De’Aaron Fox scores 44 as Kings rally past Lakers to silence crowd at Crypto.com Arena

The Los Angeles Lakers whipped their fans into a frenzy in the early stages of Wednesday’s game, but it didn’t take the Kings long to silence them.

The Kings quickly overcame a 19-point deficit and later led the Lakers by as many as 22 in a 130-120 victory before an unsettled crowd of 18,498 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

De’Aaron Fox scored a career-high-tying 44 points on 19-of-32 shooting with four rebounds, four assists and two steals. He scored 20 points in the first half, 12 in the third quarter and 12 in the fourth to close out a big road win for Sacramento.

“Foxy was amazing,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “I kind of hate using that word because, to me, that’s who he is. Now, it’s hard to score 44 points every single night, especially on the percentage that he did it at, but he is more than capable with his ability, his tenacity, his skill set, his athleticism, quickness, the whole nine yards. Big game for him in a big-game environment.”

Malik Monk came off the bench to score 26 points for the Kings (35-26), who will return to Sacramento to play the San Antonio Spurs on the second night of a back-to-back Thursday at Golden 1 Center.

Monk went 10 of 19 from the field and 3 of 5 from 3-point range to help the Kings move within a half-game of the Phoenix Suns for the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. Monk, who continues to make a strong case for the Sixth Man of the Year award, said he relished the opportunity to silence a hostile crowd in Los Angeles.

“It’s always great to come into an arena and make the home crowd go quiet,” Monk said. “I think everybody loves that and that’s being a competitor on the basketball court, so we’re thankful we got a win. Can’t celebrate too much. We’ve got a game tomorrow, so we’ll be ready tomorrow.”

Domantas Sabonis posted his league-leading 22^nd triple-double of the season with 16 points, 20 rebounds and 12 assists. Sabonis also recorded his 44^th consecutive double-double while improving to 9-0 in career head-to-head matchups with Lakers star Anthony Davis.

Davion Mitchell scored 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting from 3-point range. Keon Ellis had five points, three rebounds and a plus-17 net rating in 14 minutes. The Kings had a 50-18 advantage in points off the bench.

“Our bench was really, really good tonight,” Brown said. “Our stars did what they’re supposed to do in big games like this, but our bench was a huge factor in us getting the win.”

Sacramento outscored Los Angeles 76-50 on points in the paint, 25-19 on fastbreak points and 13-5 on second-chance points.

LeBron James had 31 points and 13 assists for the Lakers (34-30), who fell to 10^th in the West, a half-game behind the Golden State Warriors. Rui Hachimura scored 29 points. Austin Reaves had 18. Davis had 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting with 11 rebounds.

The Kings have dominated this matchup against their Southern California rivals in recent years. They have now won four in a row, seven of eight and 11 of 15 against the Lakers dating back to 2020 — including all three games this season — but Brown said the Lakers have looked like a different team recently.

Brown specifically pointed to Hachimura, who replaced Taurean Prince in the starting lineup on Feb. 3. At the time, the Lakers were 25-25, but they had won nine of 13 going into Wednesday’s game.

“Defensively, they’re playing a little bit better,” Brown said before the game. “That was evident in their last two wins, and then they’ve moved their lineup around. D-Lo (D’Angelo Russell) is playing at a high level. Austin Reaves is, too, so that’s two guys who can playmake from the 1 and 2 spots.

“And then you have Rui, who poses a problem because he’s an efficient scorer. That’s what he’s done his whole life and he has great size. And, obviously, LeBron and AD are two Hall of Famers, so you still have the same cast of guys on the team, but the lineup is different. They’re playing better defense and they’re bigger because of them starting Rui in that spot, so that poses some problems matchup-wise and trying to keep them off the glass and some other things.”

That much was clear in the first quarter. The Lakers shot 54.5% from the field and hit 5 of 9 (.556) from 3-point range while building a 19-point lead before Monk and Ellis came off the bench to give Sacramento a spark.

“Keon impacted the game in a lot of different ways that don’t show up in the stat sheet,” Brown said.

The Kings trailed 37-18 when Ellis checked into the game for the first time with 1:40 to play in the opening period. They staged a 10-0 run to end the first quarter and then outscored the Lakers 33-13 to start the second.

Sacramento cut the deficit to three on a dunk by Monk, who lit up his former team for 17 points, four rebounds and three assists in his first 12 minutes of action. The Kings tied the game on a 3-pointer by Mitchell and took the lead on a dunk by Trey Lyles.

Those two baskets came as part of a 12-0 run that put the Kings up 52-48. A subsequent 12-1 run gave Sacramento a 64-51 lead with 2:04 to play in the first half.

The Kings led 72-57 at the half after outscoring the Lakers 44-20 in the second quarter. The numbers from the second quarter were stunning. Sacramento made 18 of 23 (.783) from the field and 8 of 10 (.800) from 3-point range. Los Angeles went 5 of 18 (.278) from the field and 1 of 6 (.167) from beyond the arc.

Brown made sure to credit veteran center JaVale McGee — who did not play — for urging teammates to “string a couple of stops together” and keep fighting.

“I thought JaVale McGee was huge,” Brown said. “His veteran leadership on the bench, the way he was talking to our guys when we were down big, the way he talked to them throughout the course of the game, just great words, timely words and reassuring words for all of our guys and even for our staff.”

The Kings took their largest lead of the game when Keegan Murray scored to put them up 99-77 with 4:25 to play in the third quarter. The Lakers outscored the Kings 15-5 over the last 3:39 to get within 12 going into the fourth quarter.

The Lakers got within 11 with 11:20 remaining and trailed by 12 with 4:49 to go, but they never cut the deficit to single digits.

“When you have divisional games, those mean a little more, and obviously right now with the way the standings are, if we lose this game, we’re half a game in front of them rather than I think now 2 ½,” Fox said. “So right now, especially when we play teams that are around us in the standings, those games mean a little more.”

Going to the bench

Mitchell and Ellis combined for 32 minutes off the bench. Kevin Huerter, Sacramento’s starting shooting guard, logged less than 12 minutes, scoring two points on 1-of-3 shooting.

Brown said “finding the right combination” of players was critical to Sacramento’s comeback.

“This has happened in the past,” Brown said. “That’s why you have 15 guys on your roster. You can go to any guy on any given night and our guys just have to be ready. To Keon’s credit, we’ve started Keon four times this year, and he’s 4-0 as a starter. He was really, really good as a backup, but I was the one who sat him down and went back to Davion, and Davion’s been good. But as a head coach, when you have guys who have done a good job, you’ve got to try to reward them, so we threw Keon out there as well as Davion, and we went on a little run.”

Up next

The Kings will open a six-game homestand when they face the Spurs on Thursday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

The Spurs (13-49) have the worst record in the Western Conference and the third-worst record in the NBA. They are led by rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama, who averages 20.7 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 3.4 blocks and 1.3 steals, and Devin Vassell, who averages 19.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists.

Wembanyama has been ruled out for Thursday’s game due to a right ankle sprain.

This will be the third and final meeting between the Kings and Spurs this season. The Kings beat the Spurs 129-120 on Nov. 17 in San Antonio and 127-122 on Feb. 22 in Sacramento.

The Kings will play 14 of their last 21 games at home.