Hello, I'm your host, Houston Mitchell. Let's go straight to the news.
By John Cherwa: The California Horse Racing Commission was facing what could be its most consequential decision in its nearly 90 years of existence. Will he try to save Northern California's matches with a lower chance of success and possibly put Southern California at further risk with an outside chance of working out for both? Or will he follow Kahneman's Theory and make the least negative decision and sacrifice the North to give the South a better chance of immediate survival?
That was the question he was asked to ask at Thursday's marathon monthly meeting of the state regulatory agency in Sacramento. So what did he do? He kicked the can down the road until March.
Despite the certainty of the agenda item to “allocate Northern California game dates … for 2024,” it was known that no decision would be made to give a group trying to save Northern California games extra time to to come up with a plan. But it is not a good sign when the plan is still full of uncertainties after almost six months of warning about this possibility.
Commissioner Wendy Mitchell expressed the most skepticism about the outline of a plan presented by Larry Swartzlander, executive director of California Racing Authority.
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EXPLOSIVE
By Jeff Miller: The Chargers added two experienced coaches to their list of candidates to replace Brandon Staley on Thursday, interviewing David Shaw and Mike Vrabel.
They announced both meetings, bringing to 11 the number of people the Chargers have publicly identified in their search.
Shaw, 51, most recently coached at Stanford, where his teams went 96-54 over 12 years. He left that position after the 2022 season.
Vrabel, 48, was fired this month after six years with Tennessee. His teams finished 54-45 in the regular season and reached the playoffs three times.
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Matchup analysis and pick four winners in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs
NFL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
All times Pacific
Round of sections
AFC
Saturday
No. 4 Houston at No. 1 Baltimore, 1:30 p.m., ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes
Sunday
No. 3 Kansas City at No. 2 Buffalo, 3:30 p.m., CBS, Paramount+
NFC
Saturday
No. 7 Green Bay at No. 1 San Francisco, 5:15 p.m., Fox, Fox Deportes
Sunday
No. 4 Tampa Bay at No. 2 Detroit, noon, NBC, Peacock, Universo
Conference championship
Sunday, January 28
AFC, noon, CBS, Paramount+
NFC, 3:30 p.m., Fox, Fox Deportes
Note: The Super Bowl is on February 11 at 3:30 p.m. on CBS and Paramount+
LAKERS
By Broderick Turner: The basketball passed to D'Angelo Russell while Anthony Davis fell behind on the fast break. Russell then passed the ball to Davis, who soaked up the defense before throwing it back to Russell.
Russell calmly drained a 3-pointer that gave the Lakers a 22-point lead in the third quarter. And then in the fourth quarter, Russell struck again. He grabbed a defensive rebound, drove down the court and drained a 3-pointer that pushed the Lakers' lead to 23 points.
And it had become clear that Russell is a much more committed player when he starts, which he has been for the past three games after being demoted to the bench 12 games ago.
In a 127-110 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night, Russell led the Lakers in scoring with 29 points, four rebounds and three assists. He was 11-for-20 from the field and five-for-seven from three-point range.
“Engaged? I'm engaged,” Russell said. “I think it's just a mindset change, not really a matter of focus or lack of focus. Every position is going to present an opportunity. You're either ready for it or you're not. So I try to attack that mentality.”
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Hernandez: Does LeBron James still dream of playing with son Brony?
KINGS
By Helene Elliott: A season that started with high expectations has dissolved into a fight for survival as the Kings reach the halfway mark. They had more reason to look nervously in the mirror at the teams beating them than to look optimistically ahead toward the top of the Pacific Division, where they thought they would be after signing Pierre-Luc Dubois and his eight-year, $68 million contract in an effort to counter the superior depth and size of their opponents.
General manager Rob Blake's response to a 1-5-4 slump that left the Kings with a 21-12-8 record and 50 points after their first 41 games was to say the team needs to get back to its defensive core, even though defense is a glaring weakness for creative but careless winger Kevin Fiala and for Dubois, who had scored a paltry nine goals and 19 points at the halfway mark and is often clueless when he's not in his prime.
Speaking to the media Thursday morning before the Kings lost to Nashville 2-1, Blake also said the team needs to execute with more precision on offense while sticking more closely to its system on defense. It didn't seem to matter to Blake that opponents broke up and shredded that system on an alarmingly regular basis, or that coach Todd McLellan didn't make effective counter-adjustments.
No, McLellan got a vote of confidence from Blake, who gave the coach a contract extension last summer that put both on the payroll through 2024-25. Blake said Thursday that he hasn't considered changing coaches. If that's true – and Blake is known for his fierce loyalty to his friends – then he hasn't explored every option to switch teams.
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ANGELIC CITY
Sixteen-year-old Casey Phair, the youngest player at last summer's Women's World Cup as a forward for South Korea, has signed with Angel City of the National Women's Soccer League.
Phair has signed until 2026 through the league's under-18 entry mechanism, the Los Angeles-based club announced on Thursday. It is Angel City's newest acquisition ever.
“Her maturity and experience on the world stage at this past Women's World Cup will help her make a smooth transition into the professional ranks. We are excited to add depth to our front line and give Casey the opportunity to grow and develop in the Angel City,” team general manager Angela Hucles Mangano said in a statement.
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THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1937 — Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker and Cy Young are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in the second year of voting.
1952 – The Professional Golfers Assn. approves Black men's participation in golf tournaments.
1972 — The Dodgers' Sandy Koufax becomes the youngest player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame at age 36. Yogi Berra and Earley Wynn are also drafted.
1974 — UCLA's 88-game winning streak is snapped when Notre Dame overcomes an 11-point deficit in the final 3:32 to win 71-70. With 29 seconds left, Dwight Clay's jump shot from the right corner gives the Irish the lead.
2005 — LeBron James becomes the youngest player (20 years, 20 days) in NBA history to record a triple-double with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in Cleveland's 107-101 win over Portland.
2006 — Irina Slutskaya wins her seventh European figure skating title, breaking the record shared by Katarina Witt and Sonja Henie.
2008 — Bode Miller wins the Hahnenkamm World Cup downhill to become the most successful American skier ever with 28 World Cup wins, surpassing Phil Mahre.
2012 — Serena Williams advances to the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova for her 500th career match win.
2013 — Lance Armstrong admits to doping in all seven of his Tour de France victories.
2015 — Lindsey Vonn wins a super-G for her 63rd World Cup win. The American broke Annemarie Moser-Proell's 35-year-old record of 62 World Cup wins with a flawless run at the Olympia delle Tofane course in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, finishing a massive 0.85 ahead of Anna Fenninger of Austria.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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