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From Dan Woike: LeBron James stood at midcourt early in the fourth, his hands on his hips while a faint cheer began to echo through the building.
“M-V-P. M-V-P.”
For 22 seasons, James has been on the court while those letters were shouted at him, the league’s all-time leading scorer, one of its greatest players earning the adoration in buildings all over the league.
But increasingly in Los Angeles, those three letters have been aimed at James’ teammates. Anthony Davis is the league’s second-leading scorer, and as he’s stepped to the foul line, the crowd has serenaded him on multiple occasions.
However, these letters weren’t for him, either. This moment, it wasn’t for them.
With James well out of the play and Davis on the bench, that chant faintly caught steam for the player picked 17th in this past NBA draft, a player who, for the second straight home game, had the crowd bouncing as shot after shot ripped through the net.
And while he’s not the league’s most valuable, in the Lakers 124-118 win against the Utah Jazz in NBA Cup pool play, no one meant more than Dalton Knecht.
Knecht tied the NBA record for most threes made by a rookie, hitting nine, as he finished with a career-high 37 points. In his last two home games, Knecht’s made 14 of his 17 three-point shots.
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DODGERS
From Jack Harris: There were two prevailing thoughts from some people around the Dodgers organization regarding Juan Soto’s free agency this winter.
The team is probably unlikely to land the 26-year-old superstar, who is expected to command a contract upward of $700 million on a frenzied open market.
But, the Dodgers might as well try nonetheless, since they possess the competitive track record and financial resources to be one of Soto’s few realistic landing spots this offseason.
That pursuit is set to begin in earnest this week, according to a person with knowledge of the situation unauthorized to speak publicly, with Dodgers officials scheduled to meet with Soto and his agent Scott Boras on Tuesday, as MLB.com first reported.
That meeting will be the latest in a string of presentations from big-market clubs pursuing Soto in free agency.
Already, the four-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger has reportedly met with the incumbent New York Yankees, deep-pocketed New York Mets and superstar-hungry Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox.
From Ben Bolch: Bulletin boards inside USC’s McKay Center might come crashing to the floor with the weight of what the coach across town said this week.
Talking about the influence of the crosstown rivalry in homes across Southern California, DeShaun Foster could not help but take a jab at the school he wouldn’t call by name.
“A lot of families,” the UCLA coach said Monday evening, “the smarter one usually comes over here and the other one goes to the other school and then the family’s torn, you know what I mean?”
Uh-oh. Did a Bruin just unnecessarily poke a Trojan?
“Oh, I mean, it’s proven,” Foster continued, “this is the No. 1 [public school]. I’m not making up anything. This is proven fact, you know what I mean? But I was talking more of non-athletic [factors], not the athletes.”
From Ryan Kartje: His voice was hoarse, his exhaustion evident. The flu had been wreaking havoc on USC’s locker room since late last week. But by Tuesday, four days ahead of its crosstown matchup with UCLA, it had finally caught up with Lincoln Riley, whose third rivalry week at USC now promises to be an especially viral one.
The coach seemed to even cough on cue when asked about the flu.
“It’s had a little bit of an impact,” Riley said. “It’s part of it, though. Like I told the guys today, Saturday at 7:30, nobody’s going to care what you had or didn’t have. You got to be ready to go play the game. You’ve got different obstacles that come up, and you’ve got to go face them. We’ll deal with it, adjust how we need to, but no excuses — gotta be ready for Saturday.”
Several players already fought through the sickness last Saturday, among them running back Woody Marks, who rushed for a career-high 146 yards even as he struggled to breathe because of flu. Riley said after the game that the locker room had “looked like a MASH unit” in the days leading up to the game.
UCLA BASKETBALL
From Ben Bolch: Three years after boxing announcer Michael Buffer bellowed his famous catchphrase inside Pauley Pavilion, it could be time for UCLA basketball fans to unleash a new expression.
Let’s get ready to grumble!
The Bruins have not staged a home nonconference showdown since beating fourth-ranked Villanova in the second game of the 2021-22 season. It’s been a hodgepodge of opponents from the Big West, Big Sky and Western Athletic conferences since then, with the exception of a game against Maryland last season when the Terrapins finished with a losing record.
UCLA’s game against Idaho State on Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion will be the fourth in a string of six nonconference nobodies on their home court before the Bruins start Big Ten play against Washington on Dec. 3.
“The era of home-and-home nonconference games, I mean, how many have you seen?” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said Tuesday, alluding to a phenomenon that has affected every major program. “A few. And they were on the back end of the contracts — they’re not going to be renewed, probably.”
SPARKS
The Sparks have named longtime University of Utah coach Lynne Roberts their new head coach, becoming the second WNBA team to tap a current college coach to lead their franchise.
Roberts, a Redding native, has 27 years of coaching experience. She has spent the past 18 years as a Division I coach, most recently working at Utah for nine seasons and earning 2023 Pac-12 coach of the year honors.
She inherits a roster that was hit hard by injuries last season while pushing to rebuild around young talent. Cameron Brink, the No. 2 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, suffered a torn ACL in June. Rickea Jackson, the 2024 draft No. 4 pick, paired with former Las Vegas Aces standout Dearica Hamby to help lead the Sparks through a rough 2024 season that the franchise closed with an 8-24 overall record.
GALAXY
From Kevin Baxter: This is a story about how Gabriel Pec and the Galaxy got their grooves back.
For Pec, the Galaxy’s spectacular 23-year-old winger, the change started last February, when he left Brazilian club Vasco da Gama, the only team he had ever known.
“At Vasco there was a lot of pressure,” he said through a translator. “We had to tackle all the time. My passion is dribbling the ball, passing the ball, assisting, goals.”
For the Galaxy, the change also came when Pec left Brazil for Carson. Through the past seven seasons the team had done very little tackling, dribbling, passing or scoring, losing more games than they won and getting outscored by 53 goals. With Pec, they won 19 games for the first time in 13 years, matched the franchise modern-era record for goals and came within a tiebreaker of their first regular-season conference title since 2011.
DUCKS
Alex Killorn had a goal and an assist in the third period, and the Ducks beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Tuesday night for their season-high third straight win.
Killorn tied it at 2-2 on a well-placed backhanded shot at 5:10. Then he made a perfect pass to Leo Carlsson for a backdoor tap-in with 10:22 left.
Pavel Mintyukov also scored for the Ducks, who have won four of five overall. Trevor Zegras had two assists, and John Gibson made 18 saves.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1960 — Jerry Norton of St. Louis intercepts four passes to send past the Washington Redskins 26-14.
1969 — Brazilian soccer legend Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.
1977 — Walter Payton rushes for an NFL record 275 yards, and the Chicago Bears edge the Minnesota Vikings 10-7.
1979 — Red Holzman of the New York Knicks wins his 500th game, a 130-125 overtime victory over Houston at Madison Square Garden. Holzman is the second coach, after Red Auerbach, to reach that mark.
1983 — Steve Bartkowski throws a 42-yard desperation pass that is deflected to Billy Johnson at the 5-yard line, and he then fights his way into the end zone to give the Atlanta Falcons a 28-24 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.
1994 — Tisha Venturini scores twice and Angela Kelly, Sarah Dacey and Robin Confer add goals for North Carolina, which beats Notre Dame 5-0 for its ninth consecutive NCAA women’s soccer championship.
1997 — A.C. Green breaks the NBA record for consecutive games — his 907th straight appearance in the Dallas Mavericks’ 101-97 loss to the Golden State Warriors. Green surpasses Randy Smith’s mark of 906 set from 1972-83.
1999 — TCU’s LaDainian Tomlinson rushes for an NCAA Division I record 406 yards in 43 carries with six touchdowns in a 52-24 victory over UTEP.
2001 — Ball State beats No. 3 UCLA 91-73 in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational, one day after knocking off No. 4 Kansas in the opening round.
2010 — Mikel Leshoure of Illinois rushes for a school-record 330 yards and scores two touchdowns in the Fighting Illini’s 48-27 win over Northwestern at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. All offensive plays are run toward the same end zone because a brick wall, although heavily padded, is too close behind the other one.
2011 — Brittney Griner has 32 points and 14 rebounds while Baylor establishes itself as the clear No. 1 team with a 94-81 victory over No. 2 Notre Dame in the preseason WNIT championship game.
2011 — Landon Donovan scores in the 72nd minute on passes from Robbie Keane and David Beckham, and the Galaxy’s three superstars win their first MLS Cup together with a 1-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo.
2012 — Jack Taylor scores 138 points to shatter the NCAA scoring record in Division III Grinnell’s 179-104 victory over Faith Baptist Bible in Grinnell, Iowa.
2016 — Jimmie Johnson ties Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt with a record seven NASCAR championships when he defeats Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and defending champion Kyle Busch at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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.