Kings outlast Lebron, Lakers

By Julia McIntyre

LOS ANGELES (Compton Bulletin)—The Lakers played a strong first half against the Sacramento Kings in a home game at Crypto.com Arena Jan. 18.

The Kings played a better half in the third and fourth quarters and came away with a nail-biting 116-111 win.

After the game, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham made it clear what was it that cost his team getting the win.

“The key ingredients to us not coming out with the ‘W’ is we gave up too many second chance points early on,” Ham remarked. “We got up against the clock a little bit, little too much indecisiveness...It sucks to lose these close games.”

Morant misfired on 20 of his 29 attempts from the field and the Lakers picked up win No. 21 on the season. The Lakers were able to pull out the nail-biting win by outscoring Memphis 41-32 in the fourth quarter. Russell Westbrook, who led all scorers with 29 points, led the way for Los Angeles with 11 points in the final period.

LeBron James, on his quest to overtake Kareem Abdul Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time scoring champ, contributed 10 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter. After a week of close calls and near-misses, the Lakers broke through, putting a stop to the Grizzlies’ 11-game winning streak. The last min- utes of the game was the tell all as both teams fought to walk away with the win.

In the end, Dennis Schröder secured the victory for the Lakers when he stole the ball from Desmond Bane and scored an impressive layup.

“We wanted to trap first before we fouled...I just got the steal and I just thought ‘push the ball,’” he said. “I think the last couple minutes we did a great job just rebounding and pushing the pace.”

The Lakers point guard added 19 points, eight rebounds and eight assists during the 33 minutes he was on the court. Westbrook was an obvious star of the intense showdown with the Grizzlies, a team with the second-best record in the Western Conference. Aside from his scoring totals, Westbrook also produced six assists and five rebounds.

In the last 10 minutes of the game, Westbrook made a clutch basket on one leg when a Memphis player put him off balance and fouled him. During the last five minutes, he assisted Thomas Bryant which resulted in a powerful dunk. During his postgame interview with reporters, Westbrook was asked how he was able to find his rhythm offensively.

“Just playing my game,” Westbrook retorted. In the final minute of the game, Westbrook and James’ teamed up to put down the young and fearless Grizzlies. James grabbed a Westbrook miss with a rebound to bring the score to 118-115. Moments later, Westbrook and James teamed up for another scoring opportunity to make the score in the contest a one-point difference.

“To get a win like this is a momentum swing,” said Lakers coach Darvin Ham.

“The guys were kind of down after the Sacramento game, but we addressed areas that we needed to get better. There’s no way we win this game if we didn’t have the type of fight that we had.”

LeBron James closed the gap on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time NBA scoring record with a 32-point performance. After his scoring outburst, James needed just 284 points to be the league’s all-time leader. The countdown to his record-breaking moment will continue for James now until sometimes in February.

In the meantime, as it relates to how the Lakers played against Sacramento, James dominated the court and passed his high energy to the rest of the team, despite the injuries to Anthony Davis, Lonnie Walker IV, and Austin Reaves.

During the postgame press conference, James said the Lakers has “no room for error” due to the injuries on the team, and “just being aware” can help their offense in key moments.

Russell Westbrook helped James put up a solid fight against the Kings with 19 points, five assists and seven rebounds. During the fourth quarter with about five minutes to spare, a determined Westbrook tied the score at 103-103 as he broke through a wall of Sacramento players at the basket.

With Sacramento holding unto the lead by a thread, James was fouled and made his way to the free throw line. The Kings lead 108-107 when James stepped up to the free throw line. The energy of fans in the arena picked up considerably. The volume of fans screaming “MVP” for James was nerve-wracking loud.

When asked about the amount of energy in the arena during the postgame interview session, James said he felt humbled by it.

“I’m just very appreciative that I’ve been in quite a few buildings in my career when I’ve heard MVP chants,” quipped James. “I think it’s very humbling...being able to put in the work and people appreciate what you bring to the table by the way you approach the game...I’m always trying to be as great as I can be every single night.”

Aside from the Lakers determined efforts, the Kings made it out on top in the end when a clear path foul was called against the Lakers. Sacramento officially closed the nerve-racking gap with free throws to seal the game.

Despite the tough loss, Ham, in his postgame interview, is staying positive and has hopes the Lakers will play up to their capabilities.

“I still feel wholeheartedly that at some point we are going to break all the way through,” Ham said.