Lakers Fall to Kings Late Despite Overcoming 20+ Point Deficit

My apologies for cancelling the coverage of this game late. I had a few friends that wanted to stop by my place and hang out with me before I go back for the semester. However, I did see the final five minutes of the game and even though the Lakers loss by committing some key turnovers late in the 4th, they fought back this game. The way the Kings were playing based on seeing the full highlights this morning, they were slapping the Lakers around with perfect ball movement and lob passes, but they got too careless and this young Laker squad took advantage of it without Kobe Bryant on the court. They almost got the victory, but again, key turnovers late ended a magical rally by the young Lakers team and they'll build that off as experience as an example of how not to rest easy on a comeback and put teams away.

Kobe Bryant, in his last game in Sacramento, put up a throwback performance in front of the ever-hostile Sac-Town crowd, scoring 28 points on 10-18 shooting in the Lakers' 115-118 loss to the Kings. However, D'Angelo Russell stole all headlines, exploding off the bench for 27 points on 11-16 shooting. He was a key contributor on the Lakers' near-rally and that was unfortunate how he landed awkwardly on his ankle after a layup over DeMarcus Cousins. You don't want to see an injury happen like that, especially if it's a rookie who's having the game of his young career. Lou Williams added 20 points and Jordan Clarkson added 15 points to round out the starters. Clarkson was a positive/negative in that 4th quarter as he made a couple of key shots and he was responsible for committing a majority of key turnovers down the stretch. Brandon Bass was the 2nd leading scorer off the bench with 10 points, he came up big in the 4th and managed to get a couple of key defensive stops on Cousins. It was a good effort, but it is another loss in the Lakers' books.

Final Score: @ Sacramento 115-118 [L]
Full article: http://www.nba.com/games/20160107/LALSAC/gameinfo.html?ls=iref:nba:scoreboard

Highlights:

Next Game: vs. Oklahoma City (Tonight, 7:30 PM Pacific Time) <= I WILL be doing Q-by-Q, Halftime, and Full Recap posts on this game tonight