Jim Alexander: Mirjam, you were at last night’s Lakers-Clippers game – the last regular-season edition of the Hallway Series (or, to put it another way, Banner Wars). And I’m sure everyone in the building had to have been thinking the same thing as the Lakers turned a 21-point deficit into a 116-112 victory on the broad shoulders of LeBron James, as you noted in your column.
Lakers fan or Clippers fan, you’ve got to be thinking: “Wouldn’t this be a delicious seven-game postseason series?” We generally don’t get intramural wars in the postseason. The most prominent one I can think of was a Kings-Ducks second-round series in 2014, with the Kings rallying from a 3-2 deficit en route to their second Stanley Cup and the series ending with both teams saluting Teemu Selanne as he skated into the sunset. In Major League Soccer, there was a 2009 Galaxy-Chivas USA postseason matchup and a couple of more recent vintage between the Galaxy and LAFC in 2019 and 2022. Both of those were LAFC victories, and the former featured the sight of the Galaxy’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic making an indecent gesture toward an LAFC fan as he walked off the pitch to the locker room.
But the Lakers and Clippers? A best-of-seven sharing the building I still call Staples Center? Home-court advantage deciding how many times the Lakers’ championship banners are covered up? Bron and A.D. against Kawhi, PG and James Harden for at least four and maybe seven games straight, with all the mind games that come with a playoff series? I’m here for it, and I suspect every pro basketball fan in L.A. feels the same way.
Mirjam Swanson: Jim, WE NEED IT. C’mon, basketball gods!
We’ve waited long enough.
We’ve been teased long enough.
The Clippers and Lakers both made the playoffs in three of the past four years and six times overall as arena-mates – and it still hasn’t happened. The Lakers fell a game short of a 2006 second-round showdown when they lost Game 7 to the Phoenix Suns. And the Clippers messed up a meeting in the Orlando bubble – which wouldn’t have been the same, anyway – when they blew a 3-1 lead against the Denver Nuggets in the conference semifinals.
But this could be the year! The Clippers are among the teams atop the Western Conference standings and the Lakers are jockeying for position in the play-in tournament – and so, as of Wednesday morning, ESPN’s Basketball Power Index gave us a 12% chance of the teams meeting.
Because you’re right, L.A. is such a rich basketball city, obviously ruled by the Lakers, as far as the majority of the populace is concerned – but the Clippers are absolutely relevant and would, I hope, love the opportunity to try to beat the Lakers to be a part of their narrative going into the Intuit Dome next season.
We deserve this.
Jim: We’re not alone in pining for an in-city battle, I suspect. I just did some quick research, and the patient folks in New York (snicker!) are still waiting for the first playoff series between the Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets. The last two times they played in the postseason, the Nets represented New Jersey. And both years ended in “4” – 2004 (when the Nets won in the first round) and 1994 (when the Knicks won in the first round). Since this year ends in “4,” and since the Nets aren’t doing their part this year, if karma is a factor it has to be Lakers-Clippers, right?
Bottom line: The Lakers still have to get there. The Clippers are experiencing a little bit of a midseason skid right now – dog days, y’know – but they should be a top-four seed. The Lakers have to depend on LeBron and A.D. and hope that someone – Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, D’Angelo Russell, etc. – will step up on a given night. And you’re right, standing pat at the trade deadline could turn out to have been a mistake.
At this point, the Lakers are ninth in the West, 4½ games ahead of 11th-place Utah. So they’re comfortably in a play-in spot at this point … although I wouldn’t exactly consider the play-in zone comfortable.
Meanwhile, L.A.’s other high-profile team is drawing crowds and attention in Arizona. Shohei Ohtani made his spring debut in Dodger blue Tuesday and slammed a home run. Yoshinobu Yamamoto made his pitching debut Wednesday with two scoreless innings and showed wicked stuff.
My favorite vignette from Wednesday: Yamamoto got a punchout for the third out of the second but apparently lost track of the number of outs and hung around the mound for a few seconds. Ohtani, on the top step of the dugout, waved at him to come in and yelled something in his direction. I’m guessing it was “Count to 3!” (Or, as Google Translator put it, “3つ数えてください！”)
Oh, and now we’ve learned that Shohei got married over the winter, too. This is going to be Hollywood’s team in more ways than one.
Mirjam: There’s definitely a buzz about Dodgers Spring Training. It’s pretty cool.
And it’s also interesting, how much more I feel like we know Ohtani now than we did when he was with the Angels. Obviously, our Jeff Fletcher did a marvelous job covering the man, the myth, the legend – but it was always clear how big on privacy Ohtani was, how little of his personality he wanted to share.
Now we’ve got playful videos of Teoscar Hernández teaching Spanish to Ohtani, we know not only that he has a dog, but the dog’s name – Dekopin, aka Decoy – and we have Ohtani himself posting news of his marriage on Instagram. I almost feel like we’re really getting to know the guy. That’s also pretty cool. And fascinating, kind of.
And the season hasn’t even started yet.
What a story.
Jim: I wonder, in retrospect, how many of the limits were Angels-driven, rather than by Ohtani and/or his agent, Nez Balelo. We’ll have a better sense once the regular season starts.
On to soccer, and you got a chance to see Mexico’s upset of the United States women’s soccer team a few days ago … or was it really an upset? The transition from the previous group has been halting, it seems. From winning World Cup championships and at the same time suing U.S. Soccer for equal treatment, we’ve come to a group that’s young, has talent but maybe hasn’t developed that … well, toughness necessary to succeed with a bull’s-eye on their backs. I wonder if new coach Emma Hayes, who is finishing up at Chelsea and will join the USWNT shortly before the Olympics, is watching this from afar and already contemplating significant changes.
And the other aspect you mentioned, and it’s equally true on the men’s side: The most devoted soccer constituency in this country, Latinos and Latinas, has been pretty much passed over in the process of developing players. That may be changing a little bit, slowly, but the number of dual nationals – both genders – who choose Mexico over the U.S. tells me far more needs to be done.
Mirjam: Hear, hear! You managed to write in a paragraph what I needed a whole column to try to say.
But, yes, the USWNT is in a precarious place. That team is young and unproven, but it’s also older and slower, and trying to bridge that divide while the world is closing in – and, yes, it sure seems to me like it would behoove the U.S. program, in facing this very real challenge, to try to access the entire pool of talent available here.
But that’s soccer in America, I suppose. We’ve found a way to make the world’s most accessible game exclusive. I don’t know why we’d expect that would be a good way to keep up with the rapid development happening everywhere else.
Especially because I also get why so many American-born players would want to represent their families by playing for teams abroad. That’s a special experience, to tap into your heritage and represent those nations – especially when they really love soccer and those programs are taking off.
But the USWNT is still the USWNT, hardly pushovers. Obviously in a period of transition now, with interim coach Twila Kilgore doing her best to hold down the fort until the arrival of Hayes – who, no doubt, is having input now from afar, but who will also, no doubt, do what she believes needs to be done when she arrives.
I’m excited for it, personally, because winning will only mean more as the world continues to improve. It won’t be easy, it won’t always be pretty, and casual American fans who tuned into to see absolute dominance might not like it, but this is how it’s supposed to be.
Jim: A couple more things before we wrap up. First, a salute to Times sports columnist Helene Elliott, who has taken a buyout and wrapped up her tenure at that paper. She was not only one of the best people on the beat, whatever beat, but she was a pioneer. She related in her farewell column an anecdote where she applied for a job early on and was told, “We already have a female sportswriter.” She and those of her era helped pave the way for future generations of women sportswriters – a good number of whom are more knowledgeable than the men they work alongside.
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Which brings me to this: The Southern California News Group had an impressive haul when the Associated Press Sports Editors awards nominations were announced this week. Scott Reid had top 10 nominations in national beat writing, breaking news and explanatory journalism. Luca Evans – already our Rookie of the Year – was a national top 10 nominee in beat writing. And Mirjam, as a national top 10 nominee for best sports columnist in the big papers category, you don’t get anywhere near the plaudits you deserve. Congratulations, and it is my honor and pleasure to get to work with you and to swap ideas and opinions in this space every week.
Mirjam: Aw, thanks, Jim. Honor and privilege is mine.
And co-sign, on Helene. What a legend, I’ll appreciate her always – for her great work and her groundbreaking presence and her kindness in person, too. A great lady and a real inspiration.