Blazers 82, Clippers 80 - Portland blew a 14 point lead in Staples Center one night after blowing a 15 point lead on the very same court. This time they were playing the Clippers, so things worked out OK. Los Angeles managed a pathetic 29 points in the first half, but did make a noble effort in the second. Corey Maggette was hot with 32 points, but missed a big shot with eight ticks left.
Results tagged “arizonastate”
I really did think the Arizona State Sun Devils would give the UCLA Bruins more trouble than the Arizona Wildcats. It looks like neither of those squads did much of anything against the Bruins.
While most LA basketball fans are in rapt attention while watching the Lakers start their normal mid-season crash due to injuries and enjoying the Clippers being the Clippers, let’s not forget we have another championship caliber basketball team in town: the UCLA Bruins.
Clippers 95, Hawks 88 - The Clips got an unexpected performance from rookie Al Thornton, who exploded for a career high 33 points the day after a major stomach virus. Los Angeles fielded their 20th different starting lineup of the year, and are currently missing Chris Kaman and Corey Maggette. Next up, a seven game road trip. That's not so bad -- the Lakers have a 9 game trip lined up.
With just a little more than half of the college football season past us, it’s become evident that no team wants to play for the national championship. No, not even undefeated Ohio State whose non-conference schedule included illustrious teams such as Youngstown State, Akron and Kent State. As for the rest of college football, every other team that climbed atop of the corpses has subsequently fallen. See California and LSU last week and South...
Here at LAist we faced a tough decision last year - to cover the Raiders or not cover the Raiders.
Despite the Los Angeles Dodgers' 7-2 loss Wednesday night in Colorado, no team in Major League Baseball can boast more wins (10) than the Blue Crew heading into Thursday's action. Led by an airtight bullpen, the Dodger pitching staff (2nd best ERA in the National League) has driven much of the team's early season success. This, of course, is a horrible segue (in fact no segue at all) to the subject of Part 4 in our 436-Part Series, "Better Know a Dodger" - outfielder, Andre Ethier.
Hornets 113, Lakers 103 - After a devastating loss to Dallas on Thursday, the Lakers fizzled against a lesser team in Oklahoma City. It may have helped the Hornets that leading scorer David West returned from injury. Maurice Evens helped lead the Lakers with a team and career high of 23. Kobe also had 23, but only three points in the first half on an 0-3 performance from the field (he hit three free throws)....
Mavericks 114, Lakers 95 - Coming into the game, Dallas had won 18 of their last 19. The loss? Lakers. The revenge? Resounding. The Mavericks were up by as many as 28 and got double digit performances from six players. They did just about everything, including performing the national anthem before the game. Dallas is midway through the season and holds the best record in the league. They look to exact more revenge on Sunday...
Monday Night "Monday Night Football" (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) Giants @ Jags "College Football" (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) UCLA @ Arizona State "Talk to Her" (IFC, 7:30 p.m.) Pedro Almodovar's flick about people falling in love with comatose patients. I had a relationship like that once. "How I Met Your Mother/The Class/Two and a Half Men/The New Adventures of Old Christine/CSI: Miami" (CBS, 8:00-11:00 p.m.) All new episodes. "Prison Break" (Fox, 8 p.m. EST) New episode....
The Bruins head to Arizona State tomorrow energized by last week’s decimation of Oregon State. Patrick Cowan and his support staff have put the four previous games behind them, and Bruin fans everywhere are riding this as though a new season has begun. However this Saturday will be a pivotal game, since a win against Arizona State will put UCLA in bowl game territory. Let’s all hope for a repeat performance from young Patrick...
Ah yes. They ALMOST had us there for a minute didn’t they? We almost bought into it. But we should have known better. We had definitely seen this movie before. Sure they were able to tease us with close victories and give us heart attacks for 8 games. But the signs of the Ol’ Bruins that we have known from seasons past started to creep up. The innate ability to make other teams look much better than they really are; see the 21-17 squeaker versus the 1-8 Washington Huskies. The lack of any consistent defense (96th overall, 113th against the run). Playing just hard enough for three quarters and waiting for the proverbial “switch” to turn in the 4th quarter. It all seemed eerily familiar. We all secretly held out hope that this would finally be the year that the potential of our Bruins finally manifested itself in a championship season. But we knew deep down that a loss was going to come eventually and that the dream of a LA showdown of two undefeated teams against the juggernaut at USC would again only be played out on our Playstations.
Why was the game so close? Why did the Trojans play such an awful first half? Are they not as good as we think they are? The fact of the matter is that the USC offense played a horrific first half. The defense was fine, and only wore down a little late in the second quarter because it had been on the field in the heat for so long. But the offense committed nine first half penalties alone which were embarrassing. Penalties were problematic in Trojan wins over Hawaii and Oregon, but only today did it almost cost USC a chance to win.
USC is clearly the most talented team in the country, but if they want to avoid these kinds of mini-scares, then the Trojans need to make a few minor changes. USC isn't getting LenDale White involved enough in the offense, and instead is over-using Reggie Bush. When Oregon jumped ahead early thanks to two turnovers, USC hit the panic button and seemingly tried to use Bush in every play, or go deep to Dwayne Jarrett or Steve Smith. That might have worked every play against Arkansas and Hawaii, but not every team is a pushover.
The Blue and Gold faithful believe their win might have been a program-changing game. And while UCLA played an excellent 60 minutes, LAist wants to caution the Sons of Westwood before they actually believe this is a Rose Bowl season. This is not the same Oklahoma team that has been in two-straight national title games. Rhett Bromar wishes he was half as good as Jason White, or even Josh Heupal. Adrian Peterson may have been held in check by UCLA, but he was playing with a groin injury. And the Sooners were nice enough to cough up three fumbles.
The loss suddenly has Bruins fans freaked out that they won't be dancing when the NCAA Tournament Selection Committe draws up its brackets on Sunday.
