Lakers guard Marcus Smart has been fined $35,000 for making an obscene gesture toward a game official during halftime of the game Thursday against the Utah Jazz, the NBA announced Saturday.
Smart was assessed a technical foul for his action as walked off the court for intermission after exchanging words with an official.
The Lakers pulled out a 143-135 victory in Salt Lake City when the 31-year-old defensive specialist scored nine of his 17 points by making three of four three-point shots in the fourth quarter.
Smart, who is averaging 10.6 points, 2.9 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 17 games this season, will again be in the starting lineup Saturday night in place of injured Austin Reaves when the Lakers take on the Clippers at Intuit Dome.
SEATTLE — In a matter of minutes, the home of the Seattle Seahawks went from a painfully quiet Lumen “Library” to a rollicking madhouse that sent seismologists scrambling for their ground-motion sensors.
Call it the Sheesh-Quake Game.
In a historic comeback, the Seahawks dug their way out of a 16-point, fourth-quarter ditch to beat the Rams in overtime, 38-37.
Oh, the visitors will agonize over some of the bizarre calls, some deserving of further explanation from the NFL. An ineligible-man-downfield call that wiped out a Rams touchdown when they were a yard away from the end zone? That had people scratching their heads. Then there was that do-or-die two-point conversion that seemingly fell incomplete… but later was reversed. More on that in a moment.
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Gary Klein breaks down what went wrong for the Rams in their 38-37 loss to the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field on Thursday night.
When the Rams wincingly rewind the video of the collapse, they’ll be peering through the cracks in their fingers.
You’ve heard of a no-look pass? This was a no-look finish.
As soothing wins go, this was a warm bubble bath for the Seahawks, who secured a playoff berth and assumed the driver’s seat in the race for the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
“You hear people late in the year have losses, and you hear people come up here and say, like, ‘Man, this is going to be a good thing for us,’” said Seahawks receiver Cooper Kupp, a onetime Rams hero. “It’s much better to be up here right now saying this is going to be a good thing for us.”
Kupp atoned for his first-half fumble with a successful two-point conversion in the fourth quarter — the first of three in a row for the Seahawks — and a 21-yard reception on the winning drive in overtime.
“If you find a way to get a win when you do turn the ball over three times, you do end up down 16 points, or whatever it was, in the fourth quarter, just finding ways to win games when the odds are against you and things aren’t going right — finding a way to fight back — it’s going to be a good thing for us,” Kupp said. “A good thing for us to draw on.”
The Rams are sifting through the debris of a different lesson. It was a reminder that this charmed season, with Matthew Stafford in line to win his first Most Valuable Player honor, can come crashing down at any moment. There’s no more smooth glide path to Santa Clara for the Super Bowl.
As good as it was for most of the game, picking off Sam Darnold twice and sacking him four times, the Rams defense failed to hold up when it counted most. Shades of the three-point loss at Carolina.
Darnold will have a story to tell. He exorcised a lot of demons. The Rams sacked him nine times in the playoffs last season when Darnold was playing for Minnesota, and intercepted six of his passes in two games this season.
“It’s not great when you have interceptions and turnovers, you want to limit that,” said Darnold, the former USC star. “But all you can do is fight back. For us, I was just going to continue to plug away.”
Darnold came through when it counted, completing five passes on the winning drive, then finding the obscure tight end Eric Saubert — his fourth option — wide open in the end zone on the triumphant conversion.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold looks to pass against the Rams in the first half Thursday.
(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
The second of the three conversions was the game’s most controversial moment. The Seahawks needed it to forge a 30-30 tie with a little more than six minutes remaining in regulation.
Darnold fired a quick screen pass to his left, trying to get the ball to Zach Charbonnet. Rams defender Jared Verse jumped the route and knocked down the pass. Everyone thought the play was dead, including Charbonnet, who casually jogged across the goal line and picked up the ball as it lay in the end zone.
That proved critical because officials — after what seemed like an eternity — ruled that Darnold had thrown a backward pass and the ball was live when Charbonnet picked it up. Therefore, a fumble recovery and successful conversion, tying the game.
Asked later if it felt like a backward pass, Darnold had a half-smile and said, “Um, yeah. It felt like I threw it kind of right on the side. I’m glad Charbs picked it up, and that turned out to be a game-changing play.”
Was that designed to be a backward pass?
“It just happened to be backwards,” he said. “It wasn’t necessarily talked about. We were just trying to get it in down there on the goal line.”
The Seahawks were lined up to kick off when officials announced that, upon review, the previous play was successful. Suddenly, the most improbable of come-from-victories was within reach.
Earlier in the fourth quarter, when the home team was trailing, 30-14, the Amazon Prime crew had to do some vamping to keep viewers engaged. Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit told some Kurt Warner stories from the “Greatest Show on Turf” days. Hey, it had to be more interesting than this game.
Michaels delivered an obscure stat: When leading by 15 points or more in the fourth quarter, the Rams were 323-1.
Informed of that, Seahawks running back Cam Akers — once shown the door by the Rams — had a wry response.
“Now, they’ve lost two,” he said.
Celebration in one locker room. Silence in another.
Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 21 of his 31 points in the first half and Cam Spencer added a career-high 27 points as the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Clippers 121-103 on Monday night.
Jaylen Wells scored 16 points and rookie Cedric Coward had 12 as the Grizzlies earned a victory over the Clippers for the third time in less than three weeks. Ja Morant also scored 12 points for Memphis in his second game since returning from a calf injury.
While Morant has returned, Grizzlies center Zach Edey missed his second game of an extended absence because of a left ankle injury. Santi Aldama started at center for the second consecutive game and was held to just three points with two rebounds.
James Harden was held to 13 points, while John Collins and Jordan Miller each had 10 for Los Angeles in its eighth straight home loss. The Clippers last won in their own building on Oct. 31.
The Clippers led 64-63 on Leonard’s three-pointer just before the midpoint of the third quarter. The Grizzlies took charge from there, going on a 9-0 run for a 72-64 lead, while taking a 90-76 advantage into the fourth quarter. Wells had four points in the run.
Spencer made four three-pointers in less than six minutes of the fourth quarter and made a career high seven shots from long range on 10 attempts.
Jackson scored 20 points for the first time in six games, after he averaged 10.2 points over the previous five contests while shooting 42.6%. He was 13 of 18 (72.2%) from the floor.
Etiwanda and Rancho Verde, coached by two disciples of defensive guru Dave Kleckner, went at it with the kind of defensive intensity that Kleckner would have appreciated in the semifinals of the North Orange County tournament at Sonora on Friday night.
After Etiwanda opened a 12-point halftime lead, Rancho Verde took a one-point lead at the end of the third quarter on a buzzer-beating three by Charles Knight.
Then Etiwanda regained its defensive intensity in the fourth quarter to pull away for a 63-57 victory. Etiwanda (12-0) will play Heritage Christian in Saturday’s championship game.
Igniting the Eagles’ fourth-quarter run was sophomore Devin Mitchell, who scored six of his 14 points in the period. Etiwanda got into trouble after a 35-23 halftime lead by committing five fouls in the opening four minutes of the second half. Semaj Carter made eight consecutive free throws for Rancho Verde (8-2) and finished with 19 points. Knight got hot in the second half, making four threes and finishing with 22 points.
Dominic Loehle delivers the winning basket to break a 42-42 tie with 25 seconds left in Heritage Christian’s 45-42 win over Anaheim Canyon in tourney semi at Sonora. pic.twitter.com/2dOm7xSgrg
Kleckner coached at Etiwanda for 28 years before he turned over the program to former assistant Daniel Ryan. Rancho Verde coach Braydon Bortolamedi was the junior varsity coach last season at Etiwanda. So it was like watching two teams using identical strategies.
Heritage Christian 45, Anaheim Canyon 42: Dominic Loehle made a basket with 25 seconds left to break a tie and lift Heritage Christian into the championship game of the North Orange County tournament. Loehle finished with 16 points.
Santa Margarita 92, Village Christian 85: The Eagles led by double digits in the fourth quarter before Village Christian made it close. Brayden Kyman scored 24 points and Drew Anderson 19. Freshman Will Conroy had 26 points for Village Christian.
Crespi 79, New York Eagle Academy 72: Cayman Martin finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds for Crespi at St. Joseph in Santa Maria.
St. Francis 68, La Salle 54: Cherif Millogo led St. Francis with 27 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks.
Meridian (Idaho) Owyhee 53, Damien 47: In Idaho, the Spartans put up a fight before falling. Eli Garner had 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Cypress 75, Orange Lutheran 66: Gavin Kroll finished with 25 points for Cypress.
Moorpark 70, Westlake 64: Logan Stotts had 25 points for Moorpark.
Venice 60, Fairfax 50: The Gondoliers picked up an important Western League win. A’Jonn Mitchell finished with 25 points for Venice.
San José Archbishop Mitty 89, Inglewood 84: Jason Crowe Jr. scored 23 points and Cayim White had 21 points for Inglewood.
St. Bernard 75, El Cajon Christian 53: Brandon Granger had 33 points and Chris Rupert scored 17 points for St. Bernard.
Loyola 64, Stockton St. Mary’s 46: Mattai Carter had 19 points for Loyola.
Potomac (Md.) Bullis 70, Redondo Union 62: At DeMatha, Redondo Union received 14 points from Chris Sanders in a defeat.
