Letters to Sports: The Times’ blame game infuriates Lakers fans

Anyone who understands basketball, which apparently excludes Times columnist Bill Plaschke, knows that Anthony Davis played a fine Game 2 by anchoring the defense that controlled the Nuggets for all but the latter portion of the fourth quarter.

Anthony had 14 rebounds, 4 blocked shots, made nine of 11 free throws, and scored 18 points. Anthony wasn’t responsible for the Nugget’s fourth quarter three-pointers, LeBron James’ poor judgment to take and miss three three-pointers in the fourth quarter or James’ three missed layups.

No one scores 40 points every game. Anthony contributed in many ways in what should have been a Lakers’ victory. That Plaschke doesn’t understand this is reason enough to reassign him to the Calendar section.

Ray McKown
Torrance

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LeBron James is a great basketball player and a smart one as well. But he is allowing his ego to cloud his judgment by continually launching three-pointers that he can’t seem to make, instead of deferring to those who can like Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura.

Dennis Duling
San Gabriel

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An easy solution to LeBron’s 25% three-point shooting: Have him shoot MORE of them; maybe 40. He’ll make 10 and score 30 points.

Gary B. Ross
Beverly Hills

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Fresh off winning accolades for his great pieces on local legend Charles White and the disgrace at Mater Dei, I’m thinking, “Maybe I don’t give Bill Plaschke enough credit.” Then he goes full Plaschke and blames the Lakers’ Game 1 loss on LeBron missing a last-minute shot. Was it a great look? Of course not. Has the all-time leading scorer made worse shots? Of course. We mere mortals should just be thankful for what we get to witness, not think we get a vote on shot selection for kings.

Jeff Heister
Chatsworth

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Ouch, it really hurts to be a Laker fan. Not everyone can afford all the premium channels and for the conference finals not to be broadcast on local TV is disrespectful to die-hard fans.

Marcia Schwartz
Simi Valley

The same factor is responsible for the Dodgers’ and Padres’ performance this season: team chemistry. The Dodgers have it, and the Padres clearly don’t. And they might just be too arrogant to know they need it. Here’s hoping the realization never hits.

Roger Kraemer
Brea

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When the Dodgers gave Farhan Zaidi to the Giants, I had my doubts, but now am convinced it was a brilliant scheme to destroy the Giants from the inside out. In five short years Zaidi has destroyed the Giants’ minors. With millions to spend, the Giants got throwaways. Zaidi took the Giants out of contention for years to come without the Dodgers having to throw a single pitch.

Alan Segal
San Diego

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How can the Dodgers be championship contenders when they have many pitchers with ERAs over 5.00 per game? As of Friday, they had Almonte at 9.00, Jackson 7.98, Vesia 7.84, Syndergaard 5.94 and Bickford at 5.94. When these big leaguers are pitching, “Game Over” has an entirely different meaning.

Roy Reel
Culver City

For the Dodgers to uninvite the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from their Pride Night is chicken-hearted and shameful. This is the franchise of Jackie Robinson. Frankly we all should be embarrassed.

Fred Wallin
Westlake Village

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What a pity the Dodgers allow Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to dictate who is allowed to participate in the annual Pride Night. The team was planning to award the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence with the Community Hero Award and instead kowtows to a political extremist 3,000 miles away. Why even have a Pride Night if you’re not going to represent an open and welcoming atmosphere to an underrepresented and deserving community? Shame on the Dodgers!

Bill Hokans
Santa Ana

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Oh, Jim Murray, how you are missed! At least you are not around to read this garbage. Why are we being punished reading articles by your so-called sports columnist Dylan Hernández? Comparing the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to the signing of Jackie Robinson is so offensive and insane that I have decided to cancel my subscription to your newspaper. I guess I will not be able to enjoy your 5 pages of daily newsprint!

Eugene Hernandez
Whittier

I had thought that the Angels would (finally) do something about their bullpen during the recent offseason. Unfortunately, I’ve been proven wrong yet again. It is simply incredible to watch a starting pitcher work his tail off to leave with a lead, hand the ball to one of the Angels’ “relievers” and watch them blow the game. Mike Trout’s career has been wasted. Shohei Ohtani will leave (why on earth stay?). Anthony Rendon will spend more and more time on the IL, and the team will slide back into obscurity.

Mike Liewald
Los Alamitos

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In a perfect world the Angels will give Ohtani his $600 million and he will stay in Anaheim. In the real world there is no way Ohtani is going to stay with the Angels and their pattern of missing the playoffs. So the Angels should demonstrate some actual progressive thinking and trade Ohtani so at least they will get some nice players in return. Ohtani stole the show in the recently concluded World Baseball Classic and he wants to continue to experience that type of excitement for the rest of his career. This will never happen with the Angels, and Ohtani knows it.

Bruce Olson
Upland

Major League Baseball should do what European soccer leagues do and relegate the A’s to the minor leagues.

Jon Schmid
La Mirada

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Regarding the Oakland A’s impending move to Las Vegas: Since their triple-A team currently plays there I propose that they just swap cities. The A’s to Vegas, their minor league team to Oakland (where they could play in the existing Coliseum).

For the great fans in Oakland (to paraphrase Groucho Marx): Outside of the improvement, you’ll never notice the difference.

Gary Bolen
Monterey

Upon hearing of the passing of the great football player and civil rights activist Jim Brown, I was reminded of a line from a story about a Browns victory over an all-white Washington team in the 1950s by the great sportswriter, Shirley Povich: “Jim Brown, born ineligible to play for the Redskins, integrated their end zone three times yesterday.”

Evan Puziss
Mar Vista

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Every time I see an end-zone dance, a bat flip, or a “you can’t see me” gesture, I think of Jim Brown. After each touchdown he would lay the ball on the ground to show that “he had been here before and he would be back again.” Though he led a very complicated life, which is often true of great persons, he modeled a genuine competitiveness that did not scream “look at me.”

Robert Stockly
Sierra Madre

Lots of racehorses are put down for the sin of breaking a leg. Maybe they should also do that to football and basketball players when they do the same. Kidding, of course, but I never will understand why a race horse must be put down when it breaks a leg.

I guess it’s simply, “Race or die.” And I also guess that it’s all about the money.

Saul Isler
Los Angeles

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I just watched the World War I movie, “All Quiet on the Western Front.” I haven’t seen that many equine casualties since my last day at the horse racing track.

Barry Smith
Thousand Oaks

Congratulations to Bill Plaschke for taking top honors in the 2022 AP Sports Editors’ columnist competition. That coupled with the sports staff garnering Grand Slam honors for the third straight year got me to thinking. If The Times had its own separate sports section, wouldn’t it even be a more prestigious publication as well as easier to find? Being placed in the California section behind the obituaries and weather report is not fair to your sports staff as well as to your readers.

Richard Whorton
Studio City

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