Lakers lose for first time this season

From Broderick Turner: They are the top-scoring teams in the NBA and have dynamic backcourts to make it all work.

So, when the Lakers came to work with their superb guard duo of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves and the Portland Trail Blazers came to work with their exciting guard combo of Damian Lillard and Ja Morant, it figured to be a high-scoring affair Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.

It lived up to that billing, with the game going back and forth in the decisive fourth quarter, finally being settled after Lillard hit a big-time three-pointer off a pass from Deni Avdija for a six-point lead with 42.8 seconds left that the Lakers couldn’t overcome in a 136-129 loss.

The Trail Blazers tore into the Lakers defense, shooting 59% from the field, 50% (18-for-36) from three-point range.

Lincoln Riley says he wants to stay at USC

From Ryan Kartje: As questions swirl this week about his future at USC and his potential fit elsewhere, Lincoln Riley didn’t mince words about where he wants to be coaching when asked Tuesday.

“I love it here,” the fifth-year coach said.

“Listen if I didn’t want to be at this place, I wouldn’t have come here in the first place. If I didn’t want to be at this place, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to leave. This is where I want to be. This is the right place for me. I’m the right person to be here. And that’s as honest and transparent as I can be with you guys.”

Whether Riley will actually have a say in that decision remains to be seen. After falling 24-7 to Wisconsin in one of the worst defeats of Riley’s tenure on Saturday, USC can’t afford another loss this season if it hopes to make the College Football Playoff for the first time.

That was the bar all parties at USC appeared to agree on ahead of Riley’s fifth season with the program. The coach himself said in August that expectations should be “through the roof.”

“We do expect to make the playoff,” USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen said in May. “We do expect to have a championship run. We do expect to be competing for championships every single year. I think that’s what’s awesome about USC, is that that’s what we all expect of it.”

Remembering Ross Newhan

From Bill Shaikin: The suggestion caught Ross Newhan off guard.

The Angels had just reached the promised land, after more than four decades of wandering through baseball’s wilderness. Who better than Newhan, who had been there since Day 1, to write a first-person account of that long and winding road to their first World Series?

Newhan was reluctant. That would make the story about himself, which he despised. The editors prevailed, and within the story he delivered a sentence that struck deep within the heart of every loyal and long-suffering Angels fan.

“I can’t help but feel a sweep of emotions seep through the cynicism and dispassion that is the byproduct of being present for all or part of every Angel season,” he wrote on Oct. 14, 2002.

To this day, the Angels have one guy in the Hall of Fame: Vladimir Guerrero. The Times has two: Jim Murray, the Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist, and Newhan.

Newhan died Sunday, at 89, after what his wife Connie called a “cardiac event.” His reporting — first at the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram, then over 37 years at The Times — distinguished The Times as a national source for baseball coverage.

UCLA women’s team focuses on habits, not results

From Anthony Solorzano: The UCLA women’s basketball team isn’t concerned about being hunted as the reigning national champions, coach Cori Close said. That’s up to somebody else.

“Having a target on your back means that you’re worried about what someone else is going to do,” she added. “That’s an outcome-based [way of] thinking, and we have to be obsessed with our process, obsessed with our standards.”

As the Bruins prepare to open the season at Pauley Pavilion against Lehigh on Monday, they are focused on getting better every day and following the championship-level process the program established. It’s not their job to worry about what others think about them, forward Sienna Betts said.

“I don’t really care what the media has to say or whatever,” Betts said. “It really is just a matter of what is in these four walls and what we know we’re putting into practice every day.”

Kings lose to Blackhawks

Wyatt Kaiser broke a third-period tie, Spencer Knight made 25 saves and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Kings 2-1 on Tuesday night.

Samuel Helenius scored for the Kings in the finale of a 3-2-0 trip. The Kings’ Anton Forsberg stopped 25 shots.

Chicago stopped a three-game slide while improving to 3-4-0 on a seven-game homestand. Roman Kantserov scored in the second, and the Blackhawks killed off a double-minor penalty on defenseman Sam Rinzel for high-sticking.

Ducks lose to Canucks

Filip Hronek scored a power-play goal with 11 seconds to go in overtime to cap a run of four consecutive goals by the Vancouver Canucks, who ended a 10-game losing streak with a 6-5 comeback win over the Ducks on Tuesday night.

The Canucks, who won for just the third time all season, trailed 5-2 after Anaheim’s A.J. Greer scored his second goal of the game with 7:37 to play in regulation.

But Jamie Oleksiak pulled Vancouver within 5-3 just 31 seconds later.

Jonathan Lekkerimaki then scored twice less than a minute apart — the second with 1:57 left in regulation — to send the game into overtime.

Rays stay alive in World Series

Former Dodger Jonny DeLuca and pinch-hitter Ben Williamson singled home runs in a stunning 12th-inning rally, and the Tampa Bay Rays staved off World Series elimination with a 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night that forced Game 5.

Cooper Pratt hit a tiebreaking home run off Ian Seymour in the top of the 12th for his fourth hit of the game as Milwaukee neared a sweep and its first World Series title.

But the Rays, also seeking their first championship, rallied in the bottom half after a throwing error by third baseman Joey Ortiz on Junior Caminero’s leadoff grounder against reliever Antonio Senzatela.

World Series results, schedule

All games at 5 p.m. PT
All game on FOX/FOX Deportes/FOX One

No. 1 Milwaukee vs. No. 1 Tampa Bay
at Milwaukee 3, Tampa Bay 2 (box score)
at Milwaukee 5, Tampa Bay 4 (box score)
Milwaukee 10, at Tampa Bay 1 (box score)
at Tampa Bay 4, Milwaukee 3 (12) (box score)
*Wednesday at Tampa Bay
*Friday at Milwaukee
*Saturday at Milwaukee

* if necessary

This day in sports history

1939 — Kansas State’s homecoming contest against Nebraska is the second college football game ever televised, after the Fordham-Waynesburg contest in New York earlier this fall. The Cornhuskers spoil homecoming with a 25-9 triumph in Manhattan, Kan., before a limited Nebraska ETV audience in the surrounding area.

1950 — Nevada punter Pat Brady boots an NCAA record 99-yard punt in a 34-7 loss to Loyola Marymount.

1962 — New York Giants quarterback Y.A. Title passes for 505 yards and seven touchdowns, and Del Schofner catches 11 passes for 269 yards and a touchdown in a 49-34 victory over the Washington Redskins.

1973 — Gail Goodrich scores 49 points and seven-foot center Elmore Smith sets an NBA record with 17 blocked shots as the Lakers beat Portland 111-98.

1973 — With jockey Eddie Maple substituting for suspended Ron Turcotte, Secretariat concludes his racing career with a victory in the Canadian International Championship Stakes at Woodbine in Toronto.

1989 — Tony Alford of Colorado State rushes for 310 yards in 28 carries to break a Western Athletic Conference record and scores three touchdowns in a 50-10 win over Utah.

1989 — Central State crushes Lane 101-0. Lane concedes with 11:26 to play in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Henderson Mosley runs for three touchdowns and passes for six.

1990 — Jennifer Capriati, 14, beats Zina Garrison in three sets to capture the Puerto Rico Open and become the youngest player to qualify for the Virginia Slims Championship.

1993 — Ron Francis becomes the 38th NHL player to score 1,000 points with a goal in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 7-3 loss to the Quebec Nordiques.

1995 — Cigar completes an undefeated season of 10 straight wins with a rousing 2½-length victory under Jerry Bailey in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Cigar, the 3-to-5 favorite, covers the 1 1/4 miles in a time of 1:59 2/5 to beat L’Carriere and give Bailey his third consecutive Classic win.

1997 — Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer are hired as full-time NBA referees, marking the first time in major pro sports in the United States that females will officiate regular-season games in an all-male league.

2010 — Caroline Wozniacki wraps up the year-end No. 1 ranking after rallying to beat Francesca Schiavone 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 at the WTA Championships. The 20-year-old from Denmark is the 10th woman to end the season on top and the youngest since Martina Hingis in 1997.

2016 — Russell Westbrook has 51 points and a triple-double and scores the winning points in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 113-110 overtime victory over the Phoenix Suns. It’s the first 50-point triple-double since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had one in 1975. Westbrook finishes with 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

2017 — J.T. Barrett caps the greatest game of his career with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Baugh with 1:48 left in the fourth quarter and No. 6 Ohio State rallies from 11 down in the final five minutes to hand No. 2 Penn State its first loss, 39-38.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time...

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