TALKING POINTS

Editor’s Note

Due to an earlier deadline of 8 p.m. throughout the pandemic, some games might not make it into the print edition of your Valley Press. Please find the following full stories on our website at www. avpress.com: MLB World Series: Dodgers vs. Rays.

Mojave Elks Lodge hosting free-throw contest

The Mojave Elks Lodge will be hosting the Elks Hoop Shoot Free Throw Contest on Oct. 25 at 2 p.m.

The scholarship program is for youth ages 8 to 13 and will be held at the new patio at the Mojave Elks Lodge.

Participants should bring their own basketball, although one will be provided if they don’t have one, and will be required to wear a mask when not shooting.

E-mail kpw.elks@ gmail.com or call the lodge office at (661) 824-2240 to pre-register.

Time will be provided to help ensure safer distances.

The child’s name, age, parent or guardian name and a phone number, to coordinate schedule, will be required for preregistration.

Email questions to kpw.elks@gmail.com or visit their website, Mojaveelks.com, to learn more information.

The program has been held for almost 50 years and is dedicated to providing contestants an opportunity to build character and develop skills that aid them in achieving school and life success.

Learn more about the program at www. elks.org/hoopshoot/.

Clippers confirm hiring of Tyronn Lue as coach

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday confirmed their hiring of Tyronn Lue to replace Doc Rivers as coach.

Lue spent last season as an assistant on Rivers’ staff. Rivers coached the Clippers for the last seven seasons and is now guiding the Philadelphia 76ers.

The team will introduce Lue virtually on Wednesday.

Lawrence Frank, the team’s president of basketball operations, said the Clippers conducted a “thorough” search.

“We found that the best choice for our team was already in our building,” Frank said. “He’s one of the great minds in our league, and he’s able to impart his vision to others, because he connects with everybody he meets.”

Lue was on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ staff when he replaced the fired David Blatt during the 2015-16 season. Under Lue’s guidance, the Cavs and LeBron James went on to win their first-ever NBA championship that season, making Lue one of the few rookie coaches in the league to ever lead his

team to a title.

Lue, who won two NBA championships as a player with the Los Angeles Lakers, went 128-83 in parts of four seasons as Cavs coach. He coached the team to the NBA Finals in 2017 and 2018, but both times they lost to Golden State. He was fired after an 0-6 start to the 2018-19 season.

“The pieces we need are in place — committed ownership, smart management, and elite talent, on and off the court, in the NBA’s best market,” Lue said. “My familiarity with the organization, particularly Mr. (Steve) Ballmer and Lawrence, confirmed this is where I want to be.”

Football rules nationally, Dodgers in Los Angeles

NEW YORK — The Los Angeles Dodgers played for their season Sunday night on Fox, the seventh game of the National League Championship Series. Win and go to the World Series, lose and go home.

At the same time, the Los Angeles Rams played a regular season game on NBC against the San Francisco 49ers, a loss that dropped the Rams to a 4-2 record.

There’s no question which game meant more. But for a national audience, the football game was watched by 12.6 million people, while 9.7 million tuned in to see the Dodgers complete a memorable comeback against the Atlanta Braves.

There’s no clearer illustration of how football is the more popular sport, and why networks line up with open checkbooks whenever television rights come due.

Baseball, despite its reputation as the National Pastime, is more of a local attraction. People have a limited interest if their favorite team is not involved.

Case in point: the Los Angeles market. The Nielsen company said that in that city, 7.6 percent of the homes with televisions watched the Rams on Sunday night. But 18.5 percent of L.A. TV homes were tuned in to the Dodgers.

Indiana Pacers tab Raptors assistant Nate Bjorkgren as coach

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers hired Nate Bjorkgren as their new coach Tuesday.

Bjorkgren’s hiring ends a two-month search that began when the Pacers fired Nate McMillan on Aug. 26, just weeks after giving McMillan a contract extension. Terms of the deal were not immediately available.

Bjorkgren joins the Pacers after spending the last two seasons on Nick Nurse’s staff in Toronto, where he helped the Raptors capture their first NBA championship in 201819. Bjorkgren was an assistant with the Phoenix Suns from 2015-17 and spent four seasons as a G-League head coach.

Murray has happy homecoming, Cards cruise past Cowboys 3810

ARLINGTON, Texas — Kyler Murray accounted for three touchdowns in his first game back home as a pro, Ezekiel Elliott set up the first two Arizona TDs with fumbles and the Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys 38-10 on Monday night.

The speedy quarterback who won three high school championships and a Big 12 title at the home of the Cowboys improved to 7-0 as a starter at AT&T Stadium, throwing for two scores despite a rough start through the air and rushing for 74 yards and a TD.

It was the “Monday Night Football” debut for Murray, a star in high school football-obsessed Texas while playing in the Dallas suburbs, and Kliff Kingsbury, who also had a happy first trip to his native Texas as an NFL coach.

Fired after six seasons at Texas Tech in 2018 without any winning records in Big 12 games, Kingsbury was hired by Arizona soon after and has the Cardinals (4-2) tied for second place in the tough NFC West. Arizona is above .500 this late in the season for the first time since 2015, its most recent playoff year.

New Mexico/Colorado State game canceled

The Mountain West football game between New Mexico and Colorado State has been canceled due to COVID-19.

The Lobos were scheduled to play the Rams on Saturday in Fort Collins, Colorado, but there’s a prevalence of the virus in the New Mexico county of Bernalillo. The league said in a statement released Tuesday that “in accordance with state guidelines, the University of New Mexico is unable to participate in the scheduled football game.”

There is no plan to reschedule the game.

Man United wins again at PSG; Messi scores in Barca rout

Marcus Rashford sprinted toward the corner flag inside an empty Parc des Princes and slid on his knees in celebration, just like two seasons ago.

Another trip to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. Another late winner for the Manchester United striker.

In a heavyweight contest on the opening night of the group stage, United reproduced its stunning exploits from the 2018-19 competition by beating PSG away thanks to Rashford’s 87th-minute strike in a 2-1 win on Tuesday.

It was an eerily similar scenario to 18 months ago, when United arrived in the French capital heavily depleted and 2-0 down from the first leg of the teams’ last-16 match. It was Rashford who clinched an unlikely 3-1 win — and progress to the quarterfinals — with a stoppage-time penalty.

PSG, last season’s beaten finalist, already has work to do if the Qatar-owned team is to realize its long-held ambition of being European champion for the first time.

Lionel Messi’s Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus are up and running already, though.

Messi scored a penalty to set Barca on its way to a 5-1 win over Hungarian outsider Ferencváros as the Spanish team began the rebuild of its reputation in Europe’s elite competition, two months after an embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals last season.

Ronaldo was missing for Juventus after testing positive for the coronavirus last week, but the Italian champion had a worthy replacement in Alvaro Morata as the striker scored twice in a 2-0 win at Dynamo Kyiv.