minute

Lakers center Jaxson Hayes, left, dives for a loose ball next to Knicks forward OG Anunoby in the first half Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Hayes crawled across the floor for loose balls. Marcus Smart stepped in front of driving opponents. Jarred Vanderbilt leaped into the laps of front-row fans.

With energy and focus from every player, the Lakers delivered one of their best defensive efforts of the season despite circumstances that could have made Sunday’s game a snoozer.

The Lakers were playing their third game in four days. Losing an hour of sleep because of daylight saving time had Rui Hachimura sleepwalking into the arena Sunday morning for a 12:30 p.m. tip. Hoping to wake himself up, the Lakers forward said he got into the hot tub when he arrived.

Players tried to hype themselves up in the locker room by blasting music. Instead of listing three defensive keys before the game, coaches whittled the game plan to one focus: multiple efforts.

“It wasn’t gonna be an offensive game,” coach JJ Redick said. “This was gonna be a gritty, tough game that we had to win with effort. And we did that.”

Smart led that effort with a game-high plus-27 in 29 minutes and 17 seconds. He drew two charges. His signature moment didn’t even show up in the game play-by-play. After Luka Doncic turned the ball over with 2.2 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Smart hustled back to force Jordan Clarkson to pass the ball at the buzzer, keeping the Knicks from getting a last-second layup attempt. Smart walked to the bench with his arms extended like a defensive back who had just broken up a touchdown pass.

The Knicks were held to less than 100 points for only the seventh time and had their fourth-worst three-point shooting performance of the season, going eight for 34. The Lakers went nearly five minutes without scoring in the fourth quarter, but held on by forcing eight turnovers.

“It was not a perfect game,” said Doncic, who led the Lakers with 35 points on 11-for-25 shooting. “But we fight at the defensive end. I think we did a great job. It says a lot about the team, bringing this much energy in a game like this.”

Universal Studios Hollywood has begun peeling back the curtain — or opening the garage? — on its new “Fast & Furious”-inspired coaster coming to the park this summer.

The coaster will feature four heavily detailed miniature cars as ride vehicles. These four-seaters — mimicking a Dodge Charger, Mazda RX-Y, Nissan Skyline GT-R and Toyota Supra, all complete with pull-down lap-bars and working taillights — were unveiled at a media event Wednesday.

But perhaps the most exciting news out of the event is just how meaty of a coaster Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift looks to be.

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will launch this summer at Universal Studios Hollywood and boast ride vehicles that are miniatures of actual cars. The show building is themed like a warehouse with a vibrant, spray-painted mural.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

The attraction, the second outdoor coaster at the park after the more kid-focused “Harry Potter” ride Flight of the Hippogriff, was timed at running about two minutes around the track, which goes over and under the park’s famed hillside escalators. Hollywood Drift will reach a top speed of 72 mph.

While a representative for the company said the coaster is intended to reach that 72-mph milestone at various points on the ride, it’s worth noting that it’s still in testing mode and the final speeds and run-time may change. Still, the fact that Universal has been able to pack such a mighty experience into a tight piece of real estate should be positive news for coaster enthusiasts.

By comparison, the family coaster Flight of the Hippogriff is only about a minute, whereas Disney California Adventure’s Incredicoaster comes in at more than 2 and a half minutes. It’s not uncommon for modern coasters today, due to their increasing emphasis on speed and thrills, to last only about a minute.

A look at the ride vehicles and inside mural in the passenger load area of Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

Though packing storytelling into a fast-moving outdoor ride is always a theme park challenge, Universal is doing what it can to make guests feel as if they’re sitting in actual tiny, authentic cars. Check, for instance, the brightly orange Supra, or the black, vintage-style Charger. Each car will be equipped with onboard audio and has unique details, right down to the different placement of the odometers on the dashboard.

One question: Do those odometers actually work and measure speed? A Universal rep declined to answer, but no matter, as most guest will likely be focused on the scenery outside the vehicle, such as the next-door golf course or bird’s-eye views of the park.

An artist rendering of Universal Studios Hollywood’s Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, the park’s first high-speed outdoor coaster.

(Universal Studios Hollywood)

The coasters will board two at a time inside the red brick, warehouse-themed show building, which features spray-painted murals from artist Tristan Eaton. Each coaster train holds four cars. There will be a single rider line for solo guests, and the coaster will boast 360-degree rotation, which is meant to create the sensation of a car drifting. The track is 4,100 feet and will take guests on a hillside journey between the park’s upper and lower lots.

The “Fast & Furious” saga spans 11 films, and will soon be recognized with an exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum. “A Fast & Furious Legacy: 25 Years of Automotive Icons” opens March 14 and will feature various movie-used vehicles and stunt cars. Among the cars on display will be an early ‘90s Supra driven by Paul Walker’s character Brian O’Conner, one of the vehicles Universal mimicked for the roller coaster.

SAN FRANCISCO — Kawhi Leonard had 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and the Clippers erased a 17-point deficit to beat the shorthanded Golden State Warriors 114-101 on Monday night.

Darius Garland scored 12 points in his Clippers debut, coming off the bench to play nearly 23 minutes in his first game since being acquired from Cleveland at the trade deadline last month in a deal that sent James Harden to the Cavaliers.

Garland had been nursing a toe injury, then he went down with 1:26 left in the second quarter after a collision with the Warriors’ Moses Moody when they both went for a loose ball and Moody’s right shoulder appeared to get Garland in the face. Both players were shaken but stayed in the game.

Garland’s three-pointer with 3:09 left in the third pulled the Clippers within 75-68, then Kris Dunn had a steal and layup to make it a five-point game. The Clippers were within 79-77 going into the final 12 minutes.

Dunn finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Clippers (29-31), who shot just nine for 31 from three-point range. The Clippers used a 9-4 spurt to start the fourth quarter and go ahead 88-81.

Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski hit eight of his first 12 shots with three three-pointers for his second career 20-point half, but went one for six for two points after the break. Al Horford added 17 points for Golden State, which has lost five of seven and nine of 14.

All-Star guard Stephen Curry was sidelined for an 11th straight game because of a right knee injury, big man Kristaps Porzingis was out for his fifth consecutive contest because of an illness coach Steve Kerr called “mysterious,” and rookie Will Richard was in a walking boot after he sprained his right ankle in Saturday’s blowout home loss to the Lakers. Star forward Jimmy Butler is out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Up next for the Clippers: vs. Indiana at Intuit Dome on Wednesday.

USC’s decision to dismiss top scorer and three-point shooter Chad Baker-Mazara on the doorstep of the postseason left many wondering Sunday why coach Eric Musselman would willingly sabotage his team’s already-tenuous hopes of making the NCAA tournament.

To Gilbert Arenas, the former NBA star and podcast host whose son, Alijah, is a freshman guard with the Trojans, the move was particularly baffling. So he took to social media Sunday, wearing Baker-Mazara’s No. 4 USC jersey, to share his frustration.

“Right before the tournament? This is what we’re doing?” Arenas said in the video. “Our best player? Mr. I-Get-Buckets? Every night, he brings it every night. Guaranteed 18, 20 every night.”

“When you the best player on the team, whatever you say, you right,” he continued.

LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 17, 2025: USC Trojans guard Chad Baker-Mazara (4) shoot a foul shot against the UTSA Roadrunners at Galen Center on December 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

But the move to part ways with Baker-Mazara was not based on an isolated incident, a person familiar with the decision but not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times, but rather a culmination of a season’s worth of issues that boiled over after the second half of Saturday’s loss to Nebraska.

The Trojans were trailing by three points three minutes into the second half when Baker-Mazara took off in transition after Huskers forward Pryce Sandfort, who was driving for a layup. Baker-Mazara closed the gap and swatted the ball. Then he fell hard on the hardwood.

Baker-Mazara had missed three games last month with a Grade I knee sprain and sat out practices throughout the season with other nagging minor injuries. But after a few seconds lying still on the court, he walked on his own down the Galen Center tunnel toward the USC locker room.

Baker-Mazara emerged from the tunnel a couple minutes later with a noticeable limp. He took a seat in a courtside seat on the baseline, two chairs down from injured guard Rodney Rice.

The sight of Baker-Mazara sitting away from the rest of the team sparked questions after the game, but the seating arrangement wasn’t that unusual for Baker-Mazara, who’d sat there at various times this season. What was odd was how Baker-Mazara handled the rest of the half after he told the USC staff he wasn’t able to resume play.

As USC unraveled without him in the second half, Baker-Mazara was mostly detached from the action. At one point, he went behind the USC bench and chatted with fans in the first row.

The incident on its own could have been innocuous. But at the end of a season filled with similar such moments, patience had worn thin.

By the next morning, Baker-Mazara was no longer with the team.

USC did not disclose the reasons for his departure. But the staff was well aware when they brought in the sixth-year senior last spring that his long history in college hoops was littered with similarly volatile moments. USC was Baker-Mazara’s fifth school in six seasons.

“There will never be a dull moment,” Musselman said in May. “Might be that I’ve got a little more on my plate.”

Baker-Mazara spent his freshman season at Duquesne before transferring to San Diego State. He was named Mountain West as a sophomore, but was kicked off the team by coach Brian Dutcher after he skipped classes, failed tests, missed assignments and fell so far behind on his classes he couldn’t catch up.

Baker-Mazara told the San Diego Union Tribune last spring that it was “a growing-up moment” for him. He assured he’d “learned [his] lesson.”

USC forward Chad Baker-Mazara goes up to dunk under pressure from Indiana forward Sam Alexis at the Galen Center on Feb. 3.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

“Some people have to go through it in different ways,” Baker-Mazara told the Union Tribune. “I had to go through it that way. … My parents were both mad. That was weeks of earfuls: ‘Man, what are you doing?’ It was weeks. I had to get my ear chewed off a couple times.”

He ended up at Northwest Florida State, a junior college in Niceville, Fla., before signing with Auburn. At the time, according to the Union Tribune, Dutcher spoke with then-Auburn coach Bruce Pearl on the phone. He told him that Baker-Mazara’s issues weren’t on the court, but that he “just needs to get his life in better order, be more organized, be more on time, do all the little things.”

Pearl and Auburn proved to be a good fit; though, Baker-Mazara earned some ire there, too, after he was ejected in the second half of Auburn’s two-point tournament loss to rival Alabama for elbowing a Tide player in the back of the head. Pearl later defended him on social media.

Pearl, now a college basketball analyst, said Monday in light of Baker-Mazara’s dismissal that the guard was “an incredibly talented kid with a real gift,” but that his “emotions at times have gotten the better of him.”

“He helped us get to the Final Four, we won a league championship with him,” Pearl said during FS1’s Wake Up Barstool on Monday. “On a good day, he would’ve been about the 20th-best player taken in the NBA Draft last year.

“But we all know that Chad has bad days.”

Routinely this season, Baker-Mazara jolted the Trojans’ offense to life. When Rodney Rice went down with a season-ending shoulder injury in November, Baker-Mazara became even more vital to USC’s offense and responded to the call, averaging 26 points per game during the Trojans’ first seven without Rice. Even in his final game against Nebraska, Baker-Mazara scored 14 points in 16 first-half minutes. Against UCLA, he knocked down three consecutive three-pointers. The previous Saturday, he scored 14 straight.

But there were also stretches of the season during which Baker-Mazara’s status remained mysterious He sat out practices ahead of Big Ten play and dealt with what was deemed, at the time, to be a nagging neck injury, only to show up in the Trojans’ lineup against Michigan and Michigan State. He averaged just 20 minutes across both games.

By March, Baker-Mazara’s more volatile moments had started to outweigh his other contributions in the eyes of USC’s staff. Though, with time running out to save their season, how the Trojans plan to replace that production is a question everyone — not just Gilbert Arenas — is asking.

The search for sustained consistency remained a focus for the Lakers on Sunday against a Sacramento Kings team with the NBA’s worst record.

And it helped that the Lakers were completely healthy against the Kings, something that has eluded them nearly all season.

Behind strong efforts from Luka Doncic and LeBron James, the Lakers defeated the struggling Kings 128-104 at Crypto.com Arena in their second straight blowout win.

Doncic, one of five Lakers to score in double figures, scored 28 points on 10-for-16 shooting. He made four three-pointers and had nine assists and five rebounds.

James, who played after initially being listed as questionable because of arthritis in his left foot, scored 24 points in 27 minutes on eight-for-15 shooting. He made a trio of threes and had five assists.

Deandre Ayton and Austin Reaves both had 12 points and Luke Kennard had 11 points off the bench. Rui Hachimura played 22 minutes off the bench and had eight points and two rebounds after missing the previous two games because of illness.

Nique Clifford led the Kings (14-48) with 26 points and had seven rebounds.

The Lakers are 3-3 since the All-Star break with 28- and 24-point wins after three straight losses.

“Again, just the world is falling for us 19 times (after double-digit losses this season),” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “ It’s just part of the nature of this cycle and our guys. … Our guys bounced back and responded well throughout the season. Tied in the lost column for fifth (with Denver in the Western Conference) and a couple games out of third with a number of these teams coming up that are right there with us. So, we just are going to keep plugging away.”

Lakers forward Jake LaRavia, top, and Sacramento forward Precious Achiuwa battle for the ball during the Lakers’ win Sunday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Just as in Saturday’s win at Golden State, the Lakers (36-24) benefited from strong shooting. They shot 50% from the field and 46% from three-point range.

One of the most exciting plays happened in the first quarter when Marcus Smart dived for a loose ball and, while prone on his back, passed to James. The Lakers star then passed to a hustling Austin Reaves, who took a few dribbles to get a Kings defender to commit before making an alley-oop pass to James for a two-handed, rim-hanging dunk.

The crowd was whipped into a frenzy. The Kings called a timeout, allowing the Lakers and their fans to soak in the moment.

Lakers star Luka Doncic celebrates after a three-pointer by teammate Rui Hachimura against the Kings on Sunday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

There was another play in the third quarter in which Doncic slipped and almost fell down, losing control of the ball. But Doncic regained his balance and the ball before shooting an off-balance three-pointer that gave the Lakers a 24-point lead.

“Ah, yeah, it was on purpose,” Doncic said about falling down. “I tripped on purpose and it was, how do you say, the ‘And-1 Mixtape,’ that’s what they said on the bench. So, I did it on purpose.”

Doncic smiled.

It was that kind of night for the Lakers, a game full of highlights and fun that allowed Redick to empty his bench in the fourth quarter.

“Yeah, obviously it was two great wins, but we just got to go game by game,” Doncic said. “Obviously there’s a lot of noise outside, but like tonight, we can’t pay attention to that. … I thought we played great.”

Maxi Kleber was another standout for the Lakers, making all three of his shots for six points. He also had six rebounds and a block.

His two lob dunks left his Lakers teammates celebrating from the bench.

“Every time I do something, you know, you look to the bench, everybody’s celebrating,” Kleber said. “So, obviously it’s a good push for me, a good push for the team.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The Lakers seemingly lost their mojo after the All-Star break, with three consecutive losses leaving them in search of the “consistency” and “togetherness” they had earlier in the season.

Their 129-101 win over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday at Chase Center was a step in the right direction, even if the Warriors didn’t offer much of a challenge.

The Lakers (35-24) built a 17-point lead in the first quarter, stretched it to 24 in the second quarter and to 30 points in the third before leading by 32 in the fourth and coasting the rest of the way.

“It goes back to finding that consistent level of playing the right way on both ends, doing what we’re supposed to be doing, executing at a high level,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “You saw those trends. We haven’t had it for a sustained, like, full stretch of a game, really. It’s come in spurts in all four of our games that we played prior to this. It was definitely our most complete game post-All-Star break.”

Luka Doncic led the charge with 26 points, eight assists and six rebounds in just 29 minutes. LeBron James was strong with 22 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in 28 minutes. He also made the 1,000th three-pointer of his career. Austin Reaves had 18 points in 28 minutes.

Luke Kennard scored 16 points, his best with the Lakers so far, and Jake LaRavia had 15 points off the bench.

“We just needed to get a win … get back on the right front and I think we did that tonight,” James said.

He then added, “It’s been a while since we’ve had a 48-minute game where we was able to sustain the effort and I just thought we came out with the right mindset. Obviously dropping the last three, last two at home and then the Phoenix game was a tough one. So, we just came in with the right mindset and understanding the assignment and we took care of business.”

The Lakers got it done on offense, shooting 53% from the field and 46% from three-point range.

Lakers star LeBron James shoots a three-pointer over Golden State Warriors guard Pat Spencer in the first half Saturday.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

“We certainly made some threes,” Redick said. “LeBron made a couple of iso threes. Luka got hot to start the third quarter with some set plays and then the iso three, the second one in transition on the left wing. It wasn’t like all our threes were coming from that, but I just thought the ball was moving tonight.”

They faced a Warriors team (31-29) playing without Stephen Curry (right knee), Jimmy Butler (right anterior cruciate ligament surgery) and Kristaps Porzingis (illness). Still, a win was far from guaranteed since the Lakers lost to an injury-depleted Phoenix Suns team on Thursday.

The Lakers are 2-3 since the All-Star break. They face the Sacramento Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday night, as they try to remain in the top six in the Western Conference.

“Like I said before the game, these guys want to do it right,” Redick said. “They are trying. I know our staff, myself, we’re always looking for answers and solutions. That’s what this is. We’re trying to find solutions, and I said before the game, I’m confident we are going to find that level that we want to get to.

“It’s been partially just because of the disruptions of lineups and different factors. We just haven’t had the continuity that I thought we were going to have coming into the year and it’s taken longer than I thought. But I’m confident that we are going to get there.”

Even with back-to-back defeats to Oklahoma City and San Antonio, the Lakers went 7-4 ahead of the All-Star break. The Lakers won their first game after the break against the Clippers before losing to Boston, Orlando and Phoenix.

That put the Lakers in the sixth spot in the West and struggling to find their groove again.

“At the end of the day, I just think our minds was right,” James said. “The numbers speak for itself. You can talk about the numbers, but I just think mentally we knew what we was against. We knew how we lost these last three games and it didn’t sit well with us obviously. We just came out and we just executed.”

Note: Lakers forward Rui Hachimura missed his second straight game because “he’s still under the weather,” Redick said.

João Klauss scored two goals two minutes apart in the first 13 minutes — after a score by Lucas Sanabria — and the Galaxy cruised to a 3-0 victory over Charlotte FC on Saturday night.

Sanabria gave the Galaxy (1-0-1) the lead in the eighth minute with an unassisted goal. Sanabria had two goals in 21 appearances as a rookie last season.

Klauss took a pass from Gabriel Pec and scored in the 11th minute, then scored unassisted two minutes later for a three-goal lead. Pec’s first assist this season gives him 24 through his first 64 matches.

Klauss scored the lone goal in a 1-1 season-opening draw with visiting New York City FC. He came over in a cash-for-player trade with St. Louis City in the hopes he’d help ease the loss of superstar Riqui Puig for a second straight season after complications from a torn anterior cruciate ligament. So far, so good for the 29-year-old forward with 28 goals in 81 career appearances.

Novak Micovic needed to make just one save to notch his fourth clean sheet in his 26th career start for the Galaxy.

Kristijan Kahlina made eight saves for Charlotte (0-1-1), which was coming off a 1-1 draw at St. Louis City on a goal by Pep Biel — one of 11 players in the league with double-digit goals and assists last season.

Up next for the Galaxy: at Colorado Rapids on Saturday.

There are All-Star teams. Then there’s Sierra Canyon’s boys’ basketball team, made up of two McDonald’s All-Americans, a former Trinity League MVP, a star guard from North Carolina and several other newcomers that complete a nine-man rotation that no one in Southern California has been able to beat.

Coach Andre Chevalier pushes the buttons and has so much depth that it gives him the kind of options any coach would welcome. About the only question regarding the Trailblazers has been with so many top players, would they be unselfish enough to share the ball with teammates?

The answer is a resounding yes. The Trailblazers (27-1) won their first Southern Section Open Division title since the pandemic season of 2020 on Saturday night, defeating Mission League rival Harvard-Westlake 59-53 at Toyota Arena in Ontario.

Maxi Adams of Sierra Canyon celebrates the Open Division championship.

(Steve Galluzzo)

Harvard-Westlake kept battling despite trailing by 11 points at halftime. They trailed 56-53 with 19 seconds left after a three by Joe Sterling. The Trailblazers were able to clinch victory thanks to one free throw from JJ Sati-Grier and two from Brannon Martinsen. Martinsen finished with 18 points, Brandon McCoy had 13 points and Maxi Adams had 12 points.

“This group has been amazing,” Chevalier said. “It’s been one of the best seasons, maybe ever.”

Said Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo: “I thought they made some big shots in big moments, but I’m incredibly proud of our fight.”

No opponent had finished within 13 points of Sierra Canyon over the last month, and Chevalier gave credit to Rebibo and the Wolverines for taking them to the brink.

“David Rebibo is a heck of a coach,” he said. “No matter what roster we have, he always manages to have an elite team every year.”

Sterling finished with 18 points and Pierce Thompson scored 15 points.

Sierra Canyon has reached peak form. One curiosity was seeing how well the Trailblazers would fare leaving their comfortable home court in Chatsworth to play in an arena setting. But there was little difference.

More important is Sierra Canyon’s depth, which was put on display with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter after McDonald’s All-American McCoy picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench with a 45-39 lead. Over the next 2½ minutes, Sierra Canyon’s lead expanded to 12 points, aided by threes from Sati-Grier, a sophomore guard from North Carolina, and Martinsen, who was the Trinity League MVP two years ago at Mater Dei. That’s the challenge in trying to topple the Trailblazers — there’s always someone ready to step forward to deliver.

Now the Trailblazers can get ready to be the No. 1 seed in the Southern California Open Division regional playoffs, with an opportunity to advance to the state championship game in Sacramento in two weeks. The team looks focused, and even if one or two top players are off their games, the magic of being nine deep is knowing there’s always someone ready to come to the rescue.

Chevalier, though, wondered, “Can we stay hungry?”

McCoy answered that he’s “starving” for a state championship in the postgame news conference, which made his coach smile.

It’s been pretty clear for more than a month that Sierra Canyon has separated itself, and it will take a major upset to halt the Trailblazers’ clear path to Sacramento.

Another winnable game was slipping away, another frustrating performance by USC unraveling in painfully familiar fashion, when Jaden Brownell lifted up from the corner for a wide-open three-pointer, offering a split-second of hope in an otherwise hopeless second half.

But the shot clanked away. A collective sigh from the cardinal-and-gold faithful rippled through Galen Center, only to be swallowed up seconds later when Nebraska’s Pryce Sandfort, who finished with 32 points, knocked down a three-pointer of his own. That’s when USC’s own arena exploded with a deafening Big Red roar, loud enough to make you forget you were in Los Angeles — or that these lifeless Trojans had once looked like a real NCAA tournament team.

There were still more than nine minutes remaining after that in Saturday’s brutal 82-67 loss, though that roar from the Nebraska faithful might as well have been the exclamation point. Whether it becomes the punctuation mark on a frustrating second season for USC under coach Eric Musselman was still to be determined.

The Trojans have lost five consecutive games as of Saturday and sit in a tie for 11th in the Big Ten. They still have two regular-season games remaining to bolster their middling tournament resume, both of which they can ill afford to lose.

A midweek matchup at Washington looms especially large. A loss to the Huskies, who are 14-15, would make climbing back from the bubble brink especially harrowing. A rivalry rematch awaits after that against UCLA.

“I still think we could have a successful season,” forward Terrance Williams II said Saturday . “I had that positive mindset coming into the season. I still have that positive mindset. The season’s not over. … We can change the trajectory of the season very quickly.”

Nebraska forward Pryce Sandfort (21) drives past USC forward Terrance Williams II (5) during the first half Saturday.

(William Liang / Associated Press)

Nothing, though, about Saturday’s second half suggested USC was poised for positive change.

The Trojans positioned themselves in the first half to make a very different statement Saturday. They took advantage of foul trouble from Nebraska point guard Sam Hoiberg and led by five points at halftime. Chad Baker-Mazara had already poured in 14 points, and they barely needed freshman Alijah Arenas, who was left out of the starting lineup and played only nine minutes.
“They had belief,” Musselman said.

Yet after shooting 52% from the field in the first half, the Trojans were suddenly unable to find the target in the second. For the first five minutes of the half, a dunk from Jacob Cofie was USC’s only basket. During another five-minute stretch in the second half, USC couldn’t even manage a dunk.

Its issues only got worse when Baker-Mazara fell hard trying to block a lay-in. He didn’t play the rest of the game, as Musselman said Baker-Mazara told the staff he was unable to go.

“They played great in the second half,” Musselman said, “and we did not play very good.”

The Trojans didn’t fare much better on the glass, either, as Nebraska more than doubled USC’s total rebounds (22 to 10) after halftime.

The defense followed suit, with Nebraska piling up points in the paint at will. Sixteen of the Huskers’ first 20 points in the second half came on either dunks or lay-ins as USC’s defense lacked any semblance of urgency.

“I feel like they came out with more energy to be honest,” Williams said. “The first couple possessions, you could see it. They wanted it more than we did.”

How that’s still the case, after several similarly frustrating second halves this season, is still unclear.

“Second halves, they’re hard,” Brownell said. “We have to accept that and get ready quicker in the locker room, get our mental right and then come in and be ready.”

But with the Trojans on the very brink of the tournament bubble, time is quickly running out on that possibility.

President Trump, speaking for well over an hour, shattered the record on Tuesday for the length of a State of the Union address.

Speaking for about 100 minutes, the nation’s leader touched upon a broad range of domestic and international topics, bragged about his accomplishments and awarded the nation’s highest honors to a pilot who participated in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a 100-year-old Korean War veteran, and a 32-year-old goalie for the gold-medal-winning Olympic men’s hockey team.

The previous record-holder was President Clinton, famously known for his Southern-twang verbosity. He spoke for nearly 90 minutes during his final State of the Union address in 2000.

The address is prescribed by the Constitution and calls for the president to apprise Congress about the state of the union. Over time the address has become a vehicle for presidents to address the nation’s residents, claim legislative victories and foreshadow upcoming policy goals.

Just over a century ago, President Harding’s and President Coolidge’s addresses were aired on the radio. In 1947, President Truman’s address was the first to be broadcast on television. As viewership grew, the annual speech has taken on greater gravity, leading to notable and controversial moments in American politics.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) famously shouted “You lie!” during President Obama’s 2009 address to Congress when he spoke about healthcare policy. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) created a viral moment when she tore apart a copy of Trump’s text after he delivered the State of the Union in 2020.

On Tuesday night, Rep. Al Green, a Democrat from Louisiana, was escorted out of the chamber after he held a small sign that read: “BLACK PEOPLE AREN’T APES.”

One team was coming off its highest high, the other off its lowest low, but recent history matters little whenever UCLA and USC meet.

Tuesday night’s matchup inside Pauley Pavilion was no exception, as the men’s basketball programs faced off in the first of two key Big Ten clashes in 11 days and the host Bruins sent their blue-clad fans home happy with an 81-62 victory.

Donovan Dent led the charge with 30 points and seven assists, Trent Perry had 13 points and four assists, Xavier Booker had 11 points and three blocks and forward Tyler Bilodeau added 13 points and nine rebounds as the Bruins (19-9 overall, 11-6 in the Big Ten) improved to 15-1 and stayed in seventh place in conference play with three games remaining in the regular season.

In the latter stages of the second half, UCLA made 10 of 12 shots and led by nine with 5:43 left. A three-pointer by Eric Freeny extended the margin to 14 with 2:01 remaining. UCLA scored 32 points in the paint and scored 15 points off turnovers.

Three days earlier, UCLA pulled off its biggest win of the year, rallying from 23 points down to stun 10th-ranked Illinois in overtime and rode that momentum to overwhelm its crosstown rival, still smarting from a 71-70 defeat to lowly Oregon on Saturday at Galen Center.

Both teams wore their dark jerseys for the 266th meeting between the teams and UCLA improved to 150-116 in a series dating to 1928 when UCLA joined the Pacific Coast Conference.

UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau is defended by USC forward Jacob Cofie in the first half.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

Chad Baker-Mazara was hot early for the Trojans, hitting four three-pointers and totaling 14 by the break, but no other USC player had more than four in the first 20 minutes. The Bruins did not lead until Bilodeau banked in a 15-foot jumper to edge them in front 8-7 4:39 into the game.

UCLA went on a 12-2 run in just under five minutes to build a 29-23 lead while USC was in the midst of a one-for-eight drought from the field, but the Trojans pulled to within two on Ezra Ausar’s layup with 3:30 left in the half.

Booker’s dunk ignited a 7-0 run to put the Bruins up 36-27 and Dent swished a 15-footer that beat the buzzer and gave UCLA a 38-29 halftime lead.

Dent had 19 points at intermission and outscored USC by himself in the last nine minutes of the half, 7-6. He finished five of six from three-point range.

USC forward Chad Baker-Mazara, guard Alijah Arenas, UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau and USC forward Terrance Williams II vie for the ball in the first half.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

UCLA stretched its lead to 11 points five minutes into the second half as the Trojans went cold, shooting one for 11 and going 3:49 without scoring a basket. It was a frustrating night for USC star guard Alijah Arenas, who had four points and five turnovers when he was whistled for a charging foul — his third — running over Perry with 16:45 left.

He finished with 10 points but Baker-Mazara was the leading scorer with 25 points for the Trojans (18-10, 7-10), who dropped their fourth straight.

Milan-Cortina Olympics hero Jack Hughes is likely looking at a dental implant to replace teeth knocked from his mouth in the third period of the men’s hockey final between the United States and Canada on Sunday.

Once the euphoria of scoring the winning goal in overtime subsides and celebrations cease, Hughes will undergo a surgical procedure that most dentists agree is far superior to alternatives such as dental bridges or partial dentures.

Titanium posts will be inserted into his jawbone, serving as new roots for the teeth. Once the posts are secure and his mouth has healed, custom crowns matched to his natural teeth in shape, color, and size will be placed on top of each post.

Hughes, who is in year four of an eight-year, $64 million contract with the New Jersey Devils of the NHL, has no worries about affording the best care possible. Sure, health care is free in Italy and he could have remained there for the procedure, but he told reporters he wants it done on home turf.

The United States’ Jack Hughes reacts after receiving his gold medal after Team USA defeated Canada in the men’s ice hockey gold medal game.

(Luca Bruno / AP)

“I’m lucky I’m from the best country in the world, and we’ve got great dentists there, too,” Hughes said while caressing the gold medal hanging from his neck. “I’m lucky I’m American, and they’re gonna fix me right up.”

When Canadian forward Sam Bennett’s high stick slammed into his mouth in the third period, Hughes looked down and rolled his eyes.

“I looked on the ice and saw my teeth,” said Hughes, who had a tooth knocked out in an NHL game a few years ago. “I was like, ‘Here we go again.’ The last time that happened, it wasn’t very fun.”

Losing teeth is an occupational hazard for hockey players. They know implants can be as good as the real thing. Hughes played on even while resembling a Jack-o-lantern.

“Who cares at this point, to be honest?” U.S. teammate Matt Boldy said. “I think more people are looking at his medal than his teeth. I’m sure he’ll be OK.”

Attention certainly focused on Hughes’ heroics in overtime. He re-entered the game a minute into the 3-on-3 overtime and quickly found himself the only U.S. player between Canadian superstar Connor McDavid and the goal.

Oh, and McDavid had the puck on his stick.

Hughes retreated slightly, bracing for another painful collision by using his body as a barrier. McDavid couldn’t get off a clean shot and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck — whose game-long heroics will forever be remembered — slapped the puck away.

Less than a minute later, Hughes fielded a cross-ice pass from Zach Werenski and fired it past Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington. Game over.

“I got it to the right guy,” Werenski said. “He’s been hot all tournament.”

That hasn’t been true for long. Hughes underperformed in last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off — which Canada won — before shoulder surgery ended his NHL season. This season, he missed five weeks with the Devils after slicing his right thumb open on broken glass at a team dinner.

His older brother and teammate Quinn Hughes, who led the U.S. team with eight points during the Olympics, knows the emotional roller-coaster that Jack has endured. The thrill ride couldn’t have ended any better.

“[Jack] is an animal,” Quinn said. “He’s gone through a lot with his shoulders. He takes a lot of [crap]. No one loves the game more than him. He’s got so much passion. He’s a gamer. He made it happen.”

Their parents, Jim and Ellen, were in attendance. Ellen Weinberg-Hughes is a Player Development Consultant for the U.S. women’s hockey team, which also won gold. No doubt mom will be scheduling that dentist appointment for Jack sooner than later.

Vernon Kay is hosting brand new BBC gameshow Do You Know Your Place? teaming up with The Traitors star Paul Gorton

The BBC has introduced a new quiz show Do You Know Your Place?, which launches on Monday 23 February.

However, according to The Traitors star Paul Gorton, who is co-presenting the show with main host Vernon Kay, he was originally down to be a guest until the host they had booked to present his segment had to pull out.

The new series sees Paul lead an ‘unreliable’ UK tour of a different destination each day with three celebrity players battling it out to sort unbelievable facts from fiction.

From locations in Belfast to Wrexham, celebrity guests include EastEnders star Nitin Ganatra, the Reverend Kate Bottley, Gladiator ‘Apollo’ Alex Gray, Anneka Rice, Susan Calman, Owain Wyn Evans and Max Fosh.

Alongside Paul’s tours, Vernon will task the celebrities with a number of in-studio games, each taking inspiration from the day’s destination.

Whoever gets the most points across the show wins the episode and a souvenir that Paul has sent back from his travels with points accrued across five days with the overall winner at the end of the week receiving an ‘I Know My Place’ sweatshirt.

Talking about the new series, The Traitors star Paul said of how he got the role, telling us in an exclusive chat: “I think it was two years ago, there was an idea to do kind of like a travel show with celebs and then have all these kind of games in there and almost pack everything that you’ve watched into kind of like one show in one location, do it all there.

“I was booked to be a guest on one of these early iterations and the host pulled out, because the host was going to be out with the celebs, so Vernon [who has the main hosting gig] would be out with the celebs type of thing, and whoever they booked decided to not show and said, ‘Oh I can’t do it now’, so instead of finding someone, let’s see if Paul wants to have a go.

“We did the pilot which was me and these three celebs and it was just off you go, have fun.

“And I think they quite quickly realised that it would be nice to have this lovely kind of homely studio element to it with an absolute megastar [Vernon] and then we’ll still have Paul running around in a storm, in the rain and in the freezing cold.

“Luckily it all worked, it all clicked together. I did my bit which was all kind of the VTs, then Vernon’s done his bit in kind of like a mock studio and they stitched it together and the BBC just, it feels very weird to me because, and Vernon will know this a lot more than I do, but they were saying pretty much everything never gets commissioned.

“But the BBC guys were just like ‘Yep, we love it, we want it’ and that got us to almost present day where I’ve been running around the country finding all the weird and wonderful and magnificent parts of the UK.”

Do You Know Your Place? airs on BBC Two, weekdays at 6.30PM, starting from Monday 23 February.

**For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new **Everything Gossip** website**

One minute has been proposed as a halfway house, but BBC Sport understands concerns remain about negative impacts.

Manchester United were angered last season when Matthijs de Ligt was forced to leave the field with a cut, and Brentford scored from a corner while he was off the pitch.

The fear is a one-minute absence would make it far more likely a team could concede a goal when down to 10 players.

Thirty seconds already causes frustration among supporters – and unintended consequences of goals conceded could add further pressure on to officials.

There is an acceptance players use supposed injuries as a way of breaking up play, but it is felt extending the time limit could unduly penalise genuinely injured players.

There are a few exceptions.

If the opponent is shown a yellow or red card the injured player does not need to stay off. Goalkeepers are also exempt, while a penalty taker would be able to stay on.

However, Ifab is not expected to pass any resolution to tackle the tactical timeout. This is when a goalkeeper goes down off the ball in order for a coach to get new instructions to the team.

Ifab’s advisory panels have discussed the issue at some length but, so far, there has been no agreement on a solution.

Following the success of the eight-second rule for goalkeepers holding the ball, new countdown measures are set to be approved.

A similar process will be added to goal-kicks and throw-ins, with possession changing to the opposition if it takes too long.

A 10-second limit will also be applied to substituted players – if they do not get off the pitch the replacement will not be allowed to come on.

A team would have to play with 10 players until the next stoppage, and that must be after at least 60 seconds.

Ifab is expected to approve video assistant referee reviews for wrongly awarded second yellow cards and, as a competition opt-in, corners.

The Canadian Premier League is also likely to be granted permission to start trials of Arsene Wenger’s daylight offside.

SAN FRANCISCO — It was speed dating: Eight suitors with less than four minutes each, pitching the woo to thousands of Democratic Party faithful.

The race for California governor has been a low-boil, late-developing affair, noteworthy mostly for its lack of a whole lot that has been noteworthy.

That changed a bit on a sunny Saturday in San Francisco, the contest assuming a smidgen of campaign heat — chanting crowds, sign-waving supporters, call-and-response from the audience — as the state party held its annual convention in this bluest of cities.

Delegates had the chance to officially endorse a party favorite, providing a major lift in a contest with the distinct lack of any obvious front-runner. But with an overstuffed field of nine major Democratic contenders — San José Mayor Matt Mahan was said to have entered the contest too late for consideration — the vote proved to be a mere formality.

No candidate came remotely close to winning the required 60% support.

That left the contestants, sans Mahan, to offer their best distillation of the whys and wherefore of their campaigns, before one of the most important and influential audiences they will face between now and the June 2 primary.

There was, unsurprisingly, a great deal of Trump-bashing and much talk of affordability, or rather, the excruciating lack of it in this priciest of states.

The candidates vied to establish their relatability, that most valuable of campaign currencies, by describing their own hardscrabble experiences.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — the first speaker, as drawn by lot — spoke of his upbringing in a home riven by alcoholism and domestic violence. State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond described his childhood subsistence on food stamps, free school lunches and surplus government cheese.

Former state Controller Betty Yee told how she shared a bedroom with four siblings. Katie Porter, the single mom of three kids, said she knows what it’s like to push a grocery cart and fuel her minivan and watch helplessly as prices “go up and up” while dollars don’t stretch far enough.

Michele Reed of Los Angeles cheers at the state Democratic Party convention.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

When it came to lambasting Trump, the competition was equally fierce.

“His attacks on our schools, our healthcare and his politics of fear and bullying has to stop now,” Villaraigosa said.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) called him “the worst president ever” and boasted of the anti-Trump battles he’s fought in Congress and the courts. Xavier Becerra, a former California attorney general, spoke of his success suing the Trump administration.

Porter may have outdone them all, at least in the use of profanity and props, by holding up one of her famous whiteboards and urging the crowd to join her in a chant of its inscription: “F—- Trump.”

“Together,” the former Orange County congresswoman declared, “we’re going to kick Trump’s ass in November.”

Porter was also the most extravagant in her promises, pledging to deliver universal healthcare to California — a years-old Democratic ambition — free childcare, zero tuition at the state’s public universities and elimination of the state income tax for those earning less than $100,000.

Unstated was how, precisely, the cash-strapped state would pay for such a bounty.

Former Assemblyman Ian Calderon offered a more modest promise to provide free child care to families earning less than $100,000 annually and to break up PG&E, California’s largest utility, “and literally take California’s power back.” (Another improbability.)

Becerra, in short order, said he was “not running on inflated promises” but rather his record as a congressman, former attorney general and health secretary in President Biden’s cabinet.

Rachel Pickering, right, vice chair of the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party, stands with others wearing pins supporting Democratic causes at the party’s state convention.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

It was one of several jabs that could be heard if one listened closely enough. (No candidate called out any other by name.) “You’re not going to vote for a Democrat who voted for the border wall, are you?” Thurmond demanded, a jab at Porter who supported a major funding bill that included money for Trump’s pet project.

“You’re not going to vote for a Democrat who praises ICE, are you?” Thurmond asked, a poke at Swalwell, who thanked the department for its work last year in a case of domestic terrorism.

“You’re not going to vote for a Democrat who made money off ICE detention centers,” Thurmond went on, targeting Tom Steyer and his former investment firm, which had holdings in the private prison industry.

Yee seemed to take aim at Mahan and his rich Silicon Valley backers, suggesting grassroots Democrats “will not be pushed aside by the billionaire boys club that wants to rule California.”

The barb was part of a full-on assault on the state’s monied class, which includes Steyer, who made his fortune as a hedge fund manager.

In a bit of billionaire jujitsu, he sought to turn the attack around by saying his vast wealth — which has allowed him to richly fund his political endeavors — made him immune to the blandishments of plutocrats and corporate interests.

“Here’s the thing about big donors,” Steyer said. “If you take their money, you have to take their calls. And I don’t owe them a thing. In a world where politicians serve special interests, I can’t be bought.”

There were no breakout moments Saturday. Nothing was said or done in the roughly 35 minutes the candidates devoted to themselves that seemed likely to change the dynamic or trajectory of a race that remains stubbornly ill-defined and, to an unprecedented degree in modern times, wide open.

And there was certainly no sign any of the gubernatorial candidates plan to give up, bowing to concerns their large number could divide the Democratic vote and allow a pair of Republicans to slip through and emerge from California’s top-two primary.

But for at least a little while, within the confines of San Francisco’s Moscone Center, there was a glimmer of a life in a contest that has seemed largely inert. That seemed a portent of more to come as the June primary inches ever closer.

HOLIDAY prices move constantly. Most people know that.

But only a few realise just how much the time of day you book can influence what you pay.

I work in travel and spend a large part of my job analysing pricing data, and recently, I wanted to understand how big the swing really is across a single day.

Not just the cheapest day of the week, but the cheapest hour, and even the cheapest minute.

The results were clearer (and way more dramatic) than I expected.

When is the most expensive time to book?

The data shows that the most expensive time of day to book a holiday is between 9am and 10am.

Bookings made in that window came in at around 30 per cent more expensive than the cheapest time of day, according to the data.

There is a straightforward reason for this: it’s when demand spikes.

People arrive at work, open their laptops and start browsing.

Search volumes increase, airline pricing systems respond, and fares begin to rise. Then, package holiday prices follow the same pattern.

In simple terms, booking your summer break with your first coffee of the day is statistically one of the pricier moments to do it.

When is the cheapest hour to book?

At the other end of the scale, the cheapest time to book is consistently between 4am and 5am.

Overnight, demand drops off. Fewer searches mean less upward pressure on prices.

Airline systems effectively reset after the previous day’s activity, and fares often return closer to their baseline before building again through the morning.

It’s not a secret loophole. It’s simply supply and demand working in your favour while most of the country is asleep.

Is there a more realistic option?

Of course, most people are not setting alarms for 4am to book a holiday.

So I looked specifically at sociable hours.

If you are booking in the late evening, roughly 8pm to 10pm, prices were on average around 5 per cent cheaper than during the 9am to 10am rush for the same holiday.

Five per cent may not sound dramatic, but on a £2,000 family holiday that equates to around £100.

That is a tangible difference for many households – mine included.

When is the exact cheapest minute?

Out of curiosity, I pushed into the data further and examined booking times by the minute.

Consistently, the single cheapest minute recorded was 2:48am.

At that exact point, bookings were around 60 per cent cheaper than the most expensive time of day in the data sample.

Now – reality check time. Booking at 2:48am does not mean every holiday will magically be 60 per cent cheaper.

Pricing is influenced by many factors, including availability and route demand.

However, it illustrates just how wide the gap can be between peak and off-peak booking behaviour.

Testing it in real time

Data is one thing. I wanted to see it happen on screen. So I tested two different package holidays.

First, I checked Catty Cats Garden Hotel in Turkey at 2:47am. It was pricing at £133 per person.

Later that same morning, at 11:36am, the exact same hotel and dates were pricing from £165 per person.

That is roughly a 24 per cent increase in a few hours.

Then I repeated the test with a completely different deal – Mahdia Beach & Aqua Park in Tunisia.

At 2:48am, it was pricing from £130 per person. When I checked again at 11:46am, it had risen to £143 per person.

Again, same hotel, same dates. The only thing that changed was the time of day. Early hours versus late morning – identical searches but different prices.

It is a simple demonstration of how sensitive holiday pricing can be to demand levels throughout the day.

What this means for sunseekers

I want to be clear: I’m not encouraging everyone to live like an insomniac just to save a few pounds. But the broader trend is consistent.

Peak browsing hours tend to coincide with higher prices. Quieter periods – particularly early morning and late evening – often offer better value.

If you want a practical takeaway: avoid the 9am to 10am window if you can. Consider booking later in the evening instead.

And if you do happen to wake up at 4am and find yourself scrolling… it might be the most financially productive scroll of the week.

Holiday pricing is reactive, it responds to us.

So sometimes, saving money is not about finding a hidden code or waiting for a sale.

It is simply about stepping slightly outside the rush and pressing “book” when everyone else is still asleep.

The Lakers had just completed practice Thursday with a full and healthy squad when Luka Doncic strolled over to speak with the media.

Doncic had played only five minutes Sunday for Team World in the All-Star Game because of a lingering left hamstring strain. He had missed the previous four Lakers games.

With the Lakers scheduled to start the post-All-Star break against the Clippers on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena, Doncic was asked if he was playing in that game.

“Probably,” he said. “We’ll see. I got to talk to people.”

Since Doncic did practice, he was asked how he was doing and how his hamstring felt.

“I’m good,” he said. “Feeling good.”

But, Doncic was told, he did play in the All-Star Game, even if it was limited time.

“Five minutes. I was on minutes restriction,” Doncic joked.

Lakers coach JJ Redick was the first to speak to the media after practice, his time away from the game leaving him fresh and ready to go.

He was asked if Austin Reaves, who had been on a restriction of about 25 minutes after returning from a 19-game because of a left calf strain, would still be on a minutes restriction and if Doncic would be available for the game against the Clippers.

“Austin won’t have a minutes restriction,” Redick said, “and as of 35 to 45 seconds ago, we’ll have everybody available tomorrow.”

Injuries have been a common thread for the Lakers this season.

Lakers guard Austin Reaves sits on the scorer’s table before entering a game against the Mavericks earlier this month. His minutes restriction since returning from a calf injury has been lifted.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

It started at the beginning of the season, when LeBron James missed 14 games because of sciatica. He has recently dealt with left foot arthritis that kept him out of a game.

Center Deandre Ayton missed the last two games with right knee soreness.

“Well, there’s only so much you can control. I mean, you know, as a coach, you have zero control in that. As a player, you know what you do to prepare, and what you do to recover can give you some level of control, but ultimately, the basketball Gods in the game are going to dictate health,” Redick said. “It’s funny, we were talking before the season about building continuity with those three guys, and we’ve had them available together for 10 games. So it’s just the situation we’re in.

“Not the only team that has had a bunch of health issues throughout the season and had to manage that. But I think … my messaging this morning to the players was this is going to be a sprint, these last 28 games. It’s another segment of the season where, starting tomorrow, we won’t have more than a day between games until the end of March. So, we’ve got an opportunity to, I think, play our best basketball after the All-Star break. We’ve got a number of indicators on both sides of the ball that we’re doing some things that are trending in the right direction. And I think it’s coming at a good time, as we’re getting fully healthy.”

Doncic, James and Reaves have played just 10 games together because of health issues.

As a trio, they have combined to average 80.2 points per game, led by Doncic’s NBA-best 32.8 points per game. Reaves is averaging 25.4 points and James 22.0.

Reaves said it is “very important” that the three of them get reps together.

“You have those games from last year, but obviously you still have a learning curve of how to play alongside one another and that’s with everybody else on the team as well,” Reaves said. “Continuing to build that continuity and confidence in every single position. We’re locked in with the five guys on the court. So, very excited.

“I think you can tell throughout the season, even with the unfortunate injuries and stuff, we’ve done a good job of maintaining it. We’re fifth in the West, on pace for a good record and just getting healthy is going to continue to help that. So it’ll be fun to see what that looks like and get to work.”

The Lakers

play four games next week, all against opponents with winning records that are jockeying for position in the playoff race.

So, Thursday’s practice was a good start for the Lakers to get back in gear.

“We only got one practice in so we’re not going to get a lot out of one practice,” Doncic said. “But we definitely like to get up and down a little bit after one week off. So, it was good.”

MILAN — A gold medal that seemed firmly in the grasp of the U.S. women’s hockey team nearly slipped through its fingers in the final of the Milan-Cortina Games on Thursday, but the Americans rallied to win 2-1 on Megan Keller’s goal just over four minutes into overtime.

Kristin O’Neill’s shorthanded goal less than a minute into the second period gave Canada its goal while Hilary Knight matched that for the U.S. with 2:04 to play, deflecting a Laila Edwards’ slap shot from the high slot through her legs and past Canadian goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens to send the game to the extra period.

The goal, Knight’s 15th in Olympic competition, broke the American record and came seconds after U.S. coach John Wroblewski had pulled his goalie for an extra attacker.

Keller then won it, taking a long Taylor Heise pass on the left wing, racing into the Canadian zone, stickhandling around defender Claire Thompson before beating goalie Desbiens cleanly.

The gold was the second in the last three Olympics for the Americans, who are ranked No. 1 in the world. Both have come against Canada while the victory was the eighth straight for the U.S. over their northern neighbor dating to last April’s world championship.

The overtime rules are unique for gold-medal games, with the teams playing three-on-three for 20-minute periods, with the first goal deciding the winner. Games cannot end in a shootout.

In the preliminary round, overtimes were limited to five minutes, followed by a five-round shootout. In the knockout stage, the overtime period was extended to 10 minutes, followed by a shootout.

None of that figured in Thursday’s result.

The young Americans, who had 12 women playing in their first Olympics, looked uncharacteristically rattled in a scoreless first period in which they took two penalties — one for too many players on the ice — and were outshot 8-6. It was just the third time in the tournament the U.S. went an entire period without a goal.

Things got worse 54 seconds into the second period when O’Neill outskated Edwards up the center of the ice on a breakaway, took a short centering pass from Laura Stacey, then deked U.S. goalie Aerin Frankel to the ice before beating her to her gloved side for the first goal of the game.

That snapped a 352-minute scoreless streak for the U.S. and marked the first time the Americans trailed in Milan.

For much of the game Canada was faster, smarter and more poised. And Desbiens was spectacular in goal. In Canada’s group-play loss to the U.S., she was pulled in the third period after giving up five goals. This time she came within two minutes of shutting out a team that had scored 31 times in its previous six games.

MILAN — Jordan Stolz’s run for the speedskating triple crown came up short in the 1,500 meters Thursday, with the American settling for silver behind China’s Ning Zhongyan at the Milan-Cortina Games.

Ning set an Olympic record, blazing the oval at Milano Speed Skating Stadium in 1 minute and 41.98 seconds. Stolz, who won gold in the 500 and 1,000 meters to become the first U.S. man to win in both distances in the same Olympic Games since 1980, had the fastest finishing kick of the top eight skaters, but reached for the line 0.77 of a second behind Ning at 1:42.75.

Stolz was the top-ranked racer in the 1,500-meter distance and raced in the final pair. Watching the speedskating superstar, Ning clasped his hands in prayer during the final race. When the final time flashed across the screen, his coach held Ning’s hands in the air. He began to sob. The 26-year-old earned his first Olympic gold medal after earning bronze in the 1,000 and the team pursuit.

Hoping to win four gold medals in Milan, Stolz still has an opportunity to add a third in the mass start on Saturday.

Eurostar offer an easy way to explore the continent without needing to hop on a plane, and a new rule change means it could become an even more convenient mode of travel

Eurostar has announced a change to its check-in rules at St. Pancras International in London in a bid to ease overcrowding and make journeys easier for passengers.

Currently, passengers taking a Eurostar train need to arrive at least 60 minutes before their journey and then have to wait in the departures area. However, the change will see passengers able to arrive just 30 minutes before their departure time.

The Telegraph reports that there are plans to allow passengers to board their Eurostar train as soon as it arrives at St Pancras, reducing crowding in the departures area. Speaking to the news outlet, Wendy Spinks, Chief Commercial Officer at London St Pancras Highspeed, said that she wanted the experience of taking the Eurostar to be more like a train journey than flying.

She said: “It cannot be the equivalent of an airport departure lounge. We see it being a really quick process. Going straight to the train is part of the plan. It has become too close to the airport experience, where you check in, go to security, wait in the lounge and then rush to the gate.”

The changes come as Eurostar prepares to expand its services, including the introduction of double-decker trains, as well as new direct routes to Frankfurt and Geneva, expected to launch from early 2030.

It’s also expected that by then, Virgin Trains and Italian operator Trenitalia will be offering rival services from St Pancras, challenging Eurostar’s monopoly on the Channel Tunnel route. Wendy went on to admit that bottlenecks in the departure areas were an obstacle to expanding these services and offering international trains from all five of its available platforms.

St Pancras has also recently needed to install new kiosks with the technology to run the EU’s entry and exit system (EES), which will be required at all external border crossing points by April 9.

Last summer, Eurostar and London St. Pancras Highspeed announced they were joining forces on an ambitious project to double the capacity of St Pancras station, enabling the historic building to handle 5,000 international passengers an hour.

Expected to cost £100m, the plans would improve the “international area and its connection to the main concourse, helping the passenger flow and customer experience” by the end of 2028. A further phase could see arriving passengers redirected to a lesser-used upstairs area, and this change is set to be completed by the end of 2030.

READ MORE: Balearic Islands could be hit by anti-tourism protests this summerREAD MORE: Spain’s ‘ghost islands’ deliberately cut off from the mainland to keep tourists out

Any new operators would share platforms with Eurostar, and passengers would need to make sure that they were boarding the correct train. However, it’s speculated that the expansion of St Pancras could cut check-in times to 15-minutes, meaning passengers could simply head straight to their service.

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

Ensure our latest lifestyle and travel stories always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.