The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, going for their fourth straight win after a slow start to the year.
Despite it being the second game of a back-to-back, Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis were still able to suit up, although it didn’t matter as the Kings still won comfortably, 125-110. The loss drops the Lakers back to .500 at 6-6.
The Kings got off to a quick start in this one as De’Aaron Fox began the game with a three-point play. Domantas Sabonis then scored four straight to give his team a 7-2 lead.
The Lakers missed some easy looks at the rim early, although James connected on his first triple of the night. Harrison Barnes had it going early, however, with a pair of 3-pointers to give Sacramento a double-digit lead at 21-11.
While Darvin Ham took a timeout to settle the Lakers in, it didn’t slow the Kings down as Kevin Huerter, Keegan Murray and Malik Monk all drilled 3s to extend their lead even more.
After falling down by as many as 20, the Lakers had a solid close to the quarter with Taurean Prince beating the buzzer with a triple to cut the deficit to 38-25 going into the second.
L.A. then scored four straight to begin the second, forcing a quick Kings timeout with their lead back at single digits.
The Lakers’ run continued out of the timeout with James finding Rui Hachimura for a wing 3 before Fox ended it with a midrange bucket. L.A. continued to chip away from there with Cam Reddish coming up with a nice steal and layup before James threw down a dunk to get the deficit to six.
James went to the bench from there though and the Kings went on a run, so all the work the Lakers had put in was for naught as they trailed 72-59 at the half.
Similar to the start of the game, the Kings came out in the third quarter and blitzed the Lakers a bit to get their lead back up to a comfortable 19.
Despite James’ best efforts with another 3 and a chasedown block on Sabonis, the Lakers continued to get nothing going offensively while providing zero resistance on defense. Davis had an off night on both ends and the Lakers eventually trailed 104-80 through three.
Ham opted to bring both James and Davis back in the game to begin the fourth quarter in hopes of one last run, and they actually made one as the Lakers fought all the way back to get within 11 after a three-point play by James.
The Kings took a much-needed timeout and Kevin Huerter responded with two big buckets to keep them from spiraling. The Lakers stayed hot from deep though as Reddish drilled one from the corner to get it to single digits with three minutes to play.
That was as close as it would get though as the Lakers could never get over the hump and the Kings were able to close it out with some free throws.
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