New FSM Essential Recap: Lakers vs Kings- Game 42

New FSM Essential Recap: Lakers vs Kings- Game 42

Franchise Sports Media

Los Angeles Lakers (21-21)  | Sacramento Kings (17-27)

 

The Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Sacramento Kings 125-116 and moved back to .500 on the season.

 

The purple and gold looked to get back on track against a resilient Kings team that has had their number in most of their meetings this season.

The scoring started off as a bit of stumble in the first few minutes of the game as the score was 4-4 after two minutes passed. Malik Monk and Harrison Barnes began to pick up the pace for their teams as they traded baskets until Marvin Bagley III, Russell Westbrook, and Chimezie Metu joined the fray.

Halfway through the first quarter, with the game in a dead heat, Stanley Johnson gave the Lakers the lead back and was followed by LeBron James hitting a layup. This sparked what would be a 12-2 run across two minutes of play until Barnes stopped the bleeding with a layup of his own.

The Lakers maintained and managed the gap as the quarter got closer to its end, matching and pacing with any run the Kings tried to make. In the final seconds, Sacramento tried to close in as Davion Mitchell and Buddy Hield each made driving shots to cut the lead from nine to five as the first-quarter buzzer sounded, leaving the score at 34-29 in favor of Los Angeles.

Terence Davis began the scoring for the second quarter with a three, followed by a jumper from Tyrese Haliburton to tie the game at 34. The Lakers responded almost a minute and a half later with a layup from Trevor Ariza to untie the game from 37. James and Austin Reaves added to it by pulling the lead back out to eight. Under a minute later, Reaves continued to leave his mark by draining a three to put Los Angeles up by 12 points.

The big lead was managed well by the Lakers throughout most of the quarter, even leading by as many as 14 points until the Kings made a late charge. De’Aaron Fox scored four straight points after points from Bagley III and Mitchell to cut the margin by more than half.

 

The Lakers went into halftime with a six-point lead over the Kings, with the score showing 67-61.

 

The Kings began the third quarter on a 6-0 run led by Barnes and Fox, but the Lakers responded with an 8-2 run before Sacramento closed it right back to a one-possession game. Nearly halfway into the quarter, Fox tied the game with a driving layup while a Barnes three gave the Kings the lead for the first time since leading 15-14 in the first quarter. A 15-0 run resulted from the momentum shift in the Kings‘ favor as the lead ballooned to 13.

The Lakers tried to fight back but had trouble keeping the game close as the broken record that is the terrible third quarter struck Los Angeles once again.

The Lakers trailed 101-90 entering the fourth quarter but ran into a brick wall in the opening minutes of the frame. Sacramento matched every run Los Angeles tried to make. In the last minutes, the Lakers were down ten but began to charge back. Reaves hit a jumper with a James layup a minute later to cut the lead to six. Monk and James hit two-pointers back-to-back to cut the game to a two-point game with 1:36 left.

Los Angeles allowed themselves to steal the game from the Kings, but Sacramento had other ideas in mind as Fox hit a jumper and was followed by Metu hitting a dagger three with 46.7 seconds left. Two Haliburton free throws later, the Kings went on to win another one against the Lakers this season by a final score of 125-116.

James led all scorers with 34 points, but despite 22 from Monk, the rest of the starting cast had another slow night on offense as Avery Bradley, Westbrook, and Ariza combined for just 16 points while Reaves had 19 off the bench. The Kings had all five starters in double digits, led by Fox with 29 points, while Barnes had 23 with the hero Metu finishing with 14 points.

Another third-quarter drop-off added another blemish to an already underachieving season for the Lakers. There will be questions circling the airways about this team surrounding their future as a unit as the trade deadline draws closer and who needs to be the one to step up and give James some help.

James has scored 872 points through his first 30 games this season, the second-most in his career trailing only his 2005-2006 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers when he had 910 points in his first 30 games in that season.

 

The Lakers will be in Denver this Saturday night to take on the Nuggets as the team looks to get back on the right side of the scoreboard. The game will start at 6:00 and can be seen live on Spectrum SportsNet.

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– Matt Dobbs – Franchise Sports Media

Follow Matt on Twitter @RecordBowlerFSM

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