The Lakers continued their fall from early-season grace on Monday night, losing their seventh consecutive game as they were drubbed by DeMarcus Cousins and the Kings 116-92 in Sacramento.
Take a drink if you’ve read this from me before, but Three Stooges-esque defense and sloppy turnovers were the Lakers undoing up in the state capitol. Cousins was a one-man wrecking crew against LA’s frontline, bulldozing his way to 31 points and 16 rebounds.
It was ugly from the jump, as an irate Luke Walton was thrown out in the first quarter. And it didn’t make sense why, because it’s not like the refs missed Cousins wrestling Julius Randle to the ground or anything oh wait…
This was not called. This is why Luke Walton got ejected. NBA is a joke. pic.twitter.com/iSRA70BV6a
— Ned (@ned7821) December 13, 2016
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Yea, I’d be pissed too if I was Walton. But hey, the good news for the Lakers was they had a former head coach sliding in to cover for Luke. The bad news? It was Brian Shaw.
Nevertheless, LA shook off a nine point deficit in the second quarter behind spirited play from Thomas Robinson and the thawing of Luol Deng’s corpse to take a nine point lead of their own into the break. Seriously, whatever drugs Deng took since getting roasted by Leandro Barbosa on Friday, please give me some. He was one of the few bright spots on the night, scoring 12 points on eight shots, while chipping in four assists and two steals in only 22 minutes of action.
But keeping with the WWE theme, Cousins and the Kings came out and clubbed the Lakers in the back of the head with a steel chair to start the second half. The Lakers simply couldn’t guard Boogie. Between bullying his way to the basket and nailing jumpers from the top of the key, he spurred the 39-13 Sacramento advantage with 16 points, six rebounds and three assists in the third quarter alone.
The most frustrating part was Sacramento blitzed the Lakers while empty handed — Rudy Gay and Ben McLemore both left the game in the first half with injuries. Obviously it’s easier said than done, but you’d think they’d make the rest of the Kings beat them rather than Cousins. By the time the Lakers started sending a double team on Cousins, they were down 87-66 with only three minutes left in the quarter.
Still, the Lakers didn’t have an answer for Sac’s complimentary players, either. The quintet of Omri Casspi, scumbag Darren Collison, Kosta Koufos, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Garrett Temple shot a combined 29-44, or 65 percent from the field.
You know it isn’t pretty when Billy Mac, the biggest Lakers honk there is, said the defense was “nonexistent.” Compounding matters, LA mustered only 33 points in the second half. The confusing part was the team moving away from what had worked so well in the first half — the Lakers were roasting the Kings with Deng and Nick Young setting screens for D’Angelo Russell in the post, opening up a slip to the basket or a jumper for D-Lo.
Alright, enough doom and gloom for tonight. The Lil’ Lakers will look to snap their losing streak when they head to Brooklyn to take on the Nets on Thursday. Hopefully they can save enjoying the NYC nightlife until after they win.
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