The Lakers were down by 26 points early in the fourth quarter, and this was with starters LeBron James, Anthony Davis, D’Angelo Russell and Cam Reddish on the floor with sixth man Austin Reaves.
So, that feel-good, three-game winning streak the Lakers had is no more after a 125-110 defeat Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“If I had a definitive answer we wouldn’t have been in that position to start with,” said Reaves, who had just nine points on four-for-10 shooting, 11 rebounds and eight assists. “Everybody goes through it. Every team that’s ever played has done the same stuff. But you just got to fight it. Energy in the second half was much better. But you just got fight it as much as you can and just continue to play the game.”
The Lakers (6-6) made a late push with the group on the court, pulling to within nine with 3:03 left on a Reddish three-pointer.
But the Lakers turned the ball over on two consecutive trips down the court, part of their 23 miscues, and that was that.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
“It had an effect on the game,” James, who had a triple-double with 28 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, said about the Lakers’ turnovers. “I think definitely the turnovers (hurt us). They did a good job of being in the passing lane. 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.”
James, 38, passed Jason Kidd for fifth all-time in NBA history with 108 triple-doubles, also becoming the only player to record a triple-double in their 21st season in the league.
James and Kidd were Olympic teammates and won an NBA championship together in 2020 when Kidd was an assistant coach with the Lakers.
He spoke about what he learned from Kidd, who is now the coach of the Dallas Mavericks.
“Yeah, making teammates better no matter what. Can never do it individually,” James said. “Can never do it by yourself. Also, communication. I think those were those two things that I took from him and I’ve been able to apply. The third thing I haven’t been able to apply and I will never ever be able to apply and that’s patience. That’s just not in my nature. He does a great job of it, though. So I got two out of the three.”
Davis had a subpar game with nine points on three-for-nine shooting and nine rebounds.
Cam Reddish throws down a dunk against the KIngs in the first half.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
He’s been dealing with left adductor/hip spasms.
“I’m still treating it every day,” Davis said. “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 disturbing trend of the Lakers getting down in the first quarter surfaced yet again, their defense nowhere to be found and their offense just adequate.
It meant there was no coming back for the Lakers from being 20 points down in the first quarter and from allowing the Kings to shoot 53.6% from the field, 50% from three-point range.
In the 12 games the Lakers have played, they have trailed after the first quarter eight times.