Replenished Lakers give up season-high in points, fall to Bulls

• March 23, 2025

LOS ANGELES — JJ Redick knew that the Lakers were unlikely to immediately recapture the rhythm they were playing with from a few weeks ago.

Even with the excitement of, hopefully, having their full rotation available for the last three weeks of the regular season, Redick is aware that it’s going to take time to build chemistry and familiarity after having just a handful of games with Luka Doncic at the helm before multiple starters missed time with injuries.

Saturday’s homestand-ending 146-115 loss to the Chicago Bulls showcased the strides the Lakers are going to have to make during the season’s final stretch – and old issues appearing for at least one night.

“The disposition and the mentality, I don’t know if we assume because we had everybody back that it was just gonna be like it was three weeks ago, and that’s just not the way this works,” Redick said. “The guys know that. And I’m not saying that’s what they assumed.

“The thing that we have talked about all season long, though, is grace. And so the group inherently gets some grace for what this last three weeks has looked like. And it’s not an excuse. It’s just the nature of where a group felt very connected and then you lose some games on the road, you have some injuries, all that stuff.”

With LeBron James and Rui Hachimura returning to the floor after being sidelined for seven and 12 games, respectively, the Lakers (43-27) played with a disjointedness of a team battling with unfamiliarity.

Even with great shotmaking from Doncic (34 points, eight rebounds and six assists) and Austin Reaves (25 points, five assists), with the duo combining for 19-of-31 shooting from the field and 11 for 20 on 3-pointers, the Lakers struggled to find their offensive flow.

They turned the ball over frequently (21 giveaways for 27 Bulls’ points).

And their transition defense was well below their standard, with the Bulls (31-40) finishing with 30 fastbreak points after they consistently got to the rim or the shots they wanted with ease in the open floor.

The Bulls’ scoring total was not only the most points the Lakers allowed in a game this season, but were tied for the most they’ve allowed a non-overtime home game, according to the Associated Press.

“We gave em a little bit of everything,” James said. “Gave ’em points in the paint. We gave ’em fast break points and we gave ’em 3s. We can’t give everything.”

And once the Bulls found their rhythm from beyond the arc in the second half, making 14 of their 19 3-point attempts (73.9%) in the final two quarters, the Lakers didn’t stand a chance, dropping their second consecutive home game after previously winning nine straight.

“That’s the word that we’ve used a lot is edge, and you gotta play with an edge,” Redick said. “I told them this just and I don’t think this is like a secret, so I’m comfortable sharing this. But our success this season, since January, has been based on our defensive disposition, our ability to defend as a team, our individual pride on the ball and our individual pride in doing your job with whatever it may require.

“A low man, a box out, a gang rebound, whatever it may require. That’s gonna determine our success for the next three weeks. And that’s gonna determine our success if we are able to secure a postseason berth.”

James finished with 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals in 31 minutes in his first game since March 8 because of a strained left groin.

“ A little rusty,” James said, “but I was happy to get back out there.”

When asked whether he feels confident about the groin injury being behind him, James responded: “I just take it day by day. I can’t worry about what can happen in the future, but, I got through [Saturday.]”

He added: “I’m obviously, get some work on it [on Sunday], hopefully a little bit on the plane. It’s a long flight to Orlando. And then once we get to Orlando and get ready for Monday. So I hope it’s behind, but I don’t wanna go too far in the future.”

Doncic had seven turnovers while James finished with five.

Hachimura had five points and two rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench in his first game since Feb. 27 because of left patellar tendinopathy. He said postgame that he feels his knee is about 70-80%.

“My knee is going to be like that for a while,” Hachimura added. “I can’t really get back to 100% right away. I got to rest for a long time to get back to normal. But I don’t think we have that, so we just got to maintain and manage it. We got to do it.”

Coby White led the Bulls with a game-best 36 points, while rookie wing Matas Buzelis finished with a career-high 31 points.

Josh Giddey nearly finished with a quadruple-double, recording 15 points, 17 assists, 10 rebounds and eight steals.

The Lakers will kick off a four-game road trip against the Orlando Magic on Monday.

“You gotta get reconnected,” Redick said. “And that’s where our group. We’ll get there. We, however, don’t have a lot of time to do that. And it’s gotta be now. It can’t be in a week. It can’t be in two weeks. It’s it’s gotta be now.”

​ Orange County Register 

Atitlan, Hector Berrios win San Luis Rey at 9-1

• March 23, 2025

Atitlan continued his improvement by swooping from near the back of the pack with Hector Berrios to score a 9-1 upset in the $100,000, Grade III San Luis Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday.

A 4-year-old who was the youngest horse in the 1 1/2-mile turf race for 4-year-olds and up, Atitlan ($20.20) won for the first time in four starts since the Grade II Twilight Derby last October.

John Shirreffs trains the son of The Factor.

Divin Propos finished second, Gold Phoenix third in his 7-year-old debut, favorite Easter fourth in the field of eight.

Sunday, Casalu (Flavien Prat riding) will try to become the first three-time stakes winner at the nearly three-month-old Santa Anita meet when she faces Will Then (Umberto Rispoli) and three others in the $100,000 China Doll Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 mile on turf.

​ Orange County Register 

LeBron James, Rui Hachimura making return in Lakers’ home game vs. Bulls

• March 23, 2025

LOS ANGELES — Starting forwards LeBron James and Rui Hachimura will return to the floor tonight against the Chicago Bulls.

LeBron James remained a gametime decision as of an hour before tipoff before being upgraded to available.

The 40-year-old four-time MVP missed the previous seven games because of a strained left groin injury he suffered late in the March 8 road loss to the Boston Celtics.

James averaged 25 points (51.7% from the field, 38.4% on 3-pointers), 8.5 assists and 8.2 rebounds in 58 games of 62 games before missing time because of the groin ailment.

He and Denver Nuggets reigning MVP center Nikola Jokic are the only players averaging at least 25 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

James was also consistently playing high-level defense before suffering the groin injury.

“And LeBron with his, I literally said to him during the San Antonio game [on Monday] during a timeout, I said, ‘you know what we miss? We miss your voice on the defensive end,’” Coach JJ Redick said of Wednesday’s home loss to the Denver Nuggets. “Our communication level has gone down significantly and talk is a contagious thing. And when one guy is consistently talking, it forces everybody else to.”

Hachimura missed 12 consecutive games of left patellar tendinopathy.

He hasn’t played since the Feb. 27 home win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Hachimura averaged 13.3 points (50.6% from the field, 41% on 3s) and 5.2 rebounds in 50 games (all starts).

“We missed him on both sides of the ball,” Redick said of Hachimura. “You can’t just pinpoint one thing. He’s a connective glue for our team on both sides, and a lot of that is because of his size, his switchability, his cutting, his spacing. He’s been one of our best guys, just in terms of getting out in transition and the beneficiary of our throw-aheads.”

The Lakers went 7-5 without Hachimura and 3-4 without James.

This included a 3-3 stretch of six games in eight days that concluded with Thursday’s blowout loss to the Milwaukee Bucks – a game Luka Doncic (sprained right ankle), Austin Reaves (sprained right ankle), Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle injury management) and Jarred Vanderbilt (strained right groin) also were unavailable for.

The Lakers entered the weekend No. 3 in the Western Conference standings, percentage points ahead of the No. 4 Denver Nuggets after their road loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday.

“It says a lot about the culture we’ve created as a group and the spirit of competition,” Redick said. “The response that we got after going 0-4 on the road trip, to come back home and win three very tough games in a very condensed stretch, just our culture is solid right now.

“And culture is a fickle thing and you got to water it every day and pay attention to it. But it says a lot about the group that they were able to just get through this, plow through this and compete at a high level.”

Doncic, Reaves, Finney-Smith and Vanderbilt were available against the Bulls after being listed as probable for the matchup, which is the final game of a five-game homestand before a four-game trip that starts against the Orlando Magic on Monday.

The Lakers started Doncic, Reaves, Finney-Smith, James and Jaxson Hayes against the Bulls.

Hachimura, who was on a playing time restriction of around 20-24 minutes, came off the bench for the first time this season.

The Lakers had their full rotation available for the first time since Feb. 27 win over the Timberwolves – the game Hachimura left nearly midway through because of the knee ailment.

“We just haven’t had a lot of time with our full team available,” Redick said pregame. “We’ve had to manage this all season long no matter which iteration of this team it’s been. So I’m excited for these last 13 games to build some continuity, build some chemistry, and hopefully the way we were playing prior to the Boston game, we can kind of get back to that.

“It may not be [Saturday], it may not be Monday, but we’re a good basketball team if we’re playing the way we played for that six, seven week stretch.”

​ Orange County Register 

Swanson: Aaliyah Gayles’ iconic contribution to USC’s first-round victory

• March 23, 2025

LOS ANGELES — Things that were iconic Saturday at Galen Center:

JuJu’s bun.

USC’s fight song, “Fight On.”

And Aaliyah freakin’ Gayles.

Real ones in the USC women’s basketball team’s growing and devoted fan base know.

“I don’t feel like no one else is doing this,” said Gayles, who played her first NCAA Tournament minutes, coming on with 5:23 to go and scoring a nifty bucket – to rousing cheers – in the No. 1 Trojans’ 71-25 victory over No. 16 UNC Greensboro in the first round NCAA Tournament.

“Just being able to overcome adversity and being able to take that next step, I feel like it’s great,” she said. “I feel like I’m a superhero in people’s eyes.”

A real-life superhero, this young woman.

That’s because when Gayles was 18 years old, she was shot nine times. Or maybe 10. So many times doctors had trouble determining the exact number, though – as ESPN reported – they counted 18 holes where bullets pierced her arms and legs, shattering bones and bursting a blood vessel and leaving the promising basketball star unable to walk or grip a pencil or even brush her own teeth.

She was among the top prospects in her class of 2022, right up there on ESPN’s HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings with UCLA’s Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice and Janiah Barker. Gayles was a McDonald’s All-American and USC commit who averaged 13.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 3.3 assists to lead Las Vegas’ Spring Valley High School to the Class 5A state tournament.

On April 16, 2022, a night after she played in the Jordan Brand Classic, Gayles went to a party where an unknown assailant opened fire, hitting Gayles and three others. She was lucky to survive. And she was, doctors said, unlikely to play ball again.

In the days after the shooting, Sparks Dearica Hamby and Kelsey Plum – then members of the Las Vegas Aces – donated and promoted a fundraiser to assist the 5-foot-9 guard: “We’re here for her,” Hamby said.

And Lindsay Gottlieb – then USC’s coach for less than a year – offered this: “Aaliyah is one of the strongest, most resilient young people I have ever known.”

Gottlieb got that right.

Gayles spent painstaking months rehabbing and rekindling her hoop dreams until she was cleared to play again ahead of last season, making her college debut on Nov. 10, 2023, in a non-conference game against Florida Gulf Coast.

And then last summer in the Drew League, Gayles – who’s originally from Compton – earned championship MVP honors after scoring 14 points to lead her squad, GAGE, to a 50-46 victory.

And now, as a redshirt sophomore on this season’s star-studded Trojans team, she’s the player sharpening her and her teammates’ games behind the scenes, regularly cast as the opponent’s best player or lead guard on the scout team – a role she said she relishes.

“I take that personal,” Gayles, 21, said. “My job is to push them, talk (trash) to them and get them fired up so when they do come to … bigger games, they already know that feeling, ‘cause they got me on the court.”

And there’s obviously no challenge she’s backing down from – including taking on sophomore sensation JuJu Watkins: “I tell her every time, ‘You can’t guard me!’ ‘I’m locking this up!’ ‘I’m forcing you left!’ All that.”

“She’s a critical part of our team,” Gottlieb said Saturday, after Gayles logged five productive minutes as USC’s lead guard, running the offense, making one of her two shots and grabbing a rebound.

“I always talk to her about every step in her journey is not the last one, it’s just another one. So to see her in good health and wearing a USC jersey playing an NCAA Tournament game for our team, it’s really significant on so many levels.

“And it’s not the end of her story by any means, but it’s always good to recognize a step and say how cool it is of a point we’re at right now.”

Gayles’ very important role on this team that’s now 29-3 and marching forward in pursuit of a national championship – “a natty,” she called it – is significant and so, so cool and it does feel, well, “iconic,” to use her word.

“Many, many steps that I did have to overcome, ’cause of what I went through,” Gayles said. “(Gottlieb) told me, ‘Take it step by step, brick by brick, day by day.’ … and all the hard work, the first steps I took, the crying, ‘Oh I can’t do this’ – all that, it’s crazy, just being able to say I did it and to keep going, too.

“It is worth it, for sure.”

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County softball standings: Saturday, March 22

• March 23, 2025

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Orange County high school softball standings through Friday, March 21.

​ Orange County Register 

Letter: Katie Porter is definitely the wrong person to lead California

• March 23, 2025

“What California needs now is a little bit of hope and a whole lot of grit,” says Democrat Katie Porter in her campaign video announcing her bid to run for California governor.

Sorry Katie, but what we need is a heck of a lot more than “hope” and “grit.”

We need commonsense solutions, not more expensive liberal programs and empty promises.

We’ve had the same liberal/progressive state leadership for over a decade and where has that gotten us?

How about the 3rd highest cost of living in the country as well as the highest state income tax rate to go along with the high electricity rates.

California also has the most people experiencing homelessness in the country, as well as the nation’s highest gas prices and highest gas taxes.

Hope and Grit Katie?  No, I want solutions, not platitudes.  We need a new direction for the state, not the same old Liberal policies that have created this mess.

Chas Hamann, Yorba Linda

​ Orange County Register 

Arrow McLaren drivers sweep front row for Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix

• March 23, 2025

THERMAL — The Arrow McLaren drivers will start on the front row for today’s Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix and the Team Penske drivers will look for ways to move up in the field after a disappointing qualifying session.

Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, will start on the pole. It is the first time he won the pole for an NTT IndyCar Series race since 2022 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington. It’s also the first time Arrow McLaren drivers swept the front row since joining the IndyCar Series in 2020.

“I think we’ve been a surprise this weekend,” O’Ward said. “We want to beat the big guys. We’re still the underdogs.”

After qualifying Saturday, O’Ward was asked how on edge the cars were on this track. The IndyCar Series teams are using a new hybrid engine and they are heavier than the engines that were used in the past. O’Ward said the added weight takes a lot of the edge away.

“With all this weight in the rear, they plow like pigs,” said O’Ward, whose pole-winning lap was 1:39.9567 on the 3.067-mile course. “It’s a bit of a shame. They feel like they can go a lot faster. We really can’t get them there to that edge.”

Christian Lundgaard, driver of the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, was second and will start on the front row with O’Ward.

“It’s just important to be there when it counts,” Lundgaard said. “We were today. Let’s keep that momentum moving forward.”

Alex Palou, winner of three of the past four IndyCar Series championships including in 2023 and 2024, will start third next to Colton Herta, who qualified fourth.

The Andretti Global drivers continued their strong weekend at Thermal Club, with two cars starting in the top five. Herta’s teammate Marcus Ericsson starts fifth.

Alexander Rossi, driver of the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, will start sixth.

Palou was the top driver in the Fast 12 qualifiers, followed by O’Ward and Lundgaard, and moved on to the Fast Six qualifying session to determine the pole winner.

“I think we’re in for a treat tomorrow,” O’Ward said.

Palou was the fastest driver in the first group during qualifying at 1:39.5933. Lundgaard was fastest in the second group at 1:30.9613.

The Team Penske drivers are having a rough weekend at Thermal Club. All three drivers were in the bottom of the first group of drivers in qualifying.

Josef Newgarden was ninth in the first group. Will Power was 11th and Scott McLaughlin was 13th and last.

”I’m bummed,” McLaughlin said. “Disappointed in myself.”

Newgarden will start the race 17th, Power will start 21st and McLaughlin will start 25th. There are 27 cars entered in the race.

McLaughlin spun out before completing a lap in qualifying and was penalized to add salt to the wounds.

Rinus Veekay complained that Kyle Kirkwood interfered with him on the track during qualifying. Race officials reviewed it, determining there was no interference.

Palou was fastest in the first qualifying group at 1:39.5933. Felix Rosenqvist was second at 1:40.0628 and Scott Dixon was third at 1:40.1147.

Lundgaard was the fastest driver in the second qualifying group at 1:39.9613. Herta was second at 1:40.0622 and O’Ward third at 1:40.3884.

The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix starts at noon and will be televised on Fox.

Thermal Club brings back memories

The Thermal Club course is new, but it reminds some of the drivers of old tracks the NTT IndyCar Series used to race.

One track is Iowa Speedway. Another is Laguna Seca in Monterey, California.

The track at Thermal Club wears down tires like the one at Iowa Speedway, said Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

“I would see it like an Iowa, like an old Iowa, but on a road course,” he said after practice on Friday.

The Thermal Club track doesn’t leave a lot of room for passing either. That reminds Scott McLaughlin, driver of the No. Team Penske Chevrolet, of Laguna Seca.

“It’s going to race like the old Laguna Seca in some ways,” McLaughlin said after practice on Friday. “You will probably play that patience game a little bit.”

As the race unfolds, and tires start to wear down, McLaughlin said there will be more opportunities to pass on the track. It’s a matter of recognizing when those opportunities arise.

“It’s not as many as you thought on a big, big track,” he said. “I think with the tire degradation it will create opportunities that you may not normally pass on the same speed.”

​ Orange County Register 

Galaxy earn draw against Minnesota United

• March 23, 2025

ST. PAUL, Min. — The Galaxy rallied from a goal down to earn a 2-2 draw with Minnesota United on Saturday at Allianz Field.​

Galaxy substitute Emiro Garcés netted his first professional league goal in the 90th minute to tie the game. The goal came three minutes after Minnesota’s Kelvin Yeboah scored from the penalty spot.​

It was Garcés first professional goal in six seasons, spanning time in both MLS and Colombia.​

The goal followed a failed clearance of a corner kick by Minnesota. The Galaxy’s Miguel Berry sent the ball back toward the penalty area, finding Garcés, who sent it into the back of the net past Minnesota goalkeeper Alec Smir.​

Galaxy’s Christian Ramirez scored against his former team in the 26th minute, and the defending champions earned their second straight draw on the road after opening the season with three consecutive losses.​

Galaxy will face Orlando City SC next Saturday in Carson at Dignity Health Sports Park.

​ Orange County Register