Another difficult night for the Los Angeles Lakers, who have watched the momentum from the start of the season slowly fade away, pushing them down the Western Conference standings and raising growing concerns inside the organization.
This time, the Sacramento Kings were the executioners, punishing the Lakers relentlessly despite the score remaining within reach and offering constant chances to mount a comeback and steal a win.
The final score was 124-112, marking a third straight loss for Los Angeles and dropping them to a 23-14 record after a once-promising beginning.
The opening stretch was played at a furious pace by the Lakers, but once again, they failed to sustain it, as defensive lapses and perimeter breakdowns resurfaced.
JJ Redick feels his team’s frustration
Lakers head coach JJ Redick could not hide his frustration as the familiar shooting issues continued to define another disappointing night.
It’s literally we can’t make a shot. First of all, they are right there with us as being one of the worst shooting teams in the league. They are tied for the highest with Houston for the highest anyone has shot all season. So, that’s typical – we were 28th before tonight in opponent three-point percentage, we’ll be 29th or 30th after tonight. We had 50 potential assists tonight, we converted on 21 of those… This has been the theme. We gotta keep shooting, I guess.
For Sacramento, long-range efficiency proved decisive, as the Kings buried Los Angeles by converting 17 of 26 shots from beyond the arc and shooting 59 percent overall.
The lack of consistency has hit the Lakers hard, particularly with their inability to find rhythm, finishing just eight of 36 attempts while struggling to control games.
The disparity between both lineups became increasingly evident, rewarding Sacramento with timely execution while chaos defined the Lakers on both ends of the floor.
Ball movement and shooting precision from the Kings overwhelmed Los Angeles, who never found a competitive response against a well-prepared opponent.
LeBron James echoes JJ Redick’s complaint
LeBron James echoed his coach’s concerns, acknowledging that far more is required if the Lakers hope to return to the win column.
James finished with 22 points in 33 minutes, making eight of 17 shots and converting six free throws.
They made a bunch of threes. We didn’t make many, but I thought we played, we had our gameplan – we executed our gameplan. Tonight was just one of those cases where we didn’t make shots.
You don’t put it strictly on that but you gotta make shots and we didn’t make shots. We got some very, very good looks. I got some great looks, you know that you just gotta knock down and we didn’t.
That was what happened against the Kings on January 12.
Read the full article here
