Here is what you need to know before the Lakers take a trip to the capitol for a meeting with the Sacramento Kings.
1) The Lakers are expected to have two key players back in the rotation. Kobe Bryant has missed three straight games since his shoulder started bothering him in a Dec. 30 win over Boston, while D’Angelo Russell sat out for the first time in his career on Tuesday due to a sore throat.
2) Bryant will compete for the final time in Sacramento, where he had some of his fiercest battles. Each of the Lakers’ three-peat titles went through the Kings, who took them to a win-or-go-home Game 5 in the 2000 Western Conference First Round. L.A. came back to sweep them in the WC Semifinals the next season, but the two teams’ clash in the seven-game 2002 WC Finals remains one of the greatest series in NBA history.
3) However, the Kings have gotten the best of L.A. lately. Sacramento has won four straight over the Lakers, including a 132-114 rout that saw the purple and gold give up their most points of the season on Oct. 30.
4) The Lakers are now hoping to take advantage of a hobbled Sacramento team. Three Kings — Willie Cauley-Stein (finger laceration), Eric Moreland (metatarsal fracture) and Duje Dukan (tibia) — are doubtful or out. Also, two of Sacramento’s best players — Rajon Rondo and Omri Casspi — are questionable due to back issues.
5) Rondo has been the engine behind Sacramento’s offense, as he leads the league in assists with 11.6 per game. The last player to average that many was himself in 2011-12, and the most recent not-named-Rondo person to do so was Steve Nash in 2006-07.
6) Casspi is having a career year by most every measure, but his outside shooting has been especially notable. The Israel native ranks third in the NBA in 3-point percentage (47.7), plus he notches the second-most points on spot-up shots (5.2).
7) Even if Rondo and Casspi are both unable to play, Sacramento still has the formidable offensive game plan of simply giving the ball to DeMarcus Cousins. The NBA’s leading scorer among bigs (25.1 ppg), Cousins has been on a tear lately, scoring 30-plus points in three straight games. He can tie Chris Webber for the longest such streak in the franchise’s Sacramento era with another one against the Lakers.
8) Sacramento’s George Karl recently passed Lakers legend Phil Jackson for the fifth-most wins by a head coach in NBA history. However, while Jackson only coached 1,640 games in his career, Karl reached win No. 1,156 after 311 more contests.
9) Under Karl’s direction, the Kings are playing at the NBA’s fastest pace (102.1 possessions per game). That speed has been a big factor in them scoring the league’s third-most points (105.9), including the second-most on fast breaks (18.0).
10) However, that pace has proved tough to sustain, as it has also led to the Kings surrendering an NBA-high 107.9 points. Sacramento is also on track to give up the most 3-pointers (10.4) in league history.
