LeBron James Credits Kings’ Tempo & Bench For Changing Game

LeBron James finished with 31 points and 13 assists, but it wasn’t enough as the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Sacramento Kings for the third time this season, 130-120.

The Lakers got off to a strong start but were unable to maintain it as Sacramento used a dominant second quarter to seize control.

The Kings scored the last 10 points of the first quarter before destroying the Lakers 44-20 in the second including a 32-to-9 run to end the half. As far as what flipped the game in the Kings favor, LeBron pointed to their pace, as well as their bench as changing everything

“Their tempo, their pace,” LeBron said. “They made a sub, we made a sub. Malik Monk came in and made a big impact. Davion Mitchell made a big impact when he came in. They changed the game into a complete 180. That was the game right there from one quarter to the next.”

Monk singlehandedly outscored the Lakers reserves 26-to-18 while Mitchell was a perfect 4-for-4 from deep to finish with 12 points as well. Their activity and energy completely changed things and Sacramento never looked back.

The defensive effort as a whole was discouraging, especially coming off of such an impressive performance against Oklahoma City on Monday. And LeBron feels it all started going downhill once Anthony Davis picked up his second foul late in the first quarter.

“It evaporated when AD picked up his second. It’s that simple,” LeBron noted. “If you have someone like that, that controls so much of our defense, when he picked up his second in the first quarter and we had to make the sub, our defense kind of just fluttered after that.”

Davis checked out with the Lakers ahead by 18 and that lead was cut to eight by the time he came back in with momentum clearly shifting. LeBron felt there were times the Lakers had a chance to get back in the game in the second half, but it didn’t quite work out.

“I made the 3, we came back out and we had a great defensive possession and Malik hit a 3 at the end of the clock,” James said. “We came back down and I hit Jaxson for the pocket pass and I thought that was just a natural move by him, they called an offensive foul after the challenge so now we were down 15. I thought if we could’ve gotten that stop and maybe cut it under 10 at that point, we could’ve rode that momentum a little bit more. But it was a couple plays that affected us, for sure.”

Once the Kings seized control the Lakers just weren’t able to fight back, despite James’ best efforts and the result was an unfortunate loss to a Western rival.

LeBron James praises De’Aaron Fox for having the Lakers’ number

Once again the Lakers failed to contain De’Aaron Fox, who finished with 44 points and is now averaging 36.5 points in three games against L.A. this season. LeBron praised the Kings as a whole but especially Fox, who he admits has the Lakers’ number.

“They have a lot of shotmaking,” LeBron added. “They have a lot of space and that allows De’Aaron [Fox] to play through the 45, which is through the elbows. With his speed, not too many guys that can keep him in front of them, and he’s had our number for quite a while. He plays exceptionally well versus us and tonight was another one of those nights.”