The Los Angeles Clippers have 26 games remaining on their regular-season schedule, in addition to two possible postseason games if they qualify for the NBA play-in tournament. Contrary to Kawhi Leonard’s belief that the team is not a contender to advance in the playoffs, head coach Tyronn Lue says the team will try to keep winning. 

At 27-29 following Friday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Clippers currently hold the ninth spot in the Western Conference standings, just a half-game ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers. 

“Man, we’re playing to win,” Lue told reporters afterwards, including ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “I don’t care if it’s young, old, toddlers… Whoever’s on the floor, we’re trying to win. I mean, we’re trying to win. There’s no other reason to play.”

Lue’s remarks appeared to be a response to Leonard saying earlier in the day that the Clippers’ status as contenders was finished. 

“I think it’s over now,” he said. “It’s, the second half, like a fourth of the season left. But every day is a day to grow. A day to learn and get better. So just got to keep looking over time and see in two weeks if we’re getting better and see what happens from there.”

Leonard’s outlook follows the Clippers sending James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Ivica Zubac to the Indiana Pacers before the NBA trade deadline. The team received Darius Garland, Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, two first-round picks and two second-rounders in those deals. But those aren’t the kinds of trades a playoff contender makes in hopes of boosting championship chances. 

Additionally, the Clippers benched veteran point guard Chris Paul before sending him home and eventually traded him to the Toronto Raptors. Paul, 40, was subsequently released by the Raptors and announced his retirement. He signed a one-year deal before the season, presumably to be a veteran leader but reportedly clashed with Lue.

Lue acknowledged that the Clippers team Leonard originally signed with in 2019 is much different now.

“I thought he was just saying far as contender when he first got here, you have PG [Paul George], Kawhi, you have James, you have Russ [Russell Westbrook], you have Zu,” Lue told ESPN. “And so now, having a younger team, we got to play different. We got to do things different, we got to do things better.”

The Clippers being in the play-in mix with a chance to make the playoffs as the eventual No. 8 seed is the result of an impressive turnaround. The team began the season as one of the league’s biggest disappointments, compiling a 6-21 record. Yet a 21-8 run in December put a .500 record and postseason berth within reach. 

Up next for the Clippers is a matchup with the Orlando Magic (29-25) on Sunday, followed by a Thursday contest versus the Minnesota Timberwolves (35-22).

Hall of Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski died at the age of 89, the Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Saturday. He passed away on Friday, according to the team. 

Mazeroski is best known for arguably the most legendary home run in baseball history, hitting a walk-off home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series against the New York Yankees. Leading off the ninth inning, the homer came off reliever Ralph Terry, breaking a 9-9 tie, at Forbes Field. 

As Mazeroski rounded the bases, fans ran out of the stands to congratulate Mazeroski and round the bases with him in celebration. He was 24 years old at the time, in his fifth year with Pittsburgh. No other player has ended a World Series with a Game 7 home run.

Responsible for an iconic moment in the sport, Mazeroski was remarkably modest about his accomplishment. 

“I just thought it was another home run to win a ballgame and would never last 40 years,” he said in 2000, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

“I didn’t expect that much attention, just hitting a home run to win a game,” he continued. “I don’t know. I just kind of wish maybe somebody else had hit it, or explained it better than I did. I just never came up with a good way.”

Mazeroski later explained that he wasn’t certain that he hit a home run because the left-field wall at Forbes Field was 406 feet away from home plate in the alley.

“I don’t know it’s out. I don’t know it’s a home run. But I know I’m going to end up on third if he misplays that ball off the wall,” Mazeroski said in 2015, via MLB.com. “So I’m busting my tail getting around there, and by the time I hit second base, I looked down the line and the fans went crazy. From second base, I didn’t touch the ground all the way in.”

Mazeroski won two World Series titles with the Pirates, also playing on the 1971 champions that defeated the Baltimore Orioles in seven games. The team retired his No. 9 in 1987 and honored him with a 14-foot bronze statue outside PNC Park, unveiled in 2010. 

“Maz was one of a kind — a true Pirates legend, a National Baseball Hall of Famer and one of the finest defensive second basemen the game has ever seen,” said Pirates chairman Bob Nutting in a statement.

“His name will always be tied to the biggest home run in baseball history and the 1960 World Series championship,” he added. “But I will remember him most for the person he was: humble, gracious and proud to be a Pirate.”

Despite being associated with one of baseball’s most famous home runs, Mazeroski became a Hall of Famer because of his defense at second base. He was awarded eight Gold Gloves during his career.

“I think defense belongs in the Hall of Fame,” Mazeroski said during his Hall of Fame induction speech. “Defense deserves as much credit as pitching and hitting, and I’m proud and honored to be going into the Hall of Fame on the defensive side and mostly for my defensive abilities.”

In his 17 seasons with the Pirates, Mazeroski compiled a career average of .260/.299/.367 with 294 doubles, 138 home runs and 853 RBI. In addition to his two World Series championships, Mazeroski was an 10-time All-Star. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, elected by the Veterans Committee.

The Los Angeles Lakers won Friday, and the Los Angeles Clippers are hoping that’s the only bad news.

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard left the game with five minutes left in the fourth quarter due to left ankle soreness, the team announced. The exit came at a critical juncture, with the Clippers down by three with five minutes left. 

That wound up being significant. The Clippers did an admirable job of hanging around, but took another blow when Bennedict Mathurin’s 26-point night ended with him fouling out. The Lakers pulled out a 125-122 win, behind 38 points and 11 assists from Luka Dončić.

It nearly ended in disaster for the Lakers, though. With a three-point deficit and 9.7 seconds left, the Clippers stole the inbounds pass and got the ball to an open Nicholas Batum for a would-be game-tying 3-pointer. The shot missed, and LeBron James brought down the game-sealing rebound.

It wasn’t the prettiest game for the Lakers, who opened the game by making 16-of-19 shots in the first quarter only to blow a 16-point lead, but it’s a victorious first step with James, Dončić and Austin Reaves all together. That trio has played only 11 games together all season.

James finished with 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting and 11 assists, while Reaves had 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting in his first game without a minutes restriction since returning from a calf injury.

Leonard, who had some interesting thoughts on the Clippers’ playoff chances the previous night, had 31 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in 31 minutes. Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said after the game that the star has been dealing with ankle soreness for some time and “it got stiff on him” Friday night.

Lue also had some choice words for how the Lakers were running their offense:

“When you’re foul baiting the whole game … it’s tough. These guys are already great players. … We did everything we could.”

The Clippers entered the game as quietly one of the hottest teams in the NBA, having won 21-of-28 games since hitting rock bottom on Dec. 19. Friday was a chance to reach .500 on the season, but they now sit at 27-29 and still in a battle for play-in tournament positioning.

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert will serve a one-game suspension for Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, the NBA announced on Saturday.

The All-Star center picked up a flagrant foul at the end of the second quarter Friday against the Dallas Mavericks, triggering an automatic one-game suspension. The play, in which Gobert struck Marvin Bagley III in the face with his forearm while fighting for a rebound, was initially called a common foul, but officials ruled it a Flagrant 1 after review.

Gobert finished the game, a 122-111 Minnesota win, with 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting with 17 rebounds (a season-high 10 on offense) and three blocks.

Gobert has already missed a game due to his flagrant foul total, as he served a suspension during a Jan. 13 game against the Milwaukee Bucks after a flagrant on Victor Wembanyama. No other NBA player has more than four flagrant fouls on the season.

The Frenchman has now been called for six flagrants on the season, with seven total points (in which a Flagrant 1 equals one point and a Flagrant 2 equals two points). Players with five or six flagrant points in a season receive a one-game suspension if they’re hit with a Flagrant 1 and a two-game suspension in the event of a Flagrant 2.

But with Gobert now at seven points, he faces a two-game suspension if he commits any sort of flagrant foul for the rest of the season. The T-Wolves will be hoping it doesn’t come to that for the four-time Defensive Player of the Year.