Alexander: For UCLA’s Mick Cronin, 500 is just another number

• February 24, 2025

LOS ANGELES – Mick Cronin, at 53, is now the youngest college basketball coach to reach 500 victories. In his mind, that and five bucks might get you a tall latte if you drink the stuff.

His coaching legacy means little to him. And after Sunday’s brutal slog of a game, a 69-61 UCLA victory over Ohio State in which the teams combined to shoot 29.8 percent in the first half – that’s right, 20 for 67 – and compiled a couple of weeks worth of turnovers and bodies hitting the floor – the important things to Cronin were getting the victory and having the opportunity to honor the late Bill Walton during the day.

(No, Mick did not wear a tie-dye shirt. He did wear Walton-themed shoes, though.)

This isn’t the time to reflect on a career, anyway, with UCLA (20-8, 11-6) a half-game out of the coveted double-bye in the 15-team Big Ten postseason tournament in 2½ weeks in Indianapolis, and with NCAA Tournament seeding still in the mix.

But even if it were, for Cronin it probably wouldn’t be.

Getting to 500 “means I’m old,” he said with a laugh, though lots of us would scoff at that characterization.

“When you first start coaching, you don’t dream you’re going to be the coach at UCLA,” he said. “So for me, I got to coach at my alma mater (Cincinnati), at UCLA, and at maybe the best … job to get in the country for a first-time head coach (Murray State). You could mess up with the media. It didn’t matter. There was no media. You were not going to get railed by the Paducah Sun.

“So,” he added, “I’ve had some really, really good jobs and obviously I haven’t scored a point. So it’s really not about me.”

Mick is an acquired taste, for sure. He says what he feels, and his heart is often on his sleeve – you just knew Sunday afternoon that he would have loved to say more about the work of officials Earl Watson, Randy Richardson and Tommy Nunez, but discretion in this case is the art of not facing the wrath of the conference office.

That said, he already had a certain portion of the UCLA fan base in an uproar after Tuesday night’s 64-61 loss to Minnesota, when he roasted his players publicly for not following the scouting report and “worrying about the wrong things,” and voiced frustration over the fans’ groans every time the Bruins missed a free throw that night. (Which happened a lot.)

We see, and react, to those moments, as some letter writers (and, admittedly, some of us in the media) did. But the main issue is whether his players accept that hard coaching and criticism, and the lessons that are meant not only for getting a group of players to March Madness but setting them up for life beyond UCLA.

It’s not for everybody. But the guys who understand it, and take the lessons to heart, stand to eventually benefit.

“He taught us a lot about how the real world works,” said junior guard Skyy Clark, a transfer from Louisville.

“He’s definitely tough on us. Some days we walk into practice and he’s just on us the whole day. But if I really sit back and look at it from a different perspective, you can tell he cares about us and he’s looking out for our best interests.”

And, added Eric Dailey Jr., a sophomore transfer from Oklahoma State, “He teaches us a lot of lessons that don’t apply to basketball, a lot of real life situations. I know y’all, some of the media, (talk) about how he coaches and everything, but that’s real. He’s just a real coach, a real person, and that’s really what you need to survive in this real world.

“He’s taught us to save money, taught us how to manage money, taught us how to be a good person through basketball. Just the discipline side of it, he yells, but everything in the world’s not going to be nice and pretty. That’s making us tough for the real world.”

As Cronin put it, he’s not worried about the blowback, and he’s not really worried about what players think of him now.

“I worry about when Skyy and Eric are 28,” he said. “Are they going to say that I cared about them enough to be hard on them and try to teach them right from wrong?

“Sometimes I say stuff I shouldn’t say. I’m well aware of that. I can be too hard on them, OK? But I’d rather err on that side because I wake up worried about what they think when they’re 28, not when they’re 18. ‘When you’re 28, what was Mick Cronin all about? Did he let me do things I shouldn’t have been doing just because I was scoring points for him? Or did he sit me down and try to change my ways as a man?’

“And to me, that’s way more important than winning 500.”

He puts public reaction in the same basket as thoughts of that coaching legacy, to be stowed in the corner.

“Jeff Van Gundy (former Knicks and Rockets head coach and currently a Clippers assistant) said this, and he’s somebody I have great respect for … he said: ‘Legacy is the most overrated thing in life,’ ” Cronin said.

“The all time win leader’s Mike Krzyzewski on the men’s side. I would think he would be more concerned with what they say about what kind of father he was, what kind of person he was, than how many games he won. Because I got news for you, okay? There’s a lot of government people in the last week or so that have had their jobs taken from ’em, by our own people. There’s a lot of people that could care less that the Bruins won today.

“… I just think legacy is overrated.”

But here’s an indication of what does matter: The three UCLA players who came to the interview room, Clark, Dailey and Aday Mara, all wore T-shirts commemorating No. 500. To them, it was important.

[email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ top prospect Caden Dana learns from brief big league experience last year

• February 23, 2025

TEMPE, Ariz. — When a player gets a “taste” of the big leagues for the first time, it’s often a mixed bag.

The player needs to gain the confidence that he can compete in the majors. Often, he also learns what he needs to improve in order to stay in the majors.

Caden Dana’s three-start cameo in the big leagues last September was all of the above. Dana, the Angels’ top pitching prospect, was just 20 years old when he shot from Double-A to the majors.

Dana won his first start, throwing six innings, and he was rocked in his next two.

This spring, Dana is still a significant piece of the Angels’ long-term plan, and he’s still well regarded enough that he’s still the consensus No. 1 prospect in the organization, and a top 100 prospect in the sport.

“Things didn’t go my way, but I took a lot of things from it,” Dana said, with a winter of reflection to put last September into perspective. “Like slowing the game down, not trying to get too sped up.”

Dana admitted that his confidence was shaken, but not broken.

“Getting hit around, definitely affected me and my confidence,” he said. “Not to where it was fully depleted. It’s still there.”

Little went wrong for Dana in his pro career up until that point. The Angels took him in the 11th round of the 2022 draft out a New Jersey high school. He signed for nearly $1.5 million, which was a record for an 11th-round pick.

Starting the 2024 season in Double-A before he was old enough to buy a beer, Dana posted a 3.05 ERA in 23 starts, with 147 strikeouts in 135 ⅔ innings.

He skipped Triple-A — as Angels top prospects often do — to get to the big leagues.

After his first start against the Seattle Mariners, in which he allowed two runs on two hits in six innings, Dana did not fare so well.

The Texas Rangers hammered him for three runs in the first inning, and two more in the second. He was pulled without recording an out in the second.

A week later, the first three innings against the Houston Astros went well, but he gave up four runs on four hits in the fourth.

“In the Houston start, I felt really good,” Dana said. “It was probably the best I felt in a long time. … In that fourth inning, I kind of let the game speed up on me.”

Dana said two of his points of emphasis this winter were to improve his changeup and throw more curveballs for strikes.

Early in the spring, he impressed manager Ron Washington with his ability to be around the zone in live batting practice. In his Cactus League debut on Saturday, Dana gave up three runs in 1 ⅔ innings. He walked two and hit a batter.

“He’s out there still learning,” Washington said after Saturday’s game. “You could see it today. He just didn’t have command like he did the first two times he threw in live BP. He’s learning. But what I like about him is he’s out there competing.”

Dana is in the mix for a rotation spot coming out of spring training, but he’s most likely behind right-hander Jack Kochanowicz, left-hander Reid Detmers and right-hander Chase Silseth. Even if he doesn’t open the season in the majors, he will continue to be a candidate to come up any time the Angels need a starter.

Washington said the evaluations for that spot will mostly be made after a couple outings.

“After they get to about the third start, you start paying attention to things, and then you start having them face more of a big time lineup, and start deciding things like that,” Washington said.

GOOD START

Left-hander Garrett McDaniels impressed Washington with his perfect inning in his spring debut on Saturday.

“He was sharp,” Washington said on Sunday. “Had a good sinker. Had a good breaking ball. He pounded the strike zone. He made good quick work of the guys he faced, and he faced some good hitters. So let’s see where it goes the next time he gets the ball.”

McDaniels is a Rule 5 pick from the Dodgers, so the Angels have to offer him back if they don’t want to keep him in the majors. Because of the importance of making a quick evaluation of him, the Angels are likely to use McDaniels early in spring training games, so he can face major league hitters.

McDaniels has only pitched two games above Class-A. He had a 3.19 ERA with 84 strikeouts and 29 walks in 73 ⅓ innings last season.

NOTES

Infielder Luis Rengifo has been slowed by an illness early this spring. He was participating in workouts on Sunday morning, but he won’t play in a game until Friday, Washington said. …

Mike Trout is still scheduled for his spring debut on Monday. He will play right field.

​ Orange County Register 

Give students a chance, revive the parent trigger law

• February 23, 2025

Just over a decade ago, parents and students trapped in failing schools had a way out, known as the Parent Empowerment Law. 

Unfortunately, the law was murdered in the dark and has been almost entirely forgotten. 

Under this bipartisan law, authored by then-Sen. Gloria Romero, parents meeting certain requirements could pull the “trigger,” which could be used to compel action from a school or district to either replace half the school staff, replace the principal, close the school and transfer children to other schools or convert the school into a charter school.  

The law was popular in impoverished areas where schools had failed generations of students. But a bureaucratic tweak by unelected bureaucrats backed by teacher unions that hated both the trigger law and charter schools circumvented the Legislature and rendered the law null and void.

The law was only around for approximately seven years, which was not long enough for many schools to trigger. The process itself took a while and was met with formidable resistance, but in that short time there were some major success stories.

In 2015, parents of students at Anaheim’s Palm Lane Elementary School submitted a petition to convert the failing school to a charter. Around that time, a mere 19% of its students met English standards while just 12% met math standards. 

After a lengthy court battle, the transition was allowed to move forward and it became the Palm Lane Global Academy. Today its students’ proficiency rates have improved substantially.

Parents of 20th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles used the trigger to demand less drastic changes in 2016. In the 2014-15 school year, only 19% of students met standards in both English and math. Today those scores have improved substantially as well. 

While it was as obvious then as it is now that the status quo is not working, the education establishment has resisted change. In the 2013 documentary We the Parents about parents’ effort to trigger McKinley Elementary School in Compton, which was the first effort of its kind, the president of an influential teacher union explained in the most condescending terms that parents aren’t teachers and are therefore unqualified to assess a school’s problems.

“You don’t let the patient decide what the doctor is going to do,” said Marty Hittelman, the then-President of the California Federation of Teachers. “It would be silly to think that anyone could be educated enough, or the general public could be educated enough, to decide what doctors should do and shouldn’t do. But yet they feel like they can do that in education.”

I don’t know where Marty gets his medical treatment, but in most places doctors aren’t roaming the streets performing surgeries without the patient’s consent. But that’s a minor point – his broader point is equally flawed. 

Envision a scenario where patients in need of medical attention were required to go to their local hospital only – they had no other choice. And the success rate was 10%, which was near the math and English language proficiency rates of McKinley around that time. Wouldn’t it be “silly” to think patients needed to know more about medicine in order to accurately assess that the hospital was awful? 

Sadly, as absurd as Hittelman’s attitude was towards parent empowerment and protecting the status quo, it was not an outlier. This is the prevailing attitude of California’s education establishment.  

In May of 2021, when students, parents and schools were scrambling to adapt during COVID shutdowns, parents of students in Los Angeles Unified School District sued the district to reopen schools in-person to honor its constitutional requirement to provide an education. Attorneys for LAUSD responded by arguing there was no legal right to an education of “some quality.” 

In other words, parents should shut up and be happy with whatever they get. 

That’s the drop-dead attitude the parent trigger law sought to combat. It gave parents the power to demand better for their children. It wasn’t a perfect solution by any means, but it was still a solution. As Ben Austin, one of the main proponents of the parent trigger law, told me, the “underlying theme was that the law served a constituency with no power.”

The requirements to trigger were straightforward. They included a requirement that at least 50% of affected parents supported the effort and that schools had failing Academic Performance Index scores for at least 3 years. The API was a measurement that included scores from various state tests of student performance.

But in 2015, the California Board of Education decided to scrap the API scores in favor of a new school dashboard. This made triggering impossible because it was predicated on unacceptable API scores. 

It’s impossible to say if the state fled from the API scores as a way to get rid of the parent trigger law. But it’s safe to say many in the education establishment were pleased that that was a result. 

Too many students and parents are trapped in school districts that are failing. When 57% of students statewide can’t meet English standards and 67% can’t meet math standards, there is a problem. A significant problem. A persistent, intractable, break-in-case-of-emergency kind of problem. 

Absent spending significant time and money to hire tutors and enroll in after school learning programs to do the job too many schools can’t, students and parents have few options. With no school choice, they can either move or they have nowhere else to go. 

It’s time for lawmakers to give students and parents a fighting chance and revive the parent trigger law.

Matt Fleming is the communications director for the Pacific Research Institute, a Pasadena-based think tank promoting free-market policy solutions. 

​ Orange County Register 

Dog Haus partners with internet food star for new cheesy burger

• February 23, 2025

The Dog Haus burger and hot dog chain is banking on some big appetites as it once again has partnered with social media food personality and podcast host Josh Elkin for a decadent new burger dubbed the Big Hac.

Available through March 31, the double-layer burger is stacked with six ounces of Angus beef that’s smashed and grilled and topped with white American cheese, lettuce, pickles and onions and doused in a secret sauce, all between a sesame seed bun. But that’s not all because things get really cheesy with this new dish since there’s also a grilled cheese sandwich in the middle of this massive burger.

“Josh’s ability to reinvent comfort foods fits perfectly with what we do at Dog Haus,” said Raz Mahrouk, Dog Haus executive VP of operations, in a statement. “The Big Hac takes an already great burger and makes it unforgettable. This creation’s got everything — cheesy, savory, crispy — and the grilled cheese in the middle is a game-changer,” the statement continued.

Elkin, who has more than 1.3 million Instagram followers, is the former chef of the OG “Epic Meal Time” series on YouTube and host of the “Full DisCOURSE” podcast, previously collaborated with Dog Haus to create Hot-N-Ranchy Corn Dog that was made with crispy root beer-battered all-beef dog and hot spices.

The Big Hac is available at all Dog Haus locations and big eaters should be on the lookout for more temporary dishes since Dog Haus has plans for more projects with Elkin this year, according to a release.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers’ Dustin May makes emotional return to game action

• February 23, 2025

GLENDALE, Ariz. – When Dustin May struck out Oscar Gonzalez to end the first inning of Sunday’s Cactus League game between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres, the tall redhead spun off the mound, raised his hands to the sky and then buried his face in his hat as he walked to the dugout.

It had been a long time. May hadn’t pitched in a game since May 2023 and much had happened to him since. He had a second elbow surgery, this time to repair the flexor tendon and complete a Tommy John revision, and he had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery last July when he tore his esophagus.

May wasn’t sure he would ever get the chance to pitch again.

“It felt amazing just to be back,” he said. “A huge, huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, it feels like. Just getting back in the dugout afterward – even if it wouldn’t have been a clean inning – just getting back in the dugout and feeling good and being here, it was really, really heavy.”

All of that was running through his head as he left the mound – but one thought, in particular.

“I’m alive. I’m glad I’m here,” he said, adding that it felt “like a new beginning.”

After spending five hours in surgery, 11 days in the hospital and weeks on soft food causing him to lose 40 pounds after last year’s torn esophagus, it would also be a relief to May if he could just focus on pitching going forward.

“(Shoot), I hope so,” he said with a smile. “I don’t know what else I need to do, but I really, really hope that this is just pitching from now on forward.”

He ran into trouble out of the gate, giving up an infield single then hitting the second batter. But he rebounded to get a ground ball for a double play and the strikeout of Gonzalez. May threw 15 pitches, touching 95 mph with his fastball – a step down from the 97.7 mph he has averaged throughout his career.

“Velo for me right now, I don’t really care about it at all,” he said. “Just glad to be here. … if it goes up, it goes up. If it stays there, I’m going to be just fine. As long as I’m throwing strikes with everything, everything’s gonna be fine.”

The rest of his pitch mix – including a slider he has started to throw with a new grip – is “back to normal,” May said.

“All the shapes and metrics and releases and everything are back to normal,” May said.

Pitching coach Mark Prior gave the same report.

“The heater is very similar. It’s definitely some sink and a lot of run,” Prior said. “He’s tweaked his – let’s just call it (his) slider grip. Same sweep, but it’s got a little bit more depth at times. But his stuff is relatively the same.

“Bullpens are one thing and games are different, but for the most part, it’s still pretty electric and pretty unbelievable what comes out of that arm.”

Had he returned from his second elbow surgery on time last year, he would have slipped right back into the Dodgers’ starting rotation. But they have acquired an entire rotation since he last pitched in the majors. Returning starters like May and Tony Gonsolin (plus candidates like Bobby Miller and Landon Knack) will have to fight for a place now.

“They’ve handled it really well,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the group of young starters). “Kind of where their mindset is right now is to take care of their own business, to pitch well. And as we get further on in spring training, it gets a little bit more anxious, obviously, but I hope that they can all keep that same mindset, because things can change in an instant, but the things that they can control is most important, and it’s kind of part of being a part of this organization. There’s just a lot of talent, a lot of depth, but each guy is going to be called on if they’re healthy and they perform.”

That’s fine with May whose confidence remains intact. “I’m good enough to be at the top of any rotation when I’m healthy,” he asserted earlier in camp. He was asked again to speculate on what his place might be in this group of Dodgers’ starters.

“I’m just here for the ride,” he said Sunday with another smile.

WORKING IN

Rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki was scheduled to throw a bullpen session during Sunday’s workout but he did it inside “The Lab” instead. The Lab is the large indoor facility next to the main training building. It houses state-of-the-art technology to track biomechanics and assorted metrics of both hitting and pitching workouts.

“We threw him in a cage and got some technology on him, just to kind of get a baseline for him,” Prior said of the approximately 30-pitch session. “It’s something that we do with all of our pitchers, all the way through, up and down through the organization. That’s the beauty of that big building.”

Sasaki is scheduled to see his first game action since joining the Dodgers on Tuesday. But it won’t be in a Cactus League game yet. He will pitch in a “B” game against minor-leaguers from the Chicago White Sox camp on one of the minor-league fields.

“We have a lot of guys that we’re building up and given different rest intervals that these guys have, guys are gonna fall on top of each other on certain days. And so we have to figure out ways to get people innings,” Prior said. “So you’re going to see starters pitching behind starters that you don’t normally see, or we wouldn’t normally do if we weren’t leaving in a couple weeks, where we could space some guys out.”

Tony Gonsolin will be the first of those “piggy-back” starters, Prior said. Blake Snell will start the Cactus League game Tuesday.

ALSO

Shohei Ohtani took live batting practice against minor-league right-hander Nicolas Cruz during Sunday morning’s workout. Ohtani saw 32 pitches and put three in play (none over the fence). Roberts said Ohtani is “still on track for the end of next week” to start DHing in Cactus League games.

​ Orange County Register 

Kings look to keep streak alive as Golden Knights come to town

• February 23, 2025

The Kings have captured nine of their last 10 possible points in the standings and will put their five-game points streak on the line against the Pacific Division leader when they welcome the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday.

Vegas had won just two of 11 games before they entered the 4 Nations Face-Off break with a pair of victories. They extended that string against Vancouver on Saturday, when the Kings pushed past Utah HC in a game that featured a mix of enthusiasm and resilience, albeit not their most crisp or clean effort.

That affair saw Kevin Fiala bring his scoring outburst from before the pause into the stretch run with a goal and assist, while Drew Doughty appeared to go from uncertain footing to perfect balance after winning gold with Canada mere weeks after returning from ankle surgery. He notched two assists and his first goal of the season. He put a second puck past the goalie, only to be thwarted by the intersection between the post and crossbar.

“I thought Drew was as good as I can remember, even going back to last (season), that would have been one of, probably, his top 10 games,” Coach Jim Hiller said.

With Mikey Anderson returning from his upper-body injury, the Kings dressed seven defensemen rather than scratching 2021 lottery pick Brandt Clarke as they had done during Doughty’s first two games back prior to Anderson’s injury.

Yet Clarke played just 5:15 on Saturday and didn’t see the ice in the final 26 minutes of the match. Hiller was asked if despite the Kings’ ostensible win-now focus he might be concerned that such a lack of playing time could harm Clarke’s development.

“I don’t think I would use the word ‘harm,’ but we don’t want Clarkie playing five minutes a night, that’s for sure. That’s not good for a young player at all,” HIller said. “So what’s better? What are the alternatives?”

Despite racking up seven power-play points early in the season, Clarke has since languished behind Jordan Spence (three power-play points in nearly a full campaign to date), mainstay Doughty and even lost opportunities to a five-forward unit. He’s shown the ability to make game-changing plays in the offensive zone, but has had to operate from the periphery rather than being treated as a core piece thus far.

His typical partner, Joel Edmundson, was paired with Doughty on Saturday for the first time, and Doughty said he made it a point to tell Edmundson right after the game that he “loved playing with him.”

Just as delightful for Doughty might be the high level of competition strolling into town.

Vegas will have a healthy Alex Pietrangelo, whom Doughty replaced at 4 Nations, but not Shea Theodore, Doughty’s Canadian teammate who injured his wrist during the tournament. Theodore is expected back at some point in 2024-25, but perhaps not until the postseason. Vegas was already without another key component, center William Karlsson, who missed his selection to Team Sweden because of a lower-body injury. Former Kings winger Tanner Pearson returned to action on Saturday for Vegas, playing for the first time since Feb. 2.

Leading scorer Jack Eichel (United States) and captain Mark Stone (Canada), two of the West’s top two-way players, were also central to the 4 Nations event, with both competing in the final and playing significant roles for their countries.

​ Orange County Register 

David Bote, Kody Hoese lead Dodgers’ 8th-inning rally for first spring win

• February 23, 2025

THE GAME: The Dodgers scored five times in the eighth inning to break open a tie game and beat the San Diego Padres, 8-3, Sunday afternoon at Camelback Ranch in Glendale.

HITTING REPORT: David Bote drove in one run with a single, Kody Hoese followed with a three-run double and Griffin Lockwood-Powell drove Hoese in with a double in the eighth-inning rally. … Bote was 2 for 2 Sunday and has started the spring 5 for 6. … Outfield prospect Zyhir Hope continues to shine. He drove in two runs with a double in the second inning. … Hyeseong Kim’s first Cactus League hit was an infield single in the fourth inning, his fifth at-bat of the spring. He also reached base on a walk and struck out.

PITCHING REPORT: Dustin May saw his first game action since May 2023 – before a flexor tendon repair and Tommy John revision later that year and an emergency surgery to repair a torn esophagus last July. He gave up an infield single and hit a batter but then got a double play and a strikeout to end the scoreless inning. He threw 15 pitches and touched 95 mph. … Non-roster right-hander Giovanny Gallegos gave up two runs in his inning on three hits including a double to deep center field by Ethan Salas. … Right-hander Matt Sauer (two innings) and left-hander Jose Hernandez (one) combined to retire nine consecutive batters in their three innings of work.

DEFENSE REPORT: Kim entered the game in the fourth inning at shortstop, replacing Betts, then moved to center field in the seventh.

PITCHER INJURED: For the second time in three games at Camelback Ranch, a pitcher was hit by a line drive. Padres right-hander Cole Paplham was hit in the face by a 102.4 mph line drive off the bat of Dodgers minor-leaguer Aaron Bracho in the eighth inning. Paplham was taken away for treatment. Dodgers right-hander Bobby Miller was hit in the head by a line drive during Thursday’s game. He suffered a concussion.

“It’s very, very coincidental,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It actually doesn’t happen very often. For it to happen twice in three games is scary.”

UP NEXT: Dodgers (RHP Tyler Glasnow) vs. Cincinnati Reds (RHP Carson Spiers), Monday at Goodyear Ballpark, 12:05 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA

​ Orange County Register 

Analysis: The Lakers’ strategy to contain Nikola Jokic worked in win over Nuggets

• February 23, 2025

DENVER — Like most of the all-time NBA greats, no player or gameplan can “shut down” Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic – a three-time MVP who’s again being considered for the award after winning it last season.

You can only hope to slow him down or limit his effectiveness.

Lakers coach JJ Redick acknowledged this on Saturday before his team matched up against Jokic’s Nuggets at Ball Arena.

“You try to limit his touches, that’s what it comes down to,” Redick said. “But he’s so big, he’s so smart [and] can really play angles well off-ball to get the ball. It’s hard.”

Redick added: “We have our gameplan and we think we can execute a gameplan. Doesn’t guarantee victory. He’s seen everything. I’m confident with the group we have.”

His pregame words foreshadowed what happened in his team’s 123-100 victory over the Nuggets on Saturday.

The Lakers executed their defensive strategy for Jokic – which was similar to their gameplan when defending Karl-Anthony Towns in their Feb. 1 win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden – at a high level.

The result was Jokic having one of his worst performances of the season: 12 points on 2-of-7 shooting – the second-fewest points he’s scored in a game this season – to go with 13 rebounds and 10 assists for a triple-double. Jokic also had six of the Nuggets’ 22 turnovers, which led to 39 Lakers’ points.

“There was a similarity just in terms of the messaging around what we were willing to live with,” Redick said of the gameplan against Jokic, comparing it to the ones against Towns.

The success of the Lakers’ defense against the three-time MVP started well before he’d even have the ball in his hands.

The Lakers tasked with guarding Jokic – primarily Rui Hachimura, but also LeBron James, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Dorian Finney-Smith – were physical with him as soon as he crossed halfcourt. And Vanderbilt even met him in the backcourt.

The goal was to limit Jokic’s touches, which the Lakers accomplished.

The box score doesn’t directly show the times the Lakers successfully fronted Jokic, forcing the Nuggets to go in a different direction with their offense. Or when the Lakers disrupted pass attempts to Jokic that led to turnovers or other Denver players catching the ball. But both happened often.

The Lakers held Jokic, who entered the weekend leading the NBA in frontcourt touches with 56.6 touches, to 43 frontcourt touches on Saturday. He possessed the ball nearly a third less of the time on Saturday (3.1 minutes) than he did entering the matchup (4.5 minutes) and held the ball for shorter periods when he did have it.

Once Jokic crossed halfcourt, his defender would front him in the post – standing between Jokic and the perimeter player who had the ball – to prevent Jokic from posting up on the block/low post. “Just [don’t] give him an easy touch,” Rui Hachimura said of the gameplan against Jokic.5/

— Khobi Price (@khobiprice.bsky.social) 2025-02-23T22:46:42.726Z

“The difference was really just [fronting] Jokic as soon as he crossed halfcourt and then just relying on that secondary defender on the backside to take away the over-the-top pass,” Redick said. “They got some of those cuts off of it. Also created some turnovers off of it and got the ball in other guys’ hands off of that when he did catch the ball.

“We executed that well.”

Once Jokic crossed halfcourt, his defender would front Jokic in the post – standing between Jokic and the perimeter player who had the ball – to prevent Jokic from posting up on the block/low post.

“Just [don’t] give him an easy touch,” Hachimura said of the defensive gameplan against Jokic. “Once he gets in halfcourt, I gotta be on him literally the whole time. It was a great gameplan and as a team, we did a good job executing.”

And once Jokic caught the ball in the low post, the Lakers not only regularly sent help and double teams, but were consistently intentional in how they sent help toward Jokic in the post.

The Lakers consistently doubled Jokic by having the second/help defender coming from the baseline – a tactic called “tilt”, which Redick and James ironically discussed on the second episode of their old podcast, “Mind The Game”.

It was their most frequent and effective strategy for doubling Jokic. Two of Jokic’s giveaways came after the Lakers sent help/doubled from the baseline and made weak-side help rotations.

Once Jokic got the ball in the post, the Lakers were consistently intentional in how they sent help/double teams toward Jokic in the post by having the second defender coming from the baseline.It was their most frequent and effective strategy for doubling Jokić.6/

— Khobi Price (@khobiprice.bsky.social) 2025-02-23T22:46:42.727Z

This doesn’t include Jokic’s final turnover of the game, and the Nuggets’ 20th, when he made a bad pass out of a post-up against Hachimura while Jaxson Hayes was coming over on the baseline to help but Jokic made the pass before Hayes’ arrival. The turnover led to a Luka Doncic circus shot that put the Lakers up 117-97 with 4:15 remaining – putting the game out of reach for the Lakers’ first win in Denver since April 2022.

The timing of when the Lakers sent their doubles mattered. When they weren’t facing a mismatch with Jokic posting up a guard, the Lakers usually sent a help defender toward Jokic after he dribbled, forcing Jokic to either pick up his dribble, pass or shoot instead of having time to survey the Lakers’ defense.

Denver, notably, didn’t post up Jokic as much on the blocks via passes from teammates in the second half. He operated from the perimeter or elbows more often after halftime – a win for the Lakers since this meant Jokic was operating further away from the basket. But this also made it more challenging for the Lakers to send help when Jokic had the ball.

The Nuggets occasionally had success against the Lakers’ defense when they doubled Jokic, especially when the Lakers didn’t send the second defender from the baseline or didn’t fully commit to double-teaming. Denver players also created their looks with the space the Lakers conceded to prevent Jokic from catching the ball or getting it in his sweet spots.

But the Lakers were mostly willing to live with what they allowed, leading to the Nuggets having their fifth-worst offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) in a game this season at 106.7, according to Cleaning The Glass, significantly lower than their season-long mark of 121.3.

“That was elite,” Vanderbilt said. “We talk about putting it together for 48 minutes, as far as sticking to the gameplan and even when the gameplan didn’t go our way, like when [Aaron] Gordon and [Russell Westbrook] hit some shots, and we didn’t steer away from the gameplan. We stayed with it.”

The Lakers were encouraged by their ability to execute at a high level in their quest to being a great team and competing amongst the league’s best.

“In order for us to be successful, in order for us to win ultimately long term, we have to trust our gameplan, we have to trust and be dialed in on attention to detail,” James said. “We have the personnel now that we can really lock in on a gameplan and really lock in and be super strategic about how we want to execute offensively and defensively. That was great to see.”

​ Orange County Register