second game

When Luka Doncic plays in his first exhibition game of the season for the Lakers against the Phoenix Suns Tuesday night, Coach JJ Redick said the plan with his star is pretty simple.

“Give him the ball,” Redick said, laughing.

Redick paused for a second.

“You talking about minutes?” he asked.

Redick said they are “still working through what that looks like” with the Lakers’ staff and Doncic’s team.

“I think very likely it’ll be some form of a ramp-up from tomorrow to whenever the second game is that he plays in,” Redick said. “What that looks like in terms of the total minute, I don’t know.”

But one thing is for certain when Doncic steps on the court with his teammates.

“Yeah, he’ll touch the basketball,” Redick said.

The Lakers then play a back-to-back game Wednesday night in Las Vegas against the Dallas Mavericks, Doncic’s old team, but it’s highly unlikely he plays in that game.

The Lakers finish their preseason against the Sacramento Kings Friday night at Crypto.com Arena, which is when Doncic probably will play, especially since he said last week that he wanted to play in two preseason games.

The Lakers open the regular season Oct. 21 against the Golden State Warriors at home and that is the main thing Doncic is getting ready for.

He’s done more in practice, giving his teammates a view of what Doncic is like.

“Oh, he’s moving great,” Jarred Vanderbilt said. “Everything that I’ve seen from him, he’s being vocal. He’s leading the charge. He’s being everything we need him to be right now. So, we’re happy to have him out there right now during this week, him getting some good practices and running with us, and just starting to build that momentum towards the regular season.”

Etc.

Redick said Marcus Smart, who has been recovering from an Achilles tendinopathy injury, will play against the Suns. … Redick said Maxi Kleber (quad) participated in the Lakers’ stay-ready game Monday.

Crenshaw High has started its football season 2-0 but has done so without longtime head coach Robert Garrett.

Terrance Whitehead has been serving as interim head coach and running practices.

In a phone call Friday, Garrett said, “I’m just following [school] orders. There’s no wrongdoing on my part.”

Garrett, who has been head coach since 1988, entered this season with 290 career victories.

Crenshaw interim coach Terrance Whitehead speaking with quarterback Daniell Flowers.

(Robert H. Helfman)

Asked when he might return, Garrett said his absence is “indefinite.”

A call and an email to the district office, which was closed Friday, went unanswered.

Crenshaw plays Hamilton next week.

ST. LOUIS — The Dodgers’ offensive woes went from worrisome to a five-alarm emergency Saturday when they were lost their second game in less than 24 hours, falling 2-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Nolan Gorman started the winning rally with a ground-rule double in the ninth. He gave way to pinch-runner Jose Barrero, who moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Pedro Pages before scoring on Nolan Arenado’s pinch-hit single off Dodgers reliever Ben Casparius (4-1) to end the game.

The Cardinals appeared to have won the game in the eighth when Alec Burleson hit a one-hop comebacker that ricocheted off Casparius with two out. Casparius chased after the ball and made a hurried throw to first that pulled Freddie Freeman off the bag, allowing Masyn Winn to race home.

But the Dodgers matched that in the ninth on consecutive one-out singles by Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts. Freeman then struck out swinging, but the ball got away from catcher Pedro Pages, allowing Ohtani to score to tie the game.

The Dodgers left 12 runners on base and were hitless in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position. They are one for 25 with runners in scoring position in their two games in St. Louis.

The slump couldn’t come at a worst team for the Dodgers, who begin a three-game series Monday in San Diego. The Padres entered Saturday a game back of the Dodgers in the National League West.

The Dodgers wasted a splendid performance from starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who allowed four hits while striking out nine in six scoreless innings, lowing his earned-run average to 2.20.

No Japanese pitcher has ever led an American major league in ERA; the Cubs’ Yu Darvish came closest when his 2.01 mark in the COVID-shortened 2020 season was second-best in the National League. Only two NL pitchers have better marks than Yamamoto this season.

The right-hander won four ERA titles in seven seasons with Orix in the Japanese Pacific League. Only Kazuhisa Inao, who debuted in 1956, won more. Three times Yamamoto had ERAs under 1.69 and his career mark in Japan was 1.72 in 188 starts.