From Los Angeles Times

  • Lakers eliminated by Nuggets in Game 5 on Jamal Murray's final shot

    Did LeBron James play his last game for the Lakers? The Lakers’ season ended Monday night after a 108-106 loss to the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena in Game 5 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series, at which point nothing bound James to the team. James, 39, can decline his $50.4-million option for next season. The choice will say more about the priorities of the 39-year-old James than the state of the Lakers. In James’ six seasons with the Lakers, they have been eliminated in the...

  • Dodgers shine with strikeout-free plate performance in win over Arizona

    The Dodgers sent 44 batters to the plate Monday night. They struck out a grand total of zero times. In an 8-4 win that featured 10 hits, eight walks and the Dodgers’ seventh victory in their last eight games, the most important number was zero. As in the club’s first game of zero strikeouts since August 2006. In what just the fifth such game by any MLB club since 2017 (the other four all occurred last year), the Dodgers instead heeded manager Dave Roberts’ signature advice to “move the ball...

  • Plaschke: Lakers stuck in mediocre hell with no hope in sight after season-ending loss

    Sigh, scream, here we go again, same Lakers ending, same Lakers failure, same two tiresome words. What now? For the 13th time in 14 seasons, the Lakers have fallen far short in their bid to pile on another NBA championship, and, man, is this getting old. The latest quest ended Monday night with a 108-106 loss to the Denver Nuggets that cemented a four-games-to-one, first-round series defeat while resurrecting another version of the same old query. What next? What can the Lakers do to change this...

  • Sisters lead El Camino Real to City Section beach volleyball title

    What a senior year it has been for El Camino Real volleyball player Audrey Choi. In the fall, she was an outside hitter on the Royals’ indoor volleyball team that captured the City Open Division championship. On Saturday, Choi and freshman sister Addison won the City girls' beach volleyball pairs tournament. On Monday she completed the “trifecta” by leading the Royals to the beach volleyball team crown in Santa Monica. “It’s been everything I could’ve asked for, really,” Audrey said. “Indoors...

  • Athletics hire investment banker to secure $500 million in private financing

    The Oakland Athletics have taken another significant step toward Nevada, retaining a major player in sports finance to broker a deal intended to provide team owner John Fisher with $500 million toward a new ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip. Nevada legislators last June approved $380 million in public funding toward the estimated $1.5-billion cost of the ballpark, with the A’s responsible for the balance, but access to the public money requires disclosure of a financing plan for the balance of the...

  • Jim Harbaugh's new approach brings back Chargers legend Nick Hardwick to coach

    For someone who once thought he’d never coach, Nick Hardwick found himself in the strangest of places: Sitting in an Indiana high school, as midnight approached, breaking down film. “I was getting four hours of sleep a night,” he recalled Monday, “and I was like, ‘Well, if I’m doing this for free and actually donating money, why would I not do this at another level, one that I’m more familiar with?’ ” That’s part of what led Hardwick back home, to the Chargers, the former Pro Bowl center now an...

  • Tyronn Lue helping Clippers with a 'blueprint' to win series

    Tyronn Lue gathered his team in the huddle during a timeout with 2 minutes and 14 seconds left Sunday in Game 4 and looked them in the eyes with a firmness after the Clippers’ 31-point lead had evaporated down to one. Lue was the calm Clippers coach at a time when the Dallas Mavericks had overwhelmed his team and changed the momentum of the game. Lue was resolute in the middle of a Mavericks offensive storm in which Kyrie Irving was virtually unstoppable. Lue was steadfast in his belief in the...

  • Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval counter 'Vanderpump' co-star Rachel Leviss' revenge-porn lawsuit

    "Vanderpump Rules" exes Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval fired back at former co-star Rachel Leviss, denying her allegations that they distributed sexually explicit videos without her consent. Last week, Madix and Sandoval filed separate responses in Los Angeles County Superior Court to Leviss' February lawsuit, which accuses the former romantic partners of eavesdropping, revenge porn, invasion of privacy and “intentional infliction of emotional distress." The 29-year-old reality TV star's...

  • Retired Eagles star Jason Kelce to join ESPN's 'Monday Night Countdown' show

    Jason Kelce has his first post-NFL gig lined up. The newly retired Philadelphia Eagles center earned seven Pro Bowl selections and one Super Bowl ring during his 13-year NFL career. Along the way, he became one of the faces of the Eagles and — along with younger brother and "New Heights" podcast co-host Travis Kelce, the star Kansas City Chiefs tight end who happens to be dating pop superstar Taylor Swift — one of the league's most recognized names. Now Jason Kelce is making the move to TV. The...

  • How Freddie Freeman — now back on a hitting streak — worked through early-season slump

    On the surface, it might not have looked like much of a slump. To star Dodgers slugger Freddie Freeman, however, his performance through much of April was certainly starting to feel like one. Entering play Monday, Freeman was batting .306 with eight doubles, two home runs and 19 RBIs. He had a .861 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and 142 OPS+ (meaning, essentially, he has been 42% more productive than the average MLB hitter). Those were drops from his first two seasons in L.A., in which he...

  • Britney Spears ends protracted battle with her father over conservatorship legal fees

    Britney Spears and her father Jamie Spears, her former conservator, have settled their protracted legal dispute over the payment of his legal fees and how he managed her finances during her 13-year conservatorship. The two parties settled for an undisclosed amount Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court after first filing about the issue in December 2021. The settlement helps the 42-year-old pop superstar avoid continued litigation, including a hearing that had been set for May, over her...

  • MLB ghost kitchens to whip up ballpark food for delivery and pickup, courtesy of IHOP

    The concept is curious. Turn 347 International House of Pancakes locations nationwide into ghost kitchens that produce ballpark-themed fast food for delivery and pickup. Ballpark Bites outlets have sprung up seemingly overnight, 44 in California alone, second only to the 76 in Texas. Maybe that's how ghost kitchens roll. Major League Baseball is sponsoring the venture, which mirrors the NASCAR Refuel Tenders & Burgers initiative that also utilizes IHOP kitchens — although regrettably neither...