After getting a few days off, the Los Angeles Lakers returned to action on Thursday night for the first of two straight road games against the division rival Sacramento Kings.
The Lakers beat the Kings in a thriller in their first matchup in L.A., and they were able to earn their second win of the year against them on Thursday with a 113-100 win.
L.A. got off to a good start as Austin Reaves and LeBron James hit triples while Anthony Davis had a putback. The Kings couldn’t buy a bucket early and were forced to take a timeout with the Lakers leading 12-2.
DeMar DeRozan helped settle the Kings in with a pair of buckets to start a 13-3 run. That was short-lived though as the Lakers got hot from deep to quickly get the lead back to 37-28 at the end of the first.
Early in the second quarter, James reached a significant milestone, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most regular season minutes in NBA history. In the midst of that, he was impacting the game with a drive and layup and then some slick passes.
The Lakers started committing some silly turnovers though and Domantas Sabonis went to work on the offensive glass. After a pair of triples by Malik Monk, the Kings took the lead.
Gabe Vincent had a nice first half with three triples while Davis continued to dominate on both ends of the floor, giving the Lakers a 62-58 lead going into the locker room.
De’Aaron Fox and Monk began the third quarter with back-to-back 3s to help the Kings regain the lead. Fox then proceeded to pick up his fourth and fifth fouls though, forcing him to head to the bench.
From there, the Lakers locked in defensively and got out in transition. James had a fantastic stretch of two-way play with a block and layup, and then he found Rui Hachimura for a dunk at the buzzer to give L.A. an 86-80 lead at the end of the third.
Vincent continued his big night from deep with another 3 early in the fourth. The game turned into a bit of a rock fight from there as there were a lot of fouls and both teams struggled from the field.
The Lakers eventually broke through though with Reaves hitting a triple to get the lead back to double digits with a few minutes to play. L.A. continued pouring it on from there as Davis, James and Reaves closed out the win without any issues.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers have another matchup with the Kings on Saturday at 3 p.m. PT before returning home and hosting the Detroit Pistons on Monday night.
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