regular season

The best way to climb a mountain is one step at a time.

Especially when you’re wearing skates.

And the Kings will be wearing skates and staring at a very large mountain when they take the ice Sunday for Game 4 of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series with the Colorado Avalanche, a loss away from elimination.

“You’ve just got to start with the first one,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said after a fast-paced 45-minute practice Saturday. “You try to win the first one, and then reset and go from there.”

Since the Kings trail 3-0 a win in Sunday’s matinee at Crypto.com Arena will do little more than extend the series one game, sending the teams back to Denver. To advance to the second round, the Kings need to win four in a row against the team that posted the NHL’s best record in the regular season.

How big a mountain is that? Well, the Avalanche haven’t lost four in a row since October and the Kings haven’t won a first-round playoff series since 2014.

One step at a time.

“You just have to win one, that’s first off. And then the hardest one will be the next one,” Kings interim coach D.J. Smith said. “And then, you know, it’s just momentum changes. But you can’t think about that without winning one, and you can’t think about winning one without winning the first period.

“You’re up against it, but I don’t think you can think about winning the series. You just got to think about winning one game.”

The series has been a lot closer than the deficit would indicate. The Kings have won the battle of the special teams, with their penalty kill shutting out the NHL’s highest-scoring team on nine chances. They’ve also scored a power-play goal in each of three games and held Nathan MacKinnon, the league’s top goal-scorer, to one assist in three games.

MacKinnon didn’t even take a shot in Game 3, yet Colorado won 4-2 with two goals bouncing in off the skates of Kings forward Adrian Kempe and goalie Anton Forsberg while another was scored into an empty net.

“You still lose the game,” Anderson said. “This time of year doesn’t really matter. You can say it feels good, you do all these good things. But if you don’t win the game, it’s kind of it’s the only thing that matters right now.”

ings center Scott Laughton (21) checks Avalanche defenseman Sam Malinski (70) into the boards during the second period of Game 2 in Denver.

(Jack Dempsey / Associated Press)

Added forward Scott Laughton, “Sometimes you get the bounce, sometimes you don’t. You have to have a very-narrow minded focus. We’ve got to stick to the process.”

The Kings have only four goals in the series and have scored just once at even strength, so Smith scrambled his bottom two forward lines in practice Saturday in a search for speed in the offensive end. But he said he doesn’t plan any major changes for Game 4, adding the Kings just need to check harder, move the puck better and get to the net more.

“I think that the game plan is correct,” he said.

However the Kings have taken just 76 shots in the three games, making things far too easy for Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood, who has been brilliant.

“We’ve got to find ways to put the puck in the net, whether that’s crashing the nets, making the play for an empty netter. It doesn’t matter at this point,” said Kings’ captain Anze Kopitar, whose 20-year NHL career ends when his team’s season does. “We’ve got to find a way.”

Smith, who rallied the Kings into the playoffs after taking over for Jim Hiller with 23 games left in the regular season, is making his Stanley Cup playoff debut as a head coach. But he’s been in this position before. As an assistant with Windsor in the Ontario Hockey League, Smith coached a team that overcame a 3-0 deficit and went on to win the league title.

That was a big mountain. And they climbed it one step at a time.

“We’ve just got to play our best game one time, and then we’ll worry about the next game,” Smith said. “But we have to find a way to score more while playing the exact same defense.

“Is it hard? Yes. Are we going to give it everything we got? Yes. I think you’re going to see our best game in the series.”

The only thing that would make the job JJ Redick is doing better is if he were wearing a suit.

If the Lakers’ coach looked the part.

The part of a lawyer, walking down his opposition in the open court. He delivered an airtight opening argument that was stunning for how much stronger it was than opposing coach Ime Udoka’s. And evidence of how far Redick has come.

Now, look, your honor: The short-on-star-power Lakers winning both games at home to take a 2-0 series lead over the heavily favored Houston Rockets in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs? That’s a compelling start.

But Redick, James and Associates are only halfway there; they’re still proving their case.

They still need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that their top role players can perform as persuasively on the road as they have at home.

And they’ll probably have to prove they can effectively rebut the Rockets’ adjustments, though those are merely conceptual at this point, they’re so overdue.

Two games into this series it looks to us, the members of the jury, as though Redick has taken this allegedly open-and-shut case, this slam dunk of a trial — and thrown down a reverse.

The Lakers look like the better team. Like the better-constructed team, even. And that’s without injured stars Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, who are hustling back as fast as their bodies will let them from hamstring and oblique injuries, respectively.

They look like the better-coached team.

It’s the opposing counsel who looks dressed for the part, Udoka in a sweatsuit like a dad at a Saturday morning youth league trying to get his players to get along, with just one play in his pocket: Give the ball to Kevin.

Meanwhile, the legal team minding the game in the Lakers’ huddle is running laps around the guys on the other bench.

Coach JJ Redick and forward LeBron James have helped the Lakers earn a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven playoff series agains the favored Rockets without injured guards Luke Doncic and Austin Reaves.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Exhibit A: One of the game’s greatest scorers, Kevin Durant, has been forced by his own team to do a lot of ballhandling chores too. So the Lakers have been double-teaming and blitzing Durant all over the court, compelling him into nine turnovers in Tuesday’s 101-94 Game 2 victory at Crypto.com Arena. Using the same strategy, they’ve turned him over 20 times in his last three meetings with the Lakers, going back to the regular season.

Exhibit B: By playing drop, hedge, man and mixing zone defenses, the Lakers also have been, according to Marcus Smart’s postgame testimony, “throwing different packages” at the Rockets. It’s working: Houston has failed to score 100 points in either game of the series.

Exhibit C: The Lakers are putting the ball in Smart’s hands, using him in a way that forces the Rockets to defend honestly, instead of sagging off him. They’ve also been intentional with how they leverage Luke Kennard, running actions that overrule his reluctance to shoot. It should please the court to see the man shooting 65.4% (17 for 26) from the field in the first two games!

With these tactics and others, the Lakers seem almost to be creating new precedent for the laws of basketball, because what do you mean the Rockets have taken 44 more shots but have been outscored by 16 points?

What makes it so wildly impressive is that before the Lakers brought this thing to trial, it looked as though it would be thrown out on the grounds of insufficient star power.

With just 41-year-old LeBron James to carry them without Doncic and Reaves, Houston seemed so much stronger. Physically, on the boards, in just about every way — except in terms of chemistry, camaraderie and communication.

Even Udoka’s record seemed superior. In 2021-22, his first (and only) season as the Boston Celtics’ coach, he led them to the NBA Finals.

Redick, in his first playoffs as a coach last year, showed such contempt for his own team and made an absolute mockery of the game plan that got the Lakers to the postseason in the first place. Remember how he panicked, refusing even to approach the bench to give his preferred five a breather for a full losing half in Game 4 against the Minnesota Timberwolves? The little tantrum he threw when asked about it before the Game 5 finale?

The Duke graduate and self-proclaimed “basketball sicko” has appeared much more prepared this time, much more composed.

He seems to be in his element, problem-solving alongside his former podcast host, James, who has stepped right up with 47 points, 20 assists and 16 rebounds — including some highlight-reel dunks and passes — through the first two games. We are all witnesses.

Still, this thing is going to last at least two more games, and possibly more, before we get a verdict.

And if it goes the Lakers’ way?

Congratulations, JJ, you will have earned the reputation as a coach who can take on the toughest cases and win them. And do we have an impossible challenge for you next on the docket.

The top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder are young, deep, and up 2-0 in their first-round series against the Phoenix Suns. The defending-champion Thunder have run the Lakers out of court in every meeting this season, beating them by an average of 29 points. And they’re clever too; referees — those judges on the court — always seem so sympathetic to OKC.

Would the Lakers have any chance? Redick is proving he might be able to make a case.

The Ducks held their annual fan appreciation day Sunday, handing out thousands of gifts, from a new car to team jerseys and gift cards. But the one prize the Ducks’ long-suffering fans really wanted, a playoff berth, remained just out of reach.

Needing a win to clinch a postseason berth for the first time since 2018, the Ducks lost a sloppy 4-3 overtime decision to the Vancouver Canucks, the NHL’s worst team, leaving them a point shy of the playoffs with two games to play. The loss was the seventh in eight games for the Ducks, who have tumbled from first to third in the Pacific Division standings and may now have to settle for a wild-card berth.

So they’ll hit the road Monday for their final two games of the regular season needing one point from games in Minnesota and Nashville. The Ducks could also back into the playoffs if Nashville losses either of its final two games.

“We haven’t clinched anything yet,” captain Radko Gudas said. “With two games to play, there’s still a lot of work to do, 120 minutes to give it our all and make that push.”

“We just can’t be satisfied with what we’re at right now,” coach Joel Quenneville agreed. “We didn’t make it easy on ourselves, that’s for sure.”

The Ducks have already assured themselves of their first winning record since 2017-18 but the playoffs have been the Holy Grail the team has been chasing since then. And it appeared within reach until Marco Rossi scored on a power play with less than 11 seconds left in the extra period, silencing a sellout crowd that had repeatedly peppered the Ducks with rhythmic chants of “We want playoffs!”

“I loved it,” Quenneville said of the chant. “I wanted to complete that wish tonight.”

And it looked as if that would happen given the way the Ducks started, with Cutter Gauthier opening the scoring with the first of two goals 3:41 into a feisty and physical first period that was interrupted by seven penalties and two fights.

But Vancouver got the next three scores, taking a 3-1 lead when Brock Boeser intercepted a sloppy Leo Carlsson pass intended for John Carlson in Vancouver’s defensive end, then outskated Carlson the other way before lifting the puck over goaltender Lukas Dostal less than five minutes into the final period.

The shorthanded goal seemed to wake the slumbering Ducks, with Gauthier scoring on a power play 37 seconds later to halve the lead and become the first Duck with 40 goals in a season since Corey Perry in 2013-14.

“It’s a huge milestone and something I’m very proud of,” Gauthier said. “But that’s not why I’m playing hockey. I’m playing to win games and eventually win a Stanley Cup.”

Carlsson then evened things at 3-3 on a spectacular goal less than two minutes later, backhanding the puck over Canucks goalie Nikita Tolopilo while skating away from the crease for his 29^th goal of the season.

“It was kind of a dagger when they score a shorthanded goal on us,” Gauthier said. “It’s supposed to be the opposite way. But I thought we responded really well, obviously tying it back up.”

The Ducks couldn’t keep it there, however, with Chris Kreider taking a slashing penalty with 2:07 left in overtime, giving Vancouver an extra skater. Dostal had kept the Ducks in the game, making seven saves in the extra period, including five huge stops on the power play, but he couldn’t stop Rossi on the final shot, one which sent the Ducks’ fans home disappointed and eager to end to the second-longest playoff drought in the NHL.

“They’ve been hungry to get back in the playoffs over these last seven years,” said Gauthier, who was in junior high school in Michigan the last time the Ducks played in the postseason. “They’re excited for it, we’re excited for it. We fell short tonight but we had a great opportunity to go on this road trip and get some get points.”

Actually just one point — the one they left on the ice Sunday — will be enough.

DALLAS — The Lakers are as shorthanded as they can be, their dynamic starting backcourt of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves out with injuries at a pivotal time of the season.

They’re the offensive engines for a Lakers team battling for the No. 3 playoff seeding in a competitive Western Conference.

The 41-year-old LeBron James is now driving the Lakers, and despite falling just a rebound shy of a triple-double, he couldn’t save the Lakers from a 134-128 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday at American Airlines Center.

James had 30 points, 15 assists and nine rebounds. Luke Kennard delivered his first career triple-double with 15 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists.

Dallas rookie Cooper Flagg, coming off a 51-point performance against Orlando on Friday, finished with 45 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. He scored 19 points in the first quarter.

“Obviously, Cooper is in a zone over the last couple of games,” James said. “But [he] also has been playing consistent basketball all year so it’s great to see him from early in the season to where he is today.”

For the Lakers, finding ways to win without two of their best players will be their challenge over the final week of the season.

“We’ve got to have the commitment to do it on both ends and that’s the reason that we’ve put ourselves in the position to be in the playoffs,” Redick said, “because we became a really good offensive team and a really good defensive team.”

Doncic was diagnosed with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will be out the remainder of the regular season — maybe even longer.

Doncic’s agent, Bill Duffy of WME Sports, confirmed to The Times that his client will seek specialized treatment for his injury in Europe with the hopes of speeding up his recovery.

Reaves was diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury and will be out for the rest of the regular season, and likely into the playoffs. The time frame for Reaves’ return is more like four-to-six weeks, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak on the matter.

Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg, left, drives against Lakers guard Bronny James during the second half Sunday.

(LM Otero / Associated Press)

“I took my nap after practice and I woke up with that news and it was like another shot to the [head],” James said about Reaves’ diagnosis. “It was a shot to the heart, obviously, and to the chest and to the mainframe with Luka, understanding that.”

Even Marcus Smart, known for his competitiveness and defensive tenacity, missed his seventh straight game with right ankle soreness.

With Doncic and Reaves out, the Lakers lose a combined 56.8 points per game and 13.8 assists per game. Doncic is fourth in the NBA in assists, with 8.3 per game, and he’s second on the Lakers in rebounding, at 7.7 per game.

“We knew that Austin was likely going to be out for a little bit of time,” Redick said. “Obviously, disappointed and devastated for him to have his regular season finish this way. … Both those guys are going to try to come back and it’s our job to extend the season so that they can come back.”

The Lakers have four regular-season games left, starting with Oklahoma City on Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena. They play at Golden State on Thursday before facing the Phoenix Suns in L.A. on Friday.

The Lakers are tied with the Denver Nuggets for third in the West at 50-28, although the Lakers own the tiebreaker. The NBA playoffs starts the weekend of April 18.

With that in mind, Redick was asked if he had an optimistic view of Doncic being back for the playoffs.

“I just know that he’s gonna do everything he can to try to be back,” Redick said. “I talked to him Friday. I talked to him again yesterday. I talked to him again this morning. He’s going to go through all the necessary things to be back at some point, and it’s our job again to extend the season so both those guys can get back.”

DALLAS — The Lakers will be without their starting backcourt for the rest of the regular season — five more games — after Austin Reaves was diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique strain on Saturday.

Lakers coach JJ Redick said Reaves underwent an MRI exam on his left olbique/rib area Saturday.

The team learned earlier this week that Luka Doncic has a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will be out for the remainder of the regular season — and perhaps beyond.

The Lakers are also dealing with an injury to guard Marcus Smart, who has missed the last six games because of a right ankle contusion and is questionable for the game.

“It’s it’s lingering soreness in the ankle,” Redick said.

Even with all of this, Redick said the Lakers’ “mission hasn’t changed.”

“We want to get the third seed and we want to win a first-round series,” Redick said.

The Lakers are the third in the Western Conference, but Denver, Houston and Minnesota are within striking distance. The Lakers hold the tiebreaker over all three.

They’ll try to hold on to the No. 3 seed over the final five games of the regular season without Doncic, who leads the NBA in scoring (33.5 points per game) and is fourth in assists (8.3).

“I know Luka’s gonna do everything he can to get back on the court,” Redick said. “We don’t know what this recovery timetable looks like.”

The Lakers likely will have to lean more on LeBron James, a role the 41-year-old is more than willing to take on. James has been designated the third option behind Doncic and Reaves yet has still averaged 20.6 points per game, 6.9 assists and 6.0 rebounds in his 23rd season.

“It probably is going to look a little bit differently with Luka being out,” James said after practice. “I’ll figure that out and then, obviously, the coaches will figure it out as well.”

The Lakers are making the mental adjustment of playing without Doncic. After the Mavericks, they’ll have tough games against Oklahoma City, Golden State and Phoenix before finishing against lowly Utah.

“I mean, it’s a challenge for us,” James said. “It’s always got to be a next-man-up [mentality]. But there’s no way you can replace that type of impact. So, it’s going to be a collective group. We all have to figure out a way to do a little bit more. But even now, you got to be even more tightened up on the things that we do. When you lose a special player like that, you can’t have as many mistakes. So, we got to figure that out.”

For Redick, speaking for the first time since news of Doncic’s injury, he had to check on the temperature of his team to make sure his group was in the right space.

The practice Saturday on the campus of Southern Methodist helped.

“I think making sure that everybody’s in the right frame of mind, first of all, and then you know we worked on just offensive stuff, just cleaning up some stuff and being really explicit with what we want to run,” Redick said. “Did some offensive breakdown. It was definitely more of an offensive day.

“We did work on defense to start the practice, but that’s again that’s the primary sort of focus. How do we score, how do we score efficiently, and our defense again is, it’s we’re interchangeable. We’ve been interchangeable now for two-and-a half-months.”

James controversy

James created a bit of controversy when he said on “Bob Does Sports” YouTube video that Memphis should relocate to Nashville.

“I’m not like the first guy to even talk about it in the NBA. We all like, ‘You guys have to move. Just go over to Nashville,” James said.

James, when asked if he wanted to clarify his remarks, then mentioned Milwaukee also as one of his least favorite cities.

“I said Milwaukee as well,” James said. “I’m 41 years old (and) there’s two cities I do not like playing in right now — and that’s Milwaukee and that’s Memphis. What is your problem with it? I don’t like going home [to Cleveland] either. … And I’m from there. People are ridiculous. They also get mad at my son [Bronny James] being on the [Lakers] team, too.

“So, what are we talking about? People need to figure out other ways to put their energy to other things that’s important. Like, seriously? I’m not talking about the city, like the people in Memphis. I don’t like staying at the Hyatt Centric [hotel]. What’s wrong with that? Nothing. What are we talking about? What are we talking about? People need to chill the hell out.”

Shohei Ohtani’s three straight strikeouts in the fourth inning of his final spring start Tuesday featured a different putaway pitch for each.

He got Angels slugger Jorge Soler to whiff on a sweeper. Jeimer Candelario went down on a curveball. And Jo Adell struck out on a fastball.

“Just shows the confidence he has and different ways he had to attack guys, to get ahead and also put guys away,” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 3-0 loss to the Angels in the Freeway Series finale. “And today the feel was really good, even better than the first outing.”

Pretty much everything was clicking for Ohtani heading into the regular season, even though it was only his second spring training start on the mound. Ohtani recorded 11 strikeouts in four-plus innings. He held the Angels to four hits, three of which were consecutive singles in the fifth, and was charged with three runs, all scored in the fifth.

For the first time in three years, Ohtani is set to begin the season as a fully healthy pitcher. And it will be the Dodgers’ first time managing his two-way schedule all year. Limited the last two seasons by his recovery and build-up from elbow surgery, Ohtani last made 20-plus starts in 2023 with the Angels.

“The desire is high,” Roberts said when asked about Ohtani’s aim to pitch wall to wall. “I think it’s realistic. Then the bigger question is, how are we going to manage that and navigate it?”

Thinking through the plan going into the season, Roberts floated the idea of giving Ohtani a little extra rest between starts. Dodgers starters are already on a six- to seven-day rotation. But a six-man starting pitching group gives the team flexibility as they map out their pitching plan.

“My intent is to be in the rotation under normal rest, normal circumstances,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton last week in Arizona. “Now if management thinks that I need extra rest, I’ll take it. But I’ll let management handle that. Just looking at our roster, we have a lot of pitchers. It doesn’t hurt to rest more.”

Ohtani’s in-game limits, after a build-up slowed by his participation in the World Baseball Classic as a position player, will be adjusted before each start. But his Freeway Series outing Tuesday set him up well. He stretched out to 86 pitches.

“When you’re talking about the first game of the season, could he get through six innings? Could he touch the seventh? Yes,” Roberts said Tuesday afternoon. “But he won’t touch the eighth inning. So there’s got to be some responsibility as far as how we manage him.”

When it comes to awards, Ohtani is going after a third World Series title. But his trophy case is well stocked with individual accolades too. He’s won four MVPs, five All-Star selections, four Silver Sluggers and a Rookie of the Year award.

The Cy Young, however, has remained elusive. He came close in 2022, when a 2.33 ERA and league-leading 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings earned him a fourth-place finish in the American League. It was the only time in his career that he crossed the 25-start threshold, with 28.

“I would never want to sacrifice our chance of winning and performing in the postseason,” Ohtani said. “So I think that’s really the No. 1 goal in my mind. Just because I want to try to win the Cy Young and throw more innings, that’s not necessarily the priority over winning a championship. So with that being said, if there’s a situation where there’s some injuries and I do have to pitch on shorter rest, I’m happy to do so.”

Would showing that he can make regular starts all year automatically put him in the Cy Young conversation?

“Oh yeah,” Roberts said. “Because of just talent, ability, will. If he does that, he’ll be in the conversation, absolutely. I have no doubt about that.”

Of course, besides reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, Ohtani would also be competing for the award with his own teammate, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who enters the season with the edge.

If Ohtani continues to pitch like he did on Tuesday, while building up the rest of the way, he and the Dodgers will be in good shape.

“It was another good one for him,” Roberts said, “and he’ll be ready to go.”

Detroit Pistons star Cade Cunningham has suffered a collapsed lung and will miss at least two weeks with less than a month remaining in the NBA’s regular season, the team announced Thursday.

Cunningham was injured Tuesday night when he collided with Washington’s Tre Johnson while diving for a loose ball during the first quarter of the Pistons’ 130-117 victory over the Wizards. He took awhile to get up but remained in the game for just over a minute before leaving for good at the 6:40 mark.

The Pistons said at the time that Cunningham was suffering back spasms. In a statement Thursday morning, the team said that after further testing the 24-year-old guard “has been diagnosed with a left lung pneumothorax” and will be reevaluated in two weeks.

ESPN reports that the “collapse of Cunningham’s lung is considered mild” and “there is some optimism that Cunningham will be back in time for the start of the playoffs.”

The Pistons, who currently have a 3.5-game lead over the Boston Celtics atop the Eastern Conference standings, wrap up their season April 12 against the Indiana Pacers. The playoffs begin April 18.

Cunningham was drafted at No. 1 overall by Detroit in 2021 and has been an All-Star selection the past two seasons. He is averaging 24.5 points and 9.9 assists in 61 games this season but needs to play in at least four more games to be eligible for such honors as All-NBA team and MVP consideration.