The Sports Report: Lakers fall flat on road trip

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Dan Woike: LeBron James glared at the Lakers bench, another chance squandered, another run from the Grizzlies delivered.

There wasn’t much else he could do Wednesday night on the final game of the Lakers’ first road trip. He’d attacked mismatches. He’d swished home triples. He fought like hell with Memphis’ giant front line.

His team was short-handed. Anthony Davis’ heel contusion, an injury he suffered Monday in Detroit, kept him out of action. An illness did the same to Rui Hachimura.

Unlike the losses in Cleveland and Detroit that ensured this trip would be a clunker, this wasn’t about fight. The Lakers had shown up for that.

But as his team saw a two-point deficit turn to a 11-point deficit after Memphis his three straight threes, James looked at the bench.

It wasn’t anger. It was exasperation. The Lakers were going to eventually lose 131-114, and he couldn’t stop it.

Continue reading here

Lakers box score

NBA scores

NBA standings

CLIPPERS

From Broderick Turner: Paul George got the basketball on the wing and those same Clippers fans that cheered and adored him during the five years when he was one of their own … booed him.

The boos from the sparse crowd at the Intuit Dome rained down on George all game because he now was a Philadelphia 76er. The fans even booed George when the Clippers showed a tribute video on the Halo Board of his highlights while with L.A. during a timeout in the first quarter.

George had shunned the Clippers’ final offer of three years and $150 million and instead took a four-year deal from the 76ers for $212 million. George had wanted a no-trade clause as part of his deal with the Clippers, but they were unwilling to do that.

He was back in town for the first time Wednesday night since departing and the fans let him know how they felt about him leaving a team they had hoped he (and Kawhi Leonard) would help lead to an NBA title.

Before the game, George slapped hands with his former teammates sitting on the bench and hugged Coach Tyronn Lue. Then he was treated unruly by his former team in the Clippers’ 110-98 victory over the 76ers.

Continue reading here

Clippers box score

NBA scores

NBA standings

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: One week into Major League Baseball’s offseason, the Dodgers are still in the process of finalizing their plans for this upcoming winter.

They’re admittedly playing “a little bit of catch-up going on right now,” as general manager Brandon Gomes put it — but are happy to be after spending the last month winning the World Series.

“Very good problem for us to have,” Gomes said Wednesday. “Happily trade that every year.”

Betts, of course, started this season as the Dodgers’ everyday shortstop after playing the infield part time (mostly at second base) in 2023. He moved back to his traditional spot in right field after recovering from a broken hand in August, with both him and the team deciding it was what best fit their roster.

Now, however, the club’s “assumption,” as Gomes put it, is that Betts will return to the dirt next season, though exactly how that will look is not yet “set in stone.”

Continue reading here

Family, friends and fans pay tribute to Fernando Valenzuela at public funeral Mass

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1943 — The Detroit Lions and New York Giants play the last scoreless tie in the NFL.

1968 — Red Berenson scores six goals, including four in the second period, to lead the St. Louis Blues to an 8-0 victory over Philadelphia.

1974 — South Africa is awarded the Davis Cup against India. India refuses to play in the final because of its opponent’s apartheid policy. It’s the first time the final is not played.

1985 — Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the former middleweight boxer convicted twice of a triple murder in 1966 and the hero of a Bob Dylan song, is released after 19 years in prison. Carter, 48, is freed after a federal judge rules the boxer and a co-defendant were denied their civil rights by prosecutors during trials in 1967 and 1976.

1991 — Magic Johnson, who helped the Lakers to five NBA championships, announces he has tested positive for the AIDS virus and is retiring.

1998 — Awesome Again steals Skip Away’s thunder and the $5.12 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs with a three-quarter length victory over Silver Charm. Skip Away finishes sixth and misses becoming the first horse to earn $10 million.

1999 — Tiger Woods becomes the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win four straight tournaments, capturing the American Express Championship.

2003 — The defending champion U.S. baseball team fails to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics, losing to Mexico 2-1 in the quarterfinals of a qualifying tournament in Panama City, Panama.

2008 — Jerry Sloan is the first NBA coach to win 1,000 games with one team when his Utah Jazz beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 104-97. Sloan, 1,000-596 with the Jazz, has an overall coaching record of 1,094-717 with the Jazz and Chicago Bulls.

2009 — Zenyatta comes from last after a poor start and fights off Gio Ponti in the stretch to win the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic. The 5-year-old mare, ridden by Mike Smith, beats a loaded field of 11 males and becomes the first female to win the race in its 26-year history.

2016 — Stephen Curry sets an NBA record with 13 3-pointers and the Golden State Warriors beat the winless New Orleans Pelicans 116-106. Curry finishes with 46 points.

2018 — For the second straight year, France wins the Six Nations Rugby Championship on points difference from Ireland.

2021 — Kyle Larson holds off Martin Truex Jr. in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway to earn his 10th win of the season and claim his first Cup Series championship.

Compiled by the Associated Press