De’Aaron Fox says Kings have to find ‘sense of enjoyment’ after loss to Los Angeles Lakers
De’Aaron Fox said the Kings have to find a sense of joy before a once-promising season spirals out of control amid mounting pressure in Sacramento.
Fox addressed Sacramento’s struggles following a 103-99 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday before a sellout crowd of 17,832 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
The Kings have lost three in a row to start a five-game homestand, including back-to-back losses to the Lakers. They are 12th in the Western Conference, 2 ½ games out of the final play-in spot.
“At some point, we have to find a sense of enjoyment playing the game,” Fox said. “Obviously, we all want to win. Everybody needs to do whatever it takes to win. At some point, you have to have enjoyment playing. You enjoy playing with each other, you enjoy going out there and doing the hard things, and then comes winning. ... You have to enjoy playing the game period, and you have to enjoy playing with each other, and I think we have to find that sense of enjoyment.”
LeBron James had 32 points, seven rebounds and six assists for the Lakers (16-12), who have won three in a row and four of their last five.
D’Angelo Russell came off the bench to score 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Austin Reaves added 16 points while Anthony Davis recorded a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds.
Fox had 31 points, five rebounds and seven assists for the Kings (13-16), who fell to 3-10 in games decided by five points or less.
Domantas Sabonis had 19 points and 19 rebounds. DeMar DeRozan scored 12 points and Keegan Murray added 10 while Malik Monk was held to seven points on 3-of-14 shooting.
The Kings have been plagued by slow starts recently. They fell behind by 20 in the first quarter and trailed by 23 in the second quarter of Monday’s loss to the Denver Nuggets. They trailed 15-2 in the first quarter of Thursday’s loss to the Lakers.
The Kings have talked about playing better to avoid early deficits, but they got off to another sloppy start Saturday. The Lakers jumped out to leads of 7-0 and 17-7 while the Kings went 2 of 10 from the field with four turnovers in the first five minutes.
The Kings trailed 31-26 at the end of the first period. The Lakers maintained the lead early in the second thanks in large part to James, who scored 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting in his first 13 minutes of action. At one point, James drove to the basket, powered past Keegan Murray and then flexed on him.
Sacramento came back to take a 49-47 lead on a driving layup by Malik Monk. The Lakers quickly reclaimed the lead and carried a 56-53 advantage into the halftime break.
The Kings and Lakers went back and forth during a third quarter that featured 12 lead changes. The Kings trailed 81-77 going into the fourth.
James hit a couple of shots at the start of the fourth quarter to help the Lakers create some separation. They went up by seven on a three-point play by Cam Reddish. The Kings came back to tie the game on a basket by Sabonis, but the Lakers answered with a 12-2 run to take a 101-91 lead with 2:54 to play.
Sacramento cut the deficit to two on a three-point play by Sabonis with 1:11 to go.
The Kings should have had an opportunity to tie the game in the final seconds, but the ball was awarded to the Lakers on a controversial out-of-bounds call.
Replays appeared to show the ball was last touched by Davis, but the Kings were out of coach’s challenges after getting two earlier calls overturned. Kings coach Mike Brown said “even LeBron was laughing at that call.”
“What I said to the crew was, in that situation, if you’re 100% sure that the ball went out of bounds on us, go ahead and make the call, and the crew said they were 100% sure — no doubt about it — that it went out on us. ... Maybe the video I saw wasn’t accurate. I don’t know.”
The Kings fell to 0-3 against the Lakers this season after winning five in a row, eight of nine and 12 of 16 against Los Angeles dating back to the end of the 2019-20 season.
James set the tone from the start, scoring 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting in the first half.
“I just wanted to seize the opportunity to get two quality wins on the road in a hostile environment against a really good team, a team that we have not had much success with over the last couple of years,” James said. “I just tried to seize the opportunity and bring energy into my teammates.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2024 at 7:36 PM.
