Howdy, I’m your host, Iliana Limón Romero, filling in for Houston Mitchell, who is probably recovering from the Dodgers’ season-opening sweep in Tokyo. Let’s get right to the news.
From Dylan Hernández: The entire week was a buildup to this.
Whether the ball struck by Shohei Ohtani would have cleared the right-field wall at the Tokyo Dome if some fans hadn’t reached over the railing is immaterial. In baseball, results are marked in absolute terms, and the official record will forever show that Ohtani homered in the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night.
“I’m relieved that one got out somehow,” Ohtani said in Japanese.
Because Ohtani knew.
He knew why 42,367 fans packed the Tokyo Dome on this night, and why many of them paid extraordinary prices for tickets.
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He knew what they wanted to see.
This week wasn’t about the defending World Series champions visiting Japan, or Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s transformation, or even Roki Sasaki’s major league debut.
This was the Week of Ohtani.
MORE DODGERS
Roki Sasaki’s MLB debut is tantalizing, and shaky, as Dodgers complete Tokyo Series sweep
Dodgers Debate: Dodgers go home with two wins, Roki Sasaki shows promise
Shohei Ohtani is a $100-million man this year. Salary not included
Kiké Hernandez and Will Smith on Roki Sasaki’s first MLB start
LA Times Today: ‘Paint Japan blue’: How the Dodgers’ vision of Japanese prominence became reality
Photos: Dodger Blue takes over Tokyo during season-opening series
Jackie Robinson’s Army story restored to Defense Department site after removal in DEI purge
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LAKERS
Lakers guard Luka Doncic shoots a jump shot over Denver Nuggets guard Jalen Pickett and forward Zeke Nnaji Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
From Dan Woike: The streamers eventually would fall Wednesday night. The huge cheers for Bronny James coming off the bench in the fourth quarter were bound to happen. Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” would play.
It was fated by the time fans started filing into the building.
The latest chapter in the Lakers-Nuggets rivalry was going to look a lot different, with word that Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray weren’t going to play buzzing around before the game.
The script was flipped, the Lakers and their fans used to seeing Nuggets come off the injury report ahead of games against them. But without Denver’s best players, all it was going to take from the Lakers was a focused performance to get the job done.
By midway through the first quarter, Luka Doncic was so good that the bar for “focused performance” suddenly had been significantly lowered.
The Lakers handled the Denver Nuggets 120-108, Doncic’s monster first quarter enough to cover up for sluggish, sloppy play that might’ve cost them if Jokic and Murray were on the floor.
UCLA’s Tyler Bilodeau, left, and Trent Perry, right, shown trapping USC’s Desmond Claude, will play in their first NCAA tournament game on Thursday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
From Ben Bolch: Eric Dailey Jr. clapped along to the school’s fight song playing over the sound system.
Aday Mara and Lazar Stefanovic stood alongside one another on the perimeter and tapped basketballs before firing three-pointers.
Trent Perry sank a half-court shot and commenced a victory dance.
There was a reason they all seemed a little jaunty. Everything they did Wednesday afternoon inside Rupp Arena was a first.
All four UCLA players had never participated in an NCAA tournament open practice, much less a game. Few on this roster have.
Seven of the team’s top 10 players will make their March Madness debut on Thursday night when the seventh-seeded Bruins (22-10) face 10th-seeded Utah State (26-7) in a Midwest Region first-round game.
MORE COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Xavier rallies to beat Texas in NCAA tournament First Four game
Audi Crooks, Addy Brown lead Iowa State to NCAA women’s tournament win over Princeton
March Madness men’s tournament analysis: Teams and players to watch
March Madness women’s tournament analysis: Teams and players to watch
RAMS
Rams cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon intercepts a pass intended for Ravens receiver Rashod Bateman during a game in 2023.
(Daniel Kucin Jr. / Associated Press)
From Gary Klein: Cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon first joined the Rams in 2023, when he signed a one-year, veteran-minimum contract about a month before training camp.
One game into last season, Witherspoon was a free agent when the Rams signed him to another one-year deal.
On Wednesday the Rams and Witherspoon once again agreed to a one-year contract, the team announced.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1897 — Yale beats Penn 32-10 in New Haven, Conn., in the first men’s intercollegiate basketball game.
1918 — The Toronto Arenas (who would become the Maple Leafs) are the first NHL team to play in the Stanley Cup Final. Toronto’s Reg Noble scores two goals with an assist in the first period of a 5-3 win over Vancouver of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association.
1939 — In a game of unbeaten teams, Long Island U. defeats Loyola of Chicago 44-32 to win the National Invitation Tournament title.
1954 — In the first televised NCAA championship game, La Salle defeats Bradley 92-76 and sets a record for most points in the title game.
1965 — Gail Goodrich’s 42 points lead UCLA to a 91-80 victory over Michigan in the NCAA basketball championship.
1965 — St. John’s sends Joe Lapchick out a winner, as the Redmen beat Villanova 55-51 to win their fifth National Invitation Tournament championship.
1965 — Bill Bradley scores 58 points to lead Princeton to a 118-82 rout of Wichita State in the NCAA third-place game. UCLA beats Michigan 91-80 to win its second National championship.
1968 — Dave Bing of the Detroit Pistons finishes the season with a league-leading 27.1 average, becoming the first guard in 20 years to lead the NBA in scoring.
1969 — Less than two months after she becomes the first woman to ride in a pari-mutuel race in America, Diane Crump rides her first winner at Gulfstream Park.
1976 — Boston’s John Havlicek becomes the first NBA player to score more than 1,000 points per season for 14 consecutive years.
1988 — Mike Tyson knocks out Tony Tubbs in the second round to retain his world heavyweight title in Tokyo.
2005 — Liz Johnson becomes the first woman to advance to the championship match of a Professional Bowlers Association tour event, but loses by 27 pins to Tommy Jones in the final of the PBA Banquet Open.
2005 — LeBron James, 20, becomes the youngest player to score 50 points in an NBA game, when he scores 56 in the Cavaliers’ 105-98 loss to the Raptors.
2006 — Japan beats Cuba 10-6 in the title game of the inaugural World Baseball Classic.
2010 — Northern Iowa pulls off one of the biggest NCAA upsets in years by knocking No. 1 overall seed Kansas with a 69-67 win. Ali Farokhmanesh buries an open 3-pointer with the shot clock still in the 30s to give the Panthers a four-point lead with 35 seconds left.
2014 — Bernard Tomic loses the shortest completed ATP match on record, lasting only 28 minutes at the Sony Open in his first tournament since having surgery on both hips. Ending a two-month layoff, Tomic wins just 13 points and loses to Jarkko Nieminen 6-0, 6-1. It’s the quickest match since the ATP started keeping such records in 1991.
2020 — After 20 years with the New England Patriots, six-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady officially agrees to move to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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