By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Trailing the rest of the way after leading for most of the first quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers surrendered, 124-112, to the Sacramento Kings in Golden 1 Center.
Making 16/25 field goals, Luka Doncic recorded a game-high 42 points on Monday, in his seventh 40-point showing of the 2025-26 NBA Regular Season. The Slovenian combo guard added eight assists, seven rebounds, and four steals over 36:56.
A reserve European option for head coach JJ Redick, German Maxi Kleber logged 1:53 and dished out one assist.
“Literally, we can’t make a shot,” explained the 41-year-old play-caller in a postgame press conference, after his side was forced to 23-14 on a team total of 41/84 field goals, including 8/36 three-pointers, versus 48/82 and 17/26, respectively, for the Kings.
“They are right there with us, being one of the worst shooting teams in the league. They’re tied with Houston for the highest anybody’s shot all season. That’s typical. We were 28th before tonight in opponent’s three-point percentage. We’ll be 29th or 30th after tonight. We had 50 potential assists tonight, converted on 21 of those. Expected score, we won by 24. This has been the theme,” added Redick.
“It felt like they made every three. I feel like we had some great shots. They didn’t go in, but they just made all of their shots,” mentioned 26-year-old Doncic.
The hosts missed German Dennis Schroder (league suspension) following his heated confrontation with Doncic, and Lithuanian Domantas Sabonis (left knee partial meniscus tear). Also, Croatian Dario Saric did not play. However, French Maxime Raynaud stayed in the starting lineup, tallying 11 points, four rebounds, and one assist in 31:19.
After improving 10-30, reducing the distance from a Play-In ticket to 7.5 games, the Kings reach the third part of a seven-game homestand with the New York Knicks visiting on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Lakers are on back-to-back duty, returning to crypto.com Arena and welcoming the Atlanta Hawks.
“Before the game, in the warmup, I felt something. So, I was just trying to get warm and get going. But tomorrow, we’ll see how I wake up,” said Doncic, making himself questionable for the bottom end of the back-to-back.
Beyond on-court challenges, the Lakers and Kings are both interested in Jonathan Kuminga, monitoring the developing situation at the Golden State Warriors ahead of the trade deadline on February 5, according to The Stein Line.