SAN FRANCISCO — Jimmy Butler had 21 points, five rebounds and five assists, Stephen Curry added 19 points and eight assists, and the Golden State Warriors beat the Clippers 98-79 on Tuesday night.
Curry shot 7 for 15 a night after four Warriors players scored 20 or more points to beat Memphis — but it marked just the sixth time in Curry’s 17 seasons he wasn’t one of them.
Butler and Moses Moody each hit three-pointers late in the third quarter as the Warriors used a 10-2 burst over the final 2:07 to go ahead 78-63 starting the fourth.
Brandin Podziemski followed up a 23-point performance against the Grizzlies with 12 points, while Quinten Post had 12 points on four three-pointers and eight rebounds.
James Harden scored all 20 of his points by halftime while Kawhi Leonard added 18 points and five rebounds in a game featuring a 13-point second quarter by Golden State followed by the Clippers’ 14-point third.
Harden’s three with 41 seconds left in the first half gave the Clippers their first lead heading into halftime ahead 49-46 after ending the second quarter on a 24-6 run.
Ivica Zubac contributed 14 points and a season-best 13 rebounds for the cold-shooting Clippers, who went 6 for 33 from long range and 30 of 82 overall (36.6%).
The CLippers had won the last seven in the series and three in a row at Chase Center, where the Warriors improved to 3-0 so far.
Al Horford was back for the Warriors against the tall, physical Clippers team featuring the 7-foot Zubac after sitting out the front end of the back-to-back to manage a left toe injury.
The Clippers began six for 20 and one for eight on threes to fall behind 27-14 on a night they missed Bradley Beal for a second consecutive game because of back soreness.
The Lakers were not whole for their season opener and that meant Luka Doncic had a heavier load to carry while LeBron James sat on the bench injured in this game against rivals Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
So, the question while James recovers from sciatica injury on his right side, is who will fill his void and help Doncic navigate the stretch his running mate is out.
The Lakers didn’t get that complete answer Tuesday night, falling 119-109 to the Warriors at Crypto.com Arena despite Doncic’s impressive performance of a near triple-double with 43 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.
James is entering an NBA-record 23rd season, but it was the first time over his career that he has missed a season opener.
He sat on the end of the Lakers’ bench dressed in a double-breasted suit, cheering his teammates on, offering words of encouragement when necessary, knowing that was the only way he could help until returns to the court in mid-November.
“It’s hard to forget about LeBron, (but) the reality is, when you’re focused on the group that you have, you’ve got to make the group work,” said coach JJ Redick afterward. “Sometimes you can just be like, ‘Oh my God, we’re gonna get LeBron back at some point.’ Like it’s awesome, but you are focused. I’ll be honest with you, I did have one moment in that first half when we had a few possessions when we couldn’t score against the zone and I thought, ‘It’d be great to have LeBron.”
Lakers guard Austin Reaves gets past Warriors guard Gary Payton II for a layup during the second half Friday night.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
When the Lakers went inside to center Deandre Ayton, he didn’t overpower the small Warriors. Ayton got seven touches, scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds.
But he had four turnovers. One of the other issues was his teammates trying to get the ball inside to Ayton. The lobs just weren’t working, a big reason why the Lakers had 19 turnovers.
“Yeah, today, I was realizing I’m probably a confusing big (center), whether I can roll and stand in the pocket, probably gets a little difficult for them sometimes,” Ayton said. “I’m so used to the league having that low man on me. Sometimes I can’t even finish a roll, and I tiny bit linger around the free-throw area just to be available for him.”’
Austin Reaves showed he was up to the task with James out, producing 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
But he had a team-high five turnovers and picked up five fouls by the third quarter.
“We haven’t had a lot of time together as a complete group,” Reaves said. “Obviously, we’re still not complete, but we’re just gonna continue to build, get better, and learn how to play alongside one another. I mean, I had five turnovers tonight, and I don’t think a couple of them are just dumb. But a couple of them were just miscommunications on where I needed to throw a pass to DA (Deandre Ayton). It wasn’t the wrong read. It was the wrong pass at the right time, basically. So it’s just like learning those little things, and you learn those on the fly.”
The Warriors, meanwhile, had four players score in double-figures and that was a big difference in the game. Jimmy Butler led the Warriors with 31 points, Stephen Curry had 23 and Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield each had 17.
The Lakers fell into a hole in the third quarter, going down by 17 points, putting them in catch-up mode.
They were outscored 35-25 in the third. They allowed the Warriors to make 60% of their shots, 50% (five-for-10) of their three-pointers.
Even with the Lakers cutting that deficit to six points in the fourth, their poor play in the third doomed them again.
“The trend I see is that we continue to be a terrible third-quarter team to start,” Redick said. “That was last year. That was the preseason. Gotta rethink some things and it’s, you know, a two-way thing with the guys. What do they need at halftime to make sure they’re ready to play? They’re not ready to play to start the third quarter.”
Etc.
The Lakers picked up the rookie option on Dalton Knecht for $4.2 million for the 2026-27 season, according to people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. … The Lakers said that forward/center Maxi Kleber has an oblique strain and will be reevaluated in two to three weeks.
Rapper Cardi B is willing to get “nasty” when it comes to defending her kids.
Following the release of her second full-length album “Am I the Drama?” in September, the “I Like It” singer publicly feuded with Nicki Minaj. Both rappers’ children were also pulled into the fracas.
In a recent interview with Paper magazine, Cardi B opened up about the combative exchange.
“This week I showed the world that I will get the most nasty about mine. I never had to get that nasty for my kids. But I did, and I really feel like a lioness,” she said. “This has been one of the moments I got tested the most about being a parent.”
The beef between music’s biggest female rappers has been an ongoing saga dating back to 2017. The most recent spat took place on X in late September, when Minaj belittled Cardi B’s record sales. The two proceeded to tear apart each other’s personal and professional lives.
Cardi B called out Minaj for feuding with her on X instead of celebrating her son’s birthday. Minaj called Cardi B’s 7-year-old daughter “ugly,” among other mean-spirited names, and started to question her son’s brain development. The spat ended with Cardi B asking to meet up with Minaj — they have not posted about each other since.
Cardi described her behavior as that of a “mother warrior” and explained the lengths she would go to protect her kin. The 33-year-old performer is currently pregnant with her fourth child, her first with New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs. The “WAP” performer shares three children — Kulture, Wave and Blossom — with rapper Offset.
“Am I the Drama?” is Cardi B’s first full-length project in seven years. The 23-track album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard 200 and hit platinum 10 days after its initial release. Her debut, “Invasion of Privacy,” earned her a Grammy for rap album in 2019 and made her the first solo female artist to win in that category.
While doing press for her newest LP, Cardi B hasn’t strayed away from talking about parenthood. She told Paper that she aims to instill a hardworking mentality in her children.
“You have to hope that your kids have that work ethic in them, and I just pray that they do,” she said. “I don’t want one of them to feel they’re behind their siblings. You just got to work and not think too much. … Procrastination is what kills you. It’s what slows you. Don’t ask too much questions. Just go and f— do it.”
SAN FRANCISCO — The Lakers entered training camp with hopes of finally establishing chemistry between stars Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves. But the trio have yet to see the court together. On Sunday, they all stayed on the bench during the Lakers’ 111-103 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center.
With Doncic (rest) and James (glute) already out, Reaves was rested Sunday after an already full first week of training camp. The fifth-year guard had the highest workload on the team entering the first preseason game that took place after three days of practice. He scored 20 points against the Phoenix Suns as one of the few offensive bright spots in Friday’s blowout loss.
Without their top offensive playmakers, the Lakers got a lift from guard Gabe Vincent, who made his preseason debut after nursing a knee injury. He had 16 points and five assists while center Deandre Ayton, who scored just one point on two shots in Friday’s preseason game, scored seven points, all in the first quarter, with seven rebounds.
“We came with more intention,” Vincent said compared to the Lakers’ 103-81 loss to the Suns on Friday. “We were more focused. Obviously it’s different with those three not playing. They’re a huge part of our team and everything that we do. But next man up.”
After their first two preseason games, the Lakers have one week of practice until their first home preseason game against the Warriors on Oct. 12. Coach JJ Redick said that although Doncic was scheduled to rest for the first two preseason games after he played in EuroBasket with his national team, the Slovenian superstar is still expected to play before the team officially opens its season on Oct. 21. The Lakers have four preseason games remaining.
Whether James, who was held out of early training camp practices because of nerve irritation in his glute, will play in the preseason remains to be seen. Entering an unprecedented 23rd NBA season, James is on a slower ramp-up schedule than previous years, Redick said.
The Warriors took a similarly cautious approach with their aging superstars as Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler III and Al Horford were all limited to one half. The 37-year-old Curry still scored 14 points in 15 minutes, draining five of seven shots from the field and drawing loud cheers from a nearly full Chase Center crowd when he laid up an acrobatic shot through contact and pointed two finger guns into the ESPN baseline camera.
Redick called it a challenge to get a proper evaluation of his team in a 48-minute preseason game when his top three stars are out, but after Friday’s preseason opener, he was looking for better organization on offense early in the shot clock, playing with pace and more physicality.
“We’ve got to be more physical getting open,” Redick said before the game. “We’ve got to be more physical with our screening. That doesn’t change based on who’s in the lineup, so that habit, we can build that.”
“Championship habits” is one of three pillars Redick has preached relentlessly during training camp, along with championship communication and championship shape. He said he would judge the latter in part by whether players are sprinting back on defense.
The Lakers were outscored 23-5 in transition Sunday and 42-11 through two preseason games.
With the exception of a 10-0 Warriors run to end the second quarter and a nearly six-minute stretch to begin the third quarter during which Golden State pushed a seven-point halftime lead into a 23-point rout, Redick said the overall competitiveness was “much better” than against Phoenix. But the next challenge will be to put forth that effort consistently.
It follows a recent theme Redick introduced to the team: Kaizen, the Japanese word for improvement.
“It’s just getting 1% better each day,” said forward Jake LaRavia, who had 10 points and three assists. “And that goes along with just winning the day. We thought when we played Phoenix, we didn’t. Today, we thought we did a good amount better, obviously, still not the result that we wanted, but we’re working in the right direction.”
Lakers star Luka Doncic will not play in the team’s two preseason games this weekend, the team announced after its shoot-around Friday.
Doncic will sit out against the Phoenix Suns on Friday night at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert and against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night in San Francisco.
The Lakers said it was a collaborative decision made with L.A.’s performance team because of his time playing for the Slovenian national team in the EuroBasket tournament this summer.
The Lakers said the plan is to be smart with Doncic in the long term as he ramps up for the regular season that opens Oct. 21 against the Warriors at Crypto.com Arena.
LeBron James, Marcus Smart (achilles tendinopathy), Maxi Kleber (quad) and rookie Aduo Thiero (knee) also won’t play against the Suns.
Doncic played in his last game with Slovenia about a month ago, a game in which he scored 39 points but his squad was eliminated by Germany in the EuroBasket quarterfinals.
After practice Thursday, Doncic talked about easing his way into training camp while getting ready for the regular season after playing at peak level for Slovenia.
“Yeah, obviously probably take it a little bit slower than the usual,” Doncic said. “ I had a busy summer. I think month, month-and-a-half I was with national team. So, it was kind of a lot. But that got me ready for the preseason and obviously regular season. So, for me, I think it really helps.”
Lakers and NBA fans in general will get a quick view of two of the league’s longtime greats when LeBron James and the Lakers open the regular season against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21 at Crypto.com Arena, people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter told The Times on Friday.
The game will be nationally televised on NBC and it will give Lakers fans a chance to see Luka Doncic’s new and trimmed body.
According to those people, the Lakers will play the Houston Rockets and newly acquired Kevin Durant on Christmas Day at home, one of five games on the holiday. That will give fans another chance to see the league’s veteran superstars go at it again.
The NBA will release the full schedule soon.
The Lakers will start training camp Sept. 29 and will play six preseason games.
The first preseason game is against the Suns at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs on Oct. 3. The rest of the preseason game are: at Golden State on Oct. 5; against the Warriors at Crypto.com Arena on Oct. 12; against the Suns in Phoenix on Oct. 14; against the Dallas Mavericks at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Oct. 15; against the Sacramento Kings at home on Oct. 17.
LUCY BRONZE has revealed that she played the entirety of Euro 2025 with a fractured tibia.
The Lionesses stalwart, 33, incredibly fought through the serious injury to play a key role as Sarina Wiegman’s side retained their Euros crown.
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Lucy Bronze incredibly played through the pain barrier at Euro 2025Credit: Getty
Bronze played 105 minutes of England’s final victory over Spain, before finally being forced off at half-time of extra time with a knee issue.
Following the Lionesses’ 3-1 penalty shoot-out victory, the Chelsea full-back told the BBC: “I have actually played the whole tournament with a fractured tibia, and then I have hurt my knee on my other leg.
“That’s why I got a lot of praise from the girls after the Sweden game, as I’ve been in a lot of pain. If that’s what it takes to play for England, that’s what I’ll do.”
“Very painful.”
On the tournament as a whole, warrior Bronze added: “We never lost belief in ourselves. There was a lot of noise on the outside. We stuck together and dug deep. To win on penalties. This team is so inspiring to be part of.
“What we have done today is unbelievable.
“Winning on penalties is an amazing feeling, but to lose on penalties is a horrible way to lose a final.
“I know a lot of these girls from Barca missing penalties. It is difficult I have been there a couple of years ago.
SAN FRANCISCO — Bronny James made his 2025 summer league debut, scoring 10 points in 10 minutes during the Lakers’ win over the Miami Heat in the California Classic at the Chase Center on Sunday.
The Lakers led for most of the game, rolling to a 103-83 victory.
The Heat went on a 10-0 run to start the third quarter, but the Lakers responded with strong perimeter shooting to maintain a double-digit lead.
Cole Swider was the Lakers’ leading scorer for the second consecutive game, finishing with 20 points against the Heat. Swider shot seven of 10 from the field, including two of five from three-point range.
“We have to get back to defending how we did in the first half, I thought we did a great job,” Swider said. “They only had 38 points in the first half. They came out high, but we were able to weather the storm and win the third quarter, which was huge for us.”
James, who didn’t suit up for the Lakers’ loss to the Warriors on Saturday, was three-of-seven shooting and two-of-five from three-point range. He sat out the second half because of a minutes restriction for conditioning.
“It felt good, just getting out there for the first time this summer. I’m just trying to make a difference any way I can defensively and offensively,” James said. “… First wind was definitely tough. … Pretty much just trying to go out there have fun and not be so tired while I’m doing it.”
Bronny opened up the game with a steal and fast-break dunk to score the Lakers’ first points.
The Lakers shot 57.1% from the field and stepped up their perimeter defense while limiting the Heat to 14 free throws. Miami made just eight of 27 (29.6%) from beyond the three-point line.
Swider said as one of the veterans on the roster, he tries to provide support for younger players.
“This is my fourth year doing this thing, I think I might be the oldest guy on the roster,” he said. “Just giving these guys a game, trying to help Dalton [Knecht] as much as possible, trying to help Bronny as much as possible. Me and Bronny had a great stint together with the South Bay Lakers, so just trying to continue that chemistry and continuity.”
The Lakers get a day off before they play the San Antonio Spurs in the final game of the California Classic on Tuesday. Tipoff will be at 7 p.m. The team will then travel to Las Vegas for the remainder of its summer league schedule.
Of course, Trump’s Secretary of Defense wants the name of Harvey Milk, the murdered gay rights pioneer, stripped from a ship.
Never mind that Milk served in the Korean War as a diving instructor, eventually discharged because of his sexual orientation. Or that he had exhibited courage in facing down haters as the nation’s first publicly out elected official. After all, when Pete Hegseth’s not sending confidential war plans via Signal to people who shouldn’t be privy to them, he’s busy bloviating about the “warrior ethos.”
Hegseth is a military veteran, a National Guardsman who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he’s also someone who has made a career out of telling Americans he, above everyone else, knows what our veterans need and what our armed forces need to defend the U.S. in an increasingly volatile world. So Hegseth may know something about warriors and fighting. So did Milk.
But Hegseth is too busy playing Rambo to recognize it. Instead, he’s weaponizing bigotry to remake the U.S. military as a scorched-earth, hetero-Christian outfit ready to stamp out liberal heretics here and abroad. That’s not befitting anyone who calls themselves a warrior, no matter how many pseudo-patriotic tattoos and American flag items of clothing Hegseth loves to sport.
A true warrior follows a code of honor that allows respect to those they disagree with and sometimes even combat. For Hegseth to specifically ask that the USNS Harvey Milk have its name changed during Pride Month — the same month that he’s requiring all trans service people to out themselves and voluntarily leave their positions or be discharged against their will — does not represent the “reestablishing [of] the warrior culture” that the Navy is citing as the reason for the moves.
Instead, it reveals Hegseth’s Achilles heel, one he shares with Trump: a fundamental insecurity about their place in a country that diversified long ago.
CBS News is also reporting the Navy is recommending the renaming of ships named after civil rights icons Medgar Evers, Cesar Chavez, Sojourner Truth and Lucy Stone along with ships that haven’t yet been built but are scheduled to bear the names of Dolores Huerta, Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harriet Tubman.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell gave my colleague Kevin Rector the same malarkey he’s giving the rest of the media when asked for comment about this matter: That Hegseth is “committed” to making sure all named military assets “are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos.”
Marine Col. Alison Thompson, left, talks with Jenn Onofrio, center, a White House Fellow to the secretary of the Navy and Patrik Gallineaux, right, of the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation prior to the launching of the USNS Harvey Milk, a fleet replenishment oiler ship named after the first openly gay elected official in 2021 in San Diego.
(Alex Gallardo / Associated Press)
I can understand the argument can be made that naval ships should be named only after those who served, which would eliminate people like Huerta, Ginsburg and Truth. But there was a beauty in the idea of having the names of civil rights heroes adorn ships in the so-called John Lewis class, oilers named after the late congressman. It was a reminder that wars don’t just happen on the front lines but also on the home front. That those who serve to defend our democracy don’t just do it through the military. That winning doesn’t just happen with bullets and bombs.
That sometimes, the biggest threat to our nation hasn’t been the enemy abroad, but the enemy within. It’s not just my wokoso opinion, either — the oath that all Navy newcomers and newly minted officers must take have them swear to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
You might not associate Huerta, Truth, and Marshall with the military — indeed, I was surprised the Navy had honored them, period. But I and millions of Americans do remember them for fierceness in their respective battlegrounds, a steeliness any sailor should aspire to. For anyone in Hegseth’s world to even think about erasing their name is a disgrace to the Stars and Stripes — but what else should we expect from a department whose boss evaded military service by claiming to have debilitating bone spurs?
The striking of Milk’s name from an oiler, and proposed renaming of dry cargo ships named for Evers and Chavez, is particularly vile.
Milk joined the Navy in the footsteps of his parents. He was so proud of his military background that he was wearing a belt buckle with his Navy diver’s insignia the night he was assassinated. Evers was inspired to fight Jim Crow after serving in a segregated Army unit during World War II. Chavez, meanwhile, was stationed in the western Pacific shortly after the Good War during his two-year Navy stint.
I called up Andres Chavez, executive director of the National Chavez Center and grandson of Cesar, to hear how he was feeling about this mess. Andres was there in 2012 when the USNS Cesar Chavez was launched in San Diego, christened with a champagne bottle by Helen Chavez, Cesar’s widow and Andres’ grandmother. He said “it was probably the second-most memorable commemoration I’ve seen of my Tata after Obama” dedicated the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in the Central Valley that year.
The USNS Cesar Chavez was the last of the Navy’s Lewis and Clark class of boats, all named after pioneers and explorers. Andres said his family was initially “hesitant” to have a naval ship named in honor of their patriarch “because so much of Cesar’s identity is wrapped up in nonviolence” but accepted when they found out the push came from shipyard workers from San Diego’s Barrio Logan.
“And there’s been so many Latinos who have served in the military in this country, so we accepted on behalf of them as well,” he said.
The Chavez family found out about the possibility of the USNS Cesar Chavez losing its name from reporters.
“We’re just gonna wait and see what’s next, but we’re not surprised by this administration anymore,” Andres said. “It’s just not an affront to Cesar; it’s an affront to all the Latino veterans of this country.”
He pushed back on Hegseth’s definition of what a warrior is by bringing up the work of his grandfather and Milk. The two supported each other’s causes in the 1970s and met “numerous” times, according to Andres.
“They served by creating more opportunities for other people and fighting for their respect,” he concluded. “That’s the definition of a warrior.”
Evans is part of Wales’ 10-player mixed squad and she will not be the only one to break records on Saturday.
Jodie Boyd-Ward will become the sport’s most capped player when she leads Wales out at Archers Arena.
The 32-year-old is currently on 44 international appearances, level with Welshman Harry Jones.
“It truly is an honour to be asked to captain Wales for the Celtic Cup, especially as it’s an opportunity to lead the squad out and look to reclaim the trophy,” Boyd-Ward said.
“Last year, I knew after an amazing tour to the US, that I needed to take some time out after not taking a break for the whole of my wheelchair rugby league career.
“Now I’m back and feeling better than ever, I’m looking forward to getting stuck in with the team and also seeing how both Scotland and Ireland have continued their development, as I know we have at Wales.”
Wales’ World Cup captain from 2022, Stuart Williams, is named as vice-captain.
The 40-year-old, who is Wales’ record international try scorer with 66, returns to the side after missing last year’s Wales matches.
