Another SEGABABA against the Los Angeles Lakers and another loss handed to them for the Sacramento Kings who fall back under .500 at 36-37. The Lakers were out Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Reggie Bullock, you name it, but were led by LeBron James’ triple-double. The Lakers win the season series over the Kings 3-1 who just can’t seem to overcome the back-to-back games on the schedule.

Quarter-by-Quarter Recap

The first quarter was pretty atrocious for both teams who started off on a low scoring affair. The Kings only shot the ball at a 29% clip with Marvin Bagley being the only player making more than one field goal (3-6) and had seven points to lead all scorers. LeBron James had his usual highlight one-handed dunk to cap off a six point quarter and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was 2-6 from the floor for six points as well. The Lakers also had seven turnovers to one for the Kings. Willie Cauley-Stein grabbed five rebounds and Buddy Hield opened the game 1-6 from the floor as the Kings trailed 22-20.

Sacramento went down 31-20 as they couldn’t buy the easiest shots and the Lakers were getting dunks and layups the other way. The Kings then proceeded to go on a 15-2 run to make the game 35-33 and regained the lead. Both teams went back and forth the rest of the quarter as the Kings led 49-48 at the half. Bagley continued to lead the Kings with 13 points and also had six rebounds, a touch pass assist to Cauley-Stein for a dunk and a block. He was 2-6 from the free throw line which held him back from a pretty solid half. Hield had nine points on 3-10 shooting overall but all makes came on 3-5 shooting from deep, so he was 0-5 from inside the three point line. Cauley-Stein had seven rebounds which was good to see. Sacramento shot 18-50 overall (37%), 6-14 from three (43%) and 7-14 from the free throw line. The Lakers were led by LeBron’s nine points and JaVale McGee, Lance Stephenson and Caldwell-Pope all had eight.

Los Angeles opened the second half on a 14-0 run with three pointers from James and Caldwell-Pope as the Kings stalled on offense. De’Aaron Fox made some solid plays catching the Lakers off guard to make it 66-60, but the Lakers started hitting three after three and extended their lead to 77-62 and then 81-64. The Kings cut into the lead to make it 81-71 but Kyle Kuzma decided he didn’t know how to miss and made the game 87-71 after making two more threes. Yogi Ferrell got the Kings within 10 at 87-77 and nearly hit another three in transition but it went in-and-out, which later ended the quarter. Sacramento was led by Bagley’s 18 points but were still shooting an awful 37% from the floor and it didn’t help being 11-19 (58%) from the free throw line. Kuzma went off in the third to have 28 points while LeBron had 17.

As the Lakers took a 98-88 lead, Bogdan Bogdanovic made a stepback three causing Rajon Rondo to get off balance, then Bagley drilled a three, followed by Bogdanovic going at LeBron on an isolation and scoring to cut it to 96-98. The Kings kept fighting but ultimately came up short and couldn’t get the comeback victory, falling to the Lakers 3-1 on the season. The Kings could’ve had a shot down 104-108, but they were called for a five second violation on the inbounds pass. It could’ve been 4-0 on the season had Bogdanovic not made that buzzer beater in December.

Best Players

Good things happen when Marvin Bagley is on the floor but without him, the team did not look good. Bagley finished with 25 points on 10-19 shooting (2-3 from three) and grabbed 11 rebounds to go with two assists, one steal and one block. He struggled at the line going 3-8.

De’Aaron Fox’s shot was not there today as he finished with nine points on 3-16 shooting but he did provide six rebounds, four assists, one block and a career high six steals.

Buddy Hield struggles shooting against the Lakers and that was also the case tonight as he finished 6-21 overall and 5-12 from three for 18 points, six rebounds and three assists.

Notable Players

Harrison Barnes was rather quiet today, finishing with 10 points (3-7 overall, 2-5 from three), four assists and one rebound.

Willie Cauley-Stein finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, one assist, two steals and a block in 17 minutes.

It was good to see Bogdan Bogdanovic come alive for the first time in a while with 17 points on 6-12 shooting (3-4 from three) but did go 2-4 from the line. He missed a technical foul free throw resulting from the second delay of game call on LA that could’ve made the game 98-97, but instead it stayed 98-96. He also had four assists, two rebounds, one steal and one block but a forced three late in the game and a five second violation killed any real chance for the Kings to pull off a comeback.

Notable Stats

The Kings were 14-33 from three (42%) but were 14-23 from the free throw line (61%).

Sacramento was out-rebounded 56-50 and out-assisted 29-27.

The crazy part is the Lakers had 22 turnovers to the Kings’ eight and Sacramento scored 30 points off of them, but still lost by five. Free throws are important and have that name for a reason.

The Lakers had more fast break points at 31-20.

Both teams made 39 field goals but the Kings missed 19 more attempts than LA. Another key difference.

The Game in One Sentence

Losses to this team are the worst to write, especially because the Kings had the clear advantage despite being on a SEGABABA.

Next Game

The Kings get a one day rest but they’re traveling to Dallas to take on the Mavericks on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. (PST). The Mavericks are coming off a 126-91 victory over the Golden State Warriors and have the rest advantage too.