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From Broderick Turner: About halfway through the first quarter of Tuesday night’s game, Anthony Davis looked up at the video board inside Crypto.com Arena and watched a tribute the Lakers produced for him. He was being recognized by his former team for his 5 ½ years in L.A.
But the reality is the reality — Davis was receiving this homage because he was no longer a Laker, because he had been traded to the Dallas Mavericks in a shocking, late-night blockbuster deal along with Max Christie and a first-round draft pick for generational talent Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris.
So, as Davis watched the video, he smiled and waved to the crowd that was giving him a standing ovation, fully enjoying the moment despite the fact he was unable to play in his return because of an adductor strain.
“If I was playing, it would have been a little bit more emotional for me,” Davis told The Times. “Obviously, it was emotional for the time I had here. But the video was fire! The love from the crowd was fire! The ovation was fire!
“I don’t know. I haven’t processed it. I might have to watch it again. I’m just in the midst of a game. I’m trying to win a basketball game. So, I couldn’t really get a chance to like, really, dissect the video and feel what I wanted to feel. But that’s the first time I had that, and I think that it was really dope for the Lakers to do, obviously, and I’m honored and appreciative, for them even considering to do that for me.”
It has been 3½ weeks since the trade that rocked the NBA. Davis says he processed it almost immediately and understood it was “the nature of the business.”
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CLIPPERS
James Harden made seven three-pointers and scored 30 points, and the Clippers beat the Chicago Bulls 122-117 on Wednesday night.
Kawhi Leonard had 17 points and eight rebounds after missing back-to-back games because of a sore left foot. Amir Coffey scored 20, and the Clippers got back to winning after losing three in a row.
Derrick Jones Jr. added 16 points. Bogdan Bogdanovic made four of five three and finished with 14 points, helping the sixth-place Clippers move a half-game ahead of Minnesota in the Western Conference.
UCLA BASKETBALL
Lauren Betts had 26 points and 10 rebounds and second-ranked UCLA routed Wisconsin 91-61 on Wednesday night to set up a showdown with No. 4 USC for the Big Ten title.
UCLA (28-1 overall, 16-1 Big Ten) moved into a first-place tie with USC heading into the regular-season finale Saturday at home against the Trojans, who handed the Bruins their only defeat, 71-60 earlier this month.
Betts hit 11 of 12 shots from the field and all four of her free throws for her 15th double-double of the season. Timea Gardner added 14 points and 10 rebounds.
USC BASKETBALL
From Ryan Kartje: There was no hiding the desperation any longer. Not with the clock ticking on USC’s narrow tournament hopes. Not with three straight losses in the rearview mirror and only four games left in the regular season.
The chances to state their postseason case were dwindling fast in Eric Musselman’s first season as coach, slipping away amid a stiff Big Ten slate. The cut line for the conference tournament now loomed just below them in the standings.
Time was running out on the Trojans. Desmond Claude seemed to sense as much as he careened into the lane late Wednesday against Ohio State, with USC having clawed its way back from a staggering deficit to within striking distance.
As Claude fell toward the baseline and sunk a floater, a stunning, comeback victory — and a late February turnaround — seemed within reach.
But with 28 seconds left, Claude brought the ball up the court, only to have it poked away. Just as quickly as they’d appeared, the Trojans’ hopes of stemming the tide slipped away in an 87-82 defeat.
DODGERS
From Jack Harris: Could Hyeseong Kim start the season in the minor leagues?
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts took the long route to an answer.
Asked about the new South Korean infielder and how he’ll fit into the club’s plans come opening day, Roberts acknowledged there is still a “question mark” with Kim’s bat. Roberts noted that the 26-year-old utility man still was adjusting to major-league competition and explained how coaches are guiding him through a series of swing changes.
Roberts then lauded Kim, a Golden Glove-winning fielder in the Korean Baseball Organization, for his decision to “bet on himself to come here and to compete.”
Finally, Roberts conceded exactly how stiff Kim’s competition for an opening-day roster spot remains — confirming that Kim could start the season in the minors, though a decision remains weeks away.
“He’s in a competition to earn a job with us,” Roberts said Tuesday. “So I would say that’s still all in play and we don’t need to make a decision right now.”
Dodgers Dugout: Here’s what you might have missed from spring training so far
RAMS
From Gary Klein: Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and his agent are shopping to determine his worth. Meantime, the Rams must determine whether they will pay Stafford a competitive rate to remain with them another season or trade him to save cash and acquire draft capital.
Coach Sean McVay said this week there is “no doubt” about wanting Stafford to continue leading the Rams.
“There’s no doubt in my mind who I want to be our quarterback,” McVay said on the Fitz & Whit podcast. “Now, how we get to that, because these decisions aren’t made in a vacuum, that’s the challenging thing.”
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: After his first practices at UCLA, where Carson Schwesinger began as a walk-on, the linebacker called his mother with a major announcement. It wasn’t a scholarship. It was even bigger.
He wanted to go to the NFL.
From walk-on to Associated Press first-team All-American, Schwesinger is now UCLA’s top prospect ahead of April’s NFL draft as the Oaks Christian alumnus parlayed a career season with the Bruins into a shot at the pros. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound linebacker is projected as a Day 2 draft prospect after he recorded 136 tackles, including a Football Bowl Subdivision-leading 90 solo tackles, and was a finalist for the Butkus Award as a redshirt junior.
Schwesinger earned a scholarship entering his second season with the Bruins after he first proved his mettle by becoming a key piece of special teams. He’s taking the same steady, do-anything approach to earning a spot in the NFL.
KINGS
Conor Garland scored his second goal of the game at 4:28 of overtime to give the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 victory over the Kings on Wednesday night.
Garland — who had a power-play goal in the second period — lofted a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle under the blocker of goalie David Rittich for his 16th goal of the season.
Nils Hoglander also scored and Kevin Lankinen stopped 24 shots to help the Canucks move past Calgary into the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Adrian Kempe and Warren Foegele scored in the third period for the Kings, who trailed 2-0 after two periods. Rittich made 14 saves.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1918 — The first neutral site game in NHL history is held in Quebec City. Frank Nighbor scores twice in the first period to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
1955 — Boston beats Milwaukee 62-57 at Providence, R.I. in a game which set records for fewest points scored by one team, and by both teams, since the introduction of the 24-second clock.
1959 — The Boston Celtics beat the Minneapolis Lakers 173-139 as seven NBA records fall. The Celtics set records for most points (179), most points in a half (90), most points in a quarter (52) and most field goals (72). Boston’s Tom Heinsohn leads all scorers with 43 points and Bob Cousy adds 31 while setting an NBA record with 28 assists.
1966 — Richard Petty wins the rain-shortened Daytona 500 by more than a lap at a speed of 160.927 mph. Petty holds the lead for the last 212 miles of the scheduled 500-mile event, which is called five miles from the finish. Cale Yarborough finishes second.
1977 — Stan Mikita of the Chicago Blackhawks scores his 500th goal in a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
1982 — Florida apprentice Mary Russ becomes the first female jockey to win a Grade I stakes in North America when she captures the Widener Handicap aboard Lord Darnley at Hialeah (Fla.) Park.
1992 — Prairie View sets an NCAA Division I record for most defeats in a season with a 112-79 loss to Mississippi Valley State in the first round of the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament. Prairie View’s 0-28 mark breaks the record of 27 losses shared by four teams.
1994 — Sweden wins its first hockey gold medal, defeating Canada 3-2 in the first shootout for a championship at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Canada is 1:49 away from its first championship in 42 years when Magnus Svensson’s power-play goal ties it at 2. Paul Kariya’s shot is stopped by Sweden’s Tommy Salo after Peter Forsberg puts Sweden ahead on his team’s seventh shot.
1998 — Indiana’s 124-59 victory over Portland marks the first time in the NBA’s 51-year history that one team scores more than twice as many points as the other.
2005 — David Toms delivers the most dominant performance in the seven-year history of the Match Play Championship, winning eight out of nine holes to put away Chris DiMarco with the largest margin of victory in the 36-hole final. The score 6 and 5, could have been much worse as Toms was 9 up at one point.
2006 — Effa Manley is the first woman elected to the baseball Hall of Fame. The former Newark Eagles co-owner is among 17 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues chosen by a special committee.
2010 — Steven Holcomb drives USA-1 to the Olympic gold medal in four-man bobsledding, ending a 62-year drought for the Americans in the event. Holcomb’s four-run time was 3:24.46, with Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curt Tomasevicz pushing for him.
2015 — Travis Kvapil’s NASCAR Sprint Cup car is stolen early in the day from a hotel parking lot, forcing him to withdraw from a race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The team didn’t have a backup car in Atlanta, so it’s forced to drop out when the stolen machine couldn’t be located in time for NASCAR’s mandatory inspection.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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