Former LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley appeals her firing by Mayor Bass

• February 28, 2025

Former Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley announced on Thursday, Feb. 27, that she has formally appealed her removal by Mayor Karen Bass, escalating an already contentious political battle.

The uphill fight now shifts to the City Council, where Crowley will need support from at least 10 of 15 council members to be reinstated–an outcome that remains highly uncertain.

“Today I notified the City Council of my appeal as provided for in Los Angeles Charter, Article V, Section 5.08(e), due to Mayor Bass’s removal of me, on February 21, 2025, from the position of Fire Chief of the Los Angeles City Fire Department,” Crowley said in a statement.

Mayor’s spokesperson Zach Seidl said in a statement Thursday that “former Chief Crowley has the right to appeal her dismissal.”

After the firing, the mayor’s office said Crowley had chosen to exercise “her Civil Service rights to stay with the Fire Department at a lower rank.” However, it remains unclear what position she has been assigned, as the mayor’s office did not directly answer that question Thursday.

The move comes less than a week after Bass announced Crowley’s immediate removal and named former Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva, who recently retired, as interim fire chief.

Bass cited Crowley’s refusal to submit an after-action report on the Palisades fire as a key reason for her removal. The mayor also criticized her handling of staffing decisions, saying that when the Palisades fires broke out on the morning of Jan.7, up to 1,000 firefighters could have been on duty but were instead sent home under Crowley’s leadership.

“Let me be clear: our firefighters acted heroically during the Palisades fire, and they act heroically every single day. That is without question. Bringing new leadership to the fire department is what they and the people of Los Angeles deserve,” Bass said during a Feb. 21 press conference announcing Crowley’s removal.

Under the City Charter, Crowley has 10 calendar days to appeal her firing to the L.A. City Council. The council could overturn Bass’ action if two-thirds of the governing body – meaning 10 of the 15 council members – vote to reverse the mayor’s decision.

The political turmoil has been building for weeks, with Crowley criticizing the city and Bass firing back. In an interview soon after the Eaton and Palisades fires erupted, Crowley said the city had “failed” her and the fire department by making budget cuts that hampered firefighters’ ability to respond to the recent deadly wildfires.

Bass, meanwhile, has reportedly blamed Crowley and others, saying that if she had been properly informed about the severity of last month’s windstorms, she would not have traveled out of the country just days before the first wildfire erupted.

​ Orange County Register 

Their mosque burned down in the Eaton fire. They’re still determined to gather for Ramadan

• February 28, 2025

By DEEPA BHARATH | Associated Press 

All that remains of Masjid Al-Taqwa is a sign that bears its name.

The mosque in Altadena, which served a tight-knit Muslim community for 42 years, burned to the ground in one of the Los Angeles area’s deadliest fires in January — leaving the congregation heartbroken and without a place to pray and break their upcoming Ramadan fast together.

With that weighing on their minds, about 20 mosque members and a few connected families met on a recent Saturday at a local Islamic school to pray and share a meal, their first together since the fire. Many who came are living in motels or with family after losing their homes in the Eaton fire, which killed 17 people and scorched thousands of homes and over 14,000 acres across Los Angeles County.

With Ramadan just days a way, their volunteer imam, Junaid Aasi, had good news to share. Clad in a white robe, black jacket and prayer cap, he walked onto the plush blue prayer rugs and placed a small karaoke machine in the middle of the multipurpose room at New Horizon Islamic School.

Aasi announced the school was offering this space for four nights each week during Ramadan. There were gasps of relief, and utterances of “Alhamdulillah,” an Arabic phrase that means “praise be to God.”

Aasi said many in the community have been anxious about Ramadan and having this room, even if only for some days each week, is a blessing.

“Ramadan is not only a time when we pray and eat together, but we also help and support each other and others in the community,” he said. “This year, with so many who have lost so much, it’s going to be more important than ever.”

The imam, with a secular job as an IT professional, has volunteered at the mosque for the past 25 years. He has revisited the property since the fire. Sometimes, he says, he can still see everything the way it was when he closes his eyes.

The place where people would perform wudu — the ritual washing of hands, feet and face before coming in to pray. The thick carpets where they prayed. Copies of the holy Quran. A fig tree outside.

“I still can’t believe it’s all gone,” Aasi said.

He said many members are still displaced and hurting emotionally.

“One member just texted me that they were on their way here but stopped to check out their (burned) home,” Aasi said. They were so overwhelmed, he added, that they couldn’t bring themselves to the gathering.

Aaron Abdus-Shakoor, one of the mosque’s founders and current board president, lost his home, the building that housed his real estate business and several investment properties around Altadena. He said the mosque, which began in the 1970s as a meeting place for Nation of Islam members, evolved into a mainstream, multicultural Muslim community. It was called the Pasadena-Altadena Daawa Center until members in 1997 renamed it Masjid Al-Taqwa, which means “pious and god-conscious.”

“All these years, we’ve been good citizens,” Abdus-Shakoor said. “We’ve always kept our doors open and have tried to be a positive influence in the community.”

In the early days, the communal Ramadan celebration only happened on Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month, he said. But for many years now, members have hosted a daily community iftar, the evening meal during Ramadan, which breaks the day-long fast.

For many, the mosque has been a second home.

Salah Eddine Benatia, an Algerian immigrant, has only been in the country three months. He discovered Al-Taqwa online and had been riding the bus from Pasadena for prayers.

“I felt so warmly welcomed by this community,” he said. “I miss home a lot especially around Ramadan. I was so sad when I heard the mosque burned down. Being here gives me a sense of being with family.”

Farzana Asaduzzaman, who has lived in the neighborhood since 2016, said Ramadan at the mosque has always been “a family affair.”

“Everyone brings food, we fast, we break our fast together,” she said. “The kids would play Uno, make arts and crafts, and assemble Eid gift bags. We would put up heaters in the outside area, sit down, sip hot chai and talk for hours.”

Asaduzzaman, her husband and their three children, ages 14, 10 and 3, lost their home in the fire as well. They spent two and a half years renovating the property before it burned down.

“Our masjid may be gone and our neighborhood may be gone, but our community is strong,” she said. “This is our support system. We’ll be together for Ramadan, no matter where it is. We’ll find a place where we can see our kids run around and where we can gather and be together again.”

For Mohammed AlDajani, a second-year medical student, the mosque was a five-minute walk from his condo, which was also lost in the fire. For AlDajani, who had no relatives or friends nearby, the mosque fulfilled the need for social and spiritual nourishment.

“The masjid was actually a nice incentive for me to move here,” he said. “It’s a place that has helped ground me in this community.”

AlDajani said, unlike many mosques he has attended, Masjid Al-Taqwa’s members represent many nationalities and ethnicities — Arab, African American, Afghan, Indian, Bangladeshi, Turkish and North African among them.

“I found that very unique,” he said.

Last year was his first Ramadan in Southern California. The mosque’s youth painted a mural of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a disputed holy site that has become a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a Palestinian American, AlDajani said the community project touched him profoundly at a time when his heart was broken by the suffering of those in Gaza.

He said he learned about the Altadena mosque’s destruction even before he found out his home was gone.

“It’s just like my chest sank when I saw the images,” AlDajani said. “It was difficult because I was there for morning and night prayers every day. It was my little haven. It doesn’t feel right, having that empty space there.”

As he tries to find a place to rent, AlDajani says the mosque community has been “keeping him afloat.”

“Our prayer group still meets on the weekends,” he said. “I was anxious about Ramadan. It’s nice to know we’ll still be able to gather and pray, and this haven will still exist.”

Sakeenah Ali’s children, who attended Elliott Magnet Middle School across the street from the mosque, lost their school in the fire.

“They would hear the afternoon call to prayer from their school, which was very special,” she said, adding that she went out and saw the mosque burn and the parking lot covered in ash.

“Cars were on fire, trees were smoldering,” Ali recalled. “You could hear explosions everywhere – boom, boom.”

But she believes that her community is resilient.

“The key is to keep showing up,” Ali said. “Make sure we have our prayer time, stay connected and be consistent. We are going to rebuild.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

​ Orange County Register 

California’s fund to build student housing runs dry — leaving community colleges in the lurch

• February 28, 2025

Larissa Griffith found free housing her first semester, but it came with a catch: She was on call, 24 hours a day, including holidays, at her landlord’s farm.

In the town of Quincy, population 1,580, housing options are sparse for students in this rural community in Northern California. Demand has also grown, especially after the 2021 Dixie Fire, which tore through nearly a million acres of Sierra Nevada mountains and forest — about the size of Rhode Island — and destroyed hundreds of homes across the surrounding Plumas County.

Right after the fire, the state granted the college over $500,000 from the state to design solutions for the worsening student housing crisis, but it was a kind of “false hope,” said Carlie McCarthy, the college’s vice president of student services.

Twice, the school submitted its plans — a $74 million proposal to build over 120 beds for students — and each time, the state Legislature was unable to fund it. The state has promised to help community colleges build housing for their students, but after committing funds to 19 other community college housing projects, the state Legislature tried to delay spending the money in order to close a multi-billion dollar budget deficit. Most of those projects are still moving forward through a new financing mechanism, but the Legislature has effectively run out of money for any other projects.

Feather River College is one of 35 housing proposals that remain in limbo, with no additional state funding available. Those projects include a proposal from Mendocino College, where massive wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes in a community similar to Quincy and Santa Monica College, which submitted its proposal before the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles County.

Santa Monica College is still gathering data about the scope of the fires’ impact on students, but early estimates based on students’ addresses show that around 600 Santa Monica College students were living in an evacuation zone or within areas directly impacted by those fires, said Susan Fila, who oversees students’ health and wellbeing at the college.

College presidents across the state say the new housing projects are a long-term solution to wildfire recovery and to the state’s enduring affordability crisis, which has hit community college students hard. In study after study, researchers have found that around 20% of California community college students experience homelessness at some point over the course of a year, and many more struggle to pay rent.

The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, which oversees the state’s 116 community colleges, is asking for $1.1 billion in bond money from the state Legislature this year for affordable housing projects, though those dollars would fund just half of the outstanding proposals. The governor has until July 1 to finalize the 2025-26 budget.

Other competing budget priorities, such as LA wildfires recovery, could take precedence over affordable housing, said Wrenna Finche, the vice president of administrative services at Ohlone College in Fremont, which has failed to secure state funding for two different affordable housing proposals for its Bay Area campuses. “I wouldn’t expect a lot of movement on it this year.”

Fighting for student housing

A few of California’s rural community colleges have offered housing for decades, mostly as a means to mitigate long commutes to school. In Plumas County, some students drive over an hour — on a good day —  just to make it to Feather River College. Snowstorms and rock slides frequently close mountain roads, delaying travel even more.

Many community colleges were designed for students who live with their parents and commute to school, but those demographics are changing. Fewer students between the ages of 18 and 22 are enrolling in community college, and those who do enroll often live independently. As a result, demand for housing has grown all across the state, including in coastal areas and in other rural regions, such as the Imperial Valley.

Robinson is 36 and enrolled at Feather River College after making a career change. He’s studying ecosystem restoration and applied fire management, the only such program in the state, and wants to continue working on prescribed burns after graduation.

Griffith, 20, is a former foster youth. She moved from the Sacramento area to Quincy in order to follow her dream of running a dude ranch. Feather River College is the only school in the state to offer a bachelor’s degree program in equine and ranch management.

The campus includes horse stables, a fish hatchery and other nods to the Plumas County economy, which relies heavily on logging and outdoor recreation. To meet the needs of students like Robinson and Griffith, the college has multiple dormitories with a total capacity of about 260 students. Unlike the rest of campus, where buildings are carefully designed to blend with the  surrounding forest, most of the dorms are purely utilitarian. The buildings are bare, white rectangles, except for a few hints of student life. Cowboy boots and spurs sit outside many doorways; a dirt trail connects the dormitories to class.

Rent is around $500 a month, including utilities. Signups for the upcoming fall semester opened on Feb. 3, but two days later, registration was already full, said Kevin Trutna, the college president. By putting three beds in a single room, the college can house over 300 people, but even then, there’s a waitlist. This semester, he said over 80 students failed to get a campus housing spot.

“As a former foster youth, it’s sink or swim,” said Griffith, who received one of the coveted housing spots in a bedroom she shares with an equine studies major. “Anything I get, I had to fight for.”

By combining four different state and federal grants, plus a private scholarship, she receives more than $20,000 this year in financial aid, which is more than enough to cover the monthly rent. The housing is a significant upgrade, she said, especially compared to her foster home and the previous “free” housing arrangement.

Robinson wasn’t interested in living in a shared dormitory, which is the only campus housing available, so he found a mobile home off-campus this semester.

“I didn’t feel like I had a choice but to accept the one place that I had found, even though it wasn’t ideal,” he said.

After moving in, he spent hours shampooing the carpets and cleaning up his unit to make it livable, but he said he’s still worried it may be unsafe because of lingering mold and lack of ventilation for the stove. He pays $850 a month, but the landlord wants to move in at the end of April, so he’ll need to find a new place soon.

Finding housing alternatives through RV parks and bond dollars

After Trutna realized the state was unlikely to fund the Feather River College’s next housing development, he called Dayne Lewis, the owner of a local RV park that abuts the campus, to see if the park had additional capacity. Out of the park’s 31 RVs, Lewis said roughly half are students.

“I would fill this place completely with students but the timing doesn’t always work out,” he said. Since the Dixie and North Complex fires tore through Plumas County, many state and federal contractors have moved to Quincy, the largest city in the county, to work on rebuilding the region. Those contractors now compete with students for temporary housing, he said.

Antelope Valley College in Lancaster purchased a $9 million plot of land for its proposed housing project, but it now sits empty since state funding fell through, said Jennifer Zellet, the college president. Like administrators at Ohlone College and Santa Monica College, Zellet said she’s exploring a “public-private partnership,” in which a local nonprofit builds and operates a housing development on that land using a portion of regional bond dollars.

These partnerships are a popular but imperfect solution. In Long Beach, where the community college proposed building over 240 units, President Mike Muñoz said he won’t resort to a public-private partnership. Because housing would be run by a private entity, not a college, he said it’s common for these kinds of projects to charge students higher rent. Instead, he said the college plans to rely entirely on local bond dollars, even if that means delays on other campus projects that need bond money, such as a new training center for police officers and firefighters.

Rural parts of the state, such as Plumas and Mendocino counties, have fewer alternatives. The projects are often smaller since there are fewer residents, and as a result, the profit margins are thin, said Mendocino College President Timothy Karas. Both Trutna, the president of Feather River College, and Karas say that they have no bond dollars available.

​ Orange County Register 

Erewhon collaborates with Kacey Musgraves on smoothie to raise funds for LA Fire Relief

• February 28, 2025

Los Angeles-based luxury grocery store chain Erewhon has partnered with Grammy award-winning country artist Kacey Musgraves on their latest limited-time smoothie.

Erewhon’s smoothies became a social media phenomenon in 2022 when they teamed up with Hailey Bieber on the Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie, which has remained on their menu ever since. Part of what has drawn people in is that the price tag for each smoothie is typically around $20.

The Deeper Wellness smoothie is arguably one of the grocery store’s more complex designs, inspired by Mother Earth with the ingredients orchestrating a blend of land and sea.

The smoothie is made with Malk organic almond milk, Host Defense Mushroom Lion’s Mane, KOS organic luminous blue spirulina, Beyond Good pure ground vanilla, Erewhon sea moss, organic spinach, organic banana, organic vanilla collagen, organic chocho plant protein, organic maca, organic lucuma, organic mesquite, astrasalus, tocotrienols, organic almond butter, organic cacao nibs, organic dates, Erewhon superfood chocolate, sky blue coconut cream top, and chlorella powder, a green algae supplement from L.A.-based business Sun Chlorella.

All of that brings the grand total of the smoothie to $21.

The Deeper Wellness smoothie is available at Erewhon for February, with all proceeds being donated to Altadena Girls, a local charity that started in the midst of the devastating Los Angeles fires. Altadena Girls goal is to help teens who were displaced by the Eaton fire. It was a moment turned into a movement created by eighth grader Avery Colvert.

• Also see: Teens are finding ways to help teens after fires: Enter Altadena Girls and Altadena Boys

Culvert attends Eliot Arts Magnet Academy in Altadena, one of the many schools in the neighborhood that burned down during the Eaton fire.

She took to social media to express her gratitude for the donations her community had received. In her post, she noted the community had received many essential items such as food water and household items. She noted that one of the things her peers were missing during this time was items that would help them feel confident and like themselves again, items such as clothes, beauty and hair care products.

The post gained momentum online quickly, with celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Mindy Kaling and Charli XCX all sharing the post with their followers.

Altadena Girls has since transformed from a grass-roots campaign to gather donations for teens in the area to community effort to empower young women who lost their homes, personal items and more in the Eaton fire, noting on their site that “the challenges they face won’t end when the headlines fade.”

As for what’s next for Altadena Girls, the charity has announced that they’re branching out from free store pop-up shop for teenage girls and have found a home in Old Town Pasadena.

In a social media post, they shared that the space will provide mental health services, dance and movement classes, music practice spaces and quiet rooms to do homework in. The will also have event spaces for “connection and empowerment (and PARTIES!)”

​ Orange County Register 

UCI Medical Center patient loses left leg after undergoing routine knee surgery

• February 28, 2025

A Perris electrician who checked into UCI Medical Center in 2024 for routine knee surgery is suing the University of California Board of Regents, alleging the surgeon and medical staff made a series of reckless mistakes and misrepresentations that led to amputation of his left leg.

Wayne Wolff, 58, was scheduled to undergo a standard outpatient procedure to repair his meniscus by the hospital’s head of sports medicine and UC Irvine team doctor Dean Wang.

But during surgery, the doctor mistakenly severed and cauterized what he said was a vein, but turned out to be a main artery, according to the lawsuit, filed Feb. 11. Despite Wolff’s intense pain and the lack of a pulse in his left foot, the problem went undiscovered for days by other hospital staff until it was too late to save the leg, the suit alleged.

Also filing the suit is Wolff’s wife, Lisa, a veteran emergency room nurse who suspected something was wrong but couldn’t get staff to listen.

“I look forward to adjudicating the case in front of the court and jury, in a public trial,” said the couple’s attorney, Jeoffrey Robinson. “The public deserves the right to hear this and, simply put, this should never happen to anyone again.”

The suit alleges negligence, abuse or neglect of a dependent adult, loss of consortium and infliction of emotional distress. It seeks unspecified damages.

A spokesperson for the medical center said it had no comment on the pending litigation.

According to the suit, Wolff checked in on April 3, 2024, for the arthroscopic surgery at the hospital’s Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He does not have cancer and no one had warned Wolff of the potential for losing his limb or his life.

After Wang mistakenly cut what he said was a blood vessel, it took 35 minutes to control the bleeding, the suit said. When the surgery was complete, Wang allegedly told Lisa Wolff that he had “nicked a vein” and allegedly understated the amount of blood Wayne had lost, according to the suit.

What Wang had cut was the popliteal artery, which supplies blood to the left lower extremity.

“Plaintiffs allege that Dean Wang, MD, intentionally misinformed plaintiff Lisa Wolff of the character and severity of the injury caused during the surgery,” the lawsuit said, adding that Wang knew or should have known that the extensive bleeding indicated he had cut an artery.

Wayne Wolff was admitted to the post-anesthesia care unit to recover, unaware of the extent of the damage to his leg. Even as his pain intensified and his leg grew worse without adequate blood flow, he was not immediately relocated to an intensive care unit, but was instead moved for several days between post-anesthesia units, despite Lisa Wolff’s protestations, the suit said.

Meanwhile, Wang left for a two-day conference, turning Wolff’s care over to resident doctors who did not spot that his leg was, in essence, dying.

Wolff was in so much pain, screaming and crying, that he was put at one point on a cocktail of Dilaudid and ketamine intravenously, and Oxycodone 15 mg, to no avail. But no medical effort was made to determine the source of the pain, the suit said.

When Lisa Wolff stressed that the pain was not consistent with the type of operation her husband received, one doctor suggested he had abused narcotics at home, the suit said.

Wayne Wolf’s condition continued to worsen, his leg swelled, his skin was cool to the touch, he couldn’t move or feel his foot or toes. But his wife’s requests for an ultrasound were consistently denied, according to the suit.

Finally, two days after surgery, a doctor ordered an ultrasound — but it was later canceled by Wang, the suit said. Other doctors would not reinstate the ultrasound.

When Wolff’s sodium level dropped dangerously, his wife renewed her efforts to get him moved to an intensive care unit. After being allowed to stay overnight with her husband, Lisa Wolff was asked one night by two nurses to leave or be removed by security, the suit said.

On April 6, Wang again operated on Wayne Wolff and “inaccurately and recklessly” told his wife it was discovered that Wayne had suffered a blood clot in his artery, the suit said.

A vascular surgeon performed another surgery in an attempt to repair the leg and determined there wasn’t a blood clot but that the artery had been fully severed during the original surgery.

“Dean Wang, MD, never attended to plaintiff Wayne Wolff’s most glaring custodial care need — seeking out the source of his unbearable pain,” the suit said. “There is little doubt the use of simple imaging, such as an ultrasound, would have saved his leg. His most basic need was ignored, and recklessly neglected.”

When Wang told Lisa Wolff that her husband’s leg needed to be amputated, she asked why tests were not ordered to explore the lack of pulse or the origin of his extreme pain. According to the suit, Wang replied, “I don’t know.”

Lisa Wolff then asked Wang why he canceled the ultrasound that was ordered by another doctor.

The suit said Wang again responded, “I don’t know.”

​ Orange County Register 

After a warm week, cooling trend and rain is on the way across Southern California

• February 28, 2025

After a few days of warm weather, meteorologists expect temperatures to cool down and light rain to roll in across Los Angeles and Orange counties and the Inland Empire on Friday, Feb. 28, and through next week.

Orange County and the Inland Empire

Light and scattered showers are expected to start Friday evening into Saturday, with no chance of accumulation until around 10 p.m. Friday into the morning, said Paul Steward, a lead meteorologist with the National Weather Service San Diego. Accumulation isn’t expected to be more than a tenth of an inch.

High temperatures in the Inland Empire are expected to reach the mid-70s on Friday. In Orange County, highs could drop to the low- to mid-60s along the coast and reach around 70 degrees in the inland portions of the county.

Temperatures will continue to drop over the weekend, with high in the low- to mid-60s in the Inland Empire, and Orange County seeing coastal highs around 60 degrees and highs in the low-60s in inland cities. On Monday, temperatures could cool further, with highs in the mid- to upper-50s across the region before warming up a bit Tuesday.

“Temperatures all of next week are going to be right around the seasonal average or a tiny bit cooler,” Steward said. “From the warm temperatures we’ve had over the last couple of days, it’s going to feel a lot cooler.”

Another low pressure system is expected to move in Sunday, bringing another tenth of an inch scattered across the Inland Empire and Orange County. The rain will start with a light drizzle early Sunday, with the chance of rain increasing across the region in the later hours and into Monday morning.

Some lingering showers are expected Tuesday before another low pressure system moves in Wednesday. Meteorologists don’t yet know the timing of the precipitation Wednesday through the rest of next week.

Steward cautioned drivers to be careful on the roads Saturday, as the overnight rain could create slick conditions.

Los Angeles County

Communities across Los Angeles County can expect a “pretty sharp cooldown,” in temperatures Friday after a Thursday where highs across the area were in the 80s, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Los Angeles. On Friday, highs are expected to be in the low- to mid-70s, while weekend highs will cool to the 60s.

There’ll be an ongoing chance of rain across the county starting Friday through most of next week, Kittell said.

Some areas could see light rain Friday night into Saturday morning. About 60% of the area could see light rain pick up again Sunday. There is an additional possibility of showers Monday night into Tuesday and Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Another storm system is expected to move through Wednesday and could continue into Thursday, bringing light to moderate rain to about 70% of the area.

None of the predicted showers bring a possibility of heavy rain or flooding to the region, Kittell said.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Thursday, Feb. 27

• February 28, 2025

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

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Thursday, Feb. 27

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

The deadline for submitting information is 10:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.

THURSDAY’S SCORES

BASEBALL

NONLEAGUE

Segerstrom 2, Century 1

SOFTBALL

ONTARIO CHRISTIAN TOURNAMENT

Diamond Ranch 12, Crean Lutheran 1

MAYFAIR TOURNAMENT

Saint Joseph 12, Katella 0

NONLEAGUE

Beckman 18, Laguna Hills 1

Sonora 7, Whittier Christian 3

Trabuco Hills 14, Foothill 9

Yorba Linda 2, Esperanza 1

Pacifica 5, La Habra 2

Sunny Hills 3, Walnut 0

California 9, Kennedy 2

Tesoro 8, Segerstrom 0

Northwood 6, San Juan Hills 3

Villa Park 6, Capistrano Valley 4

BOYS TENNIS

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Northwood 14, St. Margaret’s 4

University 16, Portola 2

Woodbridge 18, Laguna Beach 0

NONLEAGUE

El Dorado 11, Servite 7

Beckman 16, San Marcos/Santa Barbara 2

Godinez 10, Century 8

Huntington Beach 10, Mater Dei 8

Yorba Linda 11, Orange Lutheran 7

Magnolia 13, Orange 5

Kennedy 13, El Modena 5

Rancho Alamitos 11, Santa Ana 7

Los Amigos 9, Garden Grove 9 (LA wins on games, 83-74)

Oxford Academy 18, Western 0

Whitney 14, Valencia 4

BOYS GOLF

NONLEAGUE

Orange 266, Katella 315

BOYS LACROSSE

NONLEAGUE

Downey 11, Segerstrom 1

​ Orange County Register 

Clippers trying to build chemistry amid roster changes, injuries

• February 28, 2025

Something seems to have changed within the Clippers.

They appear to have lost some of the chemistry and energy that put them on solid footing to start this season and in position to avoid the play-in tournament in the congested Western Conference. With a handful of new faces and minor injuries, they recently lost three games in a row for the second time this month and have picked up only one win in February against a team other than the Utah Jazz.

Gratefully, that skid ended with Wednesday’s much-needed victory against the Chicago Bulls, the first game in 26 days in which the Clippers never trailed by double digits.

“We had to win a game going back home,” Clippers star James Harden said in an on-court interview.

The Clippers have a chance to start another winning streak Friday when they face the red-hot Lakers in the first of two consecutive games at Crypto.com Arena.

So what changed? For starters, Kawhi Leonard’s highly anticipated return from knee issues on Jan. 4 disrupted Coach Tyronn Lue’s rotation and the in-game flow the rest of the Clippers had developed in the season’s first 34 games. Suddenly, the team had to solve the complexities of how to integrate the future Hall of Famer while handcuffed by his limited minutes.

Leonard had not played since their first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks last April and seeing him back on the court was cause for celebration for the Clippers and their fans.

At the time, Lue emphasized the need for caution and tamped down expectations by likening Leonard’s first several games to a preseason, maybe even a training camp. Lue said it would be a slow process.

Yet, the difference in the Clippers before and after Leonard’s return can’t be placed solely on the oft-injured star. In 16 games, he is averaging 16.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.1 steals. He missed two games this week because of a foot injury but came back to post 17 points on 6-of-14 shooting, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals in 33 minutes against the Bulls.

“I thought Kawhi was good,” Lue told reporters in Chicago. “Couldn’t really get into a real flow because of all the zone they play, but overall, I thought he did a pretty good job.”

Injuries took some of the shine off the first two months, causing Lue to juggle his lineups.

Harden missed one game because of a foot injury and Kris Dunn sat out eight games with a sore knee. Norman Powell is expected back for Friday’s game against the Lakers after missing four games because of patellar tendinopathy.

Then came the trade deadline, when the Clippers dealt fan favorite and reliable bench player Terance Mann, along with Bones Hyland, to Atlanta for guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, and acquired veterans Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills in exchange for P.J. Tucker and Mo Bamba.

They signed versatile point guard Ben Simmons as a free agent and added shooting guard MarJon Beauchamp in a trade that sent Kevin Porter Jr. to the Milwaukee Bucks. Porter had earned a stable spot with the Clippers’ second unit.

The Clippers (32-26) have 24 regular-season games to regain their health, chemistry and spark before worrying about the playoffs.

CLIPPERS AT LAKERS

When: Friday, 7 p.m.

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV/radio: ESPN, FDSN SoCal, Spectrum SportsNet, 570 AM, 710 AM

​ Orange County Register