The Bruins completed a season sweep of Washington on Wednesday night, but it came at cost. UCLA defeated Washington 98-66, but they lost freshman forward TJ Leaf to an ankle injury.
Leaf played 5 minutes before spraining his left ankle. However, it was the Bruin backcourt that took care of business in this one. Bryce Alford led the way with 29 points, and Lonzo Ball scored 19 points, to go along with 7 rebounds and 8 assists.
The Huskies played without guard Markelle Fultz, which didn’t help their cause. UCLA jumped all over them early, opening up a 21 point lead at halftime, and a 42 point lead in the 2nd half.
Leaf will be wearing a protective boot between now and Saturday’s game against Washington State, and will be seeking treatment in hopes of playing in the regular season finale.
Coach Steve Alford liked his teams effort from start to finish. “We were engaged right from the beginning,” Alford said. “Our guys really concentrated well in a lopsided game. We were really good in a lot of areas.”
Noah Dickerson tied his career high with 23 points for the Huskies . They have lost 11 in a row and 13 of 14.
The Bruins were the only team in the Pac 12 to go undefeated in the month of February. Their 7-0 mark was the first time they had gone undefeated since the 1994-1995 season. “I really don’t want to add any additional pressure, but that UCLA team could win a national championship,” said Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar. The former UCLA assistant coach is right.
The Rockets could not be stopped from the 3-point line on Wednesday night at Staples Center. Houston made 20 three-pointers in a 122-103 win over LA.
James Harden scored 26 points, Ryan Anderson added 23, and the Clippers were crushed on the boards 62-35. Houston had 6 players in double figures.
Chris Paul had 16 points and 10 assists for the Clipps, and Blake Griffin had 17, but LA lost for the 3rd time in the last 4 games. They had a decent start too, taking a 37-34 lead after the 1st quarter.
However, the 2nd quarter saw the Rockets start to pull away. They made 11 of 24 three-pointers in the first half, to take a 70-58 lead into the locker room.
The Clippers made it 70-60, then the Rockets nailed 6 more three-pointers in just under 4 minutes to take a 93-69 lead. LA was outscored 38-20 in the 3rd.
The Clipps would go on a 15-2 run in the 4th quarter but would get not closer than 111-93. With every 3-pointer the Rockets hit, the disbelief of the Clippers grew larger.
“We knew we needed to take them off the three-point line,” Chris Paul said. “We gave up too many threes tonight.”
The Clippers have been sliding since the All-Star break. They are 1-3 with losses against the top 3 teams in the West (Golden State, San Antonio, and Houston), losing by an average of more than 10 points per game.
LA is stil 5th in the West after Utah lost on Wednesday night. They still have time to build momentum before the playoffs now that their two stars are healthy and back in the lineup. “Without making excuses, we’re still getting right,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “We just got our two guys [Chris Paul and Blake Griffin] back.
The Clippers will return to action on Friday at Milwaukee.
USC got a much needed win on Wednesday night. The Trojans took down Washington State 87-64 at the Galen Center. Jordan McLaughlin had 16 points, 10 assists, and 9 rebounds to lead the way for Southern Cal.
The Trojans had four players in double figures and opened up a 20 point lead by halftime. Much of that was the result of outscoring the Cougars 17-0 off of turnovers.
USC used a zone defense for much of the night to frustrate Washington State. They were up by as many as 28 points in the 2nd half. McLaughlin fell one rebound short of just the second triple-double in USC history.
WSU was led by Robert Franks, who scored 20 points off the bench for the Cougars. The win snapped a 4 game losing skid for the Trojans, who also received 15 points from Chimezie Metu, and 14 points from Bennie Boatwright.
USC will wrap up the regular season on Saturday afternoon against Washington, at the Galen Center.
The Kings beat the trade deadline on Wednesday by acquiring Colorado Avalanche Right Wing Jerome Iginla. In exchange, the Kings sent the Avalanche a conditional 4th round draft pick in 2018. Colorado will also retain 50% of Iginla’s remaining salary this season. If the Kings make the playoffs and re-sign Iginla, who will be an unrestricted free agent, they convey the draft pick.
In order to create salary cap space for Iginla, the Kings also traded forward Dwight King to Montreal for a conditional 4th round pick in 2018. That pick will be conveyed to the Kings if Dwight King re-signs with the Canadians.
Iginla is likely a future Hall of Famer, but is in the twilight of his career at 39-years old. He has just 8 goals and 18 points in 61 games this season. However, the Kings are hoping that his skill can help ignite the teams struggling offense, especially while playing on a line with Anze Kopitar.
The Kings are also hoping that a reunion with Coach Darryl Sutter will jump start Iginla. Back in 2004, Iginla and Sutter led the Calgary Flames to the Stanley Cup Final.
Iginla was optimistic about the Kings chances, and happy about joining them. “I think they’re a very competitive bunch. I think they play really hard,” he said. “They have a knack for, once they get down into the nitty-gritty, the big games, they find ways to be successful.
The Kings return home to play the Maple Leafs on Thursday. It’s their first game of a seven game home stand.
The Rams have placed the franchise tag on cornerback Trumaine Johnson. It’s the 2nd year in a row that Johnson was placed under the franchise tag, which likely means Johnson will be spending at least one more season with the Rams.
After making $14 million last year, he will earn nearly $17 million under a $167-million salary cap set by the NFL. The Rams can still work out a long-term deal with Johnson. However, If Johnson signs with another team, the Rams would receive two No. 1 draft picks as compensation.
Johnson had a career-high 7 interceptions last season. He is an important part of defense that ranked 9th in the NFL last season, and was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal season.
Johnson was one of seven NFL players who were tagged this week in the run-up to Wednesday’s deadline.
The Lakers gave a much better effort against Charlotte on Tuesday night Staples, but they failed to make plays late as the Hornets beat LA 109-104.
Kemba Walker scored 30 points for the Hornets, including a clutch 3-pointer in the last two minutes to give Charlotte the lead for good. The Hornets also got 24 points and 12 rebounds from Frank Kaminsky.
Laker Coach Luke Walton was very disappointed in his teams effort on Sunday against San Antonio, but got a much better effort on Tuesday, despite poor late game execution. Julius Randle scored 23 points, had 18 rebounds, and 6 assists. D’Angelo Russell had 23 points and 9 assists on another efficient shooting game as well.
Jordan Clarkson’s basket gave the Lakers a 1 point lead with 2:21 to play. However, Waker’s 3-pointer put the Hornets back in front 100-98, about a half a minute later. With 1:07 left Marvin Williams hit another 3-pointer to make it 103-98 Charlotte. The Lakers never recovered. D’Angelo Russell made two late three pointers, but the Hornets made 6 straight free throws to get the win.
The win was just the 3rd in the last 16 games for Charlotte, but also their 2nd in the last 3 games. The Lakers on the other hand lost their 5th straight game, and still have the third worst record in the NBA. Phoenix is just half a game behind them in the standings (for those of you interested in a tanking update).
Once again, Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng did not play for the Lakers. It was the 4h straight game Mozgov didn’t play, and the 1st for Deng, although he only played 13 minutes in the game against San Antonio.
The Lakers are off until Friday. That night they’ll take on the Boston Celtics, for the only matchup at Staples Center this year between the two clubs.
The Kings overtime luck is finally running out, and it’s happening at the worst time. For the 2nd night in a row, LA lost in OT. This time, it was a critical 2-1 loss to the Calgary Flames.
TJ Brodie got loose on a breakaway just 1:47 into overtime, as the Flames spoiled goaltender Ben Bishop’s debut as a King. Brodie got behind the LA defense, and received a long pass from Mikael Backlund before making a nice move to beat Bishop. It was Brodie’s 5th goal of the season.
Coming into Tuesday’s game, the Kings were 10-2 in overtime games this season, and over the last two years had been the best team in the NHL in the extra session. Despite LA’s offensive struggles the last few years, they have been excellent since the NHL implemented 3-on-3 during overtime.
Tanner Pearson scored the Kings only goal of the game, knocking in a power play goal at the 8:42 mark of the 1st period. It was Pearson’s 21st of the season, and had to be reviewed by the officials to be sure that it had crossed the goal line before the whistle blew.
The Flames would tie things up in the 2nd period, when Michael Ferland slapped in a pass from Mark Giordano. Ferland took advantage of the fact that Kings defenseman, Jake Muzzin, had fallen down on the play, which allowed him to get open in front of the LA net.
Ben Bishop was spectacular in his Kings debut, stopping 28 shots, including several big saves in the 2nd period. As many feared though, Bishop was unable to help LA’s struggling offense.
Although the Kings did salvage a point in the standings, they remained 1 point behind St. Louis for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. With the win, Calgary has now opened up a 6 point lead on the Kings. The teams will meet three more times before the season is over, with two of them in Calgary.
It’s going to be an interesting next two days for the Kings before they begin a 7 game home stand on Thursday against Toronto. Wednesday at 12 pm PST is the trade deadline. It’s the last chance for Dean Lombardi to try and bring in some more help offensively before the season is over. Then on Thursday, Kings play-by-play announcer Bob Miller will be holding a press conference regarding his future. Miller has been home recuperating from a stroke he suffered in late January, and is expected to announce his retirement.
Only the Kings could score 4 goals in a game and find a way to lose a game they desperately needed. Only the Kings could manage to have the lead 4 times in a game, yet manage to lose in OT. Sure enough, that’s how it went down, as the Kings lost to Minnesota 5-4 in overtime on Monday night in St. Paul.
Mikael Granlund surprised the Kings with his speed 12 seconds into overtime, and wrapped a shot around Jonathan Quick to give the Wild the victory. It was Granlund’s 20th goal of the season, which gave the Wild their 15th comeback win of the season.
The Kings got goals from Nick Shore, Tanner Pearson, Jake Muzzin, and Marian Gaborik in regulation. However, the Wild answered each goal, one by one. It was Jason Zucker’s spinning wrist shot midway through the 3rd period that tied the game. Minnesota also got goals from Nino Niederreiter, Jordan Schroeder, and Ryan White. White, along with Martin Hanzal, were playing their first game for the team after being acquired Sunday in a trade with Arizona.
Marian Gaborik responded nicely for the Kings, after being a healthy scratch in the teams’ previous game against Anaheim. Gaborik had a goal and an assist, and was using his speed to create numerous opportunities for LA throughout the game.
Jonathan Quick stopped 30 of 35 shots, and although he made some big saves, he wasn’t quite a sharp as he was on Saturday against Anaheim.
The Kings already added one significant piece to their team before Wednesday’s trade deadline, acquiring Tampa Bay goaltender Ben Bishop. The move seems unusual with Jonathan Quick healthy again, but General Manager Dean Lombardi assured everyone that Bishop will see some playing time as Quick regains his form. “You’re never sure how well a guy who’s been out this long, is he going to have his ‘A’ game?,” he said. “This is not an insurance policy. [Bishop] needs to play.”
Even more surprising was Lombardi’s insistence that the team is unlikely to add any more offensive help between now and Wednesday. “The focus has to be on the players we have producing up to their capability. And then we can look at additions.”
The Kings managed to salvage a point in the standings, despite the loss. Tuesday night they’ll be facing an even more critical game on the road at Calgary. The Kings are 2 points behind St Louis for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, and now 5 points behind The Flames. That will be the first of 4 more meetings between the Kings and Flames this season.
In case you were living under a rock over the last week, Magic Johnson has replaced Jim Buss as the President of Basketball Operations, and NBA player agent Rob Pelinka, has replaced Mitch Kupchak as General Manager of the Lakers. This might make some of you feel better because you didn’t like how things were going with Buss and Kupchak. However, it’s not like everything is suddenly ok in Lakerland because of the changes. The good news is that Jeanie will be able to actually have normal communication with the Basketball Operations Department, unlike the weird dynamic she had with Jim earlier. The way things were going, these two practically needed attorneys just to decide what they wanted to order for lunch. It’s always good for any organization to have a unified direction, unified voice, and good communication, which the Lakers now have. Still, it doesn’t change the fact the Lakers need to get somewhat lucky to be good again. They’ll need to keep their 1st round picks, and likely find their next face of the franchise player in the draft. These days, determining the success of a 19 year old in the NBA is about as easy as playing darts blindfolded after 5 shots of Tequila. That’s why I’m a little disappointed Jerry West isn’t going to be coming back in any role with LA. He was the greatest talent evaluator ever. Even if they sign Paul George in 2018, they’ll still need a lot more around him to be competitive, which can’t be done through free agency alone.
ESPN must be desperate to create news, and the only way they can do it apparently is by talking about race. On Thursday, Dan Le Batard explained on his radio show that he felt like Magic wasn’t all that qualified to run the Lakers. Although he gave a comprehensive explanation of this, ESPN decided to take clips of Le Batard’s criticism of Magic, and play them on all their stations. However, those clips made it sound like Le Batard was a racist, implying that Magic was simply all about “shucking and jiving” his way to the top. Anybody that knows Le Batard knows this isn’t what he meant and that he’s not a racist, but it’s just another example of ESPN manufacturing a story. Le Batard also spent all of Friday explaining his position on multiple talk shows, as opposed to the clips which suggested he might be racist. Since ESPN has lost all of their real talent, apparently they have to resort to these smoke and mirror stories. So the Clippers are now considering moving to Inglewood, next to the new Rams and Chargers stadium. Don’t we have enough terrible teams moving to Inglewood? Do we really need to add a 3rd? It’s like we’ve created the city of losers. Getting approval to build that NFL stadium was complex enough, so I’d be surprised if Steve Ballmer is able to get all the city and EIR approvals necessary to get this done. Even if he has all the money to build the stadium. Ballmer does realize that Inglewood is in Los Angeles and not in Seattle, right?
I love it when college and NBA players say they never read the headlines, or pay attention the criticism they receive from the media. The UCLA Bruins basketball team sure reads the headlines and pays attention to that criticism, because for weeks I’ve been ripping them for their pathetic defense, soft play, and lack of toughness. In the month of February they have answered the bell, playing tough defense against quality opponents. Both Coach Steve Alford, and his son Bryce, are most aware of this and admitted they are constantly working on it. It showed, and if the Bruins continue to play like this, the are true national championship contenders. UCLA has two of the biggest road wins in college basketball this year. As for Lonzo Ball’s dad, Lavar, he’s at it again, suggesting that he would only play for the Lakers when he enters the NBA next year. Although he backtracked from these comments yesterday, he replaced them with dumber comments by suggesting that if we currently put Lonzo on the Warriors instead of Steph Curry, they would be better. Lavar is going to make Lonzo the most hated basketball player in the world at this rate, and he hasn’t even played a single NBA game yet.
Why are NBA players so thin skinned these days? First you have Lebron complaining about Charles Barkley criticizing him for needing more help. Now we have Javale McGee engaging a huge Twitter war with Shaq because McGee is repeatedly on “Shaq’tin A Fool”, which is a weekly blooper reel of NBA highlights. It’s Shaq’s job to be entertaining, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. If Javale has a problem with being featured on the bloopers every week, he should stop making a fool out of himself every week he plays. The crying and bitching that we’re seeing from his teammates and the Warriors, who are complaining to TNT, is ridiculous. In case you missed the exchange between Shaq and Javale, here it is.
Forget being on a good team… Ima grown man… you’ve had these ‘s in yo mouth for 5-6 years now… u thought I was just gone stay silent? https://t.co/3gTpTgVgmU
This race for the 2024 Summer Olympics in getting interesting. After Donald Trump was elected President, it dealt a major blow the hopes of LA’s bid. However, Budapest dropped out because similar to a number of other previous bidders, the cost was just too great for them. That leaves Paris and Los Angeles. Paris is unfortunately the home of a lot of terrorist activity of late, while the United States creates a great degree of uncertainty because of Trump’s immigration orders. On one hand, it’s hard to imagine all of those IOC voters from Islamic and Latin American countries voting for the LA because of Donald Trump. But on the other hand, we know the IOC is corrupt, and is getting bribes left and right. How else do you explain a disastrous country like Brazil getting the Olympics? It’s going to be an interesting decision for this corruption that is the IOC.
Why did the LA Kings acquire one of the top goaltenders on the market to backup Jonathan Quick now? This would have been helpful 3 months ago when Quick was hurt. Maybe they wouldn’t be on the outside of the playoff picture looking in if they had. By the way Kato Kaelin was in the house for the Kings-Ducks game on Saturday at Staples Center. This makes sense. Whenever Kato is in the house there is always bloodshed.
The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC. Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it yet, so read no further if that is the case. Just when I thought I got that “Easy Street” song out of my head, I had to hear it again, and I’m going to playing it in my head for the next few weeks. Listening to Eugene’s nerdy talk was unbelievable. He was like some type of super nerd, that was made from parts of a lesser nerd. Couldn’t Negan have just killed him instead of some of our favorite characters this season? It was even more painful watching him interact with the girls Negan sent to him. Negan lines up some easy sex for him and somehow, in two or three sentences, he lost the ability have sex with every woman in that room. The scary thing about him though is that once you gave him some pickles, he got his confidence up, and bought into Negan’s nonsense. Eugene is desperate for his own survival, and knows the’s too much of a coward to stand up for what’s right. Dwight on the other hand is on the verge of snapping, and I’m curious to see if he gets revenge on Negan.
As for the Oscars last night, I thought blunders like that only happened in beauty pageants that were hosted by Steve Harvey! Harvey may think he’s off the hook, but the reality is we will forever compare his blunder in the pageant to every other blunder like last night. I realize it wasn’t entirely Warren Beaty’s fault, but perhaps the Academy should make sure all of its presenters are young enough to effectively read and recognize when they have the incorrect envelopes like Beaty did. Props to all the people from La La Land that recognize the goof, and stopped their acceptance speech to give the real award to Moonlight. I know i know…..most of you are wishing that the 2016 Presidential Election turned out the way Best Picture did last night. Outside of that blunder, and Justin Timberlake’s brilliant performance to open the show, last night was just a reminder that the Oscars are nothing but politics and who is in bed with the right people in Hollywood to get recognized. In case you missed the blunder here is the full disaster…..
Finally, we get to see another highly anticipated episode of The Bachelor tonight on ABC. Last week we got to see Nick go on four different dates with each remaining contestant. The remaining women are from Houston, Montreal, some small town in Arkansas, and Miami. It should be a no-brainer where he wants to live. Corrine has both geography and money on her side. Her dad also seems like the equivalent of Pauley D from Jersey Shore, but 25 years older. He’ll also have the person who might be the most famous nanny in the world, Raquel. My favorite part of the show was seeing Corrine’s mom say “I can’t do a lot of things without Raquel”, while waiting anxiously for Raquel to pass her a glass of wine. Let’s be honest though, Nick doesn’t really like olives. Vanessa might seem like the most normal, but her family is way too intense. She got dumped people, she didn’t grow up eating lipstick. Apparently, none of them realize they are on The Bachelor, and are surprised Nick asked for the permission to marry each girl remaining from all the parents he visited. They were about as surprised as I was that there was no cheese pasta served for dinner at her house. I’m going to need to take a shot of whiskey tonight every time Nick says the word “respect”. From platinum “vageen” to platinum visa, Corrine needs to be the winner.
The Clippers needed overtime, and a brilliant game from Blake Griffin, but they beat the Hornets on Sunday night 124-121 at Staples.
Griffin scored 43 points to go along with 10 rebounds, and 5 assists, as he helped the Clippers snap their two game losing skid. Chris Paul added 15 points, 17 assists, and 9 rebounds despite a tough shooting game. CP3 missed 14 of his 18 shots from the field.
The Clippers gave up a 17-point lead in the third quarter, then the score was tied at 113-113 when Kemba Walker made two free throws with 11.9 seconds left in regulation. Walker scored 34 points for the game. Paul missed a potential game-winning jumper, and the teams headed into overtime.
The Clippers built a 4 point lead in the extra period, but that also disappeared, when Charlotte’s Jeremy Lamb made a 16-foot jumper to tie the score at 120-120.
Griffin then made one of two free throws for a 121-120 Clippers lead with 20.7 seconds left. The Hornets still had a chance to steal the game.
Charlotte had to call a timeout with 19.2 seconds left and another with 10.2 to play because of tough defense by the Clippers. LA then forced a turnover, and Paul’s missed layup was rebounded by DeAndre Jordan for a slam dunk, which secured the win.
Jordan finished with 20 points and 19 rebounds. “When it came down to it, I think we just made some really great plays in overtime,” said J.J.Redick, who had 22 points. “Blake was huge. It was a one-possession game and it came down to one play.”
The Clippers will return to action on Wednesday against Houston, where they’ll try to make it two in a row at Staples Center.
