California’s ailing power grid stymies electric shift

• April 26, 2023

In its effort to battle climate change, California is in the forefront of the nation’s effort to shift our electrical generation away from fossil fuels and toward renewable-energy production.

Yet as California rushes to achieve its climate goals of 90% “clean” energy within a dozen years, it is far behind in its need to upgrade our electrical infrastructure.

The latest news should serve as a wakeup call.

As CalMatters reported, “California officials insist that the grid can provide enough electricity” to handle millions of new electric vehicles, but “that’s based on multiple assumptions — including building solar and wind at almost five times the pace of the past decade — that may not be realistic.”

Furthermore, the state’s major utility companies — Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas and Electric — unveiled a new rate structure (in response to Assembly Bill 205) that lowers usage-based costs and increases the fixed-cost portion of people’s bills. It bases bills heavily on income levels, but incentivizes consumers to use more electricity. That will further stress the grid.

The California Independent System Operator, the regional organization that manages the electricity grid, this month released a draft report calling “for an additional 22 transmission projects driven by the state’s energy policy goals.” The ISO estimates those costs at $7.53 billion over the next decade — at a time when California is facing a $25-billion budget deficit.

This epitomizes California’s approach, which seems driven more by ideology than reality. On the same week last year that the California Air Resources Board announced a roadmap for a 100-percent EV future, the ISO cautioned EV owners not to charge their cars for several days to avoid blackouts from an overstressed grid during a heat wave.

The Los Angeles Times recently noted that “getting the ball rolling on new power lines has been especially tough” given that “getting permission to string wires over long distances … can take a decade or more.”

Our leaders need to spend less time promoting far-reaching environmental goals — and more time figuring out how we can meet them.

​ Orange County Register 

Frumpy Mom: Here’s some funny cancer stuff I didn’t make up

• April 26, 2023

Let me just tell you a little secret: Having cancer isn’t nearly as much fun as you might think.

I remember flouncing into the chemotherapy infusion room, dressed in my best cocktail attire, and waiting for the nurses to bring on the margaritas. Surprise: No margaritas. I came close to walking out, but I decided to stay and try the concoctions they offered.

Pro tip: Margaritas are better.

Finally, one week I got fed up, so I brought my own margarita. Along with the glass. The chemo nurse was rather taken aback, but she agreed to take my picture with my frozen tequila beverage. But then she only let me have a couple of swallows before she made me throw it out. I guess I should have gulped it before she got there.

Not long ago, I reconnected with a friend who’d moved away. I hadn’t seen her for years, but I heard she had cancer, so I sent her a supportive email. Well, she called me, and we ended up talking on the phone for four hours – undoubtedly the longest phone conversation I ever had with someone I wasn’t sleeping with. A good part of the time, we were regaling each other with funny stories about absurd things that happened during our cancer treatment.

So I asked my Facebook friends (you are on my Facebook page, aren’t you?) to give me their own funny cancer stories. Here are some they shared with me. (I edited for length and to remove some minor, and totally understandable, curse words.)

One Halloween, chemo left me pale, hairless, round-faced and puffy-eyed. I slipped into a white wrap robe tied with a sash to hand out “treats” and told everyone I was dressed as a Buddhist monk. One child’s father touched my smooth head to confirm that I was genuinely bald and said, “Wow, when you choose a costume, you really commit!” – Sheri

During my radiation and chemo, I was told that if I lost weight I would have a feeder tube. Oh, no. Not me. But I got chemo sick during Easter week. Deathly afraid of the morning weigh-in, I wore boots, jeans, a large belt, two blouses, a T-shirt and one or two jackets. And for good measure, I put rolled quarters in my boots, pockets and every other piece of clothing. I came in very close to my pre-chemo weight. Later, I got great pleasure in sharing that story with the radiation and chemo oncologists. – Karen

My pastor’s wife had cancer and she had just lost all her hair and was wearing a wig … People threw her a birthday party, but nobody thought to help her take the presents to the car. It was a super-windy day, and she was walking out to the car with her hands full of presents a sudden gust of wind came up, flipped off her wig, and it went tumbling with all the leaves and branches. She was running after it, with her hands, full, trying to stomp on it, like it was some kind of creature! When she told that to a room full of women, we were all rolling on the floor in church. – Teri

I had breast cancer and a mastectomy. I used the (silicon enhancer) “chicken breast” in the bra to even things out. It got interesting a few times: It migrated to the middle so that I had one large breast on the left, slipped down toward my pants so I had two widely and weirdly spaced breasts, and my favorite — fell out completely (usually in public). That last one happened several times. – Synthia

My mom had a partial mastectomy so she had a “chicken breast”. One day while she was hand-stitching something, the doorbell rang. She poked the needle into her chicken breast and answered the door with the needle sticking out of her boob. – Judye

I’d lost my hair from chemo. I always wore a wig or hats with scarves. My baldness didn’t bother me – others were unnerved and uncomfortable. I was barhopping with friends, donning my wig so we could be viewed as just some girls having fun. Bars closed and I volunteered to drive us to Naugles – why do we get so hungry after a night of cocktails?! I had stopped at a light, windows down and loudly singing along to the radio. A car full of young guys stopped next to us and massive flirting back n forth. Just as the light turned green, I yanked off my wig and waved it at the guys. We took off, I looked in the rearview mirror and they were frozen at the light with a look of total shock! We laughed until we (well, you know.) – Pam

My mom’s doctor wanted to see her in person after a mammogram follow-up. This can’t be good news, Mom. I’m coming with you. Yep, a breast cancer diagnosis. We had the deer-in-the-headlights look as we stumbled out of his clinic that day. The receptionist called out as we left, “Well, have a nice day!” My mom and I looked at each other in the hallway and just burst out laughing at the inanity of it all. That became our mantra, through thick and thin, and never failed to crack us up. “Yes, >insert some new horrible thing< … BUT, have a nice day!” – Melanie

My friend is a breast cancer survivor. When she was diagnosed, I would go to her appointments with her. She was too tired and overwhelmed to fill out the forms so every time I asked her a question on the health form – like “Do you have …” And then she, as loud as she could in the waiting room, would say “Well, I probably do now!” We would laugh so hard. – Gina

P.S. Want to meet me? Come to my next book signing at Nectar of the Dogs wine tasting room (nectarofthedogswine.com). Saturday, May 13 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Stop by to say hi, get your book signed, buy a copy of my book or just drink some wine. A portion of the proceeds go to help animals. Address: 791 Chambers Lane, Suite 110, Simi Valley. (702) 275-0482

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​ Orange County Register 

LA-Orange County homebuying at 2nd-slowest pace despite 43% March jump

• April 26, 2023

Homebuying in Los Angeles and Orange counties ran at the second-slowest March pace on record despite a noteworthy jump in closed transactions from February.

Sales totaled 7,044 in March in the two counties, according to CoreLogic. That’s up 43% for the month but down 35% for the year.

But how slow is that?

No. 2 lowest sales volume for a March in records dating to 1988
28th-smallest sales total for any month
39% below the average March sales over 35 years

Yes, some house hunters returned to the market in early 2023 despite economic skittishness and lofty mortgage rates that have cut buying power by 23% in a year. Still, sales in the six-county Southern California region in the past year fell by 37% to 15,307. The six-county median sales price fell 2.1% to $705,000.

The basics

Let’s look inside the L.A.-O.C. market, starting with March sales.

Los Angeles County had 4,935 closings, up 45% in a month but 36% lower in a year. Orange County had 2,109 sales – up 39% in a month but 34% lower in a year.

Note: A March sales bump is little surprise. Since 1988, sales have grown from February by an average 38% in L.A. and 37% in O.C.

Next, consider how prices moved.

In Los Angeles County, the $799,000 median was up 4.4% in a month but 8% off the $865,000 record high set in April 2022.

Orange County’s $990,000 median was up 3.6% in a month but 6% off the $1.05 million peak of May 2022.

Since 1988, the average March has had prices gain 3.5% in L.A. for the month and advance 2.1% in O.C.

Payment pain

Pricier financing is a factor: The 30-year mortgage rate averaged 6.5% in March vs. 4.2% 12 months earlier.

My trusty spreadsheet tells me Los Angeles County buyers got an estimated house payment that was 25% pricier – $4,057 per month on the $799,000 median vs. $3,243 on a year ago’s $832,000 home. That assumes having $159,800 for a 20% downpayment.

In Orange County, buyers got a 27% bigger payment – $5,027 monthly on the $990,000 median vs. $3,957 on a year ago’s $1,015,000 home. It takes $198,000 for a 20% downpayment.

Single-family homes

Sales: Los Angeles County’s 3,523 transactions were up 50% in a month but 33% lower in a year. Orange County’s 1,309 closings were up 42% in a month but 32% lower in a year.

Prices: Los Angeles County’s $850,000 median was up 2% in a month but 6% lower in a year. Orange County’s $1.13 median was up 6% in a month but 6% lower in a year.

Condos

Sales: Los Angeles County had 1,149 sold —  up 38% in a month but 39% lower in a year. Orange County had 561 sold —  up 30% in a month but 45% lower in a year.

Prices: Los Angeles County’s $665,000 median was up 4% in a month but 1% lower in a year. Orange County’s $710,000 median was down 2% in a month and 5% lower in a year.

New homes

Sales: Los Angeles County builder sold 176 units —  up 12% in a month but 55% lower in a year. Orange County had 234 new residences sold —  up 44% in a month but 2% lower in a year.

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Prices: Los Angeles County’s $884,250 new-home median was up 0.5% in a month and 6% higher in a year. Orange County’s $1.19 million median was down 4% in a month and 9% lower in a year.

Builder share: In Los Angeles County, new homes were 3.6% of all closings last month compared with 5.1% 12 months earlier. Orange County’s 11.1% share last month compares to 7.5% 12 months earlier.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

The $11.8 billion mistake that led to Bed, Bath & Beyond’s demise

• April 26, 2023

Bed, Bath & Beyond made plenty of mistakes that led to this week’s bankruptcy filing. Among the most consequential was the $11.8 billion it has spent since 2004 to buy back its own shares.

The company’s repurchase program wasn’t unique. But for a cash-starved business that announced it would likely be forced to close all of its stores if it couldn’t find an 11th-hour savior to buy it, the money could have been better spent. Instead, it fueled a desperate and ultimately failed effort to support its stock price.

The $11.8 billion Bed, Bath & Beyond spent on its own stock since 2004 comes to more than twice the $5.2 billion in debt it had on its books in its most recent SEC filing, a debt load that proved crushing for the company. It left the company unable to buy the inventory required to create the sales it needed to reverse losses.

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“The company’s stewardship of their capital failed,” said Declan Gargan, retail director and credit analyst who follows Bed, Bath & Beyond for S&P Global Ratings.

Pressure from shareholders

Bed, Bath & Beyond grew particularly active share repurchases in July 2014, taking on $2 billion in debt to finance share buybacks, as it started to face pressure from activist shareholders to improve the stock’s performance.

The company had carried relatively little debt to that point, and it put Bed, Bath & Beyond on a path toward a debt load that ultimately proved unaffordable.

“We understand they have the equity shareholders to serve. Generally, we would prefer to use their cash flow to invest back in business,” said Sarah Wyeth, the lead credit analyst for the consumer and retail sectors for S&P. “Even M&A would be less risky than a straight share repurchase.”

Bed, Bath & Beyond was engaged in an active share repurchase program right up until February of 2022, spending $230 million on shares in an accelerated repurchase program over the course of three months. It spent an average of $16.04 on each share.

But its efforts to support the stock price did little to help. Its stock plunged 83% last year, and another 88% so far this year before it closed at 29 cents a share on the Friday before the bankruptcy filing.

A stock repurchase blitz

Bed, Bath & Beyond’s buyback programs are hardly unique. Chevron recently announced plans to repurchase $75 billion worth of its stock with windfall record profits that came from high oil prices.

Across Corporate America, share repurchases reached a record $936 billion, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, up from $882 billion in 2021. Share repurchases are forecast to top $1 trillion this year.

And Bed, Bath & Beyond isn’t even the first retailer to spend billions of dollars repurchasing its own stock on its way to bankruptcy court. Sears Holdings, which owned the Sears and Kmart brands, repurchased $6 billion of its stock between 2005 and its 2018 bankruptcy filing.

Share repurchases are a way for companies to return cash to shareholders indirectly, without them having to pay taxes as they would on a stock dividend. The idea is that by reducing the number of shares outstanding, each remaining share of stock in the hands of investors becomes more valuable.

For example, if a company earns $100 million in a quarter, and it has 100 million shares outstanding, it earned $1 a share. If it repurchases 10 million of those shares, its earnings per share increases to $1.11, or 11%, even if its total profits don’t increase at all.

Companies can often face market pressure to do share repurchases, especially from activist shareholders. In fact the Bed, Bath & Beyond share repurchases were not enough to stop activist investors from pushing out top management of the company in 2019.

But share buybacks are also increasingly under fire. President Joe Biden, a frequent critic of share repurchases, included a 1% tax on share repurchases in the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Democrats in Congress last year.

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​ Orange County Register 

Abraham Verghese says ‘The Covenant of Water’ dips into his family’s past

• April 26, 2023

When asked to describe the south Indian state of Kerala, the word that springs to mind for Dr. Abraham Verghese is this: “Water – 44 rivers, countless streams and lagoons and hundreds of miles of waterways.” More than a decade after the publication of his previous novel, “Cutting for Stone,” these waterways are where Dr. Verghese, author and professor of medicine at Stanford University, has set his latest book “The Covenant of Water,” out May 2 from Grove Atlantic.

Water is the “defining element” of Kerala, Dr. Verghese says, which is why the central tragedy of “Covenant” is one of a family cursed by inexplicable drownings. The novel begins with the arranged marriage of the family’s matriarch, known as “Big Ammachy,” or “Big Mother,” who discovers something is very wrong with the family she’s just joined: They’ve been fighting a war with the waters of their homeland for generations.

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Geography is intentionally a character in Dr. Verghese’s books. Just as “Cutting for Stone” brought to life the Ethiopia he connected with as a child, “The Covenant of Water” takes the audience to the lush tropical landscape of Kerala, the land of his parents and grandparents.

It’s also the land of my own forebears, and where my father, uncles, aunts and cousins grew up. When I visit India on summer breaks and winter vacations, Kerala is a stop I make to see family still living at our ancestral home. Days go like this: Waking up in the tropical heat and humidity mitigated by ceiling fans in large, airy rooms; taking lazy morning and afternoon dips in the river meandering past the family house; feasting on stew and lacy pancakes called “appams”; playing card games or music outside at sunset; watching farmworkers, schoolchildren and fishermen steer “vallams,” or small wooden boats, home for the night. Every visit is a reminder of my privilege and a vital reconnection with where I come from.

Kerala is a state where education is prized and the literacy rate is, at around 94 percent, the highest in India. Politics lean left, labor unions are influential and communist parties have strong showings in elections. A well-covered topic in “Covenant” is Christianity, which has had a foothold in Kerala since St. Thomas, a disciple of Jesus, is said to have arrived there and founded several churches in the first century A.D.

A vast and epic telling of the generations who face the curse known as “The Condition,” Dr. Verghese’s latest work weaves history and medicine together to welcome readers to the home of his ancestors.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Q. Was there a specific motivating factor for setting the book in Kerala?

When my mother was in her 70s, my niece, who was five at the time, asked her: What was it like when you were a five-year-old girl? At the time, my mother was living in Florida, and trying to figure out how to answer that question for this little girl born in America. 

So she wrote it in longhand: a 100-page-plus manuscript – with illustrations, because she was very good at drawing – of familiar, somewhat exaggerated stories about our eccentric cousins and escapades and whatnot. It just reminded me how rich that geography and that culture is, and how the history of our Christian community is really quite unique and unknown to many readers. 

Q. How did you go about researching that time period, the early 1900s in Kerala and in South India?

When I used to visit Kerala as a child, which would have been the late ‘50s, early ‘60s, it was pre-electricity. The evenings were all lit by lamplight and there was no indoor plumbing – everything was well water drawn in a little outhouse. Still, by any standards, my family were very well off compared to, you know, people working for them. They weren’t very rich, but they had someone cooking and someone helping with cleaning. And so, in a funny way, I had a glimpse into what life would have been like in the pre-electricity, pre-gas stove kind of days for my grandmother and great-grandmother. 

The rest of it was a lot of research and a lot of conversations with my parents. My mother passed away in her 90s, and my dad’s still alive, and vibrant, at 96. I also had access to uncles, aunts – not that they were alive in that period, but they certainly have vivid memories of being alive in the time of British rule. India gaining independence is a very recent thing for them, it happened after they were in college. So I was tapping into that.

You might be able to appreciate this detail: I wanted to play up how readily we label people by their talents or professions in our culture. There’s “Artist Kurien” and “Engineer Babu,” and then people live up to those roles, you know? 

Q. My father likes to say he learned to swim when his father threw him in the river at age three. My sister and I were taught to swim early as well (we had actual lessons!) It’s why the “family curse” of drowning felt so devastating, like an actual supernatural curse. 

Yes, something like “The Condition” is so, so bizarre in a place where everybody learns to swim. It’s an example of something people could only describe as a family curse and never know what it was. As time goes on, it becomes clearer what “The Condition” is because you have medical advancements – better imaging and more refined autopsies and so on. 

That was also part of why I picked that particular time period (1900-1977). Not only was the world going through cataclysmic changes in World Wars One and Two, not only was India going through cataclysmic changes that culminated in Independence, but it was a tremendous period of medical advancement.

It was actually quite easy to research medicine in these time periods, because we have very vivid records in journals and elsewhere describing different conditions. And sometimes you can look at them and think, “Oh, my God, how naive they were.” Then you realize that 100 years from now, people are going to look at the way we describe certain diseases and think, “Oh, my goodness, they were so backward.” 

I think readers have an inherent interest in things medical to some degree, because what is medicine but life lived at its most extreme? 

Q. You don’t shy away from discussing caste and the inherent unfairness of it through some of your characters. 

Yeah, my desire to talk about caste was in part because of the tensions that I felt it created in our world. For example, the older generation would never have really questioned why things were how they were. Being born outside of Kerala, however, and being more exposed to the more worldly view of equality and the French idea of egalitarianism, it would chafe me to see, for instance, how some people, some servants, weren’t permitted to come inside the house. There are all these little rules that you quickly become aware of.

It’s in the very fact that we were Christians and so devout, and yet no one thought to convert the people working for us to Christianity. We left it to the Anglicans to come and do that. And even when they were converted, it didn’t erase any of the barriers. I always thought that was intriguing. I truly wanted to put myself in the shoes of people on both sides of that divide.

The funny thing is I look around America, and in some ways, it’s the same. Kids play together when they’re young, but as time goes on, one kid goes to private school, the other goes to the public school, and suddenly it’s different roads depending on what their parents’ income levels are. So it’s not as though we’re equal in America, far from it. Issues of income and race are really very, very similar to issues of caste. A book on this I found very insightful was Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste.” That was a powerful book for me.

Q. Reading this book was deeply personal for me, since I’ve experienced so much of the Kerala you describe. How do you hope readers will respond to this glimpse into a place they might never have heard of before?

I’m hoping that readers enjoy looking at a world that might feel alien to them, and yet recognize the things about family, about relationships, that are universal. 

I love the idea of introducing them to a world that they have no familiarity with. I hope that the book awakens their curiosity, maybe inspires them to travel there. More than that, I hope that they will identify with the characters, because I think the underlying lesson is that wherever you are, whatever nationality, the molecular units of a life are the same – family and relationships and marriages and lineage and privilege. It’s all the same thing. 

Live Talks Los Angeles: Abraham Verghese and Aimee Liu discuss “The Covenant of Water”

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 3

Where: William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Arts Station, 2525 Michigan Ave. #E-1, Santa Monica

Tickets/Information: https://livetalksla.org/events/abraham-verghese/

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County sending several contenders to CIF-SS diving finals in Riverside

• April 26, 2023

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

The return of the CIF-SS swimming and diving championships to Riverside begins Wednesday with the divers taking to the 1- and 3-meter springboards.

The Division 2 and Division 3 finals will be held Wednesday at Riverside City College with Division 1 and 4 set for Thursday.

Orange County could open strongly. Fullerton’s Abigail Ekstrom, a senior bound for Penn State, is the top seed in girls Division 3 and the defending champion.

Junior Isabella Chen of Cypress is seeded second.

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On Thursday, Mater Dei senior Ella Roselli, an Indiana commit, is the top seed in Division 1 girls while Capistrano Valley Christian sophomore Grant Schneider is the No. 1 seed in Division 4 boys.

The swimming and diving finals were last held in Riverside in 2019.

The swimming championships are next week.

​ Orange County Register 

Devin Booker, Suns eliminate Clippers with Game 5 win

• April 26, 2023

By DAVID BRANDT AP Sports Writer

PHOENIX — Devin Booker unleashed a torrent of offense in the third quarter rarely seen in NBA playoff history, hitting shots from every corner of the gym.

The Phoenix Suns needed just about every one of them.

Booker scored 47 points, including 25 in a spectacular third quarter, to lead the Suns past the Clippers, 136-130, on Tuesday night and win the Western Conference first-round playoff series in five games.

“It was spiritual,” Suns forward Kevin Durant said of watching Booker’s third quarter. “I don’t scream too much in games as I get older, but when he hit that (3-pointer) at the top of the key, I felt that energy and I know everyone in the crowd felt it. We feed off his aggression.”

The Clippers didn’t go quietly, nearly coming back from a 20-point deficit early in the fourth, hitting four straight 3-pointers at one point to quickly close the gap.

The Clippers had multiple chances to tie in the final three minutes, but could never convert. Durant made a layup to push Phoenix’s lead to 134-130 and then made two free throws to put the Suns up six with 31.3 seconds left.

“I think it’s a good lesson for us moving forward,” Booker said. “Don’t play with your food. Finish out as strong as you can. Keep playing all the way until the whistle blows.”

Durant finished with 31 points while Deandre Ayton had 21 points and 11 rebounds. Booker shot 19 for 27 from the field, including 4 for 7 from 3-point range.

Durant’s final free throws capped a wild back-and-forth second half that saw the Clippers take a 71-61 lead early in the third.

But the Suns – led by Booker’s stellar shot-making – unleashed a powerful wave of offense, pouring in 50 points in the third quarter to take a 111-94 lead into the fourth. Booker made 10 of 11 shots in the rally, including three 3-pointers and a tomahawk fast-break dunk.

“When he’s going like that, we’re not calling any plays,” Suns coach Monty Williams said.

Said Clippers coach Tyronn Lue: “We couldn’t stop him. We had no answer for him. We tried to blitz him, we couldn’t blitz him.”

The flustered Clippers had no answer until it was too late. Norman Powell led the Clippers with 27 points while Mason Plumlee scored 20 off the bench.

It was a tough night for Russell Westbrook, who scored 14 points on 3-of-18 shooting and had a costly turnover in the final minute, dishing a pass to Terance Mann, who wasn’t expecting the ball. Westbrook also missed a contested layup with 2:19 left that could have tied the score.

Westbrook said he was proud of the team’s effort. He added eight rebounds and eight assists.

“We stayed with our principles and kept fighting,” the nine-time All-Star said. “Kept competing. Didn’t give up on the next play and gave ourselves a chance.”

The Suns will play the top-seeded Denver Nuggets in the second round. Game 1 is Saturday in Denver.

LEONARD’S ABSENCE

The series took a turn last week when the Clippers announced Leonard had a sprained right knee. The two-time NBA Finals MVP suffered the injury in Game 1 and played through it in Game 2, but his condition worsened.

He missed Games 3 and 4 and the Clippers lost both contests. They were already playing without eight-time All-Star Paul George, who also had a sprained right knee and last played on March 21.

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But the Clippers stayed competitive despite those absences and Tuesday night continued that trend.

“We just ran up against a really good opponent,” Lue said.

HISTORIC BOOK

Booker became just the third player in the past 25 seasons to score at least 25 points in a quarter during a playoff game. The others were Damian Lillard (25 in 2019) and Allen Iverson (26 in 2001).

TIP-INS

Clippers: Had a 26-16 rebounding advantage in the first half. … Backup guard Bones Hyland scored nine points in the first half.

Suns: Backup guard Cam Payne played for the first time in the playoffs. He missed the first four games with a sore back. He played three minutes but didn’t score. … Phoenix hosted its 77th consecutive sellout, combining regular season and postseason games.

​ Orange County Register 

Ocean View baseball tops Katella in battle for Golden West League crown

• April 26, 2023

ANAHEIM — Ocean View pitcher Spencer Johnson struck out 10 and scattered five hits over seven innings as the Seahawks defeated Katella 9-2 in a key Golden West League game Tuesday at Katella High School.

The Seahawks (17-10, 9-1) clinched a share of first place with the victory and will win the league title outright if they defeat the Knights (13-11, 7-2) again when the teams play in the league finale Thursday at Ocean View.

Regardless of the outcome of Thursday’s game, Ocean View will advance to the CIF SS Division 2 playoffs as the league’s No. 1 team because the Seahawks and Knights are in different divisions.

Katella needs to defeat Ocean View to force a first-place tie and advance to the CIF SS Division 5 playoffs as the first-place team.

Segerstrom (8-13-2, 6-3) is also in the mix and can finish in a second-place tie with Katella with a victory over Westminster on Thursday and a Knights loss.

The Jaguars defeated the Lions 15-1 on Tuesday.

“He’s a third-year guy on varsity,” Ocean View coach Tanner VanMaanen said of Johnson, a senior and the returning Golden West League MVP. “He’s started multiple playoff games for us. He gives us a good quality start every, single time.”

Ocean View pitcher Spencer Johnson pitched a complete game and struck out 10 in a 9-2 victory over Katella on Tuesday, April 25. (Photo by Lou Ponsi)

The Seahawks picked up 13 hits with eight of nine starters reaching base at least once.

Seth Churchwell went 3 for 5 with two RBIs and Peyton Perry was 2 for 5 with two RBIs and a run to lead Ocean View.

Ocean View was leading 3-1 with one out in the fifth when Cole Kenrich delivered a two-run double and then scored on Evyn Lewis’ fly out to give the Seahawks a 6-1 lead.

“It’s great to see when a senior steps up and does something like that,” VanMaamen said of Kenrich’s pinch hit.

After Nicholas Moreno doubled home Daniel Viramontes in the first for Katella’s first run, Johnson retired seven batters in a row, including three by strikeout.

Johnson walked the leadoff hitter in the fourth before striking out three in a row in the inning.

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“A lot of good command and a lot of first pitch strikes,” Johnson said. “I was confident coming into this one.”

The left-hander gave up an RBI double to Viramontes with two outs in the seventh and then retired the next seven hitters to earn the complete-game victory.

Viramontes went 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored.

​ Orange County Register