Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I had a connecting flight in Philadelphia yesterday and I can confirm that every stereotype about how obsessed that city is with the Eagles is true.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏀 Bronny James’s continued comeback
🐻 What the Bears should do with the No. 1 pick
🇯🇵 The Dodgers’ history with Japanese players
The Clippers have figured it out
Nearly halfway through the NBA season, the two Los Angeles teams are polar opposites.
After getting off to a rocky start in James Harden’s first few weeks with the team, the Clippers are on a tear, going 18–5 since Nov. 17. The Lakers, meanwhile, have been stumbling. Since winning the in-season tournament on Dec. 9, they’ve gone 3–9. The Clippers are in fourth place in the West at 21–12, while the Lakers are 10th at 17–18.
The Clippers picked up a solid road victory over the Phoenix Suns last night, 131–122, in which their three top players were dominant. Paul George had 33 points, Kawhi Leonard had 30 and James Harden had 22 with 11 assists. Leonard is excelling, averaging 32.4 points per game on a .633 shooting percentage in his last seven games after averaging 21.6 on .479 shooting in his first 20 games.
The biggest difference for the Clippers, though, has been the lineup change they made shortly after the Harden trade. On Nov. 17, with the team mired in a six-game losing streak, coach Tyronn Lue replaced Russell Westbrook in the starting lineup with Terance Mann. Mann, a fifth-year swingman out of Florida State, had been named a starter before the season but sprained his ankle in practice two days before the opener and missed the first six games. While he was out, the Clippers acquired Harden from the Philadelphia 76ers, and he took Mann’s spot in the starting lineup. Mann came off the bench in his first four appearances of the season before Lue made the decision to shake up the lineup.
The young, athletic Mann has been exactly what the Clippers needed to complement their high-scoring trio. He’s an excellent defender whose impact on the team is immediately evident. The lineup of Harden, Leonard, George, Mann and Ivica Zubac is averaging 17.3 points more than their opponents per 100 possessions this season. The combo of Harden, Leonard, George, Zubac and Westbrook is averaging 21.8 points fewer than their opponents per 100 possessions.
The Lakers are in desperate need of a spark. Their loss to the Miami Heat last night was their eighth defeat in their last 10 games, and it was especially disappointing because it came in their return to their home arena after playing eight of their last 10 games on the road.
One issue for the Lakers right now is injuries, as it has often been in recent seasons. D’Angelo Russell (tailbone) and Rui Hachimura (calf) both missed last night’s game, which hurt the team’s depth. But what really sank them was their poor shooting. They were a dismal 4-for-30 from three. LeBron James missed all six three-point attempts as he was held to just 12 points, his lowest output in more than two years.
Regular-season struggles have been a theme for the Lakers in recent years. Since winning the Finals in the bubble in 2020, they haven’t finished higher than seventh in the conference. Last year’s run to the conference finals was a reminder that they’re capable of turning it on when the lights are brightest, but they’ll need to start winning soon if they want to avoid the crapshoot of the play-in tournament.
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The best of Sports Illustrated
Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
- Chris Mannix was in Los Angeles last night, where Bronny James continued his comeback from his cardiac arrest five months ago and helped lead the USC Trojans to a victory over the Cal Golden Bears.
- Mannix also named Devin Haney his 2023 fighter of the year.
- Conor Orr has an unorthodox idea for what the Chicago Bears should do with Justin Fields now that they’ve locked up the No. 1 pick in this year’s NFL draft.
- Orr also argues that the Los Angeles Chargers should make an aggressive push to hire the Michigan Wolverines’ Jim Harbaugh.
- Emma Baccellieri wrote about how the Los Angeles Dodgers laid the groundwork for the Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto signings by bringing in Hideo Nomo nearly 30 years ago.
- The LSU Tigers made wholesale changes to their defensive coaching staff after a horrendous season on that side of the ball.
The top five...
… things I saw yesterday:
5. The raucous reception 16-year-old Luke Littler got from the crowd after finishing second in the World Darts Championship.
4. A nice alley-oop by Bronny James.
3. Michael McLeod’s spinning goal while falling to the ice.
2. Jalen Johnson’s dunk over Chet Holmgren.
1. Iván Martín’s game-winning goal for Girona in stoppage time against Atlético Madrid. Girona, playing just its fourth season in Spain’s top league, is tied with Real Madrid atop the table.
SIQ
Ottawa retained the Stanley Cup on this day in 1904 by beating an athletic club from Winnipeg that primarily participated in what sport?
- Soccer
- Rugby
- Rowing
- Curling
Friday’s SIQ: What team was Ohio State playing in the Gator Bowl when coach Woody Hayes infamously punched an opposing player on Dec. 29, 1978?
- Maryland
- Clemson
- Ole Miss
- Oklahoma State
Answer: Clemson. With just over two minutes remaining in the game and Ohio State trailing the Tigers, 17–15, Art Schlichter threw a pass that was intercepted by Charlie Bauman, who was tackled on the OSU sideline. When Bauman returned to his feet, Hayes punched him in the neck.
Hayes, who had coached the Buckeyes for 28 years and won five national championships, was fired the next day. He didn’t comment publicly on the firing until three weeks later when he appeared at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and told the capacity crowd, “I got what was coming to me.”
Longtime OSU defensive line coach Esco Sarkkinen told Sports Illustrated after Hayes’s dismissal that it was ironic the legendary coach was done in by the thing he long despised: the forward pass.
“Woody would have done the same thing his first year as he did the 28th,” Sarkkinen said. “The potential was always there. It was just a matter of terrible timing. Woody always said there were three things that could happen when you pass, and two of them are bad. Now there are four things that can happen, and three of them are bad.”
