Morning Wrap: Are the Lakers in trouble after Game 1 loss? Dodgers win seventh straight

The Morning Wrap shares the day’s top five stories from our reporters at the Southern California Newspaper Group. … Sign up to have our top sports stories delivered to your inbox with our daily newsletters

ONE: The Trail Blazers continued to be one of the hottest teams in the Orland bubble, shocking the Lakers in Tuesday’s playoff opener with a flurry down the stretch to win 100-93 to take Game 1 of the best-of-seven series despite a historic triple double from LeBron James, explains Lakers beat reporter Kyle Goon. For video highlights and social media reaction from last night’s game, watch our game thread.

Next game: Trail Blazers vs. Lakers, Game 2, Thursday, 6 p.m. (Blazers leads best of seven series, 1-0)

TWO: The Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Mariners on Tuesday was sigficant because it was their seventh consecutive win, which matches their longest winning streak since 2019 during their 106-win season, reporter Bill Plunkett writes. And it was another strong outing from young pitcher Tony Gonsolin, who threw six strong innings.

Next game: Dodgers at Mariners, today, 6:40 p.m.

What manager Dave Roberts said: “Tony is doing a great job of controlling what he can control and making good on opportunities. Obviously Tony did everything he can do and that’s most important. I think we’ve got some difficult decisions obviously with Ross (Stripling) in the rotation, trying to get him untracked, with Alex (Wood) coming back at some point, with a taxed bullpen. There’s things we’ve got to discuss internally. We’ll do what’s best for all of us. But obviously looking out, whether it’s short term or longer term, Tony is certainly going to be a big part of this.”

THREE: Rams quarterback Jared Goff took his offseason seriously, and looked good in a padded-pads practice on Tuesday, writes Kevin Modesti. “I may have put on a couple of pounds,” he said when asked how he feels, adding with a laugh. “I don’t know if that’s muscle or a couple of cheeseburgers.”

FOUR: The Clippers took Game 1 against the Dallas Mavericks in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series and think there’s room for improvement when they take on the Mavericks in Game 2, reporter Mirjam Swanson explains. Also, read what Montrezl Harrell had to say about his grandmother, who passed away recently.

FIVE: Columnist Mark Whicker asks now that the high school football schedules are set for Janauary can high schools bring it to life when the time arrives. He spoke to two local coaches, and this is what they said …

“We had 160 kids when we started and they were chomping at the bit,” said Dan O’Shea, the coach at Corona del Mar.

“When we started, we had 70 out there,” said Dameon Porter, the coach at Crespi. “Not too long after that, we had 90.”

Whicker: The schedule is set. Can the high schools bring it to life?