Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

Do you want me to repeat it? No? Well it doesn’t matter because he just drilled another three anyways while you read this. Oh my goodness, this guy just could not miss in the third quarter where the Los Angeles Lakers came back into the game after trailing 60-50 to take a 87-83 lead to start the fourth quarter.

The Sacramento Kings had hot starts from Bogdan Bogdanovic in the first quarter who had seven early points and Buddy Hield came off the bench to make back-to-back threes. The Kings would end the quarter with a 29-25 lead.

The second quarter was exactly the same as the first in terms of scoring. The Kings scored 29 to the Lakers 25 to take a 58-50 lead to end the half. Willie Cauley-Stein ended the half with a double-double.

Then as mentioned earlier, Caldwell-Pope happened. He was scoring threes faster than you could even say it as he helped the Lakers cut into their deficit and eventually take a lead. The third quarter can just be summarized as Caldwell-Pope’s quarter.

The fourth quarter was another close one. Like we saw in the Oklahoma City Thunder game, it came down to the final seconds but again, it didn’t work out. Bogdanovic hit a miraculous three while being fouled to give the Kings hope, but on the next possession he was forced to drive inside due to good perimeter defense by the Lakers. The Lakers would end up holding onto their lead to win 113-108. That was painful to watch and write.

Best Performers

Bogdan Bogdanovic: After having only four points against the Thunder, Bogdan Bogdanovic started the game with a more aggressive approach and gave the Kings hope towards the end of the game. Unfortunately, he couldn’t. He would finish with 21 points (4/7 from three), four rebounds and six assists in 30 minutes.

Buddy Hield: Coming off a double-double against the Thunder, Buddy Hield followed up with yet another solid performance off the bench. He would lead that unit in scoring as he also had 21 points (5/10 from three) and eight rebounds in 31 minutes. Buddy is starting to be freed!

Frank Mason: Yes, Frank Mason only played 15 minutes but those 15 minutes were very valuable. In just that short time frame, Mason provided six assists to go along with six points. He’s the perfect point guard to come off the bench for De’Aaron Fox and just imagine if he wasn’t on a minutes restriction.

Notable Performers

De’Aaron Fox played 30 minutes today and shot 5/13 from the field. He finished with 13 points and six assists. He had a slow start but picked it up as the game went along. His most notable play in my eyes was that ferocious one-handed dunk in the fourth.

Willie Cauley-Stein already had a double-double in the first half and would finish with 18 points and 15 rebounds in 37 minutes. He shot 6/14 from the field and 6/11 from the free throw line. The play where he tried to spin away and lost the ball off his chest for a turnover late in the game was so frustrating.

Skal Labissiere had himself a nice game as he starts adjusting to normal NBA games. He made his impact in the second quarter, where all of his eight points came. He added four assists, five rebounds and a big one-handed putback dunk in 25 minutes.

Notable Stats

The Kings shot 42/94 (47%) compared to the Lakers 41/91 (45%). The Kings were killed by the three ball as they allowed 17 to go in. Eight of them came from Caldwell-Pope. Sacramento made 13 threes.

Free throws were another problem for Sacramento. They shot 11/17 from the stripe, five of those misses coming from Willie. You make those six and you win 114-113. #EasyMath

Kings actually out-rebounded the Lakers 48-44 and out-assisted them 28-26. They each had five steals while the Lakers out-blocked Sacramento 6-5. Sacramento had 11 turnovers and forced 10. And of course, the Kings had more fouls with 21. #Refs

Quick Takeaways

Caldwell-Pope had 34 points in scoring, which was a game-high.

Buddy and Bogdan each scored 21 points and were 8/16 from the field each, too. #FunFact

Justin Jackson didn’t have a single point as he only attempted two shots in 14 minutes.

Next Game

The Kings host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, February 26th at 7:00 PM PST.