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Lakers News: LA Beats Sacramento In Whistle-Heavy Battle For Fifth Straight Win

All without Anthony Davis!

Alex Kirschenbaum

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Last night, your Los Angeles Lakers eked out a marginal victory in a high-scoring road matchup against the Sacramento Kings, 136-134.

All-Star Lakers power forward LeBron James led all scorers with 37 points on 14-of-28 shooting from the floor and 8-of-9 shooting from the field. He also added eight rebounds, seven assists, and a steal.

The contest's first half was a choppy affair filthy with lead changes, as refs basically opted to call every foul, making for one of the longer halves of basketball in recent memory. The Kings went to the free throw line 20 times (!) in that first half, making 17. LA received a fraction of those calls, and went 10-of-12 from the charity stripe, in the same duration.

In a rarity even for this epic high-scoring age both teams finished north of 70+ points in the half. At the break, the score was knotted 73-73. James and starting point guard Dennis Schröder paced the Lakers with 16 points apiece at the break, but two other Lakers were also in double figures: Thomas Bryant, who had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, and Russell Westbrook, who had poured in 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor (he also had eight assists against just two turnovers in the first half). 

Kings forward Harrison Barnes paced Sacramento with 14 points, having taken just as many free throws (six) as he had field goals to that point.

Both teams traded buckets for a while in the third without either even trying much effective defense. The Lakers’ offense with LeBron James on the bench fell apart down the stretch of the third quarter. 

That's because it's tough to find another Laker who can score like this in the interior:

When reserve power forward/center Wenyen Gabriel fouled out against Sabonis with 39 seconds remaining in the third period, James mercifully returned. The Lakers would go on to score the final four points of the period, thus tying the contest the end of the third, 109-109 (yes, I swear that was actually the third quarter score and not the end of regulation).

Los Angeles kicked off the fourth quarter looking like it was on a mission. The team started out hot, going on an 11-2 run to begin the frame. A 12-foot Thomas Bryant jumper brought the team's lead to nine point with 8:08 remaining.

Sacramento's "Big Two" of point guard De'Aaron Fox and center Domantas Sabonis fought back, generating their offense on all three levels to even up the score at 124-124 midway through the fourth.

A hip check from Fox on Dennis Schröder was whistled as a foul from the refs with 3.6 seconds remaining in regulation, and though the call was reviewed, the ruling stood. Schröder made two free throws to ice the game by two points, 136-134. De'Aaron Fox whiffed on a halfcourt response to beat the buzzer, and that was all she wrote.

All told, the two teams took a combined 70 free throws in a slog of a game. Two big (related) stats that really helped sway the game LA's way: a 61% field goal percentage and a whopping 70-48 advantage in points scored in the paint.

It helps when you have a starting center with this kind of aggression on second-chance buckets:

Bryant scored a team-high 29 points on 12-of-14 shooting from the floor and 5-of-7 shooting from the free throw line, and nabbed yet another double-double with a 14-rebound night.

Having a 34-year-old point guard with the athleticism of Russell Westbrook, who can still blow by a lot of players in this league and elevate with authority, certainly doesn't hurt the team's interior scoring numbers:

Beyond Bryant and LBJ's big nights, Schröder wound up with 27 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the floor and 7-of-7 from the free throw line. Russell Westbrook recorded an efficient 23-point, 15-assist double-double. Not other Laker scored in double figures.

A day after recording his best game ever as a Laker, reserve guard Kendrick Nunn reverted back to the ineffective, tenuous player he's been for much of the season so far.

Most impressively, LA beat a nominally better team without Anthony Davis, Lonnie Walker IV, Austin Reaves or Troy Brown Jr. -- four major contributors this season.

The victory improves LA's season record to 19-21. Though the club for now is still the 12th seed in the West, it shares a record with the 11th-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves, and is just 1.5 games behind the Clippers for the sixth seed in the West (i.e. a seed that would keep it out of the postseason).

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

Basketball is Alex's favorite sport, he likes the way they dribble up and down the court.

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