The Los Angeles Lakers have dominated the 2024-25 regular season series against the Sacramento Kings, winning the first three matchups.
Sacramento, in the midst of a five-game losing streak, fired head coach Mike Brown before their final matchup with Los Angeles which could’ve spelled trouble for the latter because teams typically bounce back quickly following such a move.
The Lakers also ruled out LeBron James prior to the game due to illness, making a regular season sweep of the Kings a difficult challenge. Fortunately, the entire team stepped up in James’ absence and the purple and gold claimed a 132-122 victory over Sacramento.
With James out, the playmaking duties went to Austin Reaves who has already been initiating more offensive sets. Reaves is one of the few players on the roster who can either get his own shot or create for others, and his offensive ability was on full display as he torched the Kings defense nearly every time he touched the basketball.
Reaves was aggressive getting to the basket and either finishing through contact himself or swinging the basketball to an open teammate. Reaves dropped 26 points on an efficient 9-of-16 shooting, but he also set a career-high in assists with 16. His previous career-high was 14.
Anthony Davis seems to relish the opportunity to go up against fellow big man Domantis Sabonis and he got the best of him again as he was able to get him into foul trouble. Davis’ physicality in the paint drew some easy foul calls, and Sabonis eventually fouled out in the fourth quarter after shoving Davis on a shot attempt right at the rim.
Sacramento in general didn’t have an answer for Davis who seemed to score whenever he wanted. Like Reaves, Davis took 16 shots and hit 12 of them en route to a game-high 36 points. He also did his job on the boards, pulling down 15 rebounds to go along with eight assists.
Rui Hachimura was another player that could hardly miss as he took advantage of some wide-open looks. Hachimura made Sacramento pay for sagging off on him as he hit four of his five 3-point attempts. Overall, Hachimura scored 21 points but also contributed defensively with four rebounds and two blocks.
Lastly, Dalton Knecht was a spark plug off the bench as he dropped 18 points in 33 minutes.
What’s next for Lakers
The Lakers gets to continue their home stand as they’ll play host to the Cleveland Cavaliers on New Year’s Eve.
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