Sacramento Kings’ DaQuan Jeffries, left, defends against Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James during the second quarter of an NBA basketball game Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (Kevin C. Cox/Pool Photo via AP)
By Barbara Mason
It’s finally come to an end for the Sacramento Kings. It came in a Thursday morning basketball game to complete the NBA regular season. It will be on to the playoffs for one and back home to Sacramento for the other. The Lakers have wrapped up the number one seed in the West. We will not be seeing De’Aaron Fox who missed Sacramento’s last game and there will most likely be limited time for LeBron James as well. Regardless of what is or is not at stake, a win for the Kings would be a nice finish to their season.
The first quarter was a high scoring affair. The Lakers led by ten points 40-30. The Lakers called on their bench early with Howard, Cook, Smith and Waiters putting in some early minutes. Their accumulative points were 16. The Kings bench saw a lot of action as well with six players taking the floor. Bodanovic had 12 points and Bjelica had 9 in that first quarter.
The second quarter saw much more aggressive play by the Kings and a few minutes into the second quarter the Kings trailed the Lakers by a single point. In a little over 4 minutes Sacramento had scored almost 20 points and with 5:57 left in the half the score was tied at 50. With four minutes left in the half Markieff Morris entered the game for James. The Kings led at the half 66-56 outscoring the Lakers 36-16 in the second quarter. The Kings Buddy Hield came off the bench for 15 minutes in the first half and scored 17 points. The Kings bench scored 34 points. The starters played significant minutes and had 32 points.
The Kings continued to keep the Lakers in check outscoring them in the third quarter 41-28. James played only 15 minutes in the game. The Kings top scoring efforts came from Buddy Hield with 28 points and Bogdanovic with 27. Harrison Barnes had a disappointing 3 points for the 25 minutes he was on the floor. The final was 136-122 in favor of Sacramento. The Lakers did outscore the Kings in the fourth quarter 38-29 but it wasn’t enough to get past the Kings.
It was a tough run in Florida for the Sacramento Kings but this final game will make the flight home just a little easier. There were some great performances in this game and it would have been nice to see that kind of basketball to start the season. (the shortened season that is) It also would have been nice to have Fox on the floor but the Kings are not the only team that is missing key personnel.
So now the Kings and the entire league will enter the unknown as they look ahead to the 2020-2021 season. Right now no one has a crystal ball that can predict what that is going to look like. We will just enjoy the playoffs and then cross the next bridge when we come to it.
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