Sacramento's second half collapse costs them in loss

The Sacramento Kings lost tonight's game against the Lakers by a score of 101-91. It was a tough pill to swallow for not just the Sacramento Kings team but the fans and organization as a whole that could've gotten to the .500 mark but instead fell to 4-6 on the season.

In the first quarter the Kings came out of the gates running. They forced the Lakers to turnover the ball 6 times just in the first quarter alone and things were looking great for the Kings. The Kings also managed to shoot 4/7 from beyond the arc and just under 50% from the field. While getting out to a 30-16 lead after One quarter of play. Demarcus Cousins seemed to be catching fire in the 1st while having 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 assist and to me it was looking like he was going to have a monster night. But the last two and a half quarters said otherwise.

Despite Sacramento having an impressive offensive and defense showing early in the second quarter, this didn't last long. The defense started to show signs of being deflated. The Lakers shot 61% from the field for a 29 point quarter by the Lakers. Even at one point in this quarter the Kings had a 19 point point lead late in the third. During this stretch the Kings were forcing turnovers, scoring off those Laker turnovers and getting out in transition for easy buckets, and DeMarcus was efficient as well in all aspects of his game. The Lakers could not guard him at all and he was giving Laker defenders down low issues. A bad foul by DeMarcus Cousins on Julius Randle before the end of the half for three free throws to cut the Kings lead down to 10 seemed to be a big momentum shift for the Lakers going into the half that would come back to haunt the Kings.

To sum it all up the third quarter was a complete disaster for the Kings. In the third quarter alone the Kings only managed to put up 18 points to the Lakers 25. The Lakers just stopped making their mistakes and starting making big shots and Mozgov and Randle were simply giving DeMarcus issues and they managed to keep Cousins contained for the rest of the game. LA also didn't turnover the ball as well. Sacramento's first half performance seemed to have gone missing in the second half. They started to play individual basket ball and not getting good shots and were forcing things. Offense wasn't the same and players were often trying to make things happen on that end of the floor that were not successful.

The fourth quarter was nothing better. Sacramento only managed to go 5/22 from the Field and many players on the Kings team were missing many many open and decent looks. DeMarcus Cousins in the fourth quarter had 10 points but faced his struggles and he seemed to be the only player on the Kings to have any offense going at this point. This team showed no life with Lou Williams and Nick Young hitting big shots late to put the game out of reach for this Kings. Everyone just seemed to struggle to even get anything going in the 4th. The guards from the Kings especially had a bad time guarding D'Angelo Russell and Lou Williams. Also due to the fact that Ty Lawson a smaller guard had to face a bigger point guard and offensive player. The Kings have some adjustments to make if they want to beat the TrailBlazers tonight in Portland.

Some things I noticed during this game was the lack of adjustments Head Coach Dave Joerger failed to make at halftime and during the game. Although in the first half there weren't many more in the second quarter that were noticeable nothing seemed to change in the second half. When the Lakers went on a big run Coach Joerger should've recognized this early on after maybe the first bucket or two and called a timeout to help prevent a run from even happening. Many coaches use this tactic to help prevent a run from happening. Also, outside of Rudy and DeMarcus no one really showed up to help score and that needs to change. I do question why Dave Joerger decided to not play McLemore and Casspi in which they could've maybe helped provide a spark off the bench.

Notable stats for the Kings:

DeMarcus finished the game with 28 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists on 10/25 shooting. Rudy Gay chipped in 15 points and 8 rebounds of his own. And the only other King scoring in double figures was Ty Lawson with 11.

Sacramento has a tough stretch of games coming up and if the Kings don't make the correct adjustments this can be a very long home stand for them. The Sacramento Kings take on the Portland TrailBlazers tonight in Portland at 7:00pm PST and the game can be seen on CSNCA.