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Postgame Numbers: Lakers at Kings (12/21/14)

Here is a by-the-numbers look at the Lakers’ 108-101 loss to the Sacramento Kings.

13
The Lakers’ lead with 6:11 left in the third quarter, their highest of the game. However, the team’s momentum slipped into a free fall from there, as the Kings went on a 17-1 run to take an 83-80 lead with 9:46 left in the fourth quarter. During that slide, the Lakers missed all 14 of their shots, while the Kings went 7-for-14. L.A. retook the lead by two midway through the final frame, but Sacramento scored 10 straight and refused to let the Lakers back in the the game.

Lakers Shot Chart (14 Straight Misses)
Lakers Shot Chart (14 Straight Misses)

“(Sacramento) just got much more aggressive defensively and just took us out of everything,” Lakers head coach Byron Scott said. “We just stopped running our offense (and) started standing around. We got so many counters to things, but I don’t know if guys forgot or whatever the case may be. But we just stopped playing, basically.”

26
Points scored by Nick Young, who led all Lakers. The sixth man went 7-for-14 from the field, including 4-for-9 from beyond the arc. Young also knocked down all eight of his free throw attempts, while scoring a game-high eight points off turnovers.

30
Shots taken by Kobe Bryant. The 16-time all-star dropped 25 points, but he struggled through much of the night, going 8-for-30 and coughing up nine turnovers. Bryant never really found his rhythm, as he went 4-for-10 in his best quarter (third) and 1-for-7 in his worst (fourth).

“It was a great team effort,” Sacramento head coach Tyrone Corbin said. “Kobe is a great player. He’s a Hall of Fame guy. He’s going to take some tough shots, and he’s going to make some tough shots.

“We wanted to make him work for everything that he got, and I thought that Rudy Gay did a great job on him. Ben McLemore also did a great job on him, for the most part. When he came off, he saw bodies. He didn’t see a lot of openings and gaps, so it made it hard for him to get everything that he got.”

58
Contested shots taken by the Lakers. The Kings had a defender within three and a half feet of the shooter on 67.4 percent of L.A.’s 87 attempts. The Lakers hit just 34.5 percent on contested shots, while Bryant went 6-for-23 on such attempts. Meanwhile, L.A. contested just 35 of Sacramento’s 97 shots (44.3 percent). However, the Kings shot nearly as well while guarded by a close defender (45.7 percent) as they did without one (50 percent).

97
Points scored by the Kings starting lineup. DeMarcus Cousins led the way with a game-high 29 points, while also hauling in 14 rebounds to reach his 13th double-double of the year. Rudy Gay added 24 points for his fourth-straight game of 20 points or more, and Ben McLemore set a new season-high with 23 points.