The world according to Jim:
• Reason No. 19,191 why I don’t bet on sports: Lakers (without LeBron James and Anthony Davis) 114, Celtics 105, on Thursday night in Boston. The explanation? An onrushing trade deadline coupled with a half-season of underachievement creates enough urgency to bring out the best in people. …
• Boston, with the best record in the league at 37-12, is 22-3 at home and all of the losses have come in the last three weeks – to Denver, the reigning champs; to the Clippers in a 115-96 rout last week, and to the Lakers. Enjoy the moment, SoCal, no matter which of L.A.’s teams you root for. …
• And if you are a New England transplant, by all means enjoy our weather. (Snicker.) …
• The news broke Friday morning: Todd McLellan is out as Kings coach, with Jim Hiller promoted to interim head coach for the rest of the season. We get it: The Kings were horrible in January; Wednesday night’s victory in Nashville was just their third in their last 17 games. And the coach almost always takes the fall.
But will we see some accountability from higher in the organization, specifically General Manager Rob Blake? This is his largely dysfunctional roster that let the head coach down, and the trade for and eight-year commitment to Pierre-Luc Dubois is his albatross. If there’s not a swift and dramatic turnaround – and no, Darryl Sutter is not walking through that door – shouldn’t Blake be on the hot seat as well? …
• No, we’re not hopping on the “Bring Back Dean Lombardi” bandwagon. Yet. …
• This is for Rams fans who consider San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey the one who got away: 49ers owner Jed York, in a conversation with The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami, discussed the trade of four draft picks to Carolina at the 2022 deadline for McCaffrey, and specifically convincing 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who was leery about giving up so much for a running back. The closing argument, York told Kawakami,…
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