March 22, 2021

Suddenly, things are looking up for the UCLA Bruins basketball team. UCLA stumbled into the NCAA tournament like Joe Biden trying to board Air Force One. Now they are suddenly dripping with self-confidence after a clutch win against Michigan State, and a solid win over BYU. There isn’t a single future NBA player on this team, but that doesn’t matter. Mick Cronin has them believing that if they can play hard defensively, share the ball, and attack their opponents constantly on offense, they will have a chance to win every game. He’s making the Bruin fans believe that too. I actually hate the fact they are favored today against Abilene Christian, because it gives Cronin ammunition to fire up his team as a disrespected underdog. Nevertheless, if the Bruins can pull off the victory today, an appearance in the Sweet 16 is something to feel really good about in this super weird, injury and Covid plagued season.

Elsewhere around the NCAA Tournament, it turns out the Pac-12 is actually really good at basketball, and that nobody really stays up to watch their games. PAC-12 teams are undefeated since the First Four began on Thursday. USC is suddenly a dark horse to get to the Final Four with Evan Mobley on their squad, and they should beat Kansas today as well, who is as overrated as KC BBQ . Then there’s Ohio State, who got Oral and still lost, as in Oral Roberts. I’m old enough to remember when everyone thought the Big 10 had the best college ball in the country. Looks like Texas gave up basketball for Lent. Too bad nobody told them you are supposed to give up things that are bad for you, rather than things you are bad at. I think my favorite part of the tournament so far was watching Wichita State take a 30 footer at the buzzer when they need a 2-pointer and a timeout. This tournament is Gonzaga’s to win until further notice. At this point we are all probably using our bracket’s as toilet paper.

I think it’s probably time to be concerned about the Lakers. Lebron is now out indefinitely with a high ankle sprain, and after seeing that on Saturday, Laker fans are probably blackout drunk. This was already getting dicey with Anthony Davis out, along with other rotation guys in and out of the lineup. Now the Lakers will be lucky to tread water until Lebron and AD come back, and that’s assuming they are able to come back. There’s still 28 games left in the regular season, so nearly two months, but the Lakers need to make sure they don’t free fall to lower than the 7th seed. Then they’ll be forced to play in a play-in tournament. That will cause fans more anxiety than trying to find a parking spot in downtown LA. I’m sure the Lakers are hoping they can sign Andre Drummond. Sure that would be nice, but for the time being, they need the likes of Kyle Kuzma, KCP, and Talen Horton- Tucker to step and and help them win games. That’s going to be a big change for KCP who has mastered the art of getting some good cardio in these games of late, and nothing more.

As for the Clippers, now there’s rumors around Lonzo Ball possibly being traded to LA. This sounds like a rumor that came directly from Lavar Ball, who is probably feverishly trying to end his American Airlines Frequent Flyer program, and get all his kids back to playing ball in LA. Sure Lonzo would be nice, but I don’t see why the Pelicans would trade him, let alone to a Clipper team that doesn’t have the draft capital they would want in return. I still think the Clips have a shot at Kyle Lowry though. The Raptors claim they are aren’t going to move him, but Wells Fargo also told you your stimulus check was already in your account. If the Raptors continue to sink like the Titanic, they could change their mind before this week’s trade deadline. However, if the Clippers can’t come up with another playmaking guard before playoff time, they should be feeling uneasy about the chances.

The Rams needed a deep threat and they got it. Ok, it wasn’t Kenny Golladay. It was a much older but cheaper deep threat in DeSean Jackson. The good news is that Jackson is always one play away from taking it to the house. The bad news is he’s always one play away from pulling a hamstring and being out for the season. The Rams were never going to end up with Randy Moss as their deep threat, and free agents always have their warts in the NFL, so this isn’t a bad option. They just need to keep him in bubble wrap to keep him healthy, and make sure he doesn’t get tackled.

Another week to go before the MLB season is upon us. The Dodgers are looking good in Spring Training, and so is Kenley Jansen. Funny because everybody is looking for every excuse to write this guy off, pretending like he’s incapable of closing a hot dog stand at this point in his career. However, Kenley still deserves every shot to be the Dodger closer this year. If he falters, the Dodgers will come up with other options as they successfully did last year. Nevertheless, he might still have more in the tank than you think.

As for the Angels, it blows my mind that people are ready to pay hundreds of dollars to go see the Halos play baseball in a reduced capacity Anaheim Stadium. Are we this desperate for baseball that we want to see a team with no pitching that will be out of contention in one week? I guess people are that tired of the pandemic. Dylan Bundy is still the best pitcher in their rotation, but something tells me he might revert to being Al Bundy once the season starts. What he did last year feels like somewhat of a flash in the pan. Mike Trout is going to be brilliant as always, but the Halos have given us nothing to believe that we’re going to see some breakout from a young hidden prospect their scouting department uncovered. Here’s to hoping I’m wrong, but don’t count on it.

Finally, the season finale of The Bachelor went down last week. It turns out that Matt really just needed therapy all along instead of going on The Bachelor. Michelle was savage in that episode and rightfully so. However, she and Katie got the golden ticket from Matt by becoming the next Bachelorettes. I’m surprised in all her honesty she didn’t give her true opinion about his beard. RIP to all the turtle necks that we saw Matt wearing this season. The fact he didn’t even try to get engaged was just a waste of time, as was talking to the guy who shows him the rings. Matt’s mom couldn’t even fake it for him. She said “feelings fade.” Matt’s brother also looks like Colin Kaepernick. Props to Emmanuel Acho, who did an amazing job and asked great questions we all wanted to know. He made it an educational experience. I just wish he asked Matt why he couldn’t find a suit that fits him. The Bachelor franchise really stepped in it though. They tried to create a more inclusive experience for the audience, which is admirable, but in the process they pissed off all those people, as well as other people that were fans of the show previously. I’m not sure where they go from here, but it’s going to be an uphill climb.

March 15, 2021

The Lakers began the second half of the season on Friday, and despite the win, it looked much like the way they played in the first half. A slow start, and questionable engagement and energy at times. I still think the Lakers will be fine as long as they can get Anthony Davis healthy by the playoffs. That would make the Lakers the favorites to win a title, and get Lebron the ring he needs to get closer to Jordan, and tie J-Lo after she gets a ring from A-Rod. There’s also been too much talk around buyout additions for the Lakers and other teams. A buyout addition might help you win a playoff game or two, but everyone is pretending like the addition of one of these players will be like adding an All-Star. I will admit, LaMarcus Aldridge is interesting, but he’s not going to be a 30-minute per game player. I’m sure Magic wants to re-join the Laker front office for a week just to sign Aldridge, then leave again as a middle finger to Jim Buss. Ultimately, even if the Lakers can get Aldridge or Andre Drummond, we’re talking about somebody that’s going to play 15 minutes a game. If Anthony Davis is healthy, he’s going to absorb more of those minutes anyway. Also, prayers up for Jared Dudley, who tore his MCL over the weekend. He’s an important leader and locker room presence for the team, so hopefully nothing changes in that regard.

As for the Clippers, they really took a beating last night against the Pelicans. Kawhi is probably looking into how he can renew his Canadian work visa after that one. Actually, one of the most under reported stories around the Clips is Kawhi Leonard’s upcoming free agency this summer. Almost nobody is talking about it. Maybe it’s because Kawhi seemed so determined to play at home in Southern California, so some might ask why he would leave. Or maybe it’s because Kawhi doesn’t actually talk, so nobody knows how he really feels about being with the Clippers long-term. Nobody really knows how he feels about Paul George bricking shots against the backboard in big games, Ty Lue, or the fact the Clippers don’t have a point guard. All we know is he said he’s “concerned”, after last night. All of this is relevant because it could dictate what the Clippers do at the trade deadline. If they feel confident Kawhi isn’t going anywhere, we probably won’t see anything from them at the deadline. If not, the Clippers could try to make a move for the likes of Kyle Lowry or even Victor Oladipo. Also, this was a classic Kawhi interview last week.

To Spring Training where the Dodgers are looking good. Do you realize that last week, Clayton Kershaw gave up his first run in Spring Training in four years? I’m sure some Twitter trolls are thinking this is a sign of his deterioration, but it isn’t. It’s actually a reminder of his greatness. He also didn’t allow another run in the three innings after that, so it’s still been a solid couple of outings for him. So much talk about which Dodger pitchers are starting vs coming out of the bullpen, but I don’t really think it matters much. This is going to be a full 162-game season, so there’s plenty of starts available for every one of these guys. That’s much needed for a team that pitched into late October last year.

The Angels just made their best off-season move of the last five years. Unfortunately, it’s not a pitcher. It’s actually not even somebody that’s going to help them on the field. It’s somebody that will help them in the broadcast booth. Matt Vasgersian will be joining the Angels 3-man broadcast team. He’s a great guy, and a star broadcaster. I’m actually surprised he was in the Angels price range, given how good of a broadcaster he is, and how much of a cheap skate Arte Moreno is. He he counted against the luxury tax this would have never happened. Nevertheless, this will significantly improve the broadcast quality of the Halo games. Now if only they could improve the quality of the product on the field.

The good news is that UCLA Basketball is beating COVID. The bad news is that they aren’t beating anything else. The Bruins have lost four in a row, and are stumbling into the NCAA Tournament. They’ll be playing in the first four against Michigan State. I wouldn’t be surprised if they take a beating in that game. The frustrating part of this is that in the last four critical games, they blew leads, failed to execute down the stretch, and their offense disappeared like the stimulus check when it hits your bank account. I get that this team has injuries and is missing it’s heavy hitters, but all of these games have been winnable. I have zero confidence it’s going to get fixed in the tournament this week, because the team probably has zero confidence in their ability to make plays down the stretch. Still, I refuse to believe that Mick Cronin is a poor-man’s Ben Howland. We haven’t seen Cronin with elite talent yet, and I believe it’s coming. Ben Howland had elite talent, and in his final few years as UCLA coach, his squads looked about as competitive as this team does.

Are you ready to fill out your NCAA Bracket this week now that March Madness is upon us? Don’t bother spending 45 minutes on the bracket like you usually do though. Your mom will probably finish higher than you by picking winners based on who has the cutest mascot. Plus the guy who makes 14 different brackets will probably finish ahead of you, as will the girl who picked her entire bracket in 9 seconds. Do we even really know who the elite teams are in College Basketball anymore? Do we even know who the elite players are anymore? Are there any elite players? Sadly, this season USC might actually have a shot to get to the Final Four, and they have one of the best players in the country in Evan Mobley. Too bad the only thing on USC alums mind right now is how they can get Clay Helton fired. I’m not even sure they realize they have a basketball team.

The Grammy’s went down last night on CBS. It’s my favorite award show of the year because we get to enjoy the musical performances in addition to the awards. Dua Lipa killed it with her performance. She had Bad Bunny grooving to it. Beyoncé is going to end up with the most Grammy’s of all-time before her career is over. Post Malone pulled up to the Grammys like he used to be undefeated at WrestleMania. I’m not some huge Taylor Swift fan, but I respect her music, her star power, as well as the loyalty she has for her fans. Her not winning a Grammy at this point feels like it just violates the laws of nature. She’ll probably win Album of The Year next year too.

Finally, the season finale of The Bachelor airs tonight on ABC. Last week was really disappointing for most viewers. Rachel got a date with fireworks and her own house? That was favoritism at it’s finest. Plus, she got all that after spending the entire episode whining about Matt spending time with other girls. Overall though, that episode was boring, and Rachel’s dates were even more boring. Way to send Bri home on International Women’s Day, while keeping the racist around Matt! Bri is probably driving back to her office to ask for her job back right about now. Low key, the Bachelor producers are pretty savage for making Matt and his dad have that awkward conversation on TV. They absolutely did not need to turn the volume levels up for that oatmeal mushing scene. I’m horrified about Matt and Michelle’s skin after taking a butter bath. Even people from Pennsylvania are totally ok with never having a butter massage and milk bath at their spa day. The butter Matt used for Bri’s breakfast was probably the leftover ones from Michelle’s date. Matt has an identity crisis. He’s three different people with three different women. We’ll find out how it all ends tonight, even though we really already know. As for Chris Harrison, ABC really hasn’t made it clear if him not hosting The Bachelorette next season is just a temporary hiatus or not. As I’ve mentioned before, I hope it is temporary, because that actually will go further in improving the way people view diversity, and how they can understand it better.

March 8, 2021

Team Lebron took down Team Durant in the NBA All-Star Game last night. I’m surprised Kevin Durant didn’t demand a trade to Lebron’s team at halftime. Lebron’s team was ridiculous, while KD drafted a team that might take the Lakers to 7 games. Lebron should have just changed into street clothes and sat the second half on the bench. He was pretty much done with the game after giving us a reverse dunk early on. Dame and Steph are aliens from outer space. It amazes me that any player could be that confident shooting from near half court on a consistent basis. Rudy Gobert just laying it up in an All-Star game is why people hate the Utah Jazz. Kyrie Irving going 100 mph while Kawhi just wanting to get the game over with is a hilarious contrast to watch on the same team. Kawhi also hates any game in which Doc Rivers is coaching him. Not sure who has a worse defense: Team Durant, Team Lebron, or Team Cuomo? Steph Curry was a delight in the three-point contest, but the dunk contest just didn’t have the names in it despite some nice finishes. I wasn’t into the whole weekend coming in, but they put on a good show.

There’s been tons of noise around Blake Griffin getting bought out and if he would be a fit for the Lakers. Griffin is like one of those old vintage Nintendo games you think is going to be great, but then you can’t even get to work properly because it’s so old. Aside from that, Griffin does not fill a need for the Lake Show. They could use a rim protecting rebounder, a wing defender, and some shooting. Griffin provides none of those things. More than anything, the Lakers need health and some rest. I wouldn’t expect any additions through the buyout market to make any significant contributions. Besides, the Brooklyn Nets have more money to spend on players who are bought out, and more holes on their bench than the Lakers do.

As for the Clippers, they stumbled into the All-Star break in similar fashion to the Lakers. I found it hilarious that the Clippers also leaked that they had interest in Blake Griffin. He also has no obvious fit for the Clips, and leaking their interest felt more like Steve Ballmer extending an olive branch to Blake after he had him traded to Detroit a few years ago. Then there’s Paul George who never ceases to amaze us. He missed Thursday night’s game with dizziness from too much caffeine. Are you kidding? This dude is going from “Pandemic P” to “Percolated P”. Don’t forget him enjoying himself too much a week after Christmas like he was 10-years-old. I only thought these excuses from PG-13 came in the playoffs, but apparently they come in the regular season now too.

To baseball where Trevor Bauer looked great in his Spring Training debut for the Dodgers in Arizona. Bauer was pitching with one eye shut, and striking out opponents in the process. What’s his next trick? Pitching with one-hand tied behind his back? As long as the guy is helping the Dodgers in games and not harassing people online, I’m ok with these antics. It’s actually making the game a little more entertaining for us, which is what baseball needs. Baseball also needs fans, and the Dodgers are going to get them on April 1st with limited capacity. Since the tickets are going for about $8K each, you should be able to take your average family of four if you take out a small line of credit.

The Angels are also getting some encouraging signs from Shohei Ohtani. It’s only Spring Training, but Ohtani is showing signs of being both the superstar pitcher and hitter they thought they were getting. It’s the pitching they really need, and Ohtani is throwing hard, and effectively thus far. Whether or not he can maintain that effectiveness while staying healthy remains to be seen. The Angels also look like they will admit 20% capacity on opening day, but Arte Moreno might want to ask himself if he’d rather keep the cardboard cutouts in the seats for now. Other than Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, I’m not sure how worth it people will find it to watch this team play in person in the middle of pandemic. Moreno is probably trying to find out how he can get a stimulus check from the government for “increasing his payroll”.

What a disastrous week for UCLA Basketball. They needed to win games against Oregon and USC to win the conference. Instead, they collapsed like a college kid after partying on a Thursday night. The Bruins couldn’t make a free throw to save their lives against USC, their offense got stagnant down the stretch, and their defense let them down when it mattered most. The worst part about it was the exact same issues troubled them days earlier against Oregon. UCLA is good, but just not good enough. They’ll make the tournament, possibly win a game, and that’s about as good as they can feel. As for the Trojans, most USC alums aren’t even aware they have a basketball team, except when they beat the Bruins. If anything, UCLA probably cares more about getting another shot against them in the conference tourney than going far in the NCAA tournament.

Finally, The Bachelor’s “Women Tell All” went down last week, and another big episode is coming up tonight. I like how Abigail and Katie were put on the hot seat during the last episode, when it was the other girls that were causing problems. Never thought i would ask myself if I like the women in Peter’s season more than the women in Matt’s season. I still can’t believe these girls are mad at Katie for calling them out for bullying. My favorite part of the last episode was when Anna said Chicago was a “small town”. That’s a real “Miss Teen South Carolina Moment”. Matt’s beard is amazing. It’s like he lost track of of time and still thinks it’s Movember. I have no idea why he was being apologetic toward Victoria than Abigail. Victoria’s acting in the episode should put her in line for an Emmy. She is like the person at the wedding who everyone gets nervous about when they are handed the microphone. They really did Heather dirty by practically giving her a seat in the studio audience section. I wish there was a live audience there so we could hear some boos for these terrible women. Brittany got more screen time on the Women Tell All than she did throughout the actual season. I like how Chris acted like we all cared about Pieter and were shocked by her exit. I’m beginning to wonder if Matt and Michelle participated in the Capitol insurrection for their final date?

March 1st, 2021

The Lakers have looked good the last two games. Even though they dropped the hammer on the Warriors last night, this time of year is a coming out party for Laker haters. There’s bad news for those folks. The Lakers snapped a four game losing streak on Friday by winning against the Blazers. They were missing 2 of their 3 best players over that losing streak. We are two months into the season, and the defending champions had the shortest off-season in NBA history. You may recall two months into last season, they lost four in a row as well. These are the dog days of the season for a defending champion. For weeks the Lakers have looked like they would rather be home drinking wine, slamming pizza, and watching Netflix, rather than playing in these games. They’ve also been shooting like crap. After all that, they still have the second best record in the league, and the best defense in the league. If there’s one thing to be concerned about, it’s Lebron’s minutes. I’m glad he got to rest in the 4th quarter last night. I realize he wants to win MVP, but he knows that winning titles matters more than anything. Chain this guy to the bench at times to prevent him from being his own worst enemy. Other than that, the Lakers will be fine. As for last night’s broadcast on ESPN, Richard Jefferson’s commentary is gold. I could listen to this guy give his thoughts on street traffic. ESPN is lucky to have a funny talent like him, because they are running out of them.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are still hovering around 3rd place in the West after losing to the Bucks, but the trade rumors are still buzzing. ESPN’s Marc Spears is reporting that they are looking to acquire a veteran point guard by the March 25th trade deadline. Eric Bledsoe, Lonzo Ball, and Kyle Lowry seem to be the names that are coming up in these rumors. Ball is probably out of their price range, and while Bledsoe can be had, it would be like just ordering a chicken salad when you’re at a steakhouse. Lowry is the prize. He’d be a great fit, the Raptors need to get something for him before he hits free agency, and the Clippers have just enough pieces to get him. They would have to give up Terrance Mann since they have no picks, but have the salary to match with Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, and maybe even Ivica Zubac. The Clips are still a contender, but without a move, there’s a lot riding on the shoulders of both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

Spring Training is underway! That means the defending World Series Champion LA Dodgers have begun Spring Training Games. One thing I’m keeping an eye on is the closer situation. As of now Kenley Jansen is the Dodger closer, and rightfully so. However, Jansen is in the last year of his deal, and I can’t see him coming back after this season. That means the Dodgers need to go get themselves a closer in free agency, or groom one. Since investing in a free agent closer is usually about as bad of an investment as investing in GameStop stock, developing one is more ideal. I think the man for the job is Dustin May. His stuff is so good, if he told the hitters what he was about to throw, most of them wouldn’t be able to hit it anyway. He also throws heat. Even by putting May in the closer role, the Dodgers still have plenty of starting pitching options: Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Trevor Bauer, Julio Urias, David Price, and younger arms behind them as well. It’s an embarrassment of riches that every other team envies, but this is one way to take full advantage of it.

As for the Angels, Albert Pujols and his wife have been making headlines with questions about his retirement. It felt like his contract would never end, but mercifully, this is the final season of his 10-year $240 million contract. However, Pujols told reporters that he has not decided if he wants to continue playing or not after this season. I don’t think the Angels care if he continues playing after this season, but it can’t be for them. Aside from the fact the Angels could use the money freed up from Pujols to spend on pitching, they also need to give every opportunity to some younger players to develop at first base. With Pujols around, he takes away from that, and at this point in his career, should be nothing more than a DH anyway. Knowing Arte Moreno though, we shouldn’t be shocked if he re-signs him.

To College Basketball, where March Madness is nearly upon us. The UCLA Bruins basketball program is in the mix for a tournament spot and has a big week ahead of them. Despite losing to Colorado on Saturday, the Bruins are hanging on to 1st place in the PAC-12. They’ve got big showdowns at home with Oregon and USC this week. They’ll probably need to win both games to finish in 1st. UCLA had more turnovers than Betty Crocker on Saturday, but they’ve gotta feel good about the fact they are shooting it better, and playing better defense than we’ve seen in recent weeks. They may not have stars, but they can still grind out some wins in all these big games they have this month.

I was both saddened and relieved when I heard about Tiger Woods car accident last week. I was relieved because we easily could have lost another sports icon one year after losing Kobe. However, I was saddened to know how far he’s fallen personally and professionally from being on top of the golf world. This man just came off of back surgery, and was struggling to get healthy to compete regularly on the PGA Tour. Now he has to deal with recovery from a broken leg. This is also a reminder that no matter how hard golf has tried to feed us “the next star”, none of them captivate us like Tiger Woods. Golf needs Tiger Woods again, and so do we as sports fans. Everybody should be cheering for that.

Anybody watch the Golden Globes last night? I needed to see it to humanize myself from COVID fatigue. Except it didn’t help all the Zoom fatigue I’m experiencing, since everybody was remote. I loved the SNL reunion they had with Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Tracy Morgan. The Crown really cleaned house last night on the awards. I was happy to see The Queen’s Gambit take home a few awards as well, which is a series I really enjoyed. Ben Stiller is clearly having a a strong pandemic. He died his hair gray, and made Banana bread into the shape of a Golden Globe Award. Angel Basset is 62? It should be illegal to look that good at 62. Al Pacino sleeping at the Golden Globes is the most I’ve ever related to a celebrity. On the other hand, if only everybody could look as energized and enthusiastic as Jane Fonda did last night at 83. Jeff Daniels clearly understands that it’s not about how many awards you win, but how many doors you have in your guest room.

Since I have covered The Walking Dead so extensively on Jock Talk LA over the years, I feel the need to address it. The season premiere went down last night, as we march toward the conclusion of the series this year. This show has taken a lot of body blows the last couple of years, with many key characters that have departed. However, I’m too loyal and invested to not finish up these last 20 episodes or so. And no, I’m not into these stupid spin-off series AMC keeps trying to force down our throats. There’s probably only a handful of characters whose fate I’m interested in. One of them is Maggie (a.k.a. – Lauren Cohen), who finally returned to the show last night after a long hiatus. She also has an excellent taste in apocalyptic hats.

Finally, The Bachelor is back on ABC tonight, and there is much to discuss from last week’s episode. That episode did nothing for me other than prove Serena is an idiot. I think she was more appealing to Matt because she wasn’t completely sold on him. That was also the dumbest rose ceremony I’ve ever seen. 3 roses for 3 women? It couldn’t have been any more anti-climactic. At that point Matt was giving out roses like he was Oprah. Is this season a record number of people who have taken themselves out of the race? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody walk the Bachelor out like Serena did. He was getting sent home like he was Victoria. However, seeing that must have been sweet justice for Abigail fans, since Matt received the breakup talk he gave her last week. After Serena dropped that “you’re not my person” line, Matt is probably going to go on a series of Peloton rides to get that out of his head. I’m still not sure how Rachel didn’t break any bones on that skydive. It felt like my legs were gonna break just watching it. Just think, if we had not spent so much time watching these idiots argue, we might have actually received a back story on all these remaining women. The Women Tell all is going to feel more like a Game of Thrones battle at Kings Landing than an episode of The Bachelor. After seeing previews of Matt’s beard in future episodes, he looks more like he was spending time climbing the Himalayas looking for the Buddha, and asking “why?” That doesn’t look like somebody who found love. Then again, it’s also hard to imagine Matt not choosing Rachel in this process before it eventually doesn’t work out.

February 22, 2021

Sometimes I really wonder if some of you are really under the impression the Lakers are going to win every single game. I also have come to the conclusion that if they don’t, you think the team needs major changes. Relax folks. The Lakers have been missing two of their three best players, and they have looked tired and disinterested in playing over the last few weeks. That’s understandable for a defending champion with the shortest off-season in league history. I know they are now losing to teams who wear Rainbow Bright pajamas, but they are still tied for the 2nd best record in the league. The Lakers didn’t just lose the ability to shoot all of a sudden. They are tired, and they’ll get their shooting legs back in time. However, they do need help at center. Andre Drummond would be ideal, but probably is not realistic. DeMarcus Cousins is however, and can still be effective. In any case, there’s no need to jump off the Santa Monica pier because the Lakers lost two in a row.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are getting healthy, but some questions are coming up after last night’s loss to the Nets. If you know that Paul George is on a minutes restriction, how do you not save some of his minutes for the last two critical minutes of the game? Did Ty Lue just do the math wrong on his minutes count and forget to carry the one? Also, great challenge by Ty Lue when Beverley practically stabbed Jeff Green in the back, instead of saving it for that bad offensive foul call on Kawhi in the final seconds. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are playing at a higher level together this season, but their depth isn’t as good as it was last year. Lou Williams has become unplayable in crunch time, Patrick Beverley might get hurt trying to get his uniform on, and Luke Kennard can’t even crack the rotation on a $64 million contract. The Clips are doing fine, but they need more help in the backcourt. I’m just not sure how they are going to get it between now and playoff time.

To baseball where pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training last week. That means that by the time the season starts, David Price will be pitching for the first time in 19 months. When you come back from a two-week vacation, it takes you a few days to get back to being sharp at your job. Imagine coming back from 19 months off? Does this dude even remember how to pitch? He was one of the best pitchers in baseball for nearly a decade, and injuries took a toll on his performance the last few years we saw him. That means the 19 months off will either be the best thing for his career and extend it, or it will be the death of his career. Speaking of pitchers, Trevor Bauer is at it again on Twitter, this time having a Twitter beef with Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard. I’m fine with the back and forth with other players, as it makes the game more entertaining. However, hopefully Bauer’s antics are limited to what you see below. Otherwise, somebody take this man’s phone away.

As for the Angels, here we are again. We’re starting spring training and asking the same questions we usually do. Will this team have enough pitching to make the playoffs? Can Shohei Ohtani stay healthy and emerge as an elite starting pitcher? Will Mike Trout have enough help around him? We’ve seen this movie multiple times before and we know how it ends, so I don’t know why we expect the results to be different. It’s like watching the opening scene in all the Jaws movies. You know someone is going to get eaten, just like you know the answers to all the questions above are no. I look forward to us pretending like the results will be different for at least the first month of the season.

UCLA basketball was sloppier than Tom Brady during a championship parade on Saturday night. It didn’t matter though. They played 35 bad minutes, 4 good minutes, and 1 perfect minute to defeat Arizona State. That put them back into a 1st place tie in the Pac-12 with USC. I can’t believe the Bruins were awarded free throws with one second left in the game on a late foul. That’s a surprising call, even for Pac-12 officials. However, perhaps the best news of the week is that UCLA got a commitment from the #1 shooting guard recruit in the country, Amari Bailey. I say perhaps because Bailey de-committed and then re-committed to UCLA. Unfortunately, there’s still time for him to change his mind two or three more times.

Finally, the Bachelor is back on ABC tonight after another eventful episode last week. I’m sorry you didn’t get to leave sooner Serena C. Heather’s time on the show lasted about as long as Ted Cruz’s visit to Cancun. Kit thought she and Matt could definitely get married, but she probably still needs to take her finals and get a permission slip signed by her parents. Props to her though because she could probably teach a class on how to be contestant just long enough to be an influencer. I’m glad we won’t have to see a “socialite” hometown date though. Way to go Matt…..Bri gives up her job for you and all you have to say is “thanks for sharing”. On the other hand, you gave Rachel a rose for God knows what reason. He is really meeting Rachel’s family next week? Is this going to be the sequel to the movie “Get Out”? I’ll never understand why people keep picking up the Rose just to send people home. After Matt sent Abigail home, I’m thinking he probably deserved Victoria. Feels like anybody getting sent home at this point is the real winner compared to all the duds that are left. You should play a drinking game where you take a shot every time Matt says “thank you for sharing that.” You would be drunk really fast. Let’s just have Katie come back to replace Chris Harrison for the final two episodes of the season. Either that or make her the next Bachelorette.

February 15, 2021

I think every Laker fan is going to be holding their breath today, as they wait for the MRI results on Anthony Davis’ Achilles tendon. I’m optimistic that it’s not torn, and assuming it’s not, AD needs to be handled with extreme care. Memo to AD and training staff: no more hero crap! He doesn’t play until he’s 100% healthy. The Lakers have been going to overtime so often lately, I’m beginning to wonder if the players think they are paid hourly. Despite last night’s loss, they have been winning games, but it’s not comfortable knowing how difficult they are making their lives. They are getting themselves into big deficits early, playing down to the competition, and playing Lebron major minutes. I’m sure Lebron doesn’t care, because he wants to win MVP, and stick it to all the amateurs that didn’t vote for him last year, but that doesn’t feel like the best way to manage a 36-year old superstar in his 18th season. Thank god for the energy from Montrezl Harrell and the continued development of THT, because the Lakers need to lean more on them to get them through what are already the dog days of the season. Hopefully the Lakers don’t plan on sleep walking through the next few weeks because they’ll have to face the Nets and Jazz, and most likely without AD.

Meanwhile, the Clippers have still been winning games without Paul George. However, there’s more and more noise that they are trying to divorce themselves of both Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley. I’m sure in their dream scenario, they would somehow be able to move those two, and perhaps Ivica Zubac for Kyle Lowry. However, that’s like trying to trade a Honda Civic for a Ferrari. As much as the Clips want create “Raptors West”, they don’t have the draft capital or the young players to get a trade like that done. More than anything though, shopping Williams and Beverley feel like a desire to change the team’s locker room culture that is still somewhat awkward from last years chicken wing fiasco. The more they do that, the more likely they are to re-sign Kawhi Leonard when the season is over.

To baseball where the Dodgers put a nice little bow on their off-season by re-signing Justin Turner. That’s great for JT, and great for the Dodgers. I love the fact that they are not only going for it, but doing so with complete disregard for the luxury tax. Meanwhile, all the other cheapskate franchises in baseball won’t pay for anything. As much as I have complained about Andrew Friedman’s specific moves over the years, he gets all the credit now. However, I can’t understand those of you Dodger fans complaining like Betty Draper that the team is spending too much money, and that you can’t see them on TV. You guys must be used to abusive relationships and are comfortable with it. You can’t win if you don’t spend money. Freidman did a great job of bringing in Trevor Bauer on a contract that isn’t nearly as crazy as what we’ve seen for a Cy Young winner. Bauer’s press conference could have been a little more polished given baseball’s current climate. However, only time will tell if he’s a model citizen. The only bit of sadness you should have is hearing that Clayton Kershaw might be considering retirement when this coming season ends. I’ve always thought he could pitch into his late 30’s effectively, but he sounds like he doesn’t want to take it that far, after reading his recent quotes to the LA Times. Enjoy the greatness for however much longer we get to see it.

As for the Angels, they are missing out on a huge opportunity right now. They are desperate for pitching, and they should be calling either the Dodgers or Red Sox for some of their surplus. The Angels could easily trade for David Price and get some prospects out of it from the Dodgers for taking on that salary. The could also hit up the Red Sox, who are giving away players for day old donuts and a player to be named later at this point. Any of the pitchers they would get back would be no worse than their #3 starter. Of course, Arte Moreno is too foolish to make a deal with the Dodgers, after he admittedly made the team pull out of the Joc Peterson and Ross Stripling trade last year. The Angels might have a whole bunch of money coming off the books after this season, but there’s no good free agents to spend that money on, and definitely not any good pitchers. Their best bet is to trade for one now. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to comprehend just how badly they need pitching, and refuse to pay one cent over the luxury tax.

I don’t know what was more painful: watching the impeachment trial or watching UCLA basketball this past week. The Bruins escaped against Washington, but they are losing momentum fast in the PAC-12, and now looking like a long shot to win the conference. They are also among the blue blood programs that are not in the Top 25 this year like Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Kansas. That hasn’t happened in 60 years. This year we should call those programs “blue balls” instead, since they are giving their fans that kind of pain. Even though star power is really lacking at all these programs, if the Bruins stand any chance of making the tournament and having a respectable showing, they are going to need Codey Riley and Jalen Hill back on the floor, and producing for them. They are also going to have to play much better defense than they have been. They only have about a month left to get their act together, so let’s hope Mick Cronin can rally the troops.

Finally, the Bachelor is back on ABC tonight, and it’s been an eventful last week for the show. Before we get to Chris Harrison, let’s talk about the last episode. Katie, we thank you for your service. We needed you. We at least deserved to see her bounce Serena C. before she went home. Her “date” with Matt was really just an excuse for him to hang out with Tyler, and get away from the drama. Matt said he saw the process work for Tyler. Apparently he didn’t watch his season at all because the process didn’t work. Comparing a vibrator to a cactus is truly the worst thing you could compare a vibrator to. Katie may not have been romantically vibing with Matt, but she was nailing the run and jump. She is also Bachelorette material. She may not have gotten Matt, but at least she sent Victoria, Anna, and MJ home, which should earn her Bachelorette in my book. Too bad Abigail and Katie were the only decent human beings among this group. For the love of God, can you please end one episode with a Rose ceremony? I love the producers trolling all these terrible girls by sending in Heather when they thought the drama was over. Tayshia should really teach her how to show up late for a season. Did the rental place really not have any other vehicles besides a mini van? Gotta love Matt giving Pieper a carnival toy after giving Rachel Louboutins. Every time Matt sits down next to one of these women, he’s grabbing legs like he’s reaching into a bucket of KFC. As for Chris Harrison, he made a mistake, and spoke insensitively by using the phrase “woke police”, when discussing the previously mentioned “Racist Rachel” from this season. However, if we’re just going to punish and fire people without letting them learn from their mistakes you won’t see any progress in society, and we’ll never really improve how people view race. Chris now has the opportunity to do that, and come back to host the show with a deeper understanding of race and people.

February 8, 2021

Super Bowl LV was like New Years Eve. It was weeks of hype, but ended up being a gigantic letdown. Nevertheless, congratulations to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on their Super Bowl Championship. Brady is undoubtedly the greatest quarterback of all-time, in case you weren’t already convinced. Meanwhile, it was a rough night for the Chiefs. It turns out offensive lineman are pretty important, and the Chiefs didn’t have a chance when they were missing those key players. On top of that, Abraham Lincoln could finish a play better than Kansas City could last night. Their defense also looked worse than the Capitol’s on January 6th. Leonard Fournette and Gronk were out here just grown-manning the Chiefs on play after play. If it was ever possible for a defensive coordinator to win MVP, it should have gone to Todd Bowles for the scheme he put together. The Bucs d was so dominant that the fan who ran onto the field had an easier time getting near the endzone than the Chiefs did. Brady now has as many rings as JPP has fingers. As for Patrick Mahomes, he’s still great and he’ll be back. Even three of his incomplete passes were the most spectacular we’ve ever seen. I’m sure we’ll see plenty more of him on this stage in the coming years.

As for the other theatrics in the broadcast and the commercials, everything was rather underwhelming. The DoorDash commercial? Just wait until Big Bird finds out it costs $27 to get those groceries delivered from DoorDash. How much weight did Matthew McConaughey lose for that Doritos commercial? Logitech might as well have lit $5.6 million on fire instead of air that commercial. Hey Chipotle, spare me your serious commercials. Make us laugh or save your cash clowns. Someone is going to have to explain to Gen Z’ers that Bud Light commercial. Who was suddenly in the mood to go slam some 2% milk after that Oatly commercial? Rocket Mortgage had to be the only commercial I laughed at. I feel like Super Bowl ads are targeted exclusively at people who clap when celebrities show up unannounced on SNL. Drake really delayed his album drop so he could shoot an insurance commercial. I guess even Jake from State Farm needs a break. I like how Robinhood tried to sneak in an ad during the blowout like we forgot what happened two weeks ago. Meanwhile, the halftime show with The Weekend was average at best. The Weekend had me looking forward to Monday. I had motion sickness when he went into his little fun house. It was like FaceTiming with my dad. Plus his backup singers looked like a cross between a skin you unlock when you play Warzone, and the Whisperers from The Walking Dead. Here’s some of the better commercials, and that’s not saying much.

To the NBA, where it was a pretty good week for the Lakers, collecting another three straight wins. However, if the Lakers had to play the Pistons in the playoffs, they are clearly in trouble. Not sure why the Lake Show doesn’t show up against Detroit every time they play. It was like both teams bet on the Pistons to cover on Saturday night. Despite being uninterested in playing hard in that game, they were extremely impressive a couple of nights earlier against the Nuggets. Lebron dominated and THT is getting better and better every game he plays. When it’s all said and done, Talen Horton-Tucker will have to be the GOAT on the all-time hyphenated name list. As for Lebron, he told everyone on Saturday night that he can’t eat “fun food” anymore during the Super Bowl because he’s too old and pays the price for it. Never before have I felt so close to Lebron James. Also, good thing that incident with “Courtside Karen” happened in Atlanta instead of Utah. If it were in Utah, Lebron probably would have had to deal with 7 “Courtside Karens” because all those Jazz season ticket holders usually bring their 7 wives to the game.

Meanwhile, it was not such a great week for the Clippers. I’m not talking about the losses to the Nets, Celtics, and Kings. I’m talking about the fact that Paul George is going to be out for a while with a toe injury. This is a huge problem for both the Clips and Jock Talk LA. How am I supposed to keep making fun of PG when he’s sidelined with an injury? For the Clippers, he was playing at an all-NBA level, and they were leaning heavily on him and Kawhi Leonard. When Ty Lue was asked how long George would be out for, it was like he was searching WebMD at the time trying to figure it out. He probably got distracted at that point, thinking he was going to die, as most of us do reading that site. Nobody knows for sure on George’s timetable, other than knowing that Otto Porter missed most of the season last year, when he suffered a similar injury. In the meantime, this would be a good time for guys like Luke Kennard and Marcus Morris to start earning their paychecks.

In baseball, the Dodgers dropped a bomb on the rest of the MLB by signing Trevor Bauer over the weekend. That’s right folks. The defending World Series Champions just added last season’s NL Cy Young Award winner. The Dodgers didn’t need to add Bauer, but you’ve gotta appreciate the fact Andrew Friedman was able to lure him to LA on short-term deal, and aggressively keep this championship contending window open. Bauer is a loose cannon, a social media troll, and simply a weird guy, but he can pitch. More importantly, by adding him to the staff, the Dodgers can use one of their stud young pitchers like Julio Urias, Dustin May, or Tony Gonsolin out of the bullpen, which still needed to be strengthened. To finish things off though, the Boys in Blue really need to re-sign Justin Turner. He’s not only still a productive 3rd baseman, but he’s a big part of their clubhouse culture. You need leadership like that to absorb weird guys like Bauer getting added to the mix. Hopefully Andrew Friedman’s computer understands this when it tells him what to do.

Then there’s the Angels. You thought Trump’s first 100 days in office were bad? Perry Minasian said “hold my beer”. This guy managed to increase the payroll by $25 million this season, and the only impact pitchers he has to show for it are Alex Cobb and Jose Quintana. Minasian said they are in a “decent” position with their pitching. “Decent”? Picking up a couple of pitching rejects from terrible teams isn’t exactly what everyone had in mind for making this a playoff team. Oh, and how could I forget about the extremely mediocre acquisition of Dexter Fowler? That guy is the definition of “league average”. Also, nice background check on Mickey Callaway. I’m sure the league would consider punishing the Halos, but then they probably saw the moves Minasian was making as punishment enough. Callaway is sure to be fired soon, because Arte Moreno would never allow anybody other than himself to be the source of negative press for the team.

That was one very disappointing showdown between UCLA and USC hoops on Saturday night. The Bruins had a week to prepare, but they were missing both Cody Riley and Jalen Hill. That meant they got crushed on the boards and dominated in the paint. I actually felt like the Trojans should have won by more, but they didn’t shoot a whole lot better than the Bruins anyway. UCLA is scrappy, but they aren’t going to beat any good teams when Tyger Campbell is off his game, while missing those two big men. There’s still plenty of time left to win the conference, and considering ranked teams are falling faster than the stock price of GameStop, UCLA might even have a fighting chance in the tournament.

Speaking of USC, their football recruiting class was ranked 8th in the country after National Signing Day last week. Although this is much improved from last year’s 64th ranked class, it really doesn’t mean that much. Recruiting has never been a problem at USC, it’s coaching and development. Some recruiting classes are better than expected, like in 2020, and others are worse than expected, like in 2016. As long as Clay Helton is the head coach of this program, while running the air raid, this program is going nowhere. The Trojans should win 75% of their games next year just because of their athleticism, but they’ll lose to teams like Notre Dame and Oregon because of that lack of coaching and development. Those of you that claim winning the PAC-12 and the Rose Bowl is enough are fooling yourselves. You know your expectation for this team is National Championship. Isn’t it that way with every college and pro sports team in LA? No reason to suddenly settle for less, because the USC administration is trying to fool you into that while they get their crap together.

Finally, the Bachelor is back on ABC tonight, and we had another explosive episode last week. ABC needs to give Katie a good size check. She’s out here playing therapist and being a contestant at the same time. Victoria handled getting sent home the same way Trump handled losing the election. She says she’s never dating a guy named Matt again. I hope they put her in Paradise, and cast only guys named Matt during that season. Once we found out how racist Rachael is, it made that whole shopping spree date a big bummer. I’ll leave it to you guys to Google that one. Who does the background check for these contestants? The Angels HR department? Imagine seeing someone come back from a shopping spree one-on-one date, while you get to go on some group date digging ditches and dressing like Little House on the Prairie. The spirit of Victoria really never left after her departure. It just entered a new host who is more evil in MJ. There’s nothing quite like seeing multiple toxic villains get sent home in one episode. MJ vs Jessenia was fabulous television though. It was like Burr vs Hamilton, Bachelor style. The limo ride was especially uncomfortable. It was like when your mom makes you carpool with the popular mean girl at school. Matt looked like he was ready to send himself home after that. Looking forward to seeing more fireworks tonight.

February 1, 2021

That was wild. Matthew Stafford has been traded to the Rams, and Jared Goff is headed to Lions. You gotta feel bad for Goff. One day you’re young, rich, and good looking, with a smart coach and cool stadium on a good team in a great city, with the world in the palm of your hands. The next, you’re off to Detroit. Life comes as you fast. At least he has enough money to buy the state of Michigan. This is a great move for the Rams. They get an upgrade at quarterback with Stafford, a more team friendly contract, and continue to contend for Super Bowls. As for the audacity of trading two first round picks, I’ve got news for you: the Rams don’t need them right now. They haven’t had a 1st round pick in four years, and over that stretch they are 43-21 with 2 division titles, 3 playoff appearances, and one Super Bowl appearance. Most GM’s are doing their best to not get fired and keep their jobs as long as possible. They can do that buy acquiring the currency of draft picks, which buys them more time in their jobs. Les Snead doesn’t have to do that. He has enough equity to try and win now, and it’s been successful for him. Those extra picks help the Lions new front office buy more time for themselves. Ultimately, it’s a deal that both sides can benefit from.

To the NBA, where the Lakers wrap up their 7 game road trip tonight in Atlanta. The Lake Show has gone 4-2 so far on the trip, and have had some big wins over the likes of Boston and Milwaukee. However, after that embarrassing loss to the Pistons on Thursday night, they should have been forced to stay at a Motel 6 for the rest of the trip. Nevertheless, it was good to see Anthony Davis put in a strong game on Saturday night. AD has played much of the season the way I play basketball after eating a Chipotle burrito. He’s been moving slower, less reactive on defense, and out of rhythm on offense. Not sure if this is because of a lack of training camp and practice time, but I would expect him to get back to the level we saw him at during the NBA Finals if the Lakers want to defend their title.

As for the Clippers, they took down the Knicks yesterday, which was their 10th win in the last 11 games. The Clips have separated themselves from the rest of the pack, and are still title contenders. Ironically though, they are much more top heavy this year than last year. It’s been total domination from Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, with less depth than we saw last year. In fact, Lou Williams is almost getting phased out of the rotation completely. It’s like Ty Lue has something against Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings. I didn’t realize that St. Nick was still delivering gifts this time of year, because Nic Batum is a quite a gift the Clips received, playing well at a minimum salary. Now the Clips can get ready for a big matchup tomorrow night against the Nets and their newly formed super team.

Speaking of hoops, UCLA Basketball grinded out another win on Saturday night in typical Mick Cronin fashion. This time it was over Oregon State. The Bruins are still in 1st place in the PAC-12 and up to #23 in the AP poll, but they’ve got a big week ahead. They take on Oregon tonight at Pauley Pavilion, and visit USC on Saturday. The Ducks might not even be able to play enough games to be eligible to win the conference. Just being able to keep your team healthy enough to play, let alone continue to win games is a task right now, and Cronin is doing a great job with both. The man is doing so well with both, he should just replace Gavin Newsom and run the state of California while he’s at it.

The baseball season is rapidly approaching, and the Dodgers still haven’t figured out what their infield is going to look like. Kike Hernandez and Joc Pederson have departed, which isn’t surprising, given that they were promised larger roles elsewhere. The real question is whether or not Justin Turner is going to be re-signed. The odds are he will be, since both sides want to make it work. However, I have to laugh at those of you who were upset that Nolan Arenado was traded to the Cardinals instead of the Dodgers. That’s like being upset that your side piece got hitched while you are feverishly trying to work things out with your wife. The Dodgers don’t need Arenado, and they also don’t need Trevor Bauer. Bauer is a loose cannon that’s only going to take development time away from some of the Dodgers young stud pitchers. If it’s a one-year deal? Ok maybe, but the Dodgers have more pressing needs, mostly in their bullpen.

Then there’s the Angels. I’m beginning to wonder if new GM Perry Minasian has seen the Halos play the last couple of seasons. The season is just around the corner, and they still have no reliable pitchers. The Angels should do a sponsorship deal with Robinhood, so that whenever they are losing in a game, the app will step in and force the winning team to stop playing. That’s probably the only chance they have with the scrubs they will be sending to the mound every game. I don’t believe for one second that the Halos will sign Trevor Bauer either. Even if I look past the previous rocky relationship with Angels pitching coach Mickey Callaway, there’s no way Arte Moreno would go into the luxury tax to sign him. While I’m not the biggest fan of Bauer as I mentioned earlier, the reality of it is you can acquire anybody in baseball these days if you are willing to take on money, even if you don’t have prospects. The Angels could have acquired a player like Yu Darvish or Blake Snell had they been willing to take on money. It’s clear at this point that Arte Moreno does not, not matter how hard he tries to fool us into thinking he will.

Speaking of baseball, every year we have to endure this same discussion: should steroid users be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Some of the writers want to pretend using steroids like Barry Bonds did, is a greater or lesser offense than gambling on baseball, like Pete Rose did. Others try to distinguish between guys who were just bad people like Ty Cobb, who murdered someone, or Omar Vizquel, who is a domestic abuser. Baseball is historically full of cheaters, and that is simply the story of the game in the modern day, and the past. You can’t tell the story of baseball without any of these cheaters, and that’s what the Hall of Fame is: it tells the story of the game. With that being said, I say you simply let these players in the hall based on what they did in their era, since most of their competition was cheating anyway. It sounds a little cynical, but it’s a practical reality.

Finally, the Bachelor is back tonight on ABC, and it was quite an episode last week. The best part of that episode was seeing the sour look on the girls faces when the five new girls walked in. They deserved every bit of it after the way they bullied Sarah. Anna is all teeth. She’s a cross between the Predator, Alien, and Mr. Ed. Brittany is Anna’s “Antifa”. Matt’s pocket square game is top notch. Legend has it that Magi is still paddling. How come Victoria looks like she got punched in the face every week we see her? I usually find “bullied” to be the most overused word in the show’s history. Not this season though. This season is like a 2021 remake of “Mean Girls”. The whole house is nothing but bullies. It’s so bad that real sex workers that were trashed during the last episode have more class than these women. The producers missed a great opportunity by not putting Katie and Victoria in the same fighting ring. I would have killed to see Victoria take a beating. Michelle is looking strong right now! Matt James memorized entirely too many Tik Tok dances in quarantine. I look forward to more episodes of Victoria and Anna trashing everyone and then complaining they have no time with Matt.

January 25, 2021

The Lakers are now 9-0 on the road. They should just ask the league if they can play all their games on the road, especially since they don’t have to worry about the fans that aren’t allowed to attend their games. They are tied for the best record in the NBA, and have the best defense in the league as well. Everyone thought they would be much worse defensively, but it turns out they are just as good, and even better offensively. Heading into Saturday, the Lakers had a positive net rating of +1.7 when Lebron is on the bench, and a +12.1 rating with him on the court. No team Lebron has ever been on has finished with a positive rating with him off the floor. It certainly helps that Alex Caruso and KCP are shooting like the Splash Brothers right now. There’s some tough road games ahead this week, but the Lakers are looking good. It would be nice to see THT get some more minutes though.

The Clippers are looking strong as well. In fact, Kawhi Leonard should be in the conversation for MVP through one quarter of the season. The media probably won’t vote for him though because that’s like going back to your ex-gf when she cheated on you repeatedly and made you look like an idiot in public. That’s exactly what happened last year when these media clowns picked the Clips to not only win the title, but dominate everyone, and instead they crashed and burned like the Hindenburg in round 2. Nevertheless, Serge Ibaka and Nic Batum have been great value free agent signings that are playing well. However, Luke Kennard, Marcus Morris, and Lou Williams are disappearing like Donald Trump from the White House. That has to be a concern given how much money they are spending on those three, but the Clips flaws aren’t nearly as big as others in the West.

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the death of Kobe Bryant, and his daughter Gianna. That was the start of what many of us would consider the worst year of our lives. I don’t think a day has gone by since then where I haven’t thought about Kobe. He was truly a legend, and the magnitude of his legacy wasn’t fully understood by everyone until he passed away. In some ways, when you think about his drive and work ethic, sometimes it feels like he is still with us. I’m sure it doesn’t feel that way for Vanessa and her family, and I still cannot fathom how she deals with this everyday. Nevertheless, the only thing each of us can do is to give everything we have to each day, and hold nothing back, because that is the legacy and inspiration he wanted to pass on to everyone.

I love TNT’s Inside The NBA. There’s a reason why it’s an Emmy Award winning show. It’s so good, at times I find myself watching the halftime shows and Inside The NBA, rather than the games than themselves. With that being said though, Shaq and Chuck need to better understand the time and place to be critical of today’s players. There’s no doubt that today’s players are much more sensitive to criticism, and fail to realize that it’s an analysts job to be honest. However, that criticism shouldn’t come in the middle of interviews. I know that Shaq was trying to motivate Donovan Mitchell in last week’s interview, but Donovan Mitchell isn’t Kobe. Not everybody reacts to criticism the same way. This interview is the equivalent of your boss telling you that no matter what you do, you’ll never be promoted in this company, while providing no explanation.

To the NFL, where we had a couple of great games on Championship Sunday, and some surprises. Tom Brady is back in the Super Bowl again, after the Bucs shocked the Packers. Thank god Matt LaFleur kicked that field goal to give Green Bay 3 more points when he was a couple of yards away from tying the game with 2 minutes left! He must have forgotten the GOAT was going to get the ball back. I’m thinking somebody must have replaced LaFleur’s play calling card with a menu of Wisconsin cheeses, because there is no explanation for why he kicked a field goal there. I don’t know why people are surprised the Chiefs beat the Bills. Tony Romo predicted it, like he accurately predicts everything after they played in Week 12. If this guy tells you you’re going to commit a crime in the future, you might as well turn yourself in to the cops right then and there. Congrats to the Chiefs, but also congrats to the Bills and their fans. At least this time you didn’t lose in the Super Bowl! The Chiefs put 38 on the scoreboard and they didn’t even play Chad Henne. In all seriousness though, this is going to be a fantastic Super Bowl with Brady vs Mahomes. Greatness and both sides, and we’re lucky we get to witness it with the stakes the highest they could be.

Now that the Rams are out of the playoffs, the rumors have started to circulate about how they plan to improve their team. At the center of that discussion is Jared Goff, and if the team will part ways with him. We’ve also heard Rams sources leak to ESPN that they would trade Jared Goff and multiple picks to the Texans for DeShaun Watson. That’s like saying you want to trade in your used Mazda with 50K miles on it for a Ferrari. Every team should want Watson, but the Rams salary cap situation makes it virtually impossible for them acquire him. However, if the Rams can restructure some contracts and free up an extra $10 million, they can go get themselves an offensive lineman or two, and some help at linebacker. They might even be able to find some cheap help at QB to push Jared Goff. It doesn’t sound splashy, but it’s probably all they really need to try and get back to the Super Bowl.

To College Hoops where the Bruins lost their first game in conference play over the weekend, losing to Stanford. UCLA can still win the PAC-12, and even make a run in the tournament, but they can’t afford to take any nights off. They have talent, but not enough to just put it in cruise control. They’ve done that the past few games and it cost them Saturday, especially in the final seconds when they gave up the game-winning layup at the buzzer. The Bruins also need to turn their defense into offense, with easy fast break points. There were no fast break points at all on Saturday, and it’s been limited all-season. It’s called “Showtime”. Not “Slow Time”. Last year a loss to Stanford helped them correct a lot of their flaws, and propelled them to a hot streak. Let’s hope this loss results in the same type of streak.

Speaking of the PAC-12, Larry Scott will no longer be the conference commissioner come June 30th. This is a move that desperately needed to be made. The PAC-12 has a TV network that nobody can watch, and receives far less revenue than the other Power 5 Conferences. On top of that, Scott moved the headquarters to a much more expensive location, in San Francisco. He also had to deal with the wrath of state Governors enacting plenty of limitations this year around all sports. The PAC-12 had better figure out how to come up with a better media deal, because the top recruits are going to go elsewhere if their games aren’t getting a lot of exposure. Let’s hope the next guy in charge is capable of running more than just a hot dog stand like Scott was. That’s huge for the likes of USC and UCLA athletics.

To baseball, where the Dodgers lost one of their big-time performers over the weekend, Kike Hernandez. The super-utility player signed with the Boston Red Sox. Hernandez was a great find by Andrew Friedman, who came over in the trade with the Florida Marlins for Dee Gordon, six years ago. I’m sure this is going to devastate all those women who just watch Kike to play in his tight pants and all, but the reality of it is the Dodgers have cheaper options. More specifically, they have Gavin Lux and Chris Taylor. There’s also talk of the Dodgers going after free agent pitcher Trevor Bauer. They certainly don’t need Bauer, but signing him would be keeping him away from their NL rivals like the Padres. What they do need however, is to re-sign Justin Turner, and add an impact pitcher in the bullpen.

As for the Angels, they actually signed a pitcher! Last week they inked starter Jose Quintana. He’s not exactly Randy Johnson, but he’s a decent middle of the rotation arm that can give the Halos some innings. However, only the Angels would sign a pitcher who suffered an injury in the past year while washing dishes. They’ll need more pitching than that though, and I wouldn’t count on it coming in the form of Trevor Bauer. Arte Moreno treats the luxury tax like a form of cancer causing radiation, so I wouldn’t count on the Halos getting anywhere near it. Still, let’s hope Moreno’s penny pinching doesn’t get in the way of signing another capable starter.

There are certain things in life that you don’t have a true appreciation for until you get a little bit older. One of those things was Larry King, and his broadcasting career. I was saddened learn of his passing last week, as he was truly a legend in his industry. His non-confrontational and conversational interviewing style is one that I wish most journalists would follow these days. Those were the good ‘ol days.

Do you guys remember the LA Kings? You know, the hockey team in LA that actually won two Stanley Cups in the last decade. Well they hadn’t played in 10 months, until the season began last week. Their defense looks about as organized as the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine though. It’s sad to see how far the Kings have fallen, but what’s even more said is that they have the #1 farm system in the NHL, and they aren’t playing many of those prospects. Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, and Drew Doughty all made their NHL debut’s before 20 years old. They were cornerstones on those Cup winning teams. Just because the Kings best prospects are all in that age range doesn’t mean they should baby them. Take the training wheels off and let them play now, otherwise what is already a 4-year rebuild will become a 10-year rebuild.

Finally, The Bachelor is back on ABC tonight, and it was an eventful last episode. In a matter of 10 minutes, Sarah became the show’s villain. I’m not sure how though, with Queen Victoria still in the house. The girls wanted Sarah to come out of her room but all they did was make fun of her and single her out. All those girls deserve to be kicked off the show and sent to La Quinta as punishment. I don’t care if Bennet would find Sarah deficient in 3 of 4 emotionally intelligent components. That wasn’t cool. I’m glad there are five more girls coming to compete according to the previews, because those mean girls deserve to have more competition. So do the other 30, I just haven’t learned their names yet. Kit and Victoria really came together in that episode to form a super villain. On behalf of Bachelor Nation, thank you to whoever farted on Victoria’s pillow. Who would have thought the girl showing up with the vibrator on the first night would be the most mature person in the episode? She put both Sarah’s happiness and Matt’s above her own, and that is why she is too good to even be on this show. At this point, it’s Abigail and Katie for Matt, and it’s not close.

January 18, 2021

That was a tough loss for the Rams on Saturday against the Packers. Ironically, it was the defense that didn’t come through this time, but that’s what happens when Aaron Donald is injured and can only play 51% of the snaps. That can’t happen against Aaron Rodgers. Still, the season went much better than most of us thought. Cam Akers looks like he can be an elite running back, and the combination of a healthy Donald and Jalen Ramsey is a championship defense. Jared Goff played fine, but his relationship with Sean McVay isn’t fine. McVay lies about everything, most notably the health of his players. However, for some reason he doesn’t lie about his relationship with Goff. McVay said he’s the quarterback “right now”. That’s like saying “she’s my girlfriend right now until I find somebody hotter.” Somebody needs to tell McVay that he’s stuck with Goff for at least another year, and that DeShaun Watson isn’t walking through that door.

Elsewhere around the Divisional Weekend games, the Bills took down the Ravens, but that game was awkward. The Ravens don’t pass, the Bills don’t run, and none of the kickers can kick. Watching that game was like watching an awkward middle school dance. Thanks to Lamar Jackson, not only was that game less competitive than we thought, but we had to deal with a bunch of poop memes when he left the game. The Chiefs got by the Browns, and still managed to do so after Patrick Mahomes suffered a concussion. Did every kicker in the NFL get drunk this weekend prior to taking the field? Apparently the Chiefs are so good, they can overcome all that, but their opponents can’t overcome the refs officiating the game like the survivors in the movie Bird Box. The Bucs topped the Saints, and Michael Thomas disappeared liked Jimmy Hoffa, while Drew Brees threw the ball like Drew Barrymore, in another disappointing playoff loss for New Orleans. In all seriousness though, my hat goes off to Drew Brees on an incredible career if in fact it was his last game. Of course Tom Brady tried to high-five the referee after all they’ve done for his career.

As for the Chargers, they have hired Brandon Staley, the Rams defensive coordinator as their next coach. Staley did a nice job with the Rams this past season, but this feels like a weird hire the Bolts made for all the wrong reasons. Now that the Chargers have a young and dynamic franchise quarterback, you would think they would hire and offensive coach that has developed quarterbacks. Eric Bieniemy, the Chiefs OC, would make even more sense because he’s an offensive coach that knows their division rivals so well. Not only did they pass on him, but they also passed on Bills OC, Brian Daboll, who developed Josh Allen. It’s like the Chargers said they don’t want to wait for the season to end for those coaches, they don’t care about developing Herbert, and they care only about a cheap coach while sticking it to the Rams as well. That is the typical Dean Spanos mentality that makes this a typical Spanos hire. Not what you want to hear if you’re one of the five Charger fans that actually go to their games.

To the NBA, where the Lakers are still rolling. They have the best record in the league and their 3-point shooting is looking like that of the Splash Brothers. Their defense has been so good, not only are they shutting down their opponents, but they are also shutting down their haters on Twitter. The real question though is how threatened should they feel about the Nets, after assembling their own big three. The answer is not threatened at all for now. Heck, the Clippers are a greater threat to the Lakers than the Nets. Acquiring James Harden is a social experiment just as much as a basketball experiment. They’ve acquired all three types of Brooklyn guy: weird skiny guy, a guy with a beard, and a guy obsessed with astrology and conspiracy theories. Usually when you put three top 20 players together they end up in the finals, but this time I’m skeptical.

As for the Clippers, they are still looking good. Winners of 7 of their last 10 games, and very much a contender in the Western Conference. However, Paul George is already taking a victory lap three weeks into the season. He claims he’s “back with vengeance”, and that last season everybody saw his weaknesses. That’s not true because I only saw accountability as his weakness, and didn’t see any strippers, but that is a well-documented weakness of his. Maybe if PG just changed his self-proclaimed nickname to “Preseason P” it would be more appropriate. It’s the same story every year: Play well early, say it’s finally the year you’ll succeed, fail in the playoffs, find an excuse, then start the cycle all over and claim it’s revenge season. Show me when it matters!

Last week Alabama won the College Football National Championship. That is the least surprising thing I’ve heard in my life. Devonta Smith was putting up numbers that you couldn’t even put up playing Madden on easy mode, and it was in the 1st half. He was great, but I’ve seen better defense at the Capitol than what we saw on the field last Monday night. Before you tell me that Notre Dame doesn’t belong in the playoff again, remember that the Irish and Crimson Tide were actually the closest playoff game we had this season. Nick Saban is awesome and arguably the greatest ever, but the sport needs him to go away to level the playing field. By the way, Saban was probably in the office at 7 am the next morning, since he has a psychopathic work ethic. We don’t need the playoffs expanded. We need Alabama, and even Clemson and Ohio State to come back to the pack.

Speaking of College Football, now that Urban Meyer has been hired by the Jaguars, USC Football fans can only wonder what could have been. The Pac-12 desperately needs the Trojan program to become a powerhouse again to give the conference credibility. Not to mention the Trojan faithful are tired of achieving nothing but mediocrity. Meyer may not be a great fit in the NFL, but he could have turned the USC program into the powerhouse they were back in the Pete Caroll days. Clay Helton said he sees an upward trending football program. That’s like the Captain of The Titanic saying he saw the iceberg. The expectations aren’t simply to win a mediocre conference. It’s to win National Championships, or at minimum contend for them. I’m not sure Carol Folt or Mike Bohn understand this either. Until that happens, don’t expect much to change.

Watching UCLA Basketball is like watching “the Bizarro World” episode of Seinfeld. They are starting to look like a juggernaut on offense, averaging 86 points per game in their last two games, but a work in progress on defense. A defensive work in progress is the last thing you would expect from a Mick Cronin team, but they made the Washington Huskies look like the Golden State Warriors on Saturday at home. In any case, the Bruins are still undefeated in the conference, and in sole possession of 1st place. It’s their best start in 26 years. The bad news is that Steve Lavin jinxed them though by saying they are National Title Contenders. Over the years it feels like when Lavin says something about UCLA on National TV, it’s like a guy talking about his ex-girlfriend, saying nice things about her, but you’re not really convinced he’s saying those things out of sincerity.

The Dodgers lost a couple of players last week, including pitchers Alex Wood and Pedro Baez. Woods signed with the Giants, and Baez with the Astros. I wish them both well, but certainly not any of their scum bag teammates, especially those cheating Astros. For Baez, I guess the Astros figured he would have been pretty good against them if they weren’t cheating. His contract is really for one year, but it will take him two years to get through since Baez pitches like a human rain delay.

As for the Angeles, they signed Kurt Suzuki to shore up their catching, but still need lots of pitching. Everybody has been saying they need pitching, yet it’s still not happening. I’ve decided that Arte Moreno would rather inject himself with COVID-19 before paying big money for a pitcher. Way back in 2003 when he purchased the team, Moreno went on record to say he did not like to spend big money on starting pitchers, since they only play every five days and are injury prone. That doesn’t give me any optimism that they’ll address this problem they’ve had for years.

Finally, the Bachelor is back tonight and went down last week. I don’t know what Victoria’s skincare routine is, but it’s more toxic than the environment she’s creating on the show. She may also have the ugliest dress in bachelor history. Somebody convince me that she wasn’t actually at the Capitol two weeks ago. Did she really say “oil and vinegar”? That’s salad dressing. Where’s Bennett and his emotional intelligence book when you need him? It wasn’t all Victoria, but unfortunately, much of the episodes significance revolved around her. Ok Matt, we get it, you’re cut. You don’t need to spend the whole show walking around without your shirt off, making every man alive feel terrible about their New Years dieting resolutions. Matt vowing to take care of Bri to her mom when they’ve known each other for two hours is pretty hilarious. How did the producers decide to leave us on a cliffhanger, then spoil the cliffhanger with a preview? Couldn’t Sarah have waited until later in the season to get hammered and blackout? It’s only the 2nd episode!