Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s floral arrangements at their upcoming wedding will be full of locally-sourced flowers and plants!

The royal couple have chosen floral designer Philippa Craddock to create and design the church flowers for their May 19 nuptials, according to Kensington Palace.

Craddock—whose client list includes Kensington Palace and fashion houses Alexander McQueen and Christian Dior—will be in charge of creating the displays at St. George’s Chapel, where the actual ceremony will be held, and at St. George’s Hall at Windsor Castle, where the Queen will host a luncheon for the newly married couple.

Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

The floral designer, who specializes in utilizing seasonal flowers in her work, will be creating the floral displays mostly using foliage from the gardens and parklands of The Crown Estate and Windsor Great Park, according to the palace.

And when possible, Craddock will also be using flowers and plants that are in season and blooming naturally in May, which will include branches of beech, birch, and hornbeam, as well as white garden roses, peonies, and foxgloves.

While the exact designs have yet to be revealed, according to the press release the arrangements will reflect the natural landscapes from which the flowers, plants and branches were taken from

“I am excited and honored to have been chosen by Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle to create and design their wedding flowers,” Craddock said in a press release.

RELATED: Why Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Royal Wedding Could Cost $45 Million

“Working with them has been an absolute pleasure. The process has been highly collaborative, free-flowing, creative and fun. The final designs will represent them as a couple, which I always aim to achieve in my work, with local sourcing, seasonality and sustainability being at the forefront,” she added.

Additionally, according to the press release, the floral designs will include a very sustainable inclusion from the Royal Parks— pollinator-friendly plants, which provide a wonderful habitat for bees.

After the pair tie the knot, Harry and Meghan have arranged for the arrangements to be distributes to various charitable organizations.

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WASHINGTON — 

William B. Taylor Jr., the top U.S. official in Ukraine and a key witness in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, told House investigators about a “nightmare” foreign policy gambit in pursuit of political dirt against Joe Biden that he believed was likely to embolden Russia and how he threatened to resign over it.

House Democrats on Wednesday released a transcript of a closed-door deposition by Taylor, the first witness to provide evidence of a quid pro quo in Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. In his testimony, he recounted for lawmakers last month how Trump empowered his attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to open up an unofficial diplomatic channel with Ukraine.

Taylor described how Trump prevented the release of military aid to Ukraine as he used that back channel to prod the country’s leaders to publicly announce an investigation of Biden, the former vice president and potential 2020 rival to Trump.

Taylor testified that he learned in September from Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, that the aid and a White House visit sought by Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, were both “dependent” on a public statement about an investigation. He worried that demand could embarrass Ukraine and further embolden Russia, he testified.

“The Russians want to know how much support the Ukrainians are going to get in general, but also what kind of support from the Americans,” Taylor told lawmakers. “So the Russians are loving, would love, the humiliation of Zelensky at the hand of the Americans, and would give the Russians a freer hand, and I would quit.”

Explaining to lawmakers his conversation with Sondland, Taylor said he worried about Ukraine making such a statement to satisfy Trump even without a guarantee that the president would eventually release the aid, which is important to the country’s ability to defend itself against incursions by Russia-backed separatists.

The nightmare, Taylor explained, was that Zelensky would mention Burisma, the natural gas company where Biden’s son Hunter served for five years on the board, “get himself in big trouble in [the U.S.] and probably in his country as well, and the security assistance would not be released.”

Democrats in the room for Taylor’s deposition Oct. 22 said it was remarkably “thorough.” The 324-page transcript reveals the detail with which he described key events.

Not surprising, given how central his testimony is to the case, Taylor is scheduled to be the first witness to testify in a public setting Nov. 13 as the impeachment inquiry emerges from behind closed doors after six weeks of witness interviews.

Taylor’s account has now been corroborated by other officials. Sondland amended his testimony this week after claiming that depositions given by other witnesses, especially Taylor, had “refreshed” his memory about telling an aide to Zelensky that the security assistance wouldn’t be delivered until a public statement was made about an investigation.

Taylor described himself as being “alarmed” upon hearing Sept. 1 from Tim Morrison, a National Security Council official at the time, that the aid was contingent on such a statement.

He was similarly disturbed by a subsequent phone call that day with Sondland, who “told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President Zelensky to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election,” he said.

Sondland had “recognized that he had made a mistake” by informing Ukrainian officials that a White House meeting was contingent on a public statement about investigations from Kyiv, even though that was the case, Taylor said.

“Ambassador Sondland said everything was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance. He said that President Trump wanted President Zelensky in a box by making public statement [sic] about ordering such investigations,” he testified.

Taylor was explicit on two issues that are central to the investigation — that Trump was demanding an investigation that could have an effect on the 2020 campaign and that the Ukrainians wanted no part of it.

“It was becoming clear to the Ukrainians that, in order to get this meeting that they wanted, they would have to commit to pursuing these investigations,” Taylor testified.

He said that Ukraine’s former finance minister, Oleksandr Danylyuk, “understood — and I’m sure that he briefed President Zelensky, I’m sure they had this conversation” that “opening those investigations, in particular on Burisma, would have involved Ukraine in the 2020 election campaign. He did not want to do that.”

Taylor, who came out of retirement in June to serve as U.S. envoy to Ukraine, will be the first of two witnesses to repeat their private testimony in a public setting when the impeachment inquiry enters a new, more television-friendly phase next week.

Taylor and George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of State, are scheduled to testify Nov. 13, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) announced Wednesday.

Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled from her post by Trump, is scheduled to testify Nov. 15, also in a public hearing.

Yovanovitch’s initial testimony was released this week.

Schiff, whom Republicans have criticized for presiding over what they claim is a partisan impeachment process, told reporters Wednesday that the public hearings will allow Americans to hear the evidence and “to evaluate the witnesses for themselves, to make their own determinations about the credibility of the witnesses, but also to learn firsthand about the facts of the president’s misconduct.”

Despite the mounting evidence of a quid pro quo, Republicans have continued to defend the president’s actions. In recent days, several GOP senators said that such behavior, however problematic, doesn’t rise to the level of a crime or isn’t an impeachable offense.

On Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, offered a new defense, suggesting that the Trump White House was too inept to execute a quid pro quo.

“What I can tell you about the Trump policy toward the Ukraine, it was incoherent, it depends on who you talk to,” Graham told reporters. “They seem to be incapable of forming a quid pro quo.”

Times staff writer Noah Bierman contributed to this report.

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California’s top court appeared skeptical Wednesday that the Legislature may require presidential primary candidates to disclose not only their tax returns but also their birth certificates and psychiatric records.

During a hearing on a new law requiring presidential primary candidates to produce their tax records, a lawyer representing the state argued the Legislature had the power to impose all sorts of requirements. Though some justices appeared inclined to find some support for the new law, no one on the court embraced the notion that the Legislature had unfettered power.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Jay C. Russell, defending the law, spoke of its expansiveness in response to a question from Justice Joshua Groban.

“Would the Legislature be entitled to impose requirements that candidates produce birth certificate or psychotherapy records or affidavits that they have never committed adultery or been a member of the Communist Party?” Groban asked.

Russell said yes, under the text of a state law, “the Legislature does have plenary power to regulate primary elections.”

He noted, though, that some requirements could run afoul of privacy protections embodied in the state and federal constitutions.

“The Legislature can then tack on any number of additional requirements?” asked an incredulous Justice Ming W. Chin.

“Where does it end?” Chin asked. “Do we get all their high school report cards?”

Even justices whose questions suggested an openness to the tax returns requirement indicated there had to be some limits.

Justice Goodwin Liu told Russell that he seemed to be espousing “a very strange reading” of the law.

Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar suggested that a less expansive reading of the law might have been “enough to win your case.”

In the case before the court, the California Republican Party argued the law violated the California Constitution, which since 1972 has called for an open presidential primary.

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said the Legislature had not even considered the state Constitution in drafting the law.

The Legislature has plenary power “until the Constitution speaks,” she said. She said the court searched the records to determine if the Legislature even consulted the state Constitution.

“We didn’t find anything,” she said. “Did you?”

Even if the state high court upheld the law, it could not be enforced under an order by Sacramento-based U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr.

England ruled in September that the law violated four different sections of the U.S. Constitution in addition to a separate federal law. The state appealed his ruling to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is not likely to decide the case before the deadline for producing tax returns.

Federal courts have the last word on matters of federal law, and the California Supreme Court has the final say on state law issues. If either court blocks the law, it cannot take effect.

In a separate case, a federal appeals court in New York decided earlier this week that Trump’s accountants must turn over his tax returns to a grand jury investigating possible illegal conduct by the president. The Trump administration has said it would appeal that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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The Democratic National Committee has yanked its Dec. 19 presidential primary debate from UCLA in solidarity with labor unions that are engaged in disputes with the university.

Mary Beth Cahill, a senior advisor to the DNC, said the party had asked the debate’s media sponsors, “PBS NewsHour” and Politico, to find an alternative site “in response to concerns raised by the local organized labor community.”

The sixth debate of candidates for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination was scheduled to take place at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.

“With regret,” UCLA said Wednesday in a written statement, “we have agreed to step aside as the site of the debate rather than become a potential distraction during this vitally important time in our country’s history.”

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the nation’s most powerful unions, asked Democratic presidential candidates on Tuesday to honor its three-year boycott on speakers participating in events at UCLA. AFSCME Local 3299, which represents patient care workers, is in protracted contract negotiations with the university system.

Local 3299 praised the DNC on Wednesday for joining its “fight for fair treatment from California’s 3rd largest employer.”

“Just as our next President must work to heal the divisions in our country, they must also work to confront the staggering inequality and mistreatment of low-wage workers that have become all too common in today’s economy,” the local said in a written statement.

In March, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a leading candidate for the party nomination, joined a UCLA picket line of another union, the University Professional and Technical Employees, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America, which represents research and technical workers. Since then, that union has reached a contract with UCLA, according to a representative for the local.

WASHINGTON — 

Off-year election results in three key states — Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky — serve as a flashing red warning light for Republicans worried that President Trump’s deep unpopularity outside rural areas may threaten their grip on the White House, the Senate and numerous state legislatures.

But in Washington, where Republicans are expected to ardently defend Trump when the first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry open next week, GOP lawmakers are unlikely to alter their approach, at least in the short term.

The statewide contests Tuesday inevitably reflected local candidates and conditions. But several races drew high-profile campaigners and millions of dollars in out-of-state contributions, and were widely seen as a test of voter enthusiasm and party momentum one year ahead of the 2020 election.

In many cases, they reflected Republican struggles in suburban areas that once were crucial to GOP advances.

“There are some canaries in the coal mine right now, and we in the party would do ourselves a favor by paying attention,” said Jim Merrill, a Republican consultant based in New Hampshire, where Democrats also made significant gains in local races. Some polls show Trump’s approval ratings have tanked in a state he lost by 0.4 percentage points in 2016.

Republicans sought to cast the apparent loss of the governor’s seat in Kentucky — Republican Matt Bevin trailed Democrat Andy Beshear on Wednesday by 5,100 votes with 100% of returns tallied — as an outlier, the result of an deeply unpopular incumbent who ran a bad race. Republicans won other statewide races there, they note.

But the race also showed the limits of the GOP’s increasing dependence on the president. On Monday, Trump held a raucous election eve rally with Bevin in Lexington, Ky., and sought to nationalize the governor’s race as a referendum on the impeachment battle roiling Washington, and on the president himself.

Trump told cheering supporters at the rally that a Bevin loss would send “a really bad message” and pleaded, “You can’t let that happen to me.” He looked to save face Wednesday, tweeting that the rally had given Bevin “at least 15 points,” a claim at odds with state polls.

For the president’s own reelection race — and for Republicans looking further ahead — the results in Virginia and Pennsylvania were more alarming. Trump lost Virginia in 2016 but pulled an upset in Pennsylvania, long a Democratic bastion.

Despite a scandal in Richmond this year that almost forced out the Democratic governor, Virginia Democrats on Tuesday won control of both chambers of the state Legislature, marking the first time since 1993 that the party will control the governorship and the legislative branch.

And in Philadelphia’s vast suburban counties, Democrats took control of local government in several longtime Republican strongholds, including Delaware County, which Democrats haven’t controlled since the Civil War, and Chester County, which has never had a Democrat-led council in its history.

Josh Holmes, a Republican strategist in Washington who worked for a decade as chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), sees those results as “huge warnings” for Republicans.

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“What we’ve seen in the Trump era is suburban Republicans are a less reliable Republican vote than rural Democrats, and you can get away with it in states like Kentucky,” he said. “But it’s really hard to get away with it in states like Pennsylvania, where you have huge population numbers that just can’t be overcome in rural areas.”

These swing voters tend to be moderate, and Trump still could win them back if he successfully paints his opponent as an extremist who doesn’t reflect their values.

“There is not a single socialist among them, and they are probably horrified by the likes of Elizabeth Warren,” Holmes said. But many are high-income, highly educated and well-informed voters “who obviously have a big problem with the Republican Party right now.”

Some analysts said candidates who forge their own identities while not repudiating Trump — a tricky balance — are in the best position to win in swing states, where a big rally by the president may not matter as much.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Michael Bennet of Colorado, both moderate Democrats running for president, pointed to the win in Kentucky, where Beshear focused on pocketbook issues like healthcare and not the president, as evidence that a centrist candidate who appeals to suburban voters is the key to retaking the White House.

Still, while the election results may ease Democrats’ fears about their impeachment efforts backfiring politically, Republicans are unlikely to alter their calculations about sticking with the president.

Not one GOP House member voted last week for a Democratic resolution to start the public phase of the process, and Republican senators, who will serve as jurors in a potential trial, have mostly shrugged off mounting evidence that Trump froze $400 million in military aid to Ukraine in an effort to pressure its president to investigate Democrats, including potential 2020 rival Joe Biden.

“Impeachment is reinforcing the views of people who already disapprove of Donald Trump and having no effect on people who already approve of him,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster. “That’s exactly what happened in 1998 with Bill Clinton’s impeachment, where attitudes about it became synonymous with his job approval.”

Impeachment is already “baked in,” with Republicans all but certain to acquit Trump if the House approves articles of impeachment, according to a senior GOP Senate aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments. Because the Democratic-led inquiry looks “nakedly political,” the aide said, it will be “very easy for GOP senators to vote” to leave him in office.

The political concern for Republicans, Ayres said, is in the long run, given that Tuesday’s results show “a reinforcement and even an acceleration” of what became clear in 2017 and 2018 elections: eroding GOP support among millennials and college-educated voters in America’s suburbs.

“In the long run, that’s a real problem for the Republican Party, because groups where we have gotten stronger are declining as a portion of the electorate,” he said. Exit polls in 2016 showed Trump did best among white, non-college-educated voters, and they remain crucial to his base support.

Trump held what amounted to a pep rally to buck up Republicans on Wednesday, inviting senators and top Cabinet officials to the White House to celebrate the more than 150 federal judges confirmed to lifetime appointments in the last three years.

The issue, more than any other, binds the party’s various factions and has helped Trump maintain strong support from Republicans.

Trump singled out senators for tenacity while several paid tribute to him for sticking by Brett M. Kavanaugh during his tumultuous confirmation process for the Supreme Court.

“It’s necessary to be a warrior, frankly,” the president said. “If you’re not, you’ve got a problem.”

WASHINGTON — 

Senate Republicans are beginning to strategize about how they might use an impeachment trial to reshape the narrative in the president’s favor.

Trump’s strongest allies in the Senate are considering ideas such as calling witnesses that might prove embarrassing to Democrats or trying to time the proceeding to interfere with the campaigning of 2020 candidates, particularly in the run-up to the first presidential contest in Iowa.

If impeachment moves from the Democratic-controlled House to the GOP-controlled Senate, the president’s party will have more control over the process. Many see it as an opportunity to allow the president’s lawyers to make a high-profile case to the public.

Some are speculating that they could call witnesses who could shift focus away from Trump’s alleged misconduct, such as former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, whom Trump has falsely accused of corrupt dealings in Ukraine.

And the Senate might even have influence on the 2020 contest. Assuming articles of impeachment are passed in the House by the end of the year, a trial held in January would keep the six senators who are vying for the Democratic nomination tied up in Washington instead of out campaigning in Iowa. That could be a boon to other Democrats seeking the nomination, including Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

“Once it comes over here, it’s in our lap,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “We talk about those things and kind of snicker about it, I suppose: the possibility of it playing out that way, where we’re literally in the middle of voting [in the presidential race and] senators would be stranded here for six days a week.”

All of the senators running for president plan to remain in Washington for any trial, according to the candidates and their campaigns.

Many of the candidates have skipped Senate votes in recent weeks as the presidential contest has picked up steam. But bypassing the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history — particularly when many of the candidates were publicly calling for an impeachment inquiry before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) — would be noticed and judged within the Beltway.

“I’ll be there,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “This is a constitutional responsibility. I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said “of course” she is concerned that a trial would limit her chance to talk to Iowa voters, but that she would stay in Washington. “I will fulfill my responsibility. There’s no question,” she told reporters recently. “I take it very seriously.”

Clinton’s trial lasted five weeks — a length of time that GOP senators speculate is all but unfathomable in today’s political and news environment.

Any amount of time in Washington could put a significant damper on a campaign, particularly because impeachment is not a central concern of Democratic primary voters. That will be particularly true in Iowa, where voters have grown accustomed to face-to-face contact with candidates.

Republicans’ ability to control the timing of a trial may be limited, however. For example, current Senate rules require it take up articles of impeachment the day after they are forwarded from the House, giving Democrats some influence on the calendar. A trial could be delayed, but that might require Democratic support.

Republicans could simply use their majority to change the rules before the trial begins, though such a move has not been openly discussed.

Current rules and precedents are already not very conducive to a campaign schedule. They require the chamber to conduct the trial six days a week and begin at 1 p.m. each day. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) indicated Tuesday that he wants those rules to remain in place. That leaves little time to hop on a flight to Iowa.

Once the trial begins, senators are prohibited from speaking on the Senate floor; they are expected to sit at their desks and write their questions down to be given to the chief justice of the Supreme Court, who would oversee the trial.

Of course, candidates could — and certainly will — do cable television hits from the Senate office buildings to highlight their role in the process. So even though they may lose face time with Iowa voters, they’ll be at the center of a national story that is likely to dominate airwaves and headlines.

McConnell has downplayed how much Republicans can control the process, saying that once the trial begins, rulings will be made by Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. — not by a majority of the Senate. “This is not something that the majority can kind of micromanage like it can on almost any other issue,” he said Tuesday.

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During the Clinton impeachment trial, however, former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist took a largely ceremonially role.

Many of the major decisions will be made before the trial. Senators will have to approve a resolution setting up the rules, including whether witnesses will be allowed and when the trial should begin. During the Clinton impeachment trial, the Republican and Democratic leaders wrote rules that were approved 100 to 0. McConnell suggested Tuesday that at some point, he will sit down with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to potentially draw them up.

But given the sharp partisan divide over how the House has conducted the process so far, it is far from certain whether the leaders can match the level of bipartisanship seen in 1999.

The Senate trial will give the president and his lawyers a high-profile opportunity to make their case to the American public. In theory, Republicans will have a chance to call witnesses who could undermine the Democrats’ case. But during Clinton’s impeachment trial, the bipartisan agreement limited witnesses and determined that video of a private deposition of Monica Lewinsky would be aired instead of allowing a House prosecutor to question her in the well of the Senate.

Republicans appear to be staying almost universally supportive of the president, suggesting there is little chance Trump will be convicted.

“If it were today, I don’t think there’s any question,” McConnell said Tuesday. “It would not lead to a removal” of the president.

1/11

Clippers guard Lou Williams works to the basket against Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe during the first quarter of a game Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Clippers forward Montrezl Harrell goes to the basket and scores against the Bucks during the first quarter of a game Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Clippers guard Jerome Robinson goes to the hoop against Bucks guard Pat Connaughton in the second quarter of a game Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Clippers guard Patrick Beverley looks for an open teammate during the second quarter of a game against the Bucks Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Bucks guard George Hill steals the ball from Clippers center Ivaca Zubac during the second quarter of a game Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Clippers guard Lou Williams tries to pass the ball around Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova in the second quarter of a game Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

7/11

Clippers forward Maurice Harkless drives to the basket against Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo during the second quarter of a game Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Clippers guard Lou Williams drives to the basket against Bucks guard George Hill during the second quarter of a game Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Clippers defenders Montrezl Harrell and Patrick Beverley pressure Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo during the second quarter of a game Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Clippers coach Doc Rivers argues a call with an official in the second quarter of a game Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

11/11

Clippers guard Jerome Robinson knocks the ball away from Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo as Clippers big man Ivaca Zubac defends during the second quarter of a game Nov. 6 at Staples Center. 

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

The Clippers missed their first seven shots Wednesday night.

They turned the ball over four times before scoring their first points.

Down nine, they rallied to lead Milwaukee before the first quarter’s end — only to trail by 17 eight minutes later.

Their best player was on the sideline in a blue sports coat, watching while Milwaukee’s best player was uncharacteristically sinking as many three-point shots as he’d made all season.

There were several reasons why the Clippers should not have been hanging with a contender to win the Eastern Conference. And yet, with 23 seconds remaining in a chaotic fourth quarter, they trailed by only two points and the entirety of Staples Center’s lower bowl seemed to be standing, waiting for the moment that seemed so distant only hours earlier.

It was a tantalizing prospect that felt straight out of last season — a star-less Clippers lineup grinding down an opponent boasting 7-foot league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

But by removing Kawhi Leonard from the lineup — the second game this season he has missed for load management of his knee — the Clippers also eliminated any margin for error. And unable to rely on the NBA’s top fourth-quarter scorer, the Clippers closed the gap, but couldn’t catch up to their foe.

Instead it was Bucks 129, Clippers 124.

“That was great,” coach Doc Rivers said. “I want to win the game though.”

Montrezl Harrell (a career-high 34 points, plus 13 rebounds), Lou Williams (34 points) and Patrick Beverley (20 points, 10 rebounds) did everything possible to do just that, with their scoring offsetting the stretches in which the Clippers’ offense, down one of the league’s best shot-makers in Leonard, disappeared.

Harrell, in particular, at times resembled a 6-foot-7 bulldozer with braids as he bulled to the rim with a collection of dunks and floaters. “We just gave him the ball, spaced the floor and he went and got it,” Rivers said. “That tells you he’s a heck of a player. We needed every basket. He was phenomenal.”

Outside of that trio, however, the rest of the Clippers managed just 36 points. Their defense held Milwaukee to 42 points in the paint, four off their target. But they couldn’t keep the irrepressible Antetokounmpo out of the key forever, as he made three shots within four feet in the final quarter to finish with 38 points, to go with 16 rebounds and nine assists. He also made his impact felt beyond the arc, with four three-pointers.

In last season’s Eastern Conference finals, Leonard locked up Antetokounmpo defensively over the final four games while playing with Toronto, leading the Raptors to a berth in the NBA Finals. But he could not repeat the effort Wednesday, part of the team’s plan to increase their long-term playoff odds by incurring some short-term pain in the standings.

“Kawhi is gonna sit out for games, it’s going to happen, man, so we can’t put that all on him,” Harrell said. “He’s got to take care of his body just like every other athlete on this team, so, just because he’s sitting out of the game, that don’t mean we got the right to drop a game.”

The Clippers are now 0-2 in games Leonard has sat out and there will be more absences to come. The team’s medical staff has determined that Leonard is not yet healthy to play on consecutive nights, a determination the NBA’s medical staff agree with, a league spokesman said Wednesday in addressing the Clippers’ load management strategy.

“There’s no concern here, but we want to make sure,” Rivers said of Leonard’s health. “I think Kawhi made a statement that he’s never felt better. It’s our job to make sure he stays that way. That’s important. But he played a lot of minutes in the playoffs last year.

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“So, it’s not a health thing, really. It is in some ways. We want him to just keep feeling better and getting better.”

The Clippers are set to get better soon. Injured forward Paul George is expected to take part in his first “live” drills of the season Saturday, a person with knowledge of the plans confirmed.

George, who underwent surgery on both shoulders in the offseason, will give the Clippers more offensive firepower and length defensively on nights when Leonard sits — and vice versa too. His return will give the Clippers the margin for error they lacked against the Bucks.

“There’s no moral victory in anything,” Beverley said. “But we took a step forward, for sure.”

SOUTHERN SECTION GIRLS’ TENNIS

OPEN DIVISION

Quarterfinals, Friday, 2 p.m.

#8 West Ranch at #1 Irvine University

#5 Palos Verdes at #4 Westlake

#6 Campbell Hall at #3 Mira Costa

#7 San Marino at #2 Peninsula

DIVISION 1

First round, Wednesday

San Marcos 11, Oak Park 7

San Clemente 16, Orange Lutheran 2

Murrieta Valley 16, El Dorado 2

Yorba Linda 14, Crescenta Valley 4

Huntington Beach 16, Oaks Christian 2

Palm Desert 10, Ayala 8

Troy 14, Santa Margarita 4

Camarillo 13, Chaminade 5

Calabasas 10, Cate 8

King 14, Dana Hills 4

Mater Dei 11, Foothill 7

Beckman 18, Santa Monica 0

Marlborough 15, La Canada 3

Aliso Niguel 12, Great Oak 6

Second round, Friday, 2 p.m.

San Marcos at #1 Corona del Mar

San Clemente at Murrieta Valley

Yorba Linda at Huntington Beach

Palm Desert at Troy

#3 Camarillo at Calabasas

King at Mater Dei

Marlborough at Beckman

Aliso Niguel at #2 Arcadia

DIVISION 2

First round, Wednesday

South Torrance 12, Burbank 6

San Juan Hills 13, Temecula Valley 5

Los Alamitos 12, Sage Hill 6

JSerra 14, South Pasadena 4

Santa Barbara 12, Simi Valley 6

Long Beach Poly 12, Sunny Hills 6

Pasadena Poly 13, Hart 5

Claremont 16, Corona Santiago 2

Woodbridge 17, Placentia Valencia 1

Laguna Beach 12, Long Beach Wilson 6

Valencia 14, Thacher 4

Harvard-Westlake 15, Brentwood 3

Los Osos 15, Glendale 3

Dos Pueblos 11, Foothill Tech 7

Elsinore 12, Redlands 6

Redondo 14, Cypress 4

Second round, Friday, 2 p.m.

#1 South Torrance at San Juan Hills

JSerra at Los Alamitos

Santa Barbara at Long Beach Poly

Pasadena Poly at #4 Claremont

#3 Woodbridge at Laguna Beach

Harvard-Westlake at Valencia

Los Osos at Dos Pueblos

Elsinore at #2 Redondo

DIVISION 3

First round, Wednesday

Portola 16, Garden Grove 2

Bishop Montgomery 11, Ventura 7

Archer 10, Oxford Academy 8

Temescal Canyon 14, Serrano 4

St. Margaret’s 9, La Serna 9 (St. Margaret’s wins on games, 74-65)

Diamond Bar 14, Maranatha 4

Walnut 15, Brea Olinda 3

Alta Loma 13, Keppel 5

Montclair 11, Rancho Mirage 7

Rancho Cucamonga 13, Hemet 5

El Segundo 12, North Torrance 6

Cerritos 11, Garden Grove Pacifica 7

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 18, Warren 0

Mayfair 10, Mayfield 8

Malibu 12, Santa Fe 6

Riverside Poly 13, El Toro 5

Second round, Friday, 2 p.m.

Bishop Montgomery at #1 Portola

Archer at Temescal Canyon

Diamond Bar at St. Margaret’s

Walnut at #4 Alta Loma

#3 Montclair at Rancho Cucamonga

Cerritos at El Segundo

Mayfair at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame

Malibu at #2 Riverside Poly

DIVISION 4

First round, Wednesday

Westridge 17, Le Lycee 1

San Dimas 11, Costa Mesa 7

Alhambra 12, Oxnard 6

Yucaipa 13, Paloma Valley 5

Whitney 12, Bolsa Grande 6

Flintridge Sacred Heart 9, Torrance 9 (Flintridge Sacred Heart wins on games, 80-78)

Norte Vista 10, Ridgecrest Burroughs 8

Hacienda Heights Wilson 11, Arroyo 7

Webb 11, Laguna Blanca 7

Pasadena Marshall 10, La Mirada 8

Jurupa Valley 14, Rim of the World 4

Fullerton 10, Westminster La Quinta 8

Millikan 16, Magnolia 2

Coachella Valley 10, Beaumont 8

Quartz Hill 11, Rosemead 7

Buckley at #2 Rowland, score not reported

Second round, Friday, 2 p.m.

San Dimas at #1 Westridge

Alhambra at Yucaipa

Whitney at Flintridge Sacred Heart

#4 Hacienda Heights Wilson at Norte Vista

Pasadena Marshall at Webb

Jurupa Valley at Fullerton

Coachella Valley at Millikan

Quartz Hill at #2 Rowland/Buckley winner

DIVISION 5

Wild-card match, late Tuesday

Jurupa Hills 9, Citrus Hill 9 (tied 75-75 on games, Jurupa Hills won tiebreaker 12-6 on Wednesday)

First round, Wednesday

Segerstrom 12, Gahr 6

Edgewood 14, Villanova Prep 4

Immaculate Heart 14, Highland 4

Vista del Lago 12, Lakewood St. Joseph 6

Arroyo Valley 10, Patriot 8

Hueneme 11, Kaiser 7

Channel Islands 12, Duarte 6

Heritage 15, Western Christian 3

Canyon Springs 14, La Puente 4

Oak Hills 12, Victor Valley 6

Rancho Alamitos 15, Yucca Valley 3

Rubidoux 15, Jurupa Hills 3

Summit 15, Knight 3

Cerritos Valley Christian 13, Sierra Vista 5

Nogales 10, Aquinas 8

Western 13, Riverside Notre Dame 5

Second round, Friday, 2 p.m.

Edgewood at #1 Segerstrom

Vista del Lago at Immaculate Heart

Arroyo Valley at Hueneme

#4 Heritage at Channel Islands

#3 Canyon Springs at Oak Hills

Rubidoux at Rancho Alamitos

Summit at Cerritos Valley Christian

#2 Western at Nogales

Notes: Quarterfinals (Div. 1-5), Monday, 2 p.m.; semifinals, Nov. 13, 2 p.m. Championships, Nov. 15 at Claremont Club.

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Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Why is Cinderella lousy at sports? She’s always running away from the ball.

USC

Mike Bohn will be named USC’s new athletic director today, becoming the first to assume the post without any previous ties to the university since Mike McGee, who had been the only outsider ever to lead USC athletics.

USC had zeroed in on Bohn as its choice last week, but his hiring was delayed as the university conducted background checks.

Bohn spent the last five years at Cincinnati in the same position. McGee also came to USC from Cincinnati.

Bohn will be charged with the daunting task of restoring luster to a high-profile department scarred by scandal — and still dealing with questions of its own culpability.

Amid that fallout, Bohn’s hiring, the most significant yet for President Carol L. Folt, sends an unambiguous message from the university’s new leadership.

“There is a moment right now at USC,” Folt told The Times in October. “No one is happy about the things that have happened. If I have any opportunity right now, it’s to take advantage of people’s willingness to say, ‘OK, everything is not perfect.’ ”

As USC attempts to start anew, Bohn, 58, is the fourth athletic director at the school in a decade. Unlike the other three, he arrives at USC with considerable experience in collegiate athletics administration. Before taking the reins at Cincinnati, where he helped usher a middling program overlooked by conference realignment into relevance, Bohn served as athletic director at Colorado, San Diego State and Idaho.

Bohn’s first order as director could ultimately define his tenure.

With USC at 5-4, now trailing Utah by a game in the Pac-12 South Division, a decision on the status of embattled football coach Clay Helton looms large. Outside the program, calls for his immediate ouster reached a fevered pitch in the wake of last Saturday’s 56-24 loss to Oregon and haven’t abated.

Prominent boosters have already made clear their desire for USC and its new athletic director to pursue Urban Meyer, the three-time national title-winning former coach long coveted by disenchanted Trojans fans. But whether Folt and USC’s new leadership would even support that pursuit remains an open question.

Read more

Bill Plaschke: Mike Bohn brings USC integrity, which means he can’t hire Urban Meyer

CLIPPERS

The Clippers put up a furious rally, but couldn’t overcome Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s 38 points and 16 rebounds, in a 129-124 loss on Wednesday night.

Antetokounmpo just missed a triple-double with nine assists. He’s posted at least 10 rebounds and five assists in each of the first eight games of the season, the first player since at least 1972-73 to do so.

The Clippers were without Kawhi Leonard, who rested for the first half of a home back-to-back. He’ll play against Portland tonight.

Montrezl Harrell had a career-high 34 points and 13 rebounds in his first start of the season. Lou Williams added 34 points and 11 assists, and Patrick Beverley had 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Down nine, the Clippers rallied to lead Milwaukee before the first quarter’s end — only to trail by 17 eight minutes later. And yet, with 23 seconds remaining in a chaotic fourth quarter, they trailed by only two points and the entirety of Staples Center’s lower bowl seemed to be standing, waiting for the moment that seemed so distant only hours earlier. But it wasn’t to be.

“That was great,” coach Doc Rivers said. “I want to win the game though.”

Read more

Dylan Hernandez: Clippers stick to the plan with Kawhi Leonard, but fans aren’t happy

UCLA BASKETBALL

In their first game of the season, the Bruins exhibited flashes of new head coach Mick Cronin’s trademark tenacious defense but appeared completely adrift on offense before finally saving their coach from an inglorious introduction to the home fans by making the necessary plays at the end of a 69-65 victory over Long Beach State that was every bit as ugly as the score indicated. (Man, that was a long sentence. Everybody take a breath.)

UCLA finished the game on a 15-7 run that included some feistiness in the closing seconds when guard Chris Smith blocked a shot and forward Jalen Hill forced a jump ball that went back to the Bruins. Cronin said he saw value in winning a game in which his team struggled against an opponent that played five different defenses.

“If you can be in a dogfight and win it,” Cronin said, “you can get a lot more out of it than if you end up blowing somebody out.”

CHARGERS

The Chargers can recall being showered by debris, doused with beer and enveloped by the wafting smell of weed.

Now, they have the opportunity to play one final time in the home of the Oakland Raiders, in a game both teams desperately need — a game matching longtime AFC West rivals.

It’s also a game played at night, giving the fans ample time to elevate their levels of both excitement and blood-alcohol.

“It’ll be awesome,” Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said. “The aura of what that place has meant over the years will be alive, for sure.”

The Raiders (4-4) will be moving to Las Vegas after the season, meaning the game tonight will be Rivers’ farewell to this place, unless the teams should meet in the playoffs.

It will serve as a fitting bookend for him, his first career start coming here on Sept. 11, 2006.

The Chargers (4-5) won that Monday night 27-0, with Rivers completing eight of 11 pass attempts for 108 yards and a touchdown — one of his least productive outings.

“Only threw it 11 times,” Rivers recalled this week. “I think I can talk [interim offensive coordinator] Shane [Steichen] into more than 11 attempts on Thursday.”

CHARGERS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific. Radio: KFI-AM 640, KFWB-AM 980

at Chargers 30, Indianapolis 24 (OT)

at Detroit 13, Chargers 10

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Houston 27, at Chargers 20

Chargers 30, at Miami 10

Denver 20, at Chargers 13

Pittsburgh 24, at Chargers 17

at Tennessee 23, Chargers 20

Chargers 17, at Chicago 16

at Chargers 26, Green Bay 11

Today at Oakland, 5:15 p.m., Fox, NFL Network

Nov. 18 vs. Kansas City, 5:15 p.m., ESPN (at Mexico City, counts as home game for Chargers)

Dec. 1 at Denver, 1:15 p.m., CBS

Dec. 8 at Jacksonville, 1 p.m., Fox

Dec. 15 vs. Minnesota, 5:15 p.m., NBC

Dec. 22 or 23 vs. Oakland, TBD

Dec. 29 at Kansas City, 10 a.m., CBS

TODAY’S LOCAL MAJOR SPORTS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Portland at Clippers, 7:30 p.m., TNT, AM 570

Kings at Ottawa, 4:30 p.m., FSW

BORN ON THIS DATE

1921: Golfer Jack Fleck (d. 2014)

1936: Basketball player/coach Al Attles

1938: Baseball player Jim Kaat

1944: Baseball player Joe Niekro (d. 2006)

1966: Jockey Calvin Borel

1970: NFL player Andre Hastings

DIED ON THIS DATE

1978: Boxer Gene Tunney, 80

2006: Baseball player Johnny Sain, 89

2011: Boxer Joe Frazier, 67

2012: Boxer Carmen Basilio, 85

AND FINALLY

Joe Frazier‘s greatest knockouts. Watch them here.

That concludes the newsletter for today. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, please email me at [email protected]. If you want to subscribe, click here.

HOW THEY MATCH UP

Chargers (4-5) at Oakland (4-4)

When Chargers have the ball

After going four weeks without even a walking game — never mind a running game — the Chargers rediscovered their legs Sunday in a 26-11 victory over the Green Bay Packers. They totaled a season-high 159 yards rushing in 38 carries, with Melvin Gordon (80 yards, two touchdowns) and Austin Ekeler (70 yards) both being productive. The Chargers were able to commit to their ground attack in part because they scored on three of their four first-half possessions and three in a row to start the second half. They went up early on the Packers and never trailed. Oakland, however, is “built to stop the running game,” Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said. “Their front seven is really big, powerful. It’s going to be tough to establish the run on this group.” The Raiders rank seventh in the NFL in rushing defense, yielding 92.5 yards per game. But Oakland has struggled to stop the pass. In fact, no defense in the league is worse, the Raiders at No. 32 with an average of 297.5 yards allowed per game. They have given up 400-plus yards passing twice — to Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers — and 383 yards Sunday to Matthew Stafford. Philip Rivers has topped 300 yards five times in nine games but not the past two weeks.

When Raiders have the ball

Running back Josh Jacobs is no Marcus Allen. He’s better — at least as a rookie. Jacobs already has topped Allen’s franchise record for rushing yards as a first-year player with 740 in 152 attempts. For the record, Allen appeared in nine games for the Los Angeles Raiders in 1982. Jacobs broke Allen’s old mark last week, in his eighth game. “If he two-steps a defensive back and it doesn’t work? He’s going through your chin, and that’s the end of it,” Chargers defensive lineman Damion Square said. “He boom-boom and coming right at your chin.” The Raiders are sixth in the NFL in rushing; the Chargers are 20th in stopping the run. But the Chargers’ defense is coming off a game in which it dominated Rodgers and Green Bay, thanks in part to the offense’s ability to use much of the clock. Defensive end Joey Bosa is putting together his finest, most complete season to date. He has 51/2 sacks and 17 tackles over the last three games. Oakland quarterback Derek Carr has been sacked once since the end of September. The Raiders have permitted only nine sacks all season, the second-lowest total in the league behind the Pittsburgh Steelers, with eight. Carr has nine touchdowns and one interception over his last five games.

When they kick

Since joining the Raiders in midseason a year ago, Daniel Carlson is 23 of 26 on field-goal attempts and 41 of 41 on extra points. He has found a home after struggling in Minnesota, which drafted Carlson in the fifth round in 2018. The Chargers also discovered their current kicker in the middle of last season. However, Michael Badgley missed the first eight games of 2019 because of a groin injury, returning Sunday with four field goals, and one miss, against the Packers.

Jeff Miller’s prediction

Both teams are coming off dramatic wins — the Chargers whipping Green Bay and the Raiders holding on in the final seconds to beat Detroit. Both also are desperate for wins to remain alive for a playoff berth. This is supposed to be the final time a Chargers team plays in Oakland, with the Raiders set to move to Las Vegas in 2020. And it’s a night game, meaning the Black Hole, despite its name, will be plenty lit.

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RAIDERS 23, CHARGERS 21