From Broderick Turner: The Clippers went from “strongly, strongly considering” bringing Chris Paul back to the franchise to actually agreeing to a deal with the point guard on Monday.
Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, told the media Saturday in a Zoom that Paul “obviously possesses some of the qualities we just referenced” and that led to the two sides agreeing to a veteran’s minimum deal of about $3.6 million.
“Chris is one of the most impactful players ever to wear a Clippers uniform and it’s appropriate that he returns to the team for this chapter of his career,” Frank said in a statement Monday. “Chris will help fortify our backcourt with his exceptional ballhandling, playmaking and shooting. He is joining us as a reserve point guard and is excited to fill whatever role [coach Tyronn] Lue asks him to play. He wants to be part of the group and we’re fortunate to have him back.”
Paul joined the Clippers for the 2011-12 season and was with the team until 2017 as he teamed with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan to form the core of the “Lob City” teams.
“What I’d say about Chris is he’s a great player,” Frank said Saturday. “He’s a great Clipper.”
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DODGERS
From Jack Harris: It was quality over quantity for the Dodgers on Monday night. A bunch of empty at-bats, salvaged by a few emphatic drives that left the ballpark.
In six innings against struggling Minnesota Twins starter David Festa, the Dodgers’ slumping offense managed only four hits — doing little to quell the offensive concerns that have mounted during a puzzling month of poor all-around production.
Three of the knocks, however, went over the fence, with a two-run blast from Shohei Ohtani in the first inning and a pair of solo homers from Will Smith in the fourth and sixth lifting the team to a 5-2 win at Dodger Stadium.
A course correction, this was not for the Dodgers’ supposed powerhouse offense.
Entering the night, the team had the third-lowest team batting average in the majors this month. As even president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman acknowledged during pregame batting practice, “we’ve had more than half of our lineup really scuffle” for the last six weeks running.
From a day off to the leadoff spot, Dodgers try unraveling mystery of Mookie Betts’ slump
Dodgers Dugout: Jaime Jarrín discusses Vin Scully, Fernando Valenzuela and Muhammad Ali
ANGELS
Juan Soto hit a tying single in the seventh inning, Francisco Alvarez delivered a big double in his return from the minors and the New York Mets rallied past the Angels 7-5 on Monday night.
Brett Baty launched a two-run homer for the Mets, who erased an early four-run deficit to match their largest comeback victory this season. They scored the go-ahead run in the eighth on an error by catcher Logan O’Hoppe, and Brandon Nimmo added a sacrifice fly that made it 7-5.
Brooks Raley (1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth in his second outing since coming back from Tommy John surgery, earning his first win since April 2024.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1921 — Jim Barnes wins the U.S. Men’s Open golf championship by edging Walter Hagen, Leo Diegel, Jock Hutchinson and Fred McLeod.
1962 — Gary Player of South Africa becomes the first non-resident of the United States to win the PGA championship.
1963 — Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in 2 minutes, 10 seconds of the first round to retain the world heavyweight title. Liston took the title from Patterson with a first-round knockout in Chicago on Sept. 25, 1962.
1973 — Sue Berning wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship for the third time with a five-stroke victory over Gloria Ahret.
1984 — Kathy Whitworth becomes the all-time winner in pro golf tournaments by winning the Rochester Open. Whitworth, with 85 career wins, passes Sam Snead’s total of 84 PGA tournament victories.
1984 — Seve Ballesteros wins the British Open with a four-round 276, breaking the course record set by Ken Nagle in 1960 by two strokes. Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer finish two strokes behind.
1990 — Nick Faldo wins his second British Open crown in four years, defeating Payne Stewart and Mark McNulty by five strokes.
1996 — Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey becomes first weightlifter in Olympic history to win three gold medals. Suleymanoglu wins the 141-pound division by hoisting 413¼ pounds.
1998 — Jackie Joyner-Kersee ends her brilliant heptathlon career with a victory at the Goodwill Games. It’s her fourth consecutive Goodwill title. Earlier, the 4×400-meter relay world record of 2:54.29, set by the 1993 U.S. World Championship team, comes crashing down. Michael Johnson, the anchor on that 1993 team, anchors this United States 4×400 team, which finishes in a 2 minutes, 54.20 seconds.
2001 — David Duval shoots a 4-under 67 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes to win the British Open title, his first major championship. He finishes at 10-under 274 for a three-stroke victory over Sweden’s Niclas Fasth.
2005 — Yelena Isinbayeva clears the 5-meter mark at the Crystal Palace Grand Prix in London for her latest world record. The Olympic champion easily clears 16 feet, 4¾ inches on her first attempt, barely nudging the bar.
2007 — Padraig Harrington survives a calamitous finish in regulation and a tense putt for bogey on the final hole of a playoff to win the British Open over Sergio Garcia.
2008 — Candace Parker scores 21 points and DeLisha Milton-Jones adds 19 before both are ejected after a scuffle in the final minute as the Sparks beat the Detroit Shock 84-81 at Auburn Hills, Mich. The WNBA game turns ugly in the final seconds as a collision between Parker and Detroit’s Plenette Pierson turns into a shoving match that has players and coaches from both teams leaving the bench.
2012 — Bradley Wiggins becomes the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France by protecting the yellow jersey during the final processional ride into Paris. Fellow Briton and Sky teammate Christopher Froome finishes second, 3 minutes, 21 seconds behind.
2012 — Ernie Els wins his fourth major championship in an astonishing finish, rallying to beat Adam Scott in the British Open when the Aussie bogeys the last four holes. Els, who starts the final round six shots behind, finishes off a flawless back nine with a 15-foot birdie putt for a 2-under 68. Scott was four shots ahead with four holes to play.
2018 — Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird plays in a record 500th WNBA game.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1905 — Weldon Henley of the Philadelphia Athletics pitched a no-hitter, defeating the St. Louis Browns 6-0 in the first game of a doubleheader. It was the highlight of Henley’s 4-11 season.
1906 — Bob Ewing pitched the Cincinnati Reds to a 10-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies without a single assist by teammates.
1923 — Washington’s Walter Johnson struck out opposing pitcher Stan Coveleski for his 3,000th career strikeout. The Big Train, the first player in MLB history to reach 3,000 strikeouts, struck out five and allowed one run to give the Senators a 3-1 win over Cleveland.
1926 — Cincinnati had four triples in an 11-run second inning as the Reds beat the Boston Braves, 13-1. Curt Walker hit two in the inning to tie an NL record for most triples in an inning.
1932 — Philadelphia’s Mickey Cochrane hit for the cycle and drove in four runs to lead the Athletics to an 8-4 win over the Washington Senators.
1962 — Floyd Robinson of the Chicago White Sox had six singles in six at-bats in a 7-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
1964 — Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell hit for the cycle, drove in three runs and scored four times in the Pirates’ 13-2 rout of the St. Louis Cardinals.
1967 — The Atlanta Braves used a major league record five pitchers in the ninth inning of a 5-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. The pitchers were Ken Johnson, Ramon Hernandez, Claude Raymond, Dick Kelley and Cecil Upshaw.
1997 — Atlanta’s Greg Maddux turned in a masterful pitching performance, using 76 pitches in a complete game 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
2000 — Seattle’s 13-5 win over Texas was interrupted for 54 minutes when a rainstorm drenched fans at Safeco Field and the $517.6-million stadium’s roof wouldn’t close because of a computer problem.
2006 — Alfonso Soriano had three doubles, a triple and scored two runs to lead Washington to a 7-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
2012 — Seth Smith hit a tying homer in the ninth inning, Coco Crisp singled home the winning run in the 12th and the surging Oakland Athletics rallied from four runs down to stun the New York Yankees 5-4 and complete a four-game sweep. The Yankees had not been swept in a four-game series since May 2003 against Toronto.
2013 — Ryan Braun, the 2011 National League MVP, was suspended for the rest of the season and the postseason, the start of sanctions involving players reportedly tied to a Florida clinic accused of distributing performance-enhancing drugs. The Milwaukee Brewers star accepted the 65-game ban, 15 games more than the one he avoided last year when an arbitrator overturned his positive test for elevated testosterone because the urine sample had been improperly handled.
2014 — The Minnesota Twins turn a triple play against the Yankees.
2022 — In their first game after the All-Star break, the Blue Jays set a team record for runs in a 28-5 beatdown of the Red Sox.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.