GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Roki Sasaki’s struggles from his first Cactus League start carried over into Tuesday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians at Goodyear Ballpark.
The Dodgers right-hander gave up three walks and two hits, including a grand slam to Guardians slugger Kyle Manzardo, before he was lifted after 23 pitches. He displayed no command, missing arm side repeatedly and throwing only eight strikes. None of the five batters he faced in the first inning saw a first-pitch strike.
But then, he flashed the tantalizing potential that the Dodgers saw when they signed him before last season.
Re-inserted into the game to start the second inning, which is allowed in spring training, the 24-year-old settled down and retired all six batters he faced in his last two innings of work while throwing 22 pitches — 13 for strikes — in the Dodgers’ 5-4 win.
Working in a healthy mix of fastballs, cutters and splitters, Sasaki struck out two and was able to limit hard contact, which had been an issue for him in the first inning and in his first start last week against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The home run by Manzardo recorded an exit velocity of 104.6 mph.
“I wasn’t overly concerned,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But it was good to see him bounce back.”
Sasaki said through an interpreter after he was lifted from the game that something felt off about his upper-body mechanics. He made a simple adjustment and found success in it.
“It was actually my upper body,” Sasaki said. “My lower half actually felt pretty good. My upper body felt a little off, so I was trying to make an adjustment.”
Said Roberts when asked about Sasaki missing arm side: “Maybe he’s trying to be a little too fine and/or just a little bit out of sync with the delivery. That’s why you have spring training, you work though it, you’ve got to be able to make in-game adjustments. As he gets more experienced, you would expect that to happen in the inning rather than sit for 20 minutes, come in and reset.”
Welcome to the Lakers newsletter, where we dive into the noise surrounding them and how they are trying to ignore it and where we get to see the softer side of LeBron James when it comes to his daughter, Zhuri.
The noise has become deafening amid an uneven stretch of play as the Lakers head toward the final drive of the NBA season.
All things Lakers, all the time.
The noise has only grown as the Lakers search for their consistency and cohesion so late in a season.
Injuries have played a part in their up-and-down play, but so has their subpar play at times.
They are 3-3 since the All-Star break, having lost three consecutive games at one point during this period.
They were ranked 17th in the league in defensive rating (114.2) during this stretch, which is in line with their defensive rating for the season that’s near the bottom at 22 (116.3).
Perhaps the best way to describe these Lakers was provided by Rui Hachimura.
“I think when we play good, like really good, we [are] looking like a championship team, you know,” Hachimura said. “But when we [are] not, like we have a lot of time that we [are] not, then we look like we’re just literally [an] out-of-a-playoff team…At the time we have to kind of have to focus. It’s a long season, you know, it’s just a long season.
“We have a lot of injured guys, in and out, so we have a different rotation, different kind of starting lineup, whatever. But I think we have to focus on that part. We have to play together, playing hard, and those are gonna be really good for us. Staying consistent and we can look like a championship team all the time.”
It’s just that when the Lakers lose games, they lose big, by wide margins, and that has made the noise grow.
In the last few days, coach JJ Redick has used the phrase, “the world is falling for us 19 times,” when they have lost.
Redick is referring to how those 19 losses have been by double digits, the latest a 22-point spanking by the Boston Celtics last week that started the Lakers on a three-game skid. They have lost 24 games on the season.
“We haven’t had the consistent level of effort and execution,” Redick said. “That’s kind of been the thing all season [is] to really establish that identity. But I’m confident we will.”
The Lakers have 22 games left to find it.
They are sixth in the Western Conference and are looking to move up.
“Obviously we didn’t start good [out of the All-Star break], but nothing is over,” Luka Doncic said. “We just got to keep bringing the mindset of trying to win every game.”
Girl’s Dad
LeBron James with his daughter, Zhuri, eight years ago.
(Steven Vlasic / Getty Images)
He was simply a girl’s dad spending time with his daughter at his place of work, all part of a family outing in the San Francisco area.
When LeBron James finished his pregame routine before the Lakers played the Golden State Warriors on Saturday at Chase Center, his 11-year-old daughter, Zhuri, joined him on the court.
She stood at the free-throw line and tossed up an overhead shot that banked in for a basket. The crowd watching applauded, drawing a smile from dad and daughter.
Zhuri capped her time with dad by throwing a lob pass that James dunked while hanging on the rim. The two did their own handshake.
After the game, James beamed talking about spending time with Zhuri. He talked about taking her to Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and having dinner Friday night.
“I miss a lot of moments spending time with my kids because of my career. Over the course of my career, any time I got moments with them either individually, two of them, three of them all together, whatever the case may be, it’s always special for me,” James said.
“So, to have my daughter want to come on the road and and be with me [is special]. And spent a lot of time yesterday. We went to Alcatraz. She wanted to go to Alcatraz. We saw Alcatraz, saw the Golden Gate Bridge, we went to dinner last night. So, I spent a lot of time. It was pretty cool. It was awesome.”
Zhuri plays volleyball, but she displayed some deft handles while dribbling the basketball.
But make no mistake, James said, she is a volleyball player through and through. Besides, James said, wife Savannah already has a husband who plays for the Lakers, son, Bronny, who plays for the Lakers and son, Bryce, redshirting on Arizona’s basketball team.
“She’s a volleyball player. Don’t get my wife mad. My wife is done with this basketball….” James said, laughing. “She’s done with it. She’s a volleyball player. But she’s been around the game for a while, so she does got good handles. She got a good form, too. But my wife ain’t playing that. Not another one. She said that’s it. That’s it.”
After they were done during their pregame activities, James and Zhuri walked off the court holding hands.
The girl’s dad beamed.
“It’s special. It’s special. It’s definitely softened me up over the last 11 years,” James said. “I had two boys to begin with, but getting a little girl 11 years ago, man, it’s definitely softened me up. So, it’s special to have her. You know, it’s a different type of love.
“If anybody got girls and boys, it’s a different type of love that you [share]. It’s tough love when it comes to my boys. I yell at them and stuff, whatever. They take it. They know how to approach it. It’s different. It’s a little softness with my daughter. So, it’s pretty cool.”
Besides All-Star games, James said it was the first time Zhuri had gone on a trip with him.
The Lakers beat the Warriors too.
“She’s a good luck charm,” James said.
Austin Reaves was sitting next to James in the locker room listening to James.
“She’s going to Denver,” Reaves said.
The Lakers play at Denver Thursday night.
“Uh don’t say that too loud, because she’ll definitely be like, ‘Dad, can I go to Denver?’” James said, smiling. “She already said, ‘When is the next road trip?’”
Redick has two boys, Knox, 11, and Kai, 9, and he can appreciate having that family time, especially when the Lakers spend so much time traveling and having games that take them away.
So, seeing Zhuri and James together was a moment Redick enjoyed.
“Yeah, Zhuri, she rode on the plane back just last night,” Redick said after the game Saturday night. “That was fun for her…[Lakers assistant coach] Scotty [Brooks] has talked a lot about this with me and a number of coaches have. It’s one of the greatest gifts we get. We get to expose our kids to this beautiful sport and this beautiful league.”
On Tap
Tuesday vs. Pelicans (19-43), 7:30 p.m.
Zion Williamson, who had played in his NBA-best 35 straight games, missed the Clippers game Sunday because of a right ankle injury and is listed as day to day.
Thursday at Denver (37-24), 7 p.m.
The Nuggets and Lakers are neck-and-neck for the fifth and sixth spots, respectively, in the West, with Denver at No. 5. All-Star center Nikola Jokic leads the NBA in triple-doubles with 24, averaging 28.8 points (sixth in the league), 12.6 rebounds (first) and 10.5 assists (first).
Friday vs. Indiana (15-46), 7:30 p.m.
The Pacers have the worst record in the Eastern Conference and are in the midst of a six-game losing streak.
Sunday vs. New York (39-22), 12:30 p.m.
Knicks All-Star guard Jalen Brunson is tied for ninth in the league in scoring (26.7). The Knicks are a very good defensive team, holding teams to 111.1 points per game, the fifth-best mark in the league.
Four days after the stunning news that Paramount Skydance would acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount executives tried to calm fears that the blockbuster deal would result in massive layoffs.
In a call Monday, Paramount Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer Andy Gordon told Wall Street analysts that $6 billion in merger “synergies” would come from “non-labor sources” and not a “reduction in production capacity.”
Instead, Gordon said, the company would reduce costs by consolidating its streaming technology and cloud providers, finding marketing efficiencies and “optimizing the combined real estate footprint,” likely an allusion to widely anticipated plans that the new owners will consolidate operations around the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.
Efficiencies aside, most Hollywood observers — including people who are familiar with Paramount Skydance Chief Executive David Ellison’s plans — predict that Paramount will be forced to make large-scale layoffs in order to offset the enormous costs of the mega-deal, which is valued at more than $111 billion (counting debt).
It’s a reasonable expectation, at least if history is any guide.
Many at Warner dread the kinds of cuts seen after Walt Disney Co. bought most of 21st Century Fox’s assets, resulting in thousands of layoffs as the two companies combined operations and shed redundant jobs.
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In the case of Warner-Paramount, the new company will have two film and TV studios, as well as two streaming businesses, two legal departments, two marketing departments and so on. It’s doubtful these overlapping functions will survive budget cuts.
Already, consolidation plans are underway.
This week Paramount announced it would combine the two streaming services — Paramount+ and HBO Max — to reach a total of more than 200 million subscribers and better compete against the behemoth Netflix, which boasts 325 million subscribers worldwide.
Ellison was full of praise for the HBO team on Monday’s analyst call, saying the premium service was a “crown jewel” and that it will “continue to have the resources and independence to do what it does best.”
He also reiterated that there is “no intention to pull back on production,” and that the company intends to make 30 films a year — 15 apiece from Paramount and Warner Bros.
“We have all the economic incentives to make sure that we grow this business and are going to invest in content to basically achieve those goals,” Ellison said Monday.
But this deal also includes $79 billion in net debt — a staggering load that overshadows even that of the merger that resulted in Warner Bros. Discovery. That amount became an albatross around that company’s neck and led to waves of layoffs.
“What everybody’s hoping is that the noise that’s being made around prioritizing content will hold true,” said Kevin Klowden, a Milken Institute fellow focused on entertainment and technology. “But until they see that happen, it’s really a question.”
Further job losses would be a blow to an industry that has been reeling from a steady drumbeat of job cuts fueled by media consolidation, dwindling streaming profits and the migration of film and TV jobs to cheaper states and countries.
Paramount executives have said the deal is expected to close in the fiscal third quarter of this year, and Ellison said he was “absolutely confident” they will meet that goal, based on conversations with regulators.
Despite support from the Trump administration, the acquisition is not yet final. Already, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said he was in communication with other states’ attorneys general about challenging the merger on antitrust grounds, saying it wasn’t a “done deal.”
And on Monday, Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-San José), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called on Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to provide details of their conversations about the merger with Ellison and Netflix co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos, highlighting the role of politics in the auction.
Paramount plans to keep the two studios separate for now, though company executives have discussed combining operations at the Warner Bros. Burbank lot at some point, according to sources close to Paramount who were not authorized to speak publicly. That could mean a wind down at the historic Paramount lot on Melrose Avenue — and more job losses.
The anxiety over looming cuts is especially deep inside Warner, where staff are still trying to process the news, according to people I spoke with. They noted that when Netflix was the winning bidder, co-Chief Executives Sarandos and Greg Peters came to the Burbank lot and spoke with several hundred of Warner’s senior leaders and outlined their plans, giving staff more clarity about a future under their ownership. No such conversations have occurred with the Paramount team, they said.
“I think genuinely, everyone’s nervous and a little uneasy,” said one Warner Bros. Discovery employee. “With the Netflix option, people had become a little more hopeful. But this outcome is a little more frightening for the staff.”
Stuff We Wrote
Film shoots
Number of the week
After 30 years, the Ghostface killer has still got it. Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s “Scream 7” topped the box office this last weekend with $64.1 million in the U.S. and Canada, marking a franchise-best domestic opening. Globally, the film made $97.2 million.
The film centered on original franchise actors Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox, and featured numerous callbacks to the previous movies.
But the film’s debut did not come without controversy. Pro-Palestinian groups protested outside the “Scream 7” premiere on the Paramount lot last week and called for a boycott of the film after franchise star Melissa Barrera was fired more than two years ago for her comments on the Israel-Hamas war.
What I’m watching
On Sunday, I watched the UCLA women’s basketball team dominate USC in what I think is one of the best college rivalries out there (though I’m probably biased. Go Bruins!)
