‘Disaster and embarrassment’: Lakers take over at Golden 1 Center in blowout win over Kings
Interim coach Alvin Gentry opened and closed his postgame news conference with an apology after the Kings allowed the Los Angeles Lakers to carry out a hostile takeover inside their home arena Tuesday night at Golden 1 Center.
The Kings led the Lakers by 14 early in the third quarter, but then they collapsed, getting outscored by 39 points over the final 22 minutes in a soul-sucking 117-92 loss. Lakers fans appeared to represent nearly half of the announced crowd of 12,459, but by the time it was over, they had the whole place to themselves as Kings fans headed for the exits in the final minutes.
“The second half was a disaster and an embarrassment, and as the coach of this team, I want to apologize to every Kings fan out there because you do not deserve this,” Gentry said. “You deserve much, much better and we’ll find guys who will give you better.”
Anthony Davis had 25 points and seven rebounds for the Lakers (12-11), who stormed back to win without LeBron James after he entered NBA health and safety protocols earlier in the day. Russell Westbrook had 23 points, six assists and five rebounds. Malik Monk came off the bench to post 22 points, four rebounds and four assists.
Richaun Holmes returned after missing three games due to illness and an eye injury, putting up 27 points on 12-of-13 shooting with nine rebounds and two blocked shots for the Kings (8-14). De’Aaron Fox had 17 points, five assists and five rebounds, but he committed seven turnovers. Chimezie Metu added 14 points, 11 rebounds and three steals for the Kings, who were missing Harrison Barnes (foot), Maurice Harkless (knee) and Marvin Bagley III (illness).
Sacramento led 59-50 after playing an impressive first half. The Kings outshot the Lakers 55.6% to 43.5% and outscored them 18-3 on fastbreak points.
The second half was an entirely different story as a 14-point lead turned into a 27-point deficit. The Lakers shot 56.5% from the field and 47.1% from 3-point range. The Kings shot 28.6% and went 0 of 11 from beyond the arc, firing up one brick after another. Buddy Hield went 1 of 7 from the field and 1 of 6 from 3-point range. Tyrese Haliburton was 2 of 10 and Davion Mitchell went 3 of 14. Sacramento’s bench was outscored 58-20, dominated by Dwight Howard, who had 12 points and 13 rebounds, and Monk, who made 6 of 10 from 3-point range.
The Lakers outscored the Kings 37-15 in the third quarter and 30-18 in the fourth. Los Angeles outscored Sacramento 40-8 from the 9:15 mark in the third quarter to the 10:51 mark in the fourth, a span of 10:24.
Deafening chants of “Let’s go Lakers” filled the emptiness inside the arena as Lakers fans howled and high-fived over the end result.
Gentry didn’t like that at all.
“The way you shut people’s mouths and keep them from cheering in your arena is you kick their ass and we didn’t do that,” Gentry said. “You should be livid that anyone would come in and have the audacity to do that in your arena.”
Holmes didn’t like it either.
“You don’t never want to hear nobody getting chants on your home floor, so for me personally, I don’t take that lightly as a competitor,” Holmes said. “We’re at home and the other team is being cheered like we’re away, so I didn’t like that. That sticks with me personally, for sure. Makes me want to do something better, makes me want to get better, go back to the drawing board and see how we can be better for these fans because they deserve more.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 11:52 PM.
