The Sports Report: Lakers edge Memphis on Pau Gasol’s jersey retirement night

Hi, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s go straight to the news.

From Dan Woike: To the right of the banners they helped win are the numbers of some of basketball’s most dominant big men to ever play in this league.

George Mikan’s No. 99 is two places to the left of Wilt Chamberlain’s No. 13. One row directly below is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s No. 33. Below and to the left is Shaquille O’Neal’s No. 34.

And on Tuesday, after helping the Lakers win a pair of championships, the curtain fell on No. 16 Pau Gasol. Fittingly, he will live directly to the right of Kobe Bryant’s No. 24.

As he watched the opening, Gasol shook his head and wiped the tears from his eyes.

“To the city of Los Angeles, to the Laker nation, I love you, I love you dearly,” Gasol said from midcourt. “I love you forever, thank you for making me feel so special, it has been an honor, it really has been.

“Thank you so much.”

The festivities surrounding the game with the Memphis Grizzlies were filled with emotional journeys into the Lakers’ past, moments that would have been impossible without Gasol’s presence alongside Bryant.

The present? That depends on the player the Lakers have counted on to be next in line among their lineage of giants.

Fans chanted “MVP” as Anthony Davis walked to the foul line late in the quarter, a minute before he and the Lakers finished off the Memphis Grizzlies 112-103.

His touch froze the game in the final seconds, capping off a 30-point, 22-rebound performance.

In the first quarter, Davis looked like one of the team’s all-time greats, commanding every inch of the court in a way that made him one of the best two-way talents in the NBA.

Before leaving with 30 seconds left in the quarter, he had already scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds, easily setting himself up for another double-double.

It was another moment of dominance, the kind that has increasingly been happening at a time when his team needs him most.

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NBA PLAYOFF STANDINGS
western conference

The first six qualify for the playoffs. Numbers 7-10 compete in a play-in tournament to determine the final two spots.

1. Denver Nuggets, 46-19, —
2. Sacramento Kings, 38-26, 7.5GB
3. Memphis Grizzlies, 38-26, 7.5 GB
4. Phoenix Suns, 36-29, 10GB
5. Dallas Mavericks, 34-32, 12.5 GB
6. Golden State Warriors, 34-32, 12.5GB

7. Minnesota Timberwolves, 34-33, 13GB
8. Hair clippers, 34-33, 13 GB
9. Lakers, 32-34, 14.5GB
10. New Orleans Pelicans, 31-34, 15 GB

11. Oklahoma City Thunder, 31-34, 15 GB
12. Portland Trail Blazers, 31-34, 15GB
13. Utah Jazz, 31-35, 15.5GB
14. San Antonio Spurs, 16-49, 30GB
15. Houston Rockets, 15-50, 31GB

UCLA BASKETBALL

From Ben Bolch: Jaylen Clark’s lower leg injury changes things.

If UCLA handles the situation correctly, maybe not everything.

The potential end-of-season loss of the team’s defensive maestro Clark, aka the Steal Man, due to injury sustained during a win over Arizona on Saturday night is unequivocally a major blow to Arizona’s national championship hopes. the Bruins.

It doesn’t have to be deadly.

Fortunately for the Bruins, they have a sixth man with experience sneaking into the starting lineup and two other active defenders on the bench who can go a long way in making up for Clark’s absence. What’s more, everyone has done this before.

UCLA coach Mick Cronin said Tuesday that Clark was out of the Pac-12 Conference tournament this week and would not travel to Las Vegas, adding that the Bruins would talk to the NCAA tournament selection committee if I would like to ask about Clark’s availability.

“I’m not trying to avoid things with the tournament committee,” Cronin said, “so if they want to contact us, I’m sure they will.”

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UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. is Pac-12 Player of the Year

Is the Pac-12 really that bad? Why the league doesn’t have a TV deal without USC and UCLA

Pac-12 Men’s Tournament
In Las Vegas
all time pacific

Today (all on Pac-12 Network)
No. 8 Washington vs. No. 9 Colorado, noon
No. 5 Washington State vs. No. 12 California, 2:30 p.m.
No. 7 Utah vs. No. 10 Stanford, 6 p.m.
No. 6 Arizona State vs. No. 11 Oregon State, 8:30 p.m.

Thursday
No. 1 UCLA vs. TBD, Noon, Pac-12 Network
No. 4 Oregon vs. TBD, 2:30 p.m., Pac-12 Network
No. 2 Arizona vs. TBD, 6 p.m., Pac-12 Network
No. 3 USC vs. TBD, 8:30 p.m., ESPN

Friday
semifinals
Game 1, 6 p.m., Red Pac-12
Game 2, 8:30 p.m., ESPN

Saturday
finals
7:30 p.m. ESPN

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: There’s a note-taking app on Chris Taylor’s phone that the Dodgers outfielder opens all the time, a simple but useful system he developed long ago to track his ever-evolving swing.

Within it, the 10-year veteran has kept a catalog of hitting advice, from mental cues and mechanical sensations, to coaching tips and personal observations.

Many of them go back years, stemming from the career-altering swing changes Taylor made during his rise with the Dodgers in 2017.

Since then, he hasn’t been afraid to edit the list, routinely jotting down new thoughts and crossing off old ones, especially at times like these, as he prepares to rectify his dismal 2022 performance this spring.

“Last season, I felt like I created some bad habits,” Taylor said. “So I’m just trying to create a more efficient swing.”

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From Ryan Kartje: When Lincoln Riley walked onto the practice field last Sunday at the start of his second spring as USC football coach, the task before him felt a little less daunting than it did a year ago.

The base of the program was already formed, the fundamental beliefs already ingrained, the processes set in motion. There were fewer questions to answer, fewer details to address.

“You get the sense that we’re building on something now instead of just starting something,” Riley said Tuesday. “Now is the time to really build. And I think our guys feel that. I think there’s certainly a lot less new, but at the same time, we’ve pushed the guys to understand that what was acceptable 12 months ago isn’t necessarily acceptable now.”

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SOCCER

From Kevin Baxter: Angel City had just one player under contract when it traded for the rights to Julie Ertz, a two-time World Cup-winning midfielder, and Sarah Gorden, a 2021 finalist for the National Women’s Soccer League Defender of the Year .

That was 15 months ago. The team has played a full season since then, and neither Ertz nor Gorden have taken the field yet.

Ertz, who gave birth to a son in August, is not under contract with Angel City and may never play for the team. But Gorden, who tore the ACL in his right knee less than two weeks after the team’s first training camp, is expected to make his debut Wednesday night in a preseason friendly with Mexico’s Club América in the BMO Stadium.

And while missing an entire season to knee surgery in the prime of her career wasn’t how Gorden viewed her time with the start of her new team, she’s adamant Angel City are getting a better player than they ever were. acquired in December 2021.

“I absolutely feel like this recovery year has prepared me mentally in a way that I never would have been able to prepare if I didn’t get injured,” he said. “Recovering from a major injury, there are ups and downs. It’s a lot of isolation, a lot of time alone. And there are many more mental battles in it.

“When the little hard times (arrive), I feel much more prepared to deal with them.”

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1954 — The Milwaukee Hawks defeated the Baltimore Bullets twice 64-54 and 65-54, in the only doubleheader in NBA history involving the same two teams.

1958 — Silky Sullivan, ridden by Bill Shoemaker, wins the Santa Anita Derby by three lengths after trailing by 40 early in the race and by 20 entering the final turn.

1971: Joe Frazier wins the world heavyweight title with a 15-round unanimous decision over Muhammad Ali at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

1990 — Kurt Browning becomes the first Canadian to defend a title at the World Figure Skating Championships when he bests leader Viktor Petrenko of the Soviet Union.

1992 — Ray Floyd, 49, defeats Fred Couples by two shots at the Doral Open, joining Sam Snead as the only men to win PGA Tour titles in four decades.

2008 — At age 60, Saoul Mamby loses a 10-round unanimous decision to Anthony Osbourne in Grand Cayman. Mamby, former super lightweight champion, becomes the oldest boxer in a sanctioned fight.

2008 — Lindsey Vonn wins the tenth downhill World Cup of her career to break the American record held by Picabo Street and Daron Rahlves. Vonn breaks the record with his fifth descent of the season in 1:23.57 on the 1.4-mile course in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

2010 — The top-ranked Connecticut Huskies set an NCAA women’s record by winning their 71st straight game, a 59-44 victory over No. 6 Notre Dame in the Big East tournament semifinals. UConn surpasses its own mark set from November 9, 2001 to March 11, 2003.

2013 – The Big East Conference announces the departure of DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova, allowing them to separate from the football schools and create their own conference on July 1.

2014: Doug McDermott scores a career-high 45 points to become the eighth player in Division I history to surpass 3,000 for his career as Creighton tops Providence 88-73.

2015 — Leonardo Mayer defeats Joao Souza in the longest singles match in Davis Cup history, winning 7-6(4), 7-6(5), 5-7, 5-7, 15-13 to hold I live Argentina against Brazil in their first round series. It took Mayer 6 hours and 42 minutes to beat Souza, which is also longer than the record for a clay-court match on the ATP tour.

—Collected by Associated Press

And finally

Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali to win the heavyweight title in 1971. watch and listen here.