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From Dan Woike: You weren’t dreaming. You didn’t imagine it. It wasn’t some kind of strange Saturday night hallucination.
Yes, you watched the Lakers play one of their best basketball games of the season. Yes, you saw the team, maybe more than ever, look like a group that could make a run to the playoffs.
And then, yes, you read that the foundation of the Lakers’ present, and most importantly, its future, were completely altered.
The Lakers did, in fact, trade Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick for Luka Doncic minutes after the team pulled out of Madison Square Garden. In a single moment, the team officially ended questions about how much more it should pour into a team built around LeBron James and Davis. And it skipped through the ugly future everyone had accepted in the post-James aftermath, another uncomfortable rebuild likely the cost of one last push.
Well, that’s done now. The Lakers have a future — a 25-year-old star who is maybe the second-best living basketball player. And they completely upended their present plans to make it happen.
The deal happened in almost total secrecy, The Times first hearing rumors of the Lakers and the Mavericks working together on something from a rival executive on Thursday night. The only problem was that no one knew what the teams were talking about.
People in both organizations were asked about possible talks and no one even came close to mentioning the blockbuster deal, their responses ranging from “first I’ve heard of this” to “maybe it’s (Daniel) Gafford.” Davis, just two weeks ago, had publicly lobbied for the Lakers to trade for a center and the team had been canvassing the NBA for options to pair with Davis.
Nothing, though, felt imminent on that front with people close to the situation left believing that the Lakers biggest priority had shifted to finding another offensive playmaker.
The belief, though, was that the team was headed towards a smaller move to augment their current roster. That group was playing some of its best basketball, having won eight times in the last 10 games with the NBA’s third-best net rating over that span.
Plaschke: Is LeBron James next? Trading Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic is a great first step
Doncic-Davis trade survey
Do you think the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade is a good one for the Lakers? Vote in our survey here. Results will be announced Friday.
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CLIPPERS
RJ Barrett scored 20 points, Jakob Poeltl had 10 points and 10 rebounds and the Toronto Raptors beat the Clippers 115-108 on Sunday for their eighth win in the past 10 games.
Gradey Dick scored 18 points and Scottie Barnes had 15 as the Raptors snapped a five-game losing streak against the Clippers, who were playing without guard Norman Powell. He suffered a right hip contusion in the win over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday.
Ochai Agbaji had 12 points, Immanuel Quickley added 11 and Ja’Kobe Walter scored 10 as seven Toronto players reached double digits.
UCLA BASKETBALL
From Anthony De Leon: The UCLA women’s basketball team continues to seek consistency but, despite a slow start, its depth powered a dominant late-game performance to extend its undefeated streak.
The No. 1 Bruins (21-0, 9-0 Big Ten) faced a tough test as Minnesota trailed by five at the half and didn’t fade until the Bruins pulled away in the final quarter on the way to a 79-53 Big Ten victory at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday.
It was UCLA’s 20th consecutive double-digit victory, the longest streak in program history.
On a day when the offense struggled — particularly with National Player of the Year candidate Lauren Betts being held to a season-low six points — it was the supporting cast that lifted the Bruins.
USC BASKETBALL
Lucy Olsen scored 28 points and Addison O’Grady had 13 as Iowa topped No. 4 USC 76-69 on Sunday, ending the Trojans’ 15-game winning streak.
JuJu Watkins led USC (19-2, 9-1) with 27 points. Kiki Iriafen had 13 points, and Kennedy Smith had 11.
The win came on a day when Iowa retired Caitlin Clark’s jersey No. 22 in a postgame ceremony, and the Hawkeyes delivered a win to add to the honor.
Continue reading here
DODGERS
From Jack Harris: At the start of the offseason, Los Angeles native and Dodgers World Series champion Jack Flaherty voiced his desire to remain with his hometown team.
But it became clear long ago this winter that the Dodgers — who have replenished their rotation with marquee signings of Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki — wouldn’t have the room to bring him back.
So, Flaherty decided to return to his other 2024 club instead.
On Sunday night, Flaherty and the Detroit Tigers, the team that sent Flaherty to the Dodgers at the trade deadline last season, agreed to a two-year contract for $35 million, ESPN reported. Flaherty, who posted a picture to X of himself in a Tigers uniform after the news broke, will make $25 million in 2025 and have a $10-million player option in 2026 — creating the possibility he will be back on the free-agent market again next winter.
For Dodgers star Freddie Freeman, much of the offseason was a fanfest
HORSE RACING
From John Cherwa: As the wildfires devastated parts of the San Gabriel Valley, Santa Anita Park did what locals always have counted on the 80-year-old track to do. It stepped up and fulfilled its role as a community citizen.
It canceled racing the first week after the fires so that the track’s expansive space could be used as a center for donation collection and distribution, staging utility vehicles that were helping fight the fires and housing large animals that could not be accommodated at animal shelters. The track was unaffected by the fires and the air quality was well within the range for safe racing.
Santa Anita did what was best for Arcadia, Altadena, Pasadena and other areas that were affected by the worst fire disaster in L.A. history.
It’s not the first time Santa Anita has stepped up. It donated the land at the corner of Huntington and Baldwin for a fire station. It also gave away the land near the track that houses the Arcadia City Hall and police department.
But these charitable gestures are getting harder to pull off. The sport is decades past the days when cars would back up onto Baldwin Avenue after leaving the 210 freeway, spectators just trying to get into the Santa Anita parking lot. The Santa Anita Handicap is no longer a must-attend event for horsemen nationally. Gone are competitive purses because of the lack of a secondary source of income such as casino gambling. Field sizes are so small that it cripples wagering. And attendance is a fraction of what it was years ago.
The unfathomable idea that the track may soon close or be sold is closer to reality than ever.
DUCKS
Alex Killorn scored the tiebreaking goal with 8:49 to play, and the Ducks rallied from a two-goal deficit for a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday.
Anaheim went ahead when three Canadiens got occupied with other Ducks and allowed Killorn to walk in from the side wall. His shot appeared to bank off Arber Xhekaj’s stick for his 11th goal.
Mason McTavish and Frank Vatrano scored 40 seconds apart in the second period for the Ducks, who have won four of five. Killorn had a goal and an assist, while Lukas Dostal made 21 saves.
SUPER BOWL 59
Super Bowl LIX: Start time, teams, how to watch and halftime show
Super Bowl 59
Sunday
at New Orleans
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Kansas City Chiefs
3:30 p.m., Fox
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1944 — Syd Howe of the Detroit Red Wings scores six goals in a 12-6 victory over the New York Rangers. Howe is the first player to score six goals in a game since Cy Denneny of the Ottawa Senators in 1921.
1956 — Austria’s Toni Sailer wins the men’s downhill to become first Olympic skier to sweep three Alpine events.
1976 — Washington’s Dave Bing, in his final NBA All-Star game appearance, wins the MVP and leads the East to a 123-109 victory over the West in Philadelphia. Bing has 16 points and four assists.
1980 — Larry Bird hits the first three-point shot in the history of the NBA All-Star Game. Bird’s three came in overtime. The East wins 144-136.
1982 — Steve Mahre, twin brother of overall champion Phil Mahre, becomes the first American male skier to win a gold medal in an Olympics or world championship competition when he edges Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark in the giant slalom at the worlds.
1990 — Bill Shoemaker, the world’s winningest jockey, finishes fourth on Patchy Groundfog in his final ride at Santa Anita. The 58-year-old Shoemaker finishes his 40-year career with $123,375,524 in earnings, a record 8,833 wins, 6,136 seconds and 4,987 thirds in 40,350 starts.
1998 — Dino Ciccarelli becomes the ninth NHL player to reach 600 goals when he scores on a power play with 5:09 remaining in the third period to give the Florida Panthers a 1-1 tie against the Detroit Red Wings.
2000 — World Wrestling Federation mastermind Vince McMahon unveils his latest creation: the XFL, a new pro football league.
2001 — One year later, the XFL muscles its way onto the national sports scene with its first two games. With exuberant cheerleaders and trash-talking players, the Las Vegas Outlaws beat the New York/New Jersey Hitmen 19-0, while the Orlando Rage beat the Chicago Enforcers 33-29 before a crowd of 35,603 in Orlando.
2002 — Adam Vinatieri’s 48-yard field goal as time expires gives Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots their first Super Bowl title with a 20-17 win over the two-touchdown favorite St. Louis Rams.
2006 — Martin Brodeur becomes the third goaltender in NHL history to reach 100 shutouts when New Jersey blanks Carolina 3-0. Brodeur joins Terry Sawchuk (115) and George Hainsworth (102).
2008 — Eli Manning and the New York Giants end New England’s unbeaten season and pull off one of the great Super Bowl upsets. Manning throws a 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds left to beat the Patriots 17-14.
2013 — The Baltimore Ravens survive a power outage at the Super Bowl to edge the San Francisco 49ers 34-31. Jacoby Jones returns the second-half kickoff 108 yards, a Super Bowl record, to give Baltimore a 28-6 lead. Moments later, lights lining the Superdome fade. When action resumes 34 minutes later, Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers score 17 consecutive points, getting as close as 31-29. Baltimore stops San Francisco on fourth-and-goal from the 5 with under 2 minutes left when Kaepernick’s pass sails beyond Michael Crabtree in the end zone.
2017 — Tara VanDerveer becomes the second NCAA women’s coach to reach 1,000 career victories when No. 8 Stanford beats USC 58-42 to give the Hall of Famer a milestone before a home crowd at Maples Pavilion.
2019 — Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta: New England Patriots beat the Rams, 13-3; MVP: Patriots receiver Julian Edelman; Patriots’ sixth Super Bowl victory
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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