By Charlie O. Mallonee

Sacramento – The circus came to town on Friday night in the form of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers might not see the Kings as their archrivals, but Kings fans see the purple and gold as an enemy that needs to conquered.

The Kings conquered the Lakers on Friday night 132-114 in a game that was not a close as the score would indicate. Sacramento dominated the game from the opening tip. The Lakers had only one lead in the game – 4 to2 at the 10:40 mark in the first quarter. Los Angeles never came close to a lead after that.

The Kings scored 40 points in the first quarter and 34 more in the second period. They held a 74-50 lead at halftime. The only question was how would the Kings respond coming out of halftime?

There was a bit of a letdown as the Lakers outscored the Kings 33-28 in the third and 31-30 in the fourth quarter. The Lakers tried to make a run in the fourth quarter but the game outcome was never in question.

Preseason prognosticators predicted the Kings would finish three to five places ahead of the Lakers in the NBA Western Conference. After the game on Friday, you can see why those predictions are accurate. The Kings are an improved team while the Lakers are young and not very good at this point. The Lakers have potential, but it is going to be painful while that potential develops into a winning basketball team.

Kings

George Karl was unhappy with the Kings pace in the first quarter of the game with the Clippers. In his pregame press conference he made it clear that wanted his to play defense from the opening tip with the Lakers.

Karl even changed his starting lineup in order to achieve his goals. Rookie center Willie Cauley-Stein made his first NBA start on Friday night versus the Lakers. Karl said he liked the match ups with Cauley-Stein in the lineup.

Cauley-Stein did not let his coach down. The Kings newest big man played 30-plus minutes, scored 17 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had three blocked shots. He also took care of the ball making only two turnovers during his time on the floor.

Rajon Rondo had a breakout game for Sacramento. He scored 21 points and dished out eight assists in just 23 minutes of playing time. Rondo was very much the floor general the Kings want him to be on Friday.

DeMarcus Cousins put together another double-double night. He scored 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Cousins also had three assists and two blocked shots. He shot 11-for-14 from the free throw line.

Rudy Gay also had a big night for the Kings. He put up 19 points shooting 8-for-12 from the floor. Gay also had three assists and two steals.

The Kings second unit had a productive night as well. Darren Collison scored 14 points, Omri Casspi 12, Kosta Koufos 8 and Marco Belinelli six.

The Kings shot .515 (52-for-101) from the floor. That is not a typographical error. Sacramento took 101 shots in the game.

If there was a disappointment in the game, it was the Kings 3-point shooting. They shot just .273 (6-for-22) from beyond the 3-point line.

Sacramento was also an improved team from the free throw line. They were 22-for-30 (.733) from the stripe. The 30 attempts were a vast improvement over the mere 18 chances they had against the Clippers. The Kings were driving the ball to basket versus the Lakers.

The Kings exceeded George Karl’s goal for 25 assists per game by dishing out 26 assists.

The also took better care of the basketball cutting their turnovers down to just 14 and giving up just 10 points off those mistakes.

The Kings scored 80 points in the paint to just 38 for the Lakers. Just another example of the team’s complete domination of Los Angeles in the game.

Lakers

Guard Jordan Clarkson led the scoring for the Lakers with 22 points. He shot 10-for-15 from the floor and 2-for-3 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Nick Young was productive off the bench for Los Angeles putting up 17 points in his 21-plus minutes on the floor.

D’Angelo Russell – the Lakers number one draft pick – scored 13 points shooting 5-for-10 from the field. He also dished out two assists as he alternated with Clarkson at point guard.

Kobe Bryant played 22 minutes in the game putting up 13 points, recording three assists and hauling in four rebounds. Bryant moved into fifth place on the NBA’s all-time career list for the most field goals made, passing Shaquille O’Neal (11,330).

As a team, the Lakers shot .461 (41-for-89) for the game. They shot a very respectable .324 (11-for-34) from 3-point land.

Turnovers were a major problem for the Lakers. They gave up 30 points to the Kings off 19 turnovers.

The Lakers used all 13 of their active players in game Friday night. Metta World Peace and Larry Nance Jr. were inactive for the Lakers.

What they said after the game

“I think we challenged them to play defense,” said George Karl. “Our pressure took the offense away and forced them into a lot of jump shots. We ran into a different team in the second half. I wasn’t really happy with the defensive performance in the second half. Learning how to play 48 minutes fast is not always as easy as people think it is. I thought tonight they did a good job for the most part, there were some muddy moments where the ball got sticky and we got a little selfish.”

When asked if he had a good time in first start, Willie Cauley-Stein said, “Yeah, it was a great time. A lot of fun – definitely – a lot of fun. We were sharing the ball really well so that made it a lot more fun. Sharing the ball and not having ball stoppers – that is vital to us. If we want to be a good team, we’ve got to share the ball like that.”

Up next

The Kings play the Clippers in Los Angeles on Saturday night. Playing the very tough Clippers on the second night of back-to-back games will be no easy task. After the Saturday night game, the Kings will not face another Los Angeles team until January 2016.

The Lakers will return to action on Sunday night when they host the Dallas Mavericks at Staple’s Center.