Update 10 p.m.
The Sacramento Kings sent the Los Angeles Lakers to the free throw line 46 times. The Kings only shot 18 free throws of their own.
The Lakers did not have Luka Doncic. They did have Austin Reaves, who scored a career-high 51 points.
The Lakers won 127-120.
Don’t worry though, the Kings take on the 3-0 Thunder in Oklahoma City next.
From Earlier Preview
In a game that went right down to the final possession, the Kings picked up their first win of the 2025-26 NBA season against the Utah Jazz on Friday night. Next up: Los Angeles Lakers. Let’s get to it.
Who: Sacramento Kings (1-1) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (1-1)
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
When: 6:00 PM PT, 9:00 PM ET
Watch: NBCSCA, League Pass
Early season injuries continue to pile up for nearly every NBA team, and tonights matchup between the Kings and Lakers is no different. According to the latest injury report update, the Lakers could be without Luka Doncic (questionable), Jaxson Hayes (questionable), LeBron James (out), Maxi Kleber (out), and Adou Thiero (out), For Doug Christie, he will likely be without Nique Clifford (out), Keegan Murray (out), and Zach LaVine (questionable, illness).
LaVine’s addition to the injury report is a big one – he’s been the Kings’ best scorer, and arguably best player overall, through the first two games of the season. And of course, if Luka is out for the Lakers, this game turns quickly from a toss up to one the Kings should be able to win at home.
While it was nice to see the Kings pick up their first win of the season against Utah, serious issues remain, and they are worth keeping your eye on tonight. Sacramento has been out-rebounded significantly through two games, and are currently ranked 28th in the league in opponent rebounds per game, and 29th in the NBA in rebounds per game. They also rank near the bottom in free throw shooting, three point shooting, and assists. Early numbers are what they are (inaccurate, small sample size, etc.) but I think in this case, those rankings properly reflect some of the issues we’ve seen from this Kings team. All the lineup inconsistencies and injuries certainly don’t help.
This version of the Lakers isn’t particularly scary, especially with the injury issues they are facing tonight. This presents the Kings with a great opportunity to pick up a home win against a playoff competitor in the West.
Prediction: Kings 114, Lakers 110.
Luck the Fakers, always.
Next up is that team from LA,
Though we won’t have to face LBJ.
Bad sciatica nerve—
A good break we deserve—
Now if Vivek would just go away!
+1 Too bad LeBron can’t play!
I agree that I would totally expect to see the Kings near the bottom of the league after 2 games without Keegan, one of which Domas was also out. And one of those games against a team featuring 21+ feet of combined height from the 3, 4 and 5 who just decimated the Clippers in every way imaginable. Health matters. So does depth.
I’m so far pleasantly surprised with just how “not bad” DrewBanks has been. I did not expect him to be that good defensively and that’s really the part that matters when you have 32 guards on your roster, all of whom have zero qualms about sending the ball towards the basket at will. JV actually put the ball in the basket and could dissuade a ball handler from coming near the rim with just a scowl but DrewBanks has held his own for the most part against the bigs, gets out on the perimeter after the skip pass, and generally isn’t just out there because he has 5 fouls to give and I appreciate that. Decent pick up so far.
That’s really the first observation that pops off the screen. I’m still processing the defense but I think what they’re doing could work. They seem to be compensating for their shortcomings with hustle and that might eventually wear them out but it works when you have depth and work rotations well. Offensively I’m not sure what I’m seeing yet besides the LaVine show when he’s on and a train wreck when he’s not. DBo holds up the scoring ok when LaVine disappears but there’s a huge drop off after that and that won’t win them many games at all. Domas and Keegan are going to have to contribute in the scoring column for this team to succeed against the top end teams. That and this team needs to figure out that moving and passing will win them way more games than standing and watching iso ball. Especially when you are short on rebounding and the iso ball stops going in the basket.
Still in shock as the FBI investigation body count continues to rise. KG is in the mix now, Scott Foster, Billups, etc. This whole thing is pretty crazy. Will be interesting to see how far it goes.
Basketball is having a hell of a year.
Is that true? I heard this was fake news.
So if LaVine sits, it will be quite telling to Doug turns to. How gets the start: Monk, Keon, or Westbrook?
John Salmons
How did Jerry not ever coin the Jerryism “he’s Smoking Salmons tonight!” ?
Who ever is playing, plays.
Jake LaRavia revenge game.
Wouldn’t even be surprised at this point.
LaRavia should be thrilled he’s not a part of this shit show.
How many times will Kayte comment on how hard it is to prepare to play against a team that’s missing its stars?
Zach available:
Phuck the Lakers. And phuck Vivek too!
Already look lost on both ends
DDR for 60 tonight. Everyone else putting up sloppy stinks
Lakers getting a shit ton of calls as usual.
Ellis is playing really sloppily right now, already at 4 fouls
Mark Jones is so stale. Listening to him agitates me.
And when will Kayte stop saying that these guys just need time to gel and learn each other? Game 20? Game 42?
Game 83
Kings shoot a red hot 50% from three, but head to halftime tied against a Lakers team that shot 18% from deep while missing Luka and LeBron.
Unsustainable.
They’ll have to find a way to defend Reeves without fouling him.
So Domas has been reduced to basically rebounding and setting screens now?
Neon Keon broken bulbs
Reaves has gone to the free throw line more than the Kings.
Absolute bullshit foul call, Reeves was losing his balance and Cardwell barely touched him
Sausage foul fest
37-9 free throw disparity. Is Donaghy reffing again?
This free throw disparity is reaching 2002 WCF levels of insanity
This is what happens when one team fronts and the other team reaches.
This organization has 99 problems but the refs ain’t 1.
Shout not had to challenge that. Terrible whistles tonight
This is one of the worst lineups I’ve seen in several years
Ayton so trash. Glad Fakers signed him
Are LaVine and DeRozan tired or what? They look like it.
They are, as I have whined about several times previously, in their 30s with mediocre conditioning
Yeah, I knew someone had brought this up before. Their shots are short.
Defense is gone, shots are cold, “let’s go Lakers” chants, and no Keon while Reeves is playing unconscious
Austin Reaves owns Vivek lol
Terrible shot by Zach. He should have driven to the rim.
Dennis flopped.
Reeves trucks Schroeder like a fullback and gets free throws. Fuck these refs. Fuck the Lakers
44 free throws? Are you f#@#ing kidding me?
When you don’t have good defenders on the court, you foul when trying to defend.
Oh come on Kayte.
I love the lineup they had with Lavine as the “PF”. This roster just makes no sense. Nothing about this organization makes sense when it comes to trying to be a winning basketball team.
Unwatchable roster and unlistenable color analyst.
I lasted all of ten minutes.
Play-by-Play guy was just as bad. Everything seems forced, and he tries to sound overly intelligent.
I just want to point out before folks start screaming…FREE THROW FAVORED THE LAKERS!!! There was just a 9 foul discrepancy between the Kings and Lakers..17-26. That’s a 9 foul gap. That is not unusual and is also not as bad as the FT gap.
Do the math, even if the 9 foul gap were all on shots, thats 18 more free throws on 9 more fouls. The Lakers, however, shot 28 more FTs than the Kings. This is because the Lakers were more aggressive.
The issue is the Lakers (Reaves) were attacking the rim and drawing fouls on the shot, while the Kings were not. Kings settled for jump shots, while the Lakers attacked a defensively weak team
When a team goes small with zero rim protection, like the Kings are currently constructed, this is the outcome. Don’t buy into any talking heads excuse that the Lakers got all the calls when the truth is the Lakers hunted those calls on an inferior opponent. They out planned and outplayed the Kings.
Very savvy observation.
Looks like Eubanks lasted 2 games as the backup center. Wonder if Perry regrets trading JV?
He’s got his guaranteed money from Vivek. Probably doesn’t regret anything.
I get a chuckle how it’s painfully obvious that the Kings have no front court depth so Christie is basically just throwing shit against the wall to see if sticks.
Eubanks starts game 1, gets 4 minutes off the bench by game 3.
Isaac Jones starts game 2, gets 1 minute in game 3.
Saric is still on par with his career performance decline and is averaging 1.7 points and 1.7 rebounds in three games.
Caldwell, a G-league 2-way player, is now the primary backup big.
I now expect Christie to tap McDermott who has brought his shooting gravity from the bench with 3 straight DNP/CD.
It sure is nice of Perry to give all of these guys millions of dollars to suck while playing behind Sabonis and Keegan. But it’s all fine because we have eleventeen guards to fill all those big man minutes.
So they lost to the Suns who are going to be horrible, beat the Jazz (widely considered to be tanking and the worst team in the West) on a last second buzzer beater by 1, and lost to the Lakers without Luka and Lebron at home. I called 28 wins for this team and they might be even worse than that.
Zach Lavine’s empty calorie scoring ability is perfect for this organization. I’m sure Vivek is having a great time.
Vivek is a dissillusioned fool who is incapable of critical self-reflection regarding the staffing choices he has made with both management and the roster. His brand of diet basketball has not worked with his overinvesting in shooting guards over the years with the likes of players such as Jimmer Freddette, Nik Stauskas, and Buddy Hield. I also predicted the Kings will win 28 games this year, and cannot honestly see how many people believed this organization is capable of over 30 wins with the roster as currently constructed.
I mean why play Carter and Cardwell. These guys are average D league players at best. Just play your best players and live with the matchups.
Play this lineup, live with a couple of match up problems and remember the opponent has to guard us too. Sabonis, Monk, LaVine, DDR and Schroder. Bring in Ellis and Russ off the bench, maybe a little Clifford when he gets back and take your chances and a little Saric and Eubanks. Our best players regardless of position on the court all together pose difficult matchups for our opponents and it’s our best chance of winning. Don’t try to matchup size with the likes of Cardwell. It’s a suckers move and will fail miserably.
Carter and Cardwell need a ticket to Stockton immediately.
Couple of reasons:
First, our bigs other than Sabonis are really really bad with Murray out (unable to play SF/PF role). Christie’s options were Saric, Jones, Raynaud, Eubanks, and Caldwell. He’s tried them all, but it’s rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Second, of those options, at least Caldwell brings energy and defense. He is a situational player at best. But the Lakers were running a layup line. We have a lot of net negative defenders and no rim protection. Christie is just trying to find anything that can work to slow down the other team.
Sort of related to some Twitter criticism I saw of Christie playing DeRozan and LaVine at PF at times. There are no good lineup options (especially with Murray and Clifford out). Every lineup has massive holes and one of the pieces fit together. And we don’t even have an elite player to hold a poor fit lineup together.
I feel a bit bad for Christie, there simply isn’t much he can do and he is likely going to take a ton of criticism and be blamed for a lot this season that really isn’t his fault. Not saying he is without blame, we will see how good of a coach he is as the season goes on. But prime Popovich isn’t getting this roster to the playoffs. Pop might murder a player or quit by midseason.
So, everyone is feeling good about our four road games this week?
At OKC and then Chicago back to back, and then at Cream City and at Denver.
With our roster it’ll look more like this…
I have to go back to the Cousins – Matt Barnes – Ty Lawson team to find a roster that I disliked more than this one. There is just nothing to get excited about here. Nothing.
All Westbrook and no Keegan makes Rob a dull boy.
I was at this game.
It was brutal. No momentum, no rhythm. There is no excuse when one player shoots more FT than an entire team. None.
The NBA has a credibility problem, and this is the sort of reason that fans will stop going to games and stop watching.
DeRozan was reliable and say what you want, but a positive on offense. Zach Lavine, for all of the dislike, I find a likeable player. He is one heck of a scorer, and though he might not be Lou Dort, he is reasonable defensively, IMO. Is he a top 10 SG? I believe so. And averaging 30 ppg, to open the season is currently the best player on this team.
Sabonis? There is something wrong there. He does not seem to be the player I’ve enjoyed watching these past 3 seasons. His game just looks… off.
As much as I disliked the awful game last night – and I will add, that if this were the other way around and say DDR had 22 trips to the line and the Kings took 46 FT and the Lakers 18, this game still would have sucked. I will applaud Austin Reaves, he was flat out ballin’, but this officiating was a travesty. That no one from the Kings has said anything post game is galling to me. That’s weak sauce, and makes me not want to be a Doug Christie fan. Find a spine.
Lastly, Westbrook was a joy last night. His energy, his rebounding, and that he made (4-6 3FG, 2-6 FT) his shots was just, well, fun. Easy guy to root for, IMO.
I’m obviously with you on him being an elite scorer, but I personally think he is a very poor defender.
At times, he can be solid in ISO defense. But his team defense is horrendous. He is slow to get back at times. He doesn’t rotate well. He provides no congestion or help in the paint. He really struggles defending the P&R. And his favorite spot when the ball is inside is standing between the three point line and paint starting at players driving or watching other players fight for rebounds, while he does nothing.
It’s exacerbated on our team where we don’t have other good defenders to help cover for him. But for context, while advanced metrics are messy especially the very low sample size after 3 games, LaVine had a -2.3 DBPM last season and -4.3 so far this year.
LaVine’s problem in general is that outside of scoring, he’s not really good at anything. For all his individual efficiency, right now the Kings are 21st in offensive rating. That is 100% not all LaVine’s fault, but he has 2 assists and 5 turnovers in 3 games. He does not create for others. He cannot run the pick and roll. He basically can shoot and drive. And it does make our offense more predictable and bogged down.
Sorry, not to post a rant under your post that started with defense, but it’s just becoming increasingly frustrating watching him play. Trading for LaVine with that contract was absolute malpractice.
At least the Kings don’t have any felons on this roster (that we know of).
My favorite part of the game was Kyle Draper’s typical King’s fan crashout postgame. The beatings will continue until roster improves.
My favorite part is all the times Kayte says it’s a teaching moment.
We have like the smartest most educated team in history with all those teaching moments!
Badge Legend