Lakers have work to do – Orange County Register

The world according to Jim:

• Lakers fans, rest easy. The Boston Celtics are still stuck at 17 championships, as is your team.

(And that guy in the stands the other night who had the BOSTON CELTICS 2022 WORLD CHAMPIONS banner tattooed on his upper arm? I can’t wait to see him fix that mistake.)

But the Golden State Warriors’ six-game triumph, which they wrapped up Thursday night at the TD Garden for their own fourth championship in eight seasons, reminds us that the NBA Finals, once a June pastime in this special city, is still around far away unless the Lakers decision makers – Rob Pelinka and a cast of thousands? – can find things out, and quickly. …

• We will not go into their myriad problems now; there will be plenty of time and space for that later. But consider: The Warriors are back at the top, their resurgence coincides nicely with the return of Klay Thompson after a two-and-a-half year injury layoff, and their big three Thompson, Steph Curry and Draymond Green are surrounded by a young, hungry and efficient core. (The guy they picked #2 in the 2020 draft, big man James Wiseman, is about to return from his own injury layoff.) …

• Meanwhile, Phoenix isn’t going west, nor are Dallas, Denver, or Memphis. And the Clippers with a healthy Kawhi Leonard could potentially be just as scary as any of them. So no, Laker Exceptionalism alone won’t do it. LeBron, AD and (possibly?) Russ will need help.

And the scarier part is that the Celtics core has learned a few lessons this series and could get more than a crack at that 18th title before the Lakers can get there. …

• Can we say that Tony Gonsolin (8-0) and Tyler Anderson (8-0) are the Dodgers’ two aces right now? …

• Remember, they did something together — even at a time when pitching wins are devalued — that Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale didn’t even do in their era of pitching hegemony in the ’60s. None of these Hall of Famers have ever been undefeated at this point in the season; Sandy’s best start was 2-0, four times, while Big D was 3-0 in Brooklyn in 1957, his second season in the big leagues.

Fernando Valenzuela’s 8-0 start with five shutouts in 1981 remains the Dodgers’ gold standard at the start of a season, but that streak ended in May. Burt Hooton and Clayton Kershaw share the franchise record with 12 consecutive wins. …

• Koufax will receive his well-deserved statue in the center field at Dodger Stadium on Saturday morning, but remember this is close: as he recounted in his 1966 autobiography with Ed Linn, he was ready to throw away his kit at the end of the season 1960 when he was 8-13 with a 3.81 ERA and frustrated because he was still going back and forth between starter and reliever. Koufax kept one glove and a pair of spikes “in case I wanted to play softball in the park on Sunday afternoon,” he said, and asked clubhouse man Nobe Kawano to dispose of the rest.

Good for him, and for Dodger fans, he’s reconsidered after a few months in the business world. Sandy’s last five seasons, in case you need a reminder: 129-47, 1.59 ERA, four no-hitters, three Cy Young Awards, three 300 strikeout seasons, and two World Series championships. …

• That’s also in my book, by the way. “Dizziness! An Informal History From Flatbush to Chavez Ravine, now slated for release in early August, is currently available for pre-order and, to my knowledge, is the club’s only story spanning from its beginnings in Brooklyn in 1884 to the end of last season. (And no, I wasn’t there that inaugural season, thank you very much.) …

• Meanwhile, if you’d like to relive a more recent historic season, watch colleague Jeff Fletcher’s “Sho-Time: The Inside Story of Shohei Ohtani and the Greatest Baseball Season Ever Played,” due July 12 should appear. …

• In case you missed it, Apple TV+ and Major League Soccer have struck a $2.5 billion 10-year deal that will completely free the league from over-the-air or cable television starting next season . There will be no local TV shows and everything will be streamed exclusively on the Apple platform, meaning you’ll have to opt for another streaming subscription if you’re into LAFC or the galaxy. …