The Lakers are toast. After a miserable weekend in Minnesota, they are down 3-1 against the Wolves, heading back to LA for Game 5. Game 3 and 4 were there for the taking, but the Lakers kept shooting themselves in the foot. Turnovers, stupid fouls, and ultimately, getting dominated in the paint and on the boards. The lack of a big man in this series is really hurting them against the likes of Naz Reid and Rudy Gobert. This is where the decision to keep Trey Jemision of the playoff roster is a killer. If the Lakers didn’t want to give up Dalton Knecht, then you would hope they would make him a useful playoff contributor. The Lakers played all 5 players the entire 2nd half, and it caught up with Lebron, who didn’t score in the 4th quarter. I think this team can win Game 5, but let’s be honest, winning two more games after that, even if one is at home will be too tall of a task for this group.

Then there’s the Clippers, who suffered a devastating loss to the Nuggets in Game 4. The Clips looked like they were on the verge of taking a commanding 3-1 lead. I still like their chances to win the series in 7 games, for two reasons. First, Kawhi has reminded everyone that he can still ball out, and be one of the best players in basketball. Then there’s James Harden, who has also reminded us that he still has some very good basketball left in him. The Nuggets might have the best player in The Joker, but Jamaal Murray and Michael Porter have shown me that they have their inconsistent moments. For that reason, I would ever so slightly favor the Clips in this one.

What a disastrous weekend for the Kings in Edmonton. Their best of seven series with the Oilers is now tied at 2-2. However, never has a 2-2 series felt like it was more 3-2. The Kings should be up 3-0, or at least 3-1 going back home, but they made some very foolish coaching decision all weekend. On Friday, it was very foolish to challenge that tying goal in the 3rd period, which resulted in them giving up the game-winning goal on a power-play, when they lost the challenge, about 20 seconds later. They also foolishly went into a 1-3-1 prevent defense to protect the lead instead of continuing to attack. They did the same thing last night in the 3rd period, and that cost them the lead. You can’t do that against a team as skilled as Edmonton. You have to keep the pressure on, and if they did, they would have kept scoring. Sure you can argue if Kevin Fiala doesn’t hit the goal post the Kings probably win that game, or if Quinton Byfield clears the puck in the last minute. However, this is about poor strategy. When you shorten your bench to 3 lines and 4 defenseman, you are going to be fatigued playing that way, and the Kings essentially neutralized their depth advantage against the Oilers. I don’t know if the Kings or their fans have more PTSD after that game. Let’s hope it’s just the fans, because I don’t know how the Kings can mentally overcome those two games and still win this series.

I am both surprised, but pleased at the Rams big move on the draft day a few nights ago. The Rams traded their 1st round pick in this years draft, and will have an extra 1st rounder next year. That will give them a great chance to draft a successor to Matthew Stafford in a year where there are a lot of great quarterback draft prospects. They really did approach this draft with house money though, because there weren’t any major needs. Josiah Stewart is a nice addition to an already loaded defensive line. Sean McVay clearly has a vision for a player like Terrance Ferguson in his offense, and Jarquez Hunter is like the second coming up Kyren Williams, so the Rams have even more offensive depth now too. It took the NFL’s help to finally get Chris Paul to a good LA team, but it finally happened. They didn’t draft a cornerback though, which is surprising, but that could mean Jalen Ramsey could be headed back to LA in a trade. That would be a great thing.

As for the Chargers, they did a nice job of getting Justin Herbert some weapons around him. Omarion Hampton gives them a nice running back, and Tre Harrison might finally give them someone who can catch the football. They also did a nice job adding to the defense on the line, and in their secondary. I could easily see the first 5 picks being starters. The Bolts obviously didn’t do a lot in free agency which wasn’t great, but the draft might have actually made up for that if these guys end up being as good as we think they will be. Going from Tom Telesco to Joe Hortiz is like going from a Honda Accord to a Maserati.

Obviously, the talk of the draft was Shadeur Sanders. However, I think the moral of the story here is when he didn’t work out for teams, he was viewed as not good enough to compensate for the headache and drama that he could bring to the table. Plus the worst part about all this for him is that he is now going to an absolutely horrible situation. A very crowded QB room in Cleveland, in a city with terrible weather, and in a division where he has to compete against 2 of the best quarterbacks in the league. He’s also now going to make less money next year than he would have by staying in college. At one point I thought a new Pope was going to get selected before Shadeur was drafted.

The Dodgers took 2 out of 3 from the Pirates over the weekend, which was much needed to keep pace with the Giants in the NL West. Except the bad news is that they lost Tyler Glasnow to a shoulder injury, which at this point is basically a scheduled injury. The odds of this guy getting injured are about as good as the sun rising tomorrow. That means the Boys in Blue are down to three healthy and effective starting pitchers: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, and Dustin May. Dustin May and Clayton Kershaw can’t get back soon enough. Separately, the Dodgers need to keep an eye on Max Muncy’s production, or lack therof, and Andy Pages’ defense. Pages is hitting, but he needs a GPS just to track down routine fly balls. Suddenly a Nolan Arenado trade might not be that unrealistic if Muncy doesn’t start hitting soon. In the meantime, the Dodgers should really consider bringing up Hyeseong Kim and Dalton Rushing if the bottom of the order can’t be more consistent.

Finally, the Angels have really regressed to being “The Angels” over the last two weeks. They have one guy in their lineup that is hitting over .250 and Tyler Anderson is the only reliable starting pitcher. I have no idea why Reid Detmers is in the bullpen. He’s been one of their best pitchers, and for a team that is desperate for starters, they really need him in their rotation. Mike “Mendoza” Trout still has some pop, but can’t seem to stop striking out. Did you know the Halos have a quality assurance coach? I’ve never felt less assured of quality I’m watching in my life. The Halos are already at the bottom of the AL West.

April 21, 2025

How concerned should we be as Laker fans after losing Game 1 against the T-Wolves at home? Maybe not ready to jump off the Santa Monica pier concerned, but concerned. The Timberwolves were shooting from 3 like they had a bunch of Reggie Millers and Ray Allen’s on their team. That might not be repeatable, but the Lakers still have to defend it better and not give up the corner 3 pointer, or else those opportunities are repeatable. What is going to be a problem though is the Wolves defense. They are an excellent defensive team, and a very physical one too. That proved to be a problem for Lebron and Austin, who were ineffective for long stretches in the first game. The Lakers had the intensity of a team that was just getting some cardio at LA Fitness on a Saturday morning pick up game. One thing I will say though if it makes us feel any better: Lebron and Luka have a history of losing game 1 of a series, and making adjustments later on to win that series. We can only hope that is the case here, but we’ll find out soon enough.

On a different Laker note, I can’t believe that Austin Reaves nor JJ Redick were finalists for Most Improved Player, and Coach of the Year, respectively. At minimum, there should be in the top 3 for those awards, and Redick should really be a strong contender to win it. There’s still enough people that vote on these things that just don’t like the Lakers. You may also not have noticed that Rob Pelinka received an extension and promotion from the Lakers last week. Say what you will him accepting a trade for Luka Doncic, which was presented to him, he still did a great job keeping the negotiations quiet. It’s pretty tough to be the Lakers President and GM in this day and age when most people hate your organization, are jealous of you because of your job, and are looking to screw you in every transaction just because of who you are and represent. Somehow, Rob Pelinka manages to work through all that on a daily basis, and acquire franchise changing players, while building championship contending teams. In case you forgot, he also won a championship as well. The extension is well deserved.

As for the Clippers, they really played very well in long stretches against the Nuggets in game 1, but some careless mistakes did them in and gave them a loss. They had 20 turnovers, including 4 critical ones in the 4th quarter. 11 of them were totally unforced. James Harden might actually be the Clips most consistent player this year, yet he got very careless at times with the ball, including critical moments of game 1. That seems extremely correctable for the Clippers, but they definitely don’t want to come back to LA down 0-2 in the series. Even Kawhi was sloppy with 7 turnovers, despite making a lot of clutch shots with his 22 points. I still like them in this series, but we’ll see if they can clean things up tonight.

Listen guys, of course I want the Kings to beat the Oilers in this best of seven series that starts tonight, but I can’t tell you I’m convinced they can finally do it this year. I know you’re all trying to convince yourself this is the year, but why? The Kings are still of the pack offensive team with a terrible power play. It’s actually even worse than last year statistically. Sure they are great defensively, and so is their goaltending, but the Oilers have always seemed to dismantle that part of their game annually. The Kings are going to need to get some out of this world performances from Quinton Byfield or Andre Kuzmenko to beat Edmonton. To me, the Kings personal is more or less the same, and so is the Oilers. In the last three years, the Oilers have simply met the moment at the critical points in the series, like when the Kings should have taken a 3-1 lead in the series two years ago when they blew a big lead in game 4. If the Kings are going to win the series, they have to come up big when it matters. The Oilers still have the two best players in the world, so it’s hard to see anything changing in that regard. Plus this is probably the year Canada finally wins the Cup because they are going to stick it to us because of the tariffs.

The Dodgers took 2 out of 3 against the Rangers, and really should be feeling pretty good about themselves all things considered. They are tied for the most wins in baseball, are just a 1/2 game back of the Padres for the best record in baseball. That’s pretty good considering that their offensive has had some ups and downs, and we haven’t seen the best from their starting pitching yet. In other words, this team has a much higher ceiling than they’ve shown, yet they are right there where we expect them to be. Speaking of pitching, Yoshinobu Yamamoto is looking like a sure fire Cy Young candidate right now. Every time he gets the ball, he’s lights out. He’s emerging as one of the best pitchers in baseball. Roki Sasaki is also improving every start he makes, which is a great sign. Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow are some injury question marks right now, but reinforcements are likely on the way with Tony Gonsolin and Clayton Kershaw soon after that. This team needs 6 healthy and effective starters at one time. Right now they only have 3. Still, lots to feel good about.

The Dodgers will likely be sending the Angels an Easter Basket, after they took 2 of 3 from the Giants over the weekend. The Halos are tough to figure out right now. They got trounced by the Astros and Rangers, before bouncing back against a Giants team that was playing very well. They are hovering around .500. It would really help them if Mike Trout could figure things out. His power numbers are there with 8 home runs, but he’s hitting just .184 right now and striking out more than Steve Urkel on Prom Night. The Halos are going to play the next 6 games against the struggling Pirates and Twins, which they have to take advantage of before life gets more difficult for them again.

Lots of news around UCLA Football and Basketball this past week! The Football team landed a big fish at quarterback in the transfer portal –
Nico Iamaleava. Iamaleava led the Vols to the College Football Playoff last season, but will not be trying to improve a Bruins team that was just 5-7 in its first year in the Big Ten. How much better does he make them? You would hope that they would at least be a bowl eligible team with him being a signal caller for them. This is great for UCLA, but incredibly fortunate for them. Iamaleava wanted $4 million, but there was no market for him in the portal. He claimed to have wanted a better O-Line and better Wide Receivers, but you can’t possibly look at me with a straight face and tell me that UCLA is better in those areas than the Vols. Nevertheless, the Bruins are the beneficiaries of a situation that landed in their lap, but they will take it and have to be excited!

On the other hand though, they probably aren’t as excited with the basketball news that Aday Mara is leaving the program for Michigan. This is extremely disappointing. There’s a lot of vagueness around his departure though. Mara was showing some real promise as a big man for the Bruins, despite his single digit stats. Much of that had to do with limited playing time, which may be due to conditioning, but also could be due to the fact that him and Mick Cronin just didn’t see eye-to-eye, and didn’t think he was ready. At the end of the day he wanted to play more, but at the same time he admitted his conditioning wasn’t completely there. Cronin didn’t see him as ready to play more. It wasn’t a money issue. Is he really going to play more at Michigan? They play at a faster tempo, so if it’s really conditioning that’s not going to help him. I just don’t see this as a great fit for Mara, and UCLA was probably a better place for his development. Unfortunately, it seems to me that the real lack of fit was between him and Cronin. Stylistically, they just don’t mesh with each other, and that is the only real conclusion we can draw from his departure.

April 14, 2025

I told you this way back in October when the season started. The Lakers have a chance to be a top 3 seed in the West this year. Yes, I realize none of us ever thought Luka Doncic would be on the 2nd by February, but still, they finish as a top 3 seed. They could have still been a top 3 seed with AD, but the ceiling on this team is now much higher with Luka. As for the playoff seeding, nothing is an easy matchup, but playing the Timberwolves with home court is probably one of the best outcomes they could have had. They avoid the Warriors in round 1, while the Clippers and OKC aren’t in their bracket. ANT man is great, but Luka, Lebron, and Austin are going to be too tough for the Wolves to match up with, and usually this is where Rudy Gobert gets exposed when teams have great perimeter defenders. As Shannon Sharp would say, “Ant Man, Pac Man, Spider Man, it don’t matter! Lakers in 6!”

I couldn’t help watching that Clippers v Warriors game yesterday and think, “I can’t believe one of these teams will be in the play-in game!”. Both teams are very dangerous right now, but the Clips won a very impressive game. Both Kawhi and James Harden are looking very good right now, and this team looks almost as dangerous as they did in 2020. I dismissed the Clippers a couple of months ago, thinking Kawhi wasn’t going to return to form, but he has, and the support from Ivica Zubac and Norman Powell. The Denver Nuggets have the best player in the world, but they are also in complete turmoil after firing Mike Malone. The Clips are peaking right now, and should be able to win this series in six games, assuming that Kawhi doesn’t suddenly get injured, which feels like an annual tradition.

The Dodgers are suddenly scuffling, losing 2 out of 3 to the Cubs over the weekend, which was their 3rd straight series loss. I’m not so bothered by the losses to the Phillies and Cubs because they are good teams, but the losses to the Nationals feel sloppy. It also just feels extra bad for Dodger fans because the Padres and Giants are playing so well right now, and everybody likes to rub it in when the Boys in Blue take a loss. The bullpen looks a bit overused right now, but reinforcements are on the way. The offense is a little reliant on Tommy Edman, but I expect that to change in short order. This is all very fixable, just with the talent and law of averages.

As for the Angeles, just when you think they are ready to take early control of the division, the Astros come along and take 2 of 3 from them. I think where the Angels can feel good about themselves is that the power numbers are there from the lineup. Mike Trout, Jorge Soler, Kyle Paris, and Logan O’Hoppe are all hitting the long ball. It always come back to pitching with this team, and if they can hold it together. The Halos continue their Texas tour on Tuesday when they take on the Rangers. The Halos have never been great in the division the last few years, so if they want to take control of it, now is the time to do with these early season divisional matchups.

Congratulations to Rory McIlroy on winning the Masters yesterday! He certainly earned that Green Jacket, and completed a career grand slam after an 11-year wait for his fifth major. It really blows my mind that he went that long without winning a major, let alone 14 years without winning at Augusta. When he took the PGA by storm over a decade ago, at one point they thought this guy might be the next Tiger Woods. He wasn’t that, but he’s still a pretty damn good golfer.

Tonight is a huge game for the LA Kings. They take on the Oilers on the road at Edmonton. They only need 2 points to secure home ice advantage against the Oilers in the 1st round of the playoffs. This is going to be the 4th straight year the teams have played in the 1st round. The Oilers have won the previous 3, and have had home ice in each of those series. I explained recently how this is put up or shut up time for the Kings to get past the Oilers finally, but it’s also worth pointing out the Oilers lost top defenseman Mattie’s Ekholm to an injury that will knock him out for the playoffs, which is all the more reason the Kings have to win this series.

April 7, 2025

The Lakers have had their ups and downs the last couple of weeks, but they completely dismantled OKC yesterday on the road. It may have been their most impressive win of the season, and was a reminder that they can in fact play with anybody in the Association after trading for Luka Doncic. Getting to the #2 seed is probably out of reach right now, but if they can find a way to win 3 of the next 4 games, I think they can secure the #3 seed. Matchups are everything at this point, and that would put them in line to avoid OKC and Golden State until the conference finals, who are the two most dangerous teams right now. The Lakers would probably love to see the Grizzlies in the 1st round as well, and have Denver and the Clippers on the other side of the bracket. The irony is after the trade deadline, the Lakers might matchup way better with OKC and Denver, but worse with a team like Golden State, which was the complete opposite before the flurry of deals at the deadline. Austin Reaves has got to be the best #3 option in the NBA. He’s also in the running for Most Improved Player, but it’s unlikely he will actually win it.

As for the Clippers, they have been on quite a run in the last month, along with the Timberwolves. Ironically though, they might still end up in the Play-In Tournament. 3 of their last 4 games will be against teams doing everything they can to win: San Antonio, Houston, Sacramento, and Golden State. The Clippers rise has obviously coincided with Kawhi Leonard’s ability to suddenly play more minutes and even starting to play back-to-back games. The problem for the Clips is that they don’t own the tie breaker with Minnesota, but they do own it over Memphis. It’s truly a rubix cube to figure out where they might finish, but with another back-to-back coming this week, they will need Kawhi if the plan to stay out of the Play In Tournament.

That was a tough weekend series for the Dodgers against the Phillies. They lost 2 of 3, but lost both games by a combined 2 runs. Friday the Dodgers just couldn’t really get the bats going, and yesterday, Tyler Glasnow and the bullpen had their struggles in wet conditions. The Phillies are a great team, but just made a few more plays. Nevertheless, what you can feel good about is the fact Yoshinobu Yamamoto continues to look elite, Roki Sasaki is slowly gaining more confidence as a pitcher, and this team does not quit. The bad news is that Blake Snell is going on the IL with shoulder inflammation, and like I told you, there was no way all these guys were going to stay healthy. Tony Gonsolin and Clayton Kershaw are still a few weeks away from coming back, so the Boys in Blue will have to patch it together with Matt Sauer, Landon Knack, and Justin Wrebleski. In any case, 9-2 to start the season is nothing to complain about.

As for the Angels, they are off to a surprising start at 6-3 after taking 2 of 3 from the Guardians. I don’t want to make too much out of it so far, but the most promising pieces of this are that Mike Trout is hitting with power, and Logan O’Hoppe looks legit too. I can’t say I’m terribly impressed with the pitching, which is in the bottom 3rd of the league, which is pretty much where I expected them to be in terms of ERA. The Angels get the Rays next on the road, so we’ll find out soon enough just how real this team is.

I can remember when I was 12 years old, I recorded on VHS the game where Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe’s all-time goal scoring record vs the Vancouver Canucks. Gretzky was my guy as a kid, and I thought there was no way that record would ever be broken. Well sure enough, it was broken yesterday by Alex Ovechkin. It took someone playing for 20 years and averaging 50 goals a season to do it. The man is amazing to be scoring 40 goals a season at almost 40 years old. Even more impressive is the fact he is doing this in a year where the Capitals are the best team in the Eastern Conference. Look, Gretzky is the Greatest NHL Player of All-Time, and is universally recognized as that. We probably don’t have hockey in Southern California like we do today without Gretzky. However, Ovi is an incredible player in his own right and for sure one of the all-time greats.

Speaking of hockey, the LA Kings quietly clinched a playoff spot over the weekend. More importantly though, with their win over Edmonton this weekend, the Kings have likely secured home ice advantage in the 1st round. I’m still very skeptical of them winning any matchup with the Oilers. However, having home ice advantage is a very good place to start to improve their chances. It doesn’t matter though if they are going to get smoked in 5 games or 6 games like the last couple of years. If for some reason the Kings don’t play the Oilers in round 1 and lose, that would be an even bigger indictment on Rob Blake and Luc Robitaille as executives. Who are we kidding though, they are going to play the Oilers again!

Those were two great Final Four Games we got over the weekend! Walter Clayton Jr is amazing. Does anybody realize this kid averaged just 7 points per game two years ago at Iona? Now he’s projected to be a lottery pick. He is an elite shot maker as a 6’2 guard, and he is the reason Florida defeated Auburn and is in the Championship game tonight. Meanwhile, you can love America, and you can love Duke, but you can’t love both. Cooper Flag is a hell of a player, but Houston is relentless, and deserve all the credit in the world for rallying in that game. Why should we be surprised though? White Lotus predicted this!

Speaking of White Lotus, we have to talk about the Season Finale, which went down last night. Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan on watching it later. Overall, I have to say I’m pretty disappointed with it compared to the last 2 seasons. The biggest issue is that the characters were not nearly as interesting as the first two seasons, when Tanya and Armon made the entire show. Their deaths were extremely dramatic and a big deal. In the case of this season, the deaths of Rick and Chelsea were not nearly that big of a deal, because there just wasn’t enough character development with them. Ok, I get it…..Chelsea foreshadowed that her fate was tied to Rick, which is exactly how it played out in the end. However, the way it went down was laughable. Rick finding out that Jim is his father? Come on really? Like he didn’t have time to tell him that when he had a gun pointed at him. Also stupid of Rick to just go back to the White Lotus like Jim was never going to find him. We never even saw the actual bodies floating the river that Belinda’s son saw at the beginning, but can only assume it was one of the guards. I’m sure this is not the last time Belinda and her son will see Gary, but the irony of her escape is that it’s actually worse than what Tanya did to her in season 1. All that lady friendship was ridiculous. It was still the worst girls trip ever, no matter how hard they tried to patch up their fake friendship in the end. It was also totally gutless of Mike White to not kill Lochlan. Tim should have suffered for all the stupid things he did, and accidentally killing Lochlan would have been the ultimate price to pay, but apparently it was just too much for even this show. Lochlan’s miraculous recovery? Come on!!! Hope next season is better.