The Lakers (2-9) face off against the Kings (4-6) and will try to stop their 4-game slide while trying to knock off a Kings team coming off a good win vs. the Cavaliers in their last game. The game tips off at 7:30 p.m. on Spectrum SportsNet.
Below are three things to know ahead of the matchup:
LEBRON OUT
Originally listed as doubtful on the injury report after being diagnosed with a left adductor strain on Thursday afternoon, Lebron was later downgraded to out vs. the Kings and will be listed as day-to-day moving forward.
James expressed some optimism in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s loss to the Clippers, noting that treatment and rest through Thursday and into Friday might allow him feel good enough to play. That in-or-out question, however, has been resolved in advance and both teams will now prepare for a game without LeBron in the lineup.
Not having LeBron is a major blow regardless of circumstance, but considering the Lakers overall challenges offensively, and the fact that at the time of his injury he was having his best shooting night of the season while finding his rhythm from behind the arc, it’s especially true now.
This will be the second game LeBron has missed this season. In this previous four years with the Lakers he’s missed an average of 21 games per season.
ANTHONY DAVIS, USAGE UPTICK COMING?
As is the case whenever a superstar misses a game, there is no single player who can replicate or totally fill in the production that LeBron would provide if he were available. Everyone will need to do more in the hope that their individual efforts can cumulatively make up for some of what’s missing. That said, no one will be expected to carry a larger load with Bron out than Anthony Davis.
Luckily for the Lakers, AD may just have the bandwidth to take on a larger role offensively, particularly when measured against the rest of his career – and especially in comparison to his previous seasons with the Lakers.
In AD’s first two seasons with the Lakers he had a usage rate just over 29. Last year that number dipped some, but was still a shade over 27. This season, however, Davis is posting the 3rd lowest usage rate of his career at 25.2%. The only seasons that are lower than this year’s were his rookie and second seasons in the NBA with the Pelicans.
It’s early in the season, of course, and it’s certainly possible that as AD and the team figure out the best ways to involve him offensively – especially in the 2nd half of games – that number would have climbed organically. But with LeBron now out, it may accelerate this process.
SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE
The easiest way to look at a game is through the lens of which team’s strength is going to win out against the other team’s strength. After all, a team’s best chance to win is almost always about doing what they do best and working to ensure the other team cannot stop it. In tonight’s matchup between the Lakers and the Kings, however, it may come down to which team – the Lakers and their 30th ranked offense or the Kings and their 25th ranked defense – can outperform the level they’ve played to on one side of the ball to this point in the season.
On the Lakers’ side, and in line with the idea of finding ways to amplify AD in LeBron’s absence, working to get their big man the ball more often makes sense. When LeBron sat out against the Jazz, AD became an even greater focus of the team’s offense via a heavier dose of pick and roll and post-up possessions. Davis can get similar opportunities against the Kings, whose starting center Domantas Sabonis is much closer in style to Utah’s Lauri Markkanen and Kelly Olynyk than to the Clippers’ Ivica Zubac.
Similarly, Russell Westbrook will also see an increase in usage with LeBron out and will be in position to initiate offense and look for his own scoring chances more often. And one place this could show up most is in him attacking the basket. Even though he’s coming off the bench, Russ ranks 16th in the NBA with 13.8 drives per game. Meanwhile, the Kings rank 28th in the NBA in points in the paint allowed and their 70.8% field goal percentage allowed on shots in the restricted area ranks 27th. Westbrook has shown great improvement as an outside shooter of late (9-20 from behind the arc in his last 5 games), but his bread and butter is still attacking the rim and the Kings may afford him that opportunity.
From the Kings side, their defensive guards are very good at pressuring the ball and that can force teams to play later into shot clock due to it taking longer to initiate their offensive sets. 20.2% of Kings’ opponents field goal attempts are taken with 7 seconds or less or on the shot clock, something the Lakers will need to be cognizant of considering their penchant for playing late into the shot clock offensively. This is another area Westbrook can have an impact as he’s more prone to pushing the pace and creating offensive chances before the opponent’s defense is set.