A Closer Call, But Kings Fall in Rematch With Lakers

New venue but same result. 

In their second game of the preseason, the Sacramento Kings fell to the Los Angeles Lakers 114-110 on Thursday, Oct. 8, in Los Angeles. The Kings went from being overwhelmed by the Lakers at home on Tuesday to a close loss on the road two days later.

The Kings lost despite making more field goals than the Lakers. Sacramento shot 42-of-94 from the floor while Los Angeles made 36-of-78. The Lakers only made one more three-pointer than the Kings but made it to the free-throw line more and nearly doubled them (31-16) in that category. 

Precious Achiuwa led the Kings with 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting completely on mid-range shooting. Maxine Raynaud scored 13 points with a lead-high 10 rebounds for the only double-double of the game. 

Darius Acuff Jr. struggled with his shooting in his second preseason game as an NBA player. He led the Kings in field goal attempts with 15 but only made four shots, including 2-of-7 from the three-point line and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line. 

Zach LaVine finished with 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting and a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line, as well as leading the Kings with four assists.

Daeqwon Plowden (15 points) and Emanuel Sharp (11 points) each made three baskets from the arc off the bench to lead the Kings’ outside shooting. However, the rest of the team shot a collective 6-of-21 from the three-point line. 

Luka Doncic led the Lakers in scoring with 23 points on 6-of-16 shooting including a perfect 9-of-9 from the charity stripe. Austin Reaves scored eight points with eight assists. Sandro Mamukelashvili scored 19 points and Jake LaRavia scored 17 points while both bench players each made three shots from the three-point line. 

The Kings had a slight 10-7 lead in the first quarter on a tip-in dunk by Maxime Raynaud. But back-to-back three-pointers from Doncic and LaRavia highlighted a 10-3 run to put the Lakers ahead 17-13, and eventually as high as 21-17. A free throw and layup by Jonathan Mogbo put the Kings within a point at the end of the first quarter. 

Raynaud made a tip shot to put the Kings ahead 22-21 to start the second quarter. The Lakers responded with a 19-3 run to lead by 15 points before a dunk by Achiuwa and a LaVine layup made it a 40-29 game with 5:21 left in the first half. 

A three-foot layup from Mamukelashvili put the Lakers up 51-35 with 1:32 left in the second quarter. From there on it was the Lakers vs. Acuff. The Sacramento rookie scored eight points on two three-pointers through the final 90 seconds but the Lakers went into halftime leading 57-43. 

Achiuwa made a layup and assisted on a layup by Leaky Black to pull the Kings within single digits of the Lakers, down 74-69 with 2:30 in the third quarter. The Lakers finished the third quarter on a 12-1 run, capped by a pair of three-pointers from Mamukelashvili.

The Lakers led as much as 103-84 in the fourth quarter after a layup from Bronny James with 5:21 remaining. The Kings responded with a 16-1 run to pull within 104-100 with two minutes left in the game. Eight unanswered points from the Lakers put them ahead for good. 

The Kings will travel to San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 10, to take on the Golden State Warriors.