The Sports Report: Helene Elliott bids us a fond farewell

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Helene Elliott: We had plans.

My husband, Dennis D’Agostino, was going to reduce his workload as the New York Knicks’ team historian and a statistician for sports teams’ TV and radio broadcasts, and I was going to cover the Paris Olympics and then bid au revoir to the Los Angeles Times. We talked about visiting Maui next summer for our 25th anniversary, with a stop at the beach where we got married. Or, as he called it, the scene of the crime.

Man plans, God laughs. And then you cry.

When my husbum (a nickname he loved) died of a heart attack in September, those plans blew up. So did my life. I threw myself into my work, hoping to be distracted from the paralyzing grief. To a degree, working helped. Colleagues and team officials were kind and compassionate. But I struggled. I had let my work define me, and for a long time, that was enough. I realized it wasn’t enough anymore.

When economic forces hit The Times hard enough for management to lay off more than 90 people and offer buyouts to others, I knew it was time for me to get off the merry-go-round, step back, and take time to heal. After 47 years as a sportswriter, the last 34-plus of those at The Times, I have taken a buyout. My last day will be Tuesday.

The decision was agonizing. But the timing was right, and I take some consolation in knowing my departure saved the job of Chargers writer Jeff Miller.

I certainly didn’t make this decision out of concern there wouldn’t be enough to write about here in the coming years.

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DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Going by conventional baseball wisdom, there was one version of the Dodgers’ new-look batting order that seemed to make the most basic sense.

Mookie Betts at the top as a power-hitting leadoff threat. Freddie Freeman behind him as an on-base, contact-hitting specialist in the No. 2 spot. And then Shohei Ohtani rounding out the superstar trio as the Dodgers’ new No. 3 hitter, where he would be potentially positioned to drive in runs, clear the bases and help put consistently crooked numbers on the board.

When the Dodgers announced their first spring training lineup with all three MVP winners Tuesday, however, the order of the names was slightly different.

Betts was still the leadoff hitter, reprising the role he has held for most of his 10-year major league career.

But Ohtani and Freeman had instead been swapped, with Ohtani batting second and Freeman slotted directly behind him.

“I think we’re gonna do this for a while,” manager Dave Roberts said.

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Plaschke: Ohhhhtani! The newest Dodgers star has a gasping good debut

Shohei Ohtani has an outfielder’s glove, but don’t expect him in the field anytime soon

LAKERS-CLIPPERS

From Dan Woike: Ten seasons ago, the Clippers opened their preseason by visiting four of their Western Conference rivals. They went to Portland, Utah, Sacramento and finally to Phoenix before they opened the doors to their home arena.

Fans had a lot of reasons to be excited — the team hired Doc Rivers in the offseason to coach and was about to enter the season as bonafide contenders. The season, Rivers felt, was about to be theirs. And, their arena should reflect that.

So, the Clippers covered the banners at Staples Center celebrating the Lakers’ championships and the retired numbers of their all-time greats, and instead featured images of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and the rest of that Clippers’ core.

“I didn’t look at it as a banner thing,” Rivers said before the preseason home opener. “I look at it as putting our guys up. … It’s our arena when we play. I thought it would be good that we saw our guys. No disrespect to them, but when we play, it’s the Clipper arena as far as I know.”

But it was absolutely a banner thing — the Clippers finally saying “Enough” to one of the NBA’s strangest real-estate partnerships with two franchises sharing an arena.

“He took a lot of heat, but it makes sense,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Tuesday. “We understand what the Lakers mean to the city and what they’ve done, but for us to have a place that we can call home and be comfortable, I think that was the right thing to do.”

Rivers and the Clippers’ decision in 2013 is just one chapter in this co-habitation story. Provided the teams don’t meet in the playoffs this spring, Wednesday will be the final chapter.

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From Broderick Turner: Clippers All-Star forward Paul George will miss his second straight game because of left knee soreness, coach Tyronn Lue said.

Lue said George would not practice Tuesday and would not be available for the Clippers’ home game against the Lakers on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena.

George has missed just only games this season because of injuries.

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NBA scores

NBA standings

UCLA BASKETBALL

From Mick Cronin: Sometimes all he needs is Mick’s best friend.

His team having coughed up a hairball of a loss against rival USC, Mick Cronin returned to his Encino home Saturday night to find comfort in a furry companion.

“Having the Bookster helps me,” the UCLA coach said Tuesday of the Australian and German shepard mix that also has a touch of Chihuahua. “You know, he doesn’t care if you win or lose — he just wants a treat. He wants his scratchies and he wants a treat — and he would love a walk.”

Cronin had cracked that the Bookster was the only one he was going to talk to after a 62-56 loss to the Trojans at Pauley Pavilion that the coach labeled “embarrassing,” “terrible” and “awful.”

“We came dressed up for a dance party,” Cronin said Tuesday of his players’ mindset, “and now we’re in a street fight and it’s hard to change.”

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SOCCER

From Kevin Baxter: For years the dominant U.S. women’s soccer team has been warning anyone who would listen that the rest of the world was catching up.

On Monday, the Americans finally were caught, with Mexico pushing the four-time world champions all over the field in a 2-0 win that was more historic than it was surprising.

“Over the last five years or so you’ve just seen it,” striker Alex Morgan said. “Ten years ago, 15 years ago was way different with the scorelines than it is today. Teams are continuing to improve and evolve and can compete at the highest level.

“From the bottom to the top, there’s just not that much of a gap anymore.”

Whatever gap remained closed with a thud in a CONCACAF W Gold Cup group-play game at Dignity Health Sports Park, with Mexico outhustling, outrunning, outshooting and completely outplaying a U.S. team that has clearly lost its swagger.

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KINGS

Yegor Sharangovich scored the go-ahead goal at 12:09 of the third period as the Calgary Flames earned their fourth straight win, 4-2, over the Kings on Tuesday night.

Andrew Mangiapane, Blake Coleman and Mikael Backlund, into an empty net, also scored for Calgary, and Chris Tanev chipped in a pair of assists. The Flames remain five points back of Nashville for the second wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Goalie Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves and had an assist.

Phillip Danault and Kevin Fiala provided the offense for the Kings, who have dropped the first two games of their three-game Western Canada trip. The Kings are tied in points with Nashville but hold the first wild-card spot for having two games in hand.

Making his first start in four games, Cam Talbot, a former Flames player, had 33 saves for the Kings.

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Kings box score

NHL scores

NHL standings

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1922 — In the first formal college conference basketball tournament, North Carolina beats Mercer 40-26 to win the Southern Intercollegiate Conference championship. The 13-team conference keeps standings in its second season.

1929 — The Chicago Blackhawks are shutout for an NHL-record eighth straight game. It’s not a total loss, as the Blackhawks hold the New York Rangers scoreless for a 0-0 tie.

1940 — College basketball is televised for the first time. Station W2XBS transmits a basketball doubleheader from New York’s Madison Square Garden. Pittsburgh plays Fordham and New York University competes against Georgetown.

1957 — Johnny Longden becomes the first jockey in history to reach 5,000 victories. Longden, who started his career in 1927, coaxes Bente to a head victory over Flying Finish II in the fourth race at Santa Anita Park.

1960 — The United States hockey team scores six goals in the third period to beat Czechoslovakia 9-4 and win the gold medal in the Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, Calif.

1971 — Jack Nicklaus wins the PGA Championship by beating Billy Casper by three strokes.

1981 — Houston’s Calvin Murphy makes the last of his 78 consecutive free throws, in a game against San Diego, setting what was then an NBA record.

1986 — Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth conditionally suspends Dave Parker of the Cincinnati Reds, Keith Hernandez of the New York Mets, Joaquin Andujar of the Oakland Athletics, Lonnie Smith of the Kansas City Royals, Enos Cabell of the Dodgers, Jeff Leonard of the San Francisco Giants and Dale Berra of the New York Yankees for one year for drug abuse. After conditions are met the suspensions are reduced.

1987 — Chick Hearn, broadcaster for the Los Angeles Lakers, calls his 2,000th consecutive game for the club, a streak spanning 22 years.

1993 — Winnipeg’s Teemu Selanne scores four goals and becomes the third rookie in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season.

1999 — Venus and Serena Williams become the first sisters to win WTA Tour events on the same day. Venus wins the IGA SuperThrift Tennis Classic in Oklahoma City after Serena takes her first title on the WTA Tour at the Gaz de France Open.

2003 — In Val Di Fiemme, Italy, Johnny Spillane wins the Nordic combined sprint to become the first American to win a gold medal at the Nordic world championships.

2010 — Sidney Crosby scores the winning goal in overtime to give Canada a 3-2 victory over the United States in the final event of the Vancouver Olympics. The American silver is the 37th medal won by the United States at these games and the U.S. wins the medals race for the first time since 1932.

Compiled by the Associated Press