Lakers

The Lakers have two of the best clutch players in the NBA in LeBron James and Luka Doncic. They have been the best clutch team in the NBA this season because of them and because they have led the way for the Lakers. They have won an NBA-best 13 games in the clutch this season.

But when the game hung in the balance Friday night, when the Lakers needed James and Doncic to be clutch, neither was able to deliver, their inability to do so a direct result in L.A. dropping a 105-101 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at Crypto.com Arena.

For as much as James did in keeping the Lakers in the game by scoring 13 of his 26 points in the final quarter and by nearly collecting a triple-double with 10 assists and nine rebounds, it was his last-second turnover that doomed them.

For as much as Doncic did in producing a near triple-double with 24 points, nine assists and nine rebounds, his poor shooting and foul trouble was not helpful in the end.

“I’d love to go undefeated in clutch games for a season, but you know, you can’t get too high, can’t get too low on stats like that,” James said. “You just play the game. And they made some plays. Big three by [Myles] Turner by our bench; obviously the free throws down the stretch by KP [Kevin Porter Jr.]. So, we had our chances.”

The score was tied at 101-101 after Jake LaRavia (13 points) drilled a three-pointer off a pass from Doncic.

Lakers guard Luka Doncic, center, makes a backwards pass over Bucks guard AJ Green (20) during the first half Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The Lakers never scored again. James missed a driving layup for the lead that was blocked by Giannis Antetokounmpo. Then Doncic fouled Porter on a three-pointer with 16.2 seconds left. It was Doncic’s sixth foul.

“I think we missed a couple of good shots down the stretch. Then I fouled (out). I had six fouls. First time in a long time,” Doncic said. “So, that’s on me. I can’t foul at that point.”

Porter made two of the three free throws for a 103-101 Bucks lead.

Doncic was asked about the foul.

“Yeah, I don’t think he shoots like that,” Doncic said of Porter’s three-pointer. “The referee said it was a foul. So, I guess it’s a foul.”

Still, the Lakers were down only two points and they still had James on the court.

But on his drive to the basket, James lost control of the ball for a turnover with 1.5 seconds left.

“For me? … I turned the ball over. You definitely can’t do that at that point and time,” James said. “So, Giannis, he made a great play by getting his arm and tipping it from behind, but can’t turn the ball over — obviously.”

Doncic lamented his shooting during the game.

He made his first two three-pointers to start the game, but it was all downhill from there. He was eight-for-25 shooting the field and had a rating of minus-14.

“Obviously my shot didn’t go well today,” Doncic said. “You know, could get better shots. So, wish I could have executed better than that.”

The Lakers played their fourth game this week, at times looking sluggish because of the workload.

It was the kind of night that saw Doncic pick up his fifth foul with 2.1 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Lakers trailed by as much as 12 in the second quarter, looking a bit slow.

So much — if not all — of the Lakers’ game plan was on trying to deal with the nearly unstoppable force that is Antetokounmpo.

And much of that job went to Lakers center Deandre Ayton, whom the LA felt was best equipped to handle the assignment because of his size (7-foot), length and strength.

But it also was going to take the Lakers as a group to slow down Antetokounmpo, who finished with 21 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Jarred Vanderbilt gave the Lakers a big effort with nine points and nine rebounds off the bench, and his usual tough defense.

Hachimura update

Lakers forward Rui Hachimura missed his sixth consecutive game because of right calf soreness. Hachimura has been working out and there is some hope that he can play Monday night in Sacramento.

“He’s made a lot of progress just in terms of regaining strength and mobility in his calf and had a good workout today,” coach JJ Redick said. “There’s a lot of optimism that he’ll be available Monday, but we’ll see how the next few days go.”

From Ryan Kartje: When Husan Longstreet arrived at USC a year ago, the expectation was the five-star freshman would be the Trojans’ future at quarterback.

But after just one season at USC, Longstreet is leaving.

The true freshman passer and former top prospect officially entered the NCAA transfer portal Thursday, throwing the Trojans’ future plans at football’s most important position into question. USC has just two quarterbacks currently on the roster, one being a true freshman in Jonas Williams.

There’s no doubt, however, who will remain USC’s quarterback next season. Returning starter Jayden Maiava, who led the Big Ten in passing yards last season (3,711) announced his intent last month to play another season at USC, as opposed to declaring for the NFL draft.

That left Longstreet with a choice: Spend another season on the sideline or search for opportunity elsewhere.

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Here’s what UCLA needs to fix

From Ben Bolch: When his team lost three consecutive games during what was shaping up as a rocky debut season, Mick Cronin made players and coaches go through practices without the UCLA logo on their tank tops and shorts.

There’s currently no need to strip anyone of anything.

This already looks nothing like what UCLA basketball is supposed to be.

The defense is lagging, the roster is lacking and nobody seems to know what to do about it.

A second consecutive loss has dropped the Bruins squarely into bubble territory for the NCAA tournament, somewhere a team that wears these four letters across its chest should never be. They are a middling 10-5 with no compelling victories and a .500 record early in Big Ten play.

Here are five fixes designed to get a team that entered the season ranked No. 12 playing closer to expectations:

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Dodgers avoid arbitration

From Benjamin Royer: The Dodgers won’t be heading to an arbitration hearing after all.

Outfielder Alex Call (one-year, $1.6 million) and relief pitchers Anthony Banda (one-year, $1.625 million) and Brock Stewart (one-year, $1.3 million) each avoided arbitration, coming to an agreement with the Dodgers before Thursday’s MLB arbitration deadline, people familiar with the situation but unauthorized to speak publicly confirmed to The Times.

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Ducks lose eighth in a row

Jalen Chatfield’s first goal of the season was a tiebreaker and goalie Frederik Andersen snapped a personal nine-game losing streak as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Ducks 5-2 on Thursday night.

Chatfield, a defenseman playing in his 300th career game, scored during the Hurricanes’ three-goal second period. He also had an assist.

Ryan Poehling and Mikael Granlund scored for the Ducks (21-20-3), who have an eight-game losing streak (0-7-1). Ville Husso stopped 30 shots.

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Former employee sues Ducks and NHL for sexual harassment and discrimination

Ducks summary

NHL standings

Chloe Kim injured

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim said Thursday that she dislocated her shoulder in training and doesn’t know whether she will be able to compete at the Winter Games in Italy next month.

Kim posted footage of her fall from earlier this week on the halfpipe in Laax, Switzerland, where the world’s top snowboarders compete later this month in a key pre-Olympic tune-up. She landed a jump cleanly but lost an edge and went skittering across the pipe, face down.

Kim, who did not say which shoulder she hurt, said she is “trying to stay optimistic” about competing at the Olympics but “[doesn’t] have much clarity now.” The 25-year-old said she has an MRI scheduled for Friday that will reveal the extent of the damage.

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How Puka Nacua became the best pass catcher

From Gary Klein: The spectacular one-handed catch looked like the kind of play that could only be made with sudden adjustment. A reaction with no thought or practice required.

But that’s not how it went down for Rams star receiver Puka Nacua.

Nacua’s fourth-down touchdown catch against the Arizona Cardinals in the regular-season season finale had its roots in a conversation with quarterback Matthew Stafford.

“Just trusting the technique is something that actually me and Matthew talked about in the week before in a rep during practice,” Nacua said. “The angle departure that we were looking at.

“It’s crazy how some of those things come to life on Sundays.”

Stafford and Nacua were the NFL’s top connection this season.

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NFL playoffs schedule

NFL wild-card picks: Rams get revenge on Panthers; Packers beat Bears

All times Pacific
Wild-card round
NFC
Saturday
No. 5 Rams at No. 4 Carolina, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes
No. 7 Green Bay at No. 2 Chicago, 5 p.m., Prime Video

Sunday
No. 6 San Francisco at No. 3 Philadelphia, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes

AFC
Sunday
No. 6 Buffalo at No. 3 Jacksonville, 10 a.m., CBS, Paramount+
No. 7 Chargers at No. 2 New England, 5 p.m., NBC, Peacock, Universo

Monday
No. 5 Houston at No. 4 Pittsburgh, 5 p.m., ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes; ManningCast-ESPN2

Divisional round
Jan. 17 and 18, TBA

Conference championships
Sunday, Jan. 25, TBA

Super Bowl
Sunday, Feb. 8, NBC, Time TBA

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1942 — Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer with four seconds left in the first round at Madison Square Garden in New York to retain the world heavyweight title.

1977 — Oakland wins its first NFL title nd the Minnesota Vikings drop their fourth Super Bowl as the Raiders post a 32-14 triumph.

1988 — Anthony Carter catches 10 passes for an NFL postseason-record 227 yards to lead the Minnesota Vikings to a 36-24 victory over the San Francisco 49ers and advanced to the NFC title game.

1991 — Dean Smith collects his 700th career coaching victory as North Carolina routs Maryland 105-73. Smith is the sixth Division I basketball coach to reach the 700-win plateau and does so in the shortest time.

1996 — The Toronto Raptors set an NBA record by not making a free throw in a 92-91 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. The expansion Raptors shoots 0-for-3 from the foul line.

2004 — Brian Boucher of Phoenix posts his fifth consecutive shutout in a 2-0 win over Minnesota. He stops 21 shots and passes Bill Durnan’s NHL mark of 309:21, early in the third period.

2006 — Kobe Bryant of the Lakers scores 45 points against Indiana, making him the first player since Wilt Chamberlain — in November of 1964 — to score at least that many in four straight games.

2007 — Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Mark McGwire, whose 583 home runs ranked seventh on the career list, does not make it on his first ballot.

2008 — Golf Channel suspends anchor Kelly Tilghman for two weeks for saying a week earlier that young players who wanted to challenge Tiger Woods should “lynch him in a back alley.”

2010 — Peyton Manning becomes the first player to win The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player honors four times.

2010 — Detroit’s Ben Gordon scores 20 points, including the 10 millionth point in NBA history, in a 104-04 loss to Philadelphia.

2012 — Jeremy Shelley kicks five field goals and Trent Richardson breaks a 34-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter as No. 2 Alabama beats No. 1 LSU 21-0 — the first shutout in BCS title game history.

2013 — No one is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. For the second time in four decades, baseball writers fail to give any player the 75 percent required for induction to Cooperstown. Craig Biggio, 20th on the career list with 3,060 hits, appears on 68.2% of the 569 ballots, the highest total but 39 votes shy.

2016 — Quarterback Carson Wentz, out since mid-October with a broke wrist, returns to lead North Dakota State to an unprecedented fifth straight FCS championship with a 37-10 victory over top seed Jacksonville State.

2016 — Chris Boswell kicks a 35-yard field goal with 14 seconds remaining as the Steelers somehow pull out an 18-16 victory over Cincinnati in the AFC wild-card game. Pittsburgh moves into field goal position after a pair of 15-yard penalties on the Bengals, one on linebacker Vontaze Burfict and another on Adam Jones.

2017 — College Football National Championship, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa: No. 2 Clemson beats No. 1 Alabama, 35-31.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Playing without LeBron James, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, the Lakers wilted on the second night of a two-game trip, falling 107-91 to the San Antonio Spurs at Frost Bank Center.

With three starters out, Luka Doncic tried to will the Lakers to a victory with a 38-point, 10-rebound, 10 assist triple-double. He played 38 minutes and 20 seconds one night after playing 37 minutes and scoring 30 points in Tuesday’s win over the Pelicans..

James also scored 30 points in Tuesday’s win but sat out Wednesday with right sciatica and left foot arthritis. With him, Hachimura and Reaves out, the Lakers (23-12) had an average of 61 points sidelined.

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Lakers box score

NBA standings

Leonard can’t save Clippers from Knicks

Karl-Anthony Towns had 20 points, 11 rebounds and a season-high seven assists, Jalen Brunson scored 26 points and the New York Knicks snapped their four-game losing streak with a 123-111 victory over the Clippers on Wednesday night.

Towns bounced back from a quiet game Monday in Detroit, when he took just four shots and had only six points and six turnovers in the Knicks’ 121-90 loss that gave them their longest losing streak of the season. This time, the center had 10 points in the fourth quarter to help the Knicks break open the game.

OG Anunoby added 20 points and Deuce McBride had 16 for the Knicks, who had a 24-7 run starting late in the third quarter and extending into the fourth to turn a four-point deficit into a 105-92 advantage.

Kawhi Leonard scored 25 points for the Clippers (13-23), who lost for just the second time in nine games. James Harden had 23 points and nine assists after sitting out Monday against Golden State because of right shoulder soreness.

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Clippers box score

Kings get swallowed by Sharks in overtime

William Eklund scored 3:08 into overtime, Macklin Celebrini had the tying goal and two assists to extend his point streak to 12 games, and the San Jose Sharks defeated the Kings 4-3 on Wednesday night.

Celebrini evened the score at 3 with 1:07 remaining in regulation. He deked his way past Warren Foegele and sent a wrist shot through traffic that beat goalie Darcy Kuemper through the legs for his 24th goal this season. The 19-year-old center has nine goals and 15 assists during his point streak.

Celebrini is tied for the third-longest point streak by a teenager in NHL history — joining Joe Sakic in 1988-89, Jimmy Carson in 1987-88 and Wayne Gretzky in 1979-80 — and the third-longest point streak in Sharks history.

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Kings summary

NHL standings

UCLA scores top transfer in star running back

From Ben Bolch: UCLA has landed a transfer who could hasten Bob Chesney’s rebuilding efforts.

Wayne Knight verbally committed to following Chesney from James Madison to Westwood on Wednesday, giving the new Bruins coach a high-quality running back to pair with quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

Showing what he could do on a national stage last month, Knight ran for 110 yards in 17 carries against Oregon in the College Football Playoff. It was the fifth 100-yard rushing game of the season for Knight on the way to being selected a first team All-Sun Belt Conference player.

Combining excellent speed with the toughness needed to break tackles, the 5-foot-6, 189-pound Knight led the conference with 1,357 rushing yards. He also made 40 catches for 397 yards and averaged 22.3 yards on kickoff returns and 9.5 yards on punt returns. His 2,039 all-purpose yards were a school record, helping him become an Associated Press second team All-American all-purpose player after ranking third nationally with 145.6 all-purpose yards per game.

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From Ben Bolch and Ryan Kartje: A look at all the players who are transferring in and out of UCLA and USC in the NCAA transfer portal ahead of the 2026 college football season.

Recent announcements include UCLA acquiring running back Wayne Knight and wide receivers Semaj Morgan, Landon Ellis, Leland Smith and Aidan Mizell are coming to UCLA.

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Williams Jr., Washington at odds over his exit

From Steve Henson: The decision by Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. to enter the transfer portal shocked and angered the Huskies because only days earlier the sophomore breakout star had signed a lucrative name, image and likeness deal to remain in Seattle.

Legal action by Washington would be no surprise two weeks after similar events prompted an exchange of lawsuits involving Damon Wilson II, an edge rusher who transferred from Georgia to Missouri in January 2025, days after signing an NIL contract.

With recruiting strategy reduced to shoveling stacks of NIL dollars at players who jump through the transfer portal seemingly at will, it’s no wonder loyalty and etiquette have given way to opportunity and greed.

And it should surprise no one that the implementation of rules might be done by judges, not NCAA officials or conference commissioners.

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Can Herbert prove MVP in the playoffs?

From Benjamin Royer: Jim Harbaugh listed descriptions of his players as he looked back on the injury-filled route to the postseason the Chargers took to facing the New England Patriots in the AFC wild-card round on Sunday.

Harbaugh, heading into his second postseason as Chargers head coach, coined his team as gladiators, warriors and competitors — grappling the attention off the reporter’s question about what he’d learned from the regular-season strife and onto his roster.

“They’re mighty men,” Harbaugh said Wednesday afternoon.

Harbaugh continued: “It just reconfirms everything that I’ve always thought and want for our team is: ‘Competitors welcome.’ Competitors and playmakers, and we’ve got them. … That bodes really well for our team.”

There’s no doubt who the mightiest of the bunch may be for the Chargers (11-6) in 2025.

Justin Herbert’s 16-game stretch — playing the final five of which with a fractured left hand before sitting out last week — has turned heads with his 3,727 passing yards and 26 passing touchdowns despite playing behind a fractured offensive line because of injuries to starting tackles Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt.

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NFL standings

The NFL teams hitting a head coach refresh

From Chuck Schilken: The NFL regular season has ended.

For some teams, the search for a new head coach has begun.

The Baltimore Ravens have become the seventh team that will be seeking a new coach heading into the 2026 season. They fired longtime coach John Harbaugh on Tuesday, less than two days after a missed field goal at the end of regulation against the Pittsburgh Steelers prevented Baltimore from clinching the AFC North and advancing to the playoffs.

The Las Vegas Raiders fired Pete Carroll on Monday morning after a 3-14 season. The Atlanta Falcons fired coach Raheem Morris, as well as general manager Terry Fontenot, on Sunday night after a second straight 8-9 finish. The Cleveland Browns fired coach Kevin Stefanski after six seasons, the team announced Monday morning following a 5-11 finish this season. The Arizona Cardinals announced Monday morning that they’ve moved on from coach Jonathan Gannon after a 3-14 season.

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Is Shula a shoo-in for NFL head coach spot?

From Gary Klein: His late grandfather is the all-time leader in NFL coaching victories.

His father was an NFL head coach.

So, yes, Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula aims to become a third-generation NFL head coach.

Shula, the Rams’ defensive coordinator, is expected to take another step toward achieving that goal next week when assistants coaching in wild-card playoff games this weekend can be interviewed for head coach openings.

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NFL playoffs schedule

All times Pacific
Wild-card round
NFC
Saturday
No. 5 Rams at No. 4 Carolina, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes
No. 7 Green Bay at No. 2 Chicago, 5 p.m., Prime Video

Sunday
No. 6 San Francisco at No. 3 Philadelphia, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes

AFC
Sunday
No. 6 Buffalo at No. 3 Jacksonville, 10 a.m., CBS, Paramount+
No. 7 Chargers at No. 2 New England, 5 p.m., NBC, Peacock, Universo

Monday
No. 5 Houston at No. 4 Pittsburgh, 5 p.m., ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes; ManningCast-ESPN2

Divisional round
Jan. 17 and 18, TBA

Conference championships
Sunday, Jan. 25, TBA

Super Bowl
Sunday, Feb. 8, NBC, Time TBA

Freshmen landing tricks for UCLA gymnastics

From Anthony Solorzano: Her jitters came and went during the first meet of her college career. Now, it’s time for UCLA freshman Nola Matthews to focus on her training and routines.

“How I practice is the standard that I want,” Matthews said, “so now, I just need to implement that into competition.”

The UCLA women’s gymnastics team sent four freshmen (Matthews, Tiana Sumanasekera, Ashlee Sullivan and Jordis Eichman) to the floor during their meet against Washington, California and Oregon State on Saturday.

After earning three wins during the competition in Washington, the Bruins swept the Big Ten Conference weekly awards, including freshman of the week award for Sumanasekera after she placed second on the balance beam and the floor exercise.

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Hall of Famer keeps on against Parkinson’s

From Chuck Schilken: Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre said Wednesday that anyone who says he has thrown in the towel on his battle with Parkinson’s disease is spreading fake news.

“Thank you everyone for your prayers and concerns, but contrary to reports, I have not given up hope in my battle with Parkinson’s!” the 56-year-old Super Bowl champion wrote on X. “Not sure where this came from — but just like I never gave up on the gridiron — not going to start now. I pray there will be a cure one day and I appreciate you all.”

Favre also told TMZ on Wednesday: “I have absolutely not given up and I am fighting till the end. Yes I have progressed a little faster than I would have hoped at this point but I’m extremely thankful and blessed!!!”

The former Packers/Jets/Vikings quarterback revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis last year but hadn’t gone into much detail about it until last week’s episode of his “4th and Favre” podcast.

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Dodgers, Graterol avoid arbitration with deal

From Benjamin Royer: The Dodgers avoided arbitration with reliever Brusdar Graterol on Wednesday, reportedly agreeing to terms with the Venezuelan right-hander on a one-year, $2.8-million deal before Thursday’s deadline to avoid an arbitration hearing.

Graterol, 27, missed the 2025 season after undergoing surgery on the labrum in his right shoulder in November 2024. The $2.8-million figure is the same as his salary for last season.

After being acquired by the Dodgers in a 2020 trade that sent Kenta Maeda to the Minnesota Twins, he turned into a hard-throwing member of the team’s bullpen.

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THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1972 — The NCAA announces freshmen will be eligible to play on varsity football and basketball teams starting in the fall.

1973 — David Vaughn of Oral Roberts grabs 34 rebounds in a 123-95 win over Brandeis.

1984 — The Executive Committee of the NCAA votes to expand the championship basketball field to 64 teams starting in 1985.

1984 — Bengt Gustafsson of the Washington Capitals scores five goals in a 7-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.

1993 — Michael Jordan becomes the 18th NBA player to reach the 20,000-point plateau when he scores 35 points in the Chicago Bulls’ game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Jordan reaches 20,000-points in 620 games, faster than anyone except Wilt Chamberlain, who did it in 499 games.

1994 — Dino Ciccarelli becomes the 19th NHL player to score 500 career goals in the Detroit Red Wings’ 6-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

2000 — Eddie House scores 61 points to tie Lew Alcindor’s Pac-10 record and lead the Sun Devils to 111-108 double-overtime victory over California.

2003 — Utah guard Mark Jackson becomes the third NBA player to reach 10,000 career assists in the Jazz’s 99-93 win over the Phoenix Suns. Jackson joins career assists leader and teammate John Stockton (15,425) and Magic Johnson (10,141).

2007 — Second-ranked Florida dominates Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith and No. 1 Ohio State for a 41-14 in the BCS National Championship Bowl. The Gators become the first Division I school to hold football and basketball titles at the same time.

2008 — Goose Gossage becomes the fifth relief pitcher elected to the Hall of Fame.

2009 — Tim Tebow wins the matchup of Heisman winners as No. 1 Florida beats No. 2 Oklahoma and this year’s Heisman winner Sam Bradford, 24-14, in the BCS National Championship Bowl.

2011 — The Seattle Seahawks stun the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints 41-36 to open the NFL playoffs. Seattle, the first division winner with a losing record at 7-9, advances behind four touchdown passes by Matt Hasselbeck and a brilliant 67-yard run by Marshawn Lynch.

2012 — Denver’s Tim Tebow connects with Demaryius Thomas on an electrifying 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime and the Broncos stun the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-23 in a AFC wild-card game. The play, the longest to end a playoff game in overtime, takes 11 seconds and is the quickest ending to an overtime in NFL history.

2014 — Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas are elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame, while Craig Biggio fell two votes short.

2016 — Oakland’s Khalil Mack makes history earning a selection at two positions on the 2015 Associated Press All-Pro Team, an NFL first. The second-year Raiders defensive end and outside linebacker draws enough support from a panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league to make the squad both spots.

2018 — College Football National Championship, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta: #4 Alabama beats #3 Georgia, 26-23.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

SAN ANTONIO — LeBron James will miss the game against the San Antonio Spurs with right sciatica and left foot arthritis, the Lakers announced Wednesday.

James has starred for the Lakers (23-11) during their three-game winning streak, averaging 29 points in victories against the Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans. He’s paired effortlessly with Luka Doncic as the duo scored 30 points each in Tuesday’s win over the Pelicans. But after missing 14 games to start the season because of sciatica, the 41-year-old James recognized he might not be able to play a second game in as many nights.

“His foot typically the day after a game is sore so that’s the primary thing,” coach JJ Redick said before the game. “… We’re hoping that he gets to the point where he can play in back-to-backs with his body, but this stretch and this month, it’s going to be tough to say that.”

James will miss his 17th game this season, putting him right on the edge of continuing his streak of 21 consecutive All-NBA honors. Players have to appear in 65 games to remain eligible for postseason awards. The Lakers are beginning a busy January that ends with their longest road trip of the year: the eight-game Grammy trip.

The Lakers are also without Austin Reaves (calf), Rui Hachimura (calf) and Adou Thiero (knee). Hachimura participated in a workout with G League affiliate South Bay Lakers in L.A. on Wednesday as he progresses back to the court.

Guard Gabe Vincent (back) will be available for Wednesday’s game while on a restriction of about 18 minutes, Redick said.

NEW ORLEANS — LeBron James and Luka Doncic left the fans inside the Smoothie King Center in awe at their performances on Tuesday night.

The two of them led a Lakers’ smothering defense in the fourth quarter and an efficient offense.

James had a near triple-double of 30 points, eight rebounds and eight assists and Doncic had 30 points and 10 assists, the two of them leading the Lakers to a 111-103 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.

“I love what’s happening right now with Luka and LeBron and that partnership, whether it’s pick-and-roll with each other,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.

As he talked about James and Doncic and how dynamic those two are, Redick beamed at his two stars.

“There’s some real synergy happening right now and it’s fun to watch,” Redick said.

It was the second time in the last three games that James and Doncic have scored at least 30 points in a game. James had 31 against Memphis last Friday night and Doncic had 34.

Now, here James and Doncic were combining for 60 points on 21-for-41 shooting.

“It is gonna start with me and Luka, for sure, every time we hit the floor,” James said. “He has the ball in his hands. I’m gonna have the ball in my hands. We have to make sure we putting our guys in position offensively and then defensively. It has always been my voice to make sure I command with my voice and everybody knows what’s going on on the floor.”

As James talked, he shot down the theory that Doncic has to bend his game to James’ or to any of his teammates.

James simply noted that the Lakers (23-11) are Doncic’s team and the rest of them will follow his lead, including James.

“Luka don’t need to bend his game. Luka is our (26-year-old) franchise for this ball club,” James said. “He don’t need to bend this game. It’s up to us to bend our game around him and figure it out. We just try to be dynamic to work off of him. We know he is an unbelievable pick-and-roll player, unbelievable shot maker. He commands the defense. He had four eyes, sometimes six eyes on him. So it’s us…It’s up to us to put ourselves in the right position. So, it’s not a problem for me, it’s not an issue for me. To be able to do things that… I don’t know…I just don’t think people watch basketball.”

So when Doncic threw a two-handed lob pass from beyond the three-point line to a high-flying James on the baseline in the second quarter, it was another example of how Doncic controls the game and how James fits in.

The Lakers opened the fourth quarter with an intensity on defense.

They turned a deficit at the end of the third into a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter by opening the quarter with an 18-4 run to take a 97-90 lead.

Still, it took the Lakers playing hard until the end to close out the victory.

When Doncic lost control of the basketball late, it looked like it would be a 24-second clock violation as he stumbled.

Instead, he got the ball back with James and two Pelican defenders all close by and shot a wild floating three-pointer for a 105-96 Lakers lead with one minute and 59 seconds left.

Doncic looked at the Pelicans bench after the ball settled into the net and roared.

The Pelicans called a time out, leading James to bump Doncic on the back, put his head in Doncic’s chest and then slap him on the head, the two of them smiling at the magical moment.

“I told him (James), he set a great screen. If you don’t set that screen, I probably was not that open,” Doncic said, joking and smiling. “But, it was a great moment. He started the fourth quarter with two threes and then an assist. So he got us back into the game. We appreciate him.”

The defense the Lakers played in the fourth was tremendous.

They held the Pelicans to17 points and 33.3% shooting. The Lakers took three charges in the fourth, one a career-first by Dalton Knecht and one by Doncic.

Now the Lakers turn their attention to playing a back-to-back game Wednesday night in San Antonio and the question presented to James was about him playing.

The 41-year-old James said it was “TBD,” to be determined.

“You guys know that,” James said. “I’m 41 years old, of course, it’s always…Every back-to-back for the rest of the season is TBD. I am 41. I got the most minutes in NBA history. Bank it right now. What are we talking about? What are we talking about?”

Doncic had 16 points and six assists in the first half and James had 15 points and six rebounds.

But starting forward Jake LaRavia didn’t score in his 18 minutes of play in the first half.

The Lakers then went down by nine points in the third quarter, meaning they had to play catch-up the rest of the way.

The Lakers play a back-to-back game Wednesday night in San Antonio, leading to Redick being asked if the 41-year-old James would play against the Spurs.

“We have no plan for any of our players,” Redick said. “We’re gonna see what happens tonight.”

Etc.

Lakers guard Gabe Vincent is on the two-game trip, but he was downgraded to out for the game against the Pelicans with a lumbar back strain. Vincent has missed the last nine games, but there is hope he’ll be available Wednesday against San Antonio. “We just downgraded Gabe,” Redick said. “He has not had a setback, but we’re hoping he gets to play tomorrow. But again, it’s all about how he feels tomorrow.”

From Chuck Schilken: The Las Vegas Raiders fired Pete Carroll on Monday morning after a 3-14 season. The Atlanta Falcons fired coach Raheem Morris, as well as general manager Terry Fontenot, on Sunday night after a second straight 8-9 finish. The Cleveland Browns fired coach Kevin Stefanski after six seasons, the team announced Monday morning following a 5-11 finish this season. The Arizona Cardinals announced Monday morning that they’ve moved on from coach Jonathan Gannon after a 3-14 season.

Two other teams parted ways with their head coaches during the season. The Tennessee Titans fired Brian Callahan in October after a 1-5 start to the season. The New York Giants fired Brian Daboll in November after a 2-8 start.

With NFL’s “Black Monday” already in full swing, other teams are likely to make similar moves. Here’s a look at everything that has happened so far. This list will continue to be updated as more changes occur.

Continue reading here

Quentin Lake could be key for Rams

From Benjamin Royer: Quentin Lake, the Rams’ defensive captain, could be the catalyst that helps mend the Rams’ tattered secondary ahead of their wild-card showdown with the Carolina Panthers on Saturday.

Through the first 11 weeks of the season, the Rams held opponents to 17.2 points per game, just behind the Houston Texans as the NFL’s second-best defense. Over the seven games Lake missed since sustaining a dislocated elbow against the Seahawks in November, the Rams gave up an average of 24.8 points per game.

The 26-year-old safety, who is expected to make his return against Carolina, has proven to be a cornerstone on the Rams’ defense with his leadership skills and personal versatility.

Lake has also endeared himself to his teammates, as evidenced by Kobie Turner‘s widened smile when Lake’s name came up with reporters following the Rams’ 37-20 win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.

“Captain Q,” said Turner, who played a role in helping the Rams record six sacks against the Cardinals. “There’s not really words that can explain — you turn on the tape and you see exactly what he is.”

Continue reading here

NFL playoffs schedule

All times Pacific
Wild-card round
NFC
Saturday
No. 5 Rams at No. 4 Carolina, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes
No. 7 Green Bay at No. 2 Chicago, 5 p.m., Prime Video

Sunday
No. 6 San Francisco at No. 3 Philadelphia, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes

AFC
Sunday
No. 6 Buffalo at No. 3 Jacksonville, 10 a.m., CBS, Paramount+
No. 7 Chargers at No. 2 New England, 5 p.m., NBC, Peacock, Universo

Monday
No. 5 Houston at No. 4 Pittsburgh, 5 p.m., ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes; ManningCast-ESPN2

Divisional round
Jan. 17 and 18, TBA

Conference championships
Sunday, Jan. 25, TBA

Super Bowl
Sunday, Feb. 8, NBC, Time TBA

Lakers takeaways

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Call it deja vu.

For the second time in three days, the Lakers played the Memphis Grizzlies at Crypto.com Arena, took a close game into the fourth quarter and pulled away late behind the scoring punch of the same three players.

Again fueled by LeBron James (26 points, 10 assists), Luka Doncic (36 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) and Jake LaRavia (26 points), the Lakers overcame a 16-point first-half deficit to win 120-114 on Sunday against the Grizzlies.

After James and Doncic each scored 30 in Friday’s win that also featured a 20-point performance from LaRavia, the Lakers (22-11) won consecutive games for just the second time in five weeks.

Here are three takeaways from the win:

Continue reading here

Clippers win wild game

Kawhi Leonard had 24 points and 12 rebounds, rookie Kobe Sanders added 20 points, and the Clippers edged the Golden State Warriors 103-102 on Monday night in a wild game that included Warriors coach Steve Kerr getting ejected and Steph Curry fouling out for the first time since 2021.

Kerr was ejected with 7:57 remaining in the game after becoming irate when the Clippers’ John Collins wasn’t called for goaltending. A shouting Kerr pursued the referees along the sideline and had to be restrained by his assistants before getting tossed.

Curry scored 27 points but was just four for 15 from three-point range and nine for 23 overall before fouling out with 42 seconds remaining in the game. He fouled out for the first time since Dec. 17, 2021, at Boston.

Continue reading here

Clippers box score

NBA standings

USC routed by Michigan State

Coen Carr scored 18 points and Jaxon Kohler added 16 on perfect shooting to lead No. 12 Michigan State to an 80-51 blowout against USC on Monday night.

Jeremy Fears Jr. had 15 points and seven assists for the Spartans (13-2, 3-1 Big Ten), who took control with a 27-6 run early in the game and led by at least 20 for much of the second half.

Kohler made all six of his field-goal attempts, including a trio of three-pointers, and sank his only free throw. He also grabbed eight rebounds, two short of becoming the first Spartans player since at least 1996-97 to have six straight double-doubles in a season, according to Sportradar.

Ezra Ausar scored 16 points and Jerry Easter added 12 for the Trojans (12-3, 1-3), who lost consecutive games for the first time this season.

Continue reading here

USC box score

Big Ten standings

Kings win, but Kopitar is injured

Andrei Kuzmenko had a goal and an assist, and the Kings held on to beat the Minnesota Wild 4-2 on Monday night.

Warren Foegele, Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe also scored, and Darcy Kuemper stopped 33 shots for the Kings, who beat the Wild for the second time in three nights and got just their fourth win in 12 games (4-6-2).

Jared Spurgeon had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Hartman also scored for Minnesota, which snapped a six-game point streak (3-0-3). and Filip Gustavsson had 29 saves.

Kings center Anze Kopitar left the game after playing 4:54 in the first period. The Kings later ruled him out for the rest of the game because of a lower-body injury.

Continue reading here

Kings summary

NHL standings

Bob Pulford dies

Bob Pulford, a Hockey Hall of Fame player who went on to a lengthy career in the NHL as a coach and general manager, has died. He was 89.

A spokesperson for the NHL Alumni Assn. said Monday the organization learned of Pulford’s death from his family. No other details were provided.

A tough, dependable forward, Pulford helped the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup four times during his 14-year stretch with them from 1956 to 1970. The Newton Robinson, Canada, native was part of the 1967 team that remains the organization’s last to win a championship.

Pulford spent his final two playing seasons with the Kings in the early 1970s before coaching them for the following five years. He then ran the Chicago Blackhawks’ front office as general manager or senior vice president of hockey operations for three decades from 1977 to 2007, going behind the bench to coach four times during that span.

Continue reading here

Ducks lose to Washington

Justin Sourdif scored his first NHL hat trick and added two assists and the Washington Capitals beat the Ducks 7-4 on Monday night.

Alex Ovechkin scored twice, Ryan Leonard had a goal and an assist, John Carlson also scored and Connor McMichael had four assists for the Capitals, who ended a two-game slide. Charlie Lindgren made 41 saves in the win.

Chris Kreider, Alex Killorn, Jacob Trouba and Beckett Sennecke scored for the Ducks, who have lost six straight. Petr Mrazek stopped 19 of 24 shots through two periods. He was replaced by Lukas Dostal to start the third. Dostal stopped the three shots he faced.

Continue reading here

Ducks summary

NHL standings

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1951 — The Indianapolis Olympians beat the Rochester Royals 75-73 in six overtimes, the longest game in NBA history.

1976 — Ted Turner, a millionaire communications executive and internationally known yachtsman, buys the Atlanta Braves for a reported $10-to-12 million.

1980 — The Rams, behind three field goals by Frank Corral, beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9-0 to win the NFC Championship. This is the first conference championship game in NFL history without a touchdown being scored.

1980 — The Pittsburgh Steelers advance to their fourth Super Bowl appearance since 1974 by eliminating the Houston Oilers for the second consecutive year with a 27-13 triumph in the AFC title game.

1981 — John Tonelli ties a New York Islanders record with five goals in a 6-3 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Nassau Coliseum. Mike Bossy gets an assist on all six goals to set an Islanders record. Tonelli scores once in the first period, once in the second and three times in the third.

1985 — Dan Marino passes for a record 421 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Miami Dolphins to a 45-28 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game.

1985 — The San Francisco 49ers holds the Chicago Bears to 186 yards and sacks quarterback Steve Fuller nine times to win the NFC Championship 23-0.

1994 — Nancy Kerrigan is attacked after practice at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit. Shane Stant clubs Kerrigan on the knee and flees the scene. Later that evening, Scott Davis wins the men’s U.S. Figure Skating title.

1995 — Lenny Wilkens becomes the winningest coach in NBA history as the Atlanta Hawks post a 112-90 victory over the Washington Bullets. Wilkens, with his 939th win, surpasses Red Auerbach’s record. Wilkens reaches the record in his 22nd year as an NBA coach, including four as a player-coach.

2005 — For the first time in NBA history, a player leads his team in scoring without making a field goal. Detroit’s Richard Hamilton scores 14 points despite missing all 10 of his field goal attempts in a 101-79 loss to Memphis.

2011 — Miami of Ohio caps a historic season with a 35-21 win over Middle Tennessee in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. The RedHawks (10-4) are the first team in Football Bowl Subdivision history to win 10 games one season after losing 10. Miami finished a dismal 1-11 in 2009.

2014 — Patrick Maher of Division III Grinnell College breaks the NCAA record with 37 assists in a 164-144 victory over College of Faith.

2014 — Jameis Winston throws a 13-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds left and No. 1 Florida State beat No. 2 Auburn 34-31 to win the last BCS national championship game.

2015 — Patrik Elias has a goal and two assists to reach 1,000, NHL points, and the New Jersey Devils beat the struggling Buffalo Sabres 4-1. The goal is the 399th for Elias.

2016 — Ken Griffey Jr. is elected to the baseball Hall of Fame with the highest voting percentage ever, and Mike Piazza makes it in his fourth year on the ballot. Griffey is on 437 of 440 votes in his first appearance on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. His 99.3 percentage tops Tom Seaver’s 98.84 in 1992.

2018 — Jon Gruden returns to the NFL as Oakland Raiders head coach after nearly a decade of broadcasting (ESPN Monday Night Football 2009-17).

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where we’re trying to star in our role.

With one of their major stars still sidelined, the Lakers have gotten headlining performances from the usual suspects. LeBron James and Luka Doncic each scored 30 or more points in the same game for just the third time as Lakers teammates against Memphis last Friday. Doncic followed up on Sunday with a near triple-double and James had 11 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter to help the Lakers hold off the Grizzlies for a second consecutive game.

But the most significant performances last week came from the supporting cast.

Don’t forget No. 12

The way Rob Pelinka commemorated Jake LaRavia’s 27-point outburst against Minnesota in October warmed this print journalist’s heart.

After LaRavia made 10 of 11 shots to introduce himself to fans and Minnesota star Anthony Edwards, the Lakers’ general manager splashed a photo of LaRavia gazing out of a window on the front page of a faux newspaper and printed it on a black T-shirt.

The bold headline over the image read: “Who is Number 12?”

Two months after his breakout Lakers moment, LaRavia authored a long-awaited follow-up story. Starting in place of the injured Rui Hachimura, he scored 20 and 26 points in back-to-back games against Memphis.

LaRavia’s scoring punch against his first NBA team was the obvious headline grabber, but it shouldn’t overshadow the 24-year-old’s consistent contribution all season.

“It’s just the way he plays,” James said. “He plays hard, he defends, he rebounds. The scoring can go up, it can go down. But his consistency of how he plays keeps him on the floor.”

LaRavia has been the Lakers’ most consistent defender this season, coach JJ Redick said after Sunday’s game in which LaRavia was a game-high plus-15 in his 34 minutes and 30 seconds on the court. His defensive influence, averaging career-highs in rebounds (4.3), steals (1.3) and blocks (0.5), has exceeded expectations for the Lakers.

Redick knew he wanted to target the rangy 6-foot-7 forward because the Lakers were bottom-third in blocks (22nd, 4.5 per game), steals (22nd, 7.7 per game) and deflections (24th, 15.2) last year. Top wing defender Dorian Finney-Smith signed as an unrestricted free agent with the Houston Rockets.

Now LaRavia and fellow offseason addition Marcus Smart are tied for the team lead in deflections with 3.1 each per game.

LaRavia started his college career at Indiana State before transferring to Wake Forest, where he averaged 14.6 points per game as a junior. He was drafted 19th overall in 2022 and averaged 10.8 points in his second year. Looking back, LaRavia realizes that, at the time, he only wanted to be on the court for his offense. He admitted he wasn’t a very strong defender.

It wasn’t until last year that things “clicked,” LaRavia said. If he wanted to stay in the NBA, he would have to do more than score.

“There’s a lot of offensive talent in this league,” said LaRavia, who was shipped to Sacramento in a midseason trade last year. “I would say there’s not as much people that are willing to go out there every night and just play as hard as they can and provide energy and effort on the defensive side.”

The energy has transferred to offensive production, where LaRavia is thriving on what the Lakers call “effort offense.” He crashes for rebounds. He cuts to the basket. He runs the floor in transition. Those little things easily make up for LaRavia’s 32.7% shooting from three, the lowest percentage of his career.

The three-point shot is starting to click as well; LaRavia made seven of 16 threes in two games against the Grizzlies. He credited his work with assistant coach Beau Levesque for helping him get back to basics with his shot while maintaining confidence and focus.

“He has the words for me every time we come in here and shoot, but it’s more so just the consistent work that we put in,” LaRavia said. “He always says control the input … and the output is going to show for itself. And he also says stuff like, ‘Don’t be reactionary.’ I had a good game, but we don’t react off that. We continue to put in the same kind of work and just continue to play.”

LaRavia knows his front-page moment can be fleeting. Just when it looked as if he had arrived in early November with 20-point performances in two out of three games, LaRavia didn’t reach the mark again until last Friday.

More than two months after he first announced who No. 12 was, LaRavia is still introducing the league to parts of his game. A soaring one-handed dunk against Memphis last Friday got teammates jumping to their feet on the bench. After the game, James described LaRavia as “sneaky athletic.”

When asked about the description, LaRavia smiled.

“I’m a fan of ‘sneaky athletic,’” he said.

Next men up

Lakers guard Nick Smith Jr.

(Amanda Loman / Associated Press)

The Lakers have had all 14 of their standard contract players available for only two games this season. The revolving door of injuries has forced the Lakers to live out the “next man up” mantra.

Next up are Dalton Knecht and Nick Smith Jr., who are seeing more consistent playing time while Austin Reaves (calf) and Gabe Vincent (back) are sidelined.

Smith, who is playing on a two-way contract, delivered with 21 points in the Lakers’ win over the Sacramento Kings on Dec. 28, their first game without Reaves. The third-year guard’s instant offense was why the Lakers picked him up on the eve of training camp.

Conversely, Knecht is not being judged solely on whether he makes shots, Redick said. The Lakers simply need the sharp-shooting second-year forward to “play hard.”

“If you make a mistake, just get it on the next position,” Knecht said of what coaches are asking of him, “and just don’t repeat that mistake.”

Knecht flashed his potential in a hot start to his rookie season when he shot 46% from three in November 2024. But Knecht found himself on the trading block months later. He was briefly sent to Charlotte, only to U-turn when the trade was rescinded because of a failed physical.

This season, coaches told Knecht his opportunities on the floor would come down to his defense. He was playing regularly when the Lakers were still without James earlier this season, but he was largely relegated to garbage time after the superstar forward returned.

Jarred Vanderbilt’s standing on the team also changed drastically when James returned. The forward was out of the rotation completely for 10 games after James made his season debut on Nov. 18.

But the Lakers, in need of a defensive reset, turned to Vanderbilt again on Dec. 14. He has played in nine consecutive games, averaging 6.6 points and 5.8 rebounds with seven total steals. After his three-point shooting was a major liability on offense, Vanderbilt is shooting 11 for 25 (44%) from three since rejoining the rotation.

Vanderbilt’s resurgence has given Knecht an example to follow as he tries to solidify his standing in the league.

“Me and him had long talks about that,” Knecht said. “Making sure that both of us are ready for the rotation when the guys go down or just throw one of us in.”

On tap

Jan. 6 at Pelicans (8-29), 5 p.m. PST

The Pelicans have lost seven in a row. Zion Williamson (18.3 points, 5.9 rebounds) is back after missing both games against the Lakers earlier this season.

Jan. 7 at Spurs (25-10), 6:30 p.m. PST

After dominating the Lakers to end L.A.’s NBA Cup hopes in December, San Antonio announced itself as a title contender by beating Oklahoma City three consecutive times. Center Victor Wembanyama hyperextended his knee on Dec. 31 and missed two games, but could return in time to play the Lakers on Wednesday.

Jan. 9 vs. Bucks (16-20), 7:30 p.m. PST

Milwaukee has won five of its last seven. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s status with the team has been the biggest story line for the underwhelming Bucks, who are 11th in the Eastern Conference.

Status report

Gabe Vincent: lumbar back strain

Vincent is questionable for Tuesday’s game after missing eight games. He participated in a stay-ready game after practice last Saturday in his first on-court action since suffering the back injury.

Rui Hachimura: right calf strain

Hachimura will remain sidelined for at least the upcoming trip. He will stay in L.A. and could work with the G League affiliate South Bay Lakers. Hachimura has been out since Dec. 30.

Austin Reaves: left calf strain

Reaves won’t be reevaluated until at least Jan. 23.

Adou Thiero: right MCL sprain

The rookie forward will be sidelined for four weeks and won’t be reevaluated until the end of January.

Favorite thing I ate this week

Naan pizza with sausage, peppers and caramelized onions.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

Don’t cancel me for this. But sometimes for a home cooking hack, I use Trader Joe’s frozen naan for the crust on a personal pizza. I spent a year or two trying to perfect my own pizza dough technique, and I made good progress, but during a busy season, I don’t have the patience — or foresight — to be fiddling around with any fresh dough for a pizza night.

I topped a piece of garlic naan with homemade tomato sauce, cheese, Italian sausage, red peppers and caramelized onions. Then I finished it with a drizzle of hot honey.

I can only hope I will still be allowed to enter Italy next month for the Winter Olympics despite this culinary transgression. Take this as the only thing I have to declare at customs.

In case you missed it

Why the Lakers locked back in on Deandre Ayton in their comeback win against Grizzlies

Lakers takeaways: Jake LaRavia sets the tone in starting lineup during win over Grizzlies

Lakers takeaways: Pistons dominate paint as Lakers close out a sub-.500 December

Lakers takeaways: Nick Smith Jr. shines in win over Kings with Austin Reaves sidelined

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at thucnhi.nguyen@latimes.com, and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

From Gary Klein: It was a modest goal. After being sidelined all of training camp, all Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford desired was for his sore back to heal in time for the season opener.

“Just make it to Week 1,” he joked.

Mission accomplished.

“We got there,” he said, “and then just held on for dear life.”

Stafford did more than that. Despite some “touch and go moments,” he did not miss a snap during perhaps the finest season of his 17-year career.

And on Sunday, Stafford made a final case for his first league most valuable player award.

He passed for four touchdowns in a 37-20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals that gave the Rams the No. 5 seed for the NFC playoffs and a wild-card matchup on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. PST against the No. 4 Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, N.C.

The Seattle Seahawks are seeded No. 1 and will have a first round bye. The No. 2 Chicago Bears play host to the No. 7 Green Bay Packers, and the No. 3 Philadelphia Eagles play host to the No. 6 San Francisco 49ers.

Stafford, 37, will attempt to lead the Rams to their second Super Bowl title in his five seasons with the team.

Continue reading here

Rams summary

NFL standings

Chargers fall to Broncos

From Sam Farmer: The game was the understudies versus the underwhelmings.

The second-string Chargers against the … wait a second, the top-seeded Denver Broncos only generated 240 yards and failed to score an offensive touchdown?

Such is the AFC this season, filled with teams who flash one week and fizzle the next.

Sunday’s regular-season finale — which the Broncos won, 19-3 — was far more competitive than it should have been, especially considering the lopsided incentives.

Whereas the Chargers were playing for pride and only modestly consequential postseason seeding, Denver’s stakes were two miles high: a free pass to the second round, and home-field advantage until the Super Bowl.

Continue reading here

Chargers summary

NFL standings

NFL playoffs schedule

Sam Farmer breaks down all the wild-card game for you here.

All times Pacific
Wild-card round
NFC
Saturday
No. 5 Rams at No. 4 Carolina, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes
No. 7 Green Bay at No. 2 Chicago, 5 p.m., Prime Video

Sunday
No. 6 San Francisco at No. 3 Philadelphia, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes

AFC
Sunday
No. 6 Buffalo at No. 3 Jacksonville, 10 a.m., CBS, Paramount+
No. 7 Chargers at No. 2 New England, 5 p.m., NBC, Peacock, Universo

Monday, Jan. 12
No. 5 Houston at No. 4 Pittsburgh, 5 p.m., ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes; ManningCast-ESPN2

Divisional round
Jan. 17 and 18, TBA

Conference championships
Sunday, Jan. 25, TBA

Super Bowl
Sunday, Feb. 8, NBC, Time TBA

Lakers defeat Memphis again

From Broderick Turner: They met two days prior to Sunday night’s encounter at Crypto.com Arena, a two-game set between the Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies reminiscent of a playoff series.

The Lakers won the first game Friday night here and knew the Grizzlies were going to bring more intensity and a stronger effort even with star guard Ja Morant (right calf contusion) not playing.

And that was the case, the Lakers falling behind by 16 points in the second quarter, the Grizzlies ramping it up in a big way. But with Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Jake LaRavia leading the way, the Lakers pulled out a 120-114 win and improved to 12-0 in clutch games.

Continue reading here

Lakers box score

NBA standings

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1964 — Keith Lincoln of the San Diego Chargers rushes for 206 yards in 13 carries, catches seven passes for 123 yards, completes one pass for 20 and scores two touchdowns in a 51-10 rout of the Boston Patriots for the AFL title.

1983 — In his 42nd game, Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky scores his 100th point of the season with an assist in the Oilers’ 8-3 triumph over the Winnipeg Jets.

1991 — Kevin Bradshaw of U.S. International scores 72 points to break Pete Maravich’s NCAA Division I single-game scoring record of 69, but Loyola Marymount sets an NCAA team scoring record in defeating the Gulls 186-140.

1993 — Reggie Jackson, who hit 563 homers and played on five championship teams in 21 seasons, is the only player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1996 — Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula announces his retirement as winningest NFL Head Coach of all-time.

1997 — The second-year Carolina Panthers, behind John Kasay’s four field goals, beat the Dallas Cowboys 26-17 to advance to the NFC championship game.

1999 — Nolan Ryan, George Brett and Robin Yount are voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the biggest class of first-time candidates since Babe Ruth and four others were chosen in the original election of 1936.

2009 — Pittsburgh makes it to the top of The Associated Press’ men’s college basketball poll for the first time. The Panthers are one of a record nine Big East teams in the poll. The 16-team league had a record eight schools ranked for three weeks earlier in the season.

2013 — Aaron Rodgers connects with an NFL playoff-record 10 receivers as he throws for 274 yards in his first playoff victory at home, leading Green Bay to a 24-10 victory over Minnesota.

2013 — Arian Foster rushes for 140 yards and a touchdown in Houston’s 19-13 win over Cincinnati, and becomes the first NFL player to have 100-yard games in each of his first three playoff games.

2017 — The Columbus Blue Jackets lose 5-0 to the Washington Capitals ending their winning streak at 16 games, one shy of the NHL record. Columbus lose for the first time since Nov. 26, ending a captivating run that fell short of the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins’ record of 17 consecutive wins.

2021 — 86th Heisman Trophy Award: DeVonta Smith, Alabama (WR).

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. 2026 has arrived, which means league play starts getting serious in high school basketball with a number of huge games scheduled for Friday night.

The matchups

Christian Collins is all smiles after leading St. John Bosco to its own tournament championship.

(Nick Koza)

The Trinity League starts this week, and no game is bigger than Santa Margarita (19-2) hosting St. John Bosco (11-4) on Friday night in a game matching the preseason league title favorites.

Santa Margarita has been doing what everyone expected — taking advantage of its experience with four returning starters. The Eagles already own two wins over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, a Mission League power. St. John Bosco has relied on Christian Collins but suffered defeats to some very good teams in recent weeks.

The Mission League begins with a key Friday matchup of defending champion Harvard-Westlake (17-2) playing at Crespi (13-5). Both schools need a win to challenge league favorite Sierra Canyon, which plays host to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame on Friday night at 8:30 p.m. Former Sierra Canyon women’s star JuJu Watkins will have her jersey retired at halftime.

In the Gold Coast League, Brentwood (18-1) is playing at Crossroads on Friday in the first meeting since Shalen Sheppard transferred from Brentwood to Crossroads.

In the Marmonte League, unbeaten Thousand Oaks (16-0) plays host to Oaks Christian (15-3) on Friday.

In the Del Rey League, St. Bernard is playing at St. Anthony in an early league match that could establish a league favorite.

In the Gateway League, the top two teams face off on Friday, with La Mirada hosting Mayfair. In the Baseline League, 17-1 Etiwanda plays host to 15-4 Damien on Thursday in a matchup of the league’s top two teams. On Tuesday in the Sunset League, the two favorites, Los Alamitos and Corona del Mar, meet at Los Alamitos.

Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.

City Section

Tajh Ariza (right) and Malachi Harris of Westchester celebrate after winning the City Section Open Division title last season. Westchester is 2-8 this season.

(Nick Koza)

City Section basketball is in a precarious place. The talent level has diminished. The history of great teams and great players is in decline.

Here’s a look at the troubles facing the City Section and what can be done to change the trend.

Girls basketball

Etiwanda coach Stan Delus.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Ontario Christian (18-0) and Etiwanda (13-2) continue their march to the Southern Southern Open Division playoffs. Sierra Canyon (13-1) is right behind.

Mater Dei (12-4) is still adjusting to season-ending injury to Kaeli Wynn, but received a 28-point performance from Harmony Golightly in a win over Nevada Democracy Prep.

Sage Hill, with a new coach, is 14-4. Kamdyn Klamberg had a 31-point performance last week.

Villa Park is 15-3. Olivia Sturdivant and Lauren Wolfe are both averaging 13 points a game. JSerra is 14-2 and ranked No. 2 in the first Southern Section power rankings. JSerra faces Corona Centennial in a big nonleague game Monday.

In the City Section, Westchester, King/Drew, Birmingham and Granada Hills are emerging as the top teams. Junior Savannah Myles has been leading Westchester, which is 13-0 overall and 3-0 in the Western League.

Transfer tracker

Quarterback Jaden Jefferson of Cathedral is leaving for Corona Centennial.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

It’s time. The high school football transfer tracker for 2026 is up and running. Here’s the link.

The big transfers confirmed last week were Cathedral quarterback Jaden Jefferson and Cathedral receiver Quentin Hale announcing they would be transferring to Corona Centennial.

January is a big month for football transfers because it’s the start of the spring semester. As usual, quarterbacks are leading the way in switching schools.

Looking ahead to 2026

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame’s JJ Harel is ready for a big 2026.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Predictions for 2026 include lots of unique NIL deals, some baseball standouts and football stars. Here’s my crystal ball forecast.

Soccer

Anderson Carranza has 10 goals for Cleveland’s soccer team.

(Cleveland HS)

City Section boys soccer gets serious this week with the start of West Valley League play. El Camino Real, the defending champion, faces tough games against Cleveland on Wednesday and Birmingham on Friday. Here’s a report.

Rivals Mira Costa (6-2-1) and Palos Verdes (13-2) face off Tuesday at Mira Costa. Mira Costa won the Nike SoCal Holiday Classic last week in Oceanside. Former Palisades player Noah Szeder had two goals in the championship game.

In girls soccer, Santa Margarita has won its first 10 games, including a 3-0 win over Bishop Amat on Saturday. The Eagles have recorded six shutouts and given up just two goals.

Mater Dei is 9-1-3 but suffered its first defeat Saturday, losing to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 1-0.

Harvard-Westlake is 5-1-3 with its only loss to Mater Dei.

Notes . . .

Lance Mitchell is the new football coach at St. Francis. He was head coach at Muir. . . .

Johnathan Coutee is the new football coach at Murrieta Mesa. . . .

Nick Torres, 32, a Lakewood High graduate, was named 2025 MVP of the Mexican League in baseball and signed a minor league contract with the New York Yankees. . . .

Former Long Beach Poly football coach Justin Utupo said he has won an appeal and will be able to coach again in the district in three years. Previously he was banned lifetime. . . .

Westlake football coach Rick Clausen, who took over an 0-10 team and led them to a 10-1 record, has been selected the Rams’ Don Shula award coach of the year. Also honored was Mike Moon of Oxnard Pacifica. . . .

In a big girls water polo match, Mater Dei suffered its first defeat when defending Southern Section champion Oaks Christian beat the Monarchs 11-7. The Santa Barbara tournament is this weekend.

From the archives: Amon-Ra St. Brown

Amon-Ra St. Brown during his Mater Dei days in 2015.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

After 17 NFL games this season, former Mater Dei and USC receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Detroit Lions ranks among the top receivers. He finished with 106 receptions for 1,262 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Remember he’s one of three football-playing brothers and is multilingual being fluent in German.

Here’s a look at two St. Brown brothers from their Mater Dei days in 2015.

Here’s a story from 2014 explaining that you better learn how to spell the first names of the St. Brown brothers.

Here’s a story from 2016 giving a sneak peek at what Amon-Ra might be capable of.

Recommendations

From the Daily Pilot, a story on Bailey Turner of Huntington Beach becoming a world junior champion in surfing.

From NBCPalmSprings, a story on the death of a teenager golfer who fought to the end dealing with cancer.

From MaxPreps, a story on the 100 most influential people in the history of high school football.

Tweets you might have missed

Until next time….

Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

Did you get this newsletter forwarded to you? To sign up and get it in your inbox, click here.

It wasn’t an accident that the Lakers’ first play went to Deandre Ayton. Or that the star big man got the first shot of the third. Or that teammates fed him for back-to-back dunks to help spark a run of five consecutive scoring possessions early in the second half.

After Ayton finished last Friday’s win on the bench, the 7-foot center bounced back with 15 points and eight rebounds against the Grizzlies on Sunday as the Lakers made a point to involve the big man early.

Ayton scored just four points with six rebounds during Friday’s win and watched a tight fourth quarter from the bench because, as coach JJ Redick said, backup Jaxson Hayes “was playing better.” Redick said Saturday that Ayton was “frustrated” he wasn’t getting the ball more in recent games, and his disillusionment showed up on the court.

“It’s a tale as old as time for a big guy,” Redick said after Sunday’s game. “That’s the reality of being a big: someone has to pass you the ball. You’re not initiating the offense.”

Redick said the team identified moments where teammates could have been better at finding the former No. 1 overall pick. There were also other times when Ayton could have been more active on his own. Redick said he mostly wanted to see Ayton being active, engaged and assertive in the game.

Ayton responded by converting six of his eight shots Sunday and helping the team lock down on defense in the fourth. The Lakers clawed back from an 11-point deficit late in the third and held the Grizzlies (15-19) to just 16 points in the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter. Ayton had two blocks in the fourth quarter.

“We’re winning the right way,” Ayton said. “Bigs can’t feed themselves and I just try my best to do what I can to bring effort. And I trust my playmakers out there to find me.”

The Lakers had 30 assists on 38 made shots, their highest percentage of assisted field goals of the season.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — As I sat at a corner table inside another Courtyard by Marriott over the weekend, a floor-to-ceiling window protecting me from the 25-degree chill on a dreary morning, it struck me how much easier this would all be to do from home.

Nap until game time. Pick up the remote. Get a closeup view of every play.

Of course, that approach would also have deprived me — and Times readers — of so much over the last 10 years of being the only full-time traveling beat writer with the UCLA men’s basketball team.

Feeling a piece of stray confetti float against my cheek inside Lucas Oil Stadium after the Bruins reached the Final Four.

Seeing Prince Ali bound down a hallway inside Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena while yelling, “This is highway robbery, baby!” after the Bruins came back from nine points down with 51 seconds left.

Chatting with master storyteller Hep Cronin inside Kentucky’s Rupp Arena the day before an NCAA tournament game.

Interviewing Jaime and Angela Jaquez poolside in Maui before their son and daughter became on-campus celebrities.

People like to say they have the best seat in the house. Mine has often been 11F, window, on a United Airlines flight to some far-flung game that has made me cherish this decade of memories inside arenas all over the country.

There’s been so much more besides the palpable tension one can only feel sitting courtside, or in one of the media seats increasingly far removed from courtside in recent seasons. I caught a glimpse of Jake Kyman’s teammates dousing him with water after he made seven three-pointers against Washington and assistant coach Rod Palmer obligingly pushed the locker room door open a little wider than usual on his way out. Scanned cardboard cutouts of fans and pets inside San Diego State’s Viejas Arena. Wrote on deadline at Colorado while a trash collector roamed the stands blaring old Pink Floyd favorites from his boom box.

Yes, there have been annoying travel delays, crummy hotels and way too much time spent away from home. (A quick check of my Lifetime Titanium Elite status with Marriott shows 1,592 nights — the equivalent of nearly 4½ years — since 2003 while traveling for The Times in a variety of roles.)

But this is something I’m thrilled just to have the chance to do.

It takes an incredible financial commitment in a time of shrinking media resources to send someone on the road for every game with a college basketball team in 2026. That’s why I’m so grateful to my bosses for letting me take all these trips over the years.

Fortunately, I’m not the only one who realizes how special this is. Every time he sees me at a road game, Chris Carlson, UCLA’s longtime associate athletic director, has made a point to thank me for being there. He did it again Saturday, inside a club room deep within Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena, after UCLA’s frantic rally had fallen short against the Hawkeyes.

Fans often ask me if I travel on the team plane. That would be a resounding no, leading to innumerable layovers at Chicago O’Hare on the way to somewhere else in Big Ten country while the Bruins travel nonstop via charter. I don’t mind in the least.

Life on the road with the Bruins always packs a wallop, even during down seasons. A few years ago, during coach Mick Cronin’s only losing season with the team, it had just snowed in Pullman, Wash., when I exited a regional jet onto an icy outdoor ramp. I took two steps and fell backward onto my head with such a violent thud that my glasses flew back into the cabin. (I survived, or you wouldn’t be reading this.)

Along the way, there’s been far more laughter than frustration, let alone the need to Google “subdural hematoma.”

I’ve enjoyed every destination in an old conference (Pac-12) without truck stops and a new one (Big Ten) with plenty. I’ve sparked a Twitter war with the Memphis International Airport over a baggage office being closed shortly after sundown. I’ve stood in a hallway when coach Steve Alford threw his players under the bus at Cincinnati — “If you lose,” Alford said, “you get in the gym on your day off and you figure things out, not wait and get in the gym when we meet with you” — not long before the firing of Alford led to the hiring of Cincinnati’s coach.

I’ve heard that new coach — Cronin — yell at his team from two rooms over inside T-Mobile Arena after a loss to Baylor. I’ve also heard Cronin’s teams silence arenas with huge early runs against Stanford, Marquette, Maryland and San Diego State.

Traveling to cover the Bruins has had its side benefits, of course. I’ve seen family in Portland, visited wine country in the Willamette and Napa valleys and taken memorable trips to Arizona and the Bay Area during the COVID-19 season in 2020-21. The enduring image from those trips was the bizarre game against Stanford in Santa Cruz (because of health restrictions in Palo Alto), which featured an equally bizarre ending on an inbounds pass to Cardinals forward Oscar da Silva for a buzzer-beating layup.

There have been white-knuckle prop plane flights from Seattle to Pullman and white-knuckle drives across the Bay Bridge thanks to gephyrophobia. Tense drives from Spokane to Pullman because of the dreaded Colfax speed trap and walls of fog that can blindside you like a fearsome backcourt press.

Including stints covering USC basketball and an additional UCLA season under coach Ben Howland, I’ve logged three trips to the Maui Invitational — including one played in Honolulu — one to the old Great Alaska Shootout and one to Mexico for an exhibition game. The one trip that I really wanted to take — to China in 2017 — and was told no because a boss didn’t think it would be worthwhile ended in an international ordeal. Maybe it was the basketball gods’ way of telling him to keep me on the road.

As the pandemic made the prospect of taking flights seem perilous during the 2020-21 season, I covered a handful of road games off television. Admittedly, it was great to get replays and instant injury reports before hopping on a Zoom for postgame interviews.

But something just didn’t feel right. It wasn’t until the Bruins made the NCAA tournament and I accompanied them for every game on that unforgettable run in central Indiana that I fully understood one of the most important rules of quality coverage.

Being there matters.

Olympic sport of the week: Women’s gymnastics

Jordan Chiles helped UCLA rally to win the Best of the West Quad in Seattle by placing first in all four events.

(Courtesy of Jamie Mitchell)

Trailing California after two rotations in its season-opening meet, the UCLA women’s gymnastics team could rely on something else no one had in its comeback bid.

Jordan Chiles.

Predictably, the Olympic gold medalist helped the fourth-ranked Bruins rally to win the Best of the West Quad at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle by placing first in all four events.

Sticking her double layout dismount on the uneven bars, Chiles scored a 9.925 to help UCLA overtake the No. 20 Golden Bears and move into third place after the third rotation. Chiles topped herself with maybe her best beam performance at the college level, earning a 10 from one of the two judges and a 9.975 score.

UCLA senior Ciena Alipio contributed a 9.925 on the beam, helping her team edge Cal, 196.875 to 196. Host Washington finished third with 195.625 and No. 19 Oregon State was fourth with 195.550.

The Bruins next face No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 LSU and No. 5 Utah on Saturday at the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad in West Valley City, Utah. The meet will be televised live on ABC at 1 p.m. PST.

Opinion time

With two months left before the NCAA tournament, UCLA men’s basketball is teetering on the bubble, with bracketmatrix.com — an aggregator of bracket projections — listing the Bruins as a No. 9 seed before they lost to Iowa on Saturday. Where do you think UCLA finds itself on Selection Sunday?

An elite finish leads to a protected seed

A solid Big Ten run puts it in Nos. 5-7 range

The Bruins just barely make it into the tournament

They’re left out for the second time in three years

Click here to vote in our survey.

Poll results

We asked, “What was your favorite UCLA sports moment of 2025?”

After 453 votes, the results:

The women’s basketball team’s trip to the Final Four, 49%
The men’s water polo team’s national championship, 21%
The football team’s three-game winning streak, 19%
The baseball team makes the College World Series, 9%
The softball team makes the Women’s College World Series, 2%

In case you missed it

Lauren Betts and No. 4 UCLA rout No. 17 USC in a commanding performance

UCLA’s second-half surge can’t erase ‘unbelievably soft’ start in loss to No. 25 Iowa

UCLA’s Bob Chesney rounds out his coaching staff with many joining him from JMU

Jerry Neuheisel is leaving UCLA to rejoin Chip Kelly at Northwestern

Cori Close, passionate about the growth of women’s basketball, wants the media to do its part

Chip Kelly is named offensive coordinator at Northwestern. Can he repair his reputation?

Have something Bruin?

Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email me at ben.bolch@latimes.com, and follow me on X @latbbolch. To order an autographed copy of my book, “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die,” send me an email. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

This is what the Lakers imagined when they nearly broke the NBA with the trade that brought Luka Doncic to L.A.

Doncic and LeBron James both scored 30 or more points in a game for just the third time as teammates Friday to help the Lakers hold off the Memphis Grizzlies 128-121 at Crypto.com Arena. Doncic led the way with 34 points, using 17-for-20 shooting from the free-throw line to maintain his NBA-leading scoring average, while James had 31 points on 12-for-18 shooting with nine rebounds and six assists.

The Lakers (21-11) needed 41-year-old James to be at his best. They squandered 13- and 15-point leads in the first and second quarters, respectively, but pieced together a timely 12-2 run in the fourth to improve their record in clutch games to 11-0.

“It felt like nearly every time we needed a bucket, he just kind of willed [it],” coach JJ Redick said of James, “whether it was driving the basketball, getting to the paint, getting to 2 feet, and he was just phenomenal tonight.”

Here are three takeaways from the win:

Jake LaRavia stars in his role

Laker Jake LaRavia celebrates making a three-pointer against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)

James and Doncic led the way, but another player set the strongest tone for the night.

“Obviously it started with Jake,” James said.

Jake LaRavia, in the starting lineup for the injured Rui Hachimura (calf), delivered the necessary spark of energy on defense while also getting his shot going early to add a scoring punch. LaRavia scored 21 points, hitting three of six three-point attempts, with nine rebounds, two steals and a block.

“When I just talk about roles and the amount of hats that I can wear with this team, some nights, this is what happens,” LaRavia said. “Other nights I’m that defender, connector, crasher, like all that kind of stuff. So just continuing to play confidently throughout but also understanding what my role is going to be each game.”

The Lakers coveted the 6-foot-7, 24-year-old forward during the offseason for his versatility on defense and three-point shooting. He hit his first three-point shot Friday then nailed a midrange jumper 28 seconds later. He had 11 points in the first quarter and 18 in the first half.

LaRavia knew almost instantly it finally could be his night again.

LaRavia hadn’t scored 20 points in a game since Nov. 2 as his playing time has fluctuated with the Lakers’ ever-changing injury report. He also is shooting a career-low 30.9% from three after shooting 42.3% from long distance last season.

But LaRavia asked teammates to maintain their confidence in him as he worked with assistant coach Beau Levesque to fine-tune his shot.

“He says, ‘Control the input and the output is going to show for itself,’” LaRavia said of the coach. “So that’s kind of what I’m doing right now. I’m just working on my shot, starting with the basics again, and just kind of going from there. And, you know, hopefully I can find my rhythm again. And tonight was just the start.”

Friday was LaRavia’s first game with three three-pointers since Oct. 29 when he made five of six against the Minnesota Timberwolves, prompting the viral moment of fans shouting “Who is No. 12?”

Jaxson Hayes gets the closing nod

Lakers center Jaxson Hayes yells as he dunks in front of Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. and center Jock Landale during the fourth quarter at Crypto.com Arena on Friday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Last year Jaxson Hayes watched the Lakers’ season end from the bench after he fell out of the playoff rotation in the first round against Minnesota. The 7-foot center started the first four playoff games but never played more than 10 minutes in each as his role dwindled to not playing at all in the decisive Game 5.

After the benching, Hayes said, he had something to prove this season. He made a loud statement Friday, earning the closing minutes over starter Deandre Ayton. Hayes played 11 minutes 9 seconds of the tight fourth quarter and finished with 12 points on five-for-six shooting.

Ayton had six rebounds and four points, and the Lakers were outscored by one during his almost 25 minutes compared with a plus-eight scoring margin during Hayes’ 23 minutes.

“He was playing better,” Redick said of the decision to play Hayes at the end.

Hayes has 25 points on 10-for-11 shooting in two games since returning from an ankle injury. Defensively, Hayes added two steals, two rebounds and a block Friday. He’s shooting a career-best 78% but does not qualify for the league’s official leaderboard with 64 makes on just 82 attempts.

Doncic praised Hayes for his improvement in the pick and roll, noting how the center is finding “the right pocket” while Doncic is handling the ball.

“His ability to control the paint for us has been huge,” said guard Marcus Smart, who flirted with a triple-double with 13 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. “… Just his ability to go get the ball at the highest point when we throw it and then defensively to alter shots, whether he’s blocking them or just changing shots for us, allows our defense to pick it up from our guards even more. To have that urgency that he brings, that’s huge.”

Dalton Knecht to get more playing time

Lakers forward Dalton Knecht extends to shoot the ball while being guarded by Detroit Pistons forward Ronald Holland II on Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Caroline Brehman / Associated Press)

Diminished defense headlined the Lakers’ December struggles, but the offense also was out of sync during the Lakers’ 5-7 month. They were 18th in offensive rating and shot 33.9% from three-point range, which ranked 25th.

With several of the team’s top shooters injured, Redick is opening the door for second-year forward Dalton Knecht to work back into the rotation. Knecht will get “consistent” playing time the next few weeks, Redick said, and won’t be judged solely on his shooting percentage while he tries to stick in the lineup.

“Play hard,” Redick said before the game of what Knecht needs to do to stay in the lineup. “That’s been the biggest playing emphasis for him all season. He’s not going to be judged on whether he makes or misses shots. That helps. When you go through a stretch and you feel like your team isn’t playing hard, you got to play the guys that are consistently playing hard.”

Knecht was scoreless in almost 11 minutes against the Grizzlies, missing both three-point attempts and turning the ball over once.

Knecht is shooting 37.3% from three in his short NBA career but has struggled to stick in the lineup because of defensive lapses. He grabbed veteran Maxi Kleber’s minutes at the end of the rotation after not playing in the first half of a game since Dec. 23 against Phoenix, a blowout loss.

Kleber is shooting a team-worst 31% and 20% on threes.

The Lakers are digging into their bench while injuries pile up. Austin Reaves remains out at least three more weeks because of a calf strain. Forward Adou Thiero was diagnosed with a sprain of his right medial collateral ligament on New Year’s Eve and will be reevaluated in four weeks.

Guard Gabe Vincent is closing in on a return from a back injury that’s cost him seven games. He had a modified practice with some three-on-three work Saturday, and the Lakers hope he can be available for at least one of their upcoming road games against New Orleans on Tuesday and San Antonio on Wednesday.

They met two days prior to Sunday night’s encounter at Crypto.com Arena, a two-game set between the Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies reminiscent of a playoff series.

The Lakers won the first game Friday night and knew the Grizzlies were going to bring more intensity and a stronger effort even with star guard Ja Morant (right calf contusion) not playing.

And that was the case, the Lakers falling behind by 16 points in the second quarter, the Grizzlies ramping it up in a big way. But with Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Jake LaRavia leading the way, the Lakers pulled out a 120-114 win.

Doncic almost had a triple-double with 36 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. James had 26 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. LaRavia, starting in the absence of Rui Hachimura, had 26 points, five rebounds and four assists. It was the second straight time LaRavia, who came in averaging 9.1 points, scored 20-plus.

A back-and-forth game featured several lead changes in the fourth quarter, with the Lakers and Grizzlies taking turns delivering in tense moments. The Lakers finally took the lead for good at 100-99 on a basket by Doncic.

Then James scored on a three-point play and made one of two free throws for a 104-99 lead with 3 minutes 49 seconds left.

The Lakers (22-11) had an answer for every Grizzlies counter, the final stamp on the game being Doncic’s back-to-back three-pointers for a nine-point lead with 2:01 left.

The NBA scheduling the Lakers to host the Grizzlies on Friday and again Sunday was not an issue for coach JJ Redick.

“I like it,” Redick said. “I do think it does replicate [the playoffs] in some ways. A playoff series, particularly when it’s not a home-and-away situation, but more of you’re playing a two-game series on somebody’s home court for the day in between. Had a few of these last year. So, I like this for our team and it’s a good growth opportunity. Coming off a win, knowing that there’s a lot of stuff that we can be better at and where can we make improvements. That’s the big challenge to me.”

For Redick, that meant what it always does for the Lakers — improving on defense.

Redick wanted his team to get back on defense faster and not let the Grizzlies (15-20) get so many early offense opportunities.

LeBron James shoots against Christian Koloko of the Grizzlies in the first quarter Sunday.

(Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)

The Lakers also wanted to jump-start center Deandre Ayton from a five-game slumber.

Ayton had just four points on two-for-four shooting against the Grizzlies on Friday night and hadn’t scored more than 12 points in that span.

So, the Lakers went to Ayton at the outset, trying to ignite his game. It worked to a degree, Ayton scoring 15 points, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking three shots.

There have been good weeks and bad weeks for the Lakers this season.

Ahead of Friday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, they were trending downward after losing four of their last five games.

The Memphis game turned into a microcosm of that trend, with the Lakers building leads through effort and intensity only to see them crumble behind less-inspired play.

In the end, standout performances from Luka Doncic and LeBron James helped the Lakers surge late and hold on for a 128-121 win at Crypto.com Arena.

Doncic and James made sure the 15-point lead the Lakers held before it dissolved by the end of the third quarter wasn’t completely achieved in vain. Doncic made 17 of 20 free throws in scoring 34 points with eight assists and six rebounds, and James had 31 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

They got help from Jake LaRavia, who scored 21 points on eight-for-12 shooting in addition to nine rebounds and stellar defense. Marcus Smart had 13 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, and Jaxson Hayes scored 12 points off the bench.

The Lakers improved to an NBA-best 11-0 when within five or fewer points of their opponent heading into the final five minutes.

“I think we have a lot of people that closed the game, especially (me), when LeBron, he took over today,” Doncic said. “(Jarred Vanderbilt) hit a big shot. Jake hit a big shot. Jaxson had a big dunk. So, it’s just everybody.”

Lakers center Jaxson Hayes dunks over Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (8) and center Jock Landale (31) in the fourth quarter Friday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

It was a group effort that helped the Lakers seal the win in the fourth quarter. It also marked the first time since March that Doncic and James scored at least 30 points in the same game.

“It was just playing and playing in rhythm,” James said. “We’re trying to find ways that we can be productive. Obviously, Luka did a great job of getting to the free-throw line. … He made a step-back three, a big-time shot there.

“Myself, just trying to sprinkle in a little bit here, a little bit there. Just trying to be consistent and be super efficient with my play. So we worked well off each other today and we led the group.”

The Lakers (21-11) went down 110-109 in the fourth quarter before going on a 12-2 run to take the lead for good.

The teams will meet again here Sunday night.

“We made some big-time plays offensively and we were sharing the ball, and guys made some big-time shots,” James said. “Vando’s three, Jake’s three on the other side of their bench at the end of the shot clock, Jax had a big-time dunk down the middle. So, those are key moments. And then defensively, we were able to get a couple shots, get a couple rebounds. That allowed us to kind of start pushing the lead up.”

Vincent update

Gabe Vincent (lumbar back strain) missed his seventh straight game, but Redick said the team hopes he can practice Saturday and that if he does, it will “be modified.”

Redick said Vincent will not play Sunday against the Grizzlies, but the hope is that he can play either at New Orleans on Tuesday or at San Antonio on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to get him exposure to live play, and with the travel day on Monday, that’s gonna be tough,” Redick said.

From Anthony Solorzano: After a night of rain in Pasadena, the Indiana Hoosiers washed away the weight of history.

Entering the Rose Bowl, College Football Playoff teams coming off first-round byes were winless. At the start of the season, the Hoosiers led college football with the most all-time losses. During their sole previous Rose Bowl appearance in 1968, the Hoosiers lost to USC.

Indiana’s football program spent most of its time stuck in the Big Ten conference basement, but that era is over.

Now, with new blood infused by head coach Curt Cignetti and an offense led by Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, the Hoosiers have turned the page and shattered expectations.

After a quarter of brushing off their rust following a three-week break, No. 1 Indiana rolled to a 38-3 Rose Bowl victory over No. 9 Alabama Thursday afternoon in front of a crowd of 90,278. It is the largest postseason margin of defeat in Crimson Tide history.

When an ESPN reporter asked Cignetti moments after the win how his team managed to handle the Rose Bowl pressure and proved the moment wasn’t too big for them, he responded, “Why should it be too big, because our name’s Indiana?

”… We’ve come through in clutch moments. I’m proud of the way they’ve responded.”

Continue reading here

Indiana-Alabama box score

College Football Playoff roundup

In front of more than 90,000 fans at the Rose Bowl, Indiana running back Roman Hemby scores on an 18-yard run in the fourth quarter during the Hoosiers’ win over Alabama on Thursday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

From Bill Plaschke: Two unbeatens owned Pasadena Thursday, two unbeatens who transformed a dreary morning into a startling afternoon, two unbeatens who overcame questions to shine like the poke of the midday sun.

Indiana and Grandaddy.

First, the Hoosiers, who improved to 14-0 and bolstered the growing belief that they are the best college football team in the country after a 38-3 beatdown of Alabama in the Rose Bowl’s CFP quarterfinal game.

Second, the Rose Bowl itself, the “Grandaddy of Them All” improving to 112-0, again proving immune to bad weather and misguided criticism while putting on college football’s most majestic show.

The rain that had soaked the morning Rose Parade stopped before the game. Early in the second quarter, the sun creeped out. A postponed pregame flyover eventually joined the party, a single jet buzzing the cheering crowd at the start of the third quarter. Finally, early in the fourth quarter the San Gabriel Mountains made their annual breathtaking appearance, barging through the clouds like the Hoosiers rolling over the Tide.

Continue reading here

Keith Jackson’s family keeps his memory alive

Melanie Jackson, daughter of Keith Jackson, holds up a photo of the iconic college football broadcaster at the family’s home in Sherman Oaks on Thursday.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

From Sam Farmer: Even the “Granddaddy of Them All” has a dad.

That’s the late and legendary ABC Sports announcer Keith Jackson, who coined that term for the Rose Bowl Game and it stuck. He clicked off his microphone for the last time precisely 20 years ago after Texas beat USC on this storied field.

The game was a classic and so was Jackson, the Saturday evening soundtrack for generations of college football fans. His melodic baritone filled millions of households with tales of Southerners and soph-ah-mores, with praise for the “big uglies” and proclamations of “Hello, Heisman.”

“I still hear his voice,” said his daughter, Melanie, standing Thursday in the office of the family home in Sherman Oaks, where Keith and Turi Ann raised their children Melanie, Lindsey and Christopher. “I come up here sometimes just to say hi to him.”

Jackson, who died in 2018, still lives in the hearts of his family, friends and fans, and his countless stories and famous calls are woven into the lore of college football — although he covered many sports — and the history of the Rose Bowl itself.

Continue reading here

Rams sign Quentin Lake to contract extension

Rams safety Quentin Lake jogs back to the locker room before a game against the Seattle Seahawks on Nov. 16.

(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)

From Gary Klein: As safety Quentin Lake played through much of the final year of his rookie contract, he said he did not worry about whether he would come to terms with the Rams about an extension.

If he took care of business on the field, everything would work out.

On Thursday, that manifestation came to fruition.

Lake signed a three-year extension that will keep another pillar of the Rams’ defense in place.

Terms of the deal were not announced but it includes $25.7 million in guarantees, said a person with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because the terms were not announced.

Continue reading here

NFL standings

NFL Week 18 picks

Jerry Neuheisel joining forces with Chip Kelly again

UCLA coach Jerry Neuheisel stands on the sideline against Penn State on Oct. 4.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

From Ben Bolch: Jerry Neuheisel is leaving home to go work for someone familiar.

The longtime UCLA assistant who was born at the school’s medical center, played quarterback for the Bruins and rose to de facto offensive coordinator last season will rejoin former boss Chip Kelly in a new role at Northwestern.

Neuheisel has agreed to become the quarterbacks coach under Kelly, who will serve as the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator after being fired late last season from the same role with the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.

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Kawhi Leonard scores 45 in Clippers’ sixth consecutive win

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard dunks during the first half of a 118-101 win over the Utah Jazz at Intuit Dome on Thursday night.

(William Liang / Associated Press)

From The Associated Press: Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points, James Harden added 20 and the Clippers recovered from blowing a 21-point lead to beat the Utah Jazz on 118-101 on Thursday night, extending their winning streak to a season-best six games.

Leonard was the only Clippers starter on the floor for much of the fourth quarter. He singlehandedly matched Utah’s points in the period (20), with blood on his nose from what appeared to be a scratch.

The Clippers hit seven straight three-pointers, with Leonard making four, to pull away. Nicolas Batum finished with 14 points and went four for six from three-point range.

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Clippers-Jazz box score

NBA scores

NBA standings

Kings lose in meltdown against the Lightning

Tampa Bay forward Brayden Point, left, Kings forward Andrei Kuzmenko battle for the puck during the first period of the Kings’ 5-3 loss Thursday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)

From the Associated Press: Gage Goncalves scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:41 to play, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied from a late deficit to beat the Kings 5-3 on Thursday night for their sixth consecutive victory.

Anthony Cirelli scored the tying goal with 3:19 left in regulation for the Lightning, who fell behind early in the third period on Kevin Fiala‘s power-play goal.

Cirelli crashed the net and pushed home his 11th goal on a play set up by Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov. Moments later, Cirelli and Goncalves drove the net again, and Goncalves eventually converted a behind-the-net pass from Jake Guentzel for his fourth goal.

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Kings-Lightning box score

NHL scores

NHL standings

This day in sports history

1961 — George Blanda passes for three touchdowns and kicks a field goal and the extra points to give the Houston Oilers a 24-16 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers in the first American Football League championship game.

1965 — The New York Jets sign Alabama quarterback Joe Namath for a reported $400,000, the most lucrative rookie contract in football history.

1966 — Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung gain 201 yards on four inches of snow at Lambeau Field to lead the Green Bay Packers to a 23-12 victory over the Cleveland Browns and their third championship in five years.

1977 — Atlanta Braves’ owner Ted Turner is suspended one year by Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn for tampering in the free-agent signing of Gary Matthews.

1982 — Rolf Benirschke’s 29-yard field goal at 13:52 of overtime ends one of the wildest and highest-scoring playoff games as the San Diego Chargers beat the Miami Dolphins 41-38. San Diego’s Dan Fouts completes 33 of 53 passes for 433 yards and three TDs. Miami quarterback Don Strock completes 29 of 43 passes for 403 yards and four TDs.

1984 — Miami defeats Nebraska 31-30 in the Orange Bowl to win the national championship.

1985 — Nevada-Las Vegas beats Utah State 142-140 in triple overtime as both teams set an NCAA record for total points. The Runnin’ Rebels score a record 93 points in the second half, and coach Jerry Tarkanian gets his 600th victory.

1986 — Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders becomes the 11th NHL player to score 500 goals. Bossy scores No. 500 on an empty netter with 17 seconds remaining to clinch a 7-5 victory against the Boston Bruins at Nassau Coliseum. Bossy reaches the milestone in 647 games, fewer than anyone in NHL history at that time.

1987 — No. 2 Penn State beats No. 1 Miami 14-10 in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship.

1989 — Notre Dame beats West Virginia 34-21 in the Fiesta Bowl to finish the season at 12-0. The Irish are named national champion in the polls.

1996 — No. 1 Nebraska demolishes No. 2 Florida 62-24 in the Fiesta Bowl, making them the first repeat champions in 16 years.

2001 — Jose Theodore becomes the sixth NHL goalie to score a goal in a regular-season game and stops 32 shots as Montreal blanks the New York Islanders 3-0.

2002 — Carolina’s Ron Francis becomes the fifth player in NHL history to record 500 goals and 1,000 assists when he scores in the Hurricanes’ 6-3 loss to Boston.

2009 — Utah finishes 13-0 with a convincing 31-17 win over No. 4 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The Utes are the first team from a non-BCS conference to win two BCS bowls.2009 — Doug Weight has a pair of assists for the New York Islanders in a 5-4 loss to Phoenix to become the eighth American-born player to reach the 1,000-point mark.

2011 — Seattle becomes the first sub-.500 division champ in league history with a 16-6 win over St. Louis. The Seahawks finish as champs of the NFC West at 7-9, the first playoff team with a losing record — sans the 1982 strike-shortened season — since the merger in 1970.

2018 — Marc-Andre Fleury stops 29 shots in his second shutout of the season, leading Vegas past Nashville 3-0. Vegas wins its eighth straight and earns at least one point in 13 consecutive games, both NHL records for a first-year team.

2019 — United States international Christian Pulisic becomes the most expensive American soccer player when he moves from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea for £57.6M ($73M); remains at Dortmund on loan until the end of the season.

2023 — Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin collapses in cardiac arrest and is revived by CPR on the field in televised NFL game against the Bengals in Cincinnati.

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Anthony Solorzano: Through tears, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza thanked every member of his family after becoming the first Hoosier to ever win the Heisman Trophy. The Cuban American quarterback recognized his family for believing in him throughout his career.

He was a two-star high school recruit who drew little attention before finally landing an opportunity to play at California. After three years with the Golden Bears, including a redshirt year, he transferred to Indiana. On Thursday, the No. 1 Hoosiers will take the field at the Rose Bowl, where they will face college football traditional power Alabama in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.

Pressure is familiar for Mendoza. He’s faced challenges throughout his career — from proving himself as an overlooked high school athlete to earning his starting role at Cal.

Anytime Mendoza has met a hurdle, he considers how to help those around him shine.

“I know that’s my responsibility to my coaches, to my teammates and to the entire team, to be able to be sharp mentally and not have outside influences, pressures and noise able to impact my game,” Mendoza said. “I think one thing is just keeping the process on how I got here, how the entire team got to this place, which is keeping the process that I’ve kept for every single game.”

The Hoosiers finished the season undefeated. They will play for their first Rose Bowl victory in 57 years and it’ll be the second year in a row Indiana has reached the College Football Playoff.

“His leadership has increased in those crucial moments and I think that’s what makes him such a special player — because when the stakes are the highest, he steps up and gets the team going,” Indiana linebacker Isaiah Jones said. “He’s a guy that people want to get behind and run a play for.”

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Bowl game results

Bowl schedule

USC’s defense continues to be a problem

Texas Christian running back Jeremy Payne carries the ball during a 30-27 win over USC in Alamo Bowl.

(Kenneth Richmond / Getty Images)

From Ryan Kartje: Two years ago, a day after he decided to fire Alex Grinch as USC‘s defensive coordinator, Lincoln Riley made a promise to those concerned about the future of the Trojans’ defense.

“I have complete belief, conviction. We will play great defense here,” the coach said in November 2023. “It is going to happen. There’s not a reason in the world why it can’t.”

Two years later, another defensive coordinator is out the door at USC. The day after Grinch’s replacement, D’Anton Lynn, left to take the same job at Penn State, Riley stood in front of reporters, assuring everyone once again that soon enough, USC would be great on that side of the ball.

“The arrow,” he said Tuesday, “is pointing straight up.”

“The opportunity for us to make a hire, to continue to make us better and to go from being a very good defense to being a great defense is the goal.”

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UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close reacts during a win over Penn State on Wednesday.

(Greg Fiume / Getty Images)

From Ben Bolch: As she spoke about her team’s growth amid its first conference trip, Cori Close steered her comments toward something else she would like to nurture: coverage of women’s college basketball.

It was a topic that the UCLA coach had thrust into the national spotlight three days earlier when she voiced her frustration with a lack of reporting on a top-20 showdown involving her No. 4 Bruins and No. 19 Ohio State.

Now, after her team’s runaway 97-61 victory over Penn State on Wednesday inside Rec Hall, Close glanced at the 10 reporters on a Zoom call and doubled down on her previous remarks.

“The reality of what my comments were after Ohio State were, I have two really passionate agendas in regards to this, and that is, I want to be a pioneer of growing the game, period,” Close said. “I want to really be a part of the surge that’s happening and I want to be a part of telling these amazing stories that these players have, and they’re incredible young women as well as amazing basketball players.”

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UCLA-Penn State box score

Women’s college basketball scores

Former USC players sound off on Lincoln Riley

USC coach Lincoln Riley reacts during a loss to Texas Christian in the Alamo Bowl on Tuesday night.

(Eric Gay / Associated Press)

From Chuck Schilken: Matt Leinart went to bed early.

Tired from hosting family for the holidays and planning on rising early for a workout, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner and star USC quarterback did not stay up to catch the end of his alma mater’s game against Texas Christian in the Alamo Bowl on Tuesday night.

He likely does not regret that decision.

After allowing a 10-point lead to slip away in the final minutes of regulation, the Trojans eventually lost 30-27 in overtime after TCU running back Jeremy Payne caught a check-down pass on third-and-20 and broke multiple tackles on his way to the end zone for a 35-yard, game-winning touchdown.

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Lakers eager to move on

Lakers coach JJ Redick reacts during a loss to the Detroit Pistons at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The Lakers started the day by singing “Happy Birthday” to LeBron James as the superstar forward turned 41 on Tuesday. They ended by singing another familiar, but more somber tune.

The Lakers got blown out again Tuesday, letting a close game devolve into a 128-106 loss to the Detroit Pistons. James scored 17 points with four assists and five turnovers while the Lakers (20-11) lost by 20 points for the sixth time this season. They are tied for the third-most 20-point losses in the league, yet somehow are still clinging to fifth place in the Western Conference standings.

“The intent and the, like, effort was there for the most part tonight,” coach JJ Redick said. “… The turnovers and the fast-break points, they kill you.”

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NBA scores

NBA standings

Thank you, L.A. sports teams, for saving me

The Dodgers celebrate winning the World Series, one of many highlight moments that lifted Bill Plaschke’s spirits during a terrible year.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

From Bill Plaschke: It was the last story I wrote before everything changed.

It was Jan. 5, 2025, and I was marveling at the Rams gumption in their shorthanded loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

“It was weird,” I wrote. “It was wild.”

I was so witty. I was so wrong.

Two days later, I was fleeing for my life, steering my car down narrow Altadena streets with a fireball at my back and a nightmarish future sprawled across the smoke-filled streets ahead.

Now that was weird and wild.

The year 2025 was more tumultuous than any silly football game and its accompanying overwrought metaphors. It was a year that knocked me flat, tearing me apart from so many things that once anchored me, setting me afloat in a sea of guilt and despair and ultimate uncertainty.

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2026 high school sports predictions

JJ Harel of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame is gearing up to defend his state championship in the high jump.

(Craig Weston)

From Eric Sondheimer: It’s time to peer into my crystal ball to see what 2026 has in store for the Southland’s high school athletes (and a few former ones), coaches and fans:

JJ Harel of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, armed with passports from the United States, Israel and Australia, will soar so far past 7 feet in the high jump that national organizations from three different countries will fight to have him represent their team.

Striker Pence, a sophomore pitcher at Corona Santiago with a 100-mph fastball, will receive an endorsement deal from a radar gun company.

The UCLA-USC women’s basketball games will have so many celebrities and former players wanting to be seen that TMZ won’t need to pay for video.

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Ducks fall in overtime to Lightning

Tampa Bay defenseman Darren Raddysh, left, scores on Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal in overtime of the Lightning’s 4-3 win Wednesday at Honda Center.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

From the Associated Press: Darren Raddysh scored midway through overtime, and the Tampa Bay Lightning blew three one-goal leads before beating the Ducks 4-3 on Wednesday for their fifth consecutive victory.

Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper celebrated his 1,000th regular-season game in charge with his 595th victory as the longest-tenured bench boss in the NHL. The Lightning’s coach since March 2013 has also led them in 155 playoff games, won two championships and reached four Stanley Cup Finals.

Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist as the Lightning skated off with a win in the opener of their three-game California trip when Raddysh converted a pass from Brandon Hagel, who had three assists.

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Ducks-Lightning box score

NHL scores

NHL standings

This day in sports history

1902 — Michigan beats Stanford 49-0 in the first Rose Bowl. Neil Snow scores four touchdowns in a game that ends with eight minutes to play. The Wolverines earned the nickname as the “Point a Minute” team, having scored 501 points in their ten games. The next Rose Bowl game does not occur until 1916.

1916 — Washington State beats Brown 14-0 in the return of the Rose Bowl. Brown halfback Fritz Pollard, the first African-American to play in the Rose Bowl, gains just 47 yards in the rain-soaked game. After a scoreless first half, Washington State scores on short runs by Ralph Boone and Carl Dietz.

1934 — Columbia upsets Stanford 7-0 in the Rose Bowl when Al Barabas scores in the third quarter on a 17-yard hidden-ball play.

1935 — Bucknell beats Miami 26-0 in the first Orange Bowl.

1935 — Tulane beats Temple 20-14 in the first Sugar Bowl. The Green Wave complete a 14-0 comeback when Temple defender Horace Mowery tips a pass into the direction of Dick Hardy, who takes it in to the end zone.

1961 — The Houston Oilers beat the Los Angeles Chargers 24-16 to win the first AFL Championship.

1961 — Boston Bruins rookie Willie O’Ree, the first black player in NHL history, scores his first goal in a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens at Boston Garden.

1971 — Notre Dame ends Texas’ 30-game winning streak with a 24-11 win in the Cotton Bowl.

1991 — Georgia Tech routs Nebraska 45-21 in the Citrus Bowl to finish as college football’s only unbeaten team (11-0-1).

1992 — Miami beats Nebraska 22-0 in the Orange Bowl, the first shutout of the Cornhuskers since 1973, and finishes with a 12-0 record.

1993 — No. 2 Alabama wins its first national championship in 13 years and deprives Miami of its fifth title as the Crimson Tide defense humbles the No. 1 Hurricanes 34-13 in the Sugar Bowl.

1993 — Florida State beats Nebraska 27-14 in the Orange Bowl to set an NCAA record by winning eight consecutive bowl games.

2000 — Georgia’s Hap Hines kicks a 21-yard field goal in overtime to complete the greatest comeback in bowl history. The Bulldogs pull out a 28-25 victory over Purdue after trailing 25-0 early in the second quarter in the Outback Bowl.

2006 — New England’s Doug Flutie converts the NFL’s first successful drop kick in 64 years during a 28-26 loss to Miami.

2007 — Boise State, after tying the game with seven seconds to go in regulation, stuns No. 7 Oklahoma 43-42 in overtime to win the Fiesta Bowl. The No. 9 Broncos win on Ian Johnson’s 2-point conversion run after receiver Vinny Perretta throws a fourth-down touchdown pass to Derek Schouman.

2008 — Sidney Crosby’s shootout goal gives Pittsburgh a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres in the inaugral outdoor Winter Classic in front of a league-record 71,217 fans. In elements way more suited for football than hockey, Crosby wins the NHL’s second outdoor game — and first in the United States — in the most dramatic of fashion at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home to the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.

2012 — Backup quarterback Matt Flynn throws for a franchise-record six touchdowns to give Green Bay a 45-41 victory over the Detroit Lions.

2014 — Central Florida pulls off one of the biggest upsets of the bowl season by outlasting No. 6 Baylor 52-42 in the Fiesta Bowl. It’s the highest-scoring game in Fiesta Bowl history and second-highest BCS bowl ever.

2015 — Marcus Mariota and Oregon roll past defending national champion Florida State 59-20 to turn the first College Football Playoff semifinal into a Rose Bowl rout.

2015 — Cardale Jones turns in another savvy performance in his second college start and Ezekiel Elliott runs for a Sugar Bowl-record 230 yards, leading Ohio State to a 42-35 upset of top-ranked Alabama in the second semifinal of the College Football Playoff.

2018 — Sony Michel’s 27-yard touchdown run in double overtime gives Georgia a 54-48 win over Oklahoma in a Rose Bowl. It’s the first overtime game in the 104-year history of the Rose Bowl, the highest-scoring Rose Bowl ever and the first College Football Playoff game to go into overtime.

2022 — Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozen becomes first player in NBA history to hit buzzer-beaters on consecutive days; hits three-pointers to beat Washington Wizards, 120-119 and previous night Indiana Pacers, 108-106.

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Ryan Kartje: For a nine-win team such as USC, once again on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff, the bowl season can feel a bit like purgatory. One foot in the past season, the other in the future, your team trapped somewhere in-between.

There were glimpses of each Tuesday night for USC in a brutal 30-27 overtime defeat to Texas Christian in the Alamo Bowl. There were equal reminders all night both of what could have been this season, had USC ever played at its best for long, and also flashes of why it never managed to be.

In one moment, there was freshman Tanook Hines, sprinting to catch a deep ball in stride, announcing himself as a rising star. In another, a TCU running back was busting his way through tackles on third-and-long, rumbling improbably into the end zone, deflating any such delusions of grandeur.

But after oscillating between those opposing poles, the final minutes against TCU took the Trojans on a tour of all their most glaring concerns from the 2025 season, from the leaky defense to the missed opportunities on offense.

The Trojans saw a two-score lead evaporate in the final minutes of regulation. They got all the way to the five-yard line in overtime, only for the offense to stall and settle for a field goal. They even sacked TCU quarterback Ken Seals on second and 10, pushing the Horned Frogs out of field-goal range and forcing a third and 20.

All signs in that moment pointed toward the Trojans securing their 10th win, a feat they achieved only once over the past eight years. But then, against a three-man USC rush and with eight defenders in coverage, Seals checked down to running back Jeremy Payne in the flat.

“We did everything right defensively to put them in that position,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said.

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USC-TCU box score

Bowl schedule and results

MORE USC:

Meet the Hanson family, the secret to USC’s offensive line success

Lakers fall apart against Pistons

Detroit Pistons forward Isaiah Stewart scores during a 128-106 win over the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

From Broderick Turner: The Lakers are still searching for an identity after 31 games, a task complicated by injuries that have depleted their rotation for much of the season.

They’re lacking a defensive personality. They haven’t been a physical team, an overly athletic team or a fast team.

The Lakers got a close look at a team that embodies all of those characteristics in a 128-106 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.

Coach JJ Redick acknowledged the Lakers are still trying to figure out who they are and how they can fix their issues after losing for the fourth time in five games.

“The players, staff, everybody, we’ve really tried to play the right way every night and have the right intent,” Redick said. “The flow of lineups and rotations and all that has been challenging for everybody, not just the coaches. It’s a challenge for the players. And building an identity is difficult.”

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Lakers-Pistons box score

NBA standings

Clippers win their fifth straight game

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard tries to drive past Sacramento Kings guard Russell Westbrook during the Clippers’ 131-90 win Tuesday night at Intuit Dome.

(Luke Hales / Getty Images)

From the Associated Press: Kawhi Leonard scored 33 points and the Clippers extended their winning streak to a season-best five games Tuesday night with a 131-90 victory over the Sacramento Kings.

James Harden had 21 points while John Collins and rookie Yanic Konan Niederhauser each added 16 for the Clippers, who have found a successful formula after not winning more than two consecutive games before their current run of success began.

Leonard’s productive night came after he scored a career-best 55 points in a victory over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday. He has averaged 37.8 points over the past five games.

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Clippers-Kings box score

How Curt Cignetti Indiana into a Rose Bowl favorite

Indiana players say coach Curt Cignetti’s honesty and accountability have helped the team go from the Big Ten basement to No. 1 in the country.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

From Anthony Solorzano: Curt Cignetti knows winning. No matter where he finds himself, whether it’s James Madison or with the Division II IUP Crimson Hawks, success follows him. Since getting the opportunity to lead a program, Cignetti has never had a losing season.

When Indiana hired him in November 2023, the Hoosiers were the program with the most all-time losses in college football history, and ended the season with a 3-9 record under Tom Allen.

It wasn’t a work in progress, the Hoosiers football program needed to be rebuilt.

On New Year’s Day, Indiana will face Alabama in the highly anticipated Rose Bowl matchup. The Crimson Tide have a rich postseason history and a tradition of championships, but the Hoosiers are the favorites to win.

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Anthony Rendon clears path to end his Angels tenure

Anthony Rendon’s tenure with the Angels could be drawing to a close with the third baseman agreeing to a restructured contract with the team.

(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)

From the Associated Press: Anthony Rendon has agreed to restructure the final year of his $245-million, seven-year contract with the Angels, a person with knowledge of the decision told the Associated Press on Tuesday night.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Angels hadn’t announced any developments with Rendon, who didn’t play last season following hip surgery.

The team and Rendon have amended the deal to restructure the remaining $38 million owed to the third baseman in 2026, presumably spreading the money over time.

Rendon is still on the roster and continuing to rehab at home in Houston, but his horrendous tenure with the Angels could be over.

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This day in sports history

1961 — Paul Hornung, on leave from the Army, scores 19 points to lead the Green Bay Packers to a 37-0 win over the New York Giants for their seventh NFL championship. Green Bay’s Bart Starr throws three touchdown passes in the first title game ever played in Green Bay.

1962 — The American Basketball League folds. The ABL played one full season, 1961-1962, and part of this season. The ABL is the first basketball league to have a three point shot for baskets scored far away from the goal. The league also had a 30-second shooting clock and a wider free throw lane, 18 feet instead of the standard 12.

1973 — Third-ranked Notre Dame edges top-ranked Alabama 24-23 in the Sugar Bowl. Notre Dame’s Bob Thomas kicks a 19-yard field goal with 4:26 left to give the Irish a one-point lead. With two minutes left, the Irish clinch the victory when on third-and-8 from the their own 3, Tom Clements completes a 35-yard pass from his own end zone to Robin Weber, and Notre Dame runs out the clock.

1982 — Jockey Pat Day edges Angel Cordero Jr. by two races to capture leading rider honors. Day rides Dana’s Woof and Miltons Magic to victory during the evening program at Delta Downs for 399 wins for the year.

1988 — A blinding fog rolls in during the second quarter of the Chicago Bears’ 20-12 NFC semifinal victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at Soldier Field in Chicago. The fog obscures the game from most of the 65,534 fans present and a national television audience that could watch only ground-level shots.

1989 — Jockey Kent Desormeaux sets the world record for most number of wins in a single season. His 598th win is aboard 2-year-old East Royalty in the Inner Harbor Stakes at Laurel Racecourse.

2005 — Harness drivers Catello Manzi and Brian Spears each set single-season records. Manzi, 55, becomes the oldest harness driver to lead North America in victories (727), even without a win on the last day. Sears becomes the first driver to surpass $15 million ($15,085,991) in pursue earnings.

2013 — Johnny Manziel lives up to his nickname “Johnny Football,” leading 20 Texas A&M to another comeback win, 52-48 over No. 22 Duke in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The Aggies are down 38-17 at halftime but with Manziel at the helm they came back in the highest-scoring game in the bowl’s history. The 2012 Heisman trophy winner throws four touchdown passes, completes 30 of 38 passes for 382 yards and runs for 73 yards and a touchdown.

2016 — Top-ranked Alabama relies on a stifling defense and the bruising runs of Bo Scarbrough to wear down Washington for a 24-7 victory in the Peach Bowl semifinal game.

2016 — Deshaun Watson runs for two touchdowns and throws another and No. 3 Clemson crushes No. 2 Ohio State 31-0 on in the Fiesta Bowl to set up a rematch with Alabama for the College Football Playoff national championship.

2017 — The Cleveland Browns complete the second 0-16 season in NFL history with a 28-24 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

2017 — The Buffalo Bills snap the longest current non-playoff streak in North American pro sports with a 22-16 victory at Miami and Cincinnati’s victory at Baltimore. The Bills hadn’t made the postseason since 1999.

2018 — Houston guard James Harden scores 43 points in Rockets’ 113-101 win over Memphis Grizzlies; 4th straight NBA game with 40+ points and 8th straight with 35+; joins Oscar Robertson as only player with at least 35 points & 5 assists in 8 straight games.

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

The scouting report was clear. The Pistons (25-8) were second in the league in points in the paint. They were third in points off turnovers and third in turnovers forced.

The Lakers played directly into Detroit’s hands.

Detroit scored 74 points in the paint, the most allowed by the Lakers all season, and capitalized on 21 Lakers turnovers for 30 points. Entering the game, the Pistons’ 58.1 points in the paint per game were only narrowly behind Oklahoma City’s league-leading 58.2.

“We’ve got to definitely match their physicality,” said Luka Doncic, who led the Lakers with 30 points and 11 assists, but had eight turnovers, which is tied for his second-most in a game this season. “That’s the whole point. We got to match how they play.”

Last week, the Lakers faced Phoenix and Houston, two teams with similar styles to Detroit. The Suns averaged 59 paint points in their two wins over the Lakers in December compared to 44 in the Lakers’ Dec. 14 win. The Rockets poured in 68 paint points on Christmas Day.

The Pistons made more shots in the paint (37) than the Lakers attempted (34) and kept their shooting percentage sky-high when three-pointers started to fall. Detroit, which had been shooting 34.7% from three this season, made 11 of 24 (45.8%) from beyond the arc Tuesday.

“We had a game plan,” James said as the Lakers allowed a season-high 63.2% shooting from the field. “We understand that they’re probably No. 1 in points in the paint in the NBA. They get a lot of their points off fast breaks and in the paint. So we knew we’d try to make them miss from the outside and they made some tonight and that’s OK.”

Marcus Sasser hit four of six from three, all in the second half, to finish with 19 points off the bench. Cade Cunningham starred for the Pistons with 27 points and 11 assists.

The Lakers are still searching for an identity after 31 games, a task complicated by injuries that have depleted their rotation for much of the season.

They’re lacking a defensive personality. They haven’t been a physical team, an overly athletic team or a fast team.

The Lakers got a close look at a team that embodies all of those characteristics in a 128-106 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.

Coach JJ Redick acknowledged the Lakers are still trying to figure out who they are and how they can fix their issues after losing for the fourth time in five games.

Lakers star LeBron James is fouled by Detroit Pistons guard Javonte Green (31) in the first half Tuesday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“The players, staff, everybody, we’ve really tried to play the right way every night and have the right intent,” Redick said. “The flow of lineups and rotations and all that has been challenging for everybody, not just the coaches. It’s a challenge for the players. And building an identity is difficult.”

“I think that’s hard to figure out with this team right now.”

It’s been hard because starters Austin Reaves (calf) and Rui Hachimura (calf) are out. Key rotation player Gabe Vincent (back) is also out. In addition, LeBron James missed the first 14 games with sciatica.

The Lakers’ roster has been completely healthy for just two games this season.

“We got some very important guys out right now,” said James, who scored 17 points on his 41st birthday. “So that’s very hard to get a rhythm of chemistry on the floor with guys that you know you’re gonna play with every night. Guys you know are going to come in with the subs and patterns and things like that.

“But still no excuse. We still got to go out and execute and I think we did that tonight. I thought, like I said, the turnovers were too many pick-sixes, but we came in, we played hard, we executed. The better team tonight won.”

What the Lakers (20-11) haven’t done much all season is play defense at a high level.

That was the case against the Pistons (25-8), who shot 63% from the field and 46% from three-point range. They had 74 points in the paint, getting inside with ease. They also had 31 fast-break points. The Lakers had 21 turnovers, eight coming from Luka Doncic, who finished with 30 points and 11 assists.

“We’ve got to definitely match their physicality,” Doncic said. “That’s the whole point. We got to match how they play.”

The Lakers’ 11 losses have been by an average of 20.3 points per game.

The Lakers got better on defense in the third quarter. After giving up 36 points in the first quarter and 34 in the second, the Lakers gave up 26 in the third and were down 96-88.

But they fell apart in the fourth, giving up an 18-6 run that put them in a 20-point hole midway through the quarter. The Lakers turned the ball over six times during that stretch, leading Redick to call a timeout with six minutes remaining.

That still didn’t stop the Pistons from building a 26-point lead and coasting to victory.

“Yeah, I think we just let off of the rope a little bit,” Doncic said. “Like I said, I think we played good basketball for three quarters, physical basketball. We just kind of let go of the rope.”

Lakers guard Luka Doncic, right, inadvertently hits Detroit Pistons forward Ronald Holland II (5) in the face after Holland steals the ball in the second half Tuesday night.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Welcome back to this week’s Lakers newsletter, where we’re recalibrating for 2026.

The Lakers were forced to do some end-of-year soul-searching after a three-game losing streak. A productive meeting helped the team refocus on its vision board. The board featuring the Lakers’ three main resolutions reappeared in the practice gym this week: “championship habits, championship communication, championship shape.”

See, we all promise to hit the gym harder “next year.”

Two-headed monster

LeBron James and Luka Doncic pose for photos during Lakers media day on Sept. 29 in El Segundo.

(Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)

This is the pairing we’ve all been waiting for. But we haven’t seen Luka Doncic and LeBron James together all that often.

Since Doncic joined the Lakers in that blockbuster trade, he and James have played together without Austin Reaves only six times in the regular season. With Reaves now sidelined for a month with a calf injury, the two Lakers superstars are going to have to get familiar with each other again.

In lineups with Doncic and Reaves, the Lakers have a net rating of 7.3, one of the team’s highest ratings for a two-man lineup that’s played at least 100 minutes. Playing together for 452 minutes, it’s the most efficient rating for any pair of regular starters.

But lineups with Doncic and James have a -10.3 net rating in 279 minutes and the James-Reaves pairing is -6.1 in 245 minutes.

Coach JJ Redick acknowledged after the team’s three-game losing streak that the offense since James returned has felt disorganized at times. While Reaves’ injury strips the Lakers of their second-leading scorer and an important ball handler, Redick agreed that just having Doncic and James for now can make the offense easier to untangle.

Redick presented a potential solution by restructuring the substitution pattern during a win over the Kings on Sunday. He subbed Doncic out of the first quarter with about three minutes remaining instead of having him play the entire first frame. He re-entered the game with about nine minutes left in the second instead of waiting until the six- or seven-minute mark.

The plan was to let Doncic and James have more time operating the offense individually, Redick said, while not diminishing either player’s total minutes. The team still used both of them in actions together and it’s not an overarching plan to “keep them apart,” Redick stressed.

“We’re going to do this for the foreseeable future,” Redick said, “and just see how it goes.”

The Lakers were plus-12 in the 18 minutes with Doncic and James on the court against the Kings compared to -5.8 in 23.7 minutes in previous games this year. The projected starting lineup now that Reaves it out would typically feature Doncic, James, Marcus Smart, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton, and that group has a -26.0 net ranking in 37 minutes together this season.

“I don’t want to create the narrative of ‘me and Luka,’” James said. “It’s five guys on the floor and seven guys that come off the bench. It needs to be all of us. It’s important that we set the tone.”

More than just the production on the court, the Lakers will look to their superstars for leadership during this next stretch. Redick acknowledged that Doncic and James have a responsibility to set the tone for the Lakers, especially at the beginning of games.

The Lakers were minus-28 in first quarters during their three-game losing streak. Doncic said after the Christmas Day debacle that everybody had to give “better effort, starting with me.”

Then he backed up his words with his play, scoring nine points with two assists and three rebounds in the first quarter. He had two steals and a block in the first half.

“He’s the head of the snake,” forward Maxi Kleber said of Doncic before the game. “We all follow him, so it’s good for us to see him also step up in that sense, and take ownership, because it will help everybody else do the same and focus especially with that effort on every possession.”

LeBron vs. Father Time (OT)

Lakers forward Lebron James drives in front of Kings guard Demar Derozan (10) as center Maxime Raynaud (42) watches Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)

When James released his LeBron XX sneakers, he battled Father Time in a series of commercials that pitted actor Jason Momoa, dressed in purple robes with gray hair and a long beard, against James in a plank contest, karaoke and ultimately one-on-one basketball.

Three years after James blocked Father Time’s shot in the commerical series’ “final round,” James is still competing against the opponent everyone says is undefeated.

“I’m in a battle with him,” James said Sunday, two days before his 41st birthday. “And I would like to say that I’m kicking his ass on the back nine.”

James then walked out of his postgame interview with a smile on his face after his final game as a 40-year-old.

James, who celebrates his 41st birthday Tuesday, is not the same force that he was in his late 20s or even 30s, but he is still accomplishing feats never seen in the NBA. James is averaging 20.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 6.7 assists in his record 23rd NBA season. Only five players have ever averaged double-digit scoring during or after their Year 40 season. None averaged better than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 14.6 points per game in 1987-88.

How LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar compare in their 40s.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

“Unbelievable,” 21-year-old guard Nick Smith Jr. said of James’ performance at this stage of his career. “Him and my dad [are] the same age, and my dad hasn’t played in like 10 years. So the stuff he do is incredible. Yeah, he’s not normal.”

James knows his clock is ticking. He has recognized multiple times this season that he is cherishing what could be the final moments of his career. He acknowledged great road crowd receptions in Philadelphia and Toronto and spoke wistfully about how he’ll never be able to recapture the feeling of entering a packed arena.

It’s why moments like his three dunks against the Kings that fired up the home crowd Sunday are still meaningful, even if he’s not jumping as high as he once did.

“It is remarkable,” said Redick, who turned 41 in June this year and last played in 2021. “I have trouble getting out of bed in the morning and got to get an injection on my knee. My body is old and broken.”

A day after James rocked the rim with a reverse dunk against the Kings, Redick was happy to report he can “still barely touch the rim.”

On tap

Dec. 30 vs. Pistons (24-8), 7:30 p.m. PST

Detroit is one of the biggest surprises of the NBA season, emerging from a first-round playoff exit last year to now lead the wide-open Eastern Conference. But the Pistons have lost two in a row, including a stunning loss to the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard, who dropped 55 points on Sunday.

Jan. 2 vs. Grizzlies (15-17), 7:30 p.m. PST

Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant is back from a sprained ankle that cost him four games, but the team is still missing center Zach Edey, who has been sidelined with an ankle injury since Dec. 11. Memphis is 4-4 without Edey (13.6 points, 11.1 rebounds) after going 7-4 with him. He missed the beginning of the season after surgery on the same left ankle.

Jan. 4 vs. Grizzlies (15-17), 6:30 p.m. PST

This game wraps up a four-game homestand for the Lakers, who have 10 of their 16 games in January on the road.

Status report

Jaxson Hayes: Left ankle soreness

Hayes missed two games after reaggravating an ankle injury against Phoenix on Dec. 23 but is expected to return on Tuesday against Detroit.

Rui Hachimura: Left calf soreness

Hachimura missed practice Monday, but Redick doesn’t expect Hachimura to be out for long as the forward is “just a little banged up.” Hachimura is out for Tuesday’s game against Detroit.

Austin Reaves: left calf strain

Reaves will be out for at least a month. He is not scheduled to be reevaluated until around Jan. 26.

Gabe Vincent: Lumbar back strain

Vincent has missed four games and had no status change after his initial reevaluation date of Dec. 25.

Favorite thing I ate this week

Bun mang, Vietnamese bamboo shoot noodle soup.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen/Los Angeles Times)

I spent Christmas Day with my Lakers beat family at Crypto.com Arena then Boxing Day with my extended family in Orange County. My aunt made bun mang — Vietnamese bamboo shoot noodle soup — for the holiday and saved me a bowl.

It’s more traditionally served with duck, but my aunt prefers chicken. I told her I’d never had this dish before because I don’t think my mom ever made it. She explained that it takes three days of soaking, rinsing and boiling the bamboo shoots, so now I understand why my mom never made it. But it was worth my aunt’s effort.

In case you missed it

Lakers takeaways: Nick Smith Jr. shines in win over Kings with Austin Reaves sidelined

After talking through problems, Lakers find unexpected third scorer to end losing streak

Lakers ‘recalibrate’ after Austin Reaves injury, three-game losing streak

Lakers guard Austin Reaves out for at least a month because of calf injury

‘We don’t have it right now.’ Takeaways from the Lakers’ third straight loss

Lakers lose Austin Reaves, then get called out by JJ Redick after loss to Rockets

‘A million choices’: Lakers’ defense will get a Christmas Day test vs. Rockets

Austin Reaves’ return can’t save Lakers from dismal defensive effort in loss to Suns

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at thucnhi.nguyen@latimes.com, and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

From Gary Klein: The Rams already knew they will be on the road for the playoffs, a difficult assignment for any team.

It’s trending toward becoming one especially tough for the Rams, who only a few weeks ago appeared to be the class of the NFC, if not the NFL.

Not anymore.

On Monday night, the Rams for much of their game against the Atlanta Falcons, looked like a team on the road to nowhere. Or one more interested in limping through the end of the regular season before turning it on for the playoffs.

They overcame a 21-point deficit to tie the score, but Zane Gonzalez’s 51-yard field goal with 21 seconds left sent the Rams to a 27-24 defeat at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

It was the Rams’ second loss in a row, both coming on the road.

“Here we are again in a disappointing situation,” coach Sean McVay said.

The loss dropped the Rams to 11-5 going into Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium.

Continue reading here

NFL scores

NFL standings

MORE RAMS:

What happened to Rams? Why Sean McVay’s team is staggering as rest of NFC heats up

Lincoln Riley takes aim at Notre Dame before Holiday Bowl

Before facing TCU in the Alamo Bowl, USC coach Lincoln Riley called out Notre Dame for turning down a chance to renew its series with the Trojans.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

From Ryan Kartje: The century-old rivalry series between USC and Notre Dame is taking a few years off, and as far as Lincoln Riley is concerned, that’s the fault of the Irish.

In his first public comments since the series was officially put on hiatus, the USC coach put the blame squarely on Notre Dame for not accepting USC’s most recent offer to continue the rivalry, which would have moved the 2026 game, usually scheduled in November, to the very beginning of the season.

“It’s pretty simple,” Riley said Monday, ahead of USC’s bowl matchup with Texas Christian. “We both worked for months to try to find a solution. Notre Dame was very vocal about the fact that they would play us anytime, anywhere.

“Jen Cohen, our AD, went back to Notre Dame roughly a couple of weeks ago with a scenario and a proposal that would extend the series for the next two years. We took Notre Dame at their word that they would play us anytime, anywhere. That proposal was rejected.

“Not only was it rejected, but five minutes after we got the call, it was announced they scheduled another opponent, which I’ll give them credit, that might be the fastest scheduling act in college football history.”

Continue reading here

MORE USC FOOTBALL

USC vs. TCU: What to watch during Alamo Bowl as D’Anton Lynn coaches his last game for Trojans

USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn takes Penn State defensive coordinator job

No. 17 USC rallies, hands Nebraska its first loss

USC guard Londynn Jones drives around Nebraska’s Britt Prince to score during the second half at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Monday in Lincoln, Neb.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

From the Associated Press: Londynn Jones scored all 13 of her points in a pivotal third quarter to help rally No. 17 USC to a 74-66 victory over previously unbeaten Nebraska on Monday in Big Ten play.

Jones, who took just one shot in the first half and missed it, buried three straight three-pointers after teammate Jazzy Davidson grabbed a rebound and scored to begin the third quarter. The Trojans (10-3, 2-0) used an 11-0 run to turn a two-point halftime deficit into a 47-38 lead in less than two minutes.

The Cornhuskers (12-1, 1-1) trailed 65-52 after three quarters but whittled the deficit to 69-65 on a rebound basket by Britt Prince with 2:42 left. Kara Dunn answered with a basket and then made one of two free throws with 59 seconds left to help USC prevail.

Continue reading here

No. 4 UCLA defeats No. 19 Ohio State

UCLA guard Kiki Rice, center, shoots between Ohio State guard Kylee Kitts, left, and UCLA forward Angela Dugalic during the first half of the Bruins’ 82-75 win.

(Paul Vernon / Associated Press)

From the Associated Press: Lauren Betts had 18 points and 16 rebounds as No. 4 UCLA extended its winning streak to six games with an 82-75 win over No. 19 Ohio State on Sunday.

Kiki Rice added 16 points and Angela Dugalic scored 15 as UCLA (12-1, 2-0 Big Ten) beat the Buckeyes for the fourth straight time, dating to December 2023.

Jaloni Cambridge led all scorers with 28 points, and Elsa Lemmila added 13 points and seven rebounds for Ohio State (11-2, 1-1), which had its nine-game winning streak halted in its conference home opener.

Continue reading here

UCLA-Ohio State box score

Women’s college basketball scores

LeBron James turns 41 and remains key for Lakers

Lakers forward Lebron James looks on during a win over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday.

(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: JJ Redick called his players out. The Lakers answered.

The Lakers responded to three blowout losses and a spirited team meeting by playing one of their most complete games of the season Sunday to earn a 125-101 win over the Sacramento Kings at Crypto.com Arena. For the first time this year, the Lakers (20-10) outscored their opponent in every quarter with Luka Doncic (34 points) and LeBron James (24 points) leading the way despite Austin Reaves’ absence.

“Hopefully,” forward Jake LaRavia said, “this is the first of a mini win streak.”

Continue reading here

Kings can’t keep up with Avalance

Colorado Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, left, stops a shot by Kings forward Adrian Kempe in the first period of L.A.’s 5-2 loss Monday night.

(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

From the Associated Press: Nathan MacKinnon scored the 399th goal of his career, Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist, and the surging Colorado Avalanche won their eighth in a row 5-2 over the Kings on Monday night.

MacKinnon added an assist to go with his NHL-leading 32nd goal this season. Jack Drury, Cale Makar and Martin Necas also scored for the Avalanche, who have won 14 in a row at home.

Colorado has points in 28 of their last 29 games and are 10-0-1 in their last 11 to continue their historic start to the season. Colorado reached 65 points in 38 games, second all time to the 1929-30 Boston Bruins.

Continue reading here

NHL scores

NHL standings

Ducks pick up another loss

Sharks left wing Igor Chernyshov, right, scores past Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal during the Ducks’ 5-4 loss Monday night at Honda Center.

(Caroline Brehman / Associated Press)

From the Associated Press: Macklin Celebrini became the third player with 60 points this season with a goal and two assists in the San José Sharks’ 5-4 victory over the Ducks on Monday night.

Mario Ferraro, Igor Chernyshov, William Eklund and Zach Ostapchuk also scored for the Sharks, who earned their second win since the holiday break despite getting outshot 43-13. Yaroslav Askarov made 38 saves.

Troy Terry scored two goals, Cutter Gauthier got his 19th goal and Pavel Mintyukov also scored for the Ducks, who have lost three straight and seven of nine while falling out of first place in the Pacific Division. Lukas Dostal allowed four goals on nine shots before Petr

Continue reading here

This day in sports history

1956 — The New York Giants win the NFL title with a 47-7 rout of the Chicago Bears.

1962 — The Green Bay Packers beat the New York Giants 16-7 to win the NFL title for the second straight year.

1973 — The Minnesota Vikings beat the Dallas Cowboys 27-10 to win the NFC championship.

1973 — The Miami Dolphins, behind 266 yards rushing, beat the Oakland Raiders 27-10 for an unprecedented third straight AFC title.

1981 — In the 39th game of the season, Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky scores five goals, including his 50th into an empty net, to lead the Oilers to a 7-5 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Gretzy betters the mark of 50 goals in 50 games held by Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy.

1990 — Orlando point guard Scott Skiles dishes out an NBA-record 30 assists in a 155-116 victory against the Denver Nuggets. Skiles breaks the record of 29 assists set by the Nets’ Kevin Porter in 1978.

2000 — Nebraska ends a disappointing season by setting a bowl record for points in a 66-17 victory over Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl.

2002 — TCU sets an NCAA record for fewest points allowed when the Lady Frogs beat Texas Southern 76-16. The 16 points allowed breaks the Division I record for fewest points. Prairie View scored 19 points against Jackson State in 1983.

2007 — Drew Brees sets an NFL record with 443 completions, passing the previous mark of 418 set by Rich Gannon in 2002. Brees completes 35 of 60 passes for 320 yards with three TD passes in New Orleans’ 33-25 loss to Chicago.

2008 — NFL head coach Mike Shanahan is fired by the Denver Broncos.

2010 — Top-ranked Connecticut’s record 90-game winning streak in women’s basketball ends when No. 9 Stanford outplays the Huskies from the start in a 71-59 victory at Maples Pavilion — where the Cardinal have their own streak going. Stanford hasn’t lost in 52 games at home. The Cardinal took an early 13-point lead, never trailed and didn’t let the mighty Huskies back in it.

2016 — Isaiah Thomas scores 29 of his career-high 52 points in the fourth quarter, setting a club record for points in a period and leading Boston to a 117-114 victory over the Miami Heat.

2017 — Alex Hornibrook throws four touchdown passes, three of them to Danny Davis, and No. 6 Wisconsin caps off the winningest season in school history by topping No. 11 Miami 34-24 in the Orange Bowl. Jonathan Taylor finishes his record-setting freshman season with 130 rushing yards on 26 carries for the Badgers (13-1). Taylor finishes the year with an FBS-freshman-record 1,977 yards.

2018 — Patrick Mahomes becomes only the 2nd quarterback in NFL history to throw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns during KC Chiefs’ 35-3 win over Oakland Raiders; achieves both marks with 3rd quarter 89-yard TD pass to Demarcus Robinson.

2020 — San Antonio assistant Becky Hammon becomes first female to coach an NBA team after Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is ejected in a 121-107 loss to the Lakers

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Nick Smith Jr. placed his newest souvenir nonchalantly underneath the press conference table. This game ball will likely go to his mother.

Smith earned it Sunday with a starring performance off the bench while filling in for the injured Reaves. The 21-year-old guard on a two-way contract scored 21 points on eight-for-14 shooting with three rebounds and one assist. He made five three-pointers, including his first four from beyond the arc while starting seven-for-seven from the field.

With Reaves sidelined for at least a month with a grade two strain in his left calf, Smith will be in line for more consistent minutes, Redick said before the game. Especially with fellow guard Gabe Vincent missing his fourth game because of a back injury Sunday, the Lakers need Smith’s ball handling and shiftiness alongside James and Doncic.

But to offset the loss of their second-leading scorer, the Lakers are most desperate for Smith’s scoring.

“It’s why we wanted him on the Lakers and part of our program, because we knew he could score,” Redick said. “I like when he’s aggressive. … If he could just do him within our structure, a lot of times, good things happen.”

Smith has already flashed his scoring potential in big moments. The former first-round draft pick who signed with the Lakers a day before training camp started rescued the team with 25 points in Portland in a game without James, Doncic or Reaves. He had 12 points in 14 minutes off the bench against Toronto when the Lakers survived thanks to a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Rui Hachimura.

“We trust him,” Redick said before the game.

After getting waived by the Charlotte Hornets, Smith recognized that he hasn’t had this level of trust from a coaching staff “in a long time.” To have it “means everything,” he added.

“It’s a different stage, you know, where I came from, and I understand that,” Smith said. “So I just want to make sure I’m ready. … I’m just blessed to be here, just have the opportunity just to even play with the Lakers and stuff like that, even be in the league. A lot of guys where I’m from would, like, love to be in this situation.”