The Clippers shot well in the 1st half, but the Jazz had a big 3rd quarter, and defeated LA 114-109 on Monday night in Salt Lake City.
Gordon Hayward had 27 points and George Hill added 19 as Utah defeated the Clippers for the first time in nine tries at home. Chris Paul had 33 points for LA in a losing effort.
The victory gave the Jazz a two-game lead over the Clippers in the race for the No. 4 playoff seed in the Western Conference and home-court advantage in the first round.
“They wanted this game,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “They took the game. We played great in the first half and had a lead. I thought we should have had a bigger lead at halftime to be honest. I thought that was our chance to separate and we didn’t.”
The Clippers had a 56-49 lead at the half, behind 18 points from Paul, and 8 straight points from Austin Rivers. It was just a 7 point lead despite shooting 56% from the field, and 50% from behind the arc.
The Jazz exploded for a 40 point quarter in the 3rd, which was a season-high for any quarter. Hayward, whose back-to-back 3-pointers gave the Jazz a 103-92 lead. Hill finished with 19 points and Joe Ingles scored 18 off the bench.
Chris Paul was still fairly optimistic despite the loss. “We got to get it together,” Paul said. “I’d much rather be playing the right way and be playing consistently on both ends and lose a couple of games, but know going into the playoffs we’ve got our principles. We’re still working on them.
“It sucks, but you got to do it. If we were ready for everything right now, we might be peaking too soon, so hopefully we hit it at the right time.”
The Clippers return home to face the Bucks on Wednesday at Staples Center.
The Lakers introduced Rob Pelinka as their new General Manager on Friday. I heard a lot of good things from Pelinka, and it’s exciting, not just because he looks like Rob Lowe. However, I also heard something a little concerning as well. I heard a lot of talk about free agency. If there’s anything we’ve learned over the past five seasons of Laker basketball, it’s that free agency by itself is a lousy way to build a team, and it’s about to get a lot lousier with the new CBA. However, when you do an excellent job of drafting and developing players, you give yourself the opportunity to get elite free agents, and elite talent via trade. Rob Pelinka probably has some great relationships with players, but hopefully he’ll have more than that to sell to free agents during the offseason. As for the Lakers, here’s a summary of their season in 30 seconds……
On to college hoops, where March Madness is upon us, and the NCAA tournament bracket is set. That means UCLA’s fate has been determined after their disappointing showing over the weekend in their conference tournament. The Bruins blew a major opportunity to get a a #2 seed in the West, and have a very favorable path to the Final Four. Now their potential 2nd round matchup won’t be easy, and then they’ll probably have to face Kentucky and UNC to get to the Final Four. The bigger concern is the fact that UCLA reminded us over the weekend that they live and die by the 3-point shot, and that they can revert back to not playing any defense at any time. Lonzo Ball is banged up, Bryce Alford can’t get any shots off other than 3-pointers, and suddenly, I’m feeling a lot less confident about Steve Alford coaching the Bruins now that’s it’s March.
As for the Trojans, they narrowly made the NCAA Tournament, and will be participating in the play-in game on Tuesday vs Providence. USC will be the #11 seed. Sure enough, they are playing the team that played them last season in the 1st round, and beat them at the buzzer. That’s about as surprising as a USC student being hungover for class on Friday, after a Thursday night frat party. The selection committee loves these type of re-matches and creating story lines out of them. The Trojans game against Providence, and potentially SMU after that should be close ones. They are evenly matched, and USC should feel good that they beat SMU back in November. They probably won’t make it too much further though, with Baylor awaiting the winner of that game.
As for the rest of the bracket, Arizona might as well have a bye to the Final Four. You can pencil in Gonzaga to be upset by the Sweet 16 every year, and this year is no different. Congratulations to Kentucky for winning the SEC tournament. Their players are clearly earning all the money they are being paid. Word is President Trump has selected Trump University to win it all in his NCAA bracket. Kansas also has a fairly easy route to the Final Four but you can always count on them to blow it. That’s an annual guarantee like people smoking weed at Coachella.
The Rams went out and spent money on former USC receiver Robert Woods last week. I realize that the Rams needs help at wide receiver, but $15 million guaranteed for Robert Woods? Alshon Jeffrey got $14 million guaranteed and at least he was once a Pro Bowler. When you include Tavon Austin, that’s two receivers the Rams have overpaid for that are really #3 receivers on a good team. They should be directing most of their resources at the offensive line. Andrew Whitworth was a good start, but they need more.
If you think the Rams are having an unspectacular offseason thus far, the Chargers look like they are trying to give their new cross-town rivals a run for their money. The Bolts signed Russell Okung to help their offensive line, but apparently Okung nor the Chargers knew the rules about negotiating with a player who didn’t have an agent. They might have tampered by negotiating with him prior to the period when it was allowed. Based on how Okung played last season though, they probably have more to worry about him protecting Philip Rivers than the tampering issue.
I’m not in denial anymore. The LA Kings aren’t making the playoffs folks. Every time i find myself saying they are only a few points behind one particular team for the last playoff spot, a week later that team is about 10 points ahead of them. The same is about to happen with St. Louis, who is coming to Staples Center tonight. The wins the Kings are picking up now needed to happen back in December and January.
A tragic episode of The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC. SPOILER ALERT for those of you who have yet to see it so read no further if you are watching it later. The Saviors have officially lost their minds, in case we weren’t sure before. Now they are shooting people over a missing cantaloupe. Our favorite killer homemaker finally knows what happened in Alexandria, and Morgan is about to do his Rambo impersonation. It only took 13 episodes, daylight savings time, and a cantaloupe. I don’t remember a cantaloupe causing this much drama since Janet Jackson’s at the Super Bowl. Apparently in the apocalypse your life is worth 1 cantaloupe. Why isn’t Ezekiel bringing Shiva to these meetings? The last three episodes of this season are going to be epic.
Finally, it’s about to go down tonight on The Bachelor. The finals between Vanessa and Raven. However, when it’s over, you’ll think Nick is going to choose Raven, but he’s really going to choose nobody. Which we all agree is better than living in Canada. The producers must have blown the whole budget on the trip to Finland so they had to settle for ice baths for Nick and Vanessa’s date. Either that or Nick was determined to give Vanessa pneumonia. In the last episode, Nick saw more action than Chuck Norris does with 4 different girls in fantasy suites. The only difference is the action Chuck Norris sees can kill him, while the action Nick sees can give him herpes. My favorite part of the last episode was when Vanessa said this is the best relationship she’s been in. Really? The best relationship you’ve ever been in is with somebody who was dating two dozen women at the same time? Corrine and champagne are one of the ultimate duos of all-time. She was going off at Taylor during the women tell all. It felt like Josephine was Corrine’s hype man, supporting her with every word that came out of her mouth. Poor Taylor though….I guess she gave up her career for lent.
The Lakers lost to the 76ers on Sunday night at Staples Center, 118-116, in a game between two lottery bound teams. Jordan Clarkson had a career-best 30 points and helped the Lakers rally from a 12-point deficit late in the game, but it wasn’t enough.
Dario Saric scored a career-high 29 points for Philadelphia, and Jahlil Okafor added 23. T.J. McConnell’s hit a 12-foot fallaway jumper with just under a minute left, and the 76ers never gave up the lead from there.
Tomothe Luwawu-Cabarrot scored 18 points for the 76ers, and Julius Randle put up 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Lakers.
The Lakers trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half, but used an 8-2 to tie the game at 65 by halftime.
Their execution late in the game though was problematic. D’Angelo Russell airballed a last minute 3-point try, and looked to be confused about the time remaining on the shot clock. Randle fouled Gerald Henderson after he was double teamed and looked to be in trouble, and Clarkson missed a key free throw in the final seconds.
“The effort and the intentions were in the right place, which is a good start,” Lakers Coach Luke Walton said. “The actual execution of it wasn’t good enough to win the game tonight.”
The good news for the Lakers was that the game helped them in the lottery standings. The 76ers receive the Lakers 1st round pick if it falls out of the top 3 in this years draft. The Lakers remained with the 2nd worst record in the NBA after Sunday’s loss.
Corey Perry scored 2 goals and added an assist, and Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and 2 assists as the Ducks took care of the Capitals 5-2 at Honda Center on Sunday.
Ryan Kessler also had a goal and two assist for the Ducks who have won three of their last four games. Anaheim also moved ahead of Calgary for 2nd place in the Pacific Division with the win. Richard Rakell contributed his 29th goal, and Jonathan Bernier had 25 saves.
The Capitals got goals from John Carlson and Marcus Johansson, as they lost their season high fourth consecutive game.
Alex Ovechkin didn’t score for the 10th straight game, which is the longest scoring drought of his career.
The Ducks held a pregame ceremony to mark the 10-year anniversary of the their Stanley Cup Championship. Perry and Getzlaf were two of the youngest players on the team then, and Randy Carlyle is behind the Ducks bench once again.
The Capitals played without defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who was serving the first of his two-game suspension for charging at Kings defenseman Kevin Gravel on Saturday night.
Anaheim will return to action on Wednesday night against the Blues, at the Honda Center.
Adrian Kempe scored his 1st NHL goal midway through the 3rd period, which helped give the Kings get a critical 2 points on Saturday vs the Capitals. The Kings kept pace with the St. Louis Blues, and remained 3 points behind them in the race for the final playoff spot in the West.
Anze Kopitar also scored a goal and had an assist for LA, and Jonathan Quick made 17 saves to help the Kings win their 3rd game in the last 4 tries. Marian Gaborik also scored, and Jeff Carter had an empty-netter.
This was the first time the Kings won back-to-back games since early February. Kempe was excited to finally find the back of the net for LA. “There was a lot of time left in the game,” he said, “[but] I think it was an important goal and it was a really great feeling to finally put it in.”
The Kings fell behind 1-0 and 2-1, but tied it at 2-2 heading into the 3rd period on the goal by Kopitar. It was the Kings fifth straight game with a power play goal, and the 3rd in the last 4 games for LA captain. Then Kempe put the Kings ahead for good by spinning away from Capitals forward Marcus Johansson, and beating Philipp Grubauer,
Jonathan Quick started for the 2nd straight game, but Darryl Sutter reassured everyone that Ben Bishop will still see some action.
“Quite honest, we are in a position where we’re fighting for a playoff spot because our goaltending, in February, hit the wall,” Sutter said.
The Kings will have a huge game against the Blues on Monday night at Staples Center, as both teams continue to fight for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan came up big on Saturday afternoon at Staples Center, and the Clippers took down the 76ers 112-110.
Paul scored 30 points and had 7 assists, while Jordan had 19 points and 20 rebounds to help LA win their fourth game in the last five tries.
The Clipps were somewhat sluggish for the first three quarter of this one, trailing at halftime 57-56, and then trailing heading into the 4th quarter 79-75. However, a 10-0 run to start the final 12 minutes of the game was the spark they needed to secure the win.
Blake Griffin also had a nice game for LA with 15 points and 10 rebounds. The win was the Clippers 10th in the last 11 games against Philadelphia.
The 76ers were led by Richaun Holmes, who scored 24 points off the bench. Rookie Dario Saric scored 16 points, and Jahlil Okafor had 14.
The Clippers got some help from Oklahoma City, who defeated Utah on Saturday afternoon as well. That means LA is just 1 game back in the loss column from 4th place Utah in the Western Conference.
That couldn’t have come at a better time because the Clippers will travel to Utah on Monday to take on the Jazz in the next game. There’s just 16 games left and these two teams look like they are on a collision course to meet in the 1st round, so they’ll be fighting to secure home court advantage over the next month.
UCLA lost much of the momentum it built the last few weeks with Friday’s 86-75 loss to Arizona in Las Vegas. The loss eliminated the Bruins from the Pac-12 tournament, and sent Wildcats to the finals of tournament on Saturday against Oregon.
Lauri Markkanen scored 29 points, Allonzo Trier added 20 to lead Arizona. The Bruins shot just 40% from the field and 16% from 3.
Isaac Hamilton led UCLA with 20 points and TJ Leaf had 15 before fouling out.
The first half was a back and forth game, but the Wildcats had a late burst to take a 41-35 lead.
In the 2nd half, Arizona would extend the lead to 63-48, and had much of the crowd behind them. The Bruins tried to make several runs, but couldn’t recover.
Lonzo Ball had an off night for the Bruins. He had just 8 points on 2-7 shooting. He also injured his thumb in the 1st half, which appeared to bother him for the rest of the game. Ball thought he would be fine though, especially after X-rays were negative. “Nah, I’ll be all right,” he said.
It was also a tough night for both Steve and Bryce Alford. Bryce had just 5 points on 2-12 shooting.
As for Steve, Arizona coach Sean Miller got some revenge on him from the last time the two team met. Miller called an unnecessary timeout with one second left, and the game decided. Miller was getting back at Alford for doing the same thing to him in Arizona last month.
“I guess they’re upset I called a timeout at their place,” Alford said, referring to the end of UCLA’s 77-72 victory in Tucson two weeks ago when he wanted to set his defense with the Bruins ahead by five points. “I didn’t mean disrespect at all.”
Miller felt otherwise. “When UCLA played us at McKale, I thought they did a great job, they called a timeout with one second left just to make sure they had poise, and I felt like I wanted to make sure our guys had poise at one second left in this game.”
UCLA will find out Sunday what seed and region they end up in for the NCAA tournament next week. However, their hopes of being a #1 seed in the West Region are gone after the loss.
Bryce Alford was disappointed but remained focused on what’s ahead. “Our goal all year is to get to Phoenix and to compete for a national title,” he said. “So we’ve got a lot of work left to do and we have some time to figure out what we need to work on from this tournament.
The Ducks didn’t do the LA Kings any favora on Friday night in St. Louis. Joel Edmundon scored with 20 seconds left to give the Blues a 4-3 win, as St. Louis moved 3 points ahead of the Kings for the final playoff spot in the West.
Jake Allen made 23 saves for St Louis. They also got goals from Paul Stastny, Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan Reaves. It was their their third straight win.
Jakob Silfverberg, Chris Wagner and Rickard Rakell scored for the Ducks. Anaheim had their two game win streak snapped.
Anaheim goalie John Gibson was making his first start after missing six games in a row with a lower-body injury.
Stastny snapped a 2-2 tie in the first minute of the third with a blast from the slot.
Silfverberg tied it at 3-3 on the power play with 10:36 left.
Then Edmundson would win it late. That gave the Blues a win against a Ducks team they’ll be facing again on Wednesday in Anaheim.
The Ducks return to action on Sunday against the Capitals. It will be the first of three straight home games.
The Chargers signed free agent offensive lineman Russell Okung on Thursday to a 4 year $ 53 million deal. The deal includes a $ 25 million guaranteed.
However, Okung represented himself during the negotiations, which might have resulted in the Bolts violating the leagues tampering rules.
League rules stipulate that teams cannot speak to players before 4 pm EST on March 9th. They can speak to agents in the 48 hours before then, something that Okung may not have been aware of.
In March of 2016 the Chiefs were fined $ 350,000 and docked two draft picks for tampering during their negotiations with Jeremy Maclin.
Okung signed a 4 year deal with the Broncos last year, but it had an option after the first year that Denver didn’t pick up.
The Bolts are hoping Okung can help the team protect Philip Rivers, after their offensive line struggled last year.
The Rams parted ways with four players on Friday, headlined by trading defensive end William Hayes to the Dolphins.
Hayes goes to Miami along with a 2017 7th round pick. In return the Rams get a 2017 6th round pick.
In addition to moving Hayes, the Rams released defensive end Eugene Sims, tight end Lance Kendricks and center Tim Barnes. After signing Robert Woods and Andrew Whitworth on Thursday, and saying goodbye to four players today, the Rams have $17 million left in salary cap space.
Hayes is 31 years old, and coming off a season in which he had 5 sacks. He was due $ 5.5 million in 2017. He’s played 10 years in the NFL.
Sims is 30 years old, and has played 7 seasons with the Rams. He had 2.5 sacks last season, and would have been owed $ 3.25 million this coming season.
Kendricks is 29, and played 6 seasons with the Rams. He had 50 catches for 499 yards and two touchdowns last season. He was going to make $4.25 million.
Barnes is 28, and is a 5- year veteran. He started every game in 2015 and 2016, and was due to earn $3.35 million if he hit all his incentives.
