LOS ANGELES — The Lakers’ defense has been trending in the wrong direction for over three months, but Wednesday’s 130-120 home loss to the Sacramento Kings was just another reminder of why they’ve ranked as a bottom-10 defense compared to the rest of the league since early December.
The Kings scored at will, using a 71-31 run across a 19-minute span of gametime in the first, second and third quarters to turn a Lakers 19-point lead (37-18) late in the first into a 21-point Sacramento lead (89-68) midway through the third.
Sacramento’s 44-20 second quarter, in which the Kings made 18 of 23 shots, including 14 consecutive makes and 17 of 18 makes to close out the quarter, was the game’s turning point.
“The second quarter dictated the game,” Anthony Davis said. “Some of the things we were in defensively allowed De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk to get whatever they want. Live in the paint. And if I go help, then [Domantas] Sabonis is wide open. They did a good job manipulating what we were doing.”
The Lakers deployed their big men – Davis and Jaxson Hayes – in drop coverage and mostly had their perimeter defenders go under pick and rolls initiated by Fox and Monk.
They hoped to limit paint-scoring opportunities for the Kings – one of the league’s best offensive paint teams – and force Fox and Monk to take outside jumpers. Fox and Monk entered Wednesday shooting 35.4% and 33.6% on pull-up 3s, respectively.
“We came out with the plan to force him (Fox) to his right hand and force Malik to his left hand,” coach Darvin Ham said. “We didn’t do a great job of that in real live-game action.”
The strategy didn’t work.
The Kings used their speed to attack the space the Lakers gave them, getting into the paint with ease.
Sacramento, which leads the league in paint field goal percentage outside of the restricted area at 49.7%, made a scorching 65.2% (15 of 23) of those types of shots against the Lakers.
The Kings, who average 52.7 paint points, scored 76 points in the paint, most the Lakers have allowed in a game this season.
Fox, who scored a career-high-tying 44 points, had 32 paint points (16-for-23 shooting). Monk (26 points and eight assists off the bench) made four of his six non-restricted area paint shots.
“Anytime you’re a competitor and you have a task at hand in front of you and fail on that possession, it’s frustrating,” Austin Reaves said. “There [were] a couple of times I thought I played good defense and De’Aaron and Malik both just made shots. That’s a testament to their skill level and their ability to put the ball in the basket.”
And when Davis did provide extra help defense, Sabonis (16 points, 20 rebounds and 12 assists) punished the Lakers with offensive rebounds for second-chance points or bruising interior play to set up his own scoring chances.
“We just gotta get better from it,” Ham said. “The cavalry ain’t coming. We got 18 (games) left. We did a lot of good things early on. We gotta be able to sustain that.”
Wednesday’s loss prevented the Lakers (34-30) from making a jump in the Western Conference standings as they continue their playoff push.
While they’re still winners in 10 of their previous 15 games, the loss to the Kings was a missed opportunity.
“Can’t dwell on it too long,” Reaves said. “You have to move forward. It’s a tough stretch. But we should embrace that and really just try to play the best basketball we can play possible because if we do that, we feel like we have a chance to beat anybody.”
BUCKS AT LAKERS
When: Friday, 7 p.m.
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV/radio: ESPN/710 AM