Page 6 April 23, 2015 TORRANCE TRIBUNE MAXINE’S CAFÉ & GRILLE Appetizers, Salads, Burgers, Sandwiches, Pizzas. Made Fresh Daily! OPEN SOON FOR BREAKFAST! LIVE MUSIC Thursday & Friday KARAOKE Wednesday & Saturday Evenings Hours for Open Lanes Monday - Thursday ...............9AM to Midnight Friday & Saturday ........................9AM to 2AM Sunday.............. ....................8AM to Midnight 24600 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance 310.326.5120 pvbowl.com Lakers Season Ends How It Began By Adam Serrao Losing. That’s what the Lakers did best during the 2014-2015 NBA season that ended last Wednesday night with a 122-99 loss to the Sacramento Kings at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Not only did the Lakers finish off their worst season in franchise history with 61 losses on the year, but the team also lost their rookie Julius Randle to injury “There’s nowhere to go but up for the Lakers now, though last year we thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse when the Lakers finished at 27-55.” and lost Kobe Bryant once again: the Lakers even lost at winning this year. It was a rough year for fans of the Lakers and for the team itself, which lost its first five games of the season back in late October and early November. With another three-game losing streak to close out the season, the Lakers finished the season just the way it began, leaving everyone to wonder whether or not there is any hope for the future of this once prestigious franchise at all. With golden championship banners hanging from the rafters and all of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood that surrounds, a Los Angeles Lakers team of nobodies and castoffs finished off the regular season dressed in purple and gold. Almost as if it was Halloween all over again, faces that were almost unrecognizable donned the purple and gold once worn by all-time greats and Hall of Famers like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and Wilt Chamberlain. My, how these Lakers have come a long way. Magic and the Showtime Lakers could have won 21 games with their hands tied behind their backs and blindfolded, just to bring the crowd to their feet in an ovation once again. Well, this year there weren’t many ovations at the Staple Center and what was left of the crowd at Staples Center was rarely brought to its feet, if ever. At least, for now, it’s over. The optimism that inevitably comes with every Lakers offseason can now begin anew as fans dream of what the team may possibly look like next year. “It obviously doesn’t sit well with me,” said head coach Byron Scott, who was hired on to coach a team that he knew would be bad. “I don’t like the sound of that,” he said referring to the 16-time NBA championship franchise’s worst season ever in the history of its existence. “But it also makes for a remarkable story when we turn this around as well.” There’s nowhere to go but up for the Lakers now, though last year we thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse when the Lakers finished at 27-55. With a 21-win season this year, not only did the Lakers get worse, but they also missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year for the first time since 1976 - the team’s worst two-year stretch in all 67 seasons of existence. “It’s embarrassing, but tough times build character,” said Lakers forward Ryan Kelly. Tough times for the Lakers used to be missing the NBA Finals, not finishing as the fourth worst team in the league. In order to get better, you have to get worse, to look at things optimistically. It’s hard to believe that just five years ago, in 2010, the Lakers won their last championship. It’s also hard to believe, however, that they will be back to anywhere near that same type of championship caliber anytime soon. Expect to see a completely different roster once again, though. The only players contractually guaranteed to be back are Bryant, Nick Young, Randle and Kelly. Say goodbye to Jeremy Lin, say goodbye to Carlos Boozer and say goodbye to Jordan Hill. All three of those players will take their mediocre talent to the next most willing team to hand out money in order to fill out a roster. As the team’s lone bright spot this past year, you will also certainly see Jordan Clarkson back. A team that can keep Clarkson, Bryant and Randle all on the court and healthy for at least 82 games sounds like the beginnings of a pretty decent team - at least compared to this year’s standards. In addition to Randle, Clarkson and what will hopefully be another high draft pick in this year’s NBA Draft, the Lakers will have a lot of money to spend on free agents, as they did last year. Last year, they chose not to spend much. This year, the free agent crop is ripe for the picking and apparently the Lakers won’t be shy about spending. Marc Gasol, Greg Monroe, Kevin Love, and Rajon Rondo, just to name a few, will be on the free agent market and could all fit in nicely with the Lakers. If you disagree, just look at what the team was working with this year. See? They’d all be upgrades. The Lakers have resisted the urge to just throw money at their problems to solve them thus far, but this year they will have to spend that money before NBA’s new national TV contract with Turner and Disney hits in 2016, increasing the salary cap for every team in the league. “Two years from now, it looks like almost every team in the league is going to have cap room,” Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak explained. “We do have a lot of cap room this summer. You can look at that as a strategic advantage, yeah.” It would be about time the Lakers had an advantage at anything, but it seems all signs are pointing to this offseason to get things turned around for the once prestigious franchise and that can make for an entertaining time for fans. Money will be spent, more young talent will be acquired and groomed and before you know it, the Lakers should be back to being the Lakers again as long as they avoid another Steve Nash, Dwight Howard debacle. Clearly, the Lakers have bottomed out with their worst season ever. If they stay bottomed out, it may be time for the Buss’s to think about leaving office. But with the worst season ever officially done with and in the books, everyone can now start looking forward to an offseason that could and should be filled with promise for the purple and gold. • Burkley & Brandlin LLP A T T O R N E Y S A T L AW Living Trusts/Wills, Probate, Employment Law, Personal Injury Trust and Estates Litigation, Business Litigation, Civil Litigation 310-540-6000 *AV Rated (Highest) Martindale - Hubbell / **Certified Specialist Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization Sweet, Sweet Revenge for South By Adam Serrao Anyone who follows the Torrance Tartars or High School baseball here in the city of Torrance knows that head coach Ollie Turner and his baseball team completed a 27-8 season en-route to the CIF-Southern Section Division 4 championship last year. That’s right, the Pioneer League champion Tartars turned into CIF champions. What you may not remember, however, is how Torrance got there. An 11-0 victory over their cross-town rival Spartans from South High not only captured the crown for Torrance, but ended South’s season in the very last game possible. Ever since, head coach Grady Sain and his team have been looking for revenge. Last Wednesday afternoon at Kendall Field in Torrance, that time for South High had finally come. With a 10-3 shellacking of the Tartars, the Spartans not only exacted revenge, but went on to sweep Torrance in a two-game set that kept the Tartars season down in the dumps while simultaneously elevating South towards the top of the Pioneer League standings. Last Wednesday was the first matchup between to the two bitter rivals from the city of Torrance since they last met each other in the CIF championship game a little less than a year ago. In that game, South was blanked, failing to bring even one run to the plate on the day. This game took on a much different tone. With two runs in the first inning, the Spartans jumped out to an early lead. It wasn’t long, however, before Torrance battled back. With one run in the third inning and one in the fifth, the score was tied at two runs apiece. “With last year in our minds, we wanted to come back and show what we are made of” said senior catcher for the team, Taylor Carmona. Carmona led a rally in the top of the sixth inning that would serve to break the game open for South. With a twoout single, Carmona got on base in front of Josh Rotuna and James Prendergast to load the bases. RBI singles by JB Guyton and Ryan Ishimaru brought home three runs to extend South’s lead to 5-2. It didn’t help Torrance’s cause that South had their number one pitcher on the mound in Drake Pingel (5-2). Pingel allowed three runs (none earned) on eight hits and had four strikeouts on the day, limiting Torrance’s offensive abilities throughout the game. “He was just gutsy,” coach Sain said of his pitcher. Pingel’s efforts allowed the Spartans to grow an even bigger lead when the team banged out five runs in the top of the seventh inning. Before you knew it, it was 10-3 and the Spartans had exacted the revenge that they have so patiently waited for. Guyton went 2 for 4 with two RBI’s for South as his teammates Rotuna and Evan Brock also had great days, going 2 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI and 2 for 3 with an RBI and one run scored, respectively. To add insult to injury, the Spartans came back two days later in the second game of the two-game stint against their arch rivals and beat the Tartars again by a score of 5-2. This time, it was Ishimaru who led the way on offense tallying a 2 for 3 day with two RBI’s. Pitcher Nick Beardsley allowed two earned on six hits with five strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings. The sweep adds to an already ugly season for the Tartars (3-16, 0-2) who are not only still struggling to get their first league win of the season after their championship season, but are also riding a six game losing streak after going just 3-14 in nonleague action. That Spartans (12-5, 2-0), on the other hand, have now won five of their last six games after going 10-5 in nonleague play. In a tight battle with the West High Warriors for first place in the division, South looks to be in a perfect position for this stage of the season. West High The West High Warriors have shown no signs of slowing down midway through the season. A Pioneer League opening round matchup against the Leuzinger Olympians was met with great delight as the Warriors pounced on their league rivals from the opening pitch and never looked back from there. In the two game series, West allowed only one run while scoring 38 on their opponents. In game one, the Warriors put together eight runs in the first inning, nine in the second and seven in the fourth on the way to a 25-0 route. Game two was much of the same, just to a lesser extent as West jumped on Leuzinger from the start with five runs in the first and four in the sixth on the way to a 13-1 victory and two-game sweep. The Warriors (13-6, 2-0) remain atop the Pioneer League division in their first year as contestants in the league, just ahead of South High. League play has just begun, so a long, grueling season, full of possibilities awaits. North High The North High Saxons did their best job to imitate the Warriors in their first two games of league play showing that they, too, are for real this season. In a two-game stretch against the Centennial Apaches, the Saxons completely shutout their opponents See South, page 10
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