Sports Report: Meet the Kings' new coach (same as his predecessor)

Hello, I'm your host, Houston Mitchell, and I'll get straight to the news.

Jim Hiller has stuck to the same strict, defense-heavy philosophy that has led the Kings to the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs each of the past three seasons but never further.

General manager Rob Blake introduced Hiller as the Kings' official head coach on Thursday. Hiller replaces Todd McLellan, who was fired in February, and was retained by the former Kings assistant coach who led the team to three straight third-place finishes in the Pacific Division and three straight early postseason losses.

“The reason Jim always seemed to come out on top was because we spent time together,” Blake said. “We watched him work… [and we’re] I'm very happy with the way Jim is approaching the assignments and I have a lot of confidence in him. His presence in front of the group is very important to us. I'm confident that he can command the room and impress the points we make, the direction we want to go together, he can impress that.”

The return of Blake and Hiller after weeks of speculation about their futures is not clear as a bounce back or rebuild for the Kings, who struggled in the playoffs after being eliminated by Edmonton in five games on May 1.

The general manager and first-time head coach has stuck with a style that employs a 1-3-1 neutral zone trap, a system that has made the Kings a nightmare for opponents, but players have grown frustrated with the rigid strategy at times, and even Hiller has admitted it's hindering the Kings' offensive potential.

“We have begun the process of re-evaluating everything about how we play,” Hiller said. “We are the top defensive team in the National Hockey League and have been for years. The identity of the LA Kings is as a checking team that is difficult for opponents to play against. We feel we have to find areas where we can be more effective offensively, but not at the expense of our identity and what we have built over time.”

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JJ Redick Poll

5,598 votes were received for the question, “Should JJ Redick be the next head coach of the Lakers?”

Yes, 14.4%
No, 85.6%

NBA Playoff Schedule

Pacific Standard Time

Conference Finals

Western Conference

#3 Minnesota vs. #5 Dallas
Dallas 108, Minnesota 105 (box score)
Friday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., TNT
Sunday, Dallas, 5 p.m., TNT
Tuesday, Dallas, 5:30 p.m., TNT
* Thursday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., TNT
*Saturday, June 1, Dallas, 5:30 p.m., TNT
*Monday, June 3, Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., TNT

Eastern Conference

#1 Boston vs #6 Indiana
Boston 133, Indiana 128 (OT) (Box Score)
Boston 126, Indiana 110 (box score)
Indianapolis, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday, Indiana, 5 p.m., ESPN
*Wednesday, Boston, 5 p.m., ESPN
*Friday, May 31, Indianapolis, 5 p.m., ESPN
*Sunday, June 2, Boston, 5 p.m., ESPN

NBA Finals

Game 1: Thursday, June 6, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Game 2: Sunday, June 9, 5 p.m., ABC
Game 3: Wednesday, June 12, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Game 4: Friday, June 14, 5:30 p.m., ABC
*Game 5: Monday, June 17, 5:30 p.m., ABC
*Game 6: Thursday, June 20, 5:30 p.m., ABC
*Game 7: Sunday, June 23, 5 p.m., ABC

*-If necessary

Dodgers

From Mike DiGiovanna: James Paxton enters Friday night's game against Cincinnati with a 5-0 record and a 2.84 ERA. That's pretty impressive considering the Dodgers left-hander has the same number of walks (24) and strikeouts (24) in 44⅓ innings over his first eight games, and Paxton is ready to send teams searching for one of his best second-string pitches.

“I really don't know where it is,” Paxton said of the cut fastball that was a key part of his three-pitch repertoire for most of his 11-year career until this season. “I'm trying to figure it out. I've been playing catch, I've been throwing it in the bullpen, but I just haven't found it yet.”

Paxton's lively four-seam fastball, which averaged 97.5 mph at its peak in 2016, has consistently been his best pitch, throwing it 62% of the time over his career, and in addition to his fastball, he also throws a knuckle curveball 19% of the time and a cutter 13% of the time.

Former black players play tribute at Negro League All-Star Game on Memorial Day weekend

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MLB Score

MLB standings

UCLA Softball

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Maya Brady's hot hitting has put UCLA one win away from returning to the Women's College World Championship.

The Pac-12 player of the year for the second straight season went 3-for-4 with two home runs in UCLA's 8-0, six-inning win over No. 11 Georgia on Thursday in the first game of the Los Angeles Super Regional. The No. 6 Bruins (41-10) can clinch a berth in the World Series with a win in the best-of-three Super Regional, which begins Friday at 7 p.m. at Easton Stadium.

Brady is 9-for-12 with six extra-base hits and five RBIs in four postseason games, including UCLA's three-game win in the regional round last weekend. Brady hit a walk-off two-run single in the bottom of the sixth inning for Savannah Paula to help UCLA secure its first mercy rule win in the Super Regional round since 2010.

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soccer

From Kevin Baxter: The women's national soccer team hasn't won an Olympic Games in 12 years, the longest drought in history, but for Emma Hayes, the player tasked with leading the United States back to the top of the medal podium, her memories of the 2012 Games have little to do with gold.

The Olympics were in Britain that year, and Hayes' father, Syd, was enamored with the American players – so much so that when Hayes became head coach of the Chelsea women's team that summer, he encouraged her to remake British football on an American basis.

She did it, winning 16 trophies. With few chances left to win in England, Hayes became a candidate for the U.S. coaching post when it opened up last year. That led to another conversation with her father, shortly before his death in September.

This time, he urged her to remake the U.S. team on the Chelsea model.

“My last conversation with my dad was on a 23-minute voice memo, and it was all about 2012,” Hayes said Thursday, midway through his first official day as the national team coach. “At the end he said, 'You're going to take it, right?'”

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NCAA

The NCAA and the nation's top five conferences agreed to pay roughly $2.8 billion to settle multiple antitrust lawsuits, a landmark decision that could lay the groundwork for a groundbreaking revenue-sharing model that could result in millions of dollars being paid directly to athletes starting as early as the fall semester of 2025.

The agreement must be approved by the federal judge overseeing the case and could be challenged, but if it goes through, it would usher in a new era in college sports, where players will be compensated similarly to their professional counterparts and schools will be able to use direct payments to attract talent.

“There's no question about it. This is a big leap,” said Rep. Tom McMillen, a former Maryland basketball player who led a group of college athletic directors.

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NHL Playoff Schedule

Pacific Standard Time

Conference Finals

Western Conference
C1 Dallas vs. P2 Edmonton
Edmonton 3, Dallas 2 (2 OT) (box score)
Saturday, Dallas, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday, Edmonton, 5:30 p.m., TNT
Wednesday, Edmonton, 5:30 p.m., TNT
*Friday, May 31, Dallas, TBA, TNT
*Sunday, June 2, Edmonton, TBA, TNT
*Tuesday, June 4, Dallas, TBA, TNT

Eastern Conference
M1 New York Rangers vs. A1 Florida
Florida 3, New York 0 (box score)
Friday, New York, 5 p.m., ESPN
Sunday, Florida, noon, ABC
Tuesday, Florida, 5 p.m., ESPN
* Thursday, New York, 5 p.m., ESPN
*Saturday, June 1, Florida, 5 p.m., ABC
*Monday, June 3, New York, 5pm, ESPN

*-If necessary

Sports Day

1926 – Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi sets the 3000m world record (8 minutes 25.4 seconds) in Berlin.

1935 – In major league baseball's first night game, the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 in front of 25,000 fans in Cincinnati.

1936 – Tony Lazzeri of the New York Yankees drives in a 25-2 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics, scoring 11 runs with a triple and three home runs, two of which were grand slams.

1967 – The AFL grants a franchise to the Cincinnati Bengals.

1976 – Muhammad Ali wins the heavyweight boxing title with a fifth-round TKO of Richard Dunne in Munich.

1980 – Bobby Nystrom's overtime goal leads the New York Islanders to a 5-4 Game 6 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers to win their first Stanley Cup.

1981 — The Indianapolis 500 race was marked by controversy when Mario Andretti, who was second to Bobby Unser, was declared the winner because Unser violated the rules while slowing late in the race. The decision was later overturned and Unser was given credit for the win, but Unser was fined $40,000.

1986 – The Montreal Canadiens defeat the Calgary Flames, 4-3, in five games to win their 23rd Stanley Cup.

1987 — Indianapolis 500: Al Unser Sr., at age 47 and now a part-time driver, won his record-tying fourth Indy title in a major upset.

1987 – LPGA Women's Golf Championship, Jack Nicklaus GC: Jane Geddes wins by one stroke over runner-up Betsy King.

1988 – Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Edmonton Oilers and the Boston Bruins was postponed due to a power outage at the Boston Garden with the score tied at 3-3 and 3 minutes, 23 seconds remaining in the second period.

1990 – The Edmonton Oilers defeat the Bruins, 4-1, in Game 5 to win their fifth Stanley Cup in seven seasons.

1992 – Al Unser Jr. had the closest finish of all time, winning the Indianapolis 500 by 43-thousandths of a second, just half a car length, over Scott Goodyear. Lynn St. James, the second woman to race at Indy, finished 11th.

1998 — Indianapolis 500: Former American F1 driver Eddie Cheever Jr. finishes three seconds ahead of 1996 winner Buddy Lazier. The first Indy fully sanctioned by the IRL.

2009 – Brazil's Hélio Castroneves becomes the ninth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 three times.

2015 — Senior PGA Championship, French Lick Resort: Defending champion Colin Montgomerie won by four strokes over Esteban Toledo.

The Associated Press compiled