THE the Los Angeles Lakers and visit Kings of Sacramento will meet on Wednesday, each having a chance to improve their playoff position after recent success against some of the best teams in the Western Conference.
The Lakers are coming off a 116-104 victory Monday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who entered the week as the best team in the West.
The Kings earned a 124-120 overtime victory Friday in Minneapolis against the Minnesota Timberwolves, who slipped into first place in the conference after Monday’s series of games. Sacramento, however, has lost three of its last four games, including a 113-109 loss to the visiting Chicago Bulls on Monday, when the Kings blew a 22-point lead in the second half.
The Lakers fell short of a potential victory against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, but they bounced back to defeat the Thunder thanks to accurate shooting from their guards. D’Angelo Russell had a team-high 26 points and Austin Reaves added 16 as the duo combined to make nine 3-pointers.
Russell helped Los Angeles pull away from Oklahoma City with three straight three-pointers, all in a span of 1:06 early in the fourth quarter as the Lakers took a commanding 103-79 lead with 9:06 remaining. . A flurry of long-range shots brought the bench onto the court to celebrate when the Thunder called a timeout.
“Obviously we know D-Lo can go,” said Los Angeles star LeBron James, who had 19 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists on Monday. “He can make three or four threes in a row and blow the game open, and he did it again.
“The uncanny ability that once he sees the ball go through the hoop, he can knock out three or four, get the crowd going, get us hyped and we can take the momentum from there.”
The Lakers have momentum as a team, having gone 10-4 since early February when the trade deadline was approaching. Russell was rumored to be a potential trade item for the Lakers, but they kept the veteran and are being rewarded for the move.
“My teammates find me when I’m hot,” Russell said on a Spectrum SportsNet broadcast. “I think for me it’s easier when I can stretch the floor like that.”
The Kings also lost to the Nuggets last week and held a players-only meeting before rebounding to defeat the Timberwolves on Friday. But when it returned Monday, Sacramento was outscored 36-18 by Chicago in the fourth quarter.
The Kings led by 22 points with 3:28 left in the third before the advantage disappeared. Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox scored 20 points and had 10 assists in his return from a two-game absence caused by a bruised left knee.
Domantas Sabonis had 18 points and 21 rebounds but fouled out with just under three minutes remaining. It was his 43rd consecutive double-double.
“Any time you lose one of your two best players in a match it’s difficult, but the reality is that his mistake in that moment didn’t cost us the match,” he said. Kings coach Mike Brown. “We inflicted some injuries on ourselves throughout the game, and not just in the fourth quarter, not just in the last three minutes.”
One area of concern was the Kings’ 18 turnovers that led to the Bulls’ 24 points. Sacramento scored 12 points off Chicago’s 10 turnovers.
–Field level media
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