Tonight, the story of the game was the Kings running full-tilt in transition. The Kings scored FORTY of their points in fast breaks, a truly ridiculous proportion of their total offense. The Lakers did their part to help grease the wheels with their 22 turnovers, directly leading to THIRTY points off those turnovers. I did think the Kings did a pretty solid job defending the Lakers. The Lakers aren't exactly running a ferocious offense, but the Kings didn't defend the Lakers all that well the last few times the teams met. This time, the Kings did a good job defending using their new principles, holding the Lakers to a 91.2 overall offensive rating, which included only 44% shooting from the field and 19% from three. They are still using ICE defense to force ballhandlers to the sideline, they are running shooters off their catch-and-shoot rhythm, and they are rotating on the front end. Its not perfect but its good enough to stop the Lakers.

In the fourth quarter, it looked like the Lakers were going to catch the Kings, who had been sitting on a comfortable double-digit lead for most of the evening. This was mostly on the back of some truly atrocious halfcourt offense on the part of the Kings. George Karl still seems insistent on an offense-less offense when the Kings aren't streaking in transition, which is leading to some ghastly offensive production. But, with the Lakers cutting the lead to six points with three minutes remaining, the Kings went to a solid set that got them two consecutively good looks: Cousins popped out to the three point line after setting a screen, receive the ball and then immediately revers it to Gay coming from the opposite wing for a quick screen and roll that got Rudy going downhill in the middle of the paint. It isn't the most elaborate set ever, but its nice to see the Kings using some motion and movement as opposed to their drab pindown or straight isolation plays. Rudy got two great shots out of that set, making one while Cousins cleaned up the other miss. Those two plays kept the Lakers at arms length by pushing the lead to 8 with two minutes remaining.

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