Lakers beat Kings to complete 2-game set in Sacramento

SACRAMENTO — In a two-game set like the Lakers wrapped up with a 103-99 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday afternoon, especially after winning the first matchup on Thursday night, the little moments can shine through.

But it was LeBron James’ offensive aggressiveness early that gave the Lakers an early edge.

And then the little plays made by the Lakers’ late sealed their third consecutive victory and fourth in their last five games, giving them a 16-12 record on the season.

James (game-high 32 points, seven rebounds, six assists and a season-high four steals) attacked the rim early and often.

“I just wanted to seize the opportunity,” James said. “We had an opportunity to get two quality wins on the road in a hostile environment against a really good team, a team that we have not had much success with over the last couple of years. And I just tried to seize the opportunity and breathe energy into my teammates.”

He scored 23 first-half points and made his first eight shots inside the paint to help give the Lakers a 56-53 lead during another game in which they struggled with their outside shooting (9 of 35 on 3-pointers – 25.7%).

“We had their bigs lifted, so just middle of the floor,” coach JJ Redick said. “Giving him a lane to roll, a lane to drive. The two-man stuff with him and [D’Angelo Russell], whether it was middle of the floor in the first half or on the side in the second half was really good for us.”

Just like on Thursday, the Lakers’ defense not only gave them the advantage throughout Saturday, but their play down the stretch helped them seal the win.

James hit a 14-footer to put the Lakers up 99-91 with just under four minutes remaining. Russell (20 points, five assists, four rebounds off the bench) followed up with a 14-footer of his own, giving the Lakers a 101-91 edge with just under three minutes left.

After the Kings scored five unanswered points, De’Aaron Fox (team-high 31 points, seven assists, five rebounds) missed an open pull-up 3 that would’ve cut Sacramento’s deficit to two.

Domantas Sabonis (19 points, 19 rebounds, five assists) made an and-1 layup and the ensuing free throw to cut the Lakers’ lead to 101-99 with 1:11 remaining.

James missed a 3 that would’ve given the Lakers a two-possession lead, allowing the Kings to tie the game or take the lead, but Fox missed a floater over Austin Reaves and Anthony Davis corralled the defensive rebound.

Davis was later fouled by Malik Monk on a Lakers’ inbounds play with 12 seconds left in the game.

He missed both free throws, but Hachimura grabbed his third offensive rebound of the game to maintain possession for the Lakers.

“I saw they subbed Alex Len in so they knew it was going to be a big rebound play,” Hachimura said. “Because there’s three big men in there, I knew the other guy next to me gonna go to AD. So I knew if I pushed a little bit, I could kind of get a good position and I can tap out. That was much needed. I kind of felt bad that I missed the last 3 in the corner. So I was like, I gotta get back something for the team.”

Reaves, who the Kings intentionally fouled with Sacramento trailing by two with 9.2 seconds left, made both free throws to put the Lakers up 103-99 and seal the victory for the Lakers. Reaves finished with 16 points, five assists and four rebounds.

Davis was once again limited as a scorer, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting, but added 15 rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots.

The Lakers have held their opponents to 110 or fewer points in five consecutive games, including 100 or fewer in four of the last five games, after doing so nine times in their first 23 games.

“We understood in order for us to be able to at least compete in every game and to win games, we can’t rely on offense all the time, and we have to buckle down on defense,” James said. “Maybe six, seven games ago, our defense was not so good. From that moment, we just started really sharpening our defense.

“Our offense is going to come. We understand that. But you can win games in this league when you defend at a high level. And we’ve been doing that over the last couple weeks.”