Go beyond the scoreboard
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From Broderick Turner: He has seen too much decline in his team’s recent play for his liking and so Clippers coach Ty Lue has a way to solve that.
His team will practice this week…And practice some more.
The Clippers play just three games this week, giving them four days off, some of which Lue will use to get his group back playing at a high level again.
He’ll have plenty of ammunition to present to his team after they fell flat again, dropping a 123-107 game to the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night at Crypto.com Arena.
After the Kings shot 49.5% from the field, 40.5% from three-point range and had six players score in double figures, led by De’Aaron Fox’s 33 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds, Lue was asked what went wrong in this specific game.
“Everything,” he responded.
Lue will give his team Monday off, but the Clippers will be back to work Tuesday.
They will host the Lakers Wednesday night in the arena both share and then the Washington Wizards on Friday night.
In Lue’s eyes, his team’s side is more than just physical.
“Mentally? Yeah, just mentally,” he said. “It’s a grind and long season, it’s a grind and so we just got to get back mentally focused, understanding what we need to do if we want to take that next step, like I say, going into the playoffs. And so, just mentally focusing, getting back sharp again on both sides of the basketball and taking these days to get better.”
Against the Kings, Lue did not have one of his stars, Paul George, who didn’t play because of left knee soreness.
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LAKERS
From Dan Woike: The road through the Western Conference is a narrowing path and, ultimately, there will be room for the Lakers or the Suns. Not both.
Maybe because of the familiarity — Kevin Durant and LeBron James battling for parts of three decades, a Suns coaching staff that owns championship rings with the Lakers or an unconventional fifth meeting this season between the teams — Sunday’s game felt like it had extra heft.
Success or failure for these Pacific Division rivals won’t be judged in late February, particularly as both teams struggled to get (and stay) healthy for any meaningful stretch this season.
For 48 minutes Sunday, the Lakers and the Suns played a regular-season game that felt like it had actual stakes, both teams shortening their benches and letting their best players stay on the court to fight.
The swings in the 123-113 Lakers loss were wild. The Lakers trailed by as many as 20 in the first quarter as the Suns scored 45 points in the opening 12 minutes. No team this year had punished the Lakers’ defense like that in the first all season.
UCLA BASKETBALL
From Dylan Hernández: Mick Cronin was to the point.
“It’s a simple game,” he said. “Team that plays harder usually wins.”
Cronin paused for a beat.
“They played much harder than us. They were more physical. They had humility. They came in looking for redemption.”
Cronin paused again.
“We had no humility, and show me somebody that’s not humble and I’ll show you somebody getting ready to get humbled. We had our worst week of practice of the season. I failed miserably to get my team ready for the fight that was coming today, and I’m thoroughly embarrassed.
Cronin went on this way for more than 11 minutes after UCLA’s deflating 62-56 loss to USC at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night.
USC BASKETBALL
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: JuJu Watkins continues to move up the scoring ranks at USC, but her historic game Sunday came with the Trojans dropping down the Pac-12 standings.
Watkins set the single-season freshman scoring record with 30 points to bring her season total to 705, passing Paula McGee, but made just 10 of 30 shots in a 74-68 loss to No. 18 Utah at Galen Center. She made just one of six three-pointers as the No. 7 Trojans (21-5, 11-5 Pac-12) made only four of 20 shots from distance and failed to move into sole possession of second place in the Pac-12.
“If you look at this box score, the difference is the three-point line,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said, noting that USC had six more rebounds and three fewer turnovers than Utah. “We competed. We competed, but we made too many game plan mistakes.”
GALAXY
From Kevin Baxter: Trace the timeline of Major League Soccer from its uncertain beginnings to its unquestioned success and you’ll find Greg Vanney was there at every important juncture.
He played in 29 games, including the first MLS Cup final, in the league’s inaugural season in 1996, then came off the bench in David Beckham’s debut 11 years later. In 2017, he took Toronto FC to three trophies, still the only MLS treble, and last season he coached the Galaxy in front of a Rose Bowl crowd of 82,110, largest in the league’s history.
But if that’s the league’s past and present, on Sunday Vanney will enter the future, where a league that has long thrived on star power has reached a new level thanks to a player whose mere presence has come to dominate it.
The “M” in MLS stands for Messi.
Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player in soccer history, joined MLS and Inter Miami last summer but played only six league games. That, however, was enough to change everything. Ticket sales and revenue soared; subscriptions to Apple TV, the league’s broadcast partner, more than doubled; and Vogue magazine put Messi’s Barbie-pink Inter Miami jersey on its list of the 15 fashion items that defined 2023.
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From Kevin Baxter: A record crowd of 27,642 packed Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday to get a look at Lionel Messi and they got what they paid for, with Messi scoring in the second minute of stoppage time to give Inter Miami a 1-1 tie with the Galaxy.
Messi’s goal came after Riqui Puig turned the ball over deep in the Galaxy end. Messi and former Barcelona teammate Jordi Alba then worked a pair of give-and-goes that ended with Messi sliding to his knees to score from the center of the box.
The score came five minutes after Galaxy midfielder Mark Delgado was given a second yellow card and expelled by referee Gabriele Ciampi, a replacement for the regular MLS officials who have been locked out, who allowed it to stand.
Delgado assisted on the Galaxy’s only goal, which came from Dejan Joveljic in the 75th minute. Miami keeper Drake Callender stopped a shot from Puig but pushed the rebound at Delgado who, with the Miami keeper on the ground, fed Joveljic on the other side of the box for an easy tap-in.
KINGS
From Helene Elliott: The Kings’ season-high 50 shots on net produced merely two goals Saturday, both scored during power plays.
They gave up a short-handed goal to the Ducks and committed enough giveaways to raise questions about how well they’ll fare if they replicate that during their upcoming trip to face division rivals Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. For the second straight game, they were unable to produce a five-on-five goal.
The negatives are worrisome. But what mattered most to the Kings was that they conquered their shootout demons to get two points they urgently needed, prevailing 3-2 Saturday at Crypto.com Arena after scoring twice on beleaguered John Gibson during the shootout to one goal for the Ducks against David Rittich.
The victory, their eighth straight against the Ducks, wasn’t pretty. “It was kind of a grind game tonight, more than it’s been in the last couple of years against Anaheim,” Kings winger Adrian Kempe said. “Credit to them.”
The best-case scenario for the Kings is that their second victory in seven shootouts this season will prove to be a confidence boost as they prepare for a challenging trip that could change their playoff positioning for the better — or for the worse.
DUCKS
Filip Forsberg broke a tie early in the third period and had an assist to help the Nashville Predators beat the Ducks 4-2 on Sunday night for their fifth straight victory.
Roman Josi, Michael McCarron and Gustav Nyquist also scored, and Kevin Lankinen stopped 30 shots for Nashville.
Nashville has 18 road victories, tied for third-most in the NHL.
Brett Leason had a goal and an assist for the Ducks. Isac Lundestrom also scored and Lukas Dostal made 25 saves. The Ducks have lost three straight and four of five.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1935 — Babe Ruth is released by the New York Yankees and signed by the Boston Braves.
1960 — Dave Jenkins of the United States wins the figure skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif.
1967 — Mario Andretti, better known for his accomplishments in open-wheel and USAC competition, wins the Daytona 500 pulling away from 1965 champion Fred Lorenzen in the closing laps. It’s Andretti’s first and only NASCAR Grand National event. He is the only person born outside the United States to win the Daytona 500.
1968 — Thirty-two African nations agree to boycott the Olympics because of the presence of South Africa.
1989 — The Dallas Cowboys fire coach Tom Landry after a 29-year career.
1989 — Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux becomes the third NHL player to have 100 assists in a season, joining Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky. Lemieux gets three assists and a goal in the Penguins’ 8-6 loss to the Hartford Whalers.
1994 — In Lillehammer, Norway, Vreni Schneider of Switzerland wins the slalom for the fifth medal of her career, the most of any woman in Alpine Olympic history.
2006 — Sweden beats Finland 3-2 to win the Olympic men’s hockey gold. Germany leaves Turin with the most overall medals with 29, 11 of them gold, while the Americans win 25 medals overall, including nine gold.
2007 — Roger Federer reaches a new milestone breaking Jimmy Connors’ 30-year-old mark with his 161st week at the top of the ATP rankings. Connors set his record from July 1974 to August 1977. The ATP rankings began on Aug. 23, 1973. Federer took the No. 1 spot on Feb. 2, 2004.
2012 — In Bansko, Bulgaria, Lindsey Vonn captures her fourth World Cup super-G race of the year and becomes the career leader in the discipline. By winning her 18th super G the American overtakes Austria’s Renate Goetschl for the record.
2017 — 59th Daytona 500: Kurt Busch wins after Kyle Larson runs out of gas on last lap; Jeffrey Earnhardt makes NASCAR history, 1st ever 4th generation driver to compete in Daytona 500.
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, and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.