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From Dan Woike: It was almost 4 a.m. Wednesday when the Lakers arrived at their hotel, their last two losses exposing some of the worst internal fears of the team.
The way they had played in the second half of losses to Denver and Phoenix had players wondering whether all the work the team had put in over the last two months had been worth it and all the effort and time spent trying to change had mattered.
When Denver pushed the familiar pressure points, the Lakers crumbled. When the offense went cold and the rims got tight in Phoenix, they folded.
Their body language said what no one dared mutter publicly: “Here we go again.”
But when the Lakers took the floor Wednesday evening, they took on the persona of their coach, JJ Redick, who said before the game, “I don’t think I’ve ever dwelled on the past.”
Energized in part by a new starting five and in part by a fresh chance to get back to winning, the Lakers played one of their most consistent games of the season on both ends of the court in a 119-101 win against the San Antonio Spurs.
“I’m very proud of our group,” Redick said. “The response was great. And it’s funny because it’s literally what I talked about with them before the game. It’s just you got to let go of the past. You got to let go of the recent past and you got to get on to the next thing. And like they’ve done already on several occasions, they’ve responded.”
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CLIPPERS
James Harden scored a season-high 43 points in 32 minutes to help the Clippers romp to a 121-96 victory over Washington on Wednesday night, handing the struggling Wizards their 13th consecutive defeat.
Harden made seven three-pointers, had 23 points in the first quarter and eclipsed his previous season high of 29 by halftime. The 10-time All-Star posted his highest point total since scoring 44 at Detroit on March 26, 2021, despite exiting the game at the end of the third.
Ivica Zubac had 18 points and 16 rebounds for the Clippers, who have won six of seven.
RAMS
From Gary Klein: Rams receiver Demarcus Robinson, who was arrested this week on suspicion of driving under the influence, will not be suspended by the team and will play Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, coach Sean McVay said Wednesday.
Robinson was arrested early Monday after California Highway Patrol officers observed him allegedly speeding at more than 100 mph on the 101 Freeway in Woodland Hills. He was cited at the scene and released.
“He understands the severity of this and how lucky we were that nobody was injured,” McVay said, adding that he would deal with the situation in an unspecified way internally. “I did appreciate his ability to acknowledge it to the team, while also not minimizing … the severity of what could have been.
CHARGERS
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Running back J.K. Dobbins will “miss some time” with a left knee injury suffered in Monday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said Wednesday, but the team’s top rusher who suffered a gruesome knee injury in 2021 appears to have avoided another long-term setback.
The running back suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament, according to ESPN, which reported Dobbins is expected to miss at least Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons. When asked whether he expected the 25-year-old former Ohio State star to be sidelined long term or be headed for injured reserve, Harbaugh, who rarely discusses injuries, said he didn’t know.
Dobbins leads the Chargers with 766 yards rushing — which ranks fourth in the AFC — in 158 carries and was a leading candidate for comeback player of the year after battling back from knee and Achilles injuries over the last three seasons
NFL Week 13 picks: Can Chargers, Rams get back on winning road at Atlanta, New Orleans?
From Ben Bolch: After further review, DeShaun Foster has reversed his stance on one central figure in the halftime brouhaha during the crosstown rivalry game.
The UCLA coach acknowledged Wednesday that head performance coach Corey Miller — whom Foster initially labeled a peacemaker — escalated tensions between the teams last weekend after video surfaced showing Miller making a mock crying gesture and giving USC players the middle finger.
Miller expressed regret for his actions, Foster said, and would face unspecified discipline.
“We talked about it, sat down and was able to figure that out internally and he felt pretty bad about that,” Foster said, “so he expressed his sentiments to the team, to the coaches and everybody and you’ve got to lead by example out here. You can’t be completely — you just can’t be out of control in any situation, especially when you’re in a [position] of power, so it was an unfortunate situation and he feels awful about what happened and getting a penalty and he made sure he made it right with the team.”
From Ryan Kartje: It was the lowest moment of the season for USC’s young offensive line, a September nadir that seemed certain to linger long after the Trojans returned from their first Big Ten trip. But two months later, as Lincoln Riley looks back to where the tide started to turn for his Trojans front, the coach points, somewhat surprisingly, to that nightmarish afternoon in Ann Arbor.
“Since then,” Riley said Tuesday, “I feel like we’ve been on a pretty steady incline the entire way.”
Of course, there was nowhere for USC’s line to go but up after that 27-24 loss to Michigan. Against the Wolverines’ vaunted defensive line, the Trojans inexperienced front unraveled. New left tackle, Elijah Paige, looked lost. New right guard, Alani Noa, was benched before half. In all, USC allowed 22 quarterback pressures, the most since Riley became coach.
UCLA BASKETBALL
From Ben Bolch: A day after UCLA was anointed the best women’s college basketball team in the country in the season’s opening month, Cori Close showed up at the practice facility to see another early riser.
Her players.
Nine Bruins were already on the court when Close arrived at 6:40 a.m. Tuesday.
“That told me what I needed to know,” Close said Wednesday, “about where their vision really is and where their aspirations lie.”
As Close has repeatedly said, it’s not where you are in late November but where you are at the end of the season that counts.
USC BASKETBALL
JuJu Watkins had 20 points, seven rebounds and eight turnovers, and No. 6 USC defeated Seton Hall 84-51 in the Acrisure Holiday Invitational on Wednesday night.
The Trojans (5-1) had three other players in double figures, including Kiki Iriafen with 15 points and nine rebounds. Freshman Avery Howell scored a career-best 14 points off the bench, and Rayah Marshall had 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Faith Masonius scored a career-high 25 points, banking in a three-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer for the Pirates (4-2).
KINGS
David Rittich made 13 saves in his 100th victory, and captain Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist in the Kings’ 4-1 victory over the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night.
Phillip Danault and Kevin Fiala also scored, and Adrian Kempe added an empty-net goal for the Kings.
Gabriel Vilardi scored against his former team for the Jets, who have lost four of seven since their 15-1-0 start to the season. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 30 shots in the fourth game on Winnipeg’s six-game trip.
Rittich was Hellebuyck’s backup for the 2022-23 Jets.
DUCKS
John Gibson made a season-high 42 saves and Alex Killorn scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the second period as the Ducks defeated the Seattle Kraken 5-2 on Wednesday night.
Killorn, Cutter Gauthier and Trevor Zegras each had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, who had dropped eight straight against Seattle. They rebounded from a 3-2 loss to the Kraken at home Monday night.
Frank Vatrano and Brett Leason scored in the first period for the Ducks.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1906 — Tommy Burns fights to a 20-round draw with light heavyweight Jack O’Brien in a world heavyweight title bout in Los Angeles.
1929 — Ernie Nevers rushes for six touchdowns and kicks four PATs to score all his team’s points, an NFL record, in the Chicago Cardinals’ 40-6 rout of the Chicago Bears.
1948 — Dippy Evans of the Chicago Bears is the only NFL player to score two touchdowns on recovered fumbles in a 48-13 victory over the Washington Redskins.
1969 — The New York Knicks beat the Cincinnati Royals 106-105 at Cleveland to set an NBA record with 18 consecutive victories.
1981 — Alabama’s Paul “Bear” Bryant becomes the winningest coach in college football history when the Rolling Tide beats Auburn 28-17 in the Iron Bowl. It’s Bryant’s 315th victory, surpassing Amos Alonzo Stagg for most wins.
1986 — The Celtics beat San Antonio 111-96 at Boston Garden to set an NBA record with their 38th consecutive homecourt victory.
1992 — Bobby Bowden becomes the first major college coach to win 10 games in six straight seasons as Florida State beats Florida 45-24 to finish the regular season at 10-1.
2004 — Bode Miller becomes the first man to open a World Cup season with three victories in three disciplines, winning a super-giant slalom ahead of Hermann Maier in Lake Louise, Alberta. Miller’s first career Super G win comes one day after his first World Cup downhill victory. He also won the season-opening giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, and is just the fourth skier to win World Cup races in all five disciplines over his career (slalom and combined are the others).
2014 — Martin St. Louis reaches 1,000 career points with a goal and an assist as the New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0. St. Louis scores on a rebound for the 1,000th point of his career to become the sixth undrafted player in NHL history to accomplish the feat.
2014 — Brandon Doughty throws a Conference USA-record eight touchdown passes, the last in overtime to Jared Dangerfield followed by a 2-point conversion pass to Willie McNeal that lifts Western Kentucky over No. 19 Marshall 67-66.
2015 — Paxton Lynch ties the FBS record with seven touchdown passes in a half, and Memphis set single-season records for yards and points in a 63-0 win over SMU.
2015 — Tyson Fury defeats Wladimir Klitschko by unanimous decision to end the Ukrainian’s nine-and-a-half-year reign as heavyweight champion and take his WBA, IBF, and WBO heavyweight titles.
2016 — A chartered plane with a Brazilian first division soccer team crashes near Medellin while on its way to the finals of a regional tournament, killing 75 people. Six people survive. The aircraft, which had departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil for the first leg of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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