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While some of the Clippers’ top targets came off the board early in free agency, the franchise has remained committed to pursuing Denver forward Danilo Gallinari, although such a deal could require finding a third team to facilitate a sign-and-trade. Clippers executives spoke to the 28-year-old Gal...

LOS ANGELES >> USC ruing back Justin Davis, who has a high ankle sprain, will not play on Saturday at Arizona, Trojans head coach Clay Helton aounced. Davis was not at practice this week. “He’s still being very tender on the ankle,” Helton said. Through six games, the 6-foot-1 senior leads the Trojans in rushing with 476 yards on the ground and two touchdowns. He had 341 yards in the past three games, including consecutive 100-yard rushing efforts against Utah and Arizona State. Davis injured his right ankle in the second half of USC’s 21-17 win over Colorado last Saturday. He left the locker room afterward on crutches. A walking boot was placed on his right foot. “It’s a next-man-up ...

Of the 12 drivers remaining in NASCAR’s playoffs, the odds makers have ranked Austin Dillon last in the championship race. Very few expected him to make it out of the first round. Only he did make the cut, and now Dillon intends to creep even further into the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. “I like this role,” Dillon said of being a longshot, “because it puts the pressure on the guys that I guess are projected to make it to the next round — whatever projections mean.” This is Dillon’s debut in the Chase and he went into last weekend’s elimination race at Dover in danger of being bounced from the field. But he stepped up with a strong eighth-place finish — his first top-10 in six weeks...

PHILADELPHIA >> It is definitely not always suy in Philadelphia with a Phillies team deep in rebuilding mode. But the clouds parted long enough for the sun to shine on one of this city’s favorite former heroes Tuesday. Chase Utley hit two home runs and drove in five runs as the Dodgers routed the Philadelphia Phillies 15-5 in Utley’s first game back in his old workplace. With a Giants’ loss, the Dodgers hold a 1/2 game lead in the National League West. In 779 games at Citizen Bank Park over 13 years with the Phillies, Utley never had a two-homer game with as many as five RBIs. He did it in his first game back as an opponent with a solo home run in the fifth iing and a grand slam that c...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Diana Taurasi got the U.S. women’s basketball team off and ruing and their Olympic newcomers carried them the rest of the way to an easy rout in record fashion. Taurasi hit three 3-pointers in the first few minutes and the Americans beat Senegal 121-56 on Sunday in their Olympic opener. She finished with 15 points, hitting five 3-pointers, and Sylvia Fowles also had 15 points as the U.S. won its 42nd consecutive game in the Olympics. The Americans are trying to win a sixth consecutive gold medal. The game wasn’t expected to be close, and it wasn’t. The Brazilian fans tried to spur on the African country, cheering loudly every time they scored and booing the U.S. when...

LOS ANGELES >> Baseball’s deep dive into statistical analysis has created a new language of exit velocities, launch angles, FIPs, WHIPs and BABIPs. But this is another new concept courtesy of the analytics crowd – a 37-year-old “bounceback candidate.” Chase Utley posted career-lows across the board offensively last season. A .212 batting average, .286 on-base percentage, .629 OPS and only eight home runs in over 400 plate appearances. Combined with the fact that he would tu 37 in December, the numbers seemed to scream of a player in decline. His 140 plate appearances with the Dodgers over the final two months of the season didn’t paint any prettier a picture (he hit .202 with a .654 OP...

LOS ANGELES >> Corey Seager tripled and scored the tiebreaking run on Justin Tuer’s sacrifice fly in the seventh iing to lead the Dodgers to their fifth straight victory, 7-5 over the slumping Baltimore Orioles on Monday night. Chase Utley had three hits and drove in two runs for the Dodgers, who have won 10 straight at home after rallying to claim the opener in just Baltimore’s second regular-season trip to Dodger Stadium. Yasiel Puig and Yasmani Grandal hit back-to-back homers in the second iing for the Dodgers. J.J. Hardy and Joey Rickard drove in two runs apiece for the AL East-leading Orioles, who have lost five straight after a four-game sweep in Seattle. Joe Blanton (4-2) pitch...

FONTANA >> What does a young NASCAR Sprint Cup driver do five days before the circuit’s retu to Daytona Inteational Speedway? If you’re Chase Elliott, you fly into Southe Califoia from a Monday promotional appearance in Utah to speak with season-ticket holders at Auto Club Speedway at noon on a Tuesday. It was his second appearance at the track this year after the rookie posted a sixth-place finish in March is his first Auto Club 400. Although Elliott is sixth in the points standings, trailing leader Kevin Harvick by 89, he’s technically 12th. Eleven Cup drivers have taken a checkered flag this year in 16 races and secured a position in the championship Chase field of 16. Therefore, El...

FONTANA >> What does a young NASCAR Sprint Cup driver do five days before the circuit’s retu to Daytona Inteational Speedway? If you’re Chase Elliott, you fly into Southe Califoia from a Monday promotional appearance in Utah to speak with season-ticket holders at Auto Club Speedway at noon on a Tuesday. It was his second appearance at the track this year after the rookie posted a sixth-place finish in March is his first Auto Club 400. Although Elliott is sixth in the points standings, trailing leader Kevin Harvick by 89, he’s technically 12th. Eleven Cup drivers have taken a checkered flag this year in 16 races and secured a position in the championship Chase field of 16. Therefore, El...