Lakers 131, Kings 127: Finding new ways to lose in the same old ways

It's the morning after and I'm still trying to come to terms with what I saw Saturday night when the Los Angeles Lakes beat the Sacramento Kings 131-127. Not because I can't imagine the Kings losing in such a terrible way, but because I can't understand how a new season can happen when we still have to watch the Kings lose in such a terrible way. Overall, the Kings played a very good game. It was fun, the defense was active, the Kings were attacking and drawing fouls, the Kings were getting fast break points, those are the things we would have celebrated. But everything was ruined when the Kings completely fell apart for several minutes early in the fourth quarter.

We've seen the Kings do this many times. An otherwise good game that was ruined by a very bad phase. The third quarter was over in the Minnesota loss. This game was the start of the fourth. What made this game even worse was that there was no phase where the Kings were beaten by a cohesive Lakers team. No, they were almost entirely destroyed by a man. At the start of the 4th quarter, the Lakers scored 21 straight points while the Sacramento Kings scored 0 points. LeBron scored 16 of the Lakers' 21 points, including 11 in a row at one point. It was an incredible performance by LeBron and an incredible performance of ineptitude by the Kings.

There was a time when we could just put it down to that. “Oh man, LeBron was just amazing, what else can you do?” But this one felt so much worse. During this stretch, we saw both De'Aaron Fox and DeMar DeRozan (among others) miss their shots badly. The offense was rushed and confusing. The defense disappeared. It was as if the entire team had forgotten how they had played in the last 36 minutes. They saw LeBron take a few shots and panicked. Domantas Sabonis, who played incredibly, was on the bench most of the time. Trey Lyles and Alex Len were on the floor together looking pretty terrible.

The other reason this seems so discouraging is that it underscores how much the Kings front office has failed to address known issues. I know that Monte McNair and his crew are aware of these issues. We saw these issues all last season. The Kings didn't have the size to compete with bigger teams. They still don't. Sabonis did a great job battling Anthony Davis and Keegan Murray played solid defense all game, but if any of these guys need a breather or get into foul trouble, the Kings are done. Maybe Orlando Robinson is the magic salve that could have slowed down LeBron during this run, but I doubt it. The problem remains the same, the answer wasn't in the squad last season and still isn't this season either.

One final note worth discussing: Keon Ellis received a DNP CD and I would like to tell you why. Admittedly, Kevin Huerter played really well last night. It was a joy to see him take and make threes with confidence. And despite his defensive limitations, he was dedicated and worked hard on defense. The confusion, however, is that Mike Brown continues to play an extremely tight rotation. Domas and DeMar played 37 minutes each, Keegan played 40, Fox played 41 and Huerter played 26. For the bench unit, Monk played 28, Lyles played 19, Alex Len played 9 and Jordan McLaughlin (who was a DNP in the previous game). ) only played 3 minutes. Brown talked after the Minnesota game about not having his rotation figured out, and he obviously still hasn't figured it out. But I really question the logic of benching one of the team's few good defenders.

Individual awards

Domantas Sabonis – Domas was great and finished the game with 29 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. He went straight against Anthony Davis the entire game and also fought hard against AD on defense

De'Aaron Fox – Despite some bad misses, Fox finished the game with 28 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. He was part of the problem in the 4th quarter meltdown, but had a very good game overall.

Kevin Hürter – I've mentioned him before, but Huerter had one of the best games I can remember from him in a long time. 14 points, 4/7 from deep and active everywhere. Welcome back, Red Velvet

LeBron James – 32 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists, 1 block. At some point in a decade this guy will start to slow down.

Anthony Davis – 31 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists, 2 blocks. AD started this season like a man on a mission. Sabonis played him really well and Davis still had monster stats at the end.

Next

The Kings hope to get their season back on track when they host the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday. The Kings now have a softer schedule with Portland, Utah, Atlanta, Toronto, Miami, Toronto and the Clippers. But given that the Kings have struggled to beat “worse” teams in recent years, no Kings fan goes into these games with confidence. Time to rise, kings.