LeBron winces as he heads to the locker room as Lakers embarrassed by Kings after fast start, fall in vital matchup

The Lakers played a terrible 38 minutes and fell to the Kings 130-120 after playing as well as they had all season during the first 10 minutes.

The Lakers had a 19-point lead in the first quarter but gave up a huge run that caused them to trail by double digits at the half. The Lakers never really made it a contest, even if they staged a few phony comebacks. The problems persisted into the second half.

Anthony Davis had a poor offensive start in the first half due to foul problems that kept him seated for a long time. With 14 points, 11 rebounds, and three assists in the second half, AD had a difficult game as a result of his foul trouble. Rui Hachimura contributed 29 points of her own.

LeBron James scored 31 points and disheveled out 13 assists. but with four minutes remaining in the game, hobbling off the ground and cautiously making his way back to the locker room. He never showed back.

The game got off to a quick start since both teams were revved up. Five of the team’s first ten scores came from Austin Reaves, who put forth a lot of effort early on. With a 16–4 scoring spree, the Lakers jumped out to a commanding 11–point lead. They continued to apply pressure, making the Kings earn their shots—which were falling—through constant pressure.

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The Lakers had a 19-point advantage at one point, but the game was getting slower. That enabled the Kings to establish some reliable offensive play, and they ended the first quarter with a 10-0 run that cut the margin to nine.

The Kings were maintaining their momentum at the start of the second quarter, while the Lakers appeared to be in need of a significant energy boost in order to resume making their shots. LeBron gave the audience a boost with a thunderous dunk with eight minutes remaining in the quarter, but it was in vain as LA still had a three-point lead.

After LAL went up 19, Sacramento went on a 10-0 run to close the quarter, with Anthony Davis resting the final 2 minutes after picking up his 2nd PF.

As such, it's 37-28.

— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) March 7, 2024

Malik Monk, a former Laker and fan favorite, was up to 17 points, which was crucial for the Kings to continue their run of success. The home team had lost whatever superpowers were helping them in the first quarter, and they were looking incredibly sloppy and disoriented.

For the remainder of the quarter, the Lakers could not muster any positive momentum as the Kings countered with precision, hitting 14 consecutive shots at one point. The Kings led by fifteen points at the half thanks to a 54-20 run that began at the close of the first quarter.

Halftime: Kings 72, Lakers 57

LA led 37-18 with 1:52 left in the first quarter. Since then, the Kings outscored them 54-20. AD has had a rough offensive game (8 points on 2-8 FGs). LeBron has 12 points and 5 assists. De'Aaron Fox has 20 points. Malik Monk has 19 off the bench.

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) March 7, 2024

In the third, the Kings increased their lead to 19 by keeping their feet on the necks of the purple and gold. This game demonstrated a lot of what we’ve seen all season long: when the Lakers are up, they tend to lose interest, which gives the other team the confidence they need to come back.

The Lakers had as much life left as a grain of rice after a quick run to trim the Kings’ advantage to 12 at the end of the quarter. This was the beginning of the notorious Lakers phony comeback, as we all knew.