Lakers beat the Kings again, sweep season series

No LeBron? No problem. The Lakers beat the Kings for the fourth time this season with five players scoring in double figures.

The Lakers beat the Kings 132-122 on Saturday night sweeping them in the season series 4-0.

Anthony Davis scored 36 points with 15 rebounds and eight assists. Austin Reaves ended with 26 points, a career-high 16 assists and six rebounds. Rui Hachimura went 4-5 from behind the arc, scoring 21 points with four rebounds and two blocks.

With LeBron James out, Gabe Vincent replaced him in the starting five. Unfortunately, he suffered an oblique strain and was out for the rest of the game after only playing six minutes. Max Christie ended with 16 points. Dalton Knecht had 18 points.

Austin started things off with five straight points. AD jumped in, making all five of his first shot attempts. Max contributed with two 3-pointers. Former Laker Malik Monk was cooking early, going three for four from the field, which included two threes. At the first timeout, L.A. was up five.

After Sacramento took the lead, a layup by Rui put the Lakers up by one. After L.A. won a coach's challenge, they had the ball and D’Angelo Russell drained a three. The Lakers found some offensive momentum, extending their lead to 11, with Dalton scoring four straight points. At the end of the first, Los Angeles was up by nine.

DeMar DeRozan began the second quarter hot, scoring five points from midrange. The shots that the Kings missed in the first quarter were starting to fall now. At the first timeout, L.A. was nursing a two-point lead.

Rui knocked down a much-needed 3-pointer to stop some of the momentum Sacramento had. The Lakers were having difficulty making their shots and were missing far too many free throws.

Without LeBron, the purple and gold were missing that extra energy that would make the Kings struggle much more. The defense was nonexistent, contributing to Sacramento's fast pace for scoring.

As we’ve seen, the Lakers struggle to close the half well. Thanks to De’Aaron Fox scoring four straight points, the Kings took a one-point lead into halftime.

The Kings stretched their lead to three to start the third. Austin answered with a 3-pointer to tie the game once more. Unfortunately for the Lakers, Max got back-to-back fouls, putting him in foul trouble.

Finally, the Lakers got rolling offensively thanks to Rui getting aggressive and scoring inside. The purple and gold went on a 7-0 run extending their lead to eight, forcing Sacramento to call timeout.

Sabonis entered foul trouble grabbing his fifth one with four minutes left in the quarter. Los Angeles began to distance themselves, going up by double digits.

After Sacramento made a push to make it an eight-point game, the Lakers went on a tear to close the quarter up 17.

Dalton opened up the final frame with a 3-pointer. Sacramento had a rough start to the quarter with DeMar being the only King to score. The Lakers then started to miss some of their shots and the Kings starting to heat up.

L.A. was forced to call timeout when the lead had gone down to 13.

Fox singlehandedly cut the deficit to eight. However, the Kings had to play the rest of the game without Sabonis who fouled out.

Sacramento was not giving up, they made it a two-possession game with 3:39 left. Los Angeles’ defense was looking frantic, but the Kings missed a few shots and Max knocked down a three to put L.A. back up double digits.

Despite a valiant effort, the Kings fell apart and couldn’t complete a comeback.

Key Takeaways:

Massive appreciation to Christian Koloko who has been doing a nice job as the only real backup center for the team. He has done a lot of the dirty work and he has connected well on dunks.

It’s nice to see Rui looking like he’s back in good form with his shots. He’s been automatic from behind the arc again.

The Lakers’ next game will be New Year's Eve against the Cleveland Cavaliers at 6:00 PM PT.

You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.