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From Dan Woike: Seven times.

Since the Lakers listlessly began their post-All-Star break stretch with a disappointing loss against Charlotte, they’ve played seven times.

Seven times in 13 days.

They won in Portland, they dominated in Denver. They beat the Mavericks, they bested the Timberwolves and took care of the Clippers twice. And Tuesday, on a night where some kind of letup felt like a possibility if not an all-out likelihood, they dominated New Orleans 136-115 after the Pelicans won four of their previous five.

It’s the Lakers longest winning streak of the season.

“We know what we want to do every night,” LeBron James said.

Energy and complacency were never issues for them Tuesday, not with Luka Doncic skipping after made threes and posing after no-look passes, not with James making history and then making big play after big play and not with the Lakers, once again, playing with the kind of full-throttle effort that has them in second place in the Western Conference.

Kevin Durant scored 34 points, Devin Booker added 17 and the Phoenix Suns rallied from a 23-point deficit late in the third quarter to beat the Clippers 119-117 on Tuesday night.

The Suns trailed by 19 entering the fourth but came all the way back thanks to big buckets from Durant and backup guard Collin Gillespie. Phoenix had a 43-22 advantage in the fourth, reviving its playoff hopes.

Gillespie scored 10 points on four-of-six shooting, including two for three from three-point range, to give the Suns a much-needed spark in the second half. Nick Richards added 16 points on eight-of-10 shooting.

From Ryan Kartje: After a stellar season that included a Big Ten regular season championship, USC forward JuJu Watkins has been named Big Ten Player of the Year and the Trojans’ Lindsay Gottlieb earned coach of the year honors following a vote among league coaches and media members.

Kiki Iriafen, who transferred to USC from Stanford last spring to team with Watkins, joined her on the All-Big Ten first team after a season in which she averaged 18.1 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

Watkins and senior Rayah Marshall were named to the Big Ten’s All-Defensive team, while freshman Kennedy Smith earned All-Freshman team honors. Marshall and Smith also earned All-Big Ten honorable mentions.

UCLA center Lauren Betts earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honors and was named to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team, while fellow Bruin Janiah Barker earned Big Ten Sixth Person of the Year.

Betts joined UCLA’s Kiki Rice on the All-Big Ten first team. UCLA’s Londynn Jones earned league honorable mention honors.

From Jack Harris: It all came as advertised.

The 99-mph heat. The late-diving, hard-biting splitter. The overwhelming, if still raw, stuff that many expect will make him a future ace … if not more.

In his first official Major League Baseball contest, in the Dodgers’ 4-2 win against the Cincinnati Reds in Cactus League play at Camelback Ranch, 23-year-old phenom Roki Sasaki displayed all the tools that made him such a coveted commodity coming over from Japan this offseason.

He pitched three scoreless innings. He recorded five strikeouts. And he flashed seemingly endless potential, in both the short and long-term.

“We were all kind of waiting to see how he manages his emotions under the lights, first big league game,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And I thought he was fantastic.”

From Gary Klein: The Rams have agreed to trade offensive lineman Jonah Jackson to the Chicago Bears, a person with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday.

The Rams will receive a 2025 sixth-round pick for Jackson, and the Bears will absorb Jackson’s salary, said the person, who requested anonymity because the deal has not been finalized. The trade cannot be finalized until after the new league year starts March 12.

Jackson’s tenure with the Rams lasted one injury-plagued season. He played in only four games.

From Kevin Baxter: When defender Christie Pearce was roaming the backline for the women’s national soccer team, she lived by a simple adage.

“If we score, we might win,” she said. “If they never score, we can’t lose.”

For the most part that worked, with the U.S. losing just 20 times in the 311 games Pearce played in, more than half of them ending in clean sheets.

Pearce’s philosophy is now one LAFC appears to have adopted. In four of the five matches the team has played this season, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris hasn’t conceded a goal. LAFC has won all four.

The latest win came Tuesday, with Denis Bouanga scoring twice in a 3-0 victory over the Columbus Crew in the first leg of a round of 16 CONCACAF Champions Cup playoff at BMO Stadium. The second and deciding leg will be played March 11 in Columbus with the winner advancing on aggregate goals.

Mason McTavish had a pair of goals and Jackson LaCombe and Cutter Gauthier each had three assists as the Ducks scored four goals in the final eight minutes of the first period en route to a 6-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.

Leo Carlsson, Sam Colangelo, Ryan Strome and Alex Killorn also scored for the Ducks, who have won two of their last three. Netminder Lukas Dostal made 32 saves.

Defenseman LaCombe extended his point streak to six games.

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1924 — Frank Carauna of Buffalo becomes the first to bowl two straight perfect 300 games. Carauna throws five strikes to open his third game, giving him 29 straight strikes.

1931 — WGL radio broadcasts the first game of the American Basketball League championship series. The Brooklyn Visitations beat the Fort Wayne Hoosiers 14-10 in the first pro basketball game to be broadcast live on radio.

1960 — Carol Heiss wins the ladies title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver.

1965 — Ernest Terrell wins the world heavyweight title with a unanimous 15-round decision over Eddie Machen in Chicago.

1973 — New York Yankee pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich announce that they’ve swapped wives and children.

1981 — Scott Hamilton wins the men’s title at the World Figure Skating Championships held in Hartford, Conn.

1985 — Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders scores his 50th goal, becoming the first NHL player to score 50 goals in eight consecutive seasons.

2004 — Ottawa and Philadelphia combine for an NHL-record 419 penalty minutes, with the Flyers setting a single-team mark with 213. There are five consecutive brawls in the final two minutes, including one involving both goalies. The previous record for penalty minutes was 406 by the Minnesota North Stars and Boston Bruins in 1981. The Flyers beat the Senators 5-3.

2016 — Makai Mason scores 22 points to lead Yale to a 71-55 victory over Columbia, clinching the Bulldogs’ first NCAA Men’s Tournament bid since 1962. The Bulldogs shared the Ivy championship last year with Harvard, but lost the playoff game with the Crimson. The win ends the second longest NCAA drought of any team that has made the tournament previously.

2016 — Clemson beats Boston College 66-50, completing the Eagles’ winless regular season in Atlantic Coast Conference play. The Eagles (7-24, 0-18) are the first men’s ACC team to go winless in their conference regular-season games since Maryland went 0-14 in 1986-87. Worse, BC’s football team went 0-8 in league play, making the school the first in ACC history to go winless in both sports in the same academic year.

Page 2

Seven times.

Since the Lakers listlessly began their post-All-Star break stretch with a disappointing loss against Charlotte, they’ve played seven times.

Seven times in 13 days.

They won in Portland, they dominated in Denver. They beat the Mavericks, they bested the Timberwolves and took care of the Clippers twice. And Tuesday, on a night where some kind of letup felt like a possibility if not an all-out likelihood, they dominated New Orleans 136-115 after the Pelicans won four of their previous five.

It’s the Lakers longest winning streak of the season.

“We know what we want to do every night,” LeBron James said.

Energy and complacency were never issues for them Tuesday, not with Luka Doncic skipping after made threes and posing after no-look passes, not with James making history and then making big play after big play and not with the Lakers, once again, playing with the kind of full-throttle effort that has them in second place in the Western Conference.

Doncic made six threes, including three straight during one wild stretch of dominance in the first quarter, on his way to 30 points. And for as much as his shot-making knocked the Pelicans back early, his passing put them away. He found Jaxson Hayes over and over again at the rim for easy lobs and he swung to the open corner shooter whenever the rim was covered.

His 15 assists tied a season high.

James, who entered the game one point shy of 50,000 total in regular season and playoff scoring, got across the threshold with a first quarter three before making four more. He scored 34 to lead the Lakers, along with eight rebounds and six assists, either he or Doncic perfectly picking the opposition apart at all times.

“In order for us to be the team ultimately we need to be, the ball needs to be in Luka’s hands,” James said. “And then when Luka sits down, the ball can be in my hands or be AR’s hands when he gets back. But I’m very comfortable playing off the ball and finding my spots, running the floor, getting the outlet pass from Luka, being on the backside of the defense if he’s either being blitzed in pick-and-rolls or switched in pick-and-rolls. He attracts so many eyes and bodies.

“I’ve been very blessed to be able to be adaptable to whatever team I’ve been on throughout my career, to be able to change. And this is another instance and I’m looking forward to that.”

Fittingly, Doncic got the assist on James’ milestone bucket.

“Yeah, it’s amazing,” Doncic said. “Watching him do this stuff at this age, it’s just unbelievable like 50k points... it’s I can’t even explain how insane that is. He might get to 70k, you never know.”

The Lakers, still without Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves, got 13 points from Dalton Knecht and 12 each from Jared Vanderbilt and Shake Milton.

Zion Williamson led New Orleans with 37 points, but the Lakers flew around the court and stifled everyone else. And even though they turned the ball over 15 times for 24 Pelican points, the game was never really in danger, particularly late as James and Doncic were much too good.

“Tonight, we made three different adjustments on (Williamson), didn’t work. He was that good tonight. We didn’t get discouraged,” JJ Redick said. “It didn’t allow us to get frustrated offensively. It didn’t take us out of our execution. We stayed very connected. Even with some turnovers, I just thought our approach to the game was really good tonight.”

And their talent — it’s looking like it might be too much for most teams to handle.

With Doncic on the court Tuesday, the Lakers were 37 points better than the Pelicans, the Lakers figuring him out as much as he’s figuring out the Lakers.

“I think it’s getting better and better.,” Doncic said. “…And it’s just, it’s about talking about things, what things I like, what things they like, and what’s going to make it easier to win.”

The team wraps their six-game homestand Thursday with another big game, this one against the New York Knicks. Reaves, who was questionable to play Tuesday before being downgraded, could return before the team heads out for a four-game trip.

“I’m still getting that rhythm,” Doncic said. “But at the end of the day, it’s about winning games and we’re doing that now and we can’t relax at all.”