The Sports Report: It was a crazy few days for Caitlin Clark

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

From Chuck Schilken: Caitlin Clark had a bit of a rough weekend.

On Sunday, the Indiana Fever rookie scored the fewest points and posted the lowest shooting percentage of both her 11-game WNBA career and her four-year career at Iowa during a blowout loss to the New York Liberty.

That came a day after Clark was knocked to the floor by the Chicago Sky’s Chennedy Carter with a hip check away from the ball — a sequence that appeared to draw an enthusiastic response from Sky rookie Angel Reese and later caused some observers to wonder when Clark’s teammates will start sticking up for her.

On the bright side, however, the Fever did win that game 71-70 for only their second win of the season. Clark had 11 points while making 36% of her shots (four for 11) on a night when her team made 39% of its shots while holding Chicago to 41%. Clark also had eight rebounds and six assists.

“I thought earlier this season if we would have shot like this, we wouldn’t have won the game because we didn’t have that resiliency and we would have let it affect our defensive play,” Clark told reporters after the game. “So just proud of us, I thought we were really gritty.”

Clark’s weekend has sparked a lot of conversation, including a bizarre rant by Pat McAfee on his ESPN show Monday in which he described Clark using an offensive phrase while trying to defend her and her status in the WNBA. He has since apologized.

Here’s a recap:

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T.J. SIMERS DIES

From David Wharton: There was no middle ground with T.J. Simers.

If you were a sports fan in Southern California, if you were a big-time athlete or coach — if you were anyone who read his Page 2 column — you either loved him or hated him.

And that was exactly what he wanted.

The acerbic, controversial Simers, who spent 23 years at The Times before leaving in trademark fashion, battling with editors and suing the paper, died Sunday from a brain tumor. He was 73.

“T.J. would turn left when everyone else turned right,” former Times sports editor Bill Dwyre said. “People read him. It was something different.”

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DODGERS

From Dylan Hernández: The Dodgers are winning again.

They followed their sweep of the New York Mets by taking the last two games of their three-game series against the Colorado Rockies during the weekend.

Mookie Betts homered in their series finale against the Rockies, a 4-0 victory on Sunday at Dodger Stadium. Freddie Freeman also homered. Second-year right-hander Gavin Stone further cemented his place in the rotation by pitching five scoreless innings.

The Dodgers are 38-23, the second-best record in the National League. They have a 6½-game division lead over the second-place San Diego Padres.

Yet, none of this was convincing.

None of this answered the longstanding questions about them.

None of this felt like persuasive evidence for why they wouldn’t crash and burn in the postseason as they have in each of the previous three years.

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Dodgers notes: Evan Phillips’ return is ‘pretty exciting’ development for bullpen

Padres player under MLB investigation for allegedly gambling on baseball

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

Jo Adell doubled and scored the tiebreaking run on two flyouts in the eighth inning, sending the Angels to a 2-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Monday night.

Tyler Anderson pitched into the seventh and Willie Calhoun had an early RBI single for the Angels, who snapped their five-game losing streak. Calhoun had two of the Angels’ four hits as they improved the worst home record in the majors to 8-21 in the opener of a six-game homestand.

Adell led off the eighth with a double off the right-field wall against Adrian Morejon (1-1). Adell moved to third on Zach Neto’s flyout and scored easily on pinch-hitter Luis Guillorme’s long sacrifice fly to center off Jeremiah Estrada.

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

NBA PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

NBA Finals

Thursday at Boston, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Sunday at Boston, 5 p.m., ABC
Wed., June 12 at Dallas, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Friday, June 14 at Dallas, 5:30 p.m., ABC
*Monday, June 17 at Boston, 5:30 p.m., ABC
*Thursday, June 20 at Dallas, 5:30 p.m., ABC
*Sunday, June 23, at Boston, 5 p.m., ABC

*-if necessary

BOXING

From Eduard Cauich: Jennifer Lozano carries her nickname “La Traviesa” — “The Mischievous Woman” in English — with pride. Not only does it refer to her aggressive and brave boxing style, but also to what her grandmother called her because of the pranks she used to play when she was a child.

She stuck with the nickname as she began her boxing career as a tribute to her late grandmother and will use it as a member of the U.S. Olympic boxing team this summer in Paris.

“After she passed away, I carried the nickname with a lot of pride, and a lot of honor, because she gave it to me,” Lozano said of her grandmother, Virginia Sanchez Cuevas.

The 21-year-old fighter earned her ticket to Paris 2024 in October by winning the silver medal at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, in the 50-kilogram — or 110-pound — weight class. Lozano, who grew up in Laredo, Texas, is the first female Olympic fighter in any sport from her hometown, which sits near the border with Mexico. She hopes her Olympic qualification will give hope to many people in Laredo and Mexico that big things can be accomplished by people from small places.

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NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Stanley Cup Final

Saturday at Florida, 5 p.m., ESPN
Monday, June 10 at Florida, 5 p.m., ESPN
Thursday, June 13 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN,
Saturday June 15 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN
*Tuesday, June 18 at Florida, 5 p.m., ESPN
*Friday, June 21 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN
*Monday, June 24 at Florida, TB5 p.m.D, ESPN

*-if necessary

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1870 — Ed Brown becomes the first Black jockey to win the Belmont Stakes, with Kingfisher.

1927 — The United States wins the first Ryder Cup golf tournament by beating Britain 9½-2½.

1974 — NFL grants franchise to Seattle.

1987 — Danny Harris defeats Edwin Moses in the 400 hurdles at a meet in Madrid, ending the longest winning streak in track and field. Moses, had won 122 consecutive races dating to Aug. 26, 1977.

1988 — West Germany’s Steffi Graf beats 17-year-old Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union in 32 minutes with a 6-0, 6-0 victory to win the French Open for the second straight year.

1990 — Penn State is voted into the Big Ten. The school becomes the 11th member of the league and first addition to the Midwest-based conference since Michigan State in 1949.

1994 — Haile Gebrselassie becomes the first Ethiopian to set a world track record with a time of 12:56.96 in the men’s 5,000 meters at Hengelo, Netherlands.

1998 — Harut Karapetyan of the Galaxy scores three goals in five minutes for the fastest hat trick in MLS history in an 8-1 rout of the Dallas Burn. The seven-goal margin sets an MLS record.

2005 — Eddie Castro sets a North American record for most wins by a jockey in one day at one track, winning nine races on the 13-race card at Miami’s Calder Race Course.

2008 — The Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in 11 seasons with a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 .

2009 — Randy Johnson earns his 300th win, becoming the 24th major league pitcher to reach the milestone by leading San Francisco to a 5-1 victory over the Washington Nationals in the first game of a doubleheader.

2011 — Li Na becomes the first Chinese player to win a Grand Slam singles title. She beats Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-6 (0) in the French Open final for her fifth career title and first on clay.

2016 — Garbine Muguruza wins her first Grand Slam title by beating defending champion Serena Williams 7-5, 6-4 at the French Open, denying the American her record-equaling 22nd major trophy.

2019 — San Francisco Giant Manager Bruce Bochy wins his 1,000th game as the manager of the Giants with a 9-3 victory over the New York Mets.

Compiled by the Associated Press