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Apparently, Jim Mora had seen enough. The head coach abruptly ended UCLA’s training camp early Sunday when he cancelled the team’s final practice. His players celebrated wildly in the team room upon hearing the news that they would finally receive a night off after 17 practices in 18 days. Here are five things we leaed in those 17 training camp practices with UCLA less than two weeks away from its season opener against Texas A&M on Sept. 3. Josh Rosen is at home in Jedd Fisch’s offense When asked of what he likes about Fisch’s system, Rosen said he most appreciated its versatility. With ...

Outside of its lightweight champion fitting himself with bigger gloves and longer odds and stepping into a boxing ring next month, the UFC is bringing its hottest fight to Anaheim. The light heavyweight championship rematch between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones is the biggest fight of the year, and U...

LOS ANGELES >> The Dodgers can’t lose for wiing. On Sunday they fell behind 5-0, largely thanks to Brandon McCarthy’s three wild pitches. They were playing their second baseman (Logan Forsythe) at first, their first baseman (Cody Bellinger) in right, their super-utility man (Kiké Heandez) ...

The Long Beach State men’s volleyball departed the city Monday moing, bound for Columbus, Ohio and the NCAA Final Four. And they just might retu home as national champions.The 49ers are ranked No. 1 in the nation and are proud flag-bearers for the city. How proud?“Let me put it like this,” said 49ers coach Alan Knipe. “We could have gotten a direct flight from LAX or we could leave from the Lo...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> It was all so strikingly familiar, the Olympic Games women’s 1,500 meter final playing out almost step for step as Genzebe Dibaba’s world-record shattering triumph at last year’s World Championships in Beijing. And with two laps remaining the Ethiopian, as if following the same script, took off just as she had a year earlier with a move so bold it was mind boggling. Then in the final 200 meters, Dibaba and the race ran off script. Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon flew past Dibaba and then continued to pull away from the world champion all the way to the finish line for a 4 minute, 8.92 second victory at the Olympic Stadium Tuesday night that raised as many questions as it answe...

By Mark Whicker mwhicker@scng.com @MWhicker03LANG on Twitter LOS ANGELES >> The L.A. Rams fans who have quietly endured these 22 years are a forgiving sort. They’re also a forgetting sort. Somehow they blocked out the final, fruitless years that led up to the Rams’ move to St. Louis. They pretty much filled the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday, but before a lot of them got parked and made it inside, the Cowboys’ Lucky Whitehead was retuing their opening kickoff for a touchdown. Yes, it’s like they never left. Things settled down afterward, and the sight of actual Rams wearing actual hoed helmets seemed more important than the bottom line. And the bottom line tued out fine, with quarterback S...

With much fanfare, a torch and plenty of dramatic lighting, it’s time to kick off the 2016 Rio Olympics. The opening ceremony starts at 8 p.m. Rio time (that’s 4 p.m. Pacific, but the broadcast on NBC doesn’t start until 7:30 p.m.) on Friday. Among the fun activities for those watching at home are judging countries by their athletes’ matching outfits, tweeting about the possible “oops!” moments (like when the fifth Olympic ring failed to light up in Sochi in 2014), and seeing the best (and sometimes the weirdest) performances the host country has to offer. • Related Story: How to watch the Rio Olympics delayed, streamed and socialed Rio’s opening ceremony will feature the contributions of a...

EL SEGUNDO >> The smiles soon formed and laughs quickly erupted. The Lakers had just started their summer-league practice, but it also marked the begiing of coach Luke Walton casting a favorable impression. He participated in rebounding drills with his players. He knocked down some 3-pointers. And he told some jokes. “It’s a different feel,” Lakers forward Larry Nance Jr. said. “But it’s fun.” Few would describe the 2015-16 season that way after the Lakers finished with a franchise-worst 17-65 record. Beyond the results, some Lakers players felt frustration with former Lakers coach Byron Scott offering a ste coaching approach he believed was necessary for a young roster. Walton has ta...

BEVERLY HILLS — The best way Sarah Hammer can describe her sport is organized chaos. The Redondo Beach native and Temecula Chaparral High School graduate will be competing in bicycle track racing at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. It is not just time-trial racing, one or two cyclists on the track at the same time. It’s more like NASCAR short-track racing with 43 cars banging into each other every lap on a half-mile oval. In this case, it is 20 cyclists practically ruing into each other on a 250-meter banked oval track. “It looks ugly,” Hammer said of some aspects of her sport. “People are blown up all over the place. It’s not that fluid like a beautiful team. “So one of the big things is ...