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From Dan Woike: The frustration was evident early. And it was hard to tell what was bothering the Lakers more — the missed shots or the perceived missed calls? Was it execution or exhaustion?
If it wasn’t one thing, it was the other, the Lakers losing 111-108 to the lottery-bound Brooklyn Nets, with tougher days over the next four weeks headed their way.
Playing without four of their regular rotation players because of injury Monday night, the Lakers weren’t anywhere close to their best, physically shorthanded and rapidly disengaged mentally.
“I think it was just an overall mentality just to take shortcuts tonight. We just wanted to take shortcuts,” JJ Redick said about his team postgame. “Too many… they scored 20 points on us gambling. They had 16 offensive rebounds. We ball-watched all night. We said no dare shots. I can’t, I’ll go through it, they probably made six, seven uncontested threes. Just shortcuts.
“Want to be a good team? You want to win in the NBA? You gotta do the hard stuff. We couldn’t even pass to each other. We couldn’t enter our offense, running ball screens literally at half-court. Yeah, that’s going to end up in a turnover. I don’t know what we’re doing.”
Can Markieff Morris help talk the Lakers back to an NBA championship?
From Bill Plaschke: Dave Roberts officially became Dodger royalty Monday when he agreed to a contract extension that makes him the richest manager in baseball and the rightful heir to the most coveted sports throne in Los Angeles.
He is the Dodgers’ MVP. He is the organization’s face and voice and heart. He is the new Tommy Lasorda.
He has evolved from an afterthought into a superstar, a guy who was only interviewed because ownership wasn’t ready to hastily hand the job to heavy favorite Gabe Kapler, a hiring whim who has become a deep-blue cornerstone.
You haven’t always liked him. You still might not like him. Some of you may never like him.
Of the eight different Dodger managers hired since Lasorda retired in 1996, Roberts has been the most universally criticized, second-guessed and roundly booed.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto stays in line to pitch opening day for the Dodgers in Tokyo
Dave Roberts agrees to four-year contract extension with Dodgers
From Kevin Baxter: The Great One is about to become the Second-Best One.
Well, in the record books at least. Because with nine more goals, Alex Ovechkin will break Wayne Gretzky’s total of 894, a mark once considered untouchable.
But for Kings TV analyst Jim Fox, who played with Gretzky and has watched Ovechkin since his rookie season with the Washington Capitals, that record is nothing but a number.
“Ovi will wind up with more goals,” he said. “Wayne’s still the Great One.”
Ovechkin’s run at the record will pass through Southern California this week, with the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals facing the Ducks on Tuesday at the Honda Center before meeting the Kings on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena. If Ovechkin, who ranks in the top five in the NHL with 33 goals, continues scoring at his current pace of two goals every three games, he will break the record in the final week of the regular season.
From Gary Klein: The Rams added depth to their defensive line Monday, agreeing to terms with tackle Poona Ford, a person with knowledge of the situation said.
Ford will receive a three-year contract that includes $17 million in guarantees, said the person, who requested anonymity because the deal has not been signed.
Ford, 29, is a seven-year veteran who played last season for the Chargers. The 5-foot-11, 310-pound Ford had three sacks and intercepted a pass.
Ex-Rams linebacker Michael Hoecht reportedly agrees to deal with Bills
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Hoping to pair Justin Herbert with a potent running game, the Chargers reached an agreement with free-agent running back Najee Harris, according to multiple reports.
Harris, who reportedly agreed to a one-year, $9.25-million deal, made more than $4 million last season with the Steelers. The 27-year-old has rushed for more than 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons and went to the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2021. He rushed for 1,043 yards and six touchdowns in 263 carries over 17 games last season. He also had three games with 100-plus rushing yards.
In need of a boost to the running game that was held to just 50 yards in a wild-card loss to the Houston Texans, the Chargers released running back Gus Edwards on Monday and could still re-sign running back J.K. Dobbins, who rushed for a career-best 905 yards last season.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1922 — Cornell wins the first IC4A indoor track meet held at the 2nd Regiment Armory in New York.
1947 — Harry Boykoff of St. John’s sets a Madison Square Garden scoring record with 54 points in the Redmen’s 71-52 win over St. Francis, N.Y.
1958 — Manhattan upsets top-ranked West Virginia 89-84, in the first round of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. Jack Powers leads the Jaspers with 29 points. Manhattan holds sophomore Jerry West to 10 points in the Mountaineers’ second loss of the year.
1963 — Chicago Loyola blows out Tennessee Tech 111-42 for the largest margin of victory (69) in the history of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.
1979 — St. John’s and Penn post two of the biggest upsets ever in the NCAA tournament in the second round of the East regional in Raleigh, N.C. St. John’s, the 40th and last team selected, beats No. 2 seed Duke 80-78, and Penn comes from behind to beat No. 1 seed North Carolina 72-71.
1991 — Steffi Graf’s streak of 186 weeks ranked as the No. 1 women’s tennis player ends as she is replaced by Monica Seles.
2001 — Jana Kostelic, Croatia’s 19-year-old skiing sensation, becomes the second youngest woman to win the overall World Cup title. She finishes 21st, but she captures the title when Renate Goetschl of Austria skied off the course in the first run in Are, Sweden.
2003 — The longest winning streak in women’s Division I history ends at 70 games when No. 18 Villanova hands No. 1 Connecticut its first loss since the end of the 2001 season, 52-48 for the championship of the Big East Conference tournament.
2007 — Chris Simon of the New York Islanders is suspended for an NHL-record 25 games, missing the rest of the regular season and playoffs as punishment for his two-handed stick attack to the face of Ryan Hollweg.
2009 — Mike Singletary leads Texas Tech to the biggest rally in Big 12 tournament history, scoring all 29 of Texas Tech’s points during a second-half surge that pushed the Red Raiders to a 88-83 win against the Aggies. The Red Raiders erase a 21-point deficit. Singletary, who outscored A&M 29-18 to give Tech the lead for the first time, finishes with 43 points.
2009 — Wesley Matthews scores 20 points and Marquette snaps a four-game losing streak by holding St. John’s to a Big East tournament-record 10 points in the first half on the way to a 74-45 victory.
2012 — Vanderbilt rallies to beat No. 1 Kentucky 71-64 in the Southeastern Conference tournament championship game, ending the Wildcats’ 24-game winning streak.
2014 — FIU senior Jerica Coley becomes the 10th female player in NCAA Division I history to eclipse the 3,000-point barrier, doing so with a 20-point showing in FIU’s 85-65 win over Rice in the first round of the Conference USA tournament.
2017 — Jayson Tatum takes over in the final three minutes, making key plays on both ends of the floor, and Duke becomes the first team to win the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament with four wins in four days by rallying past Notre Dame for a 75-69 win.
2020 — NBA suspends 2019-20 season until further notice after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tests positive for COVID-19.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Page 2
The Great One is about to become the Second-Best One.
Well, in the record books at least. Because with nine more goals, Alex Ovechkin will break Wayne Gretzky’s total of 894, a mark once considered untouchable.
But for Kings TV analyst Jim Fox, who played with Gretzky and has watched Ovechkin since his rookie season with the Washington Capitals, that record is nothing but a number.
“Ovi will wind up with more goals,” he said. “Wayne’s still the Great One.”
Ovechkin’s run at the record will pass through Southern California this week, with the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals facing the Ducks on Tuesday at the Honda Center before meeting the Kings on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena. If Ovechkin, who ranks in the top five in the NHL with 33 goals, continues scoring at his current pace of two goals every three games, he will break the record in the final week of the regular season.
And while that will make Ovechkin hockey’s all-time leading scorer, Fox says Gretzky will remain the better overall player.
“He’s got more assists than anyone else,” Fox said of Gretzky’s 1,963 career assists, more than 700 better than second-best mark. “If he hadn’t scored a goal, he would still lead [in points]. That’s where it overwhelms for me.
“Wayne will end up with the second-most goals ever and he’s not a shooter.”
Wayne Gretzky scores goal No. 802 to break Gordie Howe’s record March 23, 1994.
Comparing the two is a little like comparing apples to oranges — or comparing Babe Ruth with Barry Bonds. Although Gretzky retired just six years before Ovechkin’s debut, the eras in which they played were markedly different, which makes drawing equivalencies difficult.
In Gretzky’s best season, 1981-82, teams averaged more than four goals a game for the only time since World War II. In fact, the league averaged more goals per game in 15 of Gretzky’s 20 NHL seasons than it did in 2022-23, the most offensive season of Ovechkin’s two decades in the league. So while 15 players scored at least 69 goals in a season during Gretzky’s career, it has happened just once since.
And while Ovechkin topped 60 goals in a season once, Gretzky did it five times.
“Ovi, for most of his career, has played against better goaltenders, no question,” said Fox, who played his final NHL season alongside Gretzky.
Yet the two players’ career scoring averages are identical at 0.6 goals per game.
Gretzky, speaking through an NHL spokesman, declined to talk about the record, saying he preferred the focus remain on Ovechkin. But Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper, who has played both with and against Ovechkin, said there’s no secret what makes his former teammate so good.
“His shot is next level,” he said. “It’s just kind of in a league of its own.”
Ovechkin puts a spin on the puck that alters its trajectory. His stick also has a massive open-spoon curve that allows him to flip the puck so that it catches air rather than slicing it through it. When the puck is traveling at 85 mph, it will react unpredictably.
“But it’s more than that,” Kuemper continued. “He’s so smart at knowing where to get to to score goals and how to get a shot off. You watch teams play against him and they try to sit a guy on him and he still manages to score all these goals.
“It’s pretty impressive, his intelligence.”
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin celebrates after scoring against the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 23 in Washington.
If Ovechkin is a unicorn on the ice, however, he makes a point of blending in off it.
“In the locker room, he’s just one of the guys,” Kuemper said. “He’s just one of the guys on the plane wanting to play cards.”
He’s also been able to stay healthy, becoming the oldest player to score 50 goals in a season three years ago when he was 36. After missing 16 games while recovering from a fractured fibula this winter, he’ll play fewer than 70 games in a full season for the first time in his career.
That durability is another trait Ovechkin shares with Gretzky, who played fewer than 65 games in a full season just twice.
But their differences may be more numerous than their similarities, Fox said. Ovechkin, especially when he was younger, was aggressive and physical. He’s still strong and, of course, he has “that shot,” Fox said, while Gretzky, who was three inches shorter and 53 pounds lighter at 6-feet, 185 pounds, “could think the game better than anyone.”
“Wayne could make a one-on-three [situation] more dangerous than a one-on-one because all of a sudden he gets one guy thinking about where he should be and then they’re bumping into each other,” Fox said. “One year you have 92 goals and then the next 163 assists.
“So one year he said, ‘I’m going to score’ and the next year he said, ‘I’m going to pass.’ He could make that decision and then go on the ice and execute it where other guys are trying to get by.”
Gretzky also brought hockey to a desert, popularizing it in Southern California, which paved the way for the NHL to expand to Miami, Tampa, Phoenix and Las Vegas, growing the league from 21 in his rookie season to 32 teams today.
“The sports fan became a hockey fan. And that’s the difference,” Fox said. “Wayne is very unique. He’s on an island in that way.”
So, records aside, does that make Gretzky the best ever?
“No,” Fox answered. “I still think Bobby Orr is the greatest to ever play.”
