Behind DeMarcus Cousins’ huge night—29 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists—the Sacramento Kings held off a furious rally from the Los Angeles Lakers and hung on for a 118-115 victory.
The Kings blew a 27-point lead against the Lakers’ feisty young core, but Rajon Rondo saved the day with a clutch bucket to secure the W.
Rajon Rondo with the clutch floater. #NBAVote #KingsFTW https://t.co/iy0q3m21qV
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) January 8, 2016
Boogie says the Kings shouldn’t be happy with the way they barely won against the lowly Lakers.
Per the Sac Bee:
The Kings, again let perimeter players score too often, too easily and that had coach George Karl worked up after the game. Karl said he was ready to turn to Seth Curry, who is more noted for his shooting, to help the Kings shore up “shabby” defense by the guards. […] “Seth right now covers the ball better than anybody on our team and we need somebody to cover the ball,” Karl said. “I don’t need anymore points, I don’t need anything more than than somebody to cover the (darn) basketball. If someone gets hungry enough to cover the basketball he’ll probably play.”
The Lakers shot 61.5 percent in the second half and outscored the Kings 23-6 to start the fourth quarter to take a 109-108 lead. […] “We’ve got to get tired of giving the other team confidence and letting them have effort and hustle on our homecourt,” Karl said. “… In the second half we got outworked, outfought, and we were fortunate enough to have such a big lead and we saved it at the end against a team that’s probably having similar problems.”
Allowing the Lakers back in the game Thursday didn’t make the Kings feel good. Had the Kings lost, they would have lost to the two teams with the worst records in the NBA at home. […] “I feel the (double overtime) loss against Dallas was better than this win against the Lakers,” said DeMarcus Cousins.
