LeBron James has 31 points and 13 assists for the Lakers, but De’Aaron Fox ties his career high (44 points) and Sacramento closes the first half on a 32-9 run on its way to a 130-120 win.
The Lakers’ 130-120 home loss to the Sacramento Kings was the complete opposite of their Monday victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Instead of a slow start, which they had against the Thunder, the Lakers came out with the requisite intensity and focus on both ends of the floor, opening a 19-point lead (37-18) toward the end of the first quarter.
But the Lakers (34-30) didn’t sustain the defensive performance that helped them build the double-digit lead, resulting in a 41-point turnaround across two quarters in the Kings’ favor and the Lakers’ eventual loss in a crucial matchup for their playoff chase.
“Super frustrating,” said Austin Reaves, who finished with 18 points and four assists. “Anytime you lose, you should be frustrated. We had a really good first quarter, but really, a really good first nine minutes. We just gotta figure out how to continue that for a full 48 minutes.”
The Kings (35-26), led by a career-high-tying 44 points from De’Aaron Fox, found an offensive rhythm late in the first that carried over into a second quarter when the Lakers hardly found any answers defensively.
“[The defense] evaporated when [Anthony Davis] picked up his second [foul], plain and simple,” LeBron James said. “When you have someone like that controls so much of our defense, when he picked up his second in the first quarter we had to make the sub, our defense kind of just [flubbed] after that.”
Sacramento outscored the Lakers 54-20 across the final two minutes of the first and entirety of the second quarter – a stretch in which they made 14 consecutive shots, leading to a 66-53 lead late in the second and a 72-57 advantage at halftime.
