The Sports Report: Lakers drop important game to Warriors
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Howdy, I’m your host, Austin Knoblauch, filling in for Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.
From Dan Woike: The Lakers couldn’t miss. And then they couldn’t make anything.
Eleven times in a row they got a mismatch they liked and found themselves in spots on the court they wanted, only to see their shots fail.
For the first four minutes, the Lakers’ offense was perfect. For the next eight, it was problematic.
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For the first time in a long time since the Lakers traded for Luka Doncic, his magic disappeared, the team’s offensive engine frustrated by a combination of Golden State’s defense, wasted offensive opportunities and whistles that didn’t come.
The tone had been set, the Lakers playing a big game against Golden State without the necessary rhythm, without the necessary toughness, without the necessary smarts.
The first-quarter famine meant the Lakers had to play from behind, only briefly getting within striking distance of the lead before losing 123-116 on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Things got better in the second half, but the hole was too big and the momentum too fleeting.
It wasn’t for lack of fight — the Lakers have had plenty all season. They got within five points in the final five minutes and within five in the final 60 seconds, but never within a single possession.
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UCLA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: If at first UCLA coaches don’t sign a recruit, they try, try again.
Relying on years of relationships fostered through high school recruiting, the Bruins have navigated the fast-paced transfer portal to make a super team no one seems to talk about.
They started with the No. 1 recruiting class in the country that’s now grown into experienced juniors. They added Lauren Betts (Stanford), Angela Dugalic (Oregon), Timea Gardiner (Oregon State) and Janiah Barker (Texas A&M), all former McDonald’s All-Americans and five-star prospects. The result is the program’s first NCAA Final Four appearance and a matchup against No. 2 Connecticut on Friday at 6:30 p.m. PDT at Amalie Arena.
Gardiner was one win away from this stage a year ago. She helped Oregon State to the Elite Eight before she entered the portal. Having played with Kiki Rice, Londynn Jones and Betts on the youth national team, Gardiner had experience with many UCLA players and a long relationship with head coach Cori Close from the high school recruiting process. She focused on the Bruins almost immediately.
Women’s NCAA tournament bracket
USC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
From Ryan Kartje: Through her stellar sophomore season at USC, JuJu Watkins set herself apart as a singular superstar. Now she’s got the hardware to prove it.
Watkins became the first Trojan to be selected the Associated Press player of the year Thursday, joining Courtney Paris, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart as just the fourth sophomore to win the award. The latest honor came after a week in which national awards for Watkins have piled up.
Watkins won the Naismith Trophy, another player-of-the-year honor, on Wednesday, becoming the third USC player — after Cheryl Miller and Lisa Leslie — to take home the award. The U.S. Basketball Writers Assn., the Athletic and Sporting News already heaped their own player-of-the-year awards onto the pile, and the Wooden Award should be close behind in giving Watkins her flowers as the best player in the game.
DODGERS
From Jack Harris: Freddie Freeman’s latest ankle issue will keep him out longer than initially expected.
During the Dodgers’ travel day to Philadelphia on Thursday, the team announced Freeman had been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to March 31.
The moves means that Freeman won’t be eligible to return to action until next weekend, when the club returns home for a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs April 11-13.
Freeman has been out since he slipped in the shower at his home Sunday and fell, aggravating the right ankle he had surgically repaired this offseason in the process.
Freeman experienced swelling in his ankle in the wake of the mishap, and required extensive sessions of treatment from the team’s training staff.
LAFC
From Kevin Baxter: On an LAFC team of well-paid superstars and World Cup champions, Nathan Ordaz is more blue collar than blue blood.
Yet he’s proving to be something else as well. He’s proving to be a difference-maker, a fearless attacker who doesn’t know — or won’t accept — his place among soccer’s brightest lights.
Consider Wednesday’s CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal at BMO Stadium, a game that, on paper, should have been a blowout. Ordaz, a homegrown academy product from Van Nuys, was facing unbeaten Inter Miami and Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player in history, an eight-time world player of the year and a World Cup and Olympic champion who has more than twice as many team trophies, 44, as the 21-year-old Ordaz has years on Earth.
Yet it was David who took down Goliath, with Ordaz’s second-half goal proving the difference in LAFC’s 1-0 win before a sold-out crowd that had come to see Messi, not Ordaz. The teams meet again next week in South Florida, where aggregate goals over the two-leg playoff will determine which side will advance to the semifinals.
KINGS
From the Associated Press: Kevin Fiala and Trevor Moore scored in a 44-second span early in the third period and the Kings beat the Utah Hockey Club 4-2 on Thursday night for their third straight victory.
Fiala gave the Kings — second in the Pacific Division — a 2-1 lead at 4:06 with a snap shot for his 29th goal. Moore added his 18th at 4:50, beating Karel Vejmelka with a backhander.
Adrian Kempe scored his 33rd of the season for the Kings and Drew Doughty added an empty-netter. Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves.
DUCKS
From the Associated Press: Blake Coleman scored twice, Dustin Wolf made 26 saves and the Calgary Flames beat the Ducks 4-1 on Thursday night.
Yegor Sharangovich and Kevin Rooney also scored for Calgary.
Olen Zellweger scored for the Ducks, who were eliminated from playoff contention as they fell 15 points behind No. 2 wild card Minnesota with seven games left. Ducks goalie John Gibson left after the second period because of a lower-body injury.
USC MEN’S BASKETBALL
From the Associated Press: Eric Dixon led Villanova with 28 points, including a go-ahead free throw with 18 seconds remaining as the Wildcats defeated USC 60-59 on Thursday night in the College Basketball Crown quarterfinals.
Villanova plays Central Florida in the semifinals on Saturday.
Dixon shot 10 of 24 from the field, including five for 11 from three-point range, and went three for seven from the line for the Wildcats (21-14). Wooga Poplar scored 16 points while going five of 16 from the floor, including two for seven from three-point range, and four for four from the line and added seven rebounds. Jhamir Brickus finished four of seven from the field to finish with 10 points.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
From the Associated Press: Collin Mulholland scored 19 points and made five-pointers, Garrison Keeslar sank a go-ahead jumper from the free-throw line with 11 seconds left in overtime and Tennessee Chattanooga became the first team from the Southern Conference to win the NIT championship after beating UC Irvine 85-84 on Thursday night.
Chattanooga (29-9) tied a program record for victories in a season after winning 17 of its last 18 to capture the program’s first postseason title.
UC Irvine 7-foot-1 center Bent Leuchten went to the free-throw line with 31 seconds left in overtime for a chance at a three-point lead, but he missed both free throws. After Keeslar’s make, an entry pass to Leuchten was overthrow and Chattanooga secured the loose ball before missing two free throws to give the Anteaters another chance.
UC Irvine-Chattanooga box score
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1921 — The NHL champion Ottawa Senators beat the Pacific Coast Hockey Association champion Vancouver Millionaires 2-1 to win the Stanley Cup 3 games to 2.
1937 — Byron Nelson shoots a 283 to win the Masters by two strokes over Ralph Guldahl.
1938 — Henry Picard beats Ralph Guldahl and Harry Cooper by two strokes to capture the Masters.
1959 — France beats Wales, 11-3 at Stade Colombes to win the Five Nations Rugby Championship outright for the first time.
1974 — Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth’s home-run record by hitting his 714th.
1983 — Lorenzo Charles scores on a dunk after Derek Whittenburg’s 35-foot desperation shot falls short to give North Carolina State a 54-52 triumph over Houston in the NCAA championship.
1985 — Tulane University cancels its basketball season.
1986 — Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky breaks his own NHL single-season points record with three assists to increase his total to 214. He scored 212 points in 1981-82.
1987 — New York’s Denis Potvin, the highest-scoring defenseman in NHL history, scores his 1,000th point.
1988 — Danny Manning scores 31 points and grabs 18 rebounds as Kansas wins its second NCAA championship with an 83-79 victory over Oklahoma.
1989 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar plays final NBA game.
1989 — NY Yankee Tommy John ties record of playing 26 seasons.
1993 — Sheryl Swoopes shatters the women’s championship game record by scoring 47 points to lead Texas Tech to an 84-82 victory over Ohio State.
1993 — Mario Andretti, at 53, wins the Valvoline 200 in Phoenix to become the oldest driver to win an Indy car race and the first driver to win a race in four different decades.
1994 — Arkansas wins its first men’s national championship with a 76-72 victory over Duke, depriving the Blue Devils of a third title in four years.
1997 — Anaheim Ducks clinch their 1st-ever playoff berth.
1997 — Braves officially open Turner Field.
1998 — Mark McGwire ties Willie Mays’ National League record by hitting a home run in each of his first four games. McGwire launches a towering three-run shot in the sixth inning of an 8-6 victory over the San Diego
2001 — Hideo Nomo becomes the fourth pitcher in major league history to throw a no-hitter in both leagues in Boston’s 3-0 victory over Baltimore.
2003 — Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs becomes the 18th player to hit 500 career homers, connecting for a solo shot in a 10-9 loss to Cincinnati.
2004 — Carolina’s Brad Fast beat Florida goalie Roberto Luongo with a wrist shot to tie the game at 6-6 late in the third period. It’s the final tie game in NHL history.
2005 — North Carolina defeats Illinois to win the NCAA Division I men’s basketball championship. Sean May has 26 points and the Tar Heels don’t allow a basket over the final 2 1/2 minutes to defeat Illinois 75-70.
2006 — 25th NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: Maryland beats Duke, 78-75 OT.
2011 — Kemba Walker scores 16 points and Alex Oriakhi has 11 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots to lead Connecticut to a 53-41 win over Butler in the men’s NCAA championship game.
2015 — The United States defends their women’s world hockey championship with a 7-5 win over Canada.
2016 — Kris Jenkins hits a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift Villanova to the national title with a 77-74 victory over North Carolina — one of the wildest finishes in the history of the NCAA Tournament. Jenkins’ shot comes moments after Marcus Paige hit a double-clutch 3 from beyond the arc to tie the game at 74 with 4.7 seconds left.
2021 — 39th NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: Stanford Cardinal defeat Arizona Wildcats, 54–53.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time...
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
