The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night in the second game of a back-to-back, looking to improve to 3-0 on the young season.
The Lakers lost all four of their meetings with the division-rival Kings last season, but this is a new year and they were able to earn a 131-127 victory to stay undefeated.
Anthony Davis’ 0-10 record against Domantas Sabonis in his career is well-documented, but he went at the opposing center for an and-one to start this one. Everyone was getting involved offensive for the Lakers early and they were locked in defensively, jumping out to a 14-6 lead.
After a Kings timeout, Kevin Huerter helped settle them in with back-to-back triples. The Kings had no answer for Davis down low, but they hit another 3 to end the quarter to cut their deficit to 28-26.
LeBron James started to assert his dominance to begin the second, finding Dalton Knecht for a triple and then scoring himself to give the Lakers a double-digit lead. L.A. began the second quarter on a 14-1 run, forcing another Kings timeout.
The Lakers had some careless turnovers from there though and that led to a Kings run with Malik Monk getting hot. After a 3-pointer by D’Angelo Russell to end the half, the Lakers went into the locker room leading 64-60.
Sacramento’s momentum continued into the third as Sabonis hit a pair of shots from inside to give them their first lead since the opening minutes. The refs were letting both teams play physical and the Lakers had some costly turnovers as a result.
James found some energy to lead a run to end the third quarter, getting good looks for himself and his teammates. De’Aaron Fox halted that momentum, however, making back-to-back 3s to give his team a 94-87 lead going into the fourth.
It didn’t take long for the Lakers to answer back at the start of the fourth as Knecht made a 3 and then James scored 11 straight points to regain the lead on a 14-0 run.
A Kings timeout didn’t seem to solve anything as James continued to go nuclear for L.A. The Lakers’ run finally ended at 21-0 when Fox had a steal and a triple.
While DeMar DeRozan and Fox did what they could to keep the Kings within striking distance and got it down to two, they had no answer for James and Davis down the stretch as the Lakers would go on to finish out the victory.
What’s next for the Lakers
After playing the first three games of the season at home, the Lakers will now go out on a five-game road trip where they will play the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons and Memphis Grizzlies.
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