The Kings are looking for a fair fight this time.
When the Los Angeles Lakers beat Sacramento 103-90 on Nov. 11 at Staples Center, two key Kings were missing.
Center DeMarcus Cousins and forward Thomas Robinson both were serving NBA suspensions.
The Kings learned of Cousins' suspension just hours before tip-off and had no answer for Lakers center Dwight Howard, who had his way inside with 23 points, 18 rebounds and three blocked shots.
Power forward Pau Gasol had 18 points as he and Howard combined to shoot 15 of 28.
The Lakers also outrebounded the Kings 50-39.
"We were successful against them (in exhibition games) when we were all together," Kings forward Jason Thompson said. "That was preseason, but guys were going hard then. Obviously it counts now, but at full strength with guys to help me out in the frontcourt, it should be good."
The Kings beat the Lakers three times in the preseason. Howard missed one of those games and made his debut in another following back surgery.
Thanks in part to Howard and Gasol, the Lakers entered Tuesday's night's game against visiting Brooklyn with an 8.7 rebound differential, second best in the NBA.
The Kings were at minus-4.5, fourth worst in the league.
The Kings are 2-1 when outrebounding their opponent.
Pace watch – The Lakers hired Mike D'Antoni as head coach the morning after their last game against the Kings.
D'Antoni is known for coaching up-tempo basketball, and that could help the Kings' struggling offense. A faster game would be fine with the Kings, who have scored more than 100 points only once this season.
"They're obviously pushing the pace more so," Kings coach Keith Smart said. "We want to run the basketball, too. We want to get our pace up and down the floor."
D'Antoni coached his first game Tuesday against the Nets.
He had been recovering from knee surgery before being hired to replace Mike Brown.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Jason Jones
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.