Lakers beat up the Kings without LeBron: The good, bad and story

The Los Angeles Lakers played the second game of their “unofficial” back-to-back revenge tour on the road against the Sacramento Kings. After nearly getting embarrassed by the Detroit Pistons in the “Fight Game” the week before, they squeaked by on Sunday winning 110-106. This game was the rematch of what is called the low point of the Lakers’ season losing 141-137 in triple overtime in a game that James Worthy and Robert Horry called them out from the offensive scheme to professionalism.

The breaking news from ESPN of LeBron James’ entry into the NBA’s Health and Safety protocols far outweighed the fact that the Lakers were looking to avenge easily the worst loss of the season Friday against the Sacramento Kings. The team announced that James would not play in the game against the Kings, but Adrian Wojnarowski’s report that he would miss several games is what is causing worry in Lakers Nation.

"“Obviously it’s a huge loss,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said in his pregame remarks Tuesday. “It’s disappointing. We just want the best for him right now. That’s where our thoughts are. And we have a next-man-up mindset.” “Hopefully this is something that’s short term,”"

Oh really? Let’s see how important LeBron has been to the Lakers this year.

• James has only played 11 of the Lakers’ 22 games before this game because of injuries and his one game suspension last week.
• The Lakers have a mediocre is 7-4 record with James this season and a lottery-bound 4-7 record without him.

Anthony Davis finished with 25 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks leading the Los Angeles Lakers to get this…A BLOWOUT WIN over the Sacramento Kings 117-92. The defense was late coming through customs but arrived in the second half. The Lake Show gave up 33 points total after halftime.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Thank God for the Lakers bench in the first half or the Lake Show would have been blown out by halftime!

Sometimes readers of Lake Show Life wonder if the players and coaches of the Los Angeles Lakers actually read these things. After the first half domination of the bench, this writer is starting to wonder too. After the “Big 3” scored 82 of the team’s points, Lake Show Life called out the lack of production of the bench being outscored 42-19.

The combination of Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and Malik Monk were the only bright spots in this game outside of Anthony Davis in the first half.

• Carmelo Anthony: 9 points (3-6 shooting!) knocking down tough shots and manufacturing points from the free-throw line. He finished with 14 points.
• Dwight Howard: 10 points (4-5 shooting!), 6 rebounds (2 offensive!). He finished with 12 points,13 rebounds and the starting center position unless Vogel…forget it!
• Malik Monk: 6 points on the strength of a couple of long-distance shots including this one to get the deficit within single digits. 

• He finished with 22 points (8-16 shooting with six 3 pointers!) with 4 rebounds and 4 assists.

Thank goodness for that momentum…that led to this!

The Los Angeles Lakers absolutely exploded in the third quarter!

At one time in this season, the Los Angeles Lakers were probably the worst third-quarter team in the NBA. No matter if they were up or behind, for about a month and a half, it was a guarantee that the Lakers would fall on their collective faces coming out of the locker room at halftime.

Man, the Lakers gave the Sacramento Kings the business in the third quarter literally blowing them out 37-15 to erase a 9 point halftime deficit to close the game out by the end of the quarter.

This game basically mirrored the Knicks game where Russell Westbrook kept attacking the basket after a terrible first half. It all started with a wild shot thrown at the rim where a Kings player for some reason touched the ball and drew a goaltending call that turned into a three-point play.

After that, the Lakers made it difficult for the Kings to get into their offense much less score points.

To all of the Lakers fans begging for DeAndre Jordan to be benched… 

He might be done for a while. The broadcast team mentioned a conversation between Vogel and Jordan. He wasn’t seen on the floor since.