player

Brenen Thompson is from Spearman, Texas, at the top of the panhandle, where the gusts are constant and the only tourist attraction is a collection of old windmills.

Have you checked out Thompson’s speed numbers?

Prepare to be blown away.

Thompson, newest receiver for the Chargers, ran the 40-yard dash in a forehead-slapping 4.26 seconds — a mere .04 off the NFL combine record. What the former Mississippi State star lacks in size — he’s a shade under 5 feet 10 and 164 pounds — he makes up for in an ability to almost teleport from one spot to another.

Not the biggest position of need for the Chargers, who took him in the fourth round, but a nifty weapon for new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, who in the past has drawn up schemes for such scorchers as Jaylen Waddle, Travis Benjamin and Tyreek Hill.

Now, for the plodding part. OK, the Chargers didn’t race to the podium to select offensive linemen — their undoing last season — but they have remade their offensive line anyway.

First, they’re getting back Pro Bowl tackles Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, who missed all or most of last season with leg injuries; signed center Tyler Biadasz and guard Cole Strange in free agency; and drafted Florida center Jake Slaughter in the second round, with the idea of him playing guard.

So if the plan works out, the Chargers will start five linemen who weren’t even in uniform for them for the January playoff loss to New England. Good thing, because that injury-ravaged line was a fire-drill mess last season.

In years before the Jim Harbaugh regime, the Chargers didn’t embrace the notion of trading down for more picks. But general manager Joe Hortiz likes doing that, and turned what would have been a quiet weekend — two selections on Day 3 — into a six-pick bonanza.

The club took Memphis tackle Travis Burke in the fourth round, presumably adding depth at the position because he’s not the type of player who is going to move inside to guard (and he’s almost certainly not going to unseat Slater or Alt). Depth is good at that spot, because as the Chargers were reminded last season, you’ll sooner find a stray $100 bill on the street than a capable NFL tackle.

The Chargers rounded out the draft by selecting a pair of guards in the sixth round, Logan Taylor of Boston College and Alex Harkey of Oregon. Whereas Taylor was a four-year starter, Harkey started one season at right tackle for the Ducks — he bounced from Colorado to Texas State to Oregon — and projects as an interior lineman in the pros.

Oregon’s Alex Harkey is among the four offensive linemen the Chargers selected in the 2026 NFL draft.

(Mark Ylen / Associated Press)

With the third of their four fourth-rounders, the Chargers took Arizona safety Genesis Smith. He has the cover skills and range to play the deep part of the field, and he’ll be learning from the best in All-Pro Derwin James Jr. Harbaugh is constantly saying, “Competitors welcome,” and Smith figures to be just that. If there’s trust on the back end, James can move up closer to the line of scrimmage to make plays and wreak havoc.

If a player is especially tough and violent on the field, the Chargers will affix a magnetic hammer sticker next to his name on the draft board. That’s what they did with South Carolina defensive tackle Nick Barrett, their final pick of the fourth round. The team typically carries five or six defensive linemen, and Barrett joins a group that includes Teair Tart, Jamaree Caldwell and Dalvin Tomlinson.

The Chargers already ramped up their pass rush by selecting Miami’s Akheem Mesidor at No. 22, a player widely projected to be off the board by then. Doesn’t matter the division, a strong pass rush is always essential. But having that in the AFC West, with Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, Denver’s Bo Nix and No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza heading to Las Vegas, turning up the heat on quarterbacks is especially important.

Mesidor, who began his career at West Virginia and finished at Miami, was among the oldest players in the draft at 25. Some saw his age as a negative.

“I’ve been doubted my whole life. I’m ready to come in and earn the respect of my teammates and my coaches and compete,” he told reporters. “The age stuff, any of the negativity that people push into the media about me, is all out the window. It does not faze me, I’m here to play football.”

In the NFL, you can never have enough good pass rushers, and the team that winds up winning the Super Bowl is often the one at or near the top in getting to the quarterback. But first things first. The Chargers have to win a playoff game, something they haven’t done in two seasons under Harbaugh and six with Justin Herbert at quarterback.

Thompson could help in that regard. The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss., told this story last year: When the future Chargers wideoout was 6, his mother signed him up for flag football in Texas.

She told her young son that she would reward him with $1 for every flag he grabbed, and $5 for every touchdown he scored. After the first game, the two had to make a trip to the ATM.

After all, who has $65 at the ready?

Seeing Tripp King flick a rubber ball toward the net with his stick is like spotting an unidentified flying object and wondering if you missed it because the shot happens faster than the blink of an eye.

His lacrosse coach at Loyola High, Jimmy Borell, brings out one of those baseball radar guns twice a year to clock how fast his players can send that ball through a net.

King’s right hand delivers the ball at 100 mph and his left hand at 90 mph.

“I pray he doesn’t cut the net,” Borell said.

In a sport that’s beloved on the East Coast, King is helping bring respect to lacrosse players learning the game on the West Coast.

He started lacrosse in kindergarten, showing up to participate in South Bay Lacrosse Club. By first grade, he was wearing lacrosse pads. He also played football and basketball. When he reached Loyola as a freshman, he was still a three-sport athlete, but he had become so talented in lacrosse that it became his focus.

“I always loved the speed of lacrosse,” said the junior. “I see that similarity in basketball. It’s always pulled me knowing you have to be good at everything instead of one particular skill.”

At 6 feet 1 and 200 pounds with the thick calves of a football player, he’s an attacker that every opponent must track. He’ll stand behind the net ready to receive the ball and make a pass to teammates who will quickly get the ball back to him for a goal with one flick of his wrist.

He had 102 points during the regular season (65 goals, 37 assists) for a Loyola team seeded No. 1 for the seven-team Southern Section Division 1 playoffs that begin this week. Loyola has a bye in the opening round and won’t play until May 9.

“He’s pretty special,” Borell said. “He’s got the tangibles, very skilled, can use both of his hands and has a very quick step.”

He’s committed to North Carolina, which is a dream come true since he was born to be a Tar Heel. Both of his parents went to North Carolina.

Tripp King, wearing No. 11, is an attacker for Loyola’s No. 1-ranked lacrosse team.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

“I’ve grown up a Tar Heel,” he said.

He’s also a kind, friendly future Tar Heel, something you can’t always say about lacrosse players who often feel they are either entitled or frustrated when people don’t pay enough attention to them.

Classmates swear by King.

“Nice,” is what several told me.

He returns to the South Bay Lacrosse Club to give back, working with young players just like when somebody helped him as a 5-year-old.

He’s someone ready to head to the East Coast determined to be proof of how determined West Coast players have become.

“A lot of the stereotypes of the West Coast are surfer boy or doesn’t take it seriously,” he said. “We’ve made it an atmosphere at Loyola where every day we’re waking up at 5 o’clock for 6 a.m. practices. We’re getting in extra work before and after practice. I think that lazier, not tough stereotype isn’t true. The West Coast is growing.”

King lives in Manhattan Beach, where celebrities and pro athletes can be seen walking or riding bikes on any given day.

King is only 17, but if he’s taking a walk or riding a bike, pay attention, because one day, he’s going to be recognized as lacrosse trendsetter from the West Coast.

Former USC receiver Makai Lemon was in Pittsburgh on Thursday night — and it appeared he would be staying there long term.

Until it very suddenly didn’t.

About two hours into the first round of the NFL draft, Lemon was sitting in the green room — the backstage area for players waiting to be picked — when he received a call from the host city’s home team. A celebration erupted around the former Los Alamitos High star as he was informed that the Steelers were about to select him with the 21st overall pick.

Lemon had one question:

“Why is Philly calling me?”

It turns out that Pittsburgh general manager Omar Khan was a bit premature with the call. The Dallas Cowboys were still on the clock at No. 20 but were expected to draft a defensive player. And that’s what they did with UCF edge rusher Malachi Lawrence — but only after trading down with an NFC East rival at No. 23.

The Philadelphia Eagles pulled off the last-second deal to move ahead of the Steelers and snatch away Lemon in real time. Footage from the green room shows a confused Lemon still on the phone with Pittsburgh but being told by someone in the room with him: “Philly just traded for you! … Philly’s taking you right now!”

“I answered the phone and it was the Steelers,” Lemon told reporters afterward. “My phone kept ringing. I look and it was the Eagles. They traded up, and they were going to pick me. I feel like everything happened for a reason. They traded up, so it means a lot that they really wanted me. So I’m all-in, and they’re going to get everything that I’ve got.”

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman acknowledged in a news conference that “it took us a couple minutes to contact the player” after they had moved into position to pick him.

“The clock got down a little bit lower than we would have liked,” Roseman said, “but we were able to get in touch with him and obviously select him.”

Roseman was asked if the Eagles made the move because they thought the Steelers were about to draft Lemon at No. 21.

“We just felt like this was a player that we wanted to go up and get, just based on where our board was at that time, where we were picking,” Roseman said. “Just felt like it made a lot of sense based on our board. And obviously, when you have a player that you like that’s ranked higher on your board than where you’re picking, you think at every pick that he’s going to be selected.

“That’s just the way the draft is, you think everyone’s thinking the way that you are. And so certainly for us, we didn’t want to sit on our hands. We wanted to go get him. And so that’s why I made a trade.”

The Steelers pivoted quickly, choosing Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanachor moments later.

Last season at USC, Lemon was a consensus All-American and won the Biletnikoff Award for outstanding receiver after making 79 catches for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns. In his three seasons with the Trojans, Lemon had 137 catches for 2,008 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Lemon’s arrival in Philadelphia would seem to indicate that the Eagles are ready to move on from star receiver A.J. Brown, who has been rumored to be on the trading block. If they wait until June 1 to trade Brown, the Eagles would be able to split his $40-million salary cap hit over two seasons.

Roseman didn’t have any light to shed on the matter Thursday night.

“A.J. is a member of the Eagles,” Roseman said. “We don’t have any trades that have been made or that are done. We’re taking this one day at a time. We’re going to look to improve the team tomorrow. We’ll continue to address anything we have to with our roster, not only through this draft weekend, but we’ll continue to look for ways to improve the team throughout the offseason and into training camp.”

PITTSBURGH — Daniel Jeremiah traces his rise as an NFL draft analyst to two seemingly unrelated events: a prominent football reporter showing up in his living room to visit a televangelist, and randomly bumping into a college roommate of his brother in a press box.

First, understand that Jeremiah is not just one in a sea of people evaluating pro prospects. He’s highly respected in the industry and, in addition to his radio work as a color analyst for Chargers games, has been the NFL Network’s go-to expert when it comes to breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of players and how they fit with a given franchise.

The former college quarterback is glib, quick on his feet and meticulously organized. Reporters turn to him — his pre-draft conference calls with NFL writers from coast to coast have sometimes lasted more than two hours — and super-secretive team scouts trust “DJ” as a peer, an extra set of eyes.

“I like to joke that I can kind of be a cross-checker for these teams,” said Jeremiah, 48, who lives in El Cajon, where he once set San Diego records for passing yards and touchdowns at Christian High. “So they’ll call and say, ‘Hey, where do you have this guy? What do you think of this player?’”

Jeremiah was once part of that world. He was a college scout with the Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles. But his path from quarterback at Northeastern Louisiana and Appalachian State to where he is now was anything but a straight line. It was a more unpredictable and roundabout route than any offensive coordinator would dare draw.

Roll back the clock 40 years, when his father, David Jeremiah, was the senior pastor at a Baptist church in El Cajon. Every Sunday, he would go from pew to pew greeting parishioners. Young Daniel was at his side and doing the same, perfecting a firm handshake, practicing looking people in the eye.

The elder Jeremiah would go on to launch an international radio and television ministry. His son, who remains devout, would eventually carve out a career preaching the gospel of the NFL to an audience of millions. Daniel’s description of player traits are digestible and entertaining, whether it’s his own phraseology or the language he learned after more than two decades in the business.

Daniel Jeremiah speaks with a reporter ahead of the NFL draft in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

(Ed Rieker / Associated Press)

An unflinching running back might “choose violence,” a team that builds the line before adding skill-position talent is “putting the hardware store before the toy store,” and an edge rusher who passes the “wet paint” test can get around the corner with such lean that “If he played on a field of wet paint, he did not have a drop of paint on him at the end of the game.”

Said Charlie Yook, executive producer of content for NFL Network: “Daniel is hilarious, a funny guy. It’s a different type of humor. He doesn’t swear. He kind of has that schoolish, boyish, sarcastic type of humor, but it’s still something that everyone can relate to.”

Now, for that renown football reporter who showed up in his living room. It was the late Chris Mortensen, who covered the NFL for ESPN and regularly listened on Sunday mornings to the preachings of Dr. David Jeremiah. In 1998, when San Diego played host to the Super Bowl between Denver and Green Bay, Mortensen used the opportunity to meet his favorite radio minister. The elder Jeremiah invited him over to the house for lunch. Daniel was a college freshman home on winter break. He and Mortensen instantly bonded, and the reporter asked if he’d like to attend Super Bowl media day. Later, he invited the young man to join him at the draft in New York, giving him an assignment to work the phones.

Mortensen would give his landline number at the draft to all the team general managers, reporters and other contacts around the league. Jeremiah manned the phone “like a secretary,” took notes and relayed them during commercial breaks. Already showing a knack for organization, Jeremiah kept index cards sorted by division and by tracked receiver and cornerback needs, keeping tabs on which of those players went there.

“That draft was bigger than this draft for me personally,” Jeremiah said, sitting in the stands at an NFL event in Pittsburgh before a cluster of reporters would surround him for final observations on how the first round would unfold.

So a straight line from there to a Mortensen-like role with NFL Network? Hardly. Jeremiah’s next job was with ESPN’s “Sunday Night Football” and a gig that was football-adjacent. He traveled with that crew as a production assistant, but his role was lining up the scenic footage in every city. Say it was a Rams game in St. Louis, he was the one setting up a shoot at a root beer factory so the network had something local to show coming in and out of commercials.

He did that for two years, but eventually his knowledge of the game as a onetime quarterback made him too valuable to waste. The crew put a headset on him and he would be another set of eyes for camera operators and people in the production truck. What cornerback got beat on that play? He knew. Who’s warming up on the sideline? He was watching. How many times has the defense blitzed? He was keeping track. It was a dream job.

“I was a pig in slop,” Jeremiah said.

But it was but one slop stop in his budding career. While walking through a press box at a game, he bumped into his brother’s old college roommate, T.J. McCreight, who was scouting for the Ravens.

“He goes, ‘Hey, do you think you’d ever have any interest in scouting,’” Jeremiah recalled. “I said, ‘I’ve never … I mean, I love the draft and all that stuff. But I’ve never even thought about scouting, but yeah, absolutely I’d have interest in that.’”

Daniel Jeremiah speaks during a news conference at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis on Feb. 25.

(Gregory Payan / Associated Press)

Soon enough, he was meeting with Ravens executives who gave him a volunteer assignment at the combine, very high-level stuff.

“I filled the candy jar every day,” he said. “I helped get the players into the interview rooms and all that.”

But he was on his way to eventually spending four years with Baltimore, then following player-personnel director Phil Savage to his GM job with Cleveland, scouting the entire country out of Southern California. When the Browns went 4-12 in 2008, Savage and his hires, Jeremiah among them, were shown the door.

Jeremiah spent two more years with Philadelphia as a West Coast scout before taking an analyst job with NFL Network. He could do the same type of player evaluation without the zig-zagging travel, much better for a father of four.

“I left scouting,” he said. “Scouting didn’t leave me.”

The draft is his Super Bowl, and he’s aware that it’s usually the biggest day in the lives of NFL hopefuls. He keeps that in mind, especially when he’s delivering an honest critique of a player.

“I’m very cognizant of that,” he said. “I don’t know that there’s a right way to do this job or a wrong way. I just know the way that I’ve approached it, and I feel like you could really eviscerate someone on what’s literally the best day of his life. Yeah, I will never do that.”

It’s a delicate balance, though, because he wants to remain true to his scouting beliefs.

“I might not necessarily have a player going to a team,” he said. “But I can try to explain to you why I think that team did what they did. That keeps me from saying a bunch of negative things about a player. I’m not trying to kill the kid, right?”

Said Yook: “There are 200-something guys getting drafted over these three days. You don’t suck if you get drafted in the NFL. Doesn’t matter if you’re pick No. 1 or the last pick. He understands that there’s a very small percentage of people who actually get to touch grass in the National Football League.”

What’s more, people can follow all sorts of twisting paths to success. Jeremiah needs no reminder. Preaching to the choir.

Kings coach D.J. Smith gave his team the day off Friday, but he sent his players home with a message: if they don’t show up for work Sunday, they’ll have the rest of the spring and summer off, too.

Players don’t like to call any game a “must-win” because of the pressure it brings, but there’s no other way to look at Sunday’s game for the Kings. After losing the first three games of their best-of-seven playoff series with the Colorado Avalanche, the Kings are one loss away from being eliminating in the first round for a fifth consecutive season.

“Must-win game,” agreed defenseman Drew Doughty, who hasn’t played on a winning team in a playoff series since the Kings last won the Stanley Cup in 2014. “Everyone’s going to give everything and we’ve got to win that one. And then hopefully go back to Denver.”

The most recent loss came Thursday when the Avs scored two fluky goals on pucks that bounced in off the skates of Kings players and put another one into an empty net in a 4-2 victory that pushed the Kings to the brink of elimination once again.

“You don’t like the result,” Smith said. “And it’s tough to swallow.”

For Colorado, the best team in the NHL during the regular season, it hasn’t been the most stylish of postseasons. But after a pair of hard-fought 2-1 wins at home, the Avs have a chance to sweep a playoff series for the first time since 2022, when they won their last Stanley Cup.

“All the games have been tight. We’re right there,” forward Quinton Byfield said. “Each guy, including myself, we just have to give a little bit more.

“We’re doing the right things, we just have to dig in a little bit more.”

It’s hard to say how. The Kings’ power play has been good, scoring a goal in each of the three games, and their penalty kill even better, shutting out the top-scoring team in the NHL on nine tries with a man advantage.

The Kings have been physical and fast and goaltender Anton Forsberg has been brilliant in his first career playoff series, making 90 saves in the three games. Yet none of that has paid off with a win.

“Sometimes you play real well for stretches and you don’t get the results. And then you’ll win a game you don’t deserve to win,” Smith said. “Maybe we didn’t stay with it long enough.”

“Those games are over with,” a frustrated Byfield added. “You can’t look back at those games. It’s just on to the next one, that’s our focus.”

Doughty said the Kings need to wear down the Avalanche, something they clearly couldn’t do in the two games played in Denver’s mile-high altitude. They might have a better chance Sunday at sea level.

“I don’t think we’re creating enough Grade A chances,” he said. “They’re statistically one of the best teams in the neutral zone. So for us to beat them, we’ve got to wear them down in the D zone, make them tired and score goals that way. We haven’t done that enough.”

Every team has its kryptonite and the for the Kings that appears to be the first round of the playoffs. Over the past dozen seasons, the team has gone 9-27 in the postseason, taking a series to a seventh game just once in six tries. Along the way they’ve changed general mangers twice, changed head coaches five times and even changed their opponents, facing the Avs this year after losing four straight series to the Edmonton Oilers.

None of that has changed the results.

Smith, in fact, is an interim coach, having taken over for Jim Hiller with 23 games left in the regular season. He figures to be coaching for his future Sunday since a playoff sweep won’t look good at his resume.

“There’s no quit in there,” Smith said of the Kings’ locker room. “We’ll get reset with practice [Saturday] and I think you’re going to see our best effort.

“Now we’ve got to make a few changes and see if we can spark something.”

If that works, the Kings will be heading back to Denver. If it doesn’t, they’ll be heading home for another long summer.

Hughton then moved into management, where he guided both Newcastle and Brighton to promotion to the Premier League.

He also had spells in charge of Birmingham, Norwich and Nottingham Forest, and was most recently manager of Ghana.

“I had very good advice and all the treatment options were given to me, and I decided to have my prostate removed. The recovery has gone really well,” he added.

“I’m one year post-operation and I feel good. It’s all gone very well. I’ve got a lot of energy.”

Prostate Cancer UK chief executive Laura Kerby said: “Chris’ story is ultimately a positive one. But it’s also a timely reminder of the dangers of prostate cancer and we thank him for sharing his story in the football community, and helping men.

“Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK, and it’s still the only major cancer without a screening programme. It doesn’t give you signs or symptoms in its earlier stages when it’s more treatable, so awareness is everything.”

Welcome to this week’s Lakers newsletter, where we’re playing chess, not checkers.

The intensity has picked up now that the playoffs have started. The Lakers won Game 1 against the Houston Rockets and now the fun begins. Coaches tinker with their game plans trying to capitalize on every perceived advantage. Players are locked in intense multi-game matchups. For a self-proclaimed basketball sicko such as JJ Redick, it’s almost basketball nirvana.

“Every day I wake up, I’m excited to go to work,” Redick said. “Every day feels exciting.”

Playoff DA

Days before the game, on the day of the game and the day after the Lakers’ playoff opener, Redick fielded different versions of the same question.

How influential will Deandre Ayton be in these playoffs?

“The ceiling for our team is maximized when he’s playing at a high level,” Redick said Monday, one day after Ayton’s 19-point, 11-rebound double-double highlighted the Lakers’ Game 1 win. “I remember saying that three times already in the last week. I don’t know how else to answer that.”

Facing consistent scrutiny as the Lakers’ biggest X factor, Ayton now needs to deliver consistent performances in the playoffs. Just one impressive performance won’t be enough to silence critics.

Ayton sent a solid statement in Game 1. In addition to shooting 80% from the field, Ayton helped hold Rockets All-Star center Alperen Sengun to 19 points on six-of-19 shooting. The Lakers’ defense, anchored by Ayton on the back line, smothered Houston. Playing without Kevin Durant, who was a late scratch with a right knee contusion, the Rockets shot just 37.6% from the field.

“I really tried my best to show [Redick] that I’m here and I’m ready throughout those practices just being super and extremely consistent,” Ayton said after the Lakers’ playoff opening win Saturday. “I couldn’t wait to just beat up on somebody else in the first game.”

In front of a buzzing Crypto.com Arena crowd, Ayton made his presence felt early. He scored the Lakers’ first points with a turnaround floater in the lane. He caught two two lobs for dunks. The Lakers’ crowd erupted each time.

Ayton, after two lost years in Portland, hadn’t experienced that thrill in too long.

“It got my blood boiling a little bit,” Ayton said of not playing in the postseason since 2023.

Ayton’s career was fading in Portland. He became known more for inconsistent play and lagging energy than his soft shooting touch or defensive prowess. He looked at the two-year, $16.6-million contract with a player option from the Lakers as a lifeline. It felt like the last chance for him to prove he could still be that player who started for the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals.

Ayton averaged 14.7 points, 12 rebounds and 1.5 blocks on 53.1% shooting in the 2021 Finals series against the Milwuakee Bucks. When speaking of Lakers players with playoff experience, LeBron James always leads the conversation, but Redick, conscious of Ayton’s importance to this team, never leaves out Ayton’s playoff past.

There is still a reason why Ayton was the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, center Jaxson Hayes said.

“When it comes to this serious time of year, like playoffs, he already knows,” Hayes said. “He’s been there, and so he knows what to do. He just came locked in. And I loved it. It was awesome.”

The Lakers were 22-3 in the regular season when Ayton took 10 or more shot attempts and 15-1 in games when he had 11 or rebounds. The trend continued in the playoffs when Ayton made eight of 10 shots in Game 1. He grabbed his 11th rebound in the final seconds.

Ayton’s dominance allowed Hayes to “take a chill day,” the backup center joked. But both big men aren’t resting on one successful game.

“We’re not gonna sit here and take this for granted,” Ayton said. “We have to take care of home court, and that’s our job.”

Gang’s all here

Luka Doncic, left, and Austin Reaves chat as they sit on the bench during Game 1 against Houston.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Each seat in Crypto.com Arena for Game 1 was carefully decorated with a yellow T-shirt featuring every Lakers player and Redick. Each photo, a little black-and-white headshot, was the same size arranged in a grid, symbolizing unity from everyone on the Lakers’ bench. On the free T-shirt and in real life, the Lakers brought the entire band together just in time for the playoffs as Luka Doncic reunited with the team Saturday.

The superstar guard is still out indefinitely while rehabbing a Grade 2 hamstring strain, but his presence on the bench at least offered a timely morale boost.

“I think people don’t know how much impact Luka has, not only on the court, but off the court,” forward Rui Hachimura said. “He’s a guy that always wants to be around with us. We love him just being around, just hanging out, talking. So, yeah, we’re happy that he’s back finally and he’s doing funny things always.”

While continuing treatment for his injury, Doncic’s role at practice was limited to rebounding and passing the ball in shooting drills. He and Reaves helped distract teammates during free-throw shooting drills at the end of practice Monday and engaged in a quick game of rock-paper-scissors while Jarred Vanderbilt was at the free-throw line. After their shared agent Bill Duffy helped Hayes get a Slovenian passport to potentially play internationally together, Doncic has been calling the 7-foot center from Cincinnati “my Slovenian brother.”

Doncic adds his joyful energy to a typically tense time. Maintaining that balance of lightness and focus has been key for the Lakers all season. Like how Redick often describes when Doncic is at his best, the Lakers look their best when they’re having fun too.

In the final seconds of Saturday’s Game 1, when the Lakers were dribbling out the clock, Hachimura was standing dutifully in the corner in front of the Lakers’ bench with his hands up ready for a pass. Doncic playfully smacked his teammate on the head several times.

Hachimura had no recollection of the moment. That’s just life with Doncic.

“I’m used to it,” Hachimura said.

On tap

Tuesday vs. Rockets, 7:30 p.m.

The Lakers have a chance to go up 2-0 in a playoff series for the first time since the 2020 NBA Finals.

Friday at Rockets, 5 p.m. PDT

The Lakers have lost nine consecutive road playoff games. The last postseason win on the road came in Game 1 of the second round in 2023 against Golden State. The Lakers won that series in six and advanced to the Western Conference finals.

Sunday at Rockets, 6:30 p.m. PDT

Maybe the Lakers are going for the sweep Sunday. If not, they will at least get two days’ rest before Game 5 back in L.A.

Status report

Luka Doncic (left hamstring strain)

Doncic is still out indefinitely but at least reunited with the team Saturday after returning from Spain. Redick said Doncic is in good spirits to be back with his teammates, and he sat on the bench for Saturday’s Game 1.

Austin Reaves (left oblique strain)

Reaves is working diligently with hopes of returning this postseason. Like Doncic, he had an initial four- to six-week recovery timeline, which would make April 30 the roughly four-week mark.

Kevin Durant (right knee contusion)

The Rockets superstar missed Game 1 after banging his knee in practice last week. He was a game-time decision Saturday and remains questionable for Tuesday’s Game 2.

Favorite thing I ate this week

Duck tsukune meatballs and wagyu beef tongue skewers from RVR in Venice.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

My friends heard conflicting opinions about RVR — a new izakaya on Abbot Kinney — so, naturally, we had to investigate.

Our verdict is all the thumbs up.

The menu rotates so often that between sitting down and ordering, our server handed us new menus because the kitchen got a different batch of produce from the farmers market that morning.

There were waves of small shareable plates and we started with the duck tsukune meatballs and wagyu beef tongue skewers (pictured). The meatballs are among the most popular dishes on the menu, our server told us. The beef tongue wasn’t popular at all, he said, but they were his favorite. We’re on his side. He said the beef tongue is brined for days in dashi, and the care shows in the beautifully tender pieces; we cut one of the cubes with the skewer that it came on.

We had a seasonal blood orange and fennel salad, pan fried pork rib gyoza that came with a unique yozu kosho sauce, and wagyu beef keema curry. The miso-orange glaze-soaked mochi beignets were the ideal sweet treat.

In case you missed it

Luka Doncic providing Lakers a big playoff boost, even from the bench

Luke Kennard provides a jolt of Luka magic, helping the Lakers beat the Rockets

Plaschke: Can Lakers steal series? Anything is possible after Game 1 win

Nike is denied trademark for Bronny James ‘b9’ logo. Here’s why

Swanson: Can LeBron James pull off his second-greatest playoff feat?

‘He knows the most’: How LeBron James sets the tone for Lakers entering playoffs

L.A.’s Blue Era: How popular are the Dodgers? Even the Lakers look up at them. Way up

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!

Football can teach many life lessons and no one knows that better than Jazmin Gamble, the new varsity head coach at Hawthorne High.

As a woman in a male-dominated profession, one could define her as a trailblazer — and that would be accurate — but while she acknowledges the historical significance of what she is doing, Gamble is not letting it distract her from the task at hand — turning around a program that has fallen on hard times.

“It’s less about proving a point and more about giving all these boys a better experience,” Gamble said. “I’m not downplaying the impact of it, rather I want to leverage the attention in a way that benefits the players and opens doors for them. I’m elated and honored that the district saw my vision and said ‘this girl can do that.’ I have to ask myself how I can use this opportunity to spotlight our team.”

Gamble, who turns 36 in June, is a running back and linebacker for the Los Angeles Legends in the Women’s National Football Conference, a full-contact professional league consisting of 16 franchises across the United States.

Gamble was selected defensive player of the year in 2024 and offensive player of the year in 2025 when she gained a league-leading 549 yards rushing (averaging 11.9 yards per carry) while scoring three touchdowns.

“I tore my ACL my first season and was on injured reserve, but I came back in 2022 and have been playing ever since,” she said. “We made the playoffs last season but lost in the first round. We’re 2-1 right now with three games left. We played our first home game at Long Beach Poly, so the boys got to see their coach in action. We won 23-0 and I scored a touchdown, but it got called back due to holding.”

Hawthorne High football coach Jazmin Gamble calls for her players to huddle during a recent practice.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

The Legends’ next home game is April 25 against the Utah Falconz at St. Anthony Sports Complex in Lakewood.

“This is my last year playing, but I’ve been wanting to transition more into coaching,” said Gamble, a certified personal trainer and fitness instructor who started a business 10 years ago called the Jazz Standard. “I first heard about the job through my coaching network and it sounded very appealing. I applied, I interviewed and I got it. Football takes up so much of your time and energy. I’ve done enough in this sport. This is a good time for me to stop, and although this is my first crack as a football head coach I’ve been coaching athletes for six or seven years, including some of my teammates, and they got better.”

A Bakersfield native, Gamble was an exceptional all-around athlete. Growing up she was a gymnast and a cheerleader. She played club volleyball, ran track and played basketball while attending four high schools, two in Bakersfield and two in the Bay Area, and graduated from Mt. Diablo High in Concord.

Upon moving to Los Angeles 13 years ago, she was in survival mode.

“I was homeless and slept in the back seat of my car for a couple of months until I got a job in human resources,” she recalled. “I started training and working in the fitness field and after struggling to make it for a few years I decided I wanted to be a business owner and things took off from there. Now I have 33 active clients that I see two to four times a week and even train the No. 2 rusher in the WNFC.”

Gamble lives in Inglewood but her business is in Gardena near Serra High, where she got involved behind the scenes with the flag football team before the sport was officially sanctioned by the CIF in 2023.

“A few of those girls trained with me and I learned to adopt a different schematic approach. Boys are playing football as early as 5 or 6 years old, whereas women are starting at 20 or even their early 30s and their bodies aren’t prepared for it. I didn’t start playing tackle until I was 31.”

Gamble is still assembling a staff but one of her assistants will be her brother, Kenneth Davis, a former receiver at Liberty High in Bakersfield.

Hawthorne does not have a junior varsity team. There were 29 players on the roster last year and nine graduated.

“On Day 1, I had 22 come to the weight room,” Gamble said. “Some players are in track right now, but in May I’ll have ‘em all. My strong suit is development so I’m ready for this. Right now, we’re at ground zero. We’ve only had a handful of practices, mainly conditioning. The boys have been super receptive. I’m just going to be me!”

Hawthorne went 2-8 last season, finishing fourth in the Ocean League and being outscored by 281 points. The Cougars were shut out three times.

“Jazmin’s a breath of fresh air,” said athletic director Mario Romero, who was involved in the hiring process. “She’s brought enthusiasm across the entire school community and I’m excited about where her leadership is going to take us.”

Hawthorne High football coach Jazmin Gamble shows her players how to run a drill during practice.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Fifteen players showed up for a one-hour workout Wednesday at HalCap Field. One of them was quarterback Anthony Green, who played in the last two games as a sophomore last year after transferring from King/Drew and is the projected starter next season.

“She made a good impression,” he said. “I like the workouts — they’re very intense — and I like the competition. Coach expects a lot and she pushes us.”

Gamble put her players through a series of drills to test their stamina, quickness and technique. The penalty for walking was push-ups.

“Everything out here is earned … may the best man win!’ she shouted.

“Her practices are intense — she knows what she’s doing,” added junior linebacker Adrian Lopez, who was an All-League first teamer last fall. “She has a home game coming up and I think I’ll go out and watch. My goal for us is to have at least a .500 season and make the playoffs.”

Gamble is not the first female to coach varsity football at Hawthorne. Monique Boone was the varsity defensive line and assistant offensive line coach in 2021 under previous head coach Corey Thedford. However, overseeing the entire program puts Gamble in rarefied air.

What convinced Romero that Gamble was the right person for the job?

“Her background, her skill set and also the fact that she plays the sport herself at a high level,” he said.

The Clippers’ season has come to an end but better than anyone expected. No consolation but a great job by head coach Tyronn Lue for guiding the Clippers from a disastrous 6-21 start and finishing with more than 40 wins.

Coach Lue led the team, overcoming major obstacles throughout the season with a player investigation, injuries, internal strife and major roster changes at the trade deadline. As usual for Clipper fans, wait till next year.

Wayne Muramatsu
Cerritos

The Clippers are the NBA’s version of Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle With You.” Yes, they have had 15 straight seasons of playing .500 or better, and owner Steve Ballmer has brought them respectability, but for their entire 56-year existence — which has contained many clowns and jokers — they still have never [attained] their goal of winning (or even reaching) the NBA Finals.

Ken Feldman
Tarzana

I’d heard Arte Moreno had told people recently that he thought the Angels could command $4 billion. He might sell the team. He might not. But the figure seemed ambitious, since no major league team ever had sold for even $3 billion.

Until Friday, that is, when the Wall Street Journal first reported the San Diego Padres were about to be sold for $3.9 billion.

The new owners: a group led by Jose Feliciano of Santa Monica-based Clearlake Capital, which manages more than $90 billion in assets, and his wife, Kwanza Jones. In 2022, Feliciano and Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly led the investment group that bought Chelsea of the Premier League for $5.2 billion.

The new money should enable the Padres to build upon the legacy of late owner Peter Seidler, who simply disregarded the fact that San Diego ranks as one of the smallest media markets in the major leagues. He spent to win, and the Padres have made the playoffs four times in the past six years — after making the playoffs five times in their first 51 years.

The fans rewarded him, packing Petco Park. As of Friday, the Padres had the second-best record and second-highest attendance in the major leagues. The Dodgers, of course, had the best record and the highest attendance.

The party most immediately interested in the Padres’ sale price? The players’ union, since Commissioner Rob Manfred has cited sluggish appreciation in sale prices as one reason to pursue cost controls on player salaries, whether through a salary cap or some other restriction. In recent years, the owners of the Angels, Minnesota Twins and Washington Nationals all have put their teams on the market without completing a sale.

But Moreno should be interested, too. He turns 80 this summer.

The comparison with the Padres only goes so far. In San Diego, in a city without a team in the NFL, NBA or NHL, the Padres are virtually unchallenged for dollars from fans and corporate sponsors.

And, in San Diego, the Padres play in Southern California’s best ballpark, one the team has turned into a year-round events center, with major concerts in the stadium itself and smaller ones within a delightful park beyond center field.

Could Moreno get $4 billion without a resolution to the long-running ballpark stalemate in Anaheim? It sounds borderline insane to consider that the only available team in America’s second-largest market might not be worth as much as the team that just sold in America’s 30th-largest market.

In Anaheim, however, two deals that would have anchored the Angels there for decades collapsed, and the 60-year-old stadium is in serious need of renovation or replacement. A buyer likely would have to account for the billion-dollar cost of a new ballpark and might ask for a credit against the purchase price, effectively lowering how much profit Moreno could make on the sale.

Any potential buyer should be keeping a close eye on a bill slowly winding its way through the state legislature this year. That bill, if enacted into law, would give the city the ability to loosen development restrictions on the stadium property for a team owner willing to call the team the Anaheim Angels.

Still, even without that legal assist, there should be no shortage of parties interested in acquiring two rarely available assets in one transaction: an MLB team in the Los Angeles market, and a 150-acre site perfect for the mixed-use development coveted by owners in every sport these days.

Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, who once worked as a peanut vendor at Angel Stadium, lost out in the Padres’ bidding and could take another run at the Angels.

Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who lost out in the Dodgers’ bidding in 2012, surrounded the Rams’ Inglewood stadium and Woodland Hills training site with major development and could consider replicating those successes in Anaheim.

Ducks owner Henry Samueli has denied interest in the Angels, but he could consider extending and complementing his OC Vibe development across the 57 Freeway — and his hockey team already wears the Anaheim name.

That assumes, of course, that Moreno opts to sell. He enjoys owning a team and, in a season in which the Angels are one-half game out of first place entering Friday in what appears to be a weak American League West, there is no hurry.

It is considered more likely that Moreno waits until after a new collective bargaining agreement is reached next year to determine whether to sell. All I can tell you for sure Friday is what one baseball official texted me when I asked for reaction to the Padres’ sale: “Great news for the Angels.”

When you think of Oakwood School in sports, Mitchell Butler comes to mind. He put the basketball team on the map when getting a scholarship to UCLA and playing in the NBA.

Steve Smith, who coached basketball at Windward and in the WNBA, came on as athletic director and has been trying to raise the level of sports commitment at a school known for its academics and having parents in the entertainment business.

The baseball team is certainly showing passion and commitment this season with a 14-0 record, including wins over North Hollywood and Culver City.

Avery Ware, in his seventh season as coach, said, “It’s a lot of being selfless and versatile.”

Shortstop Jake Waco, who transferred from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame last season, has been effective as a fielder and hitter. He’s the son of David Waco, who was an All-City infielder for Chatsworth during the 1980s. He’s committed to Emory. The top pitcher is Trevor Jones, committed to Washington University.

If you believe Ware, the bus rides home have plenty of players singing, so someone might be capable of singing the national anthem before a game.

“We have a few kids with Hollywood ties,” Ware said.

Jones is a math whiz, also participating in competition with the STEM team. Other players are headed to Duke and Brown for academics.

“We’re making progress as a program,” Ware said. “For a lot of years, you could say baseball was a side note.”

Ware has his own celebrity ties. He and his brother, Anthony, were standouts at Hamilton. His cousins, Matt and Aaron Ware, were football stars at Loyola and Oaks Christian, respectively.

The team made an agreement to create a baseball field at North Hollywood Recreation Center next to the school.

And Ware appreciates Smith’s support.

“He’s able to create an environment of trust.”

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where it’s finally the postseason.

The Lakers begin the playoffs Saturday against the Houston Rockets, a team that a month ago looked like one of the most vulnerable playoff targets in the West. Now the tables have turned. The Lakers, without Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic, are the team everyone wanted to see in the first round. They’re shorthanded. They’re vulnerable. But they’re not giving up.

“All season people have counted us out and all we season we have continued to show why we belong here and that we really don’t care what people say,” guard Marcus Smart said. “And that’s us. That’s who we are and I think it shows with our two guys down and the way we finished the season and the miles we had going into the playoffs.”

One player on this team has significantly more miles on his tread, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from watching him race down the court for another crowd-pleasing dunk.

The crown still fits

LeBron James chuckled at the suggestion. He smiled before the question was done.

How does he feel like he’s handled the shift back to the being the Lakers’ primary option?

“What’s wrong with you, man?” James said with a smile.

He’s not new to this. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer is taking back the reins as the Lakers’ No. 1 playmaker and steering the team straight into the postseason.

Since Doncic and Reaves were injured, James has averaged 25.5 points, 11 assists, 6.8 rebounds and 2.5 steals, finishing the season with an exclamation point against the Utah Jazz: 18 points, six assists and three steals in less than 17 minutes Sunday. A month after acknowledging and adjusting to life as the world’s most accomplished third fiddle, James was named Western Conference player of the week Monday, the 70th such honor of his career.

“He had not a good season, not a great [season],” Lakers coach JJ Redick said, “he had a remarkable season, all things considered.”

Like the wine he’s cut out of his diet, James is aging just fine. After sitting out of the first 14 games, James played in 60 of the final 68. Even though he often joked that at his age he was questionable for every game, he averaged 23.3 points in his six appearances playing with zero days of rest, shooting 58% from the field with 8.3 assists and 6.7 rebounds per game. It was more points than he averaged on one or two days’ rest.

With Doncic orchestrating most of the Lakers’ offense, James found a different way to thrive. The 41-year-old led the league with 5.7 fast-break points per game.

Of James’ 919 total made field goals, 97 were dunks. The 11.2% was tied for the largest percentage of dunks in a season in his career. It was nearly a decade ago — 2016-17 — that he dunked this often. More than 20% of his made field goals are dunks, the most of any season in his career.

“I think there’s an enjoyment level that I think he gets from making highlight plays and it feeds into it with the crowd,” Redick said. “I think that’s just part of it. The other part of it is, for him, I think he recognizes that’s one of the ways that he can really impact winning on our team. And so he’s taken [the] responsibility of, like, ‘I’m going to be the best transition player in the NBA,’ and he has been.”

James’ ruthlessness in transition set the tone for teammates, who couldn’t be seen moving slower than someone who is closer to their father’s age than theirs.

“If we see him run down, he beats us down the court, that’s not a good thing,” center Jaxson Hayes said. “So I feel like I got to get down there when I see him start going.”

The 22-time All-Star is now leading more than just a fast break for the Lakers. The team experienced an emotional hangover after the regular season-ending injuries to Reaves and Doncic. The Lakers needed more than just points from James to cure their woes.

He delivered by locking in against Golden State, being vocal during the team’s pregame meeting and showing the trademark determination that teammates can’t help but follow. It sparked a three-game winning streak to finish the regular season that James punctuated with several soaring dunks against the Jazz.

“You have no idea how much I have a respect for him,” forward Rui Hachimura said. “It’s his Year 26 or 27, or whatever the hell it is. He’s still playing the last game of the season against the team that, they’re not trying to win. We really appreciate that.”

Smart moves

Marcus Smart

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

He’s not Doncic. He’s not Reaves. But Smart’s return to the Lakers’ lineup is still significant in time for the playoffs.

The guard played the final two games of the regular season after missing what felt like the longest, three-week, nine-game stretch in basketball history. Scrambling on the floor next to Maxi Kleber to find Jarred Vanderbilt for a cutting dunk against the Suns on Friday, Smart made the expected immediate defensive difference. But with 17 assists in two appearances, Smart flashed his ability to deliver in different ways on offense.

His timely return can ease the playmaking pressure on Luke Kennard, who filled in admirably in an emergency stretch with 31 assists in four games, and help handle the load next to James.

Smart is especially aware of the energy of his teammates. He is eager to reward centers for running the floor. He shovels the ball to teammates who are going through shooting slumps to prioritize scoring over his own. It’s not a coincidence that he fired two early passes to Deandre Ayton for dunks against the Jazz and Ayton finished with his first 20-point double-double in a month.

“Even post-Boston the last couple seasons he’s graded out well as a secondary playmaker,” Redick said of Smart. “So he’s been in that position before. He knows how to get other guys involved.”

Smart knows the pressure of the playoffs. He helped the Boston Celtics reach the NBA Finals in 2022, but hasn’t played in the postseason since he was traded in 2023. He missed it. So even if he’ll begin this postseason journey without two of his main teammates, Smart will relish this chance.

“It ain’t gonna be easy,” Smart said. “We all know it, but it’s gonna be fun, and we’re gonna enjoy this ride.”

On tap

Saturday vs. Rockets, 5:30 p.m.

Here we go, friends. Game 1 of the playoffs. In March, these teams played a two-game series in Houston that felt like a playoff preview, but circumstances have changed completely since Doncic’s clutch time brilliance led the Lakers to two key wins. The Lakers went 22-8 in games within five points in the last five minutes this season, but the Rockets had a 22-23 clutch time record, which ranked 16th in the NBA, the worst clutch-time winning percentage for any Western Conference playoff team.

Status report

Jaxson Hayes: left foot soreness

Hayes missed the past four games of the regular season. He was a late scratch before the game against Oklahoma City on April 7 and has remained day to day since.

Luka Doncic: left hamstring strain

After getting injections on his injured hamstring in Spain, Doncic will be back stateside by Friday but there is no timetable for his return to the lineup.

Austin Reaves: left oblique strain

Reaves is working hard to return this season but similar to Doncic, there’s no timeline for his comeback yet.

Favorite thing I ate this week

Lotus root kofta curry (left), paratha and duck confit biryani from Rasa in Burlingame, Calif.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

On my way to San Francisco last week, my colleague Broderick Turner texted me to “find a good restaurant.” You don’t have to tell me twice.

I went straight from the airport to Rasa in Burlingame, which specializes in Southern Indian dishes. We explored the tasting menu, which offered two appetizers, a dosa and two entrees. We started with the rasa sliders, which were spiced potato fritters with a tamarind chutney and cilantro chutney, General Tso’s cauliflower, an Indian-Chinese crossover with a familiar spicy sauce. The dosa was filled with a tamarind-spiced potato masala with basil chutney, ginger, garlic and cilantro. It was my favorite dish of the night, but I was so consumed by eating it, I forgot to take a picture. The mains (pictured) were a vegan lotus root kofta curry and duck confit biryani. I could barely touch my entree because I was so full from the first two courses, but it made great leftovers for the morning after the game.

In case you missed it

Luka Doncic rejoining Lakers after getting injury treatment in Europe

How do the Lakers match up against the Houston Rockets entering their playoff series?

‘Mr. 82.’ How Jake LaRavia became the injury-plagued Lakers’ iron man

Lakers defeat Jazz, will open playoffs at home against Houston

‘He does so many more things.’ How Luke Kennard became the Lakers’ emergency point guard

Plaschke: Broken Lakers need to shut down the season

Lakers great Michael Cooper is introduced as Cal State L.A. men’s basketball coach

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!

It was not just a nation of sports fans and media that became entranced when former Chargers great Philip Rivers, like a soldier, answered the call to duty and joined another one of his former teams, the Indianapolis Colts, at age 44, five years after his last game. (Five years after! No misprint). Former players, like me, were curious and envious.

This was a selfless, noble act by Phil. A player is not eligible for the Hall of Fame until five years after his last season. Thus, Phil has delayed his consideration as a candidate by another five years.

The winter is not merely a matter of age; it is long after the time when the pro football player lived a life at full throttle, doing what years of unromantic labor crafted his mind and body to do.

Jim Porter, the president and chief executive officer of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, reported that about 35 million males, from youth leagues to high schools to colleges, have played organized football. Of that total, only about 22,000 have played in a professional game. Shameful pride compels me to say there are only about 300 players in the Hall of Fame.

Colts quarterback Philip Rivers throws the ball during a game against the San Francisco 49ers on Dec. 22 in Indianapolis.

(Zach Bolinger / Associated Press)

Now, at 88 years old, I am in that winter of life; a time long after leaving that locker room, a place that was alive with bravado and bonds with teammates, each knowing the devastating work it took to, not only get there, but to stay there, because each year the team would bring in a fresh group of draftees and players acquired by trade who wanted your spot. As teammates, we had an unspoken contract to do the drills to the extent that the movements become instinct, to do the work, to play injured, to show up.

The memories of teammates stay fresh. I will share a few stories that stick with me about players early Charger fans will recall:

Power of Alworth

San Diego Chargers wide receiver Lance Alworth poses for a photo in 1970.

(Associated Press)

Lance Alworth is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Our team in the ‘60s had many players that deserve to be called great; however, we all held Lance in special regard because he encompassed high levels of skill and character. He had speed, elusiveness, and he blocked (something of a dirty word to many wide receivers). The best way to describe how I felt about Lance is to relate an incident that took place when our plane was returning from an East Coast game. The plane hit a long stretch of weather so bad that it caused the plane to rise and drop and shake to such an extent that I knew it was going to crash and kill us all. I truly felt it was all over. Then I remembered that Lance was on board and I relaxed, thinking we are safe because God would not kill Lance. I am still amused that I actually thought that.

A formidable man

Ernie Ladd, seen here in action for the San Diego Chargers, on Oct. 29, 1963.

(Associated Press)

Ernie Ladd was a 6-foot-9, 325-pound defensive tackle who played the position with skill and fury and, for four seasons, before severe knee injuries reduced him from great to good, was as skilled as anyone who ever played the position. And strong. Ernie joined the Chargers in 1961. In 1963, coach Sid Gilman made the Chargers the first team in professional football to employ a strength coach and direct that all players begin a weight-training program. At that time, I was one of only a few players in professional football that lifted year-round because coaches, at all levels of football, discouraged weightlifting, believing it tied up an athlete’s muscles. Ernie had never lifted weights. During our first training session with our strength coach, Alvin Roy, Ernie lifted 300 pounds over his head. I had trained for years and my best lift at that time was a military press of 325 pounds.

He demonstrated strength and restraint when a dispute arose between him and a teammate, who I will refer to as X, a defensive lineman whose play fell far below expectations when he was a high draft choice. Ernie was given to fun-loving razzing of others in the locker room. X took offense and swung his fist at Ernie. Ernie caught the fist in his big right hand, then grabbed X’s forearm and bent the wrist up, forcing X to the ground. Ernie then said, “X, if I let you up, are we done?” X, red with embarrassment, said it was over and Ernie released him.

The reason this stuck with me was because it reminded of an incident in the John Steinbeck novel, “Of Mice and Men,” in which Lennie, a slow-witted worker on a ranch, was being repeatedly struck by the ranch foreman until Lennie caught the foreman’s fist in the air and crushed his hand. The reference is a bit strained because Ernie was extremely bright.

Ernie was the most joyful game participant I had ever seen, bright and quick-witted, laughing before a game, getting energy from the thrill of what was about to take place. Before one of our games, he said to me in a mockingly serious voice, “Ronnie Jack, I hope I don’t kill anyone out there today. If I do, I want you to represent me and plead self-defense.” At the time, I was going to law school at night.

Surprising Wright

Ernie Wright left college early and joined the team at age of 20, the same year I signed up for the Chargers — 1960. He played offensive left tackle, making All-Pro several times. He was extremely bright, great work ethic, and proved it by having a very successful post-football business career.

Different players have different game-day, pre-event routines. I tried to stay calm and collected no matter how big the moment. I believed that if I allowed myself to get charged up by adrenaline rushes before the game started, I would use up energy I needed for the entire game.

My pregame ritual became a curious thing for Ernie. After one of our games, Ernie approached me, and the following conversation took place:

Ernie: I have been watching you before games and seeing your lips moving and I thought you were praying. I finally decided today to get closer so that I could hear what you were praying for. Was it for a team to win, was it to kick butt. You were singing to yourself! You were singing “Fly Me to the Moon.” Is that what you have been doing before all these games?

Me: That’s it. It is my way of staying calm.

Ernie (laughing): And here I thought you were deeply religious, and I have been careful not to swear around you.

A mind for politics

Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp accepts a jersey from football players at Fairfax High in 1996.

(John Hayes / Associated Press)

Jack Kemp was the Chargers’ first quarterback. After an injury in his third year, he played for the Buffalo Bills. After football, he became a congressman in the Buffalo area and, later, presidential candidate Bob Dole’s choice to join his Republican ticket as his vice presidential running mate. Jack and I were training camp roommates during our first year with the Chargers. We became close friends. Jack was constantly thinking about politics and the relationship between government and the public and how power and policy shape everyday life and collective freedom.

Jack’s early political beliefs embraced the John Birch Society, a movement that felt expansive federal power is a threat to individual liberty. Among the Birch beliefs that Jack embraced was that there should not be Social Security, that if it was absent, people would then accept the responsibility of regularly putting away funds for their retirement.

During the week before a game in San Diego, I told Jack that Social Security is earned insurance, not welfare, that it spreads the risks across society, and keeps seniors out of poverty. I gave as an example my mother, who was a first-generation American with only a fifth-grade education who, prior to my retiring her when I signed with the Chargers, held minimum wage jobs that barely covered monthly expenses of her raising my brother and me by herself. I told Jack that her, and likely millions like her, given the choice of setting aside a dollar a month for retirement or spending it to care for her family, would place family first.

The depth of Jack’s constant thinking of politics became clear to me the Sunday of that week. I have forgotten the name of our opponent, but I do remember that it was a brutally contested game on a very hot day and we were ahead by only three points. At halftime, our team was walking toward the locker room when I heard Jack call out to me: “Ron, Ron, wait up.” I thought he was going to ask my opinion on what run plays would be best to call. Nope. Jack said: “I’ve been thinking about what you said about Social Security and people like your mother. I agree with you. Social Security must stay.” Then he was back to football: “OK, then, let’s get ‘em.”

I was surprised. It was a, “Wait … did that just happen?” moment. We were in the middle of a football game!

Being a part of something special

Athletes, as a group, have always been ahead of the country in improving racial and religious relations among the population. I am reminded of my senior year at the University of Southern California in 1959 when Willie Wood and I were elected co-captains of the football team. That was done at a time when 99% of the fraternities at the school barred us from membership because Willie was Black and I was Jewish. That sentiment in America meant nothing to our predominately white Christian teammates who, true to the nature of sports, judged teammates only on their character, work ethic and production.

Missing the demands of the game

And then there were the opponents. How deeply they are missed, those men across the line who made excellence necessary. While it is true that some opponents were less skilled than others, the collisions with all of them were just as real.

Playing against greatness was a measurement of who you were. I had the, yes, the pleasure of playing directly against fellow Hall members such as Deacon Jones, Buck Buchanon, Bobby Bell and Claude Humphrey, and a slew of other notable defensive linemen. They, and others, were equally committed to stopping me from doing my job.

It has now been 54 years since I left the game and I still miss it.

Mix was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.

It’s midseason in high school baseball, so let’s look at players who are producing results at a high level. Forget about rankings, radar guns or who has scholarship offers. These are the players making an impact.

No one has been better than sophomore pitcher Tyler George of Santa Margarita. With a 7-0 record, 0.85 ERA and just two walks in 41 1/3 innings, the 6-foot-5, 190-pound 16-year-old has shown what a top pitcher is supposed to look like.

Few saw this coming — except for his freshman coach last season, Mike Hiserman, who said, “He was the most fundamentally sound all-around freshman baseball player I’ve ever coached. Was good at everything yet still immensely coachable. You tell him something once and he does it.”

George said he has focused on mixing up his pitches — fastball, curveball, slider, change-up.

“Just not overthrowing the ball, not throwing as hard as I can but hitting the spots and having a feel for my off-speed pitches,” he said.

He threw all nine innings during a 1-0 win over Mater Dei that was full of drama.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “The adrenaline was running. It was cool.”

His brother, Hayden, is a freshman pitcher at UCLA, and he said Bruins coach John Savage has been asking Hayden about him, which is a good sign when he becomes available to talk to recruiters in the summer.

Royal pitcher Dustin Dunwoody is 7-0 with an 0.18 ERA.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

• Dustin Dunwoody, Royal: Armed with an overpowering fastball, Dunwoody is 7-0, has an 0.18 ERA with 74 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings.

Catcher Brady Murrietta of Orange Lutheran makes the tag at home plate against St. John Bosco.

(Nick Koza)

• Brady Murrietta, Orange Lutheran: The senior catcher keeps throwing out baserunners trying to challenge him. He’s also terrific on throws to the plate, picking up the hop and making the tag. And don’t forget his clutch hitting. He leads the team in RBIs with 12.
• Troy Randall, Corona Santiago: The junior third baseman is hitting .460 with 29 hits and also has given up just two hits in 12 innings in a relief pitching role.
• Jake Kim, Harvard-Westlake: The junior has displayed power and consistency, making him one of the toughest outs in the Wolverines’ lineup. He has 22 hits, a .500 batting average and four home runs.
• Malakye Matsumoto, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame: With 22 hits and 17 RBIs, the senior third baseman has been delivering for 14-3 Notre Dame.
• Tate Belfanti, Cypress: The junior left-hander has 53 strikeouts in 28 innings while going 5-0.
• Jake Ange, Thousand Oaks: The junior was a starter for the basketball team and has come out and hit seven home runs, including a game in which he hit two grand slams.
• Dylan Seward, Norco: The junior shortstop has been producing since he was a starter as a freshman. He has 26 hits, 16 RBIs and makes the plays when the ball is hit in his direction.
• James Tronstein, Harvard-Westlake: The senior shortstop has 26 hits, including four home runs, as the Wolverines’ leadoff hitter.
• Gary Morse, Orange Lutheran: The 6-foot-8 pitcher is 3-1 with a 1.40 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 30 innings for the No. 1 team in Southern California.
• Caleb Trugman, Ayala: The two-way player has 23 hits and is 6-0 pitchers and an 0.76 ERA.
• Xavier Cadena, El Dorado: The outfielder has hit five home runs, driven in 19 runs and is batting .373.
• Carson Sheffer, Oaks Christian: The senior catcher continues to be stellar behind the plate while also contributing 22 hits, including seven doubles.
• Landon Hovermale, Norco: A model of consistency, the left-handed Hovermale is 6-0 with an 0.95 ERA and has walked just four batters in 36 2/3 innings.
• Jackson Sellz, El Camino Real: The junior keeps throwing complete games for the defending City Section champs. He’s 6-0 with a 1.20 ERA and five complete games.
• Jayden Rojas, Bell: The senior third baseman is batting .466 with 27 hits for 17-2 Bell. As a pitcher, he’s 4-0 with a 1.04 ERA.

When the final horn sounded Saturday on the Kings’ 1-0 matinee win over the Edmonton Oilers, Anze Kopitar made his way to center ice, a microphone in his hand and his heart in pieces.

“Thank you very much,” he said to the fans, his voice cracking. “Thank you for being here.”

Kopitar then held his hands in front of him and folded his fingers into the shape of a heart before skating away — not quite into the sunset, but headed in that direction.

Kopitar announced in September that this season would be his last, so unless the Kings make the playoffs — a distinct possibility after the team’s fourth win a row and fifth in six games, its best streak of the season — Saturday marked the final home appearance of a brilliant 20-year career spent entirely in Los Angeles.

The Kings’ Anze Kopitar vies for position in front of the Oilers’ Darnell Nurse during the second period on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Scott Strazzante/For The Times)

And the announced crowd of 18,145 at Crypto.com Arena made sure he knew that parting is such sweet sorrow, standing and cheering long after the game had ended.

“Eventually it was going to happen,” Kopitar, 38, reflected before the game. “Whether it was this year or two years from now, there was going to be a last day. And I’m very OK with my decision.”

Kopitar will leave having written his name all over the Kings’ record book. He’s the all-time franchise leader in points (1,314), assists (862), game-winning goals (79) and games played (1,518). He ranks third in goals (452) and power-play goals (129).

And most importantly, he played a starring role on the Kings’ only two Stanley Cup championships, leading both the 2011-12 and 2013-14 teams in goals, assists and points.

“Over 700 people have put the Kings’ uniform on,” said Daryl Evans, who was one of the 700 before retiring to become a broadcaster with the team. “He stands at the top of the mountain as one of the greatest — if not the greatest — to do so. He’s a great hockey player, as we can all see. But he’s a better person off the ice.”

It’s that second part, Evans said, that will make Kopitar difficult to replace.

“Records are made to be beaten. But the intangibles, the things that he did as the team’s captain, the leadership that he provided, the type of a player he was, very unselfish,” Evans said. “He’s one of those guys who’s a special player.”

The Kings got the only goal they would need Saturday 7:34 into the first period when Artemi Panarin stripped Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard of the puck at the Kings’ blue line and took off the other way, skating in alone on Oilers’ goalie Connor Ingram, then beating him on a wrist shot from between the circles.

Kings players react as Anze Kopitar speaks to fans after his final regular-season home game, a 1-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

(Scott Strazzante/For The Times)

The goal was Panarin’s ninth in 23 games since joining the Kings just ahead of the Olympic break. Edmonton nearly pulled that back midway through the period when Curtis Lazar tipped the puck by Kings’ goalie Anton Forsberg, only to have defenseman Cody Ceci dive through the crease and swipe it away with a desperate one-handed wave of his stick.

Forsberg was brilliant the rest of the way, stopping 27 shots to post his 11^th career shutout and win his season-best fourth game in a row, preserving the Kings’ one-point lead over Nashville in the race for the Western Conference’s final wild-card playoff berth.

The son of a coach, Kopitar was born in the former Yugoslavia, in the mining town of Jesenice near the border with Austria, an area that became part of Slovenia when that country declared independence just before Kopitar’s fourth birthday.

At 16, he led the new country’s first-tier professional league in scoring, so he moved to Sweden in search of a challenge — and led that country’s top junior league with 49 points in 30 games. That drew the attention of the Kings, who took Kopitar with the 11th overall pick in the 2005 draft.

Fourteen months later he became the first Slovenian to play in the NHL, making his debut as a teenager and scoring two goals against the Ducks. He never looked back — nor looked to play elsewhere, twice signing contract extensions with the Kings rather than test the free-agent market. (Not that he needed to test the free-agent market since he made more than $140 million in his two decades with the Kings, becoming the best-paid player in team history.)

“I’ve always felt extremely comfortable in L.A.,” said Kopitar, whose two children were born here. “The organization has been world-class since I got here, so I had no desire to go anywhere else.”

Anze Kopitar celebrates with the Stanley Cup after the Kings’ win over the New Jersey Devils in 2012.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

As a result only six players in league history have played more games with a single organization, making Kopitar’s name synonymous with the franchise.

“The greatest to play for the Kings,” said Luc Robitaille, the franchise leader in goals (557) as a player and now the team’s president. “What’s he meant to this franchise — you know this franchise never won and he came along and we won two [Stanley Cups]. So he deserves all the credits and everything that’s coming his way.”

He’s also among the last of a dying breed: a two-way center who stood out on both ends of the ice, but was also gentlemanly enough to win the Lady Byng trophy three times. Only one player has won the NHL’s top sportsmanship award more often this century.

“Every coach would love to have him because he never cheats the game,” Evans said of Kopitar, who this month was also nominated for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which recognizes the player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey.”

“He’s got a lot of pride and he doesn’t want to let his teammates down,” Evans said. “He’s been a student of the game from Day 1. He plays the game the right way. If you could tell a player ‘watch somebody,’ there’s a guy you want to watch.”

Kopitar’s numbers have declined this season, owing partly to a pair of lower-body injuries that caused him to miss significant time in both October and January. That’s left him on pace to finish with fewer than 16 goals in a full season for just the third time while his 24 assists and 36 points are career lows.

But he has the best plus/minus number on the team and he’s winning a career-best 57.7% of his faceoffs, including four crucial draws deep in the Kings’ end in the final minute Saturday.

“It’s been, obviously, an up-and-down season,” he said. “Some good, some bad, some ugly.”

Kopitar admits the goodbyes have been emotional at times. On his final visit to Madison Square Garden last month, for example, he and former teammate Jonathan Quick exchanged several hugs after the game.

“I’m enjoying it,” he added. “I’m not sad about it. I guess I’m staying in the moment and enjoying the moment.”

The Kings’ Anze Kopitar tries to flip a shot past Edmonton goaltender Connor Ingram Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Scott Strazzante/For The Times)

The Kings can extend Kopitar’s farewell tour by at least a couple of weeks by making the playoffs, a task that’s looking much more likely than it did a week ago. After Saturday’s win the Kings not only lead Nashville in the wild-card race, holding a game in hand over the Predators, but they are just two points out of third place in the Pacific Division standings.

“He hopes he’s going to play here again,” Kings coach D.J. Smith said of Kopitar’s possible postseason encore.

Just where and when the team might open the postseason — if, indeed, it qualifies — is up in the air since the Kings could finish anywhere from first to fifth in the division, leaving them with more than a dozen possible playoff scenarios. So when the team leaves for its final three-game trip of the season Sunday, the players have been told to pack for 10 days.

Either way Kopitar isn’t changing his mind; when the Kings’ season ends — whenever that is — his career will end as well. So will his time in Los Angeles since Kopitar is selling his Manhattan Beach home and moving back to Slovenia to accept a new role as a full-time father.

“I’m going to be a dad,” he said. “I’m going to just relax and see how long it takes to get bored and then we’ll figure it out from there. Of course I’m going to miss this place. But it was a family decision, obviously, to move.

“As much as this place is super nice and the community was great to us, it’s time to slow down the tempo a little bit and enjoy life. But I’ll make it back here for sure.”

Former Galaxy forward Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, a three-time World Cup standout for Mexico, will return to the tournament this summer but in a new role as a studio analyst for Fox Sports. And he’s approaching his broadcast debut the same way he approached his playing career, with excitement not fear.

“It’s the same as our sport: if you do a mistake, you cannot change it,” he said. “I’ve always been a guy who sees opportunities, who sees the positives. I’m going to try to deliver my best point of view on each game, player, the tournament.

“I’m going to enjoy this opportunity.”

Hernández said he had other broadcast offers to do the World Cup in Spanish but chose to work in English instead.

“I’m not going to be speaking in my first language. And that’s something I think my Mexican fellows can be inspired by, right? That I don’t go to my comfort zone,” he said. “I want to make all of this an experience for myself. But as well I can show people that whatever you have in your mind, you can achieve it.”

Hernández, 37, is Mexico’s all-time leading scorer with 52 goals, including four in World Cup play. He started and ended his club career with his hometown team, Chivas de Guadalajara, but in between he played for five clubs in Europe and spent four injury-plagued seasons with the Galaxy, scoring 38 times and making two All-Star teams.

He made his final appearance for the Mexican national team in 2019, but he played with and against many of the players still on the team and he was chosen for his first World Cup roster by Javier Aguirre, who will be coaching El Tri again this summer. Hernández said those friendships won’t affect his commentary.

“Truth always needs to be there,” he said. “When someone needs to say hard truths, you have to say it. I’m going to see how I feel. Maybe I end up being the most critical person or the other way around. Maybe Mexico does amazingly and I don’t have to criticize.”

He’ll join four other former Galaxy players — Cobi Jones, Landon Donovan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexi Lalas — on the Fox broadcast team for the World Cup. Hernández, however, is the only one who hasn’t formally announced his retirement as a player.

“I will speak about that later on,” Hernández, who played his final club game last November, said Wednesday. “I just want to focus on this amazing opportunity.”

Jordan Ayala, a standout sophomore pitcher and hitter at Norco High, is the latest baseball player to reclassify and become a member of the class of 2027 next season, he confirmed on Tuesday during the first round of the Boras Classic.

Another player who has reclassified from the same tournament is Huntington Beach pitcher Jared Grindlinger, who will join the class of 2026, making himself available for this summer’s MLB amateur draft.

All this is happening with uncertainty about a possible MLB lockout when the current collective bargaining agreement runs out and not knowing what changes might happen to the draft.

Ayala, 16, said he’s moving his graduation date up to preserve his arm and take a look at becoming a professional after high school.

Huntington Beach coach Benji Medure said reclassifying is not for everyone.

“It takes a special person,” he said. “You’re putting yourself out there.”

Don’t be surprised to see more top players joining the reclassification movement next year.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

UCLA football practices simulate as many aspects of a game as possible, including TV timeouts. In a Bob Chesney practice, those simulated breaks become a chance for coaches to share information with the players.

“Instead of just taking a break … the coaches get together and then they break up and disseminate that information to the players, and then they come back together again and then we go out and play,” Chesney said.

Chesney wants his entire team to adapt, overcome and perform. These goals are often utilized in rest periods. They’re spread throughout practice to break the monotonous nature of it.

“I want the coaches to talk about the new plays they’re seeing from the offense and the new things they’re seeing from the defense,” he said. “I want them to practice coaching in-game, and they themselves want to practice coaching in-game.”

The coaching staff tries to slow things down for players. They don’t want players to rush through learning the playbook, and there’s no concrete deadline for installing plays into practice, offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy said.

“It’s fluid,” he told reporters last week.

In previous seasons at James Madison, Kennedy and Chesney noticed there were times when they would focus on learning plays too early in spring practice, leading to execution mistakes during games. This convinced them to put a hold on finalizing certain plays so players had more time to process details and make necessary adjustments.

“There’s a million football plays, but if you just install stuff and you don’t actually get a rep of it, what’s the point, right? You can’t assess it on film,” Kennedy said. “You can’t teach it to them the proper way because realistically, just like us, there’s only so much they can learn, right?”

Competition is at the heart of Chesney’s efforts to revitalize the Bruins. From the weight room to sitting in meetings, to the way the lockers are kept — everything is a competition, Chesney said.

“Every single thing is going to be graded and judged and held to a high standard, and accountability will follow it,” he said. “That has got to be it, we have to be able to compete. We play a game where you keep score and everybody’s in a one-on-one matchup and [compete] as hard as possible for 80, 90, however many plays it might be in a game.”

For UCLA, it’s important to set a level of competition that mimics game-time energy during practice.

“I want Saturdays to feel as much like a Tuesday and Wednesday as humanly possible,” Chesney said.

That includes the pressure of trying to filter out thousands of screaming fans. In punt return drills involving receiver Mikey Mathews, UCLA players rushed him, screamed at him and sprayed him with water in an attempt to prevent him from catching the ball.

Chesney doesn’t want to wait until the season starts to see if his players crack under pressure.

“I’d rather find out right now in practice three and just continue to elevate it week in and week out,” he said. “I think that’s probably the focal point of this entire program is that you pay attention to no virtue that has not been tested in fire, and I want to make sure that we test everything that we can out here in fire.”

Injury update: Linebacker Ryan McCulloch, who transferred from Cal, could see some practice time near the “very end” of the spring practice period, Chesney said. McCulloch missed most of the 2025 season because of injury.

Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where life comes at you fast.

Only a week ago, the Lakers were winning games and flying high. Quite literally. Remember when Luka Doncic dunked?

Happier times.

Now Doncic and Austin Reaves are both sidelined at least for the rest of the regular season and likely through the first round of the playoffs. The injury updates that came on consecutive days following Thursday’s 43-point loss to Oklahoma City felt like a devastating series of gut punches. Coach JJ Redick often talks about “not letting go of the rope.” The Lakers will have to white-knuckle their way through the next few weeks without their two stars.

Why is Luka Doncic in Europe?

Lakers star Luka Doncic reacts after sustaining a hamstring injury against the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 2.

(Cooper Neill / Getty Images)

He knows magic. Now Luka Doncic needs medicine to help pull off his next stunning trick.

With the playoffs approaching, Doncic traveled to Europe to seek treatment for his strained left hamstring, his agent, Bill Duffy, confirmed to The Times’ Broderick Turner. The hope is that with specialized treatments, Doncic can speed up what is typically a four- to six-week recovery process and get back in time for at least part of the Lakers postseason, which begins April 18.

Ultrasound-guided platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections and stem cell injections are the most common treatments for injuries of this nature, said Kenton Fibel, a primary care sports medicine specialist at Cedars-Sinai Orthopaedics.

The biologic injections can speed up healing of injured tissue. PRP injections use the natural growth and anti-inflammatory factors in platelets to promote healing while stem cells harvested from a patient’s bone marrow or adipose tissue similarly help with the regeneration and turnover of the healing tissue into normal muscle tendon tissue, Fibel said.

Top U.S. athletes have gone to Europe to seek the treatments for decades. Kobe Bryant, former Colts quarterback Andrew Luck and San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey are among those who’ve crossed the pond for solutions to chronic injuries. But similar treatments are also available in the United States.

In the U.S., only PRP and stem cell injections coming from a patient’s own body are allowed and the cells are not allowed to be manipulated, Fibel said. With looser regulations in Europe, doctors can attempt to increase the concentration of anti-inflammatory factors in a single PRP sample or culture stem cells over days to increase the number of them with hopes of speeding up healing even more.

Whether there is a significant increase in efficacy between the cutting-edge European treatments compared to the U.S. methods is unclear, Fibel said, but an athlete’s decision to pursue treatment often comes down to individual comfort level or prior experiences.

Lakers star Luka Doncic shoots over Brooklyn Nets guard Drake Powell during a Lakers win on March 27.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The ubiquity of degenerative conditions or recurring soft tissue injuries in sports have turned European countries, including Germany and Switzerland, into hot spots for top athletes searching for help.

“These are injuries that are not always that easy to completely prevent, and it’s also not the easiest to always prevent reaggravation,” Fibel said. “And so I think [the new treatments] also comes from a frustration of doing a lot of the treatments and modalities that were used in prior injuries and still having an issue afterwards [so] that they’re searching for something new and different.”

Doncic knows the routine when it comes to hamstring injuries. As a player who thrives on his shifty change of pace, Doncic’s quick start and stop motions put extra load on his hamstrings and put him at risk of reinjury. Another left hamstring strain sidelined him for four games earlier this season.

Now with a Grade 2 injury, Doncic’s timeline for recovery would typically be four to six weeks. A Grade 2 injury shows “true disruption” that involves about 50% of the tissue, Fibel said. The most severe Grade 3 is used to describe a more significant, if not complete, tear of the muscle or tendon. The Lakers have suffered several Grade 2 injuries this season, including Austin Reaves’ latest left oblique strain.

The timing of the injuries couldn’t be worse for the Lakers. Not only do the playoffs begin in less than two weeks, but the Lakers were playing their best basketball of the season before the injuries to Doncic and Reaves. They appeared to be legitimate contenders in the playoffs. Now they must wait to see if Doncic’s super serum turns him into a superhero capable of saving their postseason.

“[Doncic is] going to go through all the necessary things to be back at some point,” Redick said, “and it’s our job again to extend the season so both those guys can get back.”

Scoreboard watching

Lakers star LeBron James reacts during a game against the Sacramento Kings on Dec. 28.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

It’s true what they say: No lead is safe in the NBA.

Just when it looked like the Lakers were likely to finish third in the West, the Nuggets found a rhythm, the Lakers got bitten by the injury bug and the Rockets refused to relent.

Reeling from the loss of their two leading scorers, the Lakers have fallen to fourth in the West with Denver surging on a nine-game winning streak. After an overtime win against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday, the Nuggets (51-28) have a half-game advantage over the Lakers for the No. 3 seed.

The good news: The Lakers can’t drop below the fifth seed, thanks to Minnesota’s recent slide. They also have an additional cushion from their exceptional March, which gave them head-to-head tiebreakers against Denver and Houston.

I won’t repeat the obvious injury-related bad news.

To drop to fifth, the Lakers have to be 2-2 (or worse) in their last four games, while the Nuggets, who have the head-to-head tiebreaker against Houston, go at least 2-1 and the Rockets (49-29) run the table. The Nuggets have the tougher schedule between the three teams, though, playing both Oklahoma City and San Antonio in the final three games.

Here’s a look at the remaining games for the teams fighting for third, fourth and fifth in the West:

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

On tap

Tuesday vs. Thunder (62-16) 7:30 p.m. PDT

The Lakers won’t be able to undo last week’s 43-point loss in Oklahoma City, but a competitive showing in the rematch could at least offer a much-needed confidence boost entering the postseason.

Thursday at Warriors (36-42), 7 p.m.

The Warriors are in position to eke into the play-in tournament as the 10th seed. Believe it or not, this could be the last meeting between LeBron James and Stephen Curry in their illustrious careers as the 41-year-old James enters unrestricted free agency this summer.

Friday vs. Suns (43-35), 7:30 p.m.

Phoenix is currently seventh in the West with a chance to chase down sixth-place Minnesota for a playoff berth. Dillon Brooks recently returned from a fractured left hand that kept him out for about six weeks. The Suns went 9-9 during his absence.

Sunday vs. Jazz (21-58), 5:30 p.m.

The Jazz and the Kings are in a heated race to the bottom of the conference. Losers of nine straight, the Jazz are primarily hoping to keep their top-eight protected draft pick, which was at risk of conveying to Oklahoma City.

Status report

Luka Doncic: left hamstring strain

The Lakers have ruled Doncic out for at least the remainder of the regular season. Doncic previously missed four games with another left hamstring strain, but that same timeline won’t apply because the absence rolled into All-Star weekend, when he made a token appearance in the All-Star Game.

Austin Reaves: left oblique strain

Reaves played through the injury he suffered in the first quarter against the Thunder last week, but was ruled out for the rest of the regular season and he likely will miss the first round of the playoffs. He was injured while reaching for a loose ball.

Marcus Smart: right ankle contusion

Smart will miss his eighth consecutive game Tuesday against the Thunder as his ankle injury has lingered for more than two weeks since he got tangled up with Orlando’s Goga Bitadze. While Smart has worked out with staff members on the court before games, he is still day-to-day for his return.

Favorite thing I ate this week

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

When in doubt, consult the L.A. Times. For all the news you need to know, yes, but also about your local food needs. This dinner was brought to you by the L.A. Times’ best 101 restaurants list, which recommended Lalibela on Fairfax for an Ethiopian feast. We started with the lentil sambusa (not pictured), which came with a perfectly spiced herb sauce, and shared the veggie utopia, which hits every note with the restaurant’s most popular vegetarian dishes.

In case you missed it

Injury-riddled Lakers lose to Dallas; Luka Doncic to have medical treatment in Europe

Lakers’ Austin Reaves out for rest of regular season with oblique strain

Luka Doncic’s hamstring strain will keep him out for remainder of the regular season

Lakers star Luka Doncic suffers hamstring injury in reality-check loss to Thunder

After a sizzling March, Lakers face a big playoff test against equally hot Oklahoma City

Luka Doncic matches Michael Jordan for the most magical March in NBA history

LeBron James achieves his 125th career triple-double in Lakers’ win over Wizards

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!

UCLA football coach Bob Chesney wasn’t looking for star performances during the Bruins’ first spring practice on Thursday — instead, he wanted his players to focus on holding themselves accountable for putting in their best effort.

“We talk about the mirror test. Don’t worry about what your coach says, don’t worry about what your other teammates say,” Chesney said. “Go look at yourself in the mirror. That’s really the only guy that’s gonna know, right?”

There was excitement and intensity but perfection wasn’t expected. For the new head coach, it was about whether the fundamentals UCLA worked on throughout the winter carried over, he said.

“While I watch it out here, the things that don’t take skill, the things that don’t take great genetics, were the things I wanted to focus on today more than anything — the effort,” Chesney said.

UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava stretches with teammates at Spaulding Field on Thursday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

“We’ll go and watch the film and figure the rest of it out, but I didn’t think it was a bad day.”

Chesney said he plans to build on each practice, and his coaching staff will set a standard that trickles down to the players. He said there will always be something to improve and something to build toward.

Ta’Shawn James, a defensive back who transferred from Iowa to UCLA, showed strength during drills — an encouraging sign early in his progression.

“It’s Day 1, it’s the first time we’re running at full speed, it’s the first time we’re out here seeing people redirecting, what his makeup speed looks like,” Chesney said. “When he makes a mistake, how quickly can he recover? What’s his range in the open field? What’s the speed differential? All those things are things we’re looking through on just about everybody out there.”

Running back Wayne Knight followed Chesney from James Madison and adds to an already gritty running back group that could become one of the team’s deepest units.

“Not to name names, but they are all physical, they’re all downhill players. They protect the football well. What their bodies look like is phenomenal,” Chesney said. “ … There’s some stuff in that room that’s just a little bit different right now, so we got to keep them healthy, keep them playing downhill and doing what they do.”

At right tackle, the competition is wide open.

“A lot of guys, we’re not really at a spot to just nail that down just yet. Give me a couple more days on it. But, right now, there’s a lot of guys rotating through a lot of different places,” Chesney said.

As spring practice gets started, it is not about individuality, Chesney said, but about identifying and correcting mistakes.

“Dwelling on the past, if it was bad, is not gonna get you anywhere. Getting too high in the successful moments isn’t gonna get you anywhere,” he said.

Chesney wants his squad to play without any limitations or hesitations.

“You set these standards, you live by these standards, you hold them accountable to these standards, not only the coaches and the players, but everybody that’s part of this program.

UCLA coach Bob Chesney leads the Bruins through their first spring football workouts on Thursday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

“That starts to build trust within the team,” he added.

UCLA’s social media accounts highlighted Chesney’s efforts all offseason to preach personal accountability and serving others, doling out a mix of John Wooden and Ted Lasso life lessons.

Chesney reiterated at the start of the next chapter — spring football workouts — that he wants his players to keep pushing to be great people. If they expect to be successful on the field, Chesney argues, they must first be successful off it.

“You can only be one degree of separation from how you’re living your life,” he said. “… We don’t have any bad guys that are bad students, that are bad teammates, we don’t have any of that, we have really good guys so they have a chance to be great at football.”

Alum donates $10 million

UCLA alumnus Angelo Mazzone III committed $10 million to the football program to help maintain the infrastructure needed to compete at the highest levels.

“For him to be as generous as he is and willing to help us with that, I think that’s a big deal,” Chesney said. “It talks about just the investment and the belief people have in this program at this current moment and rightfully so.”

Jordan Pickford: Japan’s opening goal was the first time Pickford had conceded for England in 922 minutes. He had to produce a smart save in the second half to keep the hosts in the game. 6

Ben White: Beaten once early on but showed the consistency he has done for Arsenal after that. A constant hard-working presence down the right-hand side. One particularly good overlapping run in the first half. 6

Ezri Konsa: In with a big chance of starting the first game at the World Cup. One crucial block to deny Ayase Ueda with the shot hitting the bar and going over. 6

Marc Guehi: Given the armband by Tuchel for the first time. A couple of shaky moments early on but after that as dependable as ever. 6

Nico O’Reilly: Another important game for O’Reilly as he makes the left-back position his own before the summer. He showed his ability on the ball and moved into midfield whenever he could. 7

Kobbie Mainoo: A bright start and some nice footwork when moving the ball around midfield. Beaten a couple of times on Japan attacks when trying to defend. 6

Elliot Anderson: A certain starter at the World Cup. Assured in midfield, provided a drive to England’s play and tried to make things happen. One of the better performers on the night and clipped the crossbar with a good effort. 7

Cole Palmer: The Chelsea attacker was given the nod as the number 10 over Phil Foden who played as a false nine. There was always a sense that something could happen when Palmer was on the ball. However, he was caught on the ball and punished for Japan’s opener. Came off just before the hour mark. 6

Morgan Rogers: Started on the right wing and asked to provide a threat through the middle with no natural striker in the starting line-up. Not his best position but did the job that was asked of him. 6

Anthony Gordon: Put in another energetic performance with lots of hard work but not many moments to threaten the Japan defence. 5

Phil Foden: The Man City forward started as a false nine as Tuchel looks for a position for him in England’s squad. It was not a good night for Foden who will be worried about his place on the plane for the World Cup. Replaced in the 59th minute. 5

Welcome back to this week’s Lakers newsletter, where the vibes are immaculate.

The Lakers have won 15 of their last 17 games. LeBron James continues to set NBA records, most recently tying the all-time mark for wins in the regular season and playoffs with Monday’s win over Washington. Jaxson Hayes hasn’t missed a three-point shot all year. The fans who chanted “We want Bronny!” have gotten their wish.

With seven games remaining in the regular season, we turn our focus to a different cheer.

MVP! MVP!

Lakers star Luka Doncic runs onto the court before a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 10 at Crypto.com Arena.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The familiar chant rang out in arenas from L.A. to Miami to Indianapolis. Luka Doncic’s campaign was powerful enough to sway even opposing crowds that showered him with shouts of “MVP.”

With Doncic on a historic season-ending heater, the most valuable player discussion suddenly got piping hot with two weeks left in the season. The NBA’s leading scorer surged back into the race with gaudy numbers over the month of March: 37.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game; 12 straight 30-point games; a 24-hour stretch with 100 points; and the first 60-point performance by a Laker since Kobe Bryant in his final game.

The most important number from March: 14 wins. Approaching the playoffs, the Lakers (49-26) are one of the hottest teams in the league, powered by Doncic’s brilliance.

“If we continue to finish the season the way we’re playing right now, and he continues to play that way, to me, he is the MVP,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.

Doncic leads the league in scoring (33.7) and is just a hair off from the career-high 33.9 points per game he averaged when he finished third in MVP voting in 2024. Compared to the other top three MVP candidates — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama — Doncic’s traditional stats paint a competitive picture. He has the second-most assists of the quartet behind Jokic and the third-most rebounds.

Among guards who have played more than 11 games, Doncic ranks third in rebounds per game at 7.8, and his 7.2 defensive rebounds per game is the most of anyone at his position. Doncic’s defense gets picked apart, but he also has a career-best 102 steals. He’s the only player averaging 30 or more points this season with 100 or more steals.

“He’s the engine that’s driving all of our winning,” Redick said.

Advanced statistics have Doncic a tier below his rivals. Doncic’s net rating of plus-4 is a distant fourth among the top contenders and pales in comparison to Wembanyama’s plus-17.3.

Breaking down the MVP race

Jokic appeared to be on his way to winning his fourth MVP before the Nuggets star missed a month with a knee injury. By leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to the best record in the league, Gilgeous-Alexander appeared to be in pole position to win his second consecutive MVP.

Doncic and Wembanyama are making a late charge. The Spurs see the Lakers’ 14-2 record in March and raise them a 25-2 mark since Feb. 1. They won their 10 consecutive game Monday. While Doncic was serving a suspension for technical foul accumulation, Wembanyama scored 41 points with 16 rebounds, four assists and three blocks against the Chicago Bulls.

The MVP chants in Frost Bank Arena are just as loud as anywhere in the league.

All fore one

Lakers guard Austin Reaves shoots a free throw during a win over the Washington Wizards on Monday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Of all the NBA markets, L.A. presents unique challenges to team building. When Redick played for the Clippers, teammates scattered immediately after practice with hopes of beating traffic on the way home. Redick knew he wasn’t going to drive hours from his home in Manhattan Beach to visit Chris Paul in Calabasas.

But for the Lakers, a round of golf is worth a drive on the 405.

“Finding tee times, being with each other for four hours where you can shoot the proverbial S-H-I-whatever and not have to be in a high pressure moment or on a team bus and kind of be away from the facility,” Redick said, “I think it’s great.”

Golf is the Lakers’ latest bonding activity that’s helped keep the vibes high through the most successful stretch of the season. The Lakers have been intentional with team-building activities in Redick’s second year at the helm. All players and coaches made autobiographical powerpoint presentations to the team during the preseason. Jake LaRavia and assistant coach Beau Levesque won the team-wide pickleball tournament in November. Players and coaches arrange golf outings between games on long road trips. One day after hitting the winning shot in Orlando, newest teammate Luke Kennard got in on the golf action in a scramble match with players facing coaches.

“They had AR,” Redick said sheepishly, “so we can all guess the result of that one.”

Austin Reaves is the leader in the clubhouse. He remembered when teammates gave him grief about his love of golf, which he picked up at 17 and almost immediately excelled at. Seeing his teammates embrace the game “actually means a lot to me,” Reaves said.

“I’m glad that they are addicted,” he added with a satisfied smile.

After the COVID-19 bubble, Redick noticed an uptick in golf’s popularity around the league. Even the Lakers have a handful of players who suddenly decided to start during the last year. Doncic is the most recent convert. He bragged that he beat Reaves on one hole when they played in Indianapolis. Reaves, who got a double bogey compared to Doncic’s bogey, said he let his teammate win.

“It’s a confidence thing,” Reaves said. “We needed him to be at his best at 7 o’clock tonight.”

Doncic scored 43 points against Indianapolis the day after the golf outing.

On tap

Cleveland’s Jarrett Allen shoots between Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, left, and forward Tobias Harris on March 3.

(Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

Tuesday vs. Cleveland (47-28), 7:30 p.m. PDT

Center Jarrett Allen returned last week from a 10-game absence, but missed Cleveland’s game on Monday in Utah as he managed right knee tendinitis. Missing the first game of a back-to-back indicates that he’ll likely be available against the Lakers.

Thursday at Oklahoma City (60-16), 6:30 p.m. PDT

The Thunder have won 15 of their last 16 games with the only loss coming against Boston. This game and next week’s rematch at Crypto.com Arena could be critical in the MVP race between Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic.

Sunday at Dallas (24-51), 4:30 p.m. PDT

Since the trade heard ‘round the league, Doncic has averaged 33 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists in four games against his former team. It’s his highest scoring average against any Western Conference opponent.

Status report

Marcus Smart (right ankle contusion)

Smart remains day-to-day with an ankle injury he sustained against Orlando. He has missed four games.

Adou Thiero (left knee soreness)

The rookie forward landed back on the injury report after playing two minutes in the Lakers’ loss to Detroit. Redick said Thiero was held out for precautionary reasons after his knee didn’t react well to playing in a G League game then playing in Detroit two days later. Thiero previously missed six weeks with a right medial collateral ligament sprain and underwent surgery on his left knee in college, which kept him sidelined at the beginning of the season.

Favorite thing I ate this week

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

I have had Ramen Nagi on my list for literal years because former USC center Brett Neilon — who grew up in Tokyo — recommended it. I have changed beats three times since then but never forgot what he said was his favorite ramen place in L.A. The red king, which is a spicy version of their pork broth ramen, was worth the years of anticipation. Every bowl is customizable so I loved getting to add thick ramen noodles.

In case you missed it

No Luka Doncic, no problem for LeBron James and Lakers in blowout win

Lakers hope two-day ‘reset’ will refresh them for final stretch of the season

Luka Doncic will serve one-game suspension for techs on Monday

Swanson: Bronny James has proven he deserves to be a Laker — with or without LeBron

Lakers beat Nets, but Luka Doncic is facing suspension again after 16th technical

Luka Doncic scores 43 as road weary Lakers hold off late Pacers rally

Lakers fade in final seconds against Pistons as nine-game win streak ends

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!