Liberty drops 8th in a row

Jonquel Jones scored 18 points

13 rebounds, DeWanna Bonner also scored 18 points and the WNBA-leading Connecticut Sun beat the Liberty, 98-69, on Wednesday night for its 13th straight victory.

Jones completed her league-leading 17th double-double in the third quarter.

Natasha Howard scored 25 points with eight rebounds for the Liberty (11-20), which has lost eight games in a row. Michaela Onyenwere added 14 points, and Sabrina Ionescu 12.

FIZ NOW LAKERS’ NO. 2

Former Knicks coach David Fizdale has joined his hometown Lakers as the lead assistant coach on Frank Vogel’s staff.

The Lakers also hired John Lucas III as an assistant coach and named Roger Sancho their head athletic trainer Wednesday.

Fizdale was the Grizzlies’ coach for 101 games from May 2016 until November 2017, leading them to the playoffs in his only full season. He took the top job with the Knicks in May 2018, but was fired in December 2019 after the team got off to a 4-18 start.

Before taking over the Grizzlies, Fizdale was an assistant coach for 13 seasons at Miami, Atlanta and Golden State.

Fizdale, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, fills the lead assistant vacancy created on the Lakers’ staff in June when Jason Kidd left to become the Mavericks’ coach.

MEYER: I’M STAYING

Urban Meyer rarely, if ever, experienced anything like this at Ohio State or Florida.

Ten penalties, six dropped passes, three turnovers, down 20 at halftime. Confusion on the sideline and in the huddle.

The Jaguars essentially looked unprepared in Meyer’s NFL debut, a 37-21 loss at Houston on Sunday. It was such a shoddy performance against another team presumed to be one of the league’s worst that critics wondered whether Meyer would stick around long enough to fix the floundering franchise.

And when USC fired coach Clay Helton a day later, speculation swirled about Meyer’s immediate future in Jacksonville.

Meyer responded Wednesday by saying “there’s no chance” he takes the Trojans job.