 — Australian Open Women’s Tennis: 21-year-old American Sofia Kenin wins her first Grand Slam title with a 4–6, 6–2, 6–2 victory over Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain.
2023 — At age 45, Tom Brady, regarded as the greatest NFL quarterback of all time, announces his re-retirement after a 23 year career and a record 7 Super Bowl titles with the NE Patriots and TB Buccaneers.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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