Coming off a wire-to-wire win over the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers returned home and looked to build some momentum against the Sacramento Kings.
It was the second night of a back-to-back but the Lakers were still at full strength, and they took care of business with an easy 128-104 win over the Kings to improve their record to 36-24.
The Lakers got off to a nice start as they were moving the ball well, locked in on defense and getting out in transition. Luka Doncic had a pair of early assists and then Austin Reaves found LeBron James for an alley-oop.
After a Kings timeout, the Lakers continued to pour it on and extend their lead. Reaves also found Jaxson Hayes for an alley-oop and then Doncic hit back-to-back 3-pointers. At the end of a dominant first quarter, the Lakers doubled up the Kings, 36-18.
Malik Monk had a thunderous dunk and a 3-pointer to try to bring the Kings sone energy early in the second quarter. It didn’t change much though as the Lakers continued to add to their lead with Luke Kennard getting hot from deep.
The Kings’ frustration was mounting as Monk and Russell Westbrook both picked up technical fouls. They had a nice response for a minute though, getting their deficit down to 14. The Lakers strong led by Doncic, however, taking a 64-49 lead into the locker room.
L.A. came out flat to begin the third quarter as Sacramento quickly cut its deficit to 10, forcing a timeout by JJ Redick.
The Lakers did have a nice response from there though with Marcus Smart hitting a triple and then Doncic scoring five straight points, followed by a Hayes dunk, to get the lead back up to 19.
Doncic was doing whatever he wanted on the court, contributing on defense and creating offense for himself and his teammates. James then beat the third quarter buzzer with a 3-pointer to give the Lakers a 96-76 lead.
The fourth quarter was more of the same as LeBron had two deep 3s and threw down a huge dunk, and then Smart hit another triple to continue to extend the lead. For the second straight night, the Lakers put things away early so their starters could get some much-needed rest for most of the fourth quarter.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The Lakers will host the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday before going out on the road for a tough matchup with the Denver Nuggets on Thursday.
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