LOS ANGELES — If Tuesday night was an insight into what the Lakers could look like at their best, then most of Wednesday was a quick reminder as to why they’re 6-6 three weeks into the season.
In Tuesday’s blowout victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, albeit a very short-handed version of the Grizzlies, the Lakers dominated in nearly every area of the game. Their 3-point shots were falling early and often.
But Wednesday’s 125-110 loss to the Sacramento Kings at Crypto.com Arena was a different story – at least for the first three quarters.
The Kings (6-4) made the Lakers pay for their early giveaways, turning 15 Laker turnovers into 20 points in the first three quarters. Sacramento’s pace was challenging for the Lakers to keep up with and they didn’t recover in time to avoid their first home loss of the season (in six games). The Kings scored 14 fast-break points in the first 36 minutes, helping them take a 104-80 lead into the fourth and a 106-80 advantage early in the quarter.
“Seven guys that were in our initial rotation each had at least one turnover,” Coach Darvin Ham said. “A lot of that was some miscues. A lot of that was the way they shift defensively, getting in the passing lanes.”
But the Lakers started to take better care of the ball, which led to more scoring opportunities and they took advantage of them. It also allowed them to set up their half-court defense – including a 2-3 zone – and get stops.
LeBron James had 28 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for his first triple-double of the season (No. 108 for his career), and D’Angelo Russell had 28 points (12-of-20 shooting) to go with five assists and five rebounds to help spearhead the comeback attempt. James and Russell combined for 16 points and six assists in the fourth as the Lakers used a 30-13 run to cut the deficit to 119-110 with a little more than three minutes remaining after a Cam Reddish corner 3-pointer off a James assist, but James had a turnover and missed a 3-point attempt on the Lakers’ next two possessions.
“Whenever we get stops (and) we take care of the ball, we’re usually fine,” Ham said. “I know the amount of scoring that we have on our team, particularly those five guys that finished for us. You’ve got to give them a chance to see what we can do. Maybe some turnovers, missed shots on their part, you can dig into the lead and make it a game, and I thought we did that.”
Nine points was as close as the Lakers could get though, and Ham pulled his core players when they were down by 11 with less than 90 seconds left.
“We just continued to fight,” said Lakers big man Anthony Davis, who scored four points in the game’s first four minutes but didn’t score again until the fourth quarter. “Made a push. Then had some missed shots and a couple of turnovers late. That was really it. We could have pulled the plug but we’re not a quitting team. We continue to fight.”
Domantas Sabonis led the Kings with 29 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists. De’Aaron Fox and Kevin Huerter each scored 28 points as the Kings snapped the Lakers’ three-game winning streak with their fifth win in six games over their downstate rivals.
Huerter hit six 3-pointers as the Lakers again struggled to defend the perimeter, allowing 16 3-pointers to the Kings after the Grizzlies hit 20.
While the Lakers had 30 points off the Kings’ 16 turnovers, Sacramento also scored 27 points off the Lakers’ 23 turnovers.
“They did a good job of being in the passing lane,” James said. “We turned the ball over way too many times and allowed them to score off our turnovers. A couple of times it broke our run when we had defensive stops, or whatever the case may be and they were able to read some of our passes.”
Reddish had 16 points and five steals, Austin Reaves had nine points, 11 rebounds and eight assists and Davis was held to nine points (3-for-9 shooting), nine rebounds and four blocked shots for the Lakers, who will get Thursday off before playing at the Trail Blazers on Friday night to resume in-season tournament play.
Davis was seen favoring his left hip in the first half, an injury he suffered last week, but stayed in the game and played 35 minutes. He said he’ll be available on Friday.
“I just played bad,” Davis said. “It’s that simple. I’m still treating it every day. Obviously, you don’t get that day to really attack it with the back-to-back. But it is what it is. I suit up, I will play. I got to be more effective. Obviously, it was still bothering me a little bit but I still got to go out there and do my job.”
The Lakers are 2-0 in tournament play while the Blazers are 1-1.
The Utah Jazz, who the Lakers host next Tuesday, are also 2-0 so far but the Lakers (plus-30) are atop the five-team West Group A because of their superior point differential in group-stage games compared to the Jazz (plus-22).
NOTABLE
James’ 108th career triple-double broke his tie with Jason Kidd for the fifth-most in NBA history, and Sacramento coach Mike Brown called the 38-year-old James’ effort “amazing.”
“I don’t know if you can put a timetable on when he’s going to be done,” added Brown, who coached James for five seasons in Cleveland. “I think there’s only one person that can, and that’s him. Well, maybe two, because his wife might be able to do something about that. He’s absolutely amazing to do what he does at his age. It’s phenomenal. I’m amazed every time we go against him.”