The Los Angeles Lakers winning streak was stopped at three as they dropped their first home game of the season against the Sacramento Kings, 125-110.
One of the factors in this disappointing loss was Anthony Davis, who had his worst game of the year. The big man finished the night with nine points, nine rebounds, four blocks and five turnovers. He was thoroughly outplayed by Kings center Domantas Sabonis, who put up 29 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists.
This was a complete 180 from the game on Tuesday against the Memphis Grizzlies where everything was clicking on all cylinders for Davis and the Lakers. Austin Reaves spoke to Davis’ off night and if the Kings did anything to impact his offensive production.
“I’ll have to go watch the game again. Yeah, I don’t know. I’ll have to go watch the game. Obviously I think everybody else around AD can do more to help AD,” Reaves said. “Not that he necessarily needs it, but just to make his life a little bit easier. I feel like sometimes he finds himself having to go against that defense. If we just move a little more for him, create a little bit of confusion on the defense then it would make his life a little easier, not that he needs it 95% of the time. But like I said, I’ll have to go back and watch the game and see what we could’ve done better to help him.”
Reaves put the responsibility on him and other teammates to make the defense respect them, opening up the floor for Davis. But, it was clear that Davis’ hip was impacting his movement on the floor after he seemed to tweak it in the first half.
It was a rare occurrence to see the Lakers star get outplayed that badly and clearly struggle to find any rhythm on the offensive end. L.A. goes as far as Davis takes them with LeBron James turning 39 at the end of December, so it is up to him to lead the charge for the team as he’s going to be the building block for the franchise when James leaves.
The eight-time All-Star did not want to use his injury as an excuse for his lackluster performance, but if he’s not 100% on the court, he’s doing more harm by not being aggressive or assertive. However, Davis confirmed that he’s playing on Friday when the Lakers travel to take on the Portland Trail Blazers for an In-Season Tournament game.
James: Lakers should learn from Kings loss and then move on
While it was a somber end to a winning streak, the beauty of the NBA is games are every other day. James emphasized that the team needs to learn from Wednesday’s loss and move on to focus on their next game on Friday.
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